Chapter 60: Ryan Of The Round Table.
Damien had long since given up trying to be surprised by Vincent.
Every time he thought he had finally begun to understand the man, Vincent would casually say or do something that shattered whatever conclusion Damien had just reached. Trying to predict the neatly dressed madman was beginning to feel like trying to predict the weather inside the Tower. The moment you convinced yourself you understood it, everything changed.
"Who’s it this time?" Damien asked, raising a brow. "We didn’t exactly ask Daniel to give us another name."
Vincent let out a quiet chuckle, the corners of his lips lifting slightly.
"Oh, this one has nothing to do with Daniel. I’ll be handling it personally." He casually adjusted his gloves before turning around. "Wait for me outside the camp, by the deserted ice caves."
Without another explanation, Vincent simply walked away, his pace neither hurried nor slow, almost as though he had already planned out the rest of his afternoon.
Damien watched him leave before slowly letting out a sigh.
He had absolutely no idea what Vincent was planning this time, and frankly speaking, he wasn’t interested enough to find out. If the man wanted to kidnap another unfortunate soul, that was his business. Damien had something far more important occupying his thoughts.
Ryan, and Claire.
If Leslie had truly been murdered, then those two remained the most suspicious people in Damien’s mind. Both possessed the strength to overpower Leslie, and both had Dormant Abilities capable of making an ambush far more believable than anything Daniel could have accomplished. Whether they actually had a motive was another matter entirely, but Damien intended to find that out for himself.
The wheels of the wheelchair rolled steadily across the packed snow as Damien quietly made his way through the camp.
Today was unusually calm for the frozen wasteland. The endless grey clouds had finally begun to break apart, revealing patches of pale blue sky overhead. Sunlight spilled across the snow in scattered patches, causing the entire camp to shimmer faintly beneath the icy glow.
More survivors had gathered outside their tents than usual, some repairing damaged equipment while others chatted around small fires, enjoying the rare break from the relentless blizzards.
Damien eventually brought the wheelchair to a gradual stop.
Leaning back against the chair, he quietly observed the scene unfolding in the distance.
Ryan of the Round Table stood speaking with a young healer, his posture as stout as ever. Every so often he bowed his head politely, nodding along to whatever the girl was saying.
The healer herself seemed considerably more comfortable than Ryan did, occasionally smiling while Ryan awkwardly searched for the next thing to say.
Damien rested his chin against his hand.
"Ryan... I followed you for hours when I first arrived at camp, I never found anything suspicious. You’re gentle, polite, and somehow you’ve managed to reach adulthood without a single romantic experience to your name."
His gaze shifted toward the young healer.
"You clearly have a crush on that girl. Even though she’s younger than you, you can barely string two proper sentences together whenever she’s around."
Damien’s eyes narrowed.
"Can someone like you really take another person’s life?"
He quietly shook his head.
"Killing isn’t easy. It takes resolve and more than a little touch of insanity. The willingness to cross a line you can never uncross... and for some reason, I just don’t think you have it in you".
Damien suddenly felt a hand rest gently on his shoulder.
"Have what in me exactly?"
For the briefest of moments, Damien’s dead heart seemed to leap into his chest. His expression, however, remained completely unchanged.
He didn’t immediately turn around. Instead, his eyes stayed fixed ahead, calmly observing the young healer. She had stopped talking altogether and was now looking around in visible confusion, her eyes darting from one direction to another as though searching for someone who had vanished without warning.
Ryan was gone, but unlike the healer, Damien wasn’t particularly surprised, he already knew where Ryan had gone.
Only then did he slowly turn his head.
Standing right beside the wheelchair was a young man with short black hair and an appearance so painfully ordinary that it almost became memorable. His features were plain, his dark eyes carried soft emotions, and his build was neither particularly imposing nor particularly frail. There was nothing about Ryan that demanded attention, and perhaps that was precisely what made him so difficult to notice.
A member of the Round Table.
Ryan.
Damien studied him for a brief moment before speaking in the same indifferent tone he always used.
"Ryan."
Ryan’s gaze gradually sharpened.
The warmth he had shown the healer only moments ago completely disappeared, replaced by the composed vigilance expected of a high level awakened.
"Damien."
...
"Why do you keep watching me? It’s really weird".
Damien didn’t immediately respond, he didn’t have the luxury of being careless with a member of the round table, people can be irrational, he didn’t want to give this man child with a nuke an excuse to attack him, certainly not in the condition that he’s in.
"If you know i have been watching you, then why didn’t you confront me, are you truly that timid, even timid people would be annoyed and directly confront someone they thought was monitoring their every action...
Damien’s mind stalled for a brief moment.
"Ryan of the round table, your dormant ability is truly powerful, but even with such power, you are being pushed around by other awakened, even by the ones that are no where near as powerful as you, Andrea doesn’t care about your opinions, Naomi looks down on you from the bottom of her dry heart, and Vincent, well Vincent doesn’t give a shit unless he finds it interesting...
From every side I look, your life here seems pretty bad, save for the fact that only a handful of people could threaten your life, so are you just stupid, or weak willed, I’m gonna figure that out".
Ryan waved his hand in front Damien’s face, the way Damien blanked out actually worried him.
Returning to reality. Damien pushed Ryan’s hand away and said coldly.
"Did you kill Leslie?".