Chapter 363: Trust

As he was conversing with Enya, Lily kept hugging him from behind, her hold not easing at all. It seemed that she wasn't ready to let him go any time soon. 

Meanwhile, as the cloud had almost completely dissipated, the rest of his team, Drake and Scarlet have also joined the duo and the dogs.

"Aiden…" Drake sighed with a bitter smile, as he gazed at him. "You sure know how to keep things interesting." 

Drake had a small smile donning on his face, he seemed genuinely relieved that his friend survived this ordeal. Still, after this, questions began to arise one after another. 

Ever since the orc tower, he was pondering about the boy's origins. Who could he truly be? Even though he was out of commission for most of the time, that underground tunnel they descended into was more than enough to raise a few concerns, not to mention that those demi-human beings seemed to be so devoted to following him. 

Although he couldn't confirm it yet, Drake was now fairly certain that his friend was either not a human at all, or someone with a very special, hidden bloodline. Either way, his existence was definitely special.

Anyway, Drake didn't want to ruin their budding friendship by asking such private questions. Aiden was the first person to not care about his origins, and treat him as an equal. He was the first person he could really look at without worrying about any underlying thoughts and schemes.

Hearing his tone, Aiden looked up, returning his smile as he sighed.

"It's not like I was planning for that. Anyway… are you all okay?" He asked, trying to stand up, only to be pushed back down by the girl latched onto him from behind. 

He gently touched her arms, turning his head sideways so he could whisper into her ear.

"Sis… Why are you crying? You said you are a big girl now. Should big girls act like this?"

His words seemed to do the trick, Lily slowly eased on her hold. Lifting her gaze, she looked at his brother. Her eyes are still teary from venting all her emotions, her nose still snotty. A pout formed on her lips as she responded with a slightly hurtful tone.

"Stupid Brother! Bully! I will tell on you to Master and Granny!" She spoke, as she let go of her brother and instead hugged Sam and Biggy who were sitting calmly at her sides.

"Come here, guys. That stupid brother of mine is being mean, we don't need him, right?" She spoke, shifting her attention to her partners.

Seeing that, Aiden sighed with a wry expression, before slowly turning his attention towards the river and the torn body of the shark-headed sahuagin champion. 

'Well… At least, I can do what Enya was suggesting… Still, how am I gonna 'DO' it? Eat the dead flesh? That would seriously scare them away…' He lamented inwardly, as he slowly got up from the ground.

As he stood up, he just noticed that most of his clothes were ripped to shreds. His shirt was turned into a shriveled, burnt shawl, barely covering the upper half of his chest, leaving almost his entire torso barren, naked for everyone to see. His chiseled muscles, abs were displayed for the others to gawk at, causing Scarlet to freeze for a while, before coming back to her senses, and averting her gaze hurriedly. A slight pinkish hue could be seen over her supple cheeks even though she tried her best to hide it.

She didn't speak, and took a step back, hiding behind her brother, Drake.

Luckily for her, and for Aiden as well, his pants were mostly intact. Whilst it was also burnt and had huge tears in it, it still managed to retain its functionality where it actually mattered.

Still, what really caught Drake's attention was the fact that besides a bit of burnt and torn clothes, the boy was completely unharmed. There were no blemishes, burn marks, or wounds of any kind on his body. Even his long black hair didn't even turn messy, it was clean, flowing behind his back like it usually used to.

'Just what happened? How is he this fine? He was the closest to the explosion…' He wondered in his mind as he checked his friend. A slight frown appeared over his face, crumbing his forehead into thin wrinkles for a brief moment, before he forced a smile once more, walked closer to him, and patted his back.

"Aiden… I just can't understand you." He smiled. "What's your plan now?"

"First, we should make sure we complete the quest."  Aiden calmly answered, stepping forward, walking towards the dead sahuagin champion's corpse.

He crouched down at the upper half of the carcass, and in the next moment, under the shocked gazes of the siblings, he thrust his right arm, piercing through the creature's reinforced scaly skin with ease and plunging deep into its huge body.

What shocked them was a simple movement and the fact that he did this feat without using a skinning knife or any sharp object of the sort. Though surprised, they didn't speak, but just watched Aiden work with rising interest.

Meanwhile, Lily wasn't even paying attention, she was still sulking for some hard-to-understand reason and was instead hugging Sam and Biggy whilst seemingly ignoring her brother's shenanigans.

Disgusting, eerie slouching noises reached Scarlet and Drake's ears as Aiden tore through the flesh and organs, searching for the Monster's Crystallized Core. A moment later, they could see as the boy's face lit up before he abruptly pulled his arm out of the carcass.

His blood-covered hand was holding onto what seemed to be a stale heart with a large dark blue diamond-shaped crystal etched to it. Just like the other cases Aiden had seen before, there was a small gaseous cloud-like substance swirling at the crystal's core. Even without the system, he could feel some sort of energy, power radiating from it. 

However, unlike with the normal Sahuagin Cores he gathered before, this one was not just in a different color, but it was almost thrice the size of those. 

Grabbing the crystal with his left hand, he tore it off from the heart, before he threw it towards the surprised and unprepared Drake.

"Here, take it. You accepted the quest, so this should be with you." He spoke with his usual nonchalant tone, showing little to no interest in this precious treasure.

Although he failed to react in time and was now smeared all over his face with the disgusting dark, grimy blood Drake didn't mind it. Instead, he looked at his friend with a confused look, he couldn't help but ask in wonder.

"Aren't you going to want to hold onto this crystal? People would kill for something like this, it is a very treasured item, after all."

However, Aiden simply shrugged his shoulders before turning back towards the torn remains.

"Why would I care about it? We are friends, are we not? Besides, we need to present it to the guild so they would accept the quest completion. Failing the quest would be worse to use in the long run." He responded, his eyes were on the dead organ already. 'Should I really eat it? I wonder… would this one work like with the orcs and the humans and show me the beast's memories?' He wondered.

Listening to his response, Drake couldn't help but look at this boy once again with a complicated gaze. From his actions, his tone he was sure that he wasn't lying at all; Aiden didn't care about that crystal in the slightest.

His actions, his way of thinking, his behavior… he was so different from every other person Drake has met. He was amazed, this boy… was so different, so unique…

Lost in his thoughts, Drake was woken a short while later with the boy's voice.

"I still have something to do with this body. You can rest in the meantime."

Before he could respond, what happened next made them speechless first before a frown began to emerge on both Drake and Scarlet's faces. On the other hand, Lily who was still a bit further away was now looking at his brother with a bright smile over her face. She didn't seem to be disturbed by his actions at all. 

No, on the contrary, she was happy. After all, she was the only one that knew of his secrets, and it seemed that finally, she wouldn't need to hide it from their newly made friends!

As to what the cause of the newfound trust was? 

After pondering about it for a while, Aiden had decided to just go with his gut feeling, and not care about revealing some of his secrets to royal siblings anymore. After all, he was sure that Drake was already questioning if he was really a human or maybe something else, something more.

Also, Enya's words have convinced him that it would be truly beneficial for him. He would be able to see the sibling's true characters and also finally learn more about himself and understand his origins better.

So, coming to a decision, he grabbed the heart, and with a sudden, swift move, he gulped it down.