Chapter 162: Preparing for the departure

"Okay then. Here is what we will do." Grabbing Ayda's hand, I pulled her out of the small alley directly to the main street of the town. Pulling out my phone, I ordered the car through one of the popular apps, before finally finding the time to look at the girl again. 

"Listen, I need a set of long and short weapons, standard expedition box of the stones…" Recalling a piece from one of the many reports I would go through each day, I shrugged slightly. "On that matter, I will need you to ask Sander if he finished its upgrade. If he did, get him to provide some kind of manual for it." 

Turning my head around, I made sure Ayda heard my request before my eyes wandered towards the source of a suddenly appearing sound of tires burning on the road. From a single look, I could tell that it was the car I just ordered.

"Dear, make sure to remember one thing. From the outside point of view…" There was no need for me to finish my words. Before I could say the latter part of my sentence, Ayda already did it for me. "Our preparations could be easily taken as preparation for conflict. I know."

As we stepped into the car, our discussion inevitably came to an end. While speaking directly on the street could be excused given the constant noise and extreme hardship fo eavesdrop on us if we moved to random places at random intervals, the same didn't apply to the insides of the car. 

Rather than wondering whether there was some kind of listening device in the car or not, I only wondered how many different ones were hidden all over the vehicle instead!

Even returning to the lands of my cult didn't change things at all. While some confusion was given from how the supreme head of the entire organisation used a rented cab rather than one of the cars that the cult would be willing to provide at any given moment, the scale of madness we were thrown into as soon as we returned only proved that Jeff already made his move.

"Your excellency! How could you use such a common car? It's unbecoming of your position!" Barely a moment after we stepped outside, the first voice of dissatisfaction reached my ears. As I turned my head to see just who was daring enough to scold me, another voice appeared.

"Everyone, stop bothering the bishops!" Stepping outside of the main doors of the compound, Pavlo looked at the crowd with scorn. 

"Do you think he is…?" Not daring to finish her question now that we were in the open, Ayda cast a quick glance at this young friend of mine. 

"I'm not sure." There was no reason to sugarcoat the reality. Given his family ties, there was a huge chance that this staunch supporter of mine was already set on devastating my position. But given how I still bore some hope that he would turn out to be loyal to me directly rather than to the elder from his family, I didn't want Ayda to give up on the man either.

"Sir, it's great that you are back. Ever since about an hour ago, some stuff started to happen around the place." Rushing to me as soon as he pacified the unrest in the crowd, Pavlo sent a quick gaze to the people behind him as he said so. 

"Don't worry about it, it was inevitable." Waving my hand away as if it could solve the problem we were currently facing, I started moving towards the compound. Given how I didn't falter under the first round of problems, the crowd had no other choice but to let me pass.

After all, right now it was only light probing, aimed at sounding off my ideas for the future. Given how I still had a great influence not only amongst the simple believers but most of the important figures within the group, there was no way for Jeff to just deal with me directly right away. 

And I only needed a few hours to hopefully solve the problem at its root. 

"Ayda, I will be counting on you." As soon as the three of us reached my private wing of the compound, I prompted the girl into action. Before she could even set off, I already turned my head towards the young man beside me. 

"As for you, I will also need a bit of your help." Whether Pavlo was still loyal to me or would turn out to be a staunch supporter of his family, it didn't really matter. Because the task I was about to give him was important enough for me to care, yet simple and unmeaningful to the point where it would be dumb to potentially reveal his allegiances over it.

"You know you only need to give me a word." Looking at me as if using a slightly more formal approach with him gave a huge emotional scar to the man, Pavlo summed up in a sudden cold voice. 

"You should already realise that I don't like ordering people around." After taking a deep breath, I released it back to the atmosphere with a deep sigh. "But if you are going to put it like that, then sure. I need you to go and fetch two weeks worth of packed rations." 

For a moment, Pavlo froze. Then, he cast me a baffled look. 

"Just that? What was the entire emotional build-up for, then?" Shaking his head in disbelief, Pavlo took a long moment to calm down. Forcing a smile on his lips, he then looked at me once again only to hang his head low and shake it again.

"Sure then, where to bring the supplies?" Looking at the young man, I realised that this was the deciding moment. Maybe I was wrong and this feeling of mine was completely misguiding me, but I felt as if my response to Pavlo's complaint right now would decide who would he side with later on.

"You see, there seems to be a small discord between me and Jeff." Starting up, I rested my back against the wall of the corridor we were in. "From the looks of things, he only thought of this organisation as a mean to achieve his own goals. Now that I'm going to," I cleared my throat, "go and waste a ton of goods," changing my voice to indicate that I was actually quoting someone else, I took a quick glance at the young man's face to make sure he understood the intent behind those words before finishing my sentence up, "on a meaningless sacrifice to Boruta."

Shaking my head over this stupid argument that actually didn't happen, I averted my eyes from Pavlo. 

"I see…" Even though it was clear that he was pretty confused about the situation, one of Pavlo's great traits was how he didn't bother to ask about unnecessary stuff. 

While it was only my guess, his line of thought should be around something like: 'Since I'm not involved in this matter in the first place, let's not put myself at risk by unnecessarily meddling in the problem.'

"Good. Once you will get the stuff, leave it at Ayda's place. She will bring it to the hidden altar for me." Leaving the young man with the final order, I quickly departed back to the bottom floor of my private wing of the compound. With the huge concrete dome located right in the middle of the building, an entire floor was taken off the schematics given how only I and Ayda had free access to this place.

After arriving at the place, I immersed myself in a procedure I came up with myself. Checking every single piece of my equipment before setting off for a journey to a foreign world was a must. I didn't want to become a random, nameless corpse thrown to the side of a road or a dungeon of some sorts, just because a small tool of mine failed to work properly!

By the time I was done with roughly half of the preparations, Ayda finally made her way over to the place. Dropping several bags on the floor, she didn't even bother greeting me, before leaving the place once again. Only after her fourth trip when I finally managed to reach the end of the checklist, did the girl managed to stand down for a bit. 

"So, where is my part of the equipment?" After dropping the last piece of supplies, Ayda finally spoke. Only to catch me by a huge surprise.

"I'm sorry?" Noticing her expectant look, I bit my lips. It seemed that there was a particular problem of miscommunication between the two of us. 

"My equipment, where it is? Don't tell me you forgot to check it on the go…" Given how extensive the checklist was, it was far easier to check two sets at once rather than doing it one by one.

The problem was, I never intended to bring Ayda somewhere as dangerous as a newly opened world could be!