Chapter 156: Chapter 156- Trust

For a while, the two hugged each other, not moving from where they were. Acrypha continued crying silently in Talon's embrace, letting everything she pent up out in one fell sweep.

Talon simply caressed her hair gently as he waited for her to calm down. He was glad that Acrypha was able to get all of her emotions out but also really sad to see her this broken. He could never imagine how losing her family felt like and he frankly didn't wish to feel it either.

It was a horrible sensation, akin to losing a huge chunk of one's heart in a single moment. Even for someone as strong-willed as Acrypha who was far from a human even in terms of feelings and emotional intelligence, she couldn't handle this loss and he didn't blame her for that.

'Whoever did this to her... I will make them pay for it... I will definitely make them regret it.' Closing his eyes, Talon took an oath upon himself at that moment.

He still didn't know who are the actual enemies that caused this, but, he was certain that no matter who they were, he was going to make them pay for it.

The people Talon cared about were a red line that can't be crossed and Acrypha was one of those people. He was ready to put his life on the line for those people he cherished.

A while later, Acrypha finally calmed down completely as she pulled herself away from Talon. Even though she was still clearly very sad, Talon was sure that she didn't have a raging conflict within her at least. stay-updated-with-MVLeMpYr

That was far more dangerous than mourning or feeling sadness.

"*Sniff* I really made a fool of myself." She said as she wiped her eyes.

"No at all, there is no shame in crying." He replied.

"This was the first time I've ever cried... It's a weird feeling..."

"Did it help?"

"It did. Thank you, for being here." She nodded her head.

"Any time. We're here for each other at all times."

Staring at him silently, Acrypha's expression shifted for a second as she suddenly turned away from him.

"Mmm..."

"Well, time to go back, then. I have a lot of things to do." Talon murmured to himself.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

With that, the duo started walking back inside the warehouse in silence. Talon kept looking at Acrypha every few seconds. Even though her expression might appear normal to most people, he could easily notice the sadness hidden within it.

However, that conflict he saw within Acrypha was long gone. For him, that was the most important as mental conflicts within a person could be their destruction. Luckily, Acrypha had at least come to an understanding of her own thoughts.

'It will take time, but hopefully, she will feel better.' Talon thought to himself.

When the two reached the warehouse, Talon found Hyun-Jae walking toward him in a hurry.

The latter slowly looked up. "You have every right to be angry and frustrated. But, I won't push it any further, thank you for being so understanding. In any case, can I ask you two about what happened during the time we were gone?"

The duo stared at each other for a second, exchanging their thoughts through their eyes. They both knew what happened and it was far from pleasant. In the end, the first one to speak was Soomin.

"Sigh, well, after both of you left, we simply continued training, killing monsters around the warehouse and getting stronger. That went on for a few weeks before Chin-Hwa left suddenly. We didn't know what to do at that point and we were very close to also leaving to search for you guys. We were lost and the monsters were threatening to break in at any moment.

All we could do was resist them as much as we could... That's when that... bastard and his men appeared in the area. We thought they were a group of survivors seeking shelter and we let them in foolishly."

Shin-Il frowned as he listened to the story. Unpleasant memories came back to his head.

"Cha Kwang immediately took control of the place and threatened us to immediately surrender. But, we tried to fight them, only to end up getting captured and brought along to that supermarket... Then, that bastard imprisoned us along with the women he captured. We were barely fed and were even tortured more than once so that we could reveal where you guys went..."

"We didn't tell them, though. We agreed to keep it a secret no matter what." Shin-Il added.

"Why? You could've gotten killed for it!" Talon exclaimed in shock.

He had seen how brutal Cha Kwang was, and even if he had his reasons for not killing them, he probably would've not hesitated to inflict tremendous pain on them.

However, the duo shook their heads. "We were certain that you guys would come to save us. We knew that for a fact." They smiled at Talon, stunning him completely.

Never did he expect that response. He could even see it in their eyes, a complete trust in him and Hyun-Jae.

"Damn it, you two... Where did that even come from?" Covering his face, Talon tried to hide a small from his face. He would be lying if he said that he didn't feel happy at that moment.

"Hahaha!" Shin-Il laughed innocently. "We were right, weren't we?"

"Yeah, you two were still really reckless," Hyun-Jae said in a serious tone. "You could've gotten tortured even more or killed."

"We knew that. But, we were ready to take the risk any time."

Seeing how careless they seemed, Talon could only sigh. He really couldn't change their minds at all. So, instead, he decided to move on to the most important question.

"What did you want to tell me and Hyun-Jae, by the way?" He asked.

When Talon brought that up, the atmosphere immediately changed. All the laughs and jokes vanished as if they were never there.

Then, Soomin turned to Talon with a deadly serious expression. "Yes, it's actually something we didn't expect at all. It happened a few days ago when we were still captured by Cha Kwang."

***

*A few days ago*

A//N: Don't forget to support the book if you enjoyed reading ????