Sitting at a table, Leo couldn’t help but worry about Connie. He had sent her to watch over the soldiers, but he didn’t know how long she’d be there for. Not only that, he didn’t know how the Lieutenant would react to such actions.

  He could only hope for the best.

  Across from him, Patrick was chowing down on today's breakfast. The morning had finally arrived as the beams of light slipped through the barred windows, illuminating their isolated world.

  It was just one more trial. One more trial and they would be able to finally become official residents to the city.

  Now that he thought about it, what was the North’s colony called? All he had gotten from everyone was the fact that it was a terrible place, which didn’t really help much. Not only that, but according to some of Patrick’s friends, the only other area considered similar to this place was New Anglia. But even then, this place was by far worse off.

  From what he got from Cain, criminals are just thrown here. Does that mean there aren’t any prisons in those colonies? It was just straight to exile here, not second chances. Just how did that work?

  “Yo!”

  Shaken out of his thoughts, Patrick shook his shoulder trying to get his attention. With a face like an excited child, he pointed at the hallway with Joshua in tow.

  “Connie’s back! Damn, it feels like I haven’t seen her in forever. Though I can say the same for, uh…Anthony! Yeah, Anthony. But I always see him working up a sweat so I can kind of understand.”

  He crossed his hands as he nodded at the last part.

  ‘Back already? It hadn’t even been an entire day! It was just barely an hour ago that he had sent her. What the hell happened?’

  Hiding his worry, Leo lightly laughed. “I bet she’s been at the Medbay all day. She’s always so stressed, y’know?”

  He nodded at this.

  “True. That amount of stress is unbecoming of her. I can already see the wrinkles forming from her pinched face, always frowning. I haven’t seen her smile yet.”

  Leo shrugged. “Guess we’ll have plenty of time after these trials are over. Now run off, I think she heard you.”

  Looking over at Connie, she had the same expressionless face. But he could see her eyes were colder than usual. Fortunately, Patrick saw it as well as he shrunk back.

  “Ahahah. Yeah…I’ll just disappear. You’ve got this!” He turned to Joshua, who had an equally shaken attitude. “C’mon, Joshua, let’s get out of here.”

  Joshua nodded. “Nice seeing you again, Leo! Good luck!”

  They quickly ran off to his friends, Patrick promptly ambushed by Oliver along the way as he got put in a headlock. Leo couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the sight. Just how simple was he…

  Leo took a sip before Connie finally sat across from him, her body collapsing onto the table as she groaned loudly.

  “Um, I take it things went badly?”

  She shook her resting head, scraping her forehead across the wooden table.

  “It actually went better than we expected. They beheaded the demon and contained the head. Teddy is keeping it safe for now while this entire section of the wall is basically on full alert now.”

  Leo’s eyes brightened at the good news. They actually contained that damned thing?

  “And you’re sure of this?”

  “Yes. A colonel even showed up. Quickly took care of everything. But we have to wait seven to eight hours before we can make a move.”

  “Why’s that?”

  Connie pointed at a window.

  “The colonel left to get some people to get the information from that head.”

  He nodded in understanding. This was extremely good. As long as they have a lot of spare time, the plan will go smoothly. But something still didn’t add up.

  “Didn’t you say it was a powerful demon? How come it got taken care of so quickly?”

  Connie shrugged. “The colonel was decently strong enough to deal with it pretty quickly. From what I saw, I think she may be stronger? But that was thirty minutes ago, and she’s off getting whoever she needs. Anyways, what’s for lunch today?”

  She quickly got up to go to the cooks, her eyes shining at the sight of today’s array of food.

  But was this really it? A colonel alone could handle a demon like that? Maybe Anthony can be freed after all!

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

  He couldn’t help but smile at the thought, but it quickly faded as he thought of the consequences of this situation.

  What were the chances Anthony would be unpunished for this contract? He didn’t really know what a colonel was but he could tell from Connie’s tone that they were important. Just from that fact, he couldn’t see Anthony coming back without facing repercussions.

  He sighed. Well, it was better than Anthony getting himself killed with that demon.

  With those thoughts to comfort him, he continued eating his meal. Awaiting the awakening of Anthony.

  Finally, two hours passed in a blur as Leo focused on the situation. He sat across from his room, with a good view on Anthony as he had left the door open. Sitting across from him was Patrick with an unusually serious face as his eyes had no hint of excitement as it had before.

  The reason for this was because Leo had finally briefed him on the situation regarding Anthony as well as the actions he and Connie had been doing the past few hours.

  It seemed it had come as a shock to Patrick as he remained quiet for a moment. Surprisingly enough, he took all the information very calmly as his voice was steady and confident.

  “So, you guys did all that. But I’m guessing you didn’t tell me this just so I know.”

  Leo nodded, happy he had understood his intentions.

  “I need you to be the link.”

  Patrick’s face contorted in confusion.

  “The what now?”

  Leo rested his chin on his hands.

  “Patrick, I’m not sure you’ve realized it but you’re literally the only one who’s spoken to the other people here. Or at least hung out with them. Connie and I have been…distant compared to you. They would never listen to us, let alone trust us.”

  Patrick shook his head.

  “You’re right about that…Wait, wait, wait. So you want me to give out orders to the people here? Leo, they’re my friends, not some underlings I have with me. And even if I did agree, what would you have them do?”

  Leo quickly tried comforting Patrick.

  “Patrick, relax. It’s not like I’m gonna send them to die. If anything, it’s the complete opposite. I need you to make sure they are better protected if the situation arises. You heard what kind of demon we’re dealing with, that just means we need extra precautions in place to make sure we can have the least amount of deaths here.”

  Leo waved a hand towards the room, directing Patrick towards the crowd of people.

  “Look at them. They look happy, sure. But that’s only on the outside. Inside, I can see they’re scared, anxious, directionless. All they’re doing right now is trying to survive the next day as they keep their minds off it through the little things you do.”

  Patrick’s eyes drew downward as they softened.

  “I haven’t done anything, Leo. I just hung out with them.”

  “Exactly. You hung out with them, distracting them from this jail that we’re in. The games you play. The words you throw around. The challenges you give to people. Your simple minded thought-process. Look around, Patrick. Do you think they’d be so happy without those little things?”

  “Simple minded…?”

  Patrick shook his head.

  “I…I can’t promise anything, Leo. I’ll try, but I can’t promise anything. Just expect things to not work out as you hoped.”

  Leo softly smiled as his head unconsciously lowered, happy at those words.

  “That’s all I ask of you, Patrick. Please try.”

  After the confirmation, Leo began explaining what Patrick needed to convey to the rest of the dormitory as well as what he needed to do afterward. Of course, if the others still refused to listen, which was highly unlikely in Leo’s opinion, then there would be no way to get them to act before the fight began.

  Conflicted, Patrick rose from his seat. After a small glance at Leo, he marched back to the group of friends he had made along the way.

  Seeing him off, Leo’s smile slowly disappeared as he continued thinking of what was to come. According to the apostle, if it could be believed, Anthony would rise any moment now.

  Inside his room, Connie remained in the shadows on stand-by after she had finished her lunch. The light remained off, allowing her to travel any corner of the boxed room as well as giving her the best advantage possible.

  Although they didn’t know exactly how strong the demon was, they knew it was stronger than the two of them.

  Looking to the doorway, he could only hope Cain would be fast enough for his task, hopefully before Anthony woke up.

  But that was wishful thinking.

  Clenching his fists, he knew he had to prepare for the worst.

  Leo hated himself for this. How did it come to this? Why did it have to come to this? Was there any way he could’ve stopped this from happening?

  Leo slammed the table, drawing some stares all around. His face contorted to an angry look. Not at others, but at himself. He was so weak. He couldn’t gather information like Connie could, he didn’t speak to others like Patrick did. He couldn’t even use his Refraction properly yet.

  Leo sighed.

  He couldn’t help but curse his own weakness. If only he were stronger. If only he were smarter. If only he had been a better friend.

  If only…