Chapter 190: Indescribable

Chapter 190: Indescribable "I don’t see why we are even doing this! Saving Crescent isn’t a matter up for debate or discussion!!"

"Don’t get so fired up. If it were that easy, then you could do it on your own"

"It’s been less than a day since we got their message, I’m sure they can manage. They’ve got the domes, after all. If anything could break through that, then we’re all doomed!"

The already tense atmosphere in the room became even heavier at those words.

"I’m certain they knew that too, yet they still requested aid."

"We have been losing base after base in the past month! Crescent isn’t just any base. It’s arguably the most important base on this planet. It’s worth surpassing even that of ours."

"Losing it would be a disaster."

No more words were spoken after this, their flickering auras picking off the conversation for them.

"All sound arguments you have proposed."

Noah, the head and commander of Origin finally spoke.

His voice blew away the heavy tension in the room like a breeze, each person present adjusting themselves out of sheer respect for the speaking man.

"We couldn’t help the other bases because we failed. We didn’t see the enemy’s attack coming, and they didn’t, either."

"But now, one of us has managed to send a cry of help, the only thing between them and destruction being the domes."

The commander gave a breakdown, the shadows on his face becoming darker and more gloomy with each sentence that left his mouth.

"Take forty percent of the troops and make an extraction at Crescent."

His words were spoken with immediate resistance from those who refused the idea of helping Crescent.

"Forty?! With all due respect, Commander! We have a war at our hands, one that has us putting our entire fighting force on the line, and you want to withdraw FORTY PERCENT of that??!"

Others sharing the same opinion as the man, nodded in support. They didn’t dare burst out as he did, but they approved of him for doing exactly what they lacked the guts to.

"Enough!"

A simple mutter spread across the hall, bringing with it a cold silence.

They didn’t stop talking out of respect—No. The hateful and disgusted expressions on their faces were as clear as day.

They kept quiet out of fear. Fear of what the madman that had just spoken could do if they got on his nerves.

The madman in question was August. Kieran’s eccentric and torturous instructor who had been labeled a madman even before he became a soldier or an instructor.

"You all heard what the old man had to say. So obey orders as any other soldier would!"

August’s tone was icy cold, very subtly distorting the space around them. A small gift he had thought to show fellow friends.

"Dismissed!"

Noah let them go, seeing no more strong resistance from them.

’Bastard!’

The way he was favored by the commander didn’t sit well with any of them, but they were incapable of holding anything against him as the commander had never openly validated or shown support for any of his wrong actions.

Not like he erred at all. Always so secluded, like all that existed to him were his recruits.

They knew nothing about him, and those who were close to him knew probably less.

It was just impossible to find anything against August.

"You don’t have anything to say?"

Noah, looked towards the last people in the room — August and Michael.

"They will do what needs to be done. I am no exception to that!"

His words lingered in the room with the commander and Michael as he disappeared with a step.

"He doesn’t approve"

Michael dropped a comment pushing the glasses up his nose. He was probably the only one who could get a rather accurate read on the elusive instructor, second to Selena whom he seemed to submit to.

"It must be done!" Noah muttered to seemingly no one but himself.

....

"What you did was stupid!"

A trembling voice filled with more concern than anger rang across the infirmary as Kieran sat at the bedside, holding up a book to his face.

Taking a peek in front of him, he saw Jake trembling with suppressed emotions holding onto the side of the bed till his knuckles turned white.

On the bed sat Ruby with several blood-soaked bandages wrapped all over her torso, his eyes lingering longer on her torso and freckled face before returning to his book in silence.

His thoughts were unknown and he planned to keep them so amongst his two friends who seemed to share something closer.

"You could’ve sent a notice, alerted us that you were going out of the camp!"

Jake continued his beration of the still silent Ruby.

"Hell! Why did you go out with a bunch of strangers!! You could have just told us to go along with you. There’s no way we would have declin–"

"I’m not a child Jake!!"

Ruby screamed, unable to hold it in against Jake’s criticism.

"I don’t need your permission to take on a mission, and I don’t need either of you to babysit me!"

Her green eyes locked with Kieran’s blue ones, reflecting the cold and unreadable look on his face, portraying an apparent lack of interest on his face. A look she didn’t know could send her deeper in rage.

"What are you talking about? Don’t you get it, you almost died! Sure you managed to deal with it this time, but any second later and a random beast could make a snack out of you!"

"You might not even survive another attack. I mean, look at you!"

Jake’s voice got out of control, unable to understand her resistance. He cared for her, yet it was a veil that blinded his eyes to the obvious.

Ruby’s eyes had grown dull at his words and she uttered a single word, unwilling to say anything more destructive.

"Leave."

"What are you talking about? You’re still injured, there’s no way I’m g—"

"Leave!"

Her voice had a sharper edge to it this time as she repeated, looking straight into his eyes.

Starting back at the familiar yet unfamiliar cold green eyes, Jake sighed and stood up, making his way out of the infirmary but not giving Kieran a pleading look to which he nodded.

He knew that look. It was the same look she had when looking at someone like Orion, a look of hate he never thought he’d be the subject of.

"I wasn’t wrong.." He muttered, gripping his chest tightly.

"You’re still here"

Ruby said with the same cold tone to the only person left beside her in the infirmary.

It was an odd occurrence to have the place empty considering all that had been going on, but it saved them from the observing eyes that would have been pressing against their necks.

"You didn’t tell me to leave"

Kieran said, unbothered by her tone. His attention was still trained on the book in his hands.

Finding no words, she laid back on the bed, staring into the white ceiling of the infirmary.

"How are you holding up?"

Kieran spoke, finally looking at her after several minutes of silence between the two of them.

".... Tired."

The words choked her as she said with a tone heavy with reluctance, as if admitting would mean saying she was giving up.

Kieran watched her expression morph into surprise as tears started to flow down her cheeks uncontrollably.

"W-why am I c-c-crying?"

She looked towards him, her heart longing for answers as she unsuccessfully wiped the tears streaming continuously down her face.

"Haa.."

Kieran’s cold face finally had gained some softness to it as he closed in on her, switching from the chair to the bed.

He hadn’t said a word yet when she latched onto his arm, crashing her face into his chest, still trying to hold her tears.

Kieran froze completely, still unsure how to deal with the sudden closeness. He had no idea what was done to console a person.

The awkwardness only lasted a moment, distracted by the pain of her increasingly tight grip on his arm.

For a moment, orange flames reflected within his eyes, the scene of the fire that brought his world to ashes appearing within his mind.

He strongly denied the possibility of his parents being dead, even now, he never really tried to accept that fact, filling his mind with thoughts of finding out whatever had caused the fire and revenge.

Then, the thoughts on what he would have told the version of himself without all these convictions came to him.

"It’s okay...It’s okay to..."

The words cracked, struggling to leave his lips.

His hand clung tightly to the sheets, going silent for a minute.

"It’s okay to cry, Ruby."

’It doesn’t mean you’ve failed them.’

"You deserve to grieve"

His last words were covered by the sound of her flooding tears, no longer holding back as she sobbed on his chest.

Just like him, she had her family snatched from her, and immediately turned to vengeance, looking for somewhere to channel all the hate and negative emotions.

Just like him, she never gave herself the chance to grieve. A moment to cry about the loss of her family like any other normal human.

And just like him, no one ever noticed. They noticed her hate, her urge for revenge, and they respected that, supported her. But the pain was maddening, eating slowly at each part of her the more she felt she was failing.

Failing herself

Failing her family

Failing what she believed was her very purpose

Kieran’s hand slowly rose to her back, stroking her long red hair softly.

No more words were said

No more words needed to be said

The pain of losing a parent, a guardian figure, was indescribable. And sometimes, silence was the best form of comfort a person could be offered.

And the silence between them was all that remained, her heavy sobbing filling the empty infirmary.