33 Risen#re

Pollock gritted his teeth and clenched his fist until his knuckles went white while looking at Lirian, it was always like this, he had to take the insults of the rich while lying down, because if he did anything he'd be beaten to a pulp and no one would care.

But if he made a move his life would be turned into a living hell by the rich and privileged kids.

"You should work on your intimidation act, it's pitiful," Lirian commented in a plain voice.

"But frankly I don't know why you aren't thanking me for doing you a favour," Lirian said in a mocking tone as he folded his arms and tapped his chin.

Eido was looking between the two not understanding what was going on, heck no one in the room had any idea, what was going on, she only knew that her friend was being bullied for no reason.

"You do realize that we don't have an unlimited supply of resources like you spoiled nobles," Eido started furiously, the blue veins in her forehead were popping out, she didn't even care who she was insulting at the moment the demon blood in her made her do impulsive things from time to time.

"The only way for us to improve is to get as many points as possible so that we can get some extra resources, we aren't lucky enough to have all the resources we could ever hope for whenever we please like you, but you are trying to pull us out of the field which is the only place we can earn a little bit extra points for our needs," she began ranting at Lirian and with the sharp teeth in her mouth gnashing together on every word, almost creating sparks in the air.

"And you expect us to be grateful?" she spat out; she knew that Lirian was a complete ass, but right now he was just being completely unreasonable.

Lirian took a step towards her causing her to back away in fright, everything that she had just said came crashing into her mind and she couldn't but gulp nervously as she imagined the punishment Lirian would give her, she knew that what followed would be anything but pleasant.

Lirian smiled coldly and raised his finger in front of her, she could feel his presence growing stronger, but as she tried to move back her legs felt like jelly and it took all her effort just to remain on her feet.

"I want you to understand something," Lirian said in a slow and sharp voice, "I don't give a crap about your struggles, for all I care it doesn't matter whether you're a beggar in the street's, a beloved empress, or even a goddess that rules the heavens, when I give an order you obey because I'm no imbecile like you commoner baffon's that think only about yourselves."

"Whenever I speak there is always careful thought put into every word, that is unfortunately almost always wasted on your ignorant skulls," Lirian smiled coldly as he got directly in her face.

As Lirian stepped forward he reached out his hands causing Eido to freeze up and shut her eyes, but a second later she heard a light tap and Pollock winced loudly.

She opened her eyes and saw Lirian in her face with his hand tapping on Pollock's arm, each time Pollock struggled to stifle a wince, but Eido noticed that Lirian wasn't even hitting him hard.

"You see I told Pollock to stop trying to use free striking weeks ago, but he didn't listen, and right now he has damaged his muscles so badly that he can't afford to get in to a fight, he'll be a liability in any team and besides him dying he could get someone else killed if he slips up for even a second," Lirian explained as he took a step back.

"I don't know about you guys but I'd rather have as few deaths as possible in this expedition, which is why Pollock will be out of the way as my guard, I called the two of you up because you are probably the only two that would be willing to look out for him and cover up his mistakes, but if you want to return to the front lines I won't stop you."

When Lirian finished explaining Hinata glanced at him with a guilty look but it quickly disappeared as she thought of the insults he hurled at them, it was unbearable to have some spoiled prince candidate that grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth call her selfish when he knew nothing about their struggles to catch up.

She knew about Pollock's secret training, but she didn't know that the side effects could cause such problems.

Eido felt torn between choosing, Pollock or the field exploration, but she quickly made up her mind, "I'll stay as a guard," she decided resolutely, she couldn't just abandon her friend.

She was even happier a few seconds later when she heard Hinata say that she would stay as well, over the years she felt that Hinata was very ambitious and would put her own ambitions in front of her friends so it made he feel glad that she was wrong when Hinata chose to help Pollock.

"Glad to hear that," Lirian smiled at her and eased up his pressure on them, ", and just so you know, exploration and discovery does grant points, but there are secret requirements as well, by fulfilling the duties you are given you can earn extra points," he said surprising them.

As they assumed their new roles Lirian chuckled internally, 'I was bound to make Hinata suspicious eventually if I asked only her to be my guard, but by doing it this way, she'll be so certain that I don't know what she's planning that she'll lower her guard and reveal her plans to me without even realising it.'

Lirian silently thanked Pollock for his stupid life decisions and continued waiting for the preparation to be completed, 'Huh, I guess that I never realised how long it takes to assemble an army in all these years,' Lirian thought as half the day had already passed by the time everything was in order.

Karen stood beside him reporting all the changes as they happened, she was keeping direct contact with the other candidates.

"Media is asking for your permission to test the cartographers; she wants to have the cartographers to map out the area from the time we leave to find out who's the most efficient at mapping before we reach the important areas."

Lirian nodded, 'How did I not have that idea first,' he wondered, 'Ah, it's probably because I'm so good at cartography that I forgot other people can be bad,' he reasoned with himself.

"Tell her to only give them the low-quality normal paper, don't waste all my high-quality water-resistant paper on some thing that we don't need, that stuff cost me a small fortune."

Karen giggled softly as Lirian mentioned the paper, she was surprised by his intense reaction to the usage of paper, 'Since when were nobles stingy with their pursues,' she wondered, but as she heard Media from the other side mention the extensive list of grievances that gave Lirian a nightmare she couldn't help but laugh.

She looked at Lirian curiously, that pride of his just moments ago had taken even her by surprise, and she glanced at the skies hoping that no lightning would strike him down for what he had just said.

He didn't just speak down about the great leaders of the six great civilizations he even spoke ill about the gods and goddesses, from the way he spoke it was like he was convinced that even gods had no right to disregard his words.

"If you keep staring at me so intently you're going to drill a hole right through me," Lirian commented with a chuckled as he felt Karen's gaze.

Karen started quickly looking away, she always found it spooky when he did that, she had tried to shut her eyes and sense the gaze's that feel on her, but after a while she would feel like everyone was staring at her, but when she opened her eyes again she'd feel like a complete fool when no one was even paying any attention to her in the first place.

"Why are you always like that?" she asked him curiously.

Lirian raised his brow as he faced her, "I'm always many things Karen, you're going to have to be a bit more specific," Lirian said in an impatient tone, he always found such open-ended questions annoying, there were thousands of answers none of which could be wrong, it makes questions easy to answer or evade.

Karen pondered on it for a moment with a thoughtful expression, "I'll be the first to admit that I can't stand the way the commoners behave most of the time, they are always too hesitant or needy in their actions and it annoys me, but why do you feel the need to talk down to them, to everyone in fact, like you know better than all of us combined."

"Because I do," Lirian stated simply like it wasn't even a subject for discussion.