Chapter 68: Suspect [Pt 2]

"Ever since we started training, Rey has always been suspicious."

As Adam stated this, Rey's body twitched slightly.

'Me?! Suspicious? How?!'

As far as he knew, he had done his best to blend in with everyone and act as average as possible.

'What's with this bullshit?!'

"He would often mumble to himself and act weirdly. I noticed all of these things from a distance."

The moment Adam said this, Rey ceased his pointless thoughts.

He was guilty as charged.

'But I'm barely audible! And someone like Adam wouldn't have noticed!'

Besides, was it really that strange to talk to oneself in training? Especially if you were alone with no friends?

It was sad, sure, but not strange.

'But, with how Adam is framing it, and how the current situation is, that will be taken to mean I'm very suspicious.'

Rey already knew how things went at times like this.

He just decided to listen.

"One day as I was taking a stroll, I found him leaving the Royal Estate. I wanted to say something, but I ignored it, thinking maybe I was being delusional."

Leaving the Royal Estate was a serious matter, but the way Adam framed it suited his entire persona well, so no one was really surprised that he treated it flippantly.

"I noticed him doing it a few more times, so I got curious. He would often carry things with him anytime he came back, so it piqued my curiosity."

Rey narrowed his eyes as he stared at Adam.

'Something isn't right here...'

What Adam was describing was too vague to be realistic, and the anytime he became specific, Rey was sure that wasn't how the events went.

'I never carry anything with me when I'm coming back, and it's pretty dark when I do so.'

Also, Adam never specified how Rey left the Royal Estate since that was a very pertinent matter.

'I shapeshift into a bird once the coast is clear. If he wanted to expose me, he would have mentioned that.' Rey's gaze narrowed.

Why wasn't Adam exposing him for having multiple abilities like [Stealth], and the power to transform his entire body?

It almost felt like... Adam was making it up.

'So what exactly is going on here?'

Adam went on, talking vaguely about how he followed Rey and saw how he would often sneak around as he entered his room.

Rey felt it was all stupid the more he listened.

'It's like he's reading from a dumb script. What the hell is he saying?'

Rey had never been stupid enough to be so careless and obvious in his activities.

He always did everything with precision and caution.

'But I still got caught. Seems I wasn't careful enough.' Rey sighed as he heard Adam conclude his story.

He thought he would have more answers once the tipper confessed, but now Rey was more confused than ever.

"Anything to say for yourself?"

Rey leaked out a brief sigh and looked at Brutus, who asked the question.

"What did you find in my closet?"

His question surprised everyone in the room. No one expected him to still be acting this way despite all that was just revealed.

"Rey, just stop this. Playing dumb won't help you out now." Adonis said in a sigh.

His expression depicted genuine concern, but Rey couldn't care less about that.

'Of course, I know it's too late to play dumb! But I have to know...'

Rey repeated his question with a straight face, refusing to budge.

"A giant sack of Monster Cores. We counted at least a hundred pieces of C-Tier Monster Cores."

The more Rey listened, the more ridiculous the whole thing sounded.

However, at this point he was slowly realizing the truth.

'Someone else is involved.'

It was most likely not Adam, but the one who put him up to this.

'I've been set up.'

"Do you have any more to say for yourself? Are you ready to confess now?"

Rey couldn't help but chuckle to himself once he heard the question.

'What's there to confess? The current circumstances and testimony is different from reality.'

The Truthseeker wasn't activating for Adam, so Rey surmised that it could probably target one person at a time, or Adam had a special Item that helped him bypass the effects of the Item.

'It's probably the latter, since his initial testimony would have been fact-checked by the Truthseeker before someone like Brutus took action.'

This conclusion led to another fact.

'If Adam had an item that bypasses the Truthseeker, then that means the one who set me up has also been outside.'

Rey couldn't begin to guess their motives. He hadn't made any enemies thus far, and the only one who actively disliked him was Billy.

But Billy couldn't be the mastermind.

'He's not smart enough...' Rey thought to himself, though he considered the more practical reasons.

'Billy is a piece of shit, but he's no rule breaker. He'd never go outside if it was against the rules.'

Since the malefactor had access to Enchanted Items, it couldn't be Billy.

'Besides, knowing how petty he is, he wouldn't need to hide behind a front like Adam to frame me.'

Billy would personally take the credit for something like this, and he would do so with a smile on his face.

Heck, even now Billy was probably grinning at him for his current predicament.

Rey shot a brief glance at his former best friend to see what fade he was making, and it was precisely as he predicted.

Billy looked deeply satisfied.

'Prick...' Unfortunately for Rey, he had more serious matters to think about.

'What should I do now?'

There were two options the way he saw it.

'One is to just escape. I have enough money and Monster Cores to live a fairly decent life and start over.'

He could go to a different city and don a disguise.

'That would be perfect, right?'

The Adventurer City was the first place that came to Rey's mind when he thought of where he would go.

'I'll just start afresh and grow stronger there...'

However, before he could fully settle on that thought, he had to properly consider his decision.

'Is that really what I want to do right now?'

He wasn't even sure he could escape Adonis and the two strongest in the Nation right now, even if he wanted to.

'I don't think I can take on all three of them—even if it's just to escape.'

If he tried and failed, that would be demonstrable evidence that he was guilty.

'I would also need to show my Skills in order to escape.'

Failing would literally tear down everything he had painstakingly built over the past couple of weeks he had been here.

'Even in the unlikely chance that I succeed, would I really want this now?'

The life of a fugitive—constantly on the run.

'The culprit behind this would win. Not only that, but they'll get to keep all those Monster Cores I painstakingly stockpiled.'

Rey couldn't have that.

'And what of all my stockpile in the Hobgoblin Territory? Will I have to abandon all that stash of Monster Cores?'

After considering all of these factors, Rey already knew the inevitable conclusion.

'I can't run away.'

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Thanks for reading!

What do you think Rey should do?