Chapter 224: An Issue of Loyalty

Choosing between Pure or Erin was a hard choice, almost impossible even. It meant having to choose between Erin, or Pure, and by extension, her mother.

Layla sat there, unsure of the choice she should make.

Being with Erin was like a dream. The dream of becoming a vampire, the dream of having a secret identity, the dream of growing stronger and powerful, the dream to temporarily escape from her old life.

’Be realistic, Layla,’ she had to remind herself, ’This was your mission all along. You were only meant to be eyes on the inside. No one else could’ve done all of this, why else would Agent 5 force you to go here?’

However, the idea of escaping Pure, running away from her old life and starting anew was tempting, too tempting. Would they even care if she disappeared? Her mom seemed to never look her in the eyes. To leave would be grand, foolish, escapist.

If Layla purposely went against Pure, they would send agents after her due to her insider knowledge. She could hide with Erin, but just because Erin was strong doesn’t mean that she could go against a whole organization.

Running her hands through her hair, Layla replayed the message in her head a thousand times, trying to figure out some way to have both. Maybe she could continue to hide this secret from Erin, find some sort of way to work for Pure and still maintain their relationship.

But no matter how many times Layla thought up some sort of plan, she couldn’t figure out a single loop hole, no way to maintain this secret and also stay friends with Erin. At least, something that would last forever.

"Maybe I don’t have to tell her," Layla told herself, "If I leave before I have to explain myself, then I don’t have to see her reaction to the truth."

Being with Erin was a fantasy, but Layla was needed in the real world. These were the words she told herself.

Suddenly, she heard a knock on the door, causing her to flinch. Immediately, she got up, and ran to the door, removing the chair, and opening it.

On the other side was the face of a boy she vaguely recognized.

"Uh, I don’t think this is the right room," the boy said, embarrassed.

Layla looked at him confused, "... This is the girl’s dorm."

The boy looked down the halls where it listed the floor numbers, "I know, I’m just trying to meet up with someone. For class of course."

"Meet up with..." Layla repeated, trying to see if she remembered who this face belonged to. Then it hit her.

Given the last time she saw him was when his face was severely swollen, it made sense that Layla would struggle to remember him, but he was actually the teleportation user on Jessica’s team. It would make sense that the two would meet up.

It was then that Layla glanced down at her watch and cursed under her breath, "Damn it, I’ve been in this room for too long."

When Layla had checked her messaging orb from Pure, she had completely forgotten that she also needed to meet up with Fex afterwards.

Grabbing her bow, Layla left her bedroom, the door automatically locking behind her.

"Good luck with finding your friend," Layla quickly said before running off towards the training center.

Rojie, the teleportation user, watched Layla disappear, and sighed. He then lifted up his watch and began typing away.

"There’s no one in the dorm room right now. Come visit, and I’ll take you inside."

—

At around the same time, Peter received a message from Duke, stating it was important. When he received it, Cia made a comment about how Duke seems to just "really love him" which got a nervous laugh out of him.

The notification filled him with dread, and he still remembered the last time he met with Duke. He was told to reach level 4 as soon as possible.

’Is it because I hadn’t leveled up at all in that time?’

While Peter did want to improve his level so he could one day provide for his family, he didn’t want to do it when it was at the request of Duke. It didn’t take a genius to realize that Duke had shady intentions for him, and if he wanted Peter to do something, then it meant he was going to do something awful.

’I’ve prepared a bunch of excuses just in case he mentions it,’ Peter thought to himself, ’If this hurts someone else, I’m not going to do it.

Peter already made a promise with himself that he didn’t want to further ruin his relationships to his friends. A repeat of the portal room was the last thing he wanted.

Entering Duke’s office never got easier. He could still feel sweat forming on the back of his neck as he sat down opposite the large man.

Duke sat there, staring him down.

"Do you know why you’re here?" Duke slowly began, each stressed word pressing deep into Peter.

A million guesses ran in Peter’s mind.

"No, sir," Peter replied.

"Is that so?" Duke spoke in a voice that seemed both disappointed and annoyed, "I thought you were smart, Peter, but it appears I have to remind you that you’re only level 2."

Clenching his fists, several excuses and lies were caught in Peter’s throat, but it would be hard to lie to someone like Duke. All he could get out was "I haven’t had the time."

"Don’t lie to a military General!" Duke barked out, "You’ve wasted enough time, and as a result, you have less than a week to accomplish this next task."

Duke opened a drawer, and slid an ornate jeweled toned green book across the table. When Duke’s massive hand lifted from the cover, the text "Level 6 earth ability" could be seen.

"Make sure your roommate learns the contents of this book before the inter-base tournament event starts, since clearly you’re incapable of learning your lessons in under a week."

"Which one?" Peter managed to get out.

Duke glared at him, "So now you’re playing smart? Don’t."

Peter gulped, and silently took the book.

’Reaching level 6 should be an objectively good thing, so why do I feel like if I get Quinn to learn this, something terrible is going to happen?’

No, Peter knew exactly why, he just didn’t know how.

Leaving the office, Peter began concocting a plan to create plausible deniability to ensure he didn’t have the book anymore.

’I’ll just sell it, and lie straight to Duke’s face that it was stolen. They’re always trying to steal books from people like me.’

Except, Duke had given those under his thumb explicit orders not to take the book from Peter. Normally, he would let them do whatever they wanted as stealing from other students made them more dependent on him for power, but with the tournament less than a week away, this was crucial.

However, when Peter tried selling the book on the online student market, he was consistently sent errors stating he wasn’t granted permission. It was like as if Duke predicted this was a possibility.

’Is he watching me?’ Peter nervously glanced around, then back to the computer screen, ’I don’t actually know if that’s true, but if this won’t even work, then would other methods will?’

Unsure what to do, Peter feared that Duke was somehow actively watching him, and decided to take the book back to his dorm room. Whatever Duke had in store for them, it was serious.