Chapter 18: The Unthinkable

Arthur and Renfri felt extremely expectant while looking at Amon's unceasingly growing smile.

"Then how about we do the exact opposite of hiding?"

He finally said something and that made them extremely confused. What did he mean by that? To go and report themselves to the police?

"Tsk… Both of you have no imagination whatsoever…"

"Then enlighten us"

Renfri seemed to get irritated by Amon's remark. She had little tolerance for jokes when her life was on the line.

"As you wish…"

His expression turned somewhat serious although barely.

"Let's first summarise what we can't do. First of all simply leaving the city is unlikely to go unnoticed, they will definitely have people monitoring the city's exits and will interrogate anyone who wishes to leave. Secondly they will definitely search the city quite thoroughly with the help of priests and the 'purified ones' from the Church of Purity which, like I mentioned, have the ability to sense the 'impure' so simply waiting it out is not an option in our case..."

Arthur seemed a bit confused when Amon mentioned the 'purified ones' but guessed that not every member of the church had the special ability he spoke of and the ones that did were nicknamed as such.

"...Using the underground to hide somewhere is also not the best considering that this is the most obvious solution not to mention it would have a lot of other problems as well"

He finished speaking and Renfri nodded in acknowledgment. She found no fault in his logic so far.

"Then what do you propose?"

"Like I said, the exact opposite of what is expected of us. Instead of hiding in the depths of darkness we will glow in the light to the point it will blind them…"

Amon spread his arms wide and continued to speak with an ecstatic expression as if he was the most pious priest praying to his God and receiving the response live.

***

"That's insane! There's no chance something like that would work out!"

Renfri couldn't be louder in her opposition to Amon's plan. What he proposed bordered between brilliancy and utter stupidity.

"It's just too risky, didn't you say that they can sense the 'impure'? What you want to do is just straight up suicide!"

Amon chuckled as a response.

"Not necessarily... What is considered 'pure' is quite vague after all and because of that we can twist and deceive all we want. Believe me I have a lot of experience in that aspect"

He reassured Renfri in order to ease her worries but she was still unconvinced.

"Okay, you might have a way to avert their senses but what if something goes wrong? You might succeed once but what about the second time and the third or fourth?"

"Tsk… you really can't just nod and agree with me? Of course I have a way to make sure that there will be no second time. Try trusting me a bit, okay?"

Amon tried to shrug it off but that seemed to only anger Renfri even further.

"Trust!? You? Not in a thousand years! Not to mention we don't hav-"

"Sigh…"

Amon seemed to get tired of Renfri's nagging.

His expression turned from relaxed and playful to a look of complete apathy. He clearly wanted to communicate one thing to her.

"Be thankful I am even keeping you alive"

Of course he did not say that out loud but Renfri was instantly reminded that in front of her was standing a literal devil, a demon from hell and even though she herself was partially one she always thought of herself more of a human.

Amon was the most terrifying person she happened to have met and that is saying something considering she spent most of her life in the Coln district, working in the underground where your 'popularity' is practically determined by how ruthless and cruel you are. She often experienced the fear of death and pain but that was one thing…

He however had the ability to make you literally wish for death. It is easy to guess how horrifying that is. Making your own thoughts rebel against you while your body refuses to listen to you…

"I guess I will trust you this time…"

She swallowed her saliva and muttered under her breath. Sweat appeared on her forehead and she was clearly scared of angering him further.

Funnily enough for Arthur who stayed mostly silent during the entire exchange everything seemed a tad different from what it actually was.

'That's strange…'

Arthur glanced left and right. His face filled with confusion.

'Amon just stared at her blankly and now she seems so embarrassed'

He looked closer at him and suddenly nodded repeatedly in realisation.

'They seem to like each other!'

Amon's face suddenly turned to a state of complete shock and then disgust.

"You know I can hear your thoughts, right?"