BXBX NOVEL Chapter 88: Oliver's Suspicions
It was like two murderers wondering to themselves if they should tell the police man of their kill count or to report the heinous crimes that one of them had done since the far past.
It was nothing but a chilling experience...
"Don\'t worry about it. You will be different..." Gaia\'s voice rang out as Nolan looked warily at the two ladies.
In a way, he felt like he was looking at two hungry, psychopathic beasts, which prompted him to rise and move towards the far end of the seat before continuing his nap.
Fortunately, Gaia finally let him be, skipping to Celestia\'s side, and the two girls engaged in their endless gossip, finally giving Nolan some breathing space.
Time quickly passed, and exactly three hours later, the door to every room opened as all of them walked toward the living room.
Nolan\'s eyes immediately snapped open as he sat upright. It was finally time for their meeting.
With the seats arranged in a circular format, it enabled everyone to see each other clearly as they all sat down in a circle.
"The reason we called this meeting is simple: to review the plan for the mission. I believe everyone is here because they know and accept that they will be useful during the mission, right?" Oliver spoke up first as he turned his serious gaze to Nolan.
Of course, the godly ten already knew they would be actively participating in the mission, but whether Nolan would actively partake or remain on standby was still uncertain.
Such indecision, or having to force him to participate, might lead to headaches during the mission. This was something Oliver needed to clarify.
"I will do my best to ensure the mission succeeds," Nolan replied curtly, seeing the gazes on him, and made his tone clear once and for all.
"Good, then. I guess we\'re all on the same page. Let\'s dive in..."
"According to my observations, before and after we boarded the ship, I can confidently say we\'re being sent to a sure death-hole by none other than Sir Astaroth," Oliver stated matter-of-factly, and everyone unconsciously turned their utmost attention to him.
"What do you mean by that?" Abuela asked, and Oliver proceeded to explain.
"My reasoning is simple. The first suspicious thing about this mission is that we needed a total of eleven people instead of ten." Oliver said, as Nolan\'s eyebrows furrowed.
"We, the godly ten, have gone on different missions now—a total of nine to be exact—and in every one of them, we\'ve been successful."
"Not once has the academy ever tried to separate us or add someone to our group. We were always the godly ten, going in and out on every mission, exactly ten."
"This is the first mission where we\'ve been given an extra person to join, supposedly to make things easier. And it\'s safe to say, the academy isn\'t the one pushing for this mission. It\'s Sir Astaroth himself..." Oliver pointed out his first observation, and while it had the other godly ten narrowing their eyes, Nolan wasn\'t entirely convinced.
"Secondly, there\'s the design of this Aethercraft."
"It has exactly eleven rooms. According to what we were told by Sir Astaroth, the decision to add one more person was a last-minute decision, a random and amusing one that we all decided not to mind."
"But then, according to the data I\'ve picked up from the Aethercraft, this ship has been en route to Atlantis for exactly three days, and it\'s the only one that has been sent. It contains eleven seats."
"All the Aethercrafts we\'ve normally taken always have ten rooms. This has never changed, not even once."
"Yet here we are in an eleven-room Aethercraft."
"This means that this Aethercraft having eleven rooms is no mistake, and that the decision to add one more person to our number wasn\'t something that was made at the last minute."
"This event has been properly planned by someone from the moment this Aethercraft began its journey, which was exactly three days ago!"
"Sir Astaroth made adding him to our group seem like a subject of amusement, one we wouldn\'t pay much attention to, but this is a plan he\'s been brewing since three days ago..."
"My gut feeling is that he plans for us all to meet our end in this mission, and when the academy blames him for sending us on such a dangerous mission without any backup, he can claim that he foresaw this and asked for one more person to join us. But who would have thought that even with eleven of us, the mission would still fail?"
"Judging by the academy\'s codes and Sir Astaroth\'s reputation, the academy would be more than willing to forgive him for his actions, and our deaths would be nothing but a \'sad, unforeseen, and unfortunate event.\'"
"That is my most likely guess as to why he would do this to us." Oliver said calmly, and the godly ten had their eyes narrowing dangerously.
Truly, every single thing he said made sense, and their being eleven this time is really suspicious.
The fact that the Aethercraft just happens to have eleven rooms seems even more suspicious.
As Oliver said, Sir Astaroth is a high-profile person in the academy.
If he were to inform the academy that he had done all he could to ensure our survival by asking for one more person to join them
The academy wouldn\'t choose to sacrifice him after losing a couple of prodigies, and in the end, they would reluctantly accept it, allowing him to escape with just a pat on the back.
It was something absolutely reasonable.
"So my guess is that this mission should be deemed close to impossible to complete..."