BXBX NOVEL Chapter 89: Coming Up With A Plan
"The fact that Sir Astaroth might be planning to doom you all doesn\'t change that, does it?" Nolan\'s voice rang out through the silence.
"Your question is reasonable... because you don\'t know who Sir Astaroth truly is," Oliver responded, preparing to explain.
"Sir Astaroth is someone who has gone through all our past mission successes."
"He knows, like the back of his hand, how strong each of us is—or at least, he has a close estimate."
"If he wants to get rid of us and sends us on a mission, he is a hundred percent sure that there will be no way we could survive it."
"What he presented as a simple rift closing wouldn\'t be as simple as he made it sound," he said matter-of-factly, and Nolan\'s eyes flashed with understanding.
His point made sense.
The enemy was someone who knew their strengths well.
If he wanted them dead, he would be very sure that the mission he assigned to them would be more than enough to bring about their demise.
So, would the mission really be as simple as closing a runic gate? The answer was obvious.
Closing the runic gate might be nothing but a farce to conceal the real danger that lay hidden.
"Thankfully, we have something to our advantage, and we\'re not completely helpless," Oliver said, catching Nolan\'s attention.
"Firstly, Sir Astaroth doesn\'t know the true depth of our strength."
"Whatever amount of strength he thinks we possess, it\'s safe to imagine that our real strength is at least double what he estimates," Oliver explained, and suddenly, Nolan felt a couple of pricking gazes on him.
It was obvious they were now discussing their secrets, something they were confident in revealing only among themselves.
But now, there was an extra person in the room, and it was safe to say Nolan was an outsider.
"I have counted him as one of us, from now on," Oliver said to the others, noticing their gazes fixed on Nolan.
"He will know every secret that must be known for this mission to succeed."
"Getting divided right now is the last thing we would want to do."
"If we die, he dies too, and if he dies, our secret dies with him."
"Besides, I\'m pretty sure he\'s not dumb enough to run around revealing all our secrets."
"Isn\'t that right, Nolan?" Oliver asked, directing his words at Nolan.
"If you reveal our secrets to anyone, we won\'t even have to do anything."
"The Academy itself will be the one to eliminate you out of existence."
"If you\'ve spent three years being the academy\'s trash, I expect you to know a few ins and outs of the Academy and be smarter than you look," Oliver said, and Nolan\'s eyes narrowed as he quickly came to terms with what he meant.
The Godly Ten were a group of prodigies that the Academy itself had decided to personally nurture.
They were like the Academy\'s future secret weapons.
If Nolan dared to reveal their secrets, it would be equivalent to him revealing the secrets of one of the Academy\'s hidden cards.
In such a scenario, would the Godly Ten even need to move away from their seats?
No!
It would be the Academy that would come to eliminate him, and it was absolutely reasonable, as they would definitely fight hard to keep their secret weapons concealed.
If that meant someone like him disappearing, they had a thousand ways to ensure that.
In short, whether he knew their secrets or not, he couldn\'t reveal anything about them for fear of the Academy coming for his neck.
He simply didn\'t matter enough...
"Understood? Let\'s proceed with the plan," Oliver continued, and the meeting went on for close to six hours straight, with Nolan remaining silent throughout.
He made no further comments, nor did they ask him for any. It was as if his opinions didn\'t matter at all, or as if he didn\'t even exist.
It was hurtful, but Nolan wasn\'t young.
To him, they were like a group of rich young kids who held utmost importance to themselves, believing that the poor one among them would be useless during the mission.
Still, it would be weird if the mightiest prodigies of the entire Academy treated the Academy\'s trash like an equal.
So Nolan was fine with it.
Besides, from the way they discussed their plan, it was clear to Nolan that they were very good at working together.
The way they meticulously discussed their plan made it better for Nolan to leave the planning to them.
And since he promised he would be of use in the mission, he would simply follow the plan and help with what little was allowed to him.
He didn\'t mind being a side character in this mission.
"Of course, there are always parts of the plan that won\'t work well, so we all need to be ready to adapt to any sort of situation, making sure it fits in as much as possible," Oliver said to the group.
To Nolan, he seemed like the brain of the entire group. He was incredibly smart and fluid with his words.
It was the first time Nolan was seeing a true Odin descendant in motion, and he was nothing short of amazed.
"That said, this is all but a plan that is put in place, to simply set up the boundary of our actions..."
"There is always the possibility of a change and in such a situation, you can expect somethings from the plan to change a bit...." Oliver called and they all nodded their head.
It wasn\'t their first time going on quests and also wasn\'t their first time creating a plan.
Irrespective of the times, there is always a possibility of a sudden change so they all had to be careful and willing to change the plans at the last second.