The Insider System

Chapter 306: Persistent Suspicions

"Not as many as you would think, only two were detected." Donny was a bit surprised by Keel's words but like Keel said that was how many were detected. There could be a lot more depending on the people who were checking and what they could see when they looked at people.

"So everyone's in?" Keel just nodded and took a seat next to him. Seeing Keel really didn't have anything to say Donny pointed at the guy behind him and said. "My friend here was just telling me about what happened while we were gone." Like the guy had known he wanted him to tell Keel exactly what he had told him, he leaned forward and introduced himself before going back into what he had said about the fight on the stage.

"Hello I'm Himlin, I was just telling Donny here about the fight that took place on stage between the people close to Rigbis and how no one really saw how it went." It didn't take much for Keel to get the gist of what they were trying to say without actually saying it. "Well it seemed to go well enough."

As Keel was saying this Donny could tell he was trying to get a good look at Rigbis which was exactly what he had done after his suspicions had been reignited. After a while Keel looked away from Rigbis and gave him a look. Doing his best to read Keel's face Donny could tell he was as uncertain as well.

The three of them settled into a silence after this and none of them said anything until finally a few minutes after Keel had first come into the room the people on the stage started to move. Seeing this as his first real chance to see Rigbis, Donny scanned every inch of the man's body. This didn't tell him anything because Rigbis looked and acted exactly like someone who had been gravely injured a few days ago.

Even if they had potions or a healer there was nothing you could do for some types of injuries with normal means and since the person who had tried to kill him had been a Demon Worshiper he wouldn't be surprised if there had been poison or a death curse involved. Either of those things could make the recovery almost impossible no matter how many potions you downed.

"Alright now that everyone is back together in one place I wanted to get down to what we had planned for the deadline we were told for when the barrier will be coming down." This was what he had assumed this would be about but he would have preferred if Rigbis opened with saying the barrier had already come down.

This wasn't him criticizing Rigbis though since it wasn't up to Rigbis when it fell and there probably wasn't a way for them to get news from outside anymore so they wouldn't know when or if it came down. "I wanted to tell you we originally planned to stay in the fortress during the beginning of whatever chaos occurred when the barrier came down but with the fortress almost out of mana from using it to clear out the intruders we changed it."

Donny wished he could stop Rigbis there and have him explain what he meant by using the fortress to clear out the intruders but Rigbis had flown past it and was already telling them the new plan. "The new plan is to send out a scout every few hours until they bring back news of the barrier being gone. Once we get that news we'll head out using the last of the fortress' mana to protect our escape."

Donny took this chance to look around to see if anyone else looked confused. Seeing no faces that said they wanted to ask a question, Donny guessed his late arrival had made him miss out on some information about the fortress.

He had wanted to know where it had come from when he had first seen it but had answered his own question when he realized it was made of metal and this was the Metal Domain assuming it had been an emergency precaution built into the city that activated during attacks that breached the wall but now he wished he had asked someone.

It wasn't too late though and he would be able to ask Keel as soon as this meeting was over and everyone started to talk again. "This plan has some obvious flaws but we aren't any help to anyone hiding here waiting for the fortress to run out of mana." Rigbis seemed to be done talking at this point and backed off of the front of the stage back towards his entourage.

Not wasting a second Donny asked Keel. "What's so special about the fortress, can it move or something?" Keel seemed vaguely amused by his question and said. "Something like that." Donny could tell he wasn't going to get any real information from Keel if he just asked again so he thought about turning around and asking his new friend Himlin but found the thought to be vaguely embarrassing so he just stayed silent for a while.

Eventually this silence got to Keel and he said. "The fortress is something the Temple Handed off to Rigbis to hold people they didn't feel safe letting in. It's some type of golem that transformed into this fortress after walking here from the temple. I didn't know it could turn back or had its own mana supply so I'm as surprised as you that our plan is to use it to guard us on the way out of the city."

Getting the Information he wanted he asked. "Do you know what type of golem it is?" There were a few things that looked like golems that were actually tied to the God of Metal or one of his subordinate Demigods and if it was one of them he could see them getting out of the city no problem. "No idea."

It was too bad but Donny just decided to believe the Temple had sent them the best they could. Turning around to get Himlin's attention Donny asked. "Is there any food?" Donny knew this room wasn't the place people had been equating so it was unlikely there was a lot but he hadn't eaten in something like a day so he was starving.

The important stuff was done so it was time for things like food and going to the bathroom and he was pretty sure he could kind of smell both of those things. "Not much but if you head over there you'll be given a ration." Hearing Himlin's words Donny tapped Keel shoulder and asked. "Are you hungry?"

"I am, but I'm not sure what a ration will do about it." Realizing this was the second joke Keel had told in just a few minutes Donny realized just how much of a difference good news could make on a person. Keel had been upset since they had heard the news about the Temple but now he seemed happier than Donny had ever seen him.

"Well it's still better than nothing." As he was getting up Donny took a better look at the place he had been told to get his ration from. There was a bit of a line consisting mainly of people from their group but there also seemed to be some kind of hold up. Hoping that the food hadn't run out Donny walked over and joined the line with Keel before it got any longer.

Speaking to the person in front of him he asked. "So you know why it's taking so long?" As the person turned around they saw it was him and said. "Captain Donny, it's something with the amount being less than what was promised per ration."

"They're probably reducing it because there are now more people to feed with us here." The guy ahead of him started to nod to what he had just said before adding. "Probably but I don't think causing a problem will do anything about it."

That was for sure but he understood losing control if you were starving and were handed less food than you expected. If it hadn't been the person who was currently yelling the next in line would have probably complained in this fashion. Eventually the person handing out the food got tired of being yelled at and got mad themself before chasing the person away.

"Next please." Seeing the guy throw the food at the next person in line without even saying anything to them or giving them a chance to complain Donny was happy with this new system since it was much faster and he was in the back of the line. When it was his turn he caught his food and went back to where he had been sitting to eat it.

"We're about to open the barrier to let the scouts out." Hearing one of the people up on the stage yell that the first check was about to be done Donny looked at the group of scouts and watched them walk out of the barrier while he took the first of three bites of food. He couldn't help but think that they should go get more food before they headed outside.