Chapter 407: The Root Cause...

"What?!" President Cain reeled back a step.

"Shhhh, sir, please calm down," Brandon whispered, gesturing towards the closed door of the hospital room Seth resided in.

"B-but that can’t be..." he voiced in a lower tone, shaking his head.

For the first time, the four were witnessing the president losing composure.

But they didn’t think much of it, if anything his reaction made sense to them.

After all, this was Seth Duskreaver they were talking about.

One of, if not the best soldier the president could mobilize.

With the boundless benefit the guy had brought to the country, not reacting as such would be suspicious.

Meanwhile, contrary to what they thought, while the president was shaken it was due to a greater reason.

’But that can’t be, he has the Origin Soul! He has an immense concentration of fortune-’ his thought process suddenly came to a skidding halt.

As a thought dawned, he turned to Trisha standing silently by his side.

The blind prophetess had tagged along, as a mutual friend of Seth and Uriel it was only natural she came to greet them the moment they woke from their comatose state.

Trisha felt the president’s gaze and turned his way, her glossy, dull silver pupils locking onto him.

Almost as though she could read his thought process, Trisha nodded, "It’s her..."

Receiving the confirmation he didn’t expect to get, he sucked in a sharp breath, exclaiming.

"But he’s a sun! Her misfortune should bear no influence on him..."

Trisha shook her head, "Sadly, fortune and misfortune interact like water and dye, one can contaminate the other, while the other can only be contaminated."

Trisha sighed, pausing for a second, her listless gaze lifting upwards, "If only I had seen this ahead-"

The president cut her off midway, shaking his head, "Don’t you dare blame yourself, sigh... the poor lad, how do we get him out of this mess..."

From the side, the four glanced among each other, confused, at the interaction between the president and Trisha.

Feeling the questioning gazes boring into his side, the president exhaled heavily once more while Trisha caught the cue and explained the issue to the others.

Giving them details about her sudden vision about the dark moon.

Explaining the identity behind it, and who held said identity.

Uriel’s fists clenched, "So it was all that bitch’s fault!" he cursed, holding the image of Zoan in his head.

A knot of regret tightened in his gut as he recalled the small windows of chance he had gotten when their group had met with Zoan’s crew.

If he had just slaughtered them all then and there, Seth wouldn’t have had to take a separate route from them.

They would have stuck to the initial plan, moving together with Seth as the lead vanguard.

And at least that way maybe Seth wouldn’t have had to befall such a fate.

The president seemed able to see through thoughts, he glanced at Uriel and shook his head, "There’s no need to mull over spilled milk, what’s done is done... we should be focusing on helping Seth find a way out of this..."

He frowned, thinking of something, then walked towards the doctor’s office, "Give me a minute, I have to send the others away, we can’t let too many see him in such a state, or word might spread."

Everyone sighed, and nodded...

Seth had enemies, even if he didn’t actively attempt to make any.

The Ironbloods had to be on this list, even though no one actually believed those guys would go as far as to try anything funny.

It was still best to keep things under wraps for now, at least until they found a viable path to get him out of this mess.

The five remained restless, unable to be at peace, pacing to and fro in front of his room in worry.

Fortunately they didn’t have to wait for long, ears perking up at once, everyone sensed movement and all came to a sudden halt.

Everyone glanced at one another, and before anyone could rush towards the door Trisha spoke up.

"It would be best if we go one after another, we don’t want to overwhelm him, his state is fragile so we have to be gentle."

The others felt this made sense, and Brandon walked towards the door.

"Then I’ll head in first." Before anyone could object, the door was already swung open, his frame stepping in and closing the door behind him.

The rest, now at peace since Seth was awake and his breathing pattern seemed stable, could finally take a seat in the waiting room.

They all understood the closest to Seth among them had to be Brandon.

After all, from the start of all this, the two had long partnered up and the others had only joined the team after that.

If anyone could be more worried aside from Kylie, it would be Brandon, who viewed Seth as a brother.

...

Closing the door behind him Brandon stared at Seth who was sitting up on the bed, his eyes still glued to his hands.

Brandon could practically feel the current fragility of his friend’s mental state.

He could understand, he couldn’t imagine waking up only to find out that he had lost something so important.

He sighed and took a seat by the side, fetching an apple from the stack of fruit baskets nearby.

He was about to apply essence in peeling the fruit, but he suddenly paused, wouldn’t that be flaunting a power Seth seemed to have lost right in his face?

His eyes roamed the room, but he didn’t locate a knife he could use as a substitute, alas he could only summon a royal grade short dagger, wielding it to peel the apple.

If evolvers from the origin realm were here to witness this sight, some might have puked blood from envy.

Using a treasure most would come in contact with throughout the course of their lives to peel a fruit.

And an ordinary tier 0 fruit at that!

The room remained in tacit silence, Brandon did not speak, he didn’t know what to say, he had never experienced such a thing before.

So the best he could do was to be there for his big bro at the very least.

’I’ll have to find a way to get word to Kylie after this...’ he thought.

"How are you holding up? I heard you were also..." Seth asked, his voice startling Brandon who didn’t expect him to speak.

Brandon looked up, meeting Seth’s clear gaze, within which he could see the weakness Seth was trying to hide.

But he said nothing, treading tactfully and carefully, and replied with a smile.

"Hehe, I’m kicking, aren’t I? I’m fine, big bro."

Seth nodded, wearing a slight smile, and sighed, relaxing backwards as he scanned the room.

"Where are the others? I could have sworn I saw them a moment ago," Seth asked.

Brandon rose, placing the plate of neatly sliced, peeled apples before Seth. "Well, they are all outside, we didn’t want to crowd the room so..."

Seth smiled and nodded, understanding, he didn’t try to insist that they come in, even though he wasn’t sure he would be okay with that...

And like that the two sat and conversed, Brandon giving Seth the narration of the events that occurred after their blackout.

Naturally Brandon hadn’t witnessed it all himself, but as always he did a good job narrating and lifting the mood.

Time came and he left, then one by one, each and every one of his friends stepped in after the other, each tactfully avoiding any topic related to Seth’s condition.

An hour or two passed and Seth was finally brought up to speed.

From Dorian’s sacrificial death to the current state of war affairs, he was updated on it all...

Seth’s jaw tightened, still pondering on Dorian’s death, "I see a lot happened while I was asleep..."