The Present…

Cedric's POV

——

"What did you say?!"

Without taking his eyes off mine, Leon repeated himself in the same serious tone. "I want to join your party, Cedric."

I looked at him in stunned disbelief for a moment, then asked, "Why would someone like you want to join my party?"

"Because I like this party." Leon leaned back, returning to his usual jovial demeanor. "My bond saw you guys building this shelter yesterday. When she told me, I was just really happy that you'd finally arrived. I was like... I need to join these guys."

I arched a brow. "That's it?"

He nodded simply. "Yes."

At that moment, a vein popped in the side of my head. I rubbed my temples and sighed. "This motherfucker is messing with me."

"I'm not. I'm serious mate."

I palmed my face.

Any other party would have been overjoyed that someone like him had approached them to join. However, I wasn't exactly thrilled and felt the need to be skeptical.

Before crossing the veil, I had actually hoped I would wake up near Leon. I wanted to be close to him just to ensure my survival. But after crossing the veil, learning how to survive on my own and going through everything I've endured, like forming a party of my own and learning about the "strange people" and the antagonists they kept talking about, I'm not sure that depending on Leon is a really good idea anymore.

I've thought about it and concluded that MCs are nothing but trouble magnets. For all I know, he could even be one of the antagonists those people were talking about.

But that wasn't the real reason I was skeptical of him. The main issue was that he wasn't being completely honest with me. Despite his jovial attitude, I could tell the guy was a very cunning fellow.

Joining my party just because he likes it?

Does he think I'm stupid enough to believe that shit?

He rejected all the influential parties including Princess Aurora's party. So there must be a valid reason why he wants to join us that he is keeping from me.

He probably saw something with that ability of his.

What is it? What did he see?

The only thing people actually know about his All-Seeing Eye is that he can see the weaknesses of another person or monster, and that he can also see a bit of information about a specific place or object.

No one knows that he can actually see the future, the past, or whatever the fuck he wants to see, including thoughts. No one really knows just how powerful that eye truly is, except for me.

…I brought my hand down from my face and after a seconds of deep thought, I finally replied. "I can't let you join my party."

Leon smiled and nodded. "Thank you…" Then his eyes widened, "Wait… what?! Why?"

"Because you are not being completely honest with me."

Of course, I could definitely use that eye of his. There is a lot I don't know, especially with the future changing and all. But I'm not going to let him join my party if he is just going to hide things from me. If he is going to join us, I need him to be honest with me first. He shouldn't be the one using us; it should be the other way around.

A bead of sweat ran down Leon's face as he muttered, "Hehe… what makes you think I'm not completely honest with you."

At that moment, Ino, who was standing by my side with her arms crossed, finally spoke up. "If Cedric says you are not being honest, then you are not being honest. Cedric sees everything. He probably already knows everything about you."

I locked my fingers together, rested my chin on them, and spoke.

"If you want to join my party, you need to be honest with me. You can't lie to me. So, tell me the truth, Leon; what exactly have you seen with that eye of yours?"

Leon's jovial demeanor suddenly vanished, and a wary, questioning look crept across his face. His voice grew low and strained as he asked, "What do you know about my eye?"

I smiled. "Everything."

Leon swallowed hard. At that moment, the tattoo on his arm shone and then rippled as it shifted into Uriel in her human form. She looked just as pale as Leon and bit her lip as she stared at me, lost in her own thoughts.

After a few more seconds, she said, "For some reason that you probably know of, our eye doesn't work on you. We can't read your thoughts or know your heart. How can we trust you?"

I exhaled and replied, "You are the one who wants to join my party. Don't tell me you intended on joining without any trust?"

She was quiet for a moment. Eventually, she looked at Ino. "Can we be alone with Cedric?"

Ino looked over at me, and after I gave her a small nod, she nodded in return. She then turned and walked out of the shelter.

'By the way, where are the others?' I thought as I watched her exiting figure.

Uriel took a sit on one of the crates.

A few seconds of silence passed before Leon finally began.

"I have looked into my future." He paused, and a wry smile crossed his face. "It's grim, to be honest."

Uriel then spoke up. "Although we can't see you when we try to divine our future, we can see the rest of your party members. And in those futures, we see ourselves as part of this party."

Leon's tone grew even more serious. "But that isn't the only reason we decided to join. There are beings out there who want me gone, but I'm not the only one they are after. They also want another Dominant among us gone. I don't know who this Dominant is, and that's the problem. I should know. I'm supposed to know; that's my ability, after all. Weird, right?"

Uriel continued. "We thought about it. There is only one Dominant in this realm that we can't know anything about, and that Dominant is you. This leads us to believe that you are the other target."

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