Austin looked at Catherine her eyes widened as did her mouth as she watched the impossible scene of Marlene crying out, her tears wearing Austin's shirt,
"I-I have never seen Marlene cry before....."
The words unconsciously left Catherine's mouth, causing Austin to speak back at her,
"Well you are not all too well yourself"
His words prompted her to move her focus to him, her eyes gazing into those beautiful purple gem-like eyes but what she saw in them was pain, a type of pain that seemed similar to her.
Catherine's understanding of Austin was that he was a very dangerous individual, she could from what she saw tell that he wasn't someone that was moved by beauty nor was he just any aristocratic idiot, not from what he had shown and done, his true strength too was a mystery and from what Marleen spoke now, his strength wasn't something to neglect.
Overall the person called Auction Lionheart was a bundle of mystery to her and she had put him on her list of extremely dangerous individuals, he always has a smile or a calm look at him, making him look as if everything was under his control and it was the first time she had seen such a look of weakness from him,
"Why? why help us?"
Catherine asked, she couldn't understand why he was risking a lot for some people he doesn't have much connection with, it was far too suspicious in her mind, plus the coincidence of Austin meeting Marlene at the right time seemed far too coincidental, this wasn't a fairy tail where the prince would arrive just at the nick of time, everything had a reason and a reason has greed behind it, Catherine knows that the best,
"Why?...that's an easy yet hard question to answer....."
Austin replied with a weak sigh as he leaned his body back into the wall of where they were, on both his sides world toppling beauties yet his eyes now only contained pain,
"Catherine, I presume without me giving an answer you wouldn't trust me at all?"
Austin asked to which Catherine nodded her head, she comes to understand something more about the person in front of her,
'We are the same'
She understood that now, ever since she met him she felt as if he was similar to her and now she was sure, they both are controlling of their enemies but she has yet to see any logical point of advantage for his help,
"What do you know about my life?"
Austin asked to which Catherine turned silent, all she knew about him are superficially and definitely not something that he was asking for, a painful laugh left Austin's mouth as he spoke,
"You should know that my father died protecting me, right?"
His words led Catherine to nod her head,
"My life wasn't all that great, you know, at a young age I knew how weak I was and it didn't help that my father had to die protecting me because I am weak"
His words brought a silence to the surroundings as Catherine listened with utmost focus on his story somehow making her heart beat faster as it seemed to resonate with her,
"A rich broken family with vultures lurking around to rip it apart and an Emperor paranoid with his position that he holds too dear, I was alienated in my family, it was dark and lonely, which gave birth to a desire in me"
Stopping here Austin looked towards Catherine his eyes peering into hers as he questioned,
"Catherine, tell me, how would it feel when everyone in the world only has the same face to show you? do you understand the pain?"
"I do....."
Unconsciously Catherine answered her eyes fixed on him as they both gazed at each other, a sense of connection forming between them, Austin's eyes widened for a moment before an understanding smile came to his face,
"I see.....you went through it also, didn't you?"
"I did"
She agreed with him, her heart beating faster while her mind seemed to connect with him,
'The poisons doing its job'
While Austin looked sad his thought was another, if Catherine was in her top condition none of the talks he does would work, what kind of super strong connection forms between acquaintances from just words of similarity? at most you would feel that the person is not bad, not a full-blown emotional connection.
Catherine didn't have a point of breaking yet, the reason for Marlene's breaking point was because she was itching close to it before, the problems in her life, her insecurities, and many more along with her current weakness that was bringing her down the gates of her mentality resulted in her breaking down but that wouldn't work with Catherine, she was much more cautious and prune,
'The poison of Valhain'
[
Poison: Valhain's Cree Of Jia
Description: A unique and deadly poison created by the one named the King of poisons, it was created under the desire of breaking and control, a creation that Valhain was so appalled that he destroyed any evidence of its existence, hoping that none may get its hand on it.
Uses: If one was to get afflicted by this poison, they would die in a week.
-->The one inflicted by this poison will slowly start to lose the feeling in the body, making them paralyzed, the poison would work on any being within the Origin realm.
-->If the one inflicted by this poison takes in the blood of another, then the one inflicted by the poison without their knowledge would be extremely trusting of that person till their death, they would open up about themselves and till their death feel extremely close and happy with the person whose blood they have ingested.
-->As days pass the trust of the person will only keep increasing until it will reach a stage where they would even keep their safety of themselves onto the person whose blood they have ingested. Any and all words coming out of the mouth of the one who gave their blood would be extremely appealing and truthful to the person affected by the poison.
cost:1,000,000
]
'Damn I can still feel the pain'
The price of the poison was too much but its effects couldn't be ignored, the only downside being its ending which is a steep price for the one taking the poison will die, it was a very contradictory poison,
'It's good she drank the water without any doubts'
Austin thought, if Catherine was to look into the bottle deeply she would have seen a small red dot mixed with the water she drank but due to her extreme dehydration she drank without no question, thankfully Austin already has the antidote to cure her, the problem being that once she's cured she will no longer have that extreme trust that she has now.
Austin wasn't stupid to use an unknown poison without knowing more about it, he had already tested the poison on some 'lab rats', the good thing was that even when the poison is removed a huge trust will remain still but that depended on the actions that were made during the poisoned period.
So all Austin has to do is to create a scenario of help such that even after the poison is gone Catherine's trust for him will be even higher than the trust she has on Marlene,
'A tough road indeed'
Austin mused as he saw the pained eyes within Catherine.
