AUTHOR'S REINCARNATION IN A FANTASY SETTING

"What I want is the truth. The truth about Challes," he declared as he fiddled and played with the transaction card he had in his hands.

"What do you want to know about him?" I appealed, my face expressionless as I took hold of all my feelings and locked them aside.

"Is he a dead man now?" he began, firing his first question.

I stopped and thought for a while, then with a pause I said. "... He is."

His gaze dropped, and he no longer played with the card, instead, he let out a breath. It wasn't a breath of despair, nor disappointment or regret. He seemed like he expected this to happen but was not sure that it would all go as he suspected, but now that it did, he was just surprised. That's all.

"Did you kill him?" he asked, raising his eyes and casting his gaze at me.

"What if I did?"

"Well, that would be quite amusing."

"Sorry to disappoint you then. I didn't kill him," I stated. There was no lie in this. If you looked at all the events that occurred in the labyrinth, technically I wasn't the one who killed Challes. Yeah, I was responsible for it, but not the reason.

I was the one to command him to go and pull the Requiem sword despite knowing that it would burn him, yet I was not the one who burned him. He went there with his legs, made the decision with his mind, and pulled out the sword with his own hands.

"I see. So you didn't kill him, huh?"

"That's what I just said. Why are you repeating it?"

"Oh? No, it's not like that. I was just…wondering."

"Wondering?"

"Yeah. Wondering that…if you didn't kill him, then what did."

"How can you be so sure that it was a 'what' and not 'who'?"

"Because that can't happen, it isn't possible. Even if he was not the strongest, Challes was still a professor at the academy. You don't get that title until you've got something in you. Considering that no major news came out regarding a big fight, he was either killed by something that he couldn't fight or was taken out by a trap," Ryfin explained, and he presented his point of view on the situation.

"That's some logic you've got there. But you see, there's a flaw in that. He was hurt badly after his fight with Leon, and he even self-destructed the room, which too gave him some pretty bad wounds. Maybe he was not as invincible as you say due to the condition he was in…making him an easy target," I asserted.

"Hmm, that is also a possibility, and an interesting thesis too. However, Mr. Zero Blanks. I would prefer it if you answered my questions instead of playing around with words. Because if you think I'll end up tangled in your words and forget about what I originally asked, then you are as wrong as a student could be."

"I've been caught, huh? But I'd like to throw your own words back at your face: What's the harm in trying?" I forced my words in a not-so-pleasant tone.

A little, sinister smile appeared on his face as he repeated. "What killed him?"

"Something that was not me," I said bluntly.

He stared at me with irritation visible in his eyes. I glared back.

"What? So said I have to answer your question and you will only take the truth. I ain't lying when I say he was killed by something that was not me…you never said I'll have to tell everything in detail."

I saw the hint of irritation flicker as he clicked his tongue. Honestly, this was just another cheap trick on my side. Right now he had my transaction card and that means he possessed the power to make me talk until he was satisfied with it.

I was not expecting anything but giving him vague answers. However, he did not go that way and restrained himself. I didn't know the reason, but it doesn't matter. If this cheap trick of mine worked, then all the good for me.

"Was he able to put up a fight before he died?" The second question came.

"No," I replied. I, of course, wasn't going to leave him unsatisfied with all the answers. If I had to somehow keep the situation in my favor—doesn't matter how much—then I had to maintain the balance on how much I tell him. I'd to tell him the truth, but just the amount he needed to know to not feel like he was playing.

"I see, so that's how it is," he mumbled to himself. "Now, here's the last question I have for you."

"I will be glad to hear that."

"Do I need to care about his body being found? Because if so, then it's a huge pain in the ass. I have things to do, I can't go looking around for a dead body if possible."

"You need not worry, it has been disposed of. Not a single soul in this world can find that there once existed a man called Challes," I clarified.

"Hmm...that's good."

He sat there for a while—a minute or two probably—before he rose to his feet with a satisfied smile on his face. It wasn't a big smile or one you make when you're happy, but rather the tiny little wave of relief that washes over your face once you've completed a task.

He stared at my transaction card for a while, holding it between his thumb and index finger. For a second I thought that he would not give it back. What reason did he have to give it back to me? With the card in his grasp, he had a surefire way to blackmail me, since he knows things about me, I don't want anyone else to know—thanks to my stupidity in the entrance exam.

With the transaction card and the statement of the staff member who found it, he has the proof to expose me. He had all the reason in the world to not give it back, however, he did nothing of sorts.

"Here, it is yours," he said, tossing the card in my direction.

I stretched out my dominant hand and caught the card, then put it on the bed near myself.

I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't confused. What he did just now defied common logic, and whenever something like that happened I was never able to understand it.

"Wait!" I called just in time before he left the room. "I too, have some questions to ask."

_{𝑓r𝘦𝘦𝘄eb𝒏𝙤vel.c𝙤𝙢}

He turned in my direction, "Well, well. What those might be, I wonder?"

"Back when Challes was carrying me out of the academy through the gates, you were there. You saw him, and fought him, trying to stop him. From what I observed, you would've been able to capture him if the fight went on for a while longer. But then you saw that I was awake and conscious, I gave you a signal, and you stopped. Why?

"Why didn't you capture then and there? It should've been your duty as a professor at the academy. Yet you cast it aside just because the student who was being kidnapped looked like he wanted to be kidnapped."

"You've got a good one there," he mentioned as he turned completely toward me and folded his arms behind his back. "This is something to think about. I didn't stop Challes back then? Now, why did I do that? ...piques your curiosity, doesn't it?"

"I can't say I disagree," I acknowledged.

"Right? I know. And there you go, you have your answer."

"I'm sorry, what?!" the words flowed out on their own; while I didn't let my expression slip, it still doesn't change the fact that I was taken aback by his sudden and abrupt response.

"Just what I said. I let him go because it piqued my curiosity. I mean, who wouldn't be interested to know what a student is doing, letting himself be kidnapped while he can ask for help, however far from that he is signaling the man who is trying to save him and indicating: don't save me and get outta here.

"I can't say for others, but I was interested in knowing that. And since I already knew some compelling things about you, I didn't see any reason not to let Challes take you," he elaborated as if reading an essay.

'Dang, that's madness!' were the only words that came to my mind. Though I didn't say them out aloud.