Chapter 361 - Interrogation (3)

In some ways, it was like a mystery-novel cliché. All the circumstantial evidence pointed to the culprit, but the crucial physical evidence was missing.

That was exactly the position I was in.

'What kind of fucking gift is this?!'

It might have been different before she became convinced I was an evil spirit. But in this situation, I needed solid evidence to prove my innocence. As things stood, this would only make me look more suspicious.

Like so.

“Repeat after me. I am a woman.”

That was what Raven asked me to do after Broken Trust started behaving strangely.

Her objective was clear. She didn't know why Broken Trust stopped or how it worked, but she intended to find out by experimenting under different conditions.

Which left me with just one best course of action.

“I am...! Urgh, my voice...! It seems I can't get the words out because it's a lie—”

“Stop fooling around!!”

Uh... I wasn't fooling around. I'd genuinely been trying something.

So I couldn't get out of this that way, huh?

“Never mind. Just say anything, then.”

“... I really am not an evil spirit. Believe me, Raven.”

When I repeated the same words, the hour hand stopped again. This time, however, Raven seized that brief instant and quickly spoke.

“I am a man. What... It really works?”

Right. When it stopped working, everyone else became immune to it too, not just me.

One more thing learned.

Damn it.

TICK, TOCK.

But once the hand on the disk started moving again, it resumed functioning normally.

“I am a man... Hmm, now I can't say it again?”

“...”

“You did something, didn't you, Mr. Jandel?”

Why was she taking it for granted that I was to blame?

Well, I was the cause, but...

This was one thing I had to deny to the bitter end.

“Th-that's unfair! You're the one who brought a defective item! Why are you taking it out on me?!”

“Defective? Is it normal for it to do this whenever you open your mouth, Mr. Jandel?”

That certainly was suspicious. If I were Raven, I would have stuck to that position too.

But that didn't mean I could admit it, did it?

I raised my voice.

“I didn't do anything!! Really! Believe me!!”

Since Broken Trust couldn't distinguish lies anymore, that ultimately meant whoever shouted loudest was more likely to win the argument—

“... You're being loud. Please just shut up.”

Why the stony face...?

It was scary.

“...”

I clamped my mouth shut without thinking, and Raven fell silent for a moment too, lost in thought.

Then...

“... Tell me.”

“Huh?”

“You were about to say something earlier. Go ahead.”

“Oh...”

In a way, it was like the dawn of time, before magic or science existed. Back when conversation alone was enough to learn to trust someone.

Ah, what a warmhearted world.

“What do you mean, you came back? What on earth were you doing before that?”

“I'll tell you everything.”

I then explained, in chronological order, what had happened after the two of us were left alone on Parune Island. How we had eventually defeated Stormgush together. How it had dropped an Essence.

“Then when you pulled the Lighthouse Keeper toward you earlier...”

“Yes. I used it in combination with Bayon's [Transcendence].”

“Then that much must be true. Go on.”

Before moving on to the next event, I also told her about the Stone Fragment of Records, the treasure that had belonged to Noark's lord. Surprisingly, Raven accepted that readily.

“I've heard of it. Though I never imagined that was the treasure Draus ran off with. Anyway, there's a legend that it can change history, isn't there?”

“It wasn't a legend. It was true. Well, changing history proved impossible.”

“...?”

“You'll understand once you hear the rest.”

I told her how the Stone Fragment of Records had activated, and how we had awoken in the world twenty years in the past.

“... I think that's absurd, but if, by some remote chance, it really happened, that would explain why only your equipment remained on the island.”

As the story progressed, she seemed to grow increasingly doubtful, but she didn't interrupt, apparently intending to hear my full account before passing judgment.

Then...

“Nivels... Enche?”

When I explained how we'd killed the plunderers we encountered on the island and borrowed the identity of Nivels Enche from the spoils, Raven tilted her head.

'Oh, does she actually remember what happened back then?'

For a moment, my hopes rose, but reality was reality.

“... That name sounds familiar for some reason.”

Well, she'd been about five at the time. How could she remember even the name?

'Okay, next up...'

It was Dwalki's turn to enter the story.

I went on to explain how I'd tried to change his fate, only to realize that history flowed in its original direction no matter what I did.

“Everything I did had already happened in the original timeline.”

“Time has been a subject of study since antiquity. That's the single-dimensional timeline theory.”

“...?”

“No, never mind. Please continue.”

“All right.”

I then took the time to explain in detail how we'd descended to Noark, spent six months there, and tried to save Amelia's older sister.

Oh, of course, I left out everything related to evil spirits.

And then...

“When I returned, I was in Noark. That was a month ago. Since then, I've met up with Amelia and Erwin, and Erwin believed my story.”

“And you didn't reveal your identity right away because you found the royal family's proclamation suspicious... Is that right?”

“Yes. Though I don't know whether you'll believe me.”

I'd now said everything I needed to say. What judgment would Raven make?

As I watched her, half hopeful and half anxious, she spoke bluntly.

“It's a fanciful tale of the sort children would enjoy.”

I'd expected that reaction to some extent. She wasn't an ordinary person, but a mage. The more she knew, the more absurd my story must have sounded.

But...

“Do you have any evidence that this is true?”

I'd prepared for that very question.

Why did she think I hadn't mentioned meeting her yet?

These things always worked better when saved for a more dramatic moment.

“Evidence... Of course I have some.”

“...?”

“You said the name Nivels Enche sounded familiar, didn't you?”

“What about it?”

“Of course it would. You and I already met once, twenty years ago.”

“...?”

Watching Raven's confusion, I described what had happened back then in detail. Our first meeting at the library. How I'd saved her from nearly getting a brutal lesson for zapping people indiscriminately. And how we'd met at the same time every day after that to talk about all sorts of things.

“That man... was you, Mr. Jandel...?”

Before long, Raven's eyes filled with shock.

“It seems you finally remember who Nivels Enche was.”

What a relief. She might have forgotten the name, but not the memories themselves.

* * *

Raven said nothing for a while. She simply stared at me, her eyes full of confusion.

“Impossible... How could something like that...”

“I understand how you feel. But it really happened. You remember our conversations too, don't you?”

“Vaguely. Just that there was someone like that... I was so busy after I entered the Magic Tower. And 'that incident' happened not long afterward...”

“... What incident?”

Raven flinched at my question, then snapped coldly,

“That's none of your business, Mr. Jandel.”

Heh. After I'd doted on her so much as a child, how had she grown up like this?

Oh, had she actually been ruder back then?

At least she spoke politely now...

“Anyway, are you willing to believe me now?”

Raven pressed her lips together without answering my question.

And...

TICK, TOCK.

As the silence stretched on, the sound of the disk's moving hand seemed unusually loud.

Looking at it, there were less than two minutes left. After all, though it stopped whenever I spoke, I hadn't kept talking without a second's pause.

TICK, TOCK.

As time continued to slip pointlessly by, she spoke.

“What I want to believe doesn't matter.”

“...?”

“Amelia Reinweils, you answer. Is everything he just told me true?”

Raven turned her gaze to Amelia. Perhaps she'd been so absorbed in my story that only now had she thought of verifying it through someone else.

And...

TICK, TOCK.

Despite Broken Trust functioning normally, Amelia had no trouble answering.

“Everything Jandel said is true.”

Yes. I'd left out a few truths, but the experiences themselves were facts.

“Jandel and I traveled twenty years into the past, and everything we experienced there actually happened.”

That was the clincher. However hard the story was to believe, surely she had no choice now.

'Okay, I think that should have convinced her...'

Just as I let my guard down a little, Raven forced out the words.

“But... That... doesn't prove you aren't an evil spirit, Mr. Jandel...”

“... Huh?”

I couldn't understand it. Why? Wasn't that a convincing enough story? Why was she still pursuing this so relentlessly?

'Could she... have another reason to suspect I'm an evil spirit, besides the royal family's proclamation...?'

The possibility suddenly occurred to me, and my mouth went dry.

“Amelia Reinweils.”

“...”

“I have one last question.”

“... Ask.”

Amelia nodded, and after a short pause Raven spoke. She seemed to hesitate briefly, but her voice was clear and firm.

“If you have even the slightest doubt, or don't know for certain, please say you don't know.”

“...”

“Is Bjorn Jandel an evil spirit?”

Fuck.

* * *

Amelia didn't answer Raven's question.

No, more precisely, she couldn't.

What else could she do? She couldn't even lie in front of that damned Numbered item. Silence was her only option.

“...”

A heavy silence settled over us.

And within it...

TICK, TOCK, TICK.

The disk's hand continued its audible movement.

But not for long.

TICK.

The hand completed its circuit and stopped, and the light rising from the disk faded away. Broken Trust's duration had expired.

Yet...

“...”

“...”

The suffocating atmosphere remained.

Because sometimes that happened. Sometimes a brief silence was a clearer answer than ten thousand words.

“... Whatever I say now would be meaningless.”

Amelia finally murmured those words, but Raven showed no sign of speaking. Nor did she reactivate Broken Trust and repeat the same question.

I didn't ask, but it couldn't have been because she'd run out of uses.

“Raven...”

“Enough. Please don't say anything. At least... not right now...”

“...”

Raven stood before the bars and looked at me for a long time. She seemed to be quietly sorting through her thoughts.

But perhaps she still couldn't make sense of them.

“... I'm the deputy commander of the Third Magic Corps. I take pride in that role, and I feel responsible for it. I have no intention of abandoning the duties of my position.”

Suddenly, Raven began muttering to herself.

“So I have to report this. Beyond betraying my country, not doing so would mean betraying and deceiving the people who trust and follow me...”

It wasn't hard to tell whom she was addressing as her voice echoed through the dark interior of the ship. Not me, Amelia, or Erwin.

“I-I...”

Herself.

“I can't do something like that. No, I can't...”

Muttering as though trying to untangle the knots in her head, Raven clenched her two small fists. Then she turned her back and headed for the stairs.

Her footsteps trudged on.

From behind, she looked almost unsteady.

“Jandel, if we let her go like this, we'll have a serious problem.”

Amelia offered some advice beside me, but I didn't hear it.

Of course, I understood intellectually. If Raven left now, she'd return with troops.

But...

I ground my teeth.

What could I say to stop her? A companion who'd wanted to believe me had finally learned the truth, turned away, and was leaving.

THUMP.

My heart tightened.

At the same time, a thought occurred to me. If I weren't an evil spirit, if I'd simply been born in Bjorn Jandel's body, met these people, and become their companion...

What would have happened then?

'... What bullshit. We'd never have become companions in the first place.'

I forced those meaningless imaginings away, along with my guilt toward Raven.

That wasn't what I needed to think about now.

'So there's no choice but to go with Plan B after all.'

Now that things had taken the worst possible turn, I had to forget my standing and focus on getting out alive. My life wasn't the only one at stake. I was responsible for Amelia and Erwin too.

So...

Once the troops arrived and the cage door opened, I'd block the way with [Gigantification] to buy time. Then, instead of heading for the deck, we'd smash through the floor and escape into the lake below. We'd use a water spirit to handle breathing...

'And after that...'

As I went over Plan B one final time...

TAP.

Raven stopped on her way to the stairs, then slowly turned back.

And...

“Earlier... why did you save me...?”

She looked straight at me as she asked, as though this was the one thing she couldn't understand.

“... If you hadn't used [Gigantification], I wouldn't have discovered your identity. Why... did you save me anyway? Even getting... hurt like that.”

'Right. So that's what you wanted to know.'

I could understand why she was asking, but it only deepened the bitterness I felt. The old Raven wouldn't have needed to ask that question.

Yet she was asking now because...

'I'm an evil spirit.'

Because I was an evil spirit, every sincere feeling I'd ever shown was called into question, and our time together was denied.

'Lee Baekho must have felt like this too.'

The emotions he must once have felt seeped through my entire body, painfully, to the bone.

The walls around her heart had closed tight, as though none of it had ever happened. Doubt rose within me: whatever I said would be meaningless.

But...

“Yes. There was a reason.”

Even so, I spoke.

“... I see. So there really was something else—”

Even if I looked like a monster that stole people's bodies to them. Even if everything I did could look like an act.

Even though I knew I had no right to say this...

“Raven, you were in danger.”

“...?”

“That's why I saved you.”

If there was a reason, that truly was the only one.