Chapter 96 - - 96: A Few Questions

Chapter 96: Chapter - 96: A Few Questions

I raised my staff and released a strong gale and air around me erupts as a powerful wave of wind spreads across the chamber and catches the Flamespirit Eagle directly, forcing it backward and sending it out through the entrance.

The bird beats its wings desperately to stabilize itself before landing near the stairs.

At almost the same moment, Hina reaches the top of the stairs. She looks down into the chamber. I can see the surprise on her face, I suppose she was not expecting to find me here.

Kajol, however, remains unusually calm. Even after seeing her contracted Spirit Beast pushed out of the chamber, she does not appear angry or particularly concerned.

Though her magic staff remains in her hand so she is clearly not completely careless.

Neither of us speaks for several seconds, then Kajol takes a step toward the stairs and looks directly at me.

I did not move.

She seems to understand that I am not going to stop her from entering so she begins walking down the stairs. She reaches the bottom of the stairs while continuing to watch me.

"I guess you want to ask me something." Her tone is almost casual.

"Actually, about quite a lot of things." I remain beside the circular carving.

Kajol looks briefly toward it before returning her gaze to me.

Hina on the other hand was hesitating at the top of the stairs. She is clearly cautious. That is understandable.

From her perspective, she has arrived at the chamber expecting to find one opponent, only to discover that two people who apparently know about the same hidden objective are already here.

She eventually begins descending as well. Her grip remains firm around her magic staff.

Then I hear the sound of wings as the Flamespirit Eagle flies back into the chamber and immediately heads toward Aeris.

Aeris responds by spreading her wings again and the atmosphere between the two Spirit Beasts becomes tense.

The Flamespirit Eagle is clearly ready to continue the fight and Aeris does not seems to flinch either.

She remains on the ground with her wings spread, her cyan feathers glowing faintly as she watches the larger bird.

"Agni! Stop!"

Kajol’s voice cuts through the chamber and the Flamespirit Eagle immediately slows down, It circles once before landing on one of the stone steps.

But Its eyes remain fixed on Aeris and its wings stay partially spread, making the bird appear considerably larger than it already is.

Aeris remains on the ground with her own wings spread, maintaining a defensive posture while watching the eagle closely.

For the moment I looked toward Hina. Her expression is considerably more troubled than either Kajol’s or mine. Well She has walked into a situation where she is clearly missing information.

And judging by the way she keeps looking between Kajol, me, and the two Spirit Beasts, she is probably trying to figure out exactly how much each of us knows.

I find that interesting. Because I have the same question about her and Kajol.

I decide that there is no reason to waste any more time. "So I guess it was you who took the magic circle, Treaticia?"

That was the first question I asked Kajol, and more importantly, it was the question I needed answered before anything else, because if she denied taking Treaticia, then the situation would become considerably more troublesome than I had initially expected.

Hina also immediately turned her attention toward Kajol after hearing my question, apparently realizing that the answer was important to me and perhaps to her as well.

Fortunately, my concern did not become reality.

Kajol simply nodded "Yes, I am the one who took it."

I let out a quiet breath. At least that much is settled.

Treaticia had not disappeared because of some completely unknown person acting independently of the events I remembered from the game; Kajol was the one who had taken it, which meant that the mysterious person I had been wondering about for months was finally standing right in front of me.

That still left the considerably more important question of why she had taken it, but before getting into that, there was another matter I wanted to settle.

"So, should I assume that all three of us know about these items from the same source?"

I deliberately phrased the question that way.

For the past several months, I had been considering several possibilities regarding Hina and the person who had taken Treaticia, because knowing about the game’s hidden items did not necessarily prove that either of them was a reincarnated person like me.

They could have learned about them through some other source.

A prophecy was one possibility, or maybe some secret magical record. There could even be some ancient organization in this world that knew considerably more about the future than I do.

I had no way of ruling out those possibilities simply because Hina happened to know about the items.

Kajol’s answer was equally careful "It depends on what source you are talking about."

I stared at her for a moment.

*I guess she will not blurt it out like that.*

That answer was exactly what I expected from someone who had managed to hide her secret for this long.

If she had immediately said that she knew about everything because of the game, I would have been more suspicious rather than less, because there was no reason for someone with her apparent level of caution to reveal such information without first determining what I already knew.

I considered my options. There was no point in continuing to circle around the subject.

If Kajol was actually another reincarnated person, then the safest way to confirm it was to use a word that would be meaningless to someone who had never encountered the concept.

"...In my case, it is a game." The moment I said that, the atmosphere changed slightly.

Hina looked at me with obvious surprise while Kajol’s expression became noticeably different.

If they were not reincarnated people, then I doubted either of them would even understand what I meant by that statement, at least not in the specific sense I was referring to.

But if they did understand...

Then there would be no reason to continue pretending.

Hina was the first to react "...W-wait."

She looked at me, then at Kajol, before suddenly asking the question that had apparently been sitting somewhere in the back of her mind for a very long time.

"So Elena is not the reincarnated person?"

I stared at her.

*Did she just throw away her own chip?*

I could not help but feel a little sorry for her. Hina is clearly not as good at hiding information as she thought she was. Her question had revealed something important about her own thoughts without Kajol even having to ask.

I glanced toward Kajol.

There was a faint, wry smile on her face, and judging from her expression, she seemed to have reached exactly the same conclusion as I had.

Hina seemed to realize what she had just done a little too late and her expression stiffened.

Kajol, however, did not appear particularly interested in exploiting the mistake.

"I think it would be unfair to keep pretending now," she said calmly. "Yes, my source is also the game."

So that confirmed it. She is a reincarnated person.

The strange behavior, the knowledge, her unusual interest in particular events and items, and her presence in this kingdom despite not being a character in the original game all makes some sense.

At the same time, one particular question became even more important.

"It makes things clear," I said, keeping my eyes on Kajol. "But the real question bothering me is, why did you make such weird approaches toward Elena and me?"

That was the question that had been bothering me the most.

I could understand her coming to this kingdom. There could be several reasons for that, and I did not particularly care about them unless they directly affected me.

She could have come here because of the game. She could have wanted access to its hidden items. There were plenty of possibilities.

Even if she was simply here to collect the game’s special items for herself, I could not exactly complain about that, because it was not as though I owned those items.

But her behavior toward Elena and me was different.

She had approached us several times in ways that did not fit the logic, and some of those actions had clearly been deliberate.

Kajol remained silent for a moment. Then her expression changed "You are the one who is asking me this question?"

Her voice carried a hint of frustration "After you deviated the whole story from its original path?"

I frowned "So what if it is not following the original storyline? Why does it concern you?"

As far as I am concerned, I have not done anything wrong by changing the events. In fact, many of the changes had produced results that were considerably better than what I remembered from the game.

People who were supposed to be injured had avoided those injuries. Events that were supposed to end badly had sometimes gone in a completely different direction.

And Elena herself had not followed the path that originally turned her into an evil magic user.

From my perspective, changing the story was not inherently a bad thing. If anything, it seemed preferable.

But my words clearly struck a nerve.

"Why does it concern me, you ask?" Kajol’s expression became considerably more serious "Why does it not concern you?!"

Her voice rose slightly as she continued "For your little affection, you are risking the safety of this whole damn world!"

*What?*