Chapter 147.1: Examination
PART 1/2
I opened my eyes, finally done with my choices. Erani, sitting on the floor, seemed to be still working through hers, and Ainash was keeping herself occupied exploring the small outpost. She was currently in the kitchen area, poking and prodding at the various foods and appliances, much to the annoyance of Bon, who was watching her intently. đ§đłđŽđŽđđŚđŤđˇđ°đˇâŻđ.đŹâ´đŽ
But he glanced over when he saw me with my eyes open, and took a breath. âYou ready to answer some questions? Iâll get the Truth Stone.â
âYep, Iâm ready,â I nodded. Iâd taken some time to speak with everyone through the silent communication of Ainashâand mentally communicating with Index to ensure my plan would workâand it seemed like I might be able to work through this.
âGood. Iâll be right back.â Bon stepped through the door to their sleeping quarters, disappearing for a moment while I waited in the main room with everyone else.
âFather, mother says to tell me if there is question you cannot get past. If happens, will tell mother and we will escape! I will kill all the Humans!â
âDid mother tell you to say that last part?â
â...No.â
âOkay. Donât kill all the Humans, even if we escape.â
âWhat if they are mean?â
âEven if theyâre mean.â
âMy name is Humanslayer! Dragon gave me that name! Have to kill at least some Humans.â
I took a deep breath. I couldnât believe I had to argue with her on this. âJust ask mother if youâre allowed to kill any Humans, and you can talk about it with her. Iâm going to be busy soon.â
âOkay!â
I glanced over at Erani and watched as her face shifted into one of exasperation as Ainash no doubt messaged her with the same fervor as she was speaking to me with. As I held back my laughter at that, the door from the sleeping quarters opened again, and Bon walked out, a small, round stone in his hand.
âAlright,â he said as he sat down in a chair at the small table, âgo ahead and turn yourself around so we face each other.â
âSure,â I nodded, trying to hide my nervousness.
He watched me situate myself and smiled. âFirst time taking a Truth Stone test?â
âUh, yeah,â I chuckled, âjust worried about false positives or whatever.â
âNah, nah, these things arenât faulty,â he said. âYouâd have to be a flaminâ mastermind of self-deception to get past it. Would probably need your entire life to train yourself to get them to spit out anything but the correct answerâwhether thatâs tricking it into thinking youâre telling the truth, or into thinking youâre lying. It goes off what you know to be the true answers to what youâre being asked. So as long as you know youâre answering truthfully, youâll pass just fine.â
I took a breath and nodded. âRight, right.â
âYep. Itâs pretty much just a formality anyway, but weâre required to say whether we used a Truth Stone when giving our reports back to headquarters, and theyâd be pretty flaminâ mad if they knew we shirked our duties like that by not questioning you lot properly.â
I nodded again. âItâs fine. Should we go ahead and start?â
ââCourse. So, Iâll put the stone on the table and ask you a question, and all you have to do is put your hand on the stone when you answer. Although, uh, the System needs to see your body touching it, so your armorâŚâ he gazed at the Dark Plate still covering my body.
âMm, shouldnât be a problem. Objects pass right through it. See?â I reached up and grabbed his hand, and as I said, his body went straight past the armor and touched my hand as though the armor was just an illusion.
âWoahâŚâ he said, gazing down at it. âI didnât even know there was an Enchantment that did that.â
âWell, like I said, itâs stuck on me, so I wouldnât be able to eat otherwise,â I laughed.
âMan, you are one weird group of people,â he shook his head. âAnyway, just be sure you show me your hand when youâre touching the stone, so I can see it passing all the way through the armor like you said it would.
âSure,â I said.
He reached out and dropped the palm-sized rock in the middle of the wooden table with a thunk. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pencil and some paper. âOkay, you ready?â
I nodded, sending a mental message to Index.
âGreat.â
Erani sat on the floor of a small, cramped outpost. She watched as Arlan, in his still kind of scary Dark Plate, sat across the table from that Bon guy. They went over how everything worked, and then began.
âSo, to start off, could you tell us a lie, just to ensure the Truth Stone works? Letâs seeâŚwhen I ask you what color your skin is, tell me itâs blue, okay?â
âSure.â Arlan reached out and picked up the Truth Stone, turning his hand over to show that it was, indeed, passing through his armor and touching his skin.
âOkay. What color is your skin?â
âBlue.â
As expected, the Stone lit up bright red, shading the entire stone outpost in its crimson hue. Arlan, who was obviously not expecting it to be so bright, turned his face away in surprise. If the circumstances werenât so secretly tense with the lies they were about to try and get away with, Erani would have even thought it was cute.
But she couldnât ruminate on that nice feeling for long, as the moment the Stone dimmed down, Bon spoke again.
âOkay, great. Keep the stone in your hand just like that. First question, tell me your name, age, place of birth, that sort of thing.â Bon asked.
Erani held her breath, knowing that this would be the moment that decided whether theyâd be able to enter this country, or if theyâd be chased out for being fugitives of the Demons.
âMy name is Annor Ton, Iâm twenty-four, and I actually come from an unnamed village in the Koinkar Kingdom, but itâs near Waterinn, if you know that town.â
âI donât.â
âOh, well itâs a bit southeast of here, few daysâ travel from Kingdomâs Edge. Or, my bad, you guys call it Empireâs Edge, right?â
Pretty much everything Arlan had just said was a lie. Waterinn was technically a town that existedâand it was where he said it wasâbut it wasnât even close to where Arlan was born. And of course there was the fake name and age. Theyâd spoken and agreed that they should probably increase their ages, since being as high-Level as they were in such a short time was, if not impossible, at least notably rare. It signaled that theyâd obviously gotten their Levels in an extremely risky, life-threatening way.
These lies were completely blatant. In any normal scenario, the Truth Stone would have absolutely no issues with detecting the flagrant falsehoodsâArlan knew his own name, age, and place of origin, so heâd know he was lying. That was all the Stone needed to activate.
But it sat inert in his hand, doing absolutely nothing at all. Not even a hint of that bright red light.
Unsuspecting of any foul play, Bon, nodded and jotted down the information on his notepad. âOkayâŚWaterinn, spelled with two ânâs?â
âYeah.â
âGreat. Next question, why did you come to the Barinruth Empire? And why through a passage so dangerous as Empireâs Edge?â
âWell, youâve heard of the Demon invasion, right? We,â Arlan gestured to Erani, âwere neighbors who fled from Waterinn together when it happened. With all the death and destructionâŚWell, we knew we didnât really have any other choice but to leave the whole kingdom. Especially as time went on and it became more and more obvious that the kingdom wasnât going to do anything to repel them. Kingdomâs, er, Empireâs Edge was the nearest escape route, and the Demons pretty much said that running away from them meant the death penalty, so we took the fastest way out as possible.â
âYou just decided to walk through the mountain range? I canât imagine doing something so dangerous.â
âYou canât?â Arlan frowned. âAt your Levels it wouldnât be too bad, right?â
âWell, yes. Donât try anything. But the Dragons are still deadly for anyone.â
âOh, right, yeah, I guess thatâs true. Well, Demons were more deadly than the Dragons, as far as we were concerned. Choosing between an army and a monster, we felt like our chances were better with the latter.â
âHm. Anyway, next question,â Bon moved on, continuing the interrogation, and Arlan continued giving the answers that Erani had been preparing with him through Ainash. Fake identities and backstories for each of them to try and distance themselves from the identities that would undoubtedly get them kicked out of Barinruth and thrown to the Demons.