Swoosh!
A strong, bright light awakened .
"Hmm."
Groaning slightly, I blinked a couple of tis while looking around .
’Where am I...?’
My mind was still quite groggy. My vision was hazy, and a constant ringing sound echoed inside my mind.
I was struggling to recall what had happened.
Thankfully, this mory lapse rely lasted a few seconds before everything beca clear to and I started to calm down.
’Right, I should be detained.’
I looked around .
Indeed, it looked like I was in so sort of interrogation room. The concrete walls surrounded from all sides as I sat on a tal table, my hands bound by handcuffs that were connected to it.
The overhead lights shone sharply from above as a dark glass I couldn’t see through appeared on the sides of the room.
This situation...
I closed my eyes and leaned back on the chair.
’Not surprising.’
Clank!
Not long after, the tal door opposite opened, and a series of steps echoed.
I kept my eyes closed while waiting for the steps to stop.
A tense silence followed, and I felt a powerful gaze settle on . It pressed down through my closed eyelids, as if it were trying to pierce straight through .
But I remained calm.
Calm until I heard a soft scraping sound, and I finally opened my eyes.
Krrr!
"Seth Thorne."
A deep voice reverberated a mont later.
Sitting on the chair opposite was a man clad in a dark [BUA] uniform. He had a clean-shaven face, neatly parted hair, and glasses, his long fingers tapping softly against the tal table.
His gaze bore down on with a powerful intensity, and under such a gaze, I felt my body begin to tense.
Clearly, there was sothing about his gaze that created this weird sense of oppression.
"...There’s a lot that we need to talk about."
So he said...
"Do I need to start?"
"You do not."
The words flowed effortlessly from my mouth. Despite the strange sense of oppression emanating from his gaze, I felt completely unaffected in that mont.
When compared to what I had experienced...
Even he looked surprised, prompting his brows to furrow slightly, but I didn’t give him the chance to say anything before speaking once more.
"You’ve all been fooled from the start."
"..."
The man didn’t react; his gaze firmly locked onto . I couldn’t quite tell what he was thinking, but I didn’t quite care as I continued to speak.
"The clues were there from the start. From the mont the gate started, there were clues everywhere. I’m sure that by now, most of you are aware of the fact that you’ve been tricked."
"....."
The silence was all the confirmation that I needed.
’So it looks like they’re all aware of the fact that they’ve been fooled. This makes things a lot easier for .’
"There were many eyewitnesses who were present back when I was at the Gate. You couldn’t have imagined my surprise when I saw them all turn on ."
That was indeed a surprise.
Well, maybe not quite for ’’.
"Of course, I later learned that their mories had been altered and that I had been made the enemy. That’s not all; I’ve also co to learn that all the footage has been altered to make it seem like I was responsible for everything, but..."
I stopped, my eyes squinting as I stared at the interrogator in front of .
"I’m certain that if you watch the footage once more and speak to the people about what happened, they’ll give you a completely different account from what they gave previously. Isn’t that right?"
"...."
Silence followed once more.
The silence once again spoke volus to .
’It looks like they’ve already done that. Good, it looks like they’re quite efficient over here.’
From the mont I had accomplished my goal and had taken care of Dantalion, I knew that all the manipulation it had done would vanish. The truth behind what had truly happened within the Gate should’ve co out, and my na, which had previously been stained, should’ve been cleared.
To so extent, at least.
’He’s probably here for other reasons.’
"You want to know why I did what I did? How I knew what I knew, and who... I was working for?"
This was the most obvious answer. It didn’t take a genius to figure this out, and without holding back, I began to explain the situation to them.
"In truth, I was originally planning on conducting a stream on the abandoned factory."
Pausing, I looked at the interrogator.
His expression remained unchanged. I nodded once more.
He seed aware of this, too.
"Of course, I’m well aware of the fact that you are aware of this. This isn’t news I’ve been trying to hide; I made a large announcent on the internet. The plan was for to leverage the hype around my ga and situation to grow my following and generate more marketing for my ga. But who would’ve thought that place was a hideout for a strange cult?"
There was nothing that I needed to hide from this point. Despite knowing that I was currently being monitored intensely for any possible lies, I didn’t feel any pressure at all. In fact, the more I spoke, the smoother my words beca.
Excluding so key details, I recounted the entire situation to them.
From the things that I had managed to figure out. The strange cult. The Twisted Man, and everything that I knew about the cult.
I was sure that they knew all about what I was telling them.
They just wanted to hear it from .
They wanted to know what led up to the situation.
"...It was there that I learned about the demon known as Dantalion."
The tension within the room heightened at the ntion of the demon, the interrogator’s expression finally changing for the first ti. I could even feel a shift from the one standing outside the window, but without paying them much attention, I continued speaking.
"He has a strange power. He seems able to read minds, alter faces, and alter reality to bend it to his will. It probably did everything it did to get rid of because I knew too much. That was also the reason why I acted the way that I did during the Gate incident. The mont I managed to escape the place and planned on telling everyone about what I had found out, the Gate occurred, and I was swept into the situation. In the end, I knew that nobody was going to believe even if I told them everything, and as such, I acted on my own."
Of course, that ’soone’ wasn’t actually .
But they didn’t need to know this, and as I looked at the expression of the interrogator in front of , I was sure that what I had recounted was pretty much in line with what he had found out.
"Ah, right."
There was sothing else I forgot to ntion.
"The Jester was one of the experints. He was originally supposed to be the main vessel of the demon, but thankfully, he was able to free himself from its control and decided to work with . The two of us were working together, and that’s why I was targeted by the demon."
I stopped speaking then.
There was no need for to speak any longer. Staring at the interrogator and seeing his troubled expression, I knew that he was very likely struggling to co to terms with the fact that I wasn’t lying.
’...And that’s because I’m not lying.’
Everything that I said was the truth.
Regardless of what he tried, the outco wasn’t going to change.
Leaning back, I basked in the silence as it stretched in all directions, my gaze locked firmly on the interrogator. As the mont dragged on, he finally raised his head, his eyes sharpening as his deep voice quietly reverberated through the room.
"You..."
My heart remained calm as the tension in the room heightened.
"From the mont you appeared, all kinds of things have been happening on Malovia Island. From the recent Gate incident to the Conductor Gate not long before that. There’s also the situation surrounding your gas, and the strange events that have occurred in the short span of ti you’ve been active. I’ve only just listed a few, but there are quite a few more that I’m still sorting out."
Taking a brief pause, his eyes narrowed.
"...Who the hell are you, really?"
Hearing his question, I opened my mouth but stopped the mont I felt his gaze. I could tell that he had done his research and knew quite a lot about .
It was also obvious that, despite the fact that I had passed his ’lie detection’ test, he was still suspicious of .
But in the end, none of that really mattered as I smiled.
"Isn’t it obvious?"
I looked at the man in front of .
"...I am the one who killed the Jester."
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