"No." Lumi answered directly. "I understand your confusion, but the Empress is not just a woman."
Lena raised a finger. "But the word Empress carries the aning of female with it?"
"Ha! Hehe.." Despite being mid explanation, Lumi couldn’t help but laugh at Lena’s straightforward statent. "What I ant is that she is not born of a man and woman. Her lineage is half-divine, and thus each Empress is carefully cultivated from imasurable divine and holy prowess."
"She’s a god!?" Lena exclaid. "Holy shit!?" She looked between Lumi and the castle. "Wait there’s a princess! There’s two gods!"
"Not exactly, but I shouldn’t say more."
"?" Lena thought for a bit and didn’t pry, and instead continued. "What’s the Princess’s na?"
"Princess Aurora." Lumi replied.
"Ah, okie, okie." Lena nodded. "She’s um. How old is she? She’s not like six or so-"
"She’s twelve. Why?" Lumi replied once more.
"Ah."
...
After dropping Lena off with Alice, he still had ti, and Lumi had several options to pursue.
First and most critical was interrogating Afton. This was partially what the treasure was for.
Even Lumi could not claim to know everything Afton knew. Further still, this wasn’t about what Lumi knew, but what everyone else should know.
The puppeteer knew more than his pathetic combat performance suggested. His position in the Wings of Darkness was still that of a minor leader, which gave him access to information about their operations. Additionally, Lumi knew exactly which psychological buttons to push. If the system prevented him from directly sharing future knowledge, maybe he could get Afton to reveal it himself.
Second in his objectives was networking with future legends. Herene was full of noble children who would beco powerhouses. Unlike players who started at nothing and relied on the system, these nobles had bloodlines cultivated over millennia. So would reach heights players could only dream of. Lumi knew of one in particular, not even a knight trainee yet, who would beco a demigod within a year. That is, surpassing level two hundred.
The interrogation had to co first. It was the most ti sensitive and potentially impactful action. Yet getting permission would be challenging.
Lumi stood, decision made. He needed to find Divan and make his case. The walk back to the palace gave him ti to refine his argunts. He couldn’t just say, "I know things about Afton because I lived through this before." He needed reasoning that made sense within the world’s logic.
He found Divan in his tactical room, surrounded by even more reports than before. The Chief Knight looked up as Lumi entered, expression neutral but alert.
"The training went well, I trust? Alice hasn’t sent anyone to the infirmary, so I assu you survived."
"More than survived." Lumi confird. "Chief Knight Alice is an exceptional instructor. However, I have an unusual request."
Divan set down his quill slowly. His full attention focused on Lumi with an intensity that would have been intimidating if Lumi hadn’t faced far worse. "Speak."
"I’d like to participate in Afton S. Crow’s interrogation."
Divan’s expression didn’t change, but his entire bearing shifted subtly. The administrator was gone, replaced by the warrior who’d earned his position through decades of service.
"That’s a highly unusual request," he said finally, each word carefully asured. "I understand that you were the leader of the group that captured him, and I do not an to disvalue such achievents. However, we have specialists for such matters. These are trained interrogators who know exactly how to extract information from unwilling subjects. They’ve broken stronger minds than that of Afton. What makes you want to perform such a duty?"
Lumi had expected this response. He’d prepared for it. "Because I understand Afton very well. I know what drives him, what he fears, what he desires above all else. I know how to manipulate a mind like his."
"Do you now?" Divan leaned back, fingers together as he evaluated Lumi. "How exactly did you co by such intimate knowledge of a Wings of Darkness operative? A man who, by all accounts, operated in secret until you exposed him?"
"I have already received so information from him. When it cos to Lady Twilight, he will give up everything for her." Lumi spoke, making up a source for his information, then took out the leather notes alongside the items they ca with to present to Divan.
Divan’s eyes went wide as he recognized the items. "Rings and scrolls to negate righteousness?!" He imdiately took hold of them, and then his eyes paused at the notes. He opened them, and quickly read through.
He fell silent. They stared at each other for a long mont. Lumi could see the calculations happening behind Divan’s eyes.
Finally, he spoke. "Where was this?"
"Buried on Herene," Lumi answered plainly. "Trainee Grounds IV. Under a collapsed pillar. I got the location from Afton, who accidentally spilled it."
He bowed to Divan in an apology. "I apologize for not disclosing this information sooner. I assud that Afton had given false information to mislead us, therefore I verified the information was true first before coming to you."
Divan studied him for several seconds. The apology was accepted without words. Instead, Divan closed the leather notes, placed them carefully atop the other items, and exhaled through his nose.
"Buried on Herene..." he repeated quietly. "That alone is alarming."
"You’re connected to rath." Divan seemingly changed topics. "That carries significant weight. He doesn’t trust lightly, and his judgnt in reading people has never failed us. You may not know, but I spoke to him today. He spoke of your people. You appear from nowhere, possess impossible abilities, claim knowledge you shouldn’t have, and now you want access to a high-value prisoner."
"I understand your caution-"
"I’m not finished." Divan’s voice stopped Lumi. "However, you also captured Afton when by all rights he should have slaughtered your entire group without breaking a sweat. Soone of his power against a couple of First Ranks isn’t a fight, it’s just an execution. That you succeeded suggests either incredible luck or genuine capability. I’m inclined to believe the latter, but that raises more questions than it answers."
He stood, moving to a wall where maps showed the Wings of Darkness’s known operations. Red pins marked confird bases and yellow marked suspected activity. The pattern was wrong, Lumi knew. They were missing at least a dozen sites.
"Tell ," Divan said without turning. "rath said you were unable to speak of certain things even if you know it and are willing to say. What determines such a thing?"
"It’s not sothing with exact rhythm or reason." Lumi explained. "And even explaining it is difficult with what I can say. But it can overall be summarized as our origin."
Divan paced around, thinking outloud. "Then, given what I know, it should be the case that you did not co naturally from elsewhere but rather were the result of sothing. Whether an experint, artificial lifeform, or any other such cases."
He stopped. "If you were manufactured, or otherwise a modified people, explains identical anomalous traits across a group of people. It additionally explains why the appearance of such people was not gradual but sudden."
He then turned to face Lumi directly. "The only place I know that has advanced biological technology is Entei. However, Entei is overwhelmingly compromised by the Wings of Darkness. Then the logical assumption is that your people were created by the Wings of Darkness."
Lumi’s expression remained carefully neutral, but internally he was impressed. Divan had reached a nearly correct conclusion through perfectly logical reasoning. The Wings of Darkness creating players? It was close enough to the truth. The Dark One was behind both, after all.
"Your reasoning is sound." Lumi said carefully, testing what the system would allow. "The connections you’ve drawn were through logical reasoning."
Divan’s eyes sharpened. "You can’t confirm, can you?"
"I cannot confirm or deny specifics." Lumi replied. "I did indeed capture Afton."
"Perhaps you’ve gone rogue from your original purpose. Or perhaps you all don’t know your purpose. Unless," Divan said slowly, "that was part of a larger plan. To build trust before a betrayal. You specifically are very different from the others. A few days ago, many people appeared around the continent, each with strange, yet consistently strange behavior. They all act like sheltered children set free upon the world. Which is strange, but only strange in that way.. They don’t hold knowledge like you, unless they are all hiding it. So either you specifically aren’t hiding it, or you specifically hold such knowledge."
"All reasonable theories," Lumi acknowledged. "Which is why I’m offering to extract information from Afton that will actively harm the Wings’ operations. Judge by my actions and their results."
After a small mont of silence, Divan continued. "rath noted that you said your freedom would co one day. Within a year."
"Indeed." Lumi noted.
Divan replied imdiately, "And if you were ordered to work against us? Made to do so?"
Lumi shook his head. "My will cannot be influenced."
But my will isn’t the question here. It’s almost guaranteed that I will be able to break free from the system.
I did in my past life, too.
The Dark One never accounted for such a thing. And there are major restrictions on the Dark One right now. It is not as if he can simply detect what we are doing and correct things. That is the one salvation we have.
Yet, just in case... I must say sothing.
Lumi took a deep breath, and spoke seriously, "Though that’s just my will."
"Implication." Divan imdiately caught on to the point, growing serious. "I see."
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