Rector Melany was right.

“Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you’ve gotten yourself into, Adrian…?”

I… really got myself into trouble.

…

How do I know?

Because, at first, I thought I was going back to the library where I met Chris Laergas.

Not that I was going to be sent into a forest where I couldn’t see the slightest trace of a city anywhere.

I had no idea what I was going to do.

~beep!

~beep!

But then my watch started beeping.

“…?”

When I raised my arm and saw a number on my watch that I hadn’t registered before… a strange expression inevitably appeared on my face.

I answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Keep heading into the woods, Adrian.”

“Huh?”

I paused, focused on the voice coming from the call, and… I realized.

It was a voice I recognized.

It was Chris Laergas talking to me.

“Okay…?”

The call went off as soon as I said that, and silence surrounded me again.

Head into the woods, huh…

I swallowed lightly.

‘Don’t even think of my name. Remember, you are not supposed to know me at all.’

Those were Lithoa’s last words.

He told me that since I would be with the Laergas Family for a while, I could not speak to him in any way, that he would sleep in my mind.

He was being extremely careful even though I still don’t fully understand why.

And that made me even more nervous.

Still… I calmed myself down.

I took a deep breath in and out, looking around briefly.

It was a simple, normal forest. It was mostly covered with trees, except for the road I was on, which I was on the edge of, where no cars passed by and went around the perimeter of the forest, as well as part of the interior. I could see a few hills in the distance, but that was it.

Just trees and hills…

There was nothing remarkable.

At least… not with the senses I was using right now.

I closed my eyes. I focused, turned off all my senses one by one, except for one, and focused on that one in particular.

And as soon as I did, I felt it. A slow, almost impossible to notice, but certainly not natural, flow from far away toward where I was now.

I opened my eyes.

I turned my face in the direction of the mana flow. It was away from the road, directly in the forest.

“Huuu…”

I started moving slowly.

The trees in the forest were not too dense. Walking was generally comfortable. The strange silence of the forest was peaceful to a point.

I kept walking.

After a while, I could feel the flow of mana without closing my senses. I was getting closer and closer. I was almost there…

Then, though, I paused.

I narrowed my eyes slightly.

Almost half an hour had passed. And, finally, I could see something not ‘green’ through the trees, not far from me.

That was the source of the unnatural mana flow.

As I continued to get closer, more and more details became visible.

The trees were becoming less dense. But… it was not a natural decrease. The trees had been cut down, some of their roots and trunks still on the ground. Others were just standing there as if they had never been touched. It was just that the further I went, the more trees were cut down. And with that, of course, my field of vision was widening.

So, finally, I could see the exact area where the mana flow originated.

It was… a clearing.

A very large clearing, with a cottage

in the center, which looked as if it had been abandoned years ago, but also looked relatively large.

But what really caught my attention was neither the size of the clearing nor the cottage, which seemed to be built of wood.

Rather… it was the presence of an auburn-haired man sitting on a chair in front of this cottage, as if sunbathing, with his feet stretched out on the other, his eyes on the sky.

He was wearing a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a few buttons undone. He had simply black trousers underneath.

He didn’t have any beard before, but this time he had some stubble. Combined with his already stern features, it made for a somewhat intimidating face.

The only problem was…

Well, he had slippers on his feet.

They looked so strange with his clothes that I couldn’t help but focus on them.

When I stopped moving, he suddenly paused.

His ocean blue eyes slowly left the sky and turned to me. His long hair tied in a ponytail fluttered gently in the wind as he turned his head toward me.

“Good, you found this place pretty fast.”

This was Chris Laergas himself.

His eyes were directly on me. It was like… he was studying me.

Well, it was understandable. A lot has changed about me since we last met.

Everyone knew I was an elf now, and on top of that, it was also revealed that I was a Laute.

I paused for a moment as a thought suddenly popped into my head.

He wouldn’t back down from what he said in the library just because of that, would he…?

“I noticed that you hardly made a sound when you walked. It’s not much of a feat to walk in silence, but it’s not easy to do in the forest, among the broken branches and grass. Where did you learn that?”

…

He doesn’t care, I guess?

I was about to open my mouth to answer, but I stopped.

Everything that was going through my mind suddenly disappeared.

I frowned involuntarily, noticing the familiar strangeness in my body.

I had felt it before.

After I entered that library, when I met this man.

It was a skill of his, manipulating me to give the right answer.

“I learned it when I was spending time in Neutral because I realized that making noise was problematic there.”

It was… disturbing.

Even disgusting to some extent.

The fact that the right answer appeared in my mind before I even thought about the answer I was asked, the fact that I wanted to say what appeared in my mind without giving any details…

It was not pleasant.

“Neutral, huh? That’s where you found my great-grandfather’s spear, probably his secret lair.” He… wasn’t supposed to know that.

Prince Lucas, Rector Melany, and Professor Calvin were the only ones who knew about that spear after my identity was revealed.

How much more does he know…?

Ah, no.

It’s not even whether he knows more or not…

“Hmm…”

It’s about if he wants to know more or not.

“Then…”

Because I don’t know how much I can endure his skill.

“Let me ask you a question.”

He stood up suddenly, shaking his clothes lightly. But I couldn’t focus on any of his actions, my mind was too busy preparing for his next question.

I couldn’t screw it up this early.

I shouldn’t.

“I still don’t trust you yet.”

His eyes were on me, shimmering with a tiny sparkle. It was as if he was carefully watching my every move.

“But I also wonder…”

It’s coming…

“Why do you want to get stronger?”

…

Huh?

“Is that… it?”

Ah, wait…

Aaaahh…!

That damn skill is too hard to resist!

Chris Laergas didn’t change his expression at all, he simply threw one of his hands around his waist and shrugged his shoulders.

“Yeah, that’s it.”

…

I was expecting something bigger, something that would give me trouble… I guess?

“I want to get stronger… because I have a purpose.”

I’m certainly not complaining, though.

“And I need power to be able to fulfill my goals, like being able to protect people I know.”

Because that’s something that I don’t have to lie a bit about, that I don’t have to deviate from the truth.

“I hate to find myself powerless every time, to find myself unable to do things.”

“No.”

My eyebrows raised slightly as I suddenly found the man right in front of me.

His eyes continued to twinkle.

“That’s not your main goal, Adrian. What you’re telling me right now… is just one of your goals. It’s certainly a goal that you care about, one that even messes with your mind. But not the ‘main’ one either.”

His lips were flat, his expression cold.

“There is something more important. It’s like… you’re in a hurry, to get stronger. What you told me might explain it, but I trust my instincts. So, tell me what that is.”

As if he was deliberately trying to put pressure on me.

“What is your main goal, your desire that makes you want to get stronger so fast?”

I could do nothing but stay where I was.

But, then, my eyes widened slightly.

“…”

I lowered my eyes to the floor involuntarily.

I gritted my teeth slightly.

But, eventually… I stopped holding back.

“It is… revenge.”

I clenched my fist.

“I found out that it was actually my grandfather who killed my parents, yes. And he’s… dead now, yes.”

Both what I felt inside myself and the effect of the skill being used on me made me blurt out everything in my mind without thinking.

“But that… doesn’t erase from reality what I felt that day, the hatred I had, the promise I made.”

But, for the moment, I didn’t care.

“I still want to find that man, even if he caused the deaths of my mother and father only because of the orders he received…”

I raised my eyes, fixing them on the ocean-blue ones directly in front of me.

“And I want to crush him in the most overwhelming way possible.”

What happened after those words came out of my mouth… was something I definitely didn’t expect.

“Hmm…”

Because ‘Chris Laergas’, who until now I had seen as quite serious, with a cold expression…

“I see.”

Suddenly stepped back slightly, his lips curled upward.

“Let me give you the good news then, Adrian.”

He put his hands on his waist, the sparkle in his eyes fading.

“I can make you really, really strong.”

I was about to open my mouth when I found myself unable to utter a single word.

It was like…

“You really have found one of the best people on this planet for what you desire. Congratulations.”

Someone in particular was preventing me.

“But I still haven’t decided to help you with that.”

He turned around and started walking slowly toward the cottage in the center of the clearing.

“Just as I said before, you must first gain my trust.”

His voice was different, as was his expression. The more relaxed his steps were, the more… calm his voice was.

“So let’s start this ‘trust test’ quickly.”

Even though his back was turned, even though he wasn’t using a single bit of mana…

It was as if he was in complete control.

“Come, don’t wait there. Follow me.”

I looked at his back for a while.

But then my eyes left him, I raised my hands and focused on them.

“Trust test…”

I clenched both fists.

I raised my head resolutely, straightened my body.

“All right.”

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