Chapter 550: Trap Question and Revelation
The Star System Rilene ended up in when she was chasing the trail, was the Stroay System where Aramis was. She informed Jamie of this later, and not long after, Jamie made his way to McEnda II, where he found Alvey reporting Evan’s arrival to the other Demon King.
"Both Rilene and I knew that someone or something was travelling through time. I was certain of it; this wasn’t my first encounter with time travellers."
Jamie’s gaze briefly flickered to Arthur when he mentioned the last two words, but he returned his attention to Evan before Arthur could read too much into it.
"I see. So, you already had your eyes on me from the start?"
"Yeah. I had not been able to come over to Aramis in person, and when I heard Arthur’s reaction regarding your presence, I got interested.
I wanted to know what he saw with his Pseudo-Authority that made him want Beatrix, Artemisia and now you, around."
Jamie reminded Arthur of the reduction in parallel paths he had been observing and the looming Nexus Event that he had confirmed was fast approaching.
It was something that affected Alvey, Artemisia, Beatrix, Evan, and McEnda as well. There was one last person connected to it, and Arthur had been wondering who it might be and why his limited grasp of fate laws was leading him toward Rhigor.
Now, he wasn’t curious anymore as he had already figured out who the last key for the Nexus was—Jamie. Fate had directed Arthur to Rhigor as the shortest route to reach Gozon, where Jamie resided.
Arthur wouldn’t lie; after discovering Jamie was involved, he got a bit scared. A Nexus Event wasn’t something he believed could be easily breezed through, and someone like Jamie who had High-Tier Deity realm power was involved.
He was worried about what kind of Event that even Jamie wouldn’t be able to breeze through, though he didn’t show this worry.
Anyway, the reason why he wanted Evan to stick around was related to this and it had sparked Jamie’s curiosity.
"Finally meeting you, I have a lot of things to ask.
What world in the future did you come from? Why were you sent through time? Why did you end up on Aramis? I also want to know about the specifics of the Spell that sent you through time."
"Well, it was a Tier 8 spell. The guy who cast it literally screamed it out.
As for why I ended up on Aramis; Alvey and I have a theory where the Planet was looking for a ’Hero’ to fill up its empty slots and pulled me out of my spatial tunnel but I ended up falling on the wrong side of the planet.
I don’t know why they tried to send me through time though."
Evan answered some of Jamie’s questions while pouring strawberry wine for himself, and the man took a sip of his grape wine before replying.
"Alvey told me of his theory. But I don’t think he is correct."
Jamie had a High-Rank Spatial Authority, so Evan guessed he had a different outlook on his circumstances and it was because of this that he denied Alvey’s theory.
"First off, what World are you from in the future?"
"My World, It—"
"Quick question, Evan."
Arthur suddenly interjected, cutting off Evan before he could finish.
"When you first got to Aramis, did you feel lighter or heavier?"
Arthur pulled Evan closer to the edge of his seat with the unexpected inquiry about his first experience on Aramis.
"??"
Evan blinked, caught off guard by the unexpected question. He looked at Arthur, clearly puzzled by the sudden shift in the conversation and what it had to do with the current situation.
"Just answer. Off the top of your head."
Arthur urged him and though Evan was a tad bit confused, he didn’t put too much thought into it and considered it as Arthur being random like usual. Recalling his first few moments on Aramis, he replied.
"I felt lighter, I guess?"
Arthur nodded, satisfied, and gestured for him to continue with Jamie’s question. Evan found it weird, but he couldn’t figure out what Arthur’s goal was by asking him this so he turned his focus back to Jamie.
"You were asking about my world, right? I’m from Earth V.
According to Arthur, my planet was apparently a replica of the ’Original Earth’."
Evan spoke on the discovery he made during his first few days on Aramis and hearing it, Jamie affirmed that it was indeed the truth.
Arthur then posed another question to him, but unlike before, he didn’t urge Evan to give a quick answer.
"What World Level is Earth V anyway?"
For a moment after Arthur asked this, Evan activated a skill. But since Evan had a Skill that prevented many of his Skill activations from being sensed, Arthur couldn’t tell that he had done so.
In the next moment, Evan replied.
"High-Level World."
"Oh, so it succeeded in promoting to High-Level. That’s good."
That was Jamie’s response to Evan and when the boy questioned what he meant, Jamie revealed that Earth V was currently in the process of promoting from Mid-Level to the High-Level.
This surprised Evan as he didn’t expect that he was in the time when his world was still promoting.
On the side, Arthur got up from his seat and went to rinse his glass out the window. He came back shortly after and upon sitting down, he asked Evan a question.
"Evan, you said you felt lighter when you first got on Aramis, right?"
Evan nodded, confirming his earlier statement and Arthur sighed before making a declaration with unshakable certainty
"You didn’t really come from Earth V, did you?"
"...Um, I literally just said I came from there a few moments ago, right?"
"And I’m saying that’s a lie."
"..."
Rogue Hero and godslayer stared at each other in silence, while the Demon King at the corner just watched with a curious gaze.
Evan finally broke the silence, his voice low and cautious.
"Mind explaining why you think I’m lying?"
"Don’t forget I just gained a Pseudo-Authority in the Law of Gravity."
"I know you just did, but what does Gravity have to do wi-?!"
Evan’s statement cut off midway and realisation flashed in his eyes. Seeing that look, Arthur simply smirked and leaned back in his chair, arms crossed as he waited for Evan to piece it all together.
Arthur’s question about whether he felt lighter or heavier was random, interrupted him and Arthur acted so casually about it. This made Evan not put too much thought into it and answered ’Off the top of his head’ like Arthur had said.
But if he had put an extra second’s worth of thought into it, he would have realised that Arthur’s question was a trap.
Evan claimed he was from Earth V—a High-Level World. Aramis, on the other hand, was a Prime World. When he said he felt lighter upon arriving on Aramis, it indicated that he had moved from a place with stronger gravity to one with weaker gravity.
However, the gravity of a High-Level World could never surpass that of a Prime World. It simply didn’t work that way. Only other Prime Worlds or Apex Worlds possessed gravities stronger than those of Prime Worlds.
So, for Evan to have felt lighter, he must have come from either another Prime World or an Apex World—not from a High-Level World like Earth V.
One might argue that Earth V could have become a Prime World, but that was impossible. Earth V was still promoting in this time period, and advancing from High-Level to Prime Level took at least a million years—not a mere 10,000. Earth V in the future was still High-Level.
With his little question about how he felt, Arthur had trapped Evan and revealed his lie; that he was most likely from another Prime or Apex World.
From this point on, it wasn’t hard to figure out which World Evan was from.
"Hey, Evan. I couldn’t help but notice that whenever you use your Unique Skill, something appears in your eyes.
You see, I comprehend the law of Languages. It’s the reason why I can speak the same language with you despite not being from this Universe.
With my current level of comprehension, translating the ’text symbol’ that appears in your eyes was easy—too easy.
When I questioned why it was easy, I realized it was because I’d encountered that language before."
Because Arthur already had prior experience with that language and had obtained samples of it, he was able to easily translate the symbol in Evan’s eyes.
"It’s the same language that Artemisia uses when she jots down the things about me that she sends to her father."
Artemisia’s father had instructed her to gain information about Arthur—the Progenitor of a race primed to kill hers. The man wanted to know Arthur’s character and evaluate his potential threat, and he took advantage of the fact that she was already present on Aramis to do this.
Artemisia did not hide this fact from Arthur; she couldn’t. As such Arthur had seen the journal where she recorded her observations and she naturally wrote it in her mother tongue.
The language she used and the language the ’text symbol’ in Evan’s eyes were written in, were one and the same.
An Aidosian Shorthand Language.
"..."
Evan was silent as Arthur’s unspoken conjecture had hit the mark.
The godslayer didn’t need to point out that the text symbol only appeared when Evan used his Unique Series Skill—a Skill he possessed solely because he was a Hero.
At this point, it was abundantly clear where Evan truly came from, and there was no need to state the obvious: Evan was from Aidos.
