William felt more reassured this way. He didn't like having just one solution, making him feel he had his back against a cold rocky wall.
During the time he spent recuperating and thinking things over, Arthur had a long discussion with his group.
He and others already saw what William experienced inside that world. They started to discuss what just happened, trying to reach a single question that would answer all of their dilemmas.
They kept talking for three days. During this, Jeremy was dying out of worry about his friend and boss. He knew there wasn't any risk in waiting for longer, but he wanted to see Leo getting freed from such status anytime soon.
So he kept pestering Arthur and interrupted the meeting more than once. He even tried to sneak himself towards William's place, to find it locked and the entrance was heavily protected by many guards.
In the end, he had to wait outside Arthur's meeting place, until the latter finally got out.
"What are you doing here?" Arthur frowned when he saw Jeremy waiting at the doorsteps of the meeting hall, "I told you, once we are done, we'll send you all away."
"I know," Jeremy knew he was overstepping his boundaries by what he kept doing, "but… May I come with you to meet William? I heard he is severely injured…"
"Do you think you can help more than I?" The attitude of Arthur wasn't that good towards Jeremy and people of his standard, "just return back and wait for the good news. We won't take long anyway, and William is going with you soon enough."
"..."
Jeremy couldn't help but sigh, and Arthur didn't wait for his response. The latter was already burdened by lots of things.
The long discussion was still lingering in his head. He kept revising all of the key information until he arrived at the place where William was locked in.
"I see you are getting better, "Arthur said the moment he saw William. He wasn't lying, William did indeed look quite fine now.
"So, you are ready to ask your question now?" William slowly stood up from the ground, "and did you bring the scrolls with the basic knowledge?"
"Sure," Arthur tossed a ring towards William, "these are all the basic manuscripts about our Cult. these are useless stuff actually to someone like you, someone without an affinity towards fate and destiny."
"It's better to know a thing or two about such a mysterious side of the world rather than staying in the dark, right?" William didn't want to expose any of his plans, and even controlled himself to not reveal any of his excitement.
"Ok, let's start doing business then," Arthur's face turned all serious before adding, "I want to know the answer to this question… Who was that monster which released the speck of golden dust before and gave birth to this monster we are hunting? And what's its relation to you?"
"That's two questions, not one," William rolled his eyes, knowing that Arthur selected the most crucial and hard to answer question about the entire experience in that world.
He thought about the possible questions they might ask him about, and even prepared a list of these. On top of the list, this question was the one he didn't want to hear. And yet he prepared an answer to such a tricky question.
"I prepared all the basic scrolls for you to read," Arthur shrugged, "considering it as a payment for these two questions. You are free to check the content of the ring if you don't believe me."
William didn't act polite and checked the ring. As Arthur said, there were tons of scrolls there. He took a few out and opened them, finding that they were speaking about different things about the fate and destiny world and the Cult ways.
"Cool," unlike what Arthur and his group thought, William casually shrugged as if he didn't care about any of this, "that monster is something that lives mainly in the outer world. It's the fiercest monster ever existed, one that lived for tons of years. And my relationship with it lies with the monster it brought birth to. I met that monster before, and it seemed it grew interested in me for a reason I still don't know."
William coated the truth with tons of lies and managed to hide the crux of the problem away by such words.
"Hmm… That explains your relationship with both of them, but… How come you know this monster's true identity and might? It's the first time for me to meet someone outside the Cult who knows anything about the outer world in such detail and confidence."
Arthur knew such an answer explained William's relationship with that scary monster. But he still was puzzled more than satisfied with such an answer.
"I have a master, one who has the ability to communicate with the outer world," William paused, before adding, "don't try to ask me about how she can do it. Even I, her direct disciple, don't know such an answer."
"I see," Arthur was still unsatisfied with such an answer, "then you are just connected to that monster through the other monster it gave birth to? No other relation?"
"I have no clue about anything yet," William stuck to his little lie, "when I'll meet the monster residing in our world, I'll get to know the answer to many questions as well. As you can tell, I wanted to know lots about that monster, including how to kill it."
"Hmm… Ok," Arthur felt more unsettled by William's answers. But he knew William was going to meet the Cardinals, and a much thorough investigation would be conducted there.
He decided on the spot to share what he discovered here with the Cardinals. He didn't intend to do it before, but he got out of this deal with nothing of value actually.
He got the feeling that William was lying. And if not for the fact that trying to spy over William was a dangerous thing, he'd rather prefer to know the answer himself.
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