Hearing her say that last line, part of me just gave up hope about the situation we were in. I didn’t know who she was, the reason why she had stopped us, what I had done to deserve this… well, maybe not so much the last one… The point is, if the girl in front of me truly had her eyes on us and had no plans of letting us go, then there wasn’t really much the two of us could do against her.

 

The simple truth was that we were weak, and even without using [Veritas], I could tell that she was ridiculously strong. So there was no chance of us being able to fight our way out of this situation. We also didn’t have the luxury of talking ourselves out of it either, as there was simply no way for us to explain our situation in a way that wouldn’t just complicate things further. Neither Ailya nor I had any decent knowledge about the world that we could use to formulate a plausible story, and our own actual stories were just ridiculous and would get us in trouble whether she believed them or not.

 

Looking at us standing still, Charlotte decided that we had had enough time to get our thoughts together as she said:

 

“For starters, why don’t you tell me where you both ACTUALLY come from. Okay?”

 

At this question, I could feel the blood drain from me as my body began turning cold. Honestly, I felt just like the time I crashed my parents car after taking it without permission. In such a situation, there’s just no easy way to save yourself. Saying the truth will end up with you getting in trouble. And If I lie about the event, I will just end up in even more trouble since it's not exactly hard to tell that I’m lying…

 

Deciding to take a somewhat truthful approach about where we came from and hopefully avoid getting the two of us in a worse situation by making up an easy to see through lie. Thus, I decided to tell the girl in front of us a simplified truth about the events and hopefully, she wouldn’t have a method to see our abilities and we could keep the more problematic secrets about us hidden. Therefore, with this plan in my mind that wouldn't really save us from this mess, I told Charlotte about the way in which I had woken up in the elven forest with amnesia not too long ago without any knowledge as to why I was there or of the land I was in. I also told her that I had found ‘Alice’ in the forest by herself, as the girl had left the forest soon after her mother had died since she had no one else in the forest she could depend on.

 

Though Charlotte had an amused smile while waiting for my answer and as I began my tale, not soon after I had begun to recount my tale, her smile began to fade gradually leaving behind the now serious look on her face. As a result of this transition, I had been feeling increasingly more nervous the further in my recount I got, as I watched nervously as her smile disappeared from her face until she was staring at me with a solemn expression. By the end, I was terrified of the prospect that she had thought we were lying to her and treating her like a fool, possibly angering her to a point of no return… 

 

Against my expectations however, Charlotte didn’t lash out or reprimand me for my half-assed answer, instead she kept looking at me with her serious expression as she asked:

 

“How many people have you told this story to?”

 

“Huh? Uhhh, just you…”

 

“Good”

 

Seeing her fall into a trance as she began to seriously ponder about something I was unaware of, I wasn’t sure of what to think about the way the situation was developing in. Although I was glad that she hadn’t been angered by my response, the all too serious expression on her face made me worry that my answer had only made things develop in an even more troublesome direction.

 

After a short while, it appeared that Charlotte had come to some sort of conclusion as she turned to the two of us, and with her still serious expression, asked us :

 

“When did this event happen?”

 

“About… two weeks ago I think?”

 

After hearing this, she mumbled a few incoherent things to herself before continuing saying:

 

“Did anyone see the two of you inside the forest or in the vicinity of it?”

 

Looking back to the moment we left the forest, the encounter with the old hooded man immediately reappeared in my mind as I answered a simple:

 

“Yes”

 

“Were they looking for anyone in particular?”

 

At this question, I panicked a little in my mind as I had been planning to avoid bringing any attention to Ailya. After all, at the moment I simply lacked any information to understand why a man as powerful as that old hooded man had been chasing after her, and the implications that came with such a thing. There was also no way for me to know if the big hat wearing mage in front of me was acquainted with the hooded old man, and as a result, if she would take Ailya away from me… 

 

Not only that, I also did not know the reason why her expression had immediately changed so drastically as I recounted my story, but thinning back on the fact that a powerful person just like her had appeared around the forest soon after my summoning, I was beginning to have a bad premonition about what the interest of these powerful people in the events that transpired there meant for me going forward.

 

Seeing me fall into silence, Charlotte narrowed her eyes as she looked straight into mine and said:

 

“Remember what I told you earlier. That the thing I despise most is when people lie to me. Make sure you keep that in mind when you decide to finally answer my question…”

 

Hearing her words which were far more cold this time around than anything she had said previously, I swallowed the lump of saliva on my throat as I prayed to whichever deity would hear me to allow for me and Ailya to survive this situation, as I answered truthfully:

“T-the man was looking for Alice…”

 

“The elf-girl? Why were they looking for the elf-girl? Did they know she had that transformation ability? And is that elf-girl anyone important?”

 

“I-I don’t know… I don’t think they knew about the ability, and Alice said she didn’t know who the old man was. As for Alice… she’s just a normal elven girl who grew up with her mother.”

 

“Is that true, Alice?”

 

At Charlotte’s question as she gave Ailya a piercing glare, Ailya simply gave a confident nod in assent to my explanation that belied any of the current fright she was experiencing. As her answer was technically the truth, she was able to more easily assert the truth of my statement without giving away the signs of a falsity.

 

Thinking about the matter more deeply, Charlotte fell into a momentary silence once more before turning to the of us and asking:

 

“Did the two of you have the same appearances when you were found by the old man as you do now?”

 

“…Yes…”

 

“Then-“

 

Before she could continue however, she suddenly turned to her left side before quickly turning back to the of us and saying “Follow me”

 

Knowing that we didn’t really have a choice in the matter, the two of us began to follow after Charlotte as she led us to a small alley that was completely devoid of people, giving us the impression that we were walking towards our execution…