Oh boy.

I got one chance to not get a ‘game over’ after just basically being here for half a month. 

Can’t I be given some dialogue boxes to at least make the situation easier? I was always rather good at guessing picking the right choices in games… 

What should I do? Should I just confess everything? But would she even believe my ridiculous story.

Then again, I’m pretty sure if I lie about a single thing she’ll probably figure it out. After all, I’m sure she knew from the beginning that I was lying, and I’m not confident in my lying abilities.

Fuck it, I’ll just tell her the truth about where I come from and what happened. Whether or not she believes me is not… well, it is my problem…

Come on god, help me out here.

“Hey.”

“Yes, yes, I’ll tell you know.”

Taking a deep breath, I began to detail the events that occurred in the forest.

I told Charlotte about the way in which I was summoned from another world without any reason as to why. How after arriving, I noticed that I had an ability called [Soul Devourer] that allowed me to see and acquire souls of things that I either killed or died around me. I also told her about how after leveling up, I had the choice to pick among a wide variety of skills and abilities, and that the first time this happened I picked up a tier 10 soul ability called [Veritas].

To prove this to her, I gave her a brief explanation on what [Veritas] was as well as used it once more before reciting back to her a brief summary of her own stat sheet as well as her own soul abilities and skills.

At this feat, her eyes widened in surprise before a large smile appeared on her face as she signaled for me to go on with my story. Obediently doing so, I continued to explain how after almost a week in the forest, I came across Ailya. Since Charlotte seemed to know about Ailya somewhat, I decided to also tell her that her mother had been murdered and that it was just after this that I had found the sobbing and traumatized girl.

Peeking at Charlotte, I saw her nodding with an expression that I couldn’t decipher. It could have either been a serious, or even playful, expression, but I couldn’t really tell since her countenance belied her true emotions.

Taking a deep breath for the next part. I put on as serious an expression as I could, as I attempted to convey to Charlotte the existence of that certain something that had been influencing me from the moment I arrived in the world. I tried to also convey that it was capable of establishing some sort of connection with me when I used [Veritas], and at some points could even almost dictate my course of action, affecting my very own thought process itself to cause me to act in its interest.

After seeing her nod at the end of my explanation, although I couldn’t tell whether or not she believed me or just thought I was making an excuse, I then explained to her the way in which under the influence of that something, I talked a vulnerable Ailya into becoming my subordinate. This possible thanks to an ability I had picked up at that moment called [Lord Subordination].

With that, I ended my recount after telling her that I had picked up [Mental Fortitude] and [Powerful Will] after leveling up in order to defend against the influence of that something, and that so far it appeared to be effective.

Staring at Charlotte as I could feel my heart beating strongly in my chest due to my nervousness, I continued to look into her eyes for any signs that would elucidate me on my verdict. However, against my expectations, I saw Charlotte’s smile grow as she:

“Ha… Aha… AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

As she began laughing… Hopefully that means she liked my story~

Guess I’m dead.

For some unknown reason, probably due to how nervous I was that my own mind broke, I also began to join Charlotte in laughing as the two of us entered into a fit of maniacal laughter.

Seeing me laugh along with her, Charlotte only increased the intensity of her laughter until she suddenly stopped, put on a serious expression, and said to me:

“Why are you laughing?”

At her question, I felt my heart stop as I immediately stopped laughing and thought that I could see my life flashing before me. Thoughts about how foolish this two weeks in another world had been, how I missed my dog, and how I would miss Ailya after I died ran through my mind.

Charlotte however, after seeing my mortified expression, simply resumed laughing at an even greater intensity than before. Although this time I did not join her, not that I could with how scared stiff my body had become as a result of her.

After finally tiring after a few minutes of laughing, Charlotte turned to face me and asked:

“Hey, can’t you use that [Veritas] of yours to look at fate?”

Surprised at her sudden question, and that it didn’t look like she would be executing me for the moment, I was momentarily surprised before regaining my senses and asking:

“Fate?”

“Do you not know what fate is?”

“I know what it means. But, if you’re referring to something like a mystic force that guides things, I didn’t know it was something that existed.”

“Shouldn’t [Veritas] have told you that it existed?”

“Unless I know of its existence, I can’t use [Veritas] to glean into the nature of it.”

“Then, I just told you about it. So why not try it out.”

At her suggestion, I activated [Veritas] once more and tried to peer into the ‘fate’ that Charlotte seemed to be referring to. Surprisingly, I was actually able to see a white-transparent like force surrounding Charlotte. Taking a closer look at it, I could see that this mysterious force seemed to be heading towards a certain direction, almost as if it was being drawn to something.

Turning in the direction that her ‘fate’ seemed to be pointing to, I turned my head and followed its trail as Ailya’s chained image lay at the end of the path. Taking a good look at her, I could also see the same mysterious force converging around her as it also appeared to be drawn to Charlotte.

Although I hadn’t seen this mysterious force on anyone else, I could instinctively tell that both Ailya and Charlotte possessed rather powerful ‘fates’, and that the two of them appeared to be drawn to one another. Although I didn’t know much about fate, I could see that this attraction between the two wasn’t a simple thing at all, and that the two’s fate appeared to be intertwined with one another.

At this revelation, I looked at myself and was surprised at the sight of the force, or better yet, lack of force, that surrounded me. Instead of the invincible force that surrounded the two, around me seemed to be an invisible colorless something that seemed to distort the space around me. Not understanding what this meant, I continued to change my glance between the two and myself as I tried to understand what this meant, since even [Veritas] didn’t seem to give me an answer aside from the fact that what I was looking at was a clear anomaly.

Seeing the stupefied expression on my face. Charlotte raised one of her eyebrows with clear intrigue and excitement painted on her face as she asked:

“Well, what did you see?”

I, however, instead of responding to her question, asked my own as I said:

“Who are you? And what’s your relation to Ailya?”