The dinner was very satisfying. But shockingly, Lillie ate many times faster than me. She had finished eating hers, whereas I still had half of my steak left. Obviously, an eagerness to eat more was still plastered over her face as she eyed my steak.

“No! this is mine.” I covered my food.

She pouted, a bit dejected but managed to hold her desire to eat my steak, as there was still an unopened tray on the food trolley. A swift eater and a glutton, I'm scared that if her background wasn't that of an influential rich family, they’d have succumbed to poverty.

While amused, I quickly finished my meal, then I grabbed the last tray from the trolley and lifted the round cover. There, a pale-colored food in the shape of a wide tube could be seen. Lots of attractive red strawberries were decorating the upper surface of the food, making anyone drooled when seeing it.

"Is this food? How beautiful!" exclaimed Lillie, full of anticipation on her eyes.

"Yes, it’s called cake or more specifically, strawberry cake."

“Cake? I heard that it was popular in the capital.” Hmm? Cake had been discovered, huh?

As I gave one of the portions to Lillie’s plate, she immediately took her scoop and ate part of it. Just when the scoop full of cakes got into her mouth, her eyes shone in delight and her body seemed to shudder in excitement. If she had a tail, then it would have wagging in happiness. Hmm… cute.

Next, I cut my part and scooped a part of the sliced cake. When I put it in my mouth, a sweet taste pervaded over my tongue. The sensation of the cake melting was pleasing. Yeah, definitely not my cup of tea but Lillie seems to enjoy it a lot.

Just as I finished eating my part and stared into the whole cake at the center. I could feel that my mouth went agape, as I couldn’t believe what happened to it. The cake that was supposedly still there was gone, totally gone. At first, I tried rubbing my eyes before finding that Lillie’s mouth was smeared with cream while munching something.

“Lillie, did you just ate all of the cake?” I questioned, dumbfounded.

She shook her head innocently while still munching the cake and holding her mouth with her two hands.

“……”

After having dinner, I decided to finally awaken the two captive knights. However, I would need Lillie to explain to me the common sense of this world first.

“Lillie, I know that this was sudden but—”

“A-are you gonna chase Lillie away because of the cake?” Lillie stared at me with a puppy gaze.

“Well… no. Having secluded myself for years, I lack information. Which then, I may need you to—"

“Of course! Leave it to Lillie.” Lillie puffed out her chest and tried to be prideful, although what I saw was an innocent little kid trying to be older.

Subsequently, Lillie began explaining the geography, history, and common sense that she knew. I also asked a lot of simple questions and despite giving a little doubtful gaze to me, she still answered it, nonetheless.

So, it’s like that, the forest that I’m currently in was named Plain forest. A quite safe forest as there aren’t many dangerous beasts in here.

Wait a minute, not many dangerous beasts? She said that this forest’s quite safe?! If this place is safe, then what was deemed to be dangerous? Holy shit! Did what I fought before is only at the bottom of the food chain?! When those thoughts come across my mind, cold sweat trickled down my body.

Anyway, Lillie said that this region was ruled under a Viscount. But for some reason, she was reluctant to divulge about this place further. There’s also a lot more information that she tells but it’s too shallow, and I need to see it with my own eyes to be sure. After all, I cannot always believe secondhand information.

"Oh yeah, I had captured two knights that were chasing you. I…” Wait, I cannot ask Lillie to accompany me since it might bring trauma for her that could last for life.

“Do you have any questions that you want to ask about?” I smiled, trying to be straight.

Hesitation appeared on her face, but in the end, she nodded and said, “Uh-huh, Lillie wants to know about Lillie’s parent.”

“Okay then. You stay in your room for now.”

Lillie agreed with a nod, and I went back to the control room, not before taking some antidotes from the medical room. Next, I chugged the knights with the antidote. Before long, their eyes twitched a little, opening it slowly. Soon, the knight on the left woke up first.

“Uuhh… Where am I? Y-you… who are you?” Finding that he was chained, he shouted, “Hey, do you know who I am? Get these chains off!”

“Hmm… it seems that you still didn’t understand what state you’re in.” I smirked, taking a seat on the captain’s chair.

The eyes of the knight widen in horror as he tried to break the chains but to no avail. Just then, the other knights also woken up and gazed around in confusion.

“What kind of place is this?” He looked around, then locked his gaze at me. “You are… So, this was what going on, no wonder. Sir Magus, if you let us off, our lord would give a satisfying compensation.” Magus, huh? I still have some suspicion… Guess, I’ll play along for now.

“Hmm… if you know that I was a Magus. Did you think that a simple compensation is enough? Now tell me, who’s your lord and what’s your objective? If your answer satisfies me, I may let you off the hook.”

The knight seemed to hesitate a little but refused, "My apologies, sir Magus. But even if you brainwash us with a spell, it won't work."

Spell? I don’t think that this knight is trying to bluff from how he talked. In any case, this isn’t going to work. They have an iron will on their eyes, unless if I extract their memory with advanced technology, it’d be impossible. Hmm... I remember that the Technology Cube had that technology in its database.

“If so, I didn’t have any choice but to kill you. But as I was so generous, I’ll give you another chance. As long as you answer two of my personal questions, I’ll consider letting you off."

“Fine. What might the questions be?”

“First. Does the girl’s family that you were chasing before still alive?”

“Her? Heh… sir Magus must have taken a liking to her. Obviously, they’re all dead. But… the butler of her family is still alive and was kept in the camp not far from here.” Ugh. This is bad, I guess.

“Now then, tell me how you could have inhuman strength and move so fast?” I’ve been curious about what secret these knights have. In the information that Lillie told me, it was said that they wield something called… qi?

The other knight — which was silent all this time — chuckled while showing a doubtful look, “Are you really a Magus? Heh… I guess you’re not since even a Magus that lives under a rock should know it. Even if you’re one, you’re just someone that found a legacy of the past Magus.”

“Now just prostate and gave us the legacy. Our lord would be happy and may be willing to talk things out with you as long as you present us with that gir—.”

Bang!

Smoke was coming out from the tube of my rifle as the headless body of the left knight slumped down to the floor.

“You’re speaking… too much nonsense!” I aimed my pulse rifle to the other still stunned knight, threatened, “Either you speak or your head won't be sitting on your neck.”

Finding that his demise was near, he suddenly laughed hysterically, “Ahahahahahahahah!! You aren’t a Magus and dare to proclaim as one? You know what you’ve done is considered taboo.” Shit! There’re too many things I didn’t know about this world.

“Keep in mind that if words of you proclaiming yourself to be a Magus spread to the Magus Association, you’ll be hunted even to the end of the world!” He smiled and said, “Now after knowing this much, it’s obvious that you won't let me live. Ahahahaha…. Uhugh—”

Just then, blood came out from all his orifices. His eyes turned white and he slumped to the ground with an open mouth. Obviously, he suicided with a poison.

“Damn! He suicides.” This was no solution; I need information as soon as possible prior to having my next move. Wait, he said that there’s a camp near here.

"ATA, direct the drones to survey the surroundings and find the camp!"

[As you command.]

Now then, how am I supposed to tell this to Lillie? My mouth tasted bitter the moment I thought that.