"If this continues, I don't mind living up to them."

The Commander tensed at his words, eyeing him with caution. For a moment, neither of them said a word. Just as everyone thought the situation would erupt into something worse, the dark-haired man stepped back, a harmless smile returning onto his face.

"I'm kidding, of course. Did I scare you?"

Naturally, he wasn't capable of hypnosis or dark magic. Nor whatever rumours the Commander had been hearing throughout the capital. He was just spewing out nonsense for the fun of it.

The reason?

Despite his gentle smile, Edris was currently in a foul mood.

The first thing he experienced waking up was the bombardment of information from royalties. Without a break, he then hurried all the way here to retrieve his burden-of-a-database, only to fall victim to first-hand embarrassment from an interrogation that wasn't even meant for him.

As if all this wasn't enough, even a simple bath had been reduced to wishful thinking as he found himself listening to the ramblings of the woman before him.

Edris smiled like a saint.

"I have limited patience, Commander. I'd appreciate it if you'd showcase your stubbornness elsewhere."

While he could pull the “uncontrollable power" act again like he did back at Duke Orteon's Manor, it'd be a dumb move in the current situation and only add on to his suspicions. Dolan Zacriya was a useful card he'd prefer to keep at hand, one he needed to increase his control over—not throw to waste.

Though Commander Poet was getting on his nerves, she was also a card he could manipulate to achieve this goal.

"Stubbornness?" She stared at him, an irked tick on her face. "And what would a foreigner like you know about me?"

Edris gave a passive shrug. If he took a hundred steps back and evaluated the situation from an outsider's perspective, he could understand where the Commander was coming from.

With his entire background a mystery, Ace was a reasonable target of suspicion. Commander Poet was simply following the protocols and holding account for the kingdom's well-being.

Indeed, her actions were understandable.

Too bad he didn't care.

"Oh! He's awake!" Faren's voice interrupted the two, and all eyes fixed on the bed behind them

Edris whirled around, and the first thing he saw was Ace's piercing dark eyes boring straight into him, as though to penetrate right through his soul.

It was then Edris knew—he'd heard them.

When Quine Poet voiced her suspicions about Ace's background, she'd exposed the true intentions of the Dread Chamber. Edris had told Ace that it was a simple inspection, not a full-scaled interrogation.

Confronted with Ace's narrowed eyes, Edris lamented inwardly before arranging his face into a shameless smile.

"Well, if he's awake, I can ask a few questions, right?" Watching as the white-haired man rise from the bed, Commander Poet marched his way, crossing her arms as she stood before him.

"What is your name?" she asked.

No response.

The white-haired man sat in a upright posture, gaze forward, hands in lap. At a glance, he looked like a soldier awaiting instructions.

Despite the Commander right in front of him, he didn't even bother meeting her eyes as he peered into the distance—towards the exact location where Edris was standing.

"His name is Ace," Edris said, laying out his hands in a helpless manner. "He's quite shy, so I don't think you'll be getting what you want, Commander."

"I did not ask you," Poet said coldly. She took another step forward and pressed a hand to his shoulder. It was then Ace finally met her eyes.

"I hope you know, Ace. You are currently on the land of the Zacriya Kingdom, and you are currently one of our primary targets of the investigation for the incidents occurring in the capital. I ask that you cooperate with us." Her grip on his shoulder tightened as she emphasised the last part of her sentence, but the man posed no reaction to this threat.

"I take it that you must be a foreigner as well. A foreigner who does not know the rules around here, or who is talking to you." She gazed down at him. "Do you know who I am? Or should I introduce myself to you as well?"

"Quine Poet. Female. Aged thirty. Current Commander of Zacriya's Royal Mage Brigade."

Commander Poet's eyes widened, and so did everyone else in the room. Her question seemed to have flipped some sort of switch in the white-haired man's head as he rose from the bed. While standing, the Commander barely reached his chest as Ace towered over her.

Ace's gaze fixed on the woman in front of him, then on the dark-haired man in the distance. The next second, a deep, ocean-like voice reverberated throughout the room.

"Officially registered as an Awakened at the age of three and, at the four years and seven months, entered Nolmes Academy as the third youngest Awakened in its academic history. Her mother passed away at her birth. Her father currently works as a researcher at the Resource Faction." Ace's face bore no emotions as the Commander's shock reflected in his motionless pupils.

He just kept talking.

"Joined the Expedition Army at twenty-one, the Royal Mage Brigade at twenty-six. Successfully completed one hundred and twenty excursions to date.

"Favourite place to visit in Nolmes is Romeo's Cafe; favourite drink is strawberry smoothie; favourite colour is pink; favourite food is…"

From achievements to hobbies, down to her most ordered drink in the pub, Ace listened out one fact after another with utmost apathy in his tone. He took no notice of the surrounding looks of bafflement as he continued down the list.

At that moment, Edris considered paying the 50 000 gold yones contract fee so he could leave the white-haired man behind at once—for the sake of his well-being.

Ace was definitely doing this on purpose.

Frankly speaking, all the information the man spoke of was nothing unheard of. Most were records collected from previous interviews, newspapers or achievement folders in the library. Anyone could probably find them if they tried looking.

However…

Edris watched as the Commander, Quine Poet, stood numbly on the spot. Her eyes were as still as the rest of her face; they stared ahead, aghast as she took in the recount about her entire life that poured out of Ace's mouth.

He couldn't blame her for the reaction.

Indeed, the things Ace brought up were nothing new—it was the way he blurted out everything unhesitantly, matter-of-factly. In her current eyes, nothing about this man could be considered "normal," especially as someone who was supposed to be unconscious mere minutes ago.

From their interactions over the months, Edris had come to see Ace as more of a verbal database than an emotional human being.

He was used to hearing Ace's monotonous splurges in his head, but the Commander obviously was not.

"That's enough." He tapped his back, stopping the white-haired man just as he was about to move on to Quine Poet's love life. Despite his increasing annoyance, he kept his face calm and his tone friendly. "It appears my friend has woken up. We'll be taking our leave."

Commander Poet was still frozen on the spot, but a rush of heat had spread across her freckled face, contorted with a mixture of shock and humiliation.

If he stayed, Edris had a feeling she would either burst out in tears or stab them to death. One or the other, no in-between.

"W-wait, Edris. Your friend over there…" The Crown Prince stared at him dumbly, still in a trance.

"Please don't mind Ace's words just now. He acts a bit strange, but he's an avid fan of the Royal Mage Brigade. Especially our Commander over there," Edris said without blinking. "He happens to have a really good memory, so he remembered a lot of facts about her from previous newspapers and interviews."

Dolan drew his head back with scrunched brows, unconvinced but impressed. Unconvinced by his flimsy lies; impressed by the unabashed earnestness in his gaze as he spewed out those lies.

"That's straight up ridiculous!" Commander Poet, having snapped out of her state of shock, glared straight at Edris. "You expect me to believe this after all he just said about me?"

"But Commander…" Edris turned to her, shoulders lifted in a shrug. "It was you who asked the question. My friend simply answered what he knew."

He tilted his head innocently.

"Or are you behaving in such a manner because you've never met someone who likes you?"

The Commander stood there, wide-eyed and flushed from head to ears.

"No way." Edris blinked. "Really?"

She opened her mouth to speak again, but no words came out. So instead, she reached into the bag at her waist and pulled out two pairs of mana shackles.

"Hold on, hold on. Poet, let's calm down here!" The Crown Prince hurriedly moved in front of her, holding both arms out as he slid into her view. Faren Ablemore also tagged along from behind, ready to support.

"Don't tell me you're defending them after all this."

Slamming the shackles onto the ground, the Commander spun around and faced the wall, trying to cool down. After three seconds, she turned back. Her narrowed eyes locked onto the white-haired man, and Ace held her gaze with indifference.

The tension in the waiting space was palpable. The Commander and her subordinates stood on one side while Edris's group mirrored her on the other. Moving frantically between the two were the Crown Prince and Faren Ablemore, the latter almost entering a breakdown.

Although Edris didn't plan to aggravate the situation, Commander Poet was too riled up for her own good. And frankly, his fuse was also feeling short from all the accounts of today's annoyances.

Another three seconds passed in silence, broken as Commander Poet took an aggressive step forward.

Almost simultaneously, a cough echoed throughout the room.

At first, it was soft and subtle, even repressed, but it soon escalated to a whole coughing fit. The suspense crumpled as pairs of eyes shifted toward the source of the sound.

Edris bent over, hiding his face which had grown rosy from the rush of blood flow. He turned his back to the group and pressed a palm against Ace's bed railings to steady himself. The cool light from the ceilings reflected off his pale skin, giving it an extra layer of sickliness.

Only then did the group realise just how awful the man currently looked.

"Master! Are you alright?"

Celio immediately supported Edris from the other side, and the latter inwardly cheered at his prompt reaction. He waved a weary hand in reassurance and gave him a nod.

"I'm alright. Just a bit tired."

"You don't look okay. I'm sorry, I should've known you're still recovering from the Slums." Dolan glanced downwards, guilt eating at his expression.

"Your Highness. You've said earlier that you would fulfil a request of mine," Edris said.

"That's right."

"Does the offer still stand?"

"Of course. Anything within my power."

"Do you trust me, Your Highness?"

"...I suppose I do." Dolan blinked, not knowing where he was going with this conversation.

Edris gave a sidelong glance at Ace, then shifted his attention back to the Crown Prince. "Additional interrogations are unnecessary. My friend is not involved in any of the incidents in the capital, nor has he done any harm to the kingdom. I understand where your suspicions are coming from. I know the results of the Dread Chamber may have raised some questions, and the things he said about the Commander, too…"

Edris sighed softly.

"My friend, Ace… He has a special place in my heart. He's quite important to me, you see. I'd hate to see him injured in any way, and from what I hear about the Risk Faction, harm is exactly what awaits him there."

He shook his head, too slowly to be dismissive. His words lingered when he spoke, like they were released into this world only after careful consideration. At the same time, there's a certain authenticity to his gaze, dimmed but still lucent.

Dolan's lips parted at yet another side of Edris that he was seeing for the first time. His expression was shared by Celio, who grew teary-eyed throughout his entire speech.

The mages glanced at one another, at a loss after hearing the traveller's sentimental words. Despite the difficult situation, the genuineness in his voice as he cared for his friend wasn't something they could just ignore.

At this thought, everyone in the room fell silent, reflecting upon his words.

Everyone except Ace, of course. Edris didn't need to turn around to know that a look of disgust was probably on his face right now.

Suppressing a smile, he continued. "My friend has a peculiar way of communicating, I admit, but he is not a threat to the kingdom. Not now, not in the future. I ask that you don't dig any further. About me or the people around me.

"Your Highness, my only request is to be left alone. Will you heed this traveller's request?"

"...You didn't have to use the request for something like this." Dolan looked at him with a complicated expression. "But alright. I will take your word and not pursue the matter further. We'll still need to investigate the incidents further, but it won't be towards you, or your friends."

The traveller released what sounded like a sigh of relief at his words.

"Thank you, Your Highness."

"Do you really trust what he says?" Commander Poet turned to Dolan, gaze complicated.

"I do."

"Your Highness!"

"Poet." Dolan interrupted her, voice lowered. "Who are you speaking to right now?"

"...The Crown Prince of Zacriya, Your Highness."

"Exactly. As the Crown Prince of Zacriya, I promised Sir Edris to fulfil any wish of his liking as thanks for his deeds to the kingdom." Dolan narrowed his eyes. "Do you wish for the future heir of the throne to be one who goes back on his words?"

"..."

"In any case, we will be on our way." Slipped past the two, Edris then turned his head sideways, sweeping past the Commander with a frigid gaze.

"The Zacriya Kingdom's hospitality. It's quite something, isn't it?"

Ignoring Quine Poet's penetrating scrutiny, Edris turned to the Crown Prince with a slight bow. Celio mimicked the action. Ace remained upright. His stoic stare lingered on the two for another moment before retracting. Perhaps it was because of what Edris said, but Dolan Zacriya had a pained expression as he lowered his gaze, lips pursed into a line.

Just as Edris was a foot out the door, he whirled around at once and, with a downward tilt of his chin, offered the Crown Prince a gentle smile.

"Farewell, Your Highness."

***

Compared to their trip up the tower, Edris's walk down was almost instantaneous. Celio clung to his arm for the entirety, as if without it, the man would feebly collapse onto the ground. Edris didn't stop him. He was too tired to care.

Ace remained silent the entire way down. Even with his back straight and his strides assertive, there was a rare aloofness to his gaze, which Edris attributed to the aftermath of the Dread Chamber.

"Hey."

It wasn't until they stepped out of the tower's front doors and over the arch bridge that the white-haired man called Edris to a stop. The latter spun around and tilted his head.

Ace stared at him with deep eyes. His voice was deep and composed as usual—utterly unbefitting the next words coming out of his mouth.

"Edris," he said. "I remembered."