Eisen stepped into the eting hall, where the small celebration of the treaty's finalization was currently ongoing. So of the envoys were trying to approach the old man, but he was simply headed straight toward a specific individual, ignoring everyone else.
"Aaron," Eisen said, staring at the young man. He was currently socializing with the others, acting as if nothing happened, but the old man was sick and tired of acting like they didn't know Aaron was sohow related to this.
"Your majesty! Where were you, everyone was looking for you earlier! Is everything alright?" he asked with a smile on his face, but Eisen himself didn't smile whatsoever. His expression was completely blank.
"Co with ."
"Uhm... again, is everything alright?" Aaron asked, appearing a bit concerned, but Eisen didn't buy it.
"No, it's not. I won't say it again, Aaron, co with , right this second."
The crown prince looked at the other envoys awkwardly for a mont, and then excused himself. He followed Eisen out of the eting room and down the hallway into a separate space. It was just a small office, though, and it wasn't even inhibiting Samuel's observation anymore, but the old man couldn't care less right now.
"Did sothing happen? Can I help you sohow?" Aaron asked, and Eisen snapped his finger. His domain was imdiately deployed within the office, and only within the office. Everything in here petrified imdiately, forming flaming cracks on their surfaces. Aaron took a step back toward the door, but it was already blocked off.
"Why? Why would you do sothing like this? Has everything just been an act? Are you proud that you've been able to trick us so far?" Eisen asked, sitting down at the desk. He motioned toward the chair across the desk, and Aaron slowly sat down on it.
"I don't... I don't know what you're talking about," Aaron stuttered out, but Eisen could see the flow of his magic. He seed maybe a little nervous, but not even particularly so.
"Don't act stupid, Aaron. You know that I can see through any lie you speak," the old man said, leaning back in his chair, "All of us know. You had sothing to do with the Filth appearing. And you had sothing to do with the bombs that were placed on the train tracks. And, more importantly, you had sothing to do with the bomb that killed my baby brother."
Aaron stayed silent. His heart... skipped a beat. He was actually becoming nervous. Eisen was confused, staring at the flow of Aaron's mana, which hadn't changed even as he was faced with a literal monstrosity from a world that he shouldn't be able to understand, but now... he was nervous.
"I didn't... sorry, what do you an with bombs on the trains?"
"Ignoring the other two, huh? Are you admitting to it?"
"Well... you know about it anyway, right? So what sense would it make for to try and justify myself or lie to you?" Aaron pointed out, clearly unable to look Eisen in the eye, "But... I didn't have anything to do with the bombs on the trains. The timing would be all wrong. I knew how the treaty worked, so all of it would have just been ssed up if I had tried to kill the other envoys
after
we signed it."
Eisen could tell that Aaron was telling the truth. But even so... even if he wasn't the one that planted the bombs, this was still a confirmation that he had done everything else.
"Whatever. Aaron, why did you do it? How could you?"
"... The quests told to."
Eisen frowned deeply, "Excuse ?"
"I've been getting quests to do all this."
The old man's eyes widened, and Aaron looked at the ground, "For as long as I could rember, I've been getting quests that have told how to act and what to do. And when I would tell soone about the quests, I would get hurt."
Eisen was silent. Aaron was telling the truth. Just... what? But before he could ask, Aaron looked up at the old man confused, "Wait, I... why am I not... why am I not getting punished?"
"What do you an? I'm not a torturer."
"No, not by you, but... as I just said, whenever I would tell others about the quests, I would get hurt, and the next punishnt would get worse. This ti, I should have..." Aaron grimaced, not even wanting to think about it, "But this ti, nothing happened."
Eisen stared at Aaron. He was still telling the truth, so he figured he should be a bit more patient here. But still, why was the punishnt not activating.
"Unless..." the old man muttered, "Aaron, try opening your status window."
Aaron was confused, but he did as asked. But then, his expression showed even more confusion, "I-It's... what's going on here? The window isn't... It's broken, it's not showing up properly, just... fragnted, and..."
A loud laugh that shook the room left Eisen's mouth as he turned toward the fake system ssage that wouldn't disappear no matter what. The ssage related to the 'System Resistance' skill. Eisen's demonic domain was a skill that filled a space with the old man's own qualities; Eisen wanted to use it to pressure Aaron and get him under control in case he had so weird card up his sleeve, but it was even better now.
Within Eisen's domain, the system was 'broken'. And with that, Aaron's quest clearly didn't realize that he broke its rules.
"Don't worry, it will start working again when you leave this room," Eisen responded, glaring at the young man in front of , "You don't need to worry about the quest. So tell ."
Aaron hesitated. Clearly, this was sothing that never happened before, and after living a lifeti of not being able to tell anyone, it wasn't easy for him to start divulging it all now. But even so, Eisen didn't care.
"That wasn't a request. I'm sorry, but you have lost the right to secrets right now," Eisen said bluntly, and Aaron grew even more nervous.
"I-I'm sorry... Okay, let ... let start at the beginning. When I was three, my first quest appeared. It told to befriend so specific noble's kid at a social gathering, and spill food on another. I didn't want to do it, obviously, but more importantly, I was just confused. I had never gotten a quest before. So, I told my maid about it. The mont I did, the maid's eyes rolled in the back of her head. She grabbed , and with a strength I knew she didn't possess, broke my arm."
Eisen's eyes widened, as Aaron continued, "She... was killed for the cri. I didn't understand anything at the ti, I just knew that my maid broke my arm. The quest I had gotten obviously failed, and that had its own punishnts. At the ti, I was friends with the son of a viscount that lived near . Him and his father ca to visit when my arm was broken, sort of to cheer up I would assu. And then, when the tir for the quest was officially over, that friend had a stroke and died right in front of my eyes."
"So..." Eisen started, "When you fail a quest, those around you would get hurt, and when you tell others about the quest, you yourself would get hurt?"
"Yes. And every ti, the punishnt would get worse as well. Though the quests got harder too. Reaching a certain level before a particular point in ti. Attaining a specific class. Killing specific monsters. Creating conflict around . Getting certain nobles on my side, while ostracizing others. It got to the point where there was not a day when I didn't have quests. Actually, now that I think back on it, a lot of them were rather mundane. I got quests that told to act in particular ways and go to specific spots and nothing else, but overall, the quests beca harder to complete. When I told others, they would be possessed and hurt . They would strike , break my bones, strangle , stab ... no matter what they did, I would never die, even if I should have. One ti, the punishnt was to have my head cut off, but I just woke up a mont later in a puddle of my own blood," Aaron stared down at the floor, "I started acting only as the quests told to. And then... when the aritficials appeared, they quests? They disappeared. Until the date for the peace summit was set."
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