Another Possessor
“...What the hell are you doing, blocking my way?”
Sidus growled at Evan, who had suddenly stepped in front of her, radiating intense hostility.
“Just what I said—I've got business with this guy. It's pretty urgent, so could the princess maybe step aside this time?”
But Evan didn't flinch even a little in front of her, boldly stating her case without backing down.
From that impossible display of common sense and guts, I was certain of one thing.
This Evan is a 'possessor' too.
“And if I say no?”
Sidus, oblivious to that fact—and someone who wouldn't care anyway—narrowed her pupils into long vertical slits, her hostility toward Evan unrelenting.
“If the princess says no, there's nothing I can do about it.”
Evan shrugged like that hostility didn't faze her at all, casually firing back at Sidus.
Of course, for someone talking big, she'd been rooted to the spot the whole time.
“Then get out of my way. Don't waste my time.”
“Fine, I'll move.”
But when Sidus issued what amounted to an ultimatum, Evan couldn't hold out any longer. She stepped aside from in front of me and melted into the crowd exiting the auditorium, yanking me along by the collar of my shirt.
“I'm taking him with me!”
“What the—?!”
“Hey, wait—no, what kind of strength—grk.”
Without any warning, Evan dragged me out, and my shirt collar started choking me. I flailed to swat her hand away, but her strength was way beyond what I'd imagined, so my resistance fizzled out fast.
Instead, my body's survival instincts yanked me backward on reflex, which just meant Evan ended up hauling me out of the grand auditorium like a ragdoll.
The sight of her dragging me by the collar drew stares from everyone around, but she didn't give a damn about the attention.
Without a hint of hesitation, she pulled me to the quieter back side of the auditorium, where there were fewer people.
“This spot looks good. Nice and quiet.”
Finding a suitable place, Evan finally released her grip on my collar, freeing me.
With my airway clear at last, I hacked and glared at her.
“Hm? Something wrong?”
“......”
But when Evan looked at me with a face like she had no clue what she'd done wrong, I lost my words and just fussed with the collar of my shirt.
“Alright, no problem then—straight to the point! If we stick around here too long, that dragon princess might come looking!”
Ignoring the displeasure plain on my face, Evan clasped her hands behind her back, spun on her heel, and hopped away lightly.
She bounced a short distance from where we'd been standing, then whipped around to face me.
There wasn't any real malice in her expression as she looked at me, which made it all the more suspicious.
“I'll cut to the chase, Lerven. Are you a 'fellow possessor' like me?”
No one with a normal mindset would so carelessly reveal their own secret while probing someone else's.
Of course, whether she was really that unguarded or if this was all calculated would take more conversation to figure out.
...Time to play dumb, I guess.
That way, at least, I'd know if she was just fishing or if she was dead certain.
“...No idea what you're talking about. If you dragged me out here just to spout weird crap like that, I'm outta here.”
I made a face like I couldn't comprehend her words, then turned to leave.
Her reaction would tell me something about her intentions.
But...
“...Huh? W-wait, no, this isn't how it's supposed to go...?”
“......”
No need to overthink it— the second I turned, Evan panicked hard. She was stomping her feet and fidgeting so much I could hear it from here.
“H-hey...! You're really not a possessor? You didn't, like, lose your memories or something, right?”
She even clung to me, desperately denying she could be wrong.
“Why turn a perfectly fine guy into an amnesiac? Possessor this, possessor that—I have no clue what you're on about.”
I kept up the act of playing clueless.
She seemed naive enough that coming clean might not be a big deal, but I wasn't convinced yet—that was the main reason.
“Got anything else to say?”
“N-no... but... it feels so right... I've never had my intuition scream this loud before...”
Evan mumbled about her 'intuition' with a kicked-puppy look, unable to stop me as I walked away, just stamping her feet.
More than that—intuition? No way. She was just guessing?
And she nailed it. That's what's crazy.
“Ughhh... sorry for grabbing you for no reason...”
Evan bought my act completely, with zero suspicion that she was right.
Thanks to that, I slipped out of her grasp without much trouble.
“Next time, don't grab people for stupid reasons.”
“Y-yeah...”
Staying in character as the pissed-off guy who'd been randomly nabbed, I left the back of the auditorium.
Her repeated denials had deflated her completely; she could only watch me go, frozen in place.
Once her footsteps stopped following, I let out a quiet sigh of relief.
'Looks like I bluffed my way out somehow.'
Was she just innocent, or a little dim? Either way, she'd bought it without question.
Sorry for tricking her, but if she seems trustworthy later, I can always come clean then—
Flap flap!
“Ow, shit—nearly jumped outta my skin.”
A bird burst out as I rounded the back of the auditorium and walked along the side, startling me into muttering a curse out loud.
Must've been the tension from keeping up the act—
“...Out loud...?”
Wait.
I'd said it? That quintessentially Korean curse everyone knows?
Damn it—I regretted blurting it reflexively in that split second, but the damage was done.
I glanced back to check Evan wasn't following, then got ready to bolt.
I didn't know if she'd heard, but either way, time to get outta here fast—
Thud—
The moment I pushed off the ground...
A sound came from behind me that shouldn't have—a crunch not of stomping the earth, but shattering it.
The instant I heard it, I hated my big mouth more than ever.
The Gateway of Verbal Disaster, Tongue-Cutting Body Knife
Meaning: The mouth is the gateway that invites calamity, and the tongue is the blade that cleaves the body.
The more I thought about it, the more this old saying fit my current situation perfectly.
I'd provoked the princess, pulled a ton of aggro, then let a curse slip—
And gotten clocked in the back of the head, kidnapped somewhere.
I winced at the throbbing pain in the back of my skull and scanned my surroundings.
A dim room lit by a single source. The walls were lined with iron tools whose purposes I couldn't quite make out.
I was tied to a chair, and across from me sat Evan, her red eyes glinting murderously as she loomed over me.
“...I've done a lot of manual labor, so yeah, I'm pretty sturdy.”
“Well, works out better this way. I was wondering how to wake you up.”
“If you were pondering how to wake me, maybe you shouldn't have knocked me out in the—”
Crack.
“Ack.”
As I snarked back at her, Evan's fist whistled past my face and pulverized the corner of the iron chair I was bound to.
Leaving me stunned, she pulled her fist back and held it in front of my face, smiling coldly.
“Watch your mouth from now on. I'm pissed, so I'm not great at holding back right now.”
“...I'll be careful.”
Creak.
Evan shot me that chilling warning, then dragged over another chair from somewhere and straddled it.
Under the flickering light, her vivid red eyes and icy expression made me doubt if this was the same clumsy airhead from before.
“First, a simple question. That's okay, right?”
“...Ask away.”
Under the oppressive aura radiating from her total vibe shift, she began her interrogation.
“Lerven, are you a possessor?”
As she'd said, the first question was straightforward.
No point lying now—it was a done deal—so I nodded.
“...Then why lie to me?”
“No guarantee another possessor would be friendly.”
Caution is the bare minimum to avoid getting screwed over by someone else.
Live without any suspicion, and you'll end up a mark for every con artist, broke and begging.
“...I thought I was being pretty friendly toward you.”
“I'm a suspicious guy. Needed time to tell if it was an act or not.”
“......”
That was why almost all my actions stemmed from wariness.
No matter how trustworthy someone seems, the odds of them flipping and betraying you are never zero.
“So you were just suspicious—no malicious intent in deceiving me?”
“Yeah. And I was gonna come clean myself once the timing felt right.”
“Oh... so that's... how it was...”
I laid out my perfectly reasonable rationale, and Evan ruffled her hair like her head hurt.
The cold edge vanished from her face in an instant, reverting to the innocent look from earlier.
“Ughhh... what? No bad intentions at all...? But I wasn't supposed to believe that...”
She started mumbling to herself.
I tried to ignore it, figuring she was just embarrassed, but some words stood out too clearly, so I cut in.
“Whose advice did you take?”
It sounded like someone had warned her I had bad intentions—meaning that's why she'd knocked me out.
But it had just been me and her there. Who the hell told her that?
“Huh? Obviously the sa—”
Evan gave me a 'what kind of dumb question is that?' look, but it quickly turned to shock as realization hit.
Her eyes went wide, and her face filled with question marks as she asked me,
“Wait—you don't know what I was 'talking to'?”
“...? No, obviously not. I didn't even know you'd talked to anyone till now.”
“...Just to check—are you saying you've never read the Triam Academy storyline?”
She forced out the question like she couldn't believe it, and I slowly nodded.
“No way.”
Evan clutched her forehead like she'd heard the most unbelievable news in the world.