Alone with the Elders, Max stood still with a neutral face as two story prompts kept flashing in his vision. They were a warning about the questions to come. The first was about his origins, which was at risk if they decided to bring up his failed medical exam. The second was Darius’s prompt. It was going to be hard to skirt around it too depending on how this interview went.

Story Name:

Don’t Get Caught

Genre:

War

Description:

Don’t let Darius learn more about the system and how it operates.

Goal:

Kill Darius and erase his presence from history.

Difficulty:

★★★★★

How to Start:

Acknowledge the existence of the system or your past lives in front of Darius!

The seven pairs of eyes stared down at Max, each teeming with questions they wanted to ask. Whether it was a genuine question or an attempt to swerve the opinions of others.

Elder Ji-min sat down on his application again. “If the other Elders have any questions, then they may ask them.”

“Where did you learn rune magic?”

“What’s the relationship between you and little Cyrus?”

“Who is Ellie?”

“Can you really work for 50 gaeles a month?”

“If approved, will you be trying to join us permanently?”

The Elders fought for their voice to be loudest as they repeatedly barked their questions in Max’s directions. The only two who were silent were Elder Ji-min and Elder Aris. After realising their interviewee wasn’t even attempting to answer any of their questions, the Elders turned to Elder Ji-min to take control of the situation.

“Let’s do this one at a time.” Elder Ji-min strongly suggested. “Elder Aris, you’re oddly quiet. How about you ask your questions first?”

A smile creeped up onto Elder Aris’s face. He had been patiently waiting, so he would be the first to speak. A hunter waiting for his prey to approach. “Are you a Nnita?”

Nnita. んにた. → Tanin. たにん. → Outsider. 他人.

Saved by Darius once again. If he hadn’t warned him that they were using a term from the language Max invented and propagated, it would’ve been difficult to keep a neutral face. Max was going to ask Edric about it later. Going by the name, Tsujuma, they must’ve infiltrated the community from its origins.

Tsujuma. つじゅま. → Majutsu. まじゅつ. → Magic. 魔術.

Elder Aris continued despite panic spreading. “Do you know about the sys-?”

The other Elders suddenly began shouting at each other before Max stopped hearing anything and the lights dimmed down again. There must’ve been some sort of protective spell in place. An emergency procedure was underway, so Max would be caught off from what was happening before him. With their faces casted in shadows, it was impossible to try to lip read. Max wasn’t good at it anyway.

It took him a moment to piece together why they were panicking from Elder Aris’s question. The Elders must be aware of the penalties for telling others about the system. It didn’t just apply to people like Max. It was a big risk for Elder Aris to take, and for a moment Max admired him slightly.

If Max already knew the term or idea, then he was likely one of them and Elder Aris faced no penalty. It would be solid proof of his connections to people like them. If Elder Aris was wrong, then he was going to get punished by the system. Even if he was confident in Max being one of them, he was still taking a massive personal gamble on behalf of the community.

Finally, the Elders settled themselves in their chairs. Gradually, Max’s hearing returned. “Our apologies for blocking your hearing,” Elder Ji-min apologised.

“It’s okay. I probably damaged a few of your people’s hearing during my magic assessment.”

“All of them.” Elder Charaka corrected him. For a second, the old man’s guise fell, and Max understood why he was cautious when they met for the first time. He wasn’t the kind old man as he presented himself. There was happiness in his voice. Its origins were still unknown. Was it joy from curing so many injured? Or pleasure from charging all of his patients and making a fortune? Both ideas disturbed him.

“Sorry,” Max gave a half-hearted apology. “Shall we continue with the questioning?”

“Are you a Nnita?” Elder Aris asked again. So, they decided to let him take the fall if he weren’t one of them. Time to see if they would commit to potentially receiving a penalty.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“What’s a Nnita? Do you mean nits? I don’t think so. I could get Cy to check my hair, he’s always offering to style it. And earlier, you mentioned a cyst? Shouldn't that be on the medical exam?” Max took pleasure in playing dumb as he watched Elder Aris become enraged.

“Answer the question.” Elder Obi put pressure back on Max. She was unamused by his interpretation of Elder Aris's words. Her voice had a foreign tone to it compared to everyone Max met so far. It was refreshing. The beads around her neck and wrists jiggled as she leaned forward. “It’s a simple yes or no question.”

“Are you a Nnita?” Elder Aris repeated. Although frustrated, he didn’t bring up the system.

“I’m unfamiliar with the term,” Max insisted. If they were going to use the system to cheat, then they needed to commit to the risks involved. “I can’t answer until I know what it means.”

“You already know what it means,” Elder Aris continued to pressure him.

“I have no clue.”

“You’re a goddamn liar!”

“I’ve never heard the term before!”

Elder Aris tried to reason with his fellow Elders. “We can’t risk letting another one of them in again! Just let me explain-” And endure a penalty.

Elder Ji-min cleared his voice, ending the idea. “We’ll change the question-”

“I get it! I won’t say it. But let’s at least put a truth telling spell on him,” Elder Aris interrupted.

Useless idea, unless they have an improved version compared to the one Max used. Those kinds of spells tend to give inaccurate results because of biases and interpretations of words and phrases. Too much wriggle room. Just like how Max had been wriggling his way out of the starting methods for the story prompts.

The atmosphere in the room changed dramatically after Elder Aris’s suggestion. Max assumed it was due to the idiocy of his question before realising it was because Elder Ji-min had been slighted. When Elder Aris finally caught on that the interview had reached an abrupt stop, he apologised.

Elder Ji-min allowed him to sweat for a moment before resuming the session. “Let’s change the questioner. Elder Nova, would you like to ask the next questions?”

“With pleasure.” Her voice was cold as she sat unmoving. “Where did you learn rune magic?”

“I don’t know.”

She pursed her lips. “Elder Edric, you mentioned seeing this kind of magic before. Do you know where it could have come from?”

He admitted to seeing it before? Ah, that’s how he convinced the other Elders to let him participate in his magic assessment.

“Just rumours from a far away land,” he spoke quickly. It was barely understandable. In every life they met, Max warned him of this bad habit and every time he ignored him. “There are other magic communities, much like our own, that specialise in nurturing people with potential. In one of them, there was a child who invented a kind of writing. The way he explained it to his peers was the runes were a writing system for a language used by the natural world order. Everything was named and categorised. Know the real name, and you can control what happens to the object.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Darius interrupted. Max couldn’t tell if it was because he was trying to help or if it was his own natural curiosity.

“Take that dragon we saw.” First of all, it was wyvern. “It was decapitated using one piece of parchment.” There was hesitant agreement among them that was what they witnessed. “Using the runes, the caster would write something like this ‘the necks of all living dragons in a five-mile radius must be repeatedly cut with this object.’” His tone emphasised each section which needed a unique rune. Edric wasn’t entirely right about what runes were on the parchment, but it wasn’t far off from the truth. Perhaps it would even work if Max drew them like that. “The runes only work if they are written correctly, which is hard to do. And the object it was written on needs enough innate powers or must be injected with magic from the caster.”

A decent explanation. If only he could have slowed down his words, it would have made it so much easier to follow.

“And how much innate power is needed? The parchment papers had a moderate amount, but I never imagined them doing something like that,” Elder Nova admitted.

“Usually, a minimal amount. Especially since it can be taken from multiple sources if written correctly.”

“And what of the child?” Elder Obi asked. The tone of her voice changed into being slightly softer. Her long finger was pointed down at Max. “Could he be that child you spoke of?”

He was.

“No. From what I heard; the kid died in an explosion.”

A sad look appeared on Elder Obi’s face. “A rune got out of control?”

“A cooking accident.”

… Okay, he didn’t need to mention that part. From the corner of his eye, Max saw Darius trying not to laugh. He must’ve found the moment in his soul’s records. Wasn’t the warning about his kitchen related to his little mishap? Maybe Darius had seen another time.

“A cooking accident?” Elder Obi was stunned, as were the others. “What on earth was he making?”

“I think it was a chocolate soufflé.”

…

“A soufflé? The explosion was from the oven?”

“From the flour. The kid wasn’t thinking about how flammable flour can be when scattered in the air.”

“How did the flour get in the air like that?”

“I want to know as well. If only we could ask him.”

Max held his tongue. Darius held his laughter. Edric held his neutral expression.

Bastard. Max had told him that story in private.

“Moving on,” Elder Ji-min looked at the others. He seemed a little annoyed that the interview had gone off course. “Elder Charaka, I believe you have some questions about Max’s past.”

“Indeed, I do. Having no past is a sign of… something.” Elder Charaka was not as brave as Elder Aris. He refused to say the word. “Cy mentioned you saying the name Ellie in your sleep.”

“I don’t know who she is.” Max didn’t want to lie and, unfortunately, it showed in his voice. The neutral face he was trying so hard to uphold was beginning to slip.

“Darius wrote she was your wife. According to him, you two were married, she got ill, and you took refuge at a farm. That’s your past.” … Odd choice of words. Why use the term ‘refuge’? “What happened to your memories? You poisoned yourself and ended up in your previous employer’s field?” Max’s lie sounded so dumb when told back to him. “We already know the truth from Darius, so just confess.”

It took Max a moment to realise what Darius had done. Thank the lucky stars he was on his side. Mixing his life before, confessions to Bessie, and Cy’s admission just moments ago, Darius had built him a life before he came to this world. Max was no longer an outsider who woke up on a random farm.

Max let out a loud sigh, as he carefully chose his words. He couldn’t clearly say that he knew Ellie in front of Darius without potentially starting a story.

“I didn’t want my past to follow me here.” At least that part was true. “You’re right, I’ve been pretending to not have any memories.” He turned slightly to Elder Aris. “You got me. I’m an illegal immigrant in this country.”

“Bullshit,” Elder Aris sneered back. From his angered expression, it was clear Darius had written the term on his report. Who knew a little heart-to-heart in the rain would come in handy?

“But the local mayor did grant me refugee status. If it helps, it’s also why I was and am willing to work for so little money-”

“You got married?” Edric interrupted. There was a slight amount of anger in his voice, not too surprising for him.

“Let’s start this again,” Elder Ji-min pulled out the stack of papers from under his butt. Oh, no. It turned out there was a quill-pen amongst the junk. Please, no. There was ink too. This wasn’t worth it. “Right, question 1-”

“Pardon me, Elder Ji-min,” Darius interrupted. “I think it would be best if I left for this round of questioning. I know some of the other Elders have doubts about my report, especially with Cyrus’s credibility on the line. Without me in the room, the other Elders would feel freer to interrogate Max without concern about us colluding together.” With permission granted, Darius left without another word, causing Max to face the six remaining Elders.

Bless this man. With Darius gone, it meant only one story prompt threatened to be activated.

“Let’s start with question 1. Your name is Max, right?”