"Ah, as I thought, My King," Lyle said as he approached Daz who was seated in the centre of the keep's library with a book in his hand. "I assume you claimed to have retired early so you could escape the boisterous atmosphere of the party?"

Daz nodded as he laid the novel he was reading down onto the table in front of himself. "I could see that Madison was getting bored. She really hates Aila, so I felt it'd be best if we left."

"Most wise, My King," Lyle responded with that respectful smile of his.

Daz leaned back into his chair in a relaxed manner before he gestured with his head for the spindly man to take a seat as well.

Lyle, getting the hint, pulled out a chair at the table opposite of Daz and very elegantly placed himself in it. "My King, you wished to discuss something with me, yes? I assume it wasn't a standard catch-up of the on-going activities of Fort Skip. No doubt, you would handle such things in the throne room."

Daz nodded. "Right." He began tapping his finger against the desk softly and said, "This meeting is about you, not me or about Fort Skip."

"Regarding me, My King?" Lyle wore a ponderous expression. "Did I overstep my bounds this evening? Perhaps I should have somehow made contact with you sooner to ask for per-"

"Lyle." The former jewellery store owner and drug addict immediately closed his mouth upon hearing his name be called so bluntly by Daz.

"Yes, My King?" he happily asked with a smile on his face.

Daz stared at him with no emotion showing on his young and handsome face as he said three very simple words. "Who are you?"

Lyle's smiled in perplexion. "I don't quite understand, My King."

Daz 'hmmed' in response to that answer before he peeled his eyes away from Lyle and looked up at a random bookshelf. "You've been very helpful to me over the past few weeks. In fact, ever since you kicked in your drug addiction, you've been nothing but useful."

"I'm thankful for such prais-"

"That's the problem, Lyle. I'm not praising you, I'm questioning you," Daz stated. "Who are you? From my understanding, Lyle Middletown was a wealthy man with a tragic past. Parents who never loved him nor took proper care of him. A crippling drug addiction. Signs of a split-personality, even. You know, that's what I thought this was. Schizophrenia at first, but split-personality disorder later."

Lyle was silent as he listened to Daz. Gradually, the man's expression was becoming more and more amused and equally relaxed.

Returning his gaze to the spindly man sitting across from himself, Daz said, "But lately, a new theory has taken a hold of my thoughts. You are not Lyle Middletown, are you? You're one of the two champions of the higher gods under my rule that I'm unaware of, and for some reason, you want to get close to me."

Daz smiled and added, "I want to be wrong, but every part of my being is telling me to be wary of you whenever I see you. Explain yourself, please, Lyle. If you don't, I'm going to have to remove you from your position as my personal advisor. I can't trust such an uncertainty to be whispering into my ear all of the time."

Lyle smiled. "Miss Rose is far more intelligent than I initially gave her credit for."

"I'm sure you're not wrong, but I figured this out on my own," Daz replied.

Lyle ran his fingers through his hair and nodded. "I see... Well, what would you think if I told you that I am Lyle Middletown, but I'm also not?"

Daz shrugged. "I'd believe you. Well, unless you have a power that can make your lies become truths or something similar."

Lyle laughed. "Please, I have no need for lies." A grin covered his lips before he asked, "Well, My King, how would you react were I tell you that while I am Lyle Middletown, I am also a god?"

Daz's eyes opened wide. "You're... a god? What? You, what, inhabited Lyle's body?"

"I really can't tell you much. I'm currently hiding this conversation of ours from the system. I will tell you two things though before I have to end this. Lyle is the man that so loyally follows you, of that, there is no doubt. Even I don't know why he's so loyal. Perhaps he's grateful that you forced him to stop doing drugs which led to him falling in love. Love is a powerful thing, My King. Very powerful indeed. Some might even say that it was powerful enough to incite a civil war amongst the gods, hmm?" Lyle teased.

He stood up and stretched his back before saying. "As for the second thing I shall tell you, I am your greatest ally, Darenzo Hamilio. Ah, I know, you like 'Daz' more, however, I much prefer calling beings by their true names. It makes it so entertaining when I bring up old memories that would rather be forgotten. If you don't wish to trust me, so be it. End Lyle's life. I'll simply find another host to inhabit. I've waited so long already for my plans to come to fruition, what's another trillion years or so?"

After saying that, the grin on Lyle's face evaporated and was quickly replaced by a confused look.

Daz, on the other hand, experienced a violent headache.

Anomaly detected! Searching for anomaly's origin... Search failed. Scanning host... Scan successful. System link reestablished. System security of the host [Daz] doubled. System monitoring of the host [Daz] tripled.

Congratulations! Due to the system's failure to protect the host from an outsider attack, the system has decided to reward the host with the skill [Interference Immunity (God-rank)]

'... Outsider attack? The system thinks I was attacked by an 'outsider'? Or, what, was that 'god' not one from the group of gods that choose champions? I find that unlikely... I have a feeling the system is just making an assumption based off the information it has at hand...' Daz was happy that he'd been given a new God-ranked skill for free but his confusion trumped all of his other emotions right now so he didn't even bother looking at his new skill's details.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Lyle slowly shook his head to focus himself before he coughed in embarrassment then said, "My apologies, My King. I seemed to have lost focus. Regarding what you said earlier, I did, indeed, used to suffer from split-personality disorder. My other personality was a far more childish one, in fact, from what I've been told, I acted like an infant. It only ever surfaced when I was suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Oddly enough, it never made an appearance when you forced me to make a choice and I ended up quitting my heroin addiction, and it has thus to surface again."

There was sadness, regret, shame, and self-loathing in Lyle's words, but also hidden within was a certain pride at himself and a deep admiration of Daz.

Nodding a bit mutely, Daz replied, "I see. That makes sense. Thanks. I appreciate your honesty."

Noticing how robotic Daz sounded, Lyle's eyes narrowed in worry. "Are you okay, My King? If my answer is insufficient, I am willing to go into more detail."

Daz shook his head and got up. "It's fine, and I'm also fine. I'm just a bit... distracted."

He walked away, leaving Lyle by himself in the library.

"Is that so?" Lyle muttered in response.

----------------------------------------

Without making any detours, Daz quickly found his way to Rose's bedroom. It still wasn't too late yet, so he knocked on the door. As he waited for a response, he chose to look at his new skill's information.

Interference Immunity [God-Rank] Description

A skill created by the system to be used in emergencies.

Interesting, interesting, interesting...

Level N/A Abilities Passively prevents any attempts to affect the host's connection with the system not made by the system itself.

'Well, that told me next to nothing,' Daz thought in disappointment.

"Come in, Daz," Rose lazily called.

'Of course she knows it's me,' he thought with a chuckle.

Daz pushed open the door only to see Rose struggling to clamber out of her V.R machine on her own. Naturally, he quickly rushed to her side and gave her a hand out of the device before he held her in a princess carry.

"T-Thanks," she replied shyly. "Vanessa usually helps me out, but she accidentally got drunk at the party thinking she was drinking grape soda. It was only 5% sparkling wine, but she's new to alcohol. She went to bed, like, an hour ago."

Daz nodded as he held his sister and moved her to her bed. "I trust that you're also an alcohol virgin?"

"Duh," she replied with a roll of her eyes. "I'm scared of the secrets I'd spout if I was drunk. Anyway, what brought you here? You seem unfocused."

"Are we sure that I'm the one with good instincts here, not you?" Daz asked teasingly as he pulled over the nearby chair and sat in it.

"Heh, I don't need good instincts to identify that dumb look on your face." Without any question, that comment earned her a flick on the forehead. "Ouch! Seriously, stop doing that!"

"Stop being so sassy, then I'll consider it," Daz responded.

"Never!" Rose cried out rebelliously.

Daz laughed and put his hand on the back of Rose's head before he leaned in and kissed the spot he'd hit. "There. Better now?"

"... A bit," she reluctantly spat out as she turned her head to the side. "Anyway, like I already asked, what's up?"

'A bit? Wow. She's actually being honest. I guess she got sick of me seeing through her lies,' Daz happily concluded before he answered, "Do you-"

Immediately, the moment that Daz tried to ask Rose about the gods and his encounter with whatever was living inside of Lyle his entire body locked up, his mouth included.

'What the fuck? Why can't I move? The system had no idea what was going on and assumed I was contacted by an 'outsider', right, not a god? Is the system restricting me right now? Maybe the god inside Lyle is doing this?' Either way, it would seem that for whatever reason, he wasn't allowed to talk about this matter.

Rose's face scrunched up. "What the hell? Are you, like, frozen or something? It's weird that you're just sitting there with your mouth open. Blink, would you? You look like you're about to eat me or something." She shuddered. "Creepy."

After a second had passed, Daz's body finally relaxed. 'Let's try that a few more times. Rose is smart. I'm sure she'll pick up that I'm being forced to not talk pretty quickly.'

----------------------------------------

Daz was right. However, typical of Rose, she hid the fact that she'd caught on until she had taken full advantage of the situation.

"You're really dumb, you know that right?" she asked in a cheeky tone as she put the cap back on her permanent marker pen then stored said pen in the drawer of her bedside desk.

"I have only myself to blame, yes," Daz answered with a sigh. "Does it look good, at least?"

"Your mascara and handlebar moustache? They look amazingly hilarious, yeah. I knew it was a good idea to buy these pens when Madison wanted help getting art supplies. Totally worth the extra purchase," Rose said as she held back a laugh.

"Ha-ah... Anyway, I assume you understand now, yeah?" Daz asked in defeat.

"That you're being stopped from talking about something in particular? Yeah. I doubt I'll be able to figure out what though. If it's the system, I'll never find out. Something else? Maybe. We'll see. I have a lot on my plate as it is right now though," Rose replied with a casual shrug.

"That's understandable. Just don't forget about it. It's not a huge concern right now... I think- no, I hope. There's very little we can do about it if it is," Daz said. 'I don't want to kill Lyle since he seems to be non-compliant, after all. That would go against everything that I now stand for. I guess I'll have to try to look into the god and who could and would do this kind of thing on my own. Maybe I can talk to Cecil about it?'

Rose snorted. "Me? Forget something? That's beyond stupid."

"Of course it is. By the way, I also need you to give me a report on all of New York's nearby rulers and powerful solo survivors by tomorrow morning. I traded that to Aila as an apology for what those two bumbling buffoons accidentally did to Steven," Daz explained as he scratched his face lightly.

Rose loudly grunted. "Well, there goes my relaxing evening of exploring Pandora. The one night after getting a V.R capsule that I decide to play a game from Earth, and my stupid brother makes work for me."

Daz chuckled before he reached over and kissed her forehead again. "Sorry. I'll make it up to you on your birthday in a few weeks, 'kay?"

With a blush covering her cheeks, Rose responded, "You'd better."

----------------------------------------

"Thanks for this... Daz," Aila said as she and her group reached their trucks.

Daz glanced down at the USB stick that she was tightly clutching before he nodded. "I'm a man of my word. I'll see you in a month's time. Send Lady Cromwell my regards."

Aila laughed weakly. "That sounds ominous."

Daz smiled. "Sorry. I've gotten used to talking like this after spending a bunch of time with a load of medieval system slaves. It doesn't help that a bunch of people call me 'King Daz', 'My King', or 'Your Majesty'."

"Right... Well, um, it was nice to meet you again," Aila shyly said. "And, um, I'm really sorry about what happened in the past with Madison... The auction too..."

"So long as you mean it, it's water under the bridge." Daz genuinely did not care about his encounter with her at the auction.

And in regards to the past... It had happened so long ago, and his father was behind it all, so he couldn't find it in himself to dedicate any thoughts to it. Perhaps he would have if something horrible had happened back then, but nothing had, so he'd personally like to erase the memory from his mind as Madison had already done. "I look forward to the good news."

"I'll do my part. I'll make sure that Emma will agree. Since your father wanted us to be on good terms with you, I'm sure it'll work out," Aila said.

After that, Daz just silently watched her and her people leave. Meanwhile, in his mind, he was thinking, 'I don't give a fuck what that man wants. It's just a happy coincidence that we aren't enemies yet. Happy for him, that is.'

He scratched his face and frowned. 'That permanent marker was a real chore to get off, but it still itches even though I have so many points in Regeneration... Rose must have bought some special pens, huh? Crafty little devil...'