Once again, Ailn asked his weary knight friend for a big favor: to let him speak with two of the prisoners alone for a moment, while Kylian and the knights went ahead and interrogated the others.

Ailn figured the other prisoners would give the Azure Knights the info they needed anyway.

It almost felt like that would be good for the prisoners—to get a chance to lay out their plans and regroup their minds. As they left the Chapel of the Sun, the prisoners seemed confused and disconsolate in a way that went beyond just having broken spirits.

The merchant Geoff in particular seemed to suffer from an identity crisis, broken by the idea that he might not be the grand mastermind he believed he was. He seemed convinced he’d invented all those buzzwords and business concepts himself. And when Tuck’s eyes were taken, the anger on his face slowly drew to a blank—until he was left muttering to himself about monkeys and total quality management.

Clearly, he hadn’t just been fed ideas. His mind had been messed with on a more fundamental level.

Ailn needed to know more. The more he could figure out about how reincarnators work, the better. Dollie and Tuck seemed to blow a hole in his theory that reincarnators would tend to be born nobles—though their finagling their way into a criminal ring was its own kind of social climbing.

After the near-disaster that was the chapel interrogation, Ailn opted for a more lowkey environment to talk to the two reincarnators.

He’d borrowed a cathedral lounge, and once again let Renea sit in and observe. It almost felt like ‘Bring Your Sister to Work Day.’

“What the hell do you want from us?!” Dollie snapped. “You already stole our eyes! I bet you’re gathering them up so you can act like a bigshot like Geoff!”

The tall man did not look any happier than her. But he stayed silent, simply glowering at Ailn.

“Listen,” Ailn sighed. “Let’s have a heart-to-heart. All of us reincarnators.”

“All of us?” Dollie gawked. “The Saintess too?”

“So you two… really are reincarnators,” Renea blinked. She also seemed to be having a difficult time processing it.

“What’s your real name?” Ailn asked. “Both of you.”

“W-why?” Dollie shifted uncomfortably. “Are you gonna treat us better if we talk?”

“Don’t really have that kind of power, but I can try,” Ailn shrugged. “Just figured it would make this conversation easier. Unless you want me to keep calling you ‘Dollie.’”

“...I-it’s Dahlia,” she replied.

Tuck said nothing, continuing to scowl until Dahlia kicked him in the shin.

“Tuckerson,” he muttered.

“Let me ask you something,” Ailn said. “How’d two ruby shard owners get to know each other?” He paused. “Know any one else with ruby shards?”

“Ruby shards?” Dahlia frowned. “...Our eyes?”

“That’s right.”

Dahlia thought it over for a moment, before her expression sagged, and her eyes fell to the ground which she gave a small scuffing kick. “I don’t… trust you enough to talk about this stuff. No offense. Especially after you just took ‘em from us.”

“We’ve been burned a few too many times,” Tuckerson said flatly. “I don’t see any good reason to tell you anything.”

“What if I told you I needed to gather the shards to save the world?” Ailn asked.

“W-what?” Renea blanked out. “Save the world? That seems really…” She trailed off, as her face wrinkled with concern.

“I’d ask you what kind of morons you take us for,” Tuckerson growled.

“Save the world?” Dahlia asked incredulously. “You really expect us to believe that?”

“Well, can’t say I fault you,” Ailn said, fiddling with his wrist. “Though all this talk about trust doesn’t sound very convincing from a pair who ran a forced labor scheme.”

The two reincarnators flinched.

“H-h-hold up ! We’re not the ones who captured them or anythin’!” Dahlia stammered. “That’s why we had to insert ourselves into the operation! Geoff had all the cash to build the expensive tunnels! Carlin and those loan sharks have been in Varant forever! A-all those guys were already magic slaves, anyway!”

“Lily, shut up,” Tuckerson growled, under his breath.

“B-basically we just gave them somethin’ new to do! I even made that asshole Geoff give them breaks! We n-never hit them or anythin’, at least not us, though sometimes Geo—”

“Lily. Shut. Up.”

Dahlia’s panicked justifications trailed off into a whimper.

“Lily…” Ailn’s brow furrowed. “You two knew each other in your past lives?”

Once again, the two reincarnators flinched. That was answer enough.

“The chances of that are absurd…! Unless you’re—are you?” Renea started to wonder out loud, in a fascinated mutter. It seemed she was struck by the idea of coincidence bordering on fate. “Are you soulmates?”

Now they just looked disgusted.

“Hell no!” Dahlia yelled. “This loser got hit by the same truck. We probably ended up here because we died at the same time.”

“This ‘loser’ died trying to push you out of the way you ungrateful bit—”

Renea gasped, and Tuckerson cut himself short with an angry mumble.

“We wouldn’t have been taking the bus like nobodies if you made any money!” Dahlia shouted.

“Money?” Tuckerson’s nostrils flared. “You wanna talk about money you goddamn leech? I spent half my paycheck supporting your worthless career.”

Dahlia looked hurt for a moment. Only for a moment though, because her face twisted into a rage and she stomped on Tuckerson’s foot over and over, while he just scoffed.

They weren’t dating, but they took the bus together. He supported her financially. The two fought like an old married couple. They had this much bad blood, and yet he tried to push her out of the way of a truck.

“Were you two siblings in your past lives?” Ailn tilted his head.

Their petty fight interrupted and their small acrimonious bubble burst, Dahlia and Tuckerson both froze up. Then, both gave Ailn an uncomfortable look.

“Unfortunately, we were,” Tuckerson said.

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

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Renea, who had started getting bored watching the ugly dispute, perked up.

“Siblings?” she mumbled. “And—you ended up here together?”

She tried to ignore the pang of envy in her chest.

“Let’s try and be systematic here,” Ailn said, scratching the back of his head. “How much do you two remember from your past life?”

“Huh?” Dahlia squinted. “How specific are we talking?”

“I remember everything,” Tuckerson said. He was smirking for some reason. “She can’t even remember anything from this life!’

“Shut up! I remembered your stupid smug personality, didn’t I? And guess what? I remember you cried when you wet the bed!” Dahlia started cackling, while Tuckerson looked like he wanted to kill her. “BOTH lives!”

“I swear to god, Lily,” Tuckerson’s nostrils flared. “I should have split the second I could walk.”

“You… remembered your past life when you were that young? Like a baby?” Renea asked, raising a hand.

Tuckerson stared at Renea, his expression flattening as if he were trying to discern her intentions. “Does it happen any other way?”

“I didn’t remember I was a reincarnator until I was four,” Renea said quietly. “My memories came back to me the older I got…”

She hadn’t really thought about it. It wasn’t until recently Renea even realized there were other reincarnators. When she found out they existed, she assumed all of them had more or less the same experience.

“Even if you had your memories… how would you recognize each other in this life?” Ailn asked, hand under his chin in thought.

Tuckerson snorted. “You think I wouldn’t immediately know it was this moron? She used to pull this crap all the time. Wanna know how creepy a baby looks fluttering her eyes trying to get adopted? Nobody wanted her.”

“I DID get adopted.”

“You cried and came back to the orphanage.”

“Because I knew you’d be lonely without me!” Dahlia kicked Tuckerson in the leg. “I told you already I was acting! And you want to talk about creepy babies?! Who’s the one who kept chanting buzzwords at the orphanage director?”

“Business management is a bona fide discipline,” Tuckerson said flatly.

“You always act like you’re so goddamn smart…” Dahlia growled. “Guess what? You’re the same as me! It was the eyes, you moron! You were so dumb you had to brainwash everyone into listening to you!”

“It’s called,” Tuckerson’s voice dropped to a furious low tone, “getting things done when you’re not in charge.”

“It’s CALLED hypnotism,” Dahlia snapped.

“Yeah? Then how ugly does that make you?” Tuckerson guffawed. His eyes lit up with scathing mirth as he turned to Renea and Ailn—like they should join in on the joke. “She’s just a useless femme débâcle without her red eyes!”

“Let’s just… recap,” Ailn said, interrupting them. “both of you think your ruby eyes gave you specific powers. The powers seem like they were matched to your personalities, or some desire of yours?”

“Mine was an enhanced ability to lead from behind,” Tuckerson nodded. Dahlia started snickering. “What? Why do you always laugh at that?” He elbowed her. “Tell him yours, then!”

Dahlia froze up.

“...wan…hot…” Dahlia said.

“Sorry?” Ailn asked. “I couldn’t hear you.”

“I wanted… everyone to think I was hot,” Dahlia mumbled.

At first Renea thought she was just embarrassed, but she looked upset in a way that went beyond that.

“I was trying to be a model in my past life,” Dahlia admitted. “And Benny… worked in an office where his boss treated him like crap.”

“So, let me make sure I’ve got all the facts straight,” Ailn said, hand on his chin. “You were brother and sister in your past life. You died together. You reincarnated together. And… you were both orphans in this life?”

“Y-yeah, that’s right. Why? Somethin’ wrong with that?” Dahlia asked. Her brows cinched together and flicked angrily, shamefully to the side. “We’re not related in this life. But somehow we wound up in the same crappy town. Got… abandoned at the same crappy orphanage. Tuck had already been there a couple of years, and realized it was me when I was a baby and he was three. Then we figured out we both had those red eyes…”

“It was like—like fate,” Renea said. Her eyes were glistening, and she started to sniffle. “You found each other again…”

“It was like a curse,” Tucker moaned, raising his eyes to the heavens and shuddering as if he’d been wronged. “God, if I just ignored her!”

“It was the luckiest day of your life!” Dahlia snapped, sounding genuinely hurt and angry.

“Then, you guys were hard-up… had knowledge from your past lives, and special powers. It makes some sense why you’d turn to crime,” Ailn said, thinking aloud. Then he stopped for a moment, his eyes narrowing. “Why’d you guys want that portrait so badly?”

But upon hearing Ailn ask about the portrait, Dahlia seemed to freeze up, and Tuckerson’s face once again went completely flat.

“You guys never told me if you knew another reincarnator or not.”

“And we’re not gonna,” Tuckerson shot back. “Not unless you promise us you’ll get us out of jail or at least lower our sentences.

“I told you I don’t have that kind of power,” Ailn sighed.

As if to prove his point, there was a knock on the lounge’s door. Kylian came in.

“Ailn, that’s about all the time I can afford you,” Kylian said, arching a brow at the two reincarnator prisoners as he came in. “We’ve already finished questioning the others.”

“...Told you,” Ailn shrugged.

“Hey!” Dahlia started panicking. “W-we’ve got more to tell you!”

“What do you want me to do?” Ailn asked, his tone genuine. “I barely had the clout to talk to you for fifteen minutes.”

“We gave you all that info!” Dahlia glared, as Kylian started leading the two prisoners away. “You’re really gonna leave us to dry?!”

“You gave up the ghost for damn nothing, Lily,” Tuckerson growled.

“You didn’t shut your trap either!” Dahlia snapped back.

Before the two left, Renea couldn’t help but chime in with her two cents.

“You two are siblings,” Renea said sternly. “You should treat each other better.”

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

Ailn had heard something from Kylian.

It was about the portrait of Noué Areygni—the artist supposedly had golden eyes. Just like Ceric’s. There was a very good chance the woman, though she was now long dead, had been a reincarnator.

So, two reincarnators were looking for the legendary portrait of a dead reincarnator… That didn’t seem like a coincidence to Ailn.

A missing portrait. A missing body. And a hidden treasure vault.

It might be worth conferring with Father Ciecout if Ailn could find him, while the knights took all the prisoners to Varant’s prison. Ailn and Renea had to wait for them, anyway. After the extraordinarily dangerous day they’d had, the Azure Knights decided not to take any chances—they’d take the two noble siblings home in the carriage of state.

As Ailn walked through the ambulatory looking for the priest, however, an acolyte with a familiar look caught his eye.

He was carrying a ton of books.

“You really need to get better at disguising yourself,” Ailn said, wearily catching the eye of the teen god.

“I think… I did just fine,” the teen god huffed. “Otherwise they wouldn’t have set me to work. L-let’s walk, alright?”

The two made their way toward the priests’ study.

“Hey, answer something for me,” Ailn said. “What happens if a reincarnator dies? Where’s their shard go?”

“Uh… lots of things can happen, you know,” the teen god said. “Sorta depends?”

“Are you gonna specify what?” Ailn asked. He winced. “You’re not expecting me to pick eyes out of corpses are you?”

“Of course not,” the teen god replied, looking a mite offended. “If that were the case I’d have found an ace digger instead. Shards leave the body after death, and re-enter the cycle. Er, unless…”

“Unless?” Ailn repeated.

Straining to carry so many books, the teen god’s normally chagrined laugh sounded downright anxious. “I h-hate to say it… but you’ll have to figure that one out… yourself, probably,” he huffed.

“...Okay,” Ailn grimaced. “Then can you tell me what part of the world soul gold eyes represent?”

“W-well, wouldn’t you say that there’s already some context clues for you?” the teen god asked.

“Between Ceric’s fortune cookie sayings, and Noué Areygni’s divine paintings…?” Ailn asked, getting more irritated by the second. His eyes narrowed. “If you’re not going to tell me anything, why are you even here?”

The two finally reached the priests’ study. Quite a few clergy gave Ailn an odd look, but quickly grew disinterested, resuming whatever activities they’d been doing before.

“Can’t an employer check in on their employee?” the teen god asked, finally setting the books down on a scriptorium meant for copying manuscripts. “You did a great job catching those two. Real great. I thought it was clever how you—”

“Seriously, why are you here?” Ailn asked.

“...Well,” the teen god rubbed the back of his neck. “I just thought you should know I’ll be… out of town for a bit. You won’t be able to see me.”

“It’s not like you’re ever-present,” Ailn frowned. “How long? A couple weeks?”

“Uh… Depends. Could be a couple of months,” the teen god said, wincing.

“A couple of—” Ailn balked.

He held his temple and restrained himself. He was exhausted. It wouldn’t do any good to get angry, if anger wasn’t gonna get any info out of the teen god.

“Can you tell me where you’re going?” Ailn asked.

“Nope,” the teen god said. “But uh, you’re good at what you do. You’ll be fine without me, right?”

Ailn just stared at the teen god with weary eyes as the boy shrank under his gaze. Finally, he shook his head and sighed.

“Are you actually gonna copy those manuscripts?” Ailn asked, arching an eyebrow.

“...Until I find a chance to leave, haha…” the teen god said, looking defeated.