Scarlet

Everything goes dark again as the last round of the quiz begins, Titania not even giving us a chance to say anything. We can’t even hear the audience anymore as they’ve gone muted.

“Well, shit,” I mutter, not really sure what else to say right now.

“You can say that again…” Tar comments in return.

So I do.

“Well, shit.”

If Titania never died… then what about everything we’ve-

My thoughts are interrupted when a buzzer is pressed somewhere else, only for their answer to turn out wrong.

Which… is surprising.

Shouldn’t the answer be a simple, ‘she didn’t die’ or something? Since she’s right there?

More buzzers are pressed as people recover from their shock, but every last one is wrong.

Which leads me to believe that the answer isn’t that simple.

“She can’t be alive,” Tar answers while shaking his head with a dark look in his eyes. “The First Princess personally saw her die. So unless Elara is lying…”

Leonidas’s fae?

But fae can’t lie, so…

“That’s… not entirely true,” Tar says, making my head jerk around to look at him. “The current Successor and the Fae Ruler are both able to lie. It’s a bit of a secret perk of the positions.”

Oh. Well that’s… huh.

Then again, I guess it’s for the best that a ruler is able to lie. Otherwise the kingdom would fall apart.

Lies – no matter how much I hate them – are also shields in a way. Used to defend ourselves.

Mostly just the little white lies though.

That said, I get the feeling she did die. Since everyone else seems to be guessing incorrectly.

There’s a good chance she died and was brought back. Or maybe she died but left a clone or something behind.

And if one of those are the answers… do you know when she died?

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“Yes,” Tar says before pressing the buzzer and answering in some sort of strange language that I’ve never heard before. Which… is confusing.

Then our buzzer glows green, confirming that Titania did, in fact, die.

And since that’s the case… what’s in front of us?

Titania simply smiles at us for a second before looking around at the next buzzer presser.

Tar, what was up with that strange language?

He awkwardly smiles at me as he answers, “There are still some things censored by the System. The censor will be removed if I become the Fae King, but for now, the date that she died seems to be a censored topic.”

Huh. That’s… counterintuitive considering what the rest of this quiz has been focusing on. The revealing of previously unknown information.

“Yeah, but there’s nothing we can do about it,” Tar says with a shrug while lying down on his raised seat.

True.

Anyways, the quiz had ten questions, and the winner is obviously going to be Leonidas. Since he already answered five of the questions first out of the ten. Meanwhile the other five questions were spread out across four people, with me getting two correct first, Xyvandra getting one, Amelia one, and Blue one.

With this one being one of the two I got first.

“At least you got second in this competition,” Tar says, sounding rather glum as he hides his face under his paws. “I only managed to get third and sixth places while you were gone…”

I chuckle at that and start petting the little guy.

It’s fine. Our lead is still solidified from the dragon.

We’ll also get more points from this one to begin bringing our lead higher again. Except when it comes to Leonidas that is.

Tar doesn’t say anything. Just sits there enjoying my head pats.

Eventually the competition comes to an end, and we’re all sent back to our towers. And immediately after the noise from the audience is unmuted, I hear an absolute roar coming from it. Just pure chaos from everyone in the audience. Regardless of whether they’re fae, demon, or human.

King Oberon makes his appearance above everyone, which only worsens things since most people still seem to be rather pissed at him. Meanwhile Nyx – the real Nyx this time – just kinda takes her leave again, apparently disinterested in what’s going on.

The chaos continues going on for a little while before Titania finally raises a hand before clenching her fist, making the sound cut off in an instant. But I can still see people moving their lips as if they’re talking. Until they realize they aren’t saying anything.

Did she just take away all of the sound in this dimension or something?

“I’ve given you all the knowledge you have been searching for about my System, revealed myself for the first time in millennia, and finished my duty towards the universe,” Titania declares, her voice echoing throughout the entire artificial universe we’re in. “What you see before you is a mere clone of the person who was Titania. My true body is no longer alive, leaving nothing behind but this body, which has a mere ten percent of the powers I once had.”

Oh. Okay, that kind of makes some sense as to why she wouldn’t show her face for so long.

I would be shocked if she didn’t have a lot of enemies. Not to mention those who would try to use her for her-

“I have also lost my administrator rights to the System with the death of my real body,” she continues, making the point I was about to think of rather moot. “So there has been no reason until now to show myself.”

She’s rather blunt and to the point.

Her gaze locks onto mine.

“Scarlet Art Asger de Archeron, as soon as you win this tournament, you will have everything you need to reach the height that is needed to protect the universe,” she says, a faint smile on her face. “And with this, my duties for the universe are fully fulfilled.”

And without another word, the former Fae Queen vanishes, teleporting away somewhere.

Leaving the stadium to erupt into chaos.

Again.