Chapter 19: Putting the "Pre" in Premeditated

Carman was shaking, but the color completely drained out of his face as he contemplated what would have happened of his system hadn't stored the seawater that had added to their apartment's water supply. At best he would have just lost his human form and become an oceanid, at worst, he would lose any shape to his body and be forced to spend his time as water pooled in the fountain outside the Operahouse with the other victims of Vasher.

Carman felt bile rtrying to rise up and out of his mouth as he started to shiver. Ryuzu noticing his distress held him close to her once more not caring that she was getting soaked from the water still clinging to him and the towel around him. Now that she was able to focus on him rather than the mysteriously floating water, she noticed that his skin looked too pink, as though the outer layer of his skin had been scrubbed away, leaving the lower layers irritated, chunks of his long red hair had broken off leaving a mess of hair of varying lengths go down his back. It was as though someone had splashed him with a relatively weak acid while he was in the shower.

Ryuzu felt anger starting to bubble up to the surface, whoever had done this to a person whom she held dear would pay dearly. Hidden behind that anger was guilt, she had promised that nobody would be able to lay a finger on Carman the first day they had met, and here she was, unable to fulfill that promise.

The feelings of uselessness only fueled her rage. Trying to not let it show she tried to calmly inquire what had happened to Carman but all she got in response was a few mutters about places and names that she hadn't heard of, who was this "Tartaglia" that he mentioned?

She tried to gently pinch Carman's face to get his attention.

[Carman's POV]

It might have just been the water I had just once again been drenched with, but a cold feeling was taking over my body, my joints stiffened up. Damn, Vasher started moving faster than I expected, do I need to go into hiding? What should I tell Livre? Should I tell him? If I get spotted by one of his goons, he might try to dissolve Livre, who doesn't have the same protections that I do. No, I can't go into hiding, it would ruin too many of my current plans, but I can't go and wipe out Vasher, he plays a pivotal role in the main story of the game, if he hadn't been continuously disappearing people then Tartaglia would likely not have been sent to the Fortress in time to help keep the Narwhal at bay. Without that, the traveler would never have had the time to find the truth that Furina isn't the true Hydro Archon, and the Oratrice would not have had its Archon slaying function activated leading to Neuvillette getting his authority back in time to save the Fontainians.

Slowly ideas started to form in my mind, they were far from anything concrete or even good at that matter, but banking on the fact that nobody currently knew why Fontaine's people dissolved in special water, I could use that to my advantage, use my status as an orphan to claim that I had mixed blood, giving me resistance to the seawater.

I noticed a subtle pressure on my cheek, breaking from my thoughts I came face to face with what I can only describe as the thinly vailed watchful face of the devil. I could tell that she was trying to look calm for my sake but Ryuzu's burning yet deathly cold eyes and twitching facial expressions showed how much she likely wanted to kill something or someone.

"Mister Carman." She said briefly and haltingly, "I would most appreciate it if you were to confide in me what transpired in the time you were in the shower, your hair is falling off, your skin looks like the entire outer layer got scrubbed off, and for a few minutes you looked like someone who missed death by a hair."

"Ryuzu, to be" I started to say.

"Please allow me to stop you there Master, we both know that what you were about to say was anything but honest. In the time we have spent together I have learned to tell when you plan to hide something, most of the time I let it go, however this is a matter of life and death, I promised you on the day that we met that I would protect you, something that it seems I have failed miserably at. However, when I offered my servitude, you told me you were looking for an equal, someone you could trust to confide in. Was that mere platitudes and nice words to comfort yourself? Because the way you were about to lie to me shows that we are not equals in your eyes."

I opened my mouth to argue before stopping to consider her words, and, damn, she was right. I did say I was looking for someone to confide in, but the way I have been treating her and withholding information only showed the opposite. I've been treating her more like a servant than a friend, and that disgusted me, I said I wasn't going to play into the trope of the slave owning isekai protagonist, and yet here I am doing exactly that.

With a sigh I decided that out of all the people to tell this secret to, Ryuzu was probably one of the better people to share with. She knew the importance of keeping secrets and had the strength to protect herself should anyone come after her to learn them.

"Ryuzu, I know that I haven't been acting according to what I said when we met, I haven't shown you the respect that equals should have for one another, however some of the secrets that I have hiding, heck all of the ones I keep are connected to something that may not only be hard to understand, but seriously dangerous if it ever came out."

Ryuzu seemed a bit surprised by my sudden swap from defensiveness to clear resolve and deathly seriousness. While she was still clearly angry, she seemed to cool down a bit in order to more rationally deal with the situation.

"Ryuzu, do you know what people agree as the best kept secret?"

"To my knowledge, the best kept secret is considered to be the one that nobody knows." She said.

"Exactly, the information you are asking about is deeply connected to a certain secret of mine that I would rather keep in that level of secrecy, however, you have made me realize that if I am to treat you as an equal, then you should know about this part of me. However, if you could, please search around this room for any listening devices or hidden spaces where someone could be eavesdropping."

After a short while, Ryuzu only came back with one listening devices she haddnt noticed in one of her previous sweeps. So we assumed it was something Vacher had installed while we were both away. Luckily it was not in earshot of where we had been speaking previously.

With a... gentile... closing of Ryuzu's hand, the recoding device was crushed into a small palm sized ball. However we decided to move down into the basement workshop where it was easier to check and ensure we weren't missing any bugs.

"So, Mister Carman, now that we are in this secluded environment, what is this secret you are so cautious of others overhearing." Asked Ryuzu.

Pulling my journals out of my inventory for the second time today, I started explaining.

"This all starts with a boy named Leo, who was born on a planet called Earth."

-to be continued....