Truth and Lies

Emilia's gaze was calm and calculating after she ended Cynthia's summoning. Although she wished to keep her company for longer, she now understood how important it was to preserve her skills for opportune moments.

Now that she had obtained a clearer understanding of what the 'world will' was capable of, she knew that her previous conjectures regarding the usefulness of 'Follower Summoning' weren't correct.

She had believed that since Cynthia did not have any skills except for controlling her system prompts, it was fine to use the skill whenever she sought companionship, felt lonely, or was in the mood to have some fun teasing her partner.

But now that she understood that the 'world will' couldn't detect Cynthia even if she exposed herself in public, it was no longer the case. She could think of many scenarios where Cynthia could prove useful if she had a real body to assist her with, especially in emergencies.

Ironically, the 'world will' could only observe the world through its 'chosen' one. Only once Amos perished or was abandoned by the 'world will' would its omniscient view return, but it would already be too late by then.

So all she had to make sure of was that Amos should not become 'certain' that she was an 'alien'. This wasn't much of a challenging task, since the hero did not care to know much about Danielle before. Even if he suspected something, he would never expect that she had been replaced by an alien.

In fact, she could probably not convince him if she tried.

Not only that, the 'world will' of this plane was like a child, in terms of both intellect and power. Although it was having fun playing with its toys, it did not truly understand many of their actions. And its influence was limited to the weak-willed, making it more likely for them to form positive or negative impressions of certain people.

For example, if a girl who previously would have just thought 'that guy looks cool' is influenced by the 'world will', she is likely to develop an obsessive crush on the hero. If she is disgusted with him, however, it won't work. If the 'world will' was stronger, though, it would be another story.

Emilia suspected that both the hero's unreasonable hatred for Danielle, and her obsessive love for Amos stemmed from this 'nudge' from the world will. Since they were only children at that time, how much willpower could they possibly have?

"I don't understand why you want to know all this stuff, Emilia~ Just do whatever you want and finish the missions, that's all that matters!"

Emilia shook her head as she headed out of her room. "It's not that simple, Cynthia. Although you keep saying this world's will is weak, it won't be the case for the future worlds, right? It's better to know all of this stuff and try it out here, while we still have some leeway."

At the very least, she understood now that she could not be as careless in front of the heroes in the future worlds. Because their eyes were the same as the eyes of the 'world will' of that plane.

"Mhm… I guess it makes sense."

Although the whole matter with the 'world will' was now more or less clear to her, the matter of the heroine, Crystal, was a little more complicated.

"If I understand it correctly, Amos is the 'favorite toy' of the world will, while Crystal is the one naturally born with the greatest 'soul strength' in this world, right?"

Cynthia seemed to hesitate a little before answering her. "Right, associating with her is beneficial to both Amos and the world will. You can think of the 'world will' as a parasite that leeches off of the entire world's soul strength."

Of course, this was not the first unnatural pause from her partner during her probing. Clearly, she was trying to filter what she could and could not tell her.

"Why do you call it the 'world will' then?"

"I-I… I call them that because of their origin, but…"

This time, the pause was even longer, and far too obvious to ignore.

Emilia smiled. "You don't want to tell me?"

It wasn't clear what Cynthia was thinking or feeling from her voice, although there seemed to be a slight twinge of regret. "… Sorry… I don't want to lie to you, but I can't tell you."

"Alright."

Contrary to Cynthia's thoughts, Emilia didn't get angry at all. In fact, she knew better than anyone how much she owed to this girl. They were partners in name, but their relationship wasn't truly that of equals.

Although they played around from time to time, she would not forget her own position just because Cynthia was nice to her.

----------

When Samantha returned home, she found her little sister waiting for her in the hall. Although she still looked the same as yesterday, the younger girl's aura was a little different, a little more domineering. As if another set of shackles that had been holding her back were released.

"Welcome home, Sam."

Samantha smiled. She felt it was a pity that she could not brag about her deeds, but her little sister was better off in the dark.

"Were you waiting for me?"

Emilia's posture was leisurely as she patted the spot next to her. "Yes. Come here. I have to ask you something."

The older girl felt her curiosity pique as she slid next to her sister on the sofa. "What is it? If it's about that whole shower in the school thing, don't worry, I have already arranged it—"

Emilia cut her off abruptly. "Tell me, how was your day like? What did you do?"

"Uh… j-just the usual. You know. Signing papers, talking with clients and stuff?"

Emilia reached out to hold her sister's hands and turned them over. Samantha realized too late that long, horizontal blue marks were clearly visible on her palms from the overuse of the crowbar.

"Hm… and why are your palms bruised? They weren't like that yesterday."

"Uh, I… ugh! I-I was practicing martial arts!"

Emilia smiled. "Oh?"

At that moment, Samantha recalled that her little sister had been going to a dojo to learn martial arts herself, and this lie would be easily exposed if she wanted to try 'sparring' or anything. There's no way she'll believe it then.

She could only grit her teeth and make up another lie. One that hopefully her sister would be too disgusted to dig into.

"Sorry, Emilia! I lied, okay~ I was out with my boyfriend, and we did some really kinky stuff! So that's how these bruises came to be. Don't ask too much, it's embarrassing!"

Samantha pretended to be shy as she yanked her hands out of her sister's grasp to cover her face.

Emilia's gaze was dark as she held her sister's wrists and pulled them away to expose her perplexed face.

"You're lying to me, Sam?"

Something about Emilia's gaze was wrong. But Samantha couldn't figure out what it was. How could her sister's eyes ever look so sharp and domineering?

"S-Sorry, Emilia, I just… It's just some things you don't need to know!"

Emilia's lips turned up slightly, as if amused. "Is it about those stalkers?"

The older girl's mouth hung open in shock. Just what was the point of embarrassing herself like this if she already knew?!

"Don't look so surprised. You weren't hiding it that well, so I had some idea. Anyway, you don't have to hide from me now, okay? Tell me exactly what happened."

Now that she had been cornered like this, Samantha could only confess the truth of the matter to Emilia. Of course, she still did not tell her about the final fate of those bullies, or even the thugs.

But it was still enough for Emilia to get the gist of the situation.

----------

"What the hell is this, Morgan?!"

The petite female police officer couldn't help but be startled when a thick folder was slammed on her desk.

"What else do you think it is? This is the case we'll be working on from now."

The tall, dark-skinned man snorted. "I can SEE that. What I want to know is how in the world do you expect me to just take all this bullshit?"

Officer Morgan tilted her head, as if confused. "I don't get it?"

The male officer sighed as he pulled a chair to take a seat before opening up the first page of the folder.

"Did you not even look at what's in there?"

Contrary to his expectations, the lady nodded. "I did… According to the preliminary reports, Mr. White has been using private forces to run rampant in the city. We're to investigate multiple disappearances of people in the city central area around the Miller's restaurant, as well as two boys who had a conflict with Mr. White's daughter who suddenly went missing."

The man ran a hand through his short dreadlocks in exasperation. "I've never seen such bullshit before in my life! Do you know who Mr. White is? The man's been donating to all kinds of charities and welfare funds for years!"

The lady rolled her eyes. "And which rich man does not do that, Mark? I have yet to see one."

Mark was dumbfounded for a moment. Although he wanted to argue that Mr. White donated the most, he knew that Morgan would just refute it with him being the richest of them all anyway.

"Whatever, but… I think that among all the rich bastards in this city, he's probably the least likely to pull this kind of shit off. This is clearly someone trying to frame him!"

Morgan sighed as she patted her fellow officer on the shoulder. "Listen, Mark, I know your wife's operation could only succeed because of one of those charities, but you should keep your personal bias out of this. Our investigation has to be based on evidence and truth."

Mark rolled his eyes. "Okay. Then tell me where this preliminary report came from?"

The petite lady could only shrug. "I don't know. The commissioner gave it to me directly, saying it came from confidential sources."

"Ugh."

There was a moment of awkward silence between the two before the petite lady cleared her throat.

"Don't worry, Mark. If Mr. White really had nothing to do with this, our investigation will only help him clear his name."