Web of Lies

"We need to talk", Paul said.

"You're right", I admitted. "Please, follow me."

I opened the seal to the teleportation room I had just created and dropped myself back down inside. Paul followed me from behind and jumped down on his own accord.

I conjured up two chairs for us to sit on and summoned a light spirit to light the room. I also resealed the entrance to the room.

"Take a seat. We have a lot to talk about."

Paul sat down, looking all the more suspicious.

"What is this huge magic circle you've drawn out here? What is the purpose of this room?"

"This is a teleportation circle. I created this underground room and sealed it off to keep it hidden from anyone who might pass by."

Paul's eyes went wide when he heard the words 'Teleportation Circle'.

"Teleportation Circle!? So it's true. You really are the one responsible", Paul said with a grimace.

"Responsible for what?", I asked.

"For the teleportation incident", Paul said with an agitated look on his face.

"No. I had nothing to do with that."

"How can you expect me to believe that!?", Paul shouted. "Do you think me a fool? It's obvious you had something to do with it. Why were we the only ones kept together? Not just us, but Laws and his family, too. And then Phillip and his wife are just next door!? There is no way all of that just happened by chance. I know you did it!"

"Calm down, father. Let me explain..."

"You're not going to explain your way out of this one!", Paul yelled, interrupting me. "How could you do this? What did all those innocent people do to you? How is this even possible? You're only eleven years old, yet you have already risen to the rank of 'God', and now I catch you red handed dabbling in teleportation circles!? There's no way you're really my son; how is this even possible."

At some point during that tirade, Paul had begun crying his eyes out. After hearing that last remark, I too felt like I would start crying at any moment.

"I'll tell you everything, right from the beginning. But first, let me assure you, without a shadow of doubt, I am most definitely your son."

Tears began falling down my cheeks as I said this, and as Paul looked up at me, his face filled with regret for what he had said.

"I'm sorry Rudy. I went too far."

"I understand. You must be terribly confused. I would feel the same way if I were in your position. It's my fault for keeping all of this from you anyway. I just didn't know how to tell you. There was no way you'd believe me."

"Tell me now. I'm listening", Paul said with a stern look on his face. He seemed to have calmed down a little.

"What I'm about to tell you will sound completely unbelievable, but I give you my word, it is the truth. I've come from the future."

The moment I said those five short words, Paul's eyes went wide once again. He stayed silent, however, waiting for more of an explanation before making his judgment.

"Throughout my life, a being who called himself 'The Man God', or 'Hitogami', began appearing in my dreams. After the teleportation incident, which I had nothing to do with, by the way, I found myself transported to the Demon Continent alongside Eris, just like what happened this time around.

I met you on Milishion, where you informed me that it was not just Eris and I that were teleported, but everyone. Lilia, Aisha, and Zenith were still missing.

Hitogami appeared in one of my dreams and told me that Lilia and Aisha were in Shirone, and he gave me advice that led me to find them.

I managed to find Sylphy in the Magic City of Sharia, and we fell in love. I bought a house in Sharia and we got married there.

A couple years later, you finally managed to find Zenith. Unfortunately, she was trapped in a magic crystal within a Labyrinth. Working all together, we managed to defeat the boss of the Labyrinth and save mother, but sadly, you gave your life to save me in the battle."

Paul seemed slightly shaken to hear of his own death like that, but motioned for me to continue.

"After the battle, we freed mother from the magic crystal, only to find her in a vegetative state. I found out later that she had been afflicted by a curse after being trapped in the magic crystal for so long. We never did find a way to cure her from that curse.

I was devastated by your death and mother's state and so I fell into a deep depression. I couldn't even muster the willpower to get out of bed, and I had stopped eating. Roxy, who had also helped save Mother, managed to save me from my depression and we too, fell in love."

I expected Paul to make some sort of comment about me cheating on Sylphy, but to my surprise he remained silent with a dead serious look on his face. It seems hearing of his death and Zenith's condition had him rather somber.

"When we all got back to Sharia, I told everyone what happened. Norn took your death especially hard. Sylphy, Roxy, and I all had a talk and agreed that since I was in love with both of them, and they both loved me, Roxy and I would also get married and we'd all live together."

"That does sound like something Sylphiette would do. Poor girl is too kind for her own good", Paul commented.

"One day, Hitogami gave me seemingly harmless advice, and I followed it, since I believed he had been helping me all this time. As it turns out, his advice led to Roxy contracting an incurable disease and dying.

Hitogami then appeared in another one of my dreams only to mock me for my foolishness and tell me that he had been tricking me all this time. Evidently, I was destined to have a child with Roxy who would one day team up with Dragon God Orsted to kill Hitogami. All of his advice had been a plan to gain my trust and lead to Roxy's death.

Roxy's death also caused a chain of events that led to the death of Sylphy, Zenith, Lilia, Aisha, Eris, and several friends of mine as well."

I left out the details of their deaths as I couldn't bear to recall my actions.

Paul seemed to be silently furious at this point. "What about Norn?", he asked.

"I don't know what ever happened to Norn. I failed to protect anyone I cared about, and I figured she was safer being away from me. At that point, I was consumed by revenge. Everything I did was for the sake of gaining vengeance against Hitogami."

Paul disapproved of the way I handled myself, but couldn't bring himself to hold it against me. He felt like he would have done the exact same in my situation.

"I spent decades studying summoning and teleportation magic to find a way to reach Hitogami. I had found an ancient ruin of the dragonfolk civilization. Inside the ruins, I found a mural describing Hitogami and how he resides in an unreachable place called the 'Void World'.

The ancient dragonfolk had been researching summoning and teleportation magic in order to one day reach him and get revenge of their own against him. Hitogami is an evil being that rejoices in tricking and ruining the lives of others.

While researching this magic, I came upon a revelation that I could alter the teleportation magic circles in order to travel through time.

I had intended to go back to the decisive moment that led to Roxy's death. However, my calculations must have gone wrong somewhere, because the next thing I knew I had been reincarnated back into my newborn self, opening my eyes to see you picking me up and giving me a kiss.

I spent my time secretly practicing magic in order to build up my magic reserves. In my research from my previous life, I had learned that using magic when you are young, under ten years of age to be precise, will build up your magic reserves, much like how training your body will build up your physique.

Whenever I was left alone I made sure to expend all of my mana every day. By now, my mana supply is effectively limitless. It is because of my limitless mana pool, and vast experience in magical combat that I was able to defeat the North God, even at my young age, and earn the title of 'Magic God'.

I knew that the teleportation incident would occur the day after my tenth birthday. Using this knowledge, I had prepared teleportation circles to take all of my loved ones to Sharia the day before the incident in order to save them."

"Why didn't you just tell people about the incident beforehand then? Why let all the innocent people suffer and die?", Paul said accusingly.

"I didn't think people would believe me. Even if I could convince them to believe me, after the incident, I'm sure the nobles would have blamed me for it. How am I meant to explain to them how I knew about this without them thinking I caused it?"

"You could have just told them the truth! Explain everything like you just did to me!"

"In the end, I simply chose to save those I cared about. As heartless as it may sound, I wasn't willing to risk the safety of my loved ones to save a bunch of strangers I've never met."

Paul couldn't help but grimace when I said that. He felt like this was an incredibly cruel outlook, but the more he thought about it, he couldn't say for sure that he wouldn't have done the same.

"That pretty much leads us to where we are now. I plan to take you and Eris back to Sharia, buy the same home from my previous life, and live with you all there."

"Why are we traveling all the way to Shirone on foot if you can just teleport wherever you want? Isn't this a huge waste of time? If all of this is true, I just want to get back and see Norn and Aisha as soon as possible."

"Well it's not as simple as teleporting wherever I want. I need to have another teleportation circle to link to. That being said, there is one I know of nearby Shirone."

"Fine. Take us there first thing in the morning then", Paul said. "I've spent this last year and a half searching frantically for you. Now I'm exhausted. I just want to pick up Laws and get back home."

"Yes, you're right. We'll do just that."

I reopened the seal to this room, and lifted the two of us back up with gravity magic. Paul seemed quite perturbed by the feeling of being lifted up like that.

I sealed the room and we began making our way back to our carriage, where Eris was still sleeping.

On the way there, Paul asked me a rather difficult question.

"So, when we get back, are you going to tell everyone else?"

"I-I don't know", I said as I bit my lip.

"To be honest, I feel like a great weight has been lifted off my chest now that I've told you all this. Having to hide the truth from everyone all these years has been truly stressful. It has caused me to start to feel detached from those I care about most. It felt like I had been entangled by a web of lies."

"I'm sure. Lying to your loved ones is always painful", Paul said while reminiscing of the stress he felt after cheating on Zenith with Lilia and trying to keep it secret.

"I want to tell them. But I don't know how they'd react. How am I supposed to tell Sylphy and Roxy that we are meant to get married when we get older? It would feel like I'm not giving them the choice."

"I see what you mean", Paul said while contemplating what I should do. "In that case, I'll leave it up to you. Still though, I think you will need to tell them one day. They aren't stupid. If I was able to figure out that something didn't make sense about our situation, I'm sure they will be able to do so as well."

"You're right. I just hope they can forgive me once I do tell them."

"If they truly love you like you say, I'm sure they will", Paul said while giving me a reassuring smile.

We made it back to our carriage and I fell right to sleep. That night I slept better than I had in a long, long time.