A confrontation, a resolution, and... a deal?

-Around 3 days before reaching Guill, 04.04.1052-

-Early night-

Sitting by a small campfire, Leaf was resting her head on the same tree as Travis, their hair nearly touching. Bill and Jay were happily hopping around the slowly dying embers, seemingly lost in their own world (did the Necromancer's summons actually have their own minds? It was debatable, and even Leaf didn't fully know the answer). Slowly brushing her fingers on the ground, a quiet sigh escaped her mouth.

"Hey," she whispered, turning to the man and leaning in. "Are you sleeping?"

"No," he replied. "Why?"

"Well... I thought I might tell you something you can do. A thing to help you deal with someone you're traveling with in the future if need be," 'For example, that spy woman...' "Want to hear it?"

"Sure."

"Alright. If it so happens that you are suspicious of anyone, you may want to learn how to pretend to be sleeping. Learn to dull your reactions, calm your breath, maybe even keep an eye just barely open, and yet not fall asleep. It's not as easy as it sounds, but if you practice a little, I'm sure you'll be able to pull it off."

"I see. Thanks."

"Don't mention it. It may not come in handy to do this, but... you never know, right?"

-Currently, 16.04.1052-

-About 22:35-

"Gotcha," Travis said, his hand gripping Violet's wrist tightly.

"!!?" The young woman flinched, but her reaction was too late. In fact, the moment she allowed him to grab her, she was already in a lost position.

Travis quickly **** himself up and lunged forward, pinning her to the ground. As Violet tried to fight back, he twisted her hand in a direction, reducing her mobility. In response to her kick, he seized her other shoulder. Within a few seconds, he had overpowered her, turning her on her stomach with her left hand on her lower back, and her right one pinned under his knee.

Violet was unable to struggle free from his power. While she boasted superior speed and reflexes, the man had greater strength than her. And thanks to being caught off-guard, her only advantage was taken away. Now, pinned to the ground, she could only grunt as Travis held her down, ensuring that she wouldn't be able to use her legs for any maneuvers.

"W-What are you doing?!" she asked, raising her voice a little.

"I should be the one asking," he answered, his eyes glancing around. While he wasn't entirely asleep when Violet did something with his hand, he failed to tell exactly what she inserted in it before taking it out. "Would you mind explaining yourself?"

"...I did nothing-- ngh!" Violet said and then winced as Travis put a bit more **** into his hold. She felt her muscles being strained.

"Don't lie. I may have been almost asleep, but it doesn't mean I didn't feel it," Travis replied. "Now, answer me."

"..."

"Come on, spill it out. Alternatively, I can **** you," he said, quickly firing a <Suggestion> at Violet's mind. As he expected, his spell was blocked by a barrier. However, there was a tiny smirk on his face. 'Just like with Cecilia, this barrier isn't as strong as the one around Crystal's mind.' He was certain now. He felt it vaguely back then, but now he confirmed it. While still powerful, the barrier around Violet's mind had some imperfections that he could feel. If he spent a while, he would break through with just <Hypnosis> and <Suggestion>.

'I have to be careful...' judged Violet, her mouth still shut.

"Resist if you want. I'm getting my answers one way or another," 'I should probably feel bad about this but she started it.' he thought before releasing a few more <Suggestions>.

With every next one, he could feel it more and more clearly: the image of the barrier around Violet's mind. It was tall and just barely perceptible, but undeniably prevented his entry. He wasn't exactly sure how, but he could tell there were some imperfections in the wall around her spirit, tainting the otherwise smooth surface that he could barely feel.

Every time he fired a spell, he felt his Willpower start to make a mark in the barrier. Vaguely, as he fired the seventh spell, he felt as if the barrier gave in, but only barely.

'I don't have enough MP to break through that thing... wait. That jar from Rulebreaker, I still have it.' he looked at his backpack momentarily. 'It has a thousand MP in it. I'm not sure, but that should be enough to get through this barrier... right? How can I even estimate that, actually? It just feels... kinda obvious.' Travis shook his head, turning back to the woman who kept on squirming under him.

"Changed your mind yet?" he asked. "I can still keep going."

"..."

"Well, so be it," he shrugged, firing yet another spell. 'Weird. I would've expected her to flail around like crazy, but she seems... eerily calm. She moves about, but I hardly feel like she's fighting. Is she trying to get me to lower my guard?'

'Think, think, think... how to piece that together...' Violet kept on pondering furiously (does such a term even exist?), doing her best to come up with a proper way to diffuse the situation. At the same time, she was doing her best to find a weak spot in the man's grasp of her, squirming as much as she could.

She felt the man's mental **** try to pry the barrier around her mind. Well, more accurately, she didn't feel the **** itself. She only felt the trigger put onto the mind wall release, fueling her with a feeling that she should flee or fight. He was working his way through it, slowly but surely.

"W-Wait," Violet said, doing her best to sound calm despite her rapid heartbeat. "I'll tell you...!"

"Hmm?" 'Well... that was suspiciously easy. I should be wary.' "Alright, start talking, then."

"...I... There has been... a lot of suspicious activities around Forna past month."

"Suspicious activities?"

"I'm sure you've noticed some of them. Transfers of goods between the capital and towns around. Monks and priests of the Forna's Church going into the crowds."

"So what? What does that have to do with this situation?"

"..." 'Dammit, I started it wrong.'

"Let's try again. And this time, how about you refer to our situation?"

"...do you... believe in godly interference, Travis?" 'Being more direct is probably a better approach.'

"...what?" 'Where the hell did she get the idea to ask something like this?'

"...do you believe that gods could... intervene in what's happening on Casali, Travis?"

"What do you mean?"

"...have you ever heard the term 'Apostle Competition'?"

"!!!" Travis felt his heart stop momentarily as his hand shook. Instinctively, he flinched, but he quickly shook out of his state. "What's an 'Apostle Competition'?" he asked, trying to sound as oblivious to the term as he could.

"..."

"Answer me," he said, putting some more pressure on the woman's hand on her back.

A million thoughts were going through his head at that moment. How did Violet know of Apostle's Competition? The only reason Travis could think of immediately was simple: she had already met someone speaking of the event. And that meant one thing. 'There's an Apostle in Forna other than me, and almost certainly other than supreme priest. Or... she is an Apostle herself?' that was a second option.

He took a short moment to ponder on that. Could it be true? He wasn't sure. They had known each other for barely a day, there was hardly a thing he learned about the woman. It was difficult to come to any sound conclusion based on circumstantial evidence. However, Travis did remember one goddess of the pantheon whose personality was described like what Violet's was. 'Goddess of Hunts & Dungeons, Tanya... but Violet's skills don't seem to match up.'

As the man kept on pondering for a long moment, he failed to notice how the strength of his hold was weakening. On the other hand, the woman pinned to the ground was eagerly waiting for just that. As she judged the situation to be favorable to her, she flailed her body violently, shaking the man on top of her nearly off in just a second. While he still held her hand, she completely ignored it, instead twisting her body under him. As the man flinched, he rose on his knees a little, and Violet used that opening to **** her other hand from under him. In a split second, she was on her back and planted a kick in the man's chest, forcing the two of them apart.

'Shit!' Travis reached for Pacifist by his waist. However, before he managed that, Violet swiftly rushed to a thing lying on the ground, which turned out to be an MID. After that, she made a quick jump away from the man, making about 4 meters of distance between them.

"MID?" he asked, noticing how the woman hadn't prepared a single weapon. Still keeping his guard up, he traced the silvery thing with his eyes. "Did you try to use it on me?"

"...yes."

"Why? Storm Rogue had already figured that I'm a Psion."

"...I apologize."

"...apologize?" 'What's she playing all of a sudden...?'

"Yes," Violet bowed her head a little, but it did seem like she was trying to show him some respect. "Because there are things that I had not told you. And before we proceed, I'd like to come clean with everything."

"...?" 'She doesn't seem to want to fight me... why?' "Come clean?"

"Yes," 'This is the best way for us both. Just plain truth.' "I want to explain why I really came in here with you. Truth be told, you may think that we only met today, but... I've known about you for much longer."

"...what?"

"When you were sent to Autir, Miss Storm Rogue had asked me to watch over you, to make sure that you didn't get in any dangerous situations. I had been at my duty more or less since you and your elf companion reached Guill."

"...what?!" Travis asked, clenching his fist holding Pacifist. Anger started rising in his spirit. "Why the hell?"

"Please don't misunderstand. Miss Storm Rogue had asked me to watch over you because she found out that you changed your class. She wished for you to stay safe."

"..."

"I continued to watch, and I came to notice that you seem to grow far faster than what should be possible. Moreover, it came to my attention that you have skills that exceed what a Psion should have."

"...such as?"

"You have skills befitting a Psion. <Suggestion> is what almost all Psions start with, and you even know <Hypnosis>. And you also have a skill called <Mana Bolt>," Violet said, putting definitive emphasis on the skill's name.

'Dammit.' "But why are you telling me this?"

"...because of what you once said."

"...?" he looked at her, completely bewildered.

"Travis. One day, you spoke with that woman, and you told her that you are an 'Apostle', chosen by god Redion, and that you are supposed to take part in an event called 'Apostle Competition'."

"...!" 'DAMMIT!' he yelled in his mind, taking a small step back.

While the embers of the campfire barely were able to cast any light, the moon's reflected shine showed the man's surprised expression. Violet knew immediately: she hit the nail on the head.

"And that is why I wanted to use my MID on you," she continued. "I want to satisfy my curiosity, that is all. I'm sorry for having to use that approach. I don't want to argue with you, I just want to uncover the truth. Even if it's only for myself."

Travis squinted his eyes. There was something off about Violet. He couldn't place his finger on what exactly was incorrect, but... there definitely was something amiss. 'Only for herself?'

"And this is the way that I will," Violet said, releasing a small sigh from her mouth before pressing the MID in her hand lightly, prompting it to activate.

The silvery surface gleamed with the blueish light of mana for a moment before the shine converged to a single point. After doing so, it flew upward and formed a small blue panel that displayed whatever data it contained. However, what suddenly perplexed the woman was what it displayed.

There seemed to be layers of some white text displayed, their letters converging into singular blobs that made reading the actual text next to impossible. Barely a note or two was possible to be made out of it. Violet's eyes widened. 'WHAT?!!' her hand shook a little as she turned the MID off and on again. However, it didn't change at all what was being displayed. 'There's no way! It should be working fine!'

Her eyes glanced up at the man. His golden orbs seemed neither surprised nor excited at what had just happened, and he slowly hid his weapon. It was... almost like he expected it to happen.

'...did he do something to it...?' a momentary thought crossed her mind. Knowing that this man wasn't normal, it did make sense that he could've influenced the item in her hand somehow, but... was that really the case?

Meanwhile, Travis was watching how Violet struggled to read something out of the jumble of letters and whatnot. From the moment he realized what Violet tried to do to him he knew this would be the outcome. However, this didn't mean he was calm about the situation. 'She knows about <Mana Bolt>... this makes the situation tricky. I didn't think about it much with Leaf around because I thought I could convince her to join me. On the other hand, Violet probably won't want to stay around. I need a way to diffuse the situation...'

[You have received a quest!]

'???' he raised an eyebrow as he noticed the blue panel appear in front of him. 'A quest all of a sudden?' he took a deeper breath, taking in the night's chilly air. While the woman was still perplexed by the item in her hand not working, he took his chance to look at the task he received.

[Quest: The doubt]

[Sometimes, you are put in an uncomfortable position, and there is no easy way out. Should you answer 'yes' or 'no', 'backward' or 'forward'? It's not always clear which is better.

Violet wants to believe that you are the Apostle of Tricks & Manipulation, her beliefs fortified by days of observation. However, the recent setback makes her doubt her claims, even if only a little. Perhaps she may dismiss them as her inexperience if you play your cards right.

Objective:

a) Find a way to convince Violet that your class is the 'Apostle of Tricks & Manipulation'.

OR

b) Find a way to convince Violet otherwise.

Optional: Do the quest without trying to break through the mental barrier around Violet's mind.

Reward:

a) 2 stat points. Increase Intelligence and Wisdom by 1 point each. Violet will believe your words, and you will have a very good chance to recruit her in the future. She will be likely to listen to your regular requests even without being under your influence.

b) 12 stat points. Increase Intelligence, Wisdom, Strength, and Endurance by 2 points each. Violet will leave you alone, and the chances of recruiting her in the future will be minimal.

*The appropriate rewards are tied to corresponding conditions.

Time remaining: 48:00:00

Optional reward: Calidan Thunder Blade

Failure penalty: None.]

The man looked at the woman, who seemed to have finally given up on trying to make her MID work. 'This quest is very suspicious. It can be completed in one of two ways, and each of them offers its own rewards, too. This must be what it means that it's not clear which way is better... I'll give it a thought in a minute. First, I have to deal with this situation.'

"Well, is that all?" he asked. "A broken MID?"

"...no..." 'Dammit... I was so close! Why did it have to break... wait...' Violet frowned. "I..."

'Now... how to deal with this...' he grimaced a little, unsure of what approach to take.

"No," she said suddenly, clenching her teeth a little.

"...?"

"I know what I saw," she took a definitive, strong step toward the man. "I'm not crazy. You are much stronger than you should be at this time. I know you're not a normal Psion. You've been walking through walls. Items just appear in your hands at times. Sometimes, you just look into emptiness, but you seem to get something from it. Like you're reading something, even though nothing's there."

'Damn, she really did keep an eye on me... Even Leaf didn't notice things appearing in my hands or reading through RALS. Or, rather, didn't seem to notice...'

"Travis. Tell me. How did you do this?"

"Do what?"

"How did you manipulate my MID?"

"Who said I did? Those things just break sometimes," 'The possibility of getting her as a companion sounds neat, but... I have to take into account that she may have connections that that Psion... It's better if I try to play it for the latter condition. This way I can ensure Crystal's safety. Now I need to figure out how to dismiss the other things...'

Violet looked to her side as if she was expecting an answer to come from within the half-dim forest. However, barely a sound could be heard. The breeze that was flowing between them two caused the tree leaves all around to flutter in the wind, but that was about it.

"If that's everything... let's just go to sleep. I'm sure you're tired," 'The longer this conversation drags on, the higher the chance that I'll slip something unnecessary.'

"...no. There is... one more thing," she said, straightening in her position. It seemed as if she had forgotten about what she just did, her complexion neutral. Although she still held the MID in her hand, she didn't appear to hold much weight to it anymore.

"...?" 'Still not given up? She's pretty stubborn.' "What do you mean?"

"It's something that you should know. It concerns your home village, Holia."

'Holia? So, that Psion is the one she knows?!' he thought, a tiny grimace appearing on his face.

"For reasons I won't disclose, my group was performing investigations around the capital. That also included several villages around. When we went to Holia, there were signs of magic used. Most of that magic is at least two decades old, and some parts - even three."

"...magic? In Holia?" 'Three decades... does she mean that there's still some leftover magic from Kanya? I wouldn't be surprised, but... the way she said it makes it seem like she doesn't mean her. And for some reason, it feels like she doesn't mean someone she knows, either.'

"I know what you want to ask. 'Whose magic was it' and 'What significance does it bear'? Truth be told, we are not sure about the first one. We do know two things. Number one is, that person is no longer in Holia."

"And number two?"

Violet gazed to her side for a moment. "I think I've said enough already."

"...what?"

"I can't tell you any more if this is supposed to be fair."

"Fair? In what way would that be 'fair'?"

"Information for information. That's the fairest trade there is. I'm putting data of a great weight on the scale. I should expect something at least equal in return, shouldn't I?"

'So... that's how she wants to do this.'

"My proposal is simplistic. I don't want to keep secrets, and I expect the same from you. I merely wish to have proof of what your class is. If you provide me with that, I'm more than willing to share everything I know about the situation in Holia."

'In a way, it's ****, but it won't work. I already know the second thing. She meant that the magic used in there belongs to a Psion.'

"...I won't rush your response. I understand that you will need some time to think this through. Please do. I will give you the space," she said and took a step or two away from the man.

"..."

"And before I forget. I really do apologize for the situation that occurred because of me. I will not harbor any ill thoughts toward you for your response, and I wish to ask you to find the will in you to forgive me for my transgression. It won't repeat."

"...I will consider it," he replied slowly.

"Thank you," Violet nodded to him. "I will return in the morning. If you will still be here, we can continue our travel."

'...if?'

A second of silence passed, undisturbed by any movement from either of them. The fog around them was slowly becoming denser, and it started to even drown out the moonlight descending on them. Within a few minutes, the night would become completely dark again.

...

Violet looked at Travis for a few prolonged seconds before taking a long step back. After following them with another two, she turned around, disappearing into the night.

...

Travis let out a small breath that he had been subconsciously holding. 'This is... weird.' he thought, slowly descending to a sitting position. 'Her attitude, her words... I guess that's why the rewards are so different.'

This was the first time he had encountered a quest like this. A quest that could be fulfilled in two different ways, each with its own set of rewards. What was more, the dispersity between them was... significant to say the least.

'Barely 4 stat points for the easier way. The harder one is worth 20 in total. The difference is huge. Moreover, looking at what Violet knows, what she asked, and how she reacted... completing the harder difficulty is impossible on my own. If I want to finish it, I'll likely have to break through her mental barrier... which means losing the optional reward.'

On the other hand, the said reward caught the man's eye.

'...Calidan? I feel like I've heard that somewhere.' he leaned his head on the tree bark, browsing through his memories of the past month quickly. After a little over a dozen seconds, he made a tiny gasp. 'Calida clan... Leaf said it's one of the two that disappeared over four hundred years ago...'

Wait... something didn't add up. 'Why would Redion give me a reward like this? Is he trying to tell me something? Or did he get it from there...? I thought gods didn't intervene in the world?'

...

Travis sighed lightly. The situation was becoming too weird for him to react to it properly. Violet and her behavior, the quest, and now this conclusion...

He wasn't sure what to think about the woman. On one hand, he wanted to resent her for spying on him. However, on the other, he kind of understood her behavior. In all honesty, he was sure he'd act at least similarly to her. And this was strange.

'Violet seems convinced that she's right... If she's in the same group as Cecilia, then... did she not tell her? Or if she did, why didn't Cecilia say a word about it... Well, I suppose her reaction might've been like Leaf's. This would mean they're more sceptical than Violet, which does seem to check. Given the same evidence, Leaf didn't seem to budge from her position. This would also explain why the quest only gives 4 stat points for the easier route. It's simply that much easier.'

...

He looked in the direction where the woman had left. What should he do about this situation?

'...should I actually finish the quest the easy way? I mean, that'd mean admitting to my class, but... if she's likely to listen to my requests, will she obey if I tell her to tell me the truth?'

...but how?

'Wait... maybe I have a way.' he thought, closing his eyes. 'It's kind of wicked... but I won't be doing it for myself. It's going to be for Crystal and everyone in Holia. And besides, I won't let her die.'

...

'...I hope, at least.'

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