The Author's POV

After Hein's match, there were a couple of more matches, but none interested me, so I just made small talk with the others in order to pass time.

Fortunately, Hein's match was one of the very last ones as the round of 128 finally came to an end after one last big battle.

Though I said big, it was only like that because the two opponents facing each other were of similar strength and so was very entertaining to watch.

"This will be it for today's matches. I hope the contestants will take this time to rest for tomorrow's matches." The elven lady once again said as she showed up on the stage. Following her words, everyone stood up and left the premises.

Similarly standing up, just as I was about to follow the others out, Kevin came up to me. He had a serious look on his face.

Instantly my brows knit.

"...what's wrong?"

"Ren, we need to talk."

There was undeniable solemness in his voice as he spoke to me. Glancing around to make sure that the others had left, I slowly nodded.

Kevin wasn't the type of guy to act like this unless there really was something wrong. As such, I knew that the situation was serious.

"Where should we talk?"

"Your apartment."

"...my apartment?"

"Yeah. It's the place that has the least amount of people nearby."

"Fair."

And so we decided to head to my apartment to talk. The walk wasn't long as within ten minutes we were already there, but it was strangely uncomfortable as I felt this weird tension coming out from Kevin's face.

His face reminded me of someone who was just about to go to war.

Ci Clank—

Opening the door of my apartment and letting Kevin in, I slumped down on one of the chairs of the room.

Kevin shortly followed suit as he sat on the seat opposite of me.

"..."

An uncomfortable silence descended on the room as Kevin leaned forward, with both his arms on his thighs. Interlocking his hands together, Kevin's foot repeatedly tapped onto the ground.

Seeing that Kevin was having difficulty speaking, I decided to break the silence.

"...So? What did you want to talk about?"

Lifting his head, Kevin looked up at me.

"Say..."

His brows furrowed even more tightly.

"...do you perhaps have a secret that you can't tell me?"

"A secret?"

I was taken aback by his abrupt question.

'Did he find something out?...and isn't that rather vague?'

I had plenty of secrets, and so I wasn't really sure about which one he was referring to.

Nodding his head, Kevin's crimson red eyes continue to gaze in my direction.

"Yeah, do you have any secrets that you can't tell me?"

Leaning back, and deeply gazing into Kevin's eyes, I eventually nodded my head.

"...There are."

The fact that this world was a novel, the book, my skills, I had plenty of secrets that I couldn't tell him.

he found out any of those secrets, I wasn't too sure how he would react. There was a high

"I see."

Kevin's foot became more prominent. This was an obvious indication to

going on

Don't drag it out, tell me

been having

least bit mad

"Visions?"

recall Kevin ever having visions in the novel.

"...Yeah."

Kevin nodded.

type of

I've written them down. Take a

out a small book from his dimensional space before handing it

my hand, I took the book. Although I was confused, I still

'Let's see.'

Kevin one more time, I lowered my head and directed my focus on

Kevin is this serious, it

"...What the?"

book. Why would I? I didn't think there would be anything I didn't know, but I was

Akashic records? Black-clothed guy?

I read, the greater the confusion on my face became. That was because I didn't know any

were essentially an entity that acted as the gods of this world, yet at the same time couldn't be considered gods. It was a confusing concept that I decided to add near the end of the

find out about the Akashic records till later

he was currently experiencing were also

My head throbbed.

in the world

my actions had pushed forward a couple of plot points several times ahead of where they should've been. Sucked, but it was nothing new. Happened many times in the past and

Flip—!

the next page. Reading through the passage, my

resort to this if you hadn't been so compassionate, I hope her death can finally

matter how important of a piece you are, a

this will finally

looking back at me with

felt as though a lump was stuck in my

once again reading

"It can't be..."

disbelief as I

of speaking...and

felt it too

my direction throughout the whole

his hand and pointing at the

the vision was

"This..."

I couldn't. The man described in the book reminded me an awful lot of me...or

"No, it can't be."

loud as horrifying thoughts flashed across

you figure

But I didn't respond.

'...Monarch's indifference.'

of my mind as I re-read the passage multiple times. I swallowed a mouthful of

Not only did it feel as though I would lose all control of my body, but

back, my chess ideology did not

my head came from the moment I met the previous Ren, but that wasn't true at all...they came the moment I used

met the other Ren. Maybe that was why I never noticed it, and only

ran down my

"Huuu..."

back at any of

one incident that particularly stood out

dome when I activated it to save Kevin. More specifically, the

saving Kevin...but was it really a fluke? It had to be, didn't it? After

nagging feeling inside

'I'm definitely overthinking things'

head, trying to

too far-fetched to make sense, but something

forced...almost as though someone was trying to manipulate the path that I needed to take. I couldn't