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.

a high chance that

"I see."

more prominent. This was an obvious indication to me that

going on with

you? Don't drag it out, tell me exactly

having visions

cut me off. But I wasn't the least bit mad as his words instantly attracted

"Visions?"

ever having visions in the novel. Another butter-fly

"...Yeah."

Kevin nodded.

of visions

a look for yourself

take out a small book from his dimensional space before handing it

hand, I took the book. Although I

'Let's see.'

head and directed my focus on the book in my

this serious, it

"...What the?"

there would be anything I didn't know, but I was quickly proven

Akashic records?

didn't know any of the things

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

the Akashic records till

the visions that he was currently experiencing were also

My head throbbed.

the world

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

Flip—!

saying anything, I flipped to the next page. Reading through the passage, my eyes opened wide

resort to this if you hadn't been

you are, a piece should

hope this will finally clear

my head, I looked at Kevin who was looking back at me

I didn't know what to say. It felt as though a

head and once again reading the book,

"It can't be..."

in disbelief as

way of speaking...and those words...that's definitely

it

direction throughout the whole time, Kevin

hand and pointing at the book,

person in the vision

"This..."

The man described in the book

"No, it can't be."

loud as horrifying thoughts flashed across

you figure something

I didn't respond.

'...Monarch's indifference.'

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

had my reservation about using it. Not only did it feel as though I would lose all

I look back, my chess ideology did not stem from meeting the previous Ren

of my head came from the moment I

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

down

"Huuu..."

breath, I tried to look back at any of

that

the dome when I activated it to save Kevin. More

Kevin...but was it really a fluke? It had to be, didn't it? After all, under Monarch's Indifference, all that mattered was the end goal, not

was this nagging feeling inside of my head

'I'm definitely overthinking things'

head, trying

just too far-fetched to make sense, but something about that

about my past, many of the big incidents that had occurred to me felt kind of forced...almost as though someone was trying to manipulate the path that