The Author's POV

"Interesting..."

Closing the book down, the same figure turned to look in my direction. Our eyes met.

Clank. Clank. Clank.

Taking a step forward, the rattling sound of the chains echoed throughout the room.

Staring at the chains from the corner of my eyes, I was left surprised by the fact that the chains were directly coming from the ground of the room.

Though confusing, I stopped paying attention to this detail as the other figure soon neared me.

Coming to a halt beside Professor Thomas, the other figure slowly raised his head, revealing two deep blue eyes. A slight smile tugged in between his lips.

"So you're telling me that from the very beginning you suspected that I had something to do with this situation?" He asked with an amused look on his face.

"...You can say so."

I calmly nodded my head and replied.

Glancing at Thomas for a brief second, I looked back up at the other Ren.

"Like I've said before, from the moment that something happened with Aaron's dad, I already suspected that something was going on, and the moment that I met Professor Thomas, my suspicions became even more glaring."

Tap. Tap. Tap. Lowering my hand, I began to tap on the armrest of the chair.

"It was right at the moment that Professor Thomas mentioned my name, 876, that I was able to somewhat gauge what you were planning. Of course, since there was the possibility of you possibly reading my mind, I decided to take countermeasures."

Raising my hand, I pressed my finger on the temple of my head.

"If you could've read my mind, then you could've easily been able to tell that I was merely playing along with you. Even though I was having most of my thought processes inside of my chip in order to hide them, you should've still been able to determine my intent."

Taking into account the possibility of Ren being able to read my mind, I decided to take some precautions.

Since whenever I used the chip, my thoughts happened within a fraction of a second, I had a sudden thought.

'What if I use the chip to hide my real thoughts?'

What if the chip was fast enough to hide my real thoughts from the other entity? ...and so that was exactly what I did.

Whenever I wanted to think about him, I just activated the chip.

In that split second that I activated the chip, I would quickly contemplate everything that was happening around me.

"Haaa..."

Letting out a long sigh, I shook my head.

"...Unfortunately, there is a glaring flaw with this method."

Raising my head, I met the other Ren's eyes.

"The flaw is that even though I might be able to hide from you exactly what I'm thinking, it's practically impossible for me to completely hide my thoughts. It just isn't."

Regardless of how fast I was thinking, if the other Ren was truly capable of reading my mind, he should've been able to pick up my intentions, regardless of how small they were.

Still, this was what I wanted to begin with.

I wanted him to find this out so that I could properly gauge whether he could read my mind or not.

However, it didn't seem like he could.

Had he done so, he would've found out that I had already made countermeasures for his plan. And thus, this only meant one thing.

"You can't read my mind..."

Pursing my lips, I asked.

"I'm right, aren't I?"

Though I said that, I wasn't exactly one hundred percent sure.

After all, with everything I went through with him, the possibility of me being purposely misled wasn't impossible.

"..."

Once again I was met with no response. Regardless, I continued.

you can't read my mind. How are

at the other Ren from

for quite a while,

I paused.

"...You know the future."

the exact moment those words left my mouth, the temperature of the room chilled

edges of my

you think about it,

done that without knowing that I would end up being the elven domain and that the only way to cure her mother was through the Xurin fruit,

the 'novel' world was probably the biggest

gives me the idea that the memories inside of my

it, the

mind were possibly fake, the fact that they

about the future, and to be inside

the memories inside of my head. Or at least, he knew who was the one responsible for

"Hmmm..."

together, I

know, I've always been curious. Even if you don't answer, I'll still

sound of my fingers tapping on the armrest of

Everblood working for

the answer, I wanted to get proper confirmation from the

to pretend

"Yes."

cutting me off,

"Hm?"

raised in

would

finally

sat up

Thud—!

Ren dragged him out of the chair and dumped his body on the ground. He then proceeded

My brows furrowed tightly.

only noticed it now, but he

the exact moment that he grabbed Thomas's hair that I realized that he had also

made me

is no longer just a

How did that happen?

to speak. His next words caused the frown on my

don't have to

"What do you mean?"

leaned my body

about the shit

head.

did I

eyes began to

he

into his deep blue eyes, I

lot of things

finish my sentence, the other Ren quickly

"I'm not your enemy."

"Huh?"

raised my head to meet his

"You're not my enemy?"

"Yes."

Ren nodded

"Pft."

I immediately scoffed.

everything that you've done to me? In

my watch, I opened up the news article from before. The one about my identity being

===

[Breaking news]

is in fact 876. Because of his excellent performance

---Read More---

===

who is trying to help

"..."

my watch for a good couple of seconds, the other Ren took

before,

repeated the same thing. I secretly clenched

"Bullshit."

I irritably replied.

prove to me otherwise? All you've done is messed with