Seed of Titan-Chapter 191: Between Lines and Lies

Ailem eventually gave up on solving the conundrum for now, thinking it would be much easier to just ask Alancho about it later, and continued with the interview.

"Before this, you were a student in Soluna Academy. Were you there during the incident a few months ago?"

"Yeah."

"Were you familiar with the invaders, their group and whatnot?"

"When they first appeared, no. But my rector did tell me a few things about them that night."

"Oh?"

Ailem, along with the others, seemed pretty intrigued by Drai’s last statement.

"So you know the name of their group?" Ailem asked.

"If I’m not mistaken, it’s the Crimson Order."

"...Yes, that’s what our intel says too. What about their goals? Do you know why they abducted your fellow students?"

"No. From what I’ve been told, I only know that they’re supposedly bad guys."

Of course Drai knew a bit more than that, such as that the Order was initially a splinter group of a much older organization, and that one of their main goals supposedly revolved around him, their so-called ’Prophesied Child’. But he figured mentioning all that was unnecessary and would just spur more questions about his relation with the Crimson Order, answers to which he didn’t have.

Unbeknownst to him, Ailem’s skill had flagged his lie, which was why she paused to scrutinize Drai.

’He knows more, huh?’ she mused. ’But it doesn’t look like he’s in cahoots with this group since his previous answers were true. Investigating the invasion isn’t our purview though, so I shouldn’t dwell on this too much—I’ll just mention this in my personal report.’

Ailem then continued, "I assume you don’t share their goals, correct?"

"How could I?! They took my benefactor away!" Drai blurted, frowning a bit.

Not expecting the agitated reaction, Ailem swiftly apologized, "I’m sorry for my insensitive question—I wasn’t aware of your situation."

Drai merely nodded. He was starting to get annoyed by this interview, which was becoming more of an interrogation with every question.

"So, regarding your rector, Zar Augra," Ailem continued, "do you perhaps know where he is or what he’s currently doing?"

"No," Drai replied with a shrug.

"Alright then, let’s move on. Now, tell us about your class, your passion, what you excel in, and what areas you seek to improve."

’Finally, something normal,’ Drai inwardly remarked. After a moment of thinking, he replied, "My class is catered to combat, with strength and constitution being its main attributes. It only has a few active skills, maybe because it doesn’t utilize mana at all, and some of its passive skills raise my stats by a certain percentage."

A few eyebrows were raised upon hearing Drai’s description, but nobody interrupted.

"I’ve always just wanted to get stronger and tougher, and I’ve been training pretty hard for that. After entering the academy, I’ve also gained an interest in combat techniques, especially barehanded ones."

This time Ailem interjected him, asking, "Would you be willing to learn wielding various weaponry that are available to our soldiers?"

"Uh... Maybe?" Drai muttered, visibly reluctant of the idea.

The insincere reply caused the scar-faced officer to grunt in disapproval, and veins also popped out of Blaise’s forehead. Still, both of them refrained from snapping at their interviewee.

"I see," Ailem remarked. "Then, please continue."

"Okay. For the things I excel at... definitely brawling, and maybe weight lifting and tanking hits. I’m pretty good at smashing things too. Oh, right—when I’m in the wilderness, I can butcher game and cook almost like a pro."

Hearing this, all the officers were speechless, aside from the large one, who was clenching his jaw tight, seemingly on the verge of booming out another singular laugh.

"And the areas I want to improve are my strength, toughness, and fighting skills," Drai concluded, oblivious to the panel’s bafflement.

"I’m sorry, but what I mean by my last question is what do you think your weaknesses are," Ailem quickly clarified.

"Ah, okay. Well, I’m pretty bad at socializing, and despite my recent intelligence growth, I still feel lacking in my reasoning skills."

"You don’t say..." Blaise mumbled, earning him a vicious glare from Ailem.

Turning to Drai again, Ailem said, "Ahem, sorry about that... Anyway, I don’t doubt your statements, Mr. Drai, but you still need to go through some tests after this interview is over. Only after we analyze the results will we be able to decide the most fitting squad for you."

"Sure, I don’t mind some tests. I also want to see how I fare compared to the other soldiers."

"With your level, you’ll probably be among the weakest, or at least the weaker ones if you’re really good at fighting like you said," the bob-hair lady suddenly chimed in.

"Level is just a number," the large officer beside her muttered, his words nearly incomprehensible due to his extremely low timbre.

"Not when it’s this low," the scar-faced officer immediately objected. "And he should still be adapting to his newfound powers."

Sighing, Ailem loudly interjected, "Please, lieutenants!" silencing the room once more.

’I should’ve just interviewed him alone,’ Ailem thought as she shook her head. ’I knew negative sentiments toward the General’s special recruits have been brewing for years, but I didn’t realize the lieutenants had been affected this greatly. Looks like I’ll have to add this to my report.’

"Again, sorry about this, Mr. Drai. The last special recruit was a bit problematic, so the lieutenants are probably pretty apprehensive about you," Ailem tried explaining.

Ailem didn’t realize that Drai didn’t actually think much of the matter. He was used to hearing snarky whispers during his academy days, and he certainly wasn’t a people pleaser. Hence, he simply nodded without commenting.

"Alright, I think we’re mostly done here. Before we finish, do you any questions for Mr. Drai?" Ailem asked her colleagues, who all raised their hands.

After receiving the Captain’s permission, the scar-faced lieutenant asked, "Aside from bare-handed techniques, which is one of the requisites to pass IET, what else do you have in your arsenal?"

"Uhm... I think I can kick pretty well too. I can also use energy blasts, though they’re not that efficient."

"Energy blasts? You said you can’t use mana, right? So what fuels them?" the scar-face questioned.

"Another resource, probably unique to my class. I’m sorry, but that’s all I can tell you."

"No worries, that’s pretty personal. Unless absolutely necessary, the military doesn’t require its personnel to reveal such things," the lieutenant reassured. "So, are those all?"

Drai figured his miscellaneous skills weren’t worth mentioning, especially the ones unrelated to combat, so he said, "I can also fly for a limited duration."

Hearing this, the officers’ eyes widened, and Ailem immediately chimed in, asking, "How fast, high, and long can you fly?"

"I’m not sure about the speed—I’ve never measured it, but I think it’s pretty fast. I also don’t know how high I can fly, but I think I have no altitude limit as long as I can still breathe. For the duration, currently I can only fly for about six minutes before I’m forced to recover."

After listening to the last part, the three lieutenants seemed a bit relieved.

"It’s quite shocking that you can fly, Mr. Drai, but looks like it isn’t too practical—six minutes isn’t long. It’s still pretty useful for scouting and traversing extreme terrains though," the scar-faced man remarked before signaling to Ailem that he was done.

Ailem then turned to the bob-hair lieutenant, but she opted to skip. Apparently, her question was similar to the one that had just been asked.

"Lieutenant Bruce," Ailem beckoned the large man.

"You said you’re strong, so why are you skinny?" he bluntly asked.

Although Bruce’s deep, gravelly words sounded pretty sincere, Drai couldn’t help but feel roasted. He too dreamed of an imposing frame, but for some reason, his body just refused to bulk up ever since he awakened. Thus, he simply gave Bruce a resigned smile along with a weak headshake, which the man seemed to understand, as he promptly signaled the Captain that he was done.

Ailem sighed before turning to Blaise, whom she deliberately saved for last, as the man was a notorious skeptic with a caustic wit and cutting remarks. Although it was unlikely that he’d openly oppose Alancho’s decision, he could still needlessly hinder Drai’s enlistment.

And sure enough, Blaise immediately said, "I’ve read your records, and there was a highly questionable entry there. Those two months when you went missing, did you really survive in the wilderness?"

"Yes," Drai answered without hesitation. Just like the invasion, he had expected this topic to be brought up.

Blaise glanced at Ailem and saw that she didn’t react, so he figured Drai was probably telling the truth.

"Surviving alone for weeks in Shadowfen Caverns as a teenager, what a tale to tell your kids, eh?" Blaise remarked, to which Drai merely shrugged.

"Well, moving on... Our intel says that you have a close relationship with the abducted professor, what’s his name again, Rabbi?"

"Ravi—Ravismus Ondor," Drai swiftly corrected.

"Ah, yes—Ravi. So, Mr. Drai, you might not be connected to the Crimson Order, but what about your professor?"

Furrowing his brows, Drai asked back, "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, what if Ravi’s abduction was staged?" Blaise mentioned with a thoughtful look. "What if he’s actually one of the Order’s collaborators? Can you recall any moment during your meetings in which the Professor behaved unusually? Or have you perhaps stumbled upon something that indicated his true allegiance?"

Clenching his fists, Drai furiously muttered, "Professor Ravi lost his close friend and was ambushed by two traitors right in front of my eyes, and you think he works for the Crimson Order?"

"Oh, really? Well, I must have missed those details if they’re even there in the first place," Blaise nonchalantly replied. "But then that raises the question: how did you escape from these so-called traitors? Ravi is a mage, right? I know that there had been a spell restriction at the time of the invasion, leading to the impotence of your magic users, so the Professor couldn’t have bailed you out of there."

Drai felt like he had heard this question before, but still, he replied, "I defeated one of them, and the other one was killed by Uncle Jack, Professor Ravi’s aide and friend, right before he passed away."

Once again, Blaise looked to his right. To his disappointment, Ailem still didn’t react.

"Heh, looks like our General managed to find someone pretty remarkable," he eventually said. "I’ve read the traitors’ dossier. You’re lucky that Jack guy managed to take down the professor one, otherwise you wouldn’t be here now."

Of course it was Drai who actually smashed Paul into pulp. However, he didn’t even bother to correct the lieutenant, since he figured it would just lead to more snide remarks.

"Are you done?" Ailem asked. Her expression was neutral, but inwardly, she found Blaise’s questions rather distasteful, both in content and delivery.

"One last question, Captain," Blaise said, to which Ailem reluctantly nodded. It wasn’t like they were pressed on time since the interview was shorter than their allocated time, so she didn’t have an objective reason to refuse.

"Your criminal record sure is spotless, but I wonder... Have you really never committed any crime?" Blaise questioned.

Again, Drai unhesitatingly replied, "Not that I know of."

"Are you sure? You’re way stronger than your fellow students, right? I doubt you never bullied one or two of them. Your academy used to have pretty severe bullying cases, you know?"

"Yes, I’m sure. Outside of classes and training, I’ve never hurt anyone."

Blaise clicked his tongue and glanced at Ailem, intending to stop his pestering if she still didn’t show any reaction. However, he soon rejoiced as he noticed that her mono-eye was subtly twitching, an automatic reaction of her lie-detection skill triggering, which Blaise had been aware of for quite some time.

Turning to Drai, he couldn’t help but grin as he said, "Mr. Drai, we don’t tolerate liars here. Do tell us, who have you hurt outside of your classes and training sessions? It must not be limited to the traitor you’ve mentioned before, right?"

Drai turned silent as he realized he had fallen for Blaise’s trap. He had actually deducted from Ailem’s remarks and Blaise’s unnatural gestures that she or someone else here could detect lies.

"Well, looks like our new special recruit is actually a mean bully," Blaise muttered. "Tsk, tsk... If news of this spread, the General’s reputation will certainly get tarnished, Mr. Drai, since he’s the foremost proponent against bullying. Ever since he climbed up the ranks, superiors couldn’t ruthlessly order their subordinates around anymore. That’s why the grunts here adore him so much."

"I never bullied anybody," Drai persistently stated.

Hearing this, Blaise snorted. But just as he opened his mouth, Ailem barked, "Enough, Lieutenant!"

"But, Captain—"

"He’s telling the truth. Mr. Drai isn’t a bully."

Blaise wanted to press further, but Ailem’s cold expression forced him to back off.

’Geez, no need to look at me like that, Cyclops,’ Blaise grumbled in his head. ’Why are you so considerate of this brat? Teen boys like him must suit your taste, huh? From how you’ve been shamelessly fawning over Alancho, I thought your kink involved scaly dicks.’

Disregarding her disgruntled lieutenant, Ailem announced, "Alright, we’re done here. Now, I’ll be supervising Mr. Drai’s tests on my own. See you later and thanks, Lieutenants."

Following this, the four lieutenants walked out, but not without taking a last glance at the peculiar recruit.

After they were gone, Drai stood up and walked to his suitcase, thinking that Ailem was about to lead him to the testing area.

Instead, she ordered, "Please, stay put, Mr. Drai."

Returning to his seat, Drai watched quietly as Ailem walked to the door and closed it before grabbing a chair and setting it right in front of him.

"Pardon the inconvenience," Ailem said after taking a seat, "but before proceeding to the testing area, there’s something I must ask you."

"Sure," Drai replied, thinking that this had something to do with Blaise or perhaps Alancho.

However, Ailem’s following words couldn’t be further from that.

"So, Mr. Drai, how many people have you killed?"