Seed of Titan-Chapter 197: Interrogated Again?

As Danny was about to grab the lump of the blade, it suddenly jumped away.

"Ghost!" Danny bellowed before leaping toward the hovering blade.

Propping himself up, Drai watched in bafflement as his lanky squadmate wrestled against the air, desperately reaching for the weapon that was now darting around, deftly evading his grab.

Amid Danny’s grunts, a faint sigh sounded behind Drai, followed by a snap of fingers.

Instantly, Danny stopped moving, as he was now fully encased in ice except for his nose and above. The invisible figure he was tussling with was also frozen, and the Cryoforge Talon was now dangling in the air.

Just then, an ice shard materialized behind the blade and knocked it away right into Drai’s hands.

Turning around, Drai said to Frost, "Thanks."

"Sure. So, regarding The Flipper... Did the General give it to you?"

"Yeah."

"I see. Unfortunately, you should never take it out again, especially in the base."

"Why? Because of this?" Drai asked, pointing at the frozen figures behind him.

Frost nodded. "Some people here would probably kill for any memento of the General, let alone the famed weapon that had accompanied him throughout his rise. And most people here are familiar with The Flipper, since it often appears in stories of the General’s past exploits. It also doesn’t help that the weapon’s shape is rather unique—it’s very recognizable."

Drai looked at the Cryoforge Talon with mixed feelings. Hearing the weapon’s popularity somehow ignited his will to master it despite his certainty that it wouldn’t be that much useful for him. Perhaps Drai just didn’t want the famed weapon to lie unused in his storage, collecting proverbial dust. However, this would be difficult to achieve if he couldn’t wield the weapon freely around here.

In addition, Drai felt that his fellow fans in the base were way more devoted than him, as he wasn’t that fascinated by the Cryoforge Talon. But he wasn’t bothered at all by this, since for him, Alancho as a person had always been the thing that mattered, not his belongings.

"Alright, I’ll keep this out of sight," Drai finally said as he stashed away his blade. "So, does that mean my weapon of choice will still be blank?"

"Yes. Since the weapon is only a blade, it won’t make a big difference in our missions, and your designated roles wouldn’t be affected by it too."

"Well, I’m fine with it regardless. I prefer fighting with bare hands."

"I’m sure you do. So, is that all?"

"Yeah. I found no problem with the rest of the details."

Frost nodded and clenched his fist, shattering the ice that was trapping the duo.

"Now you may speak to Drai one by one on my command. Any disruptors will get frozen until morning. Am I clear?"

The squad collectively nodded, even the slightly shivering Danny.

"Good. Let’s start with you, Mandy."

Mandy nodded and bluntly asked, "You entered Soluna Academy because of a recommendation, so how come you did poorly in theories?"

"Uhm... Professor Ravi recommended me as part of a deal. He wants me to participate in his research, and in turn, I’m allowed to study there. My recommendation wasn’t because I was brilliant," Drai explained.

Still not satisfied, Mandy asked again, "How did you manage to catch the professor’s eye and what caused him to involve you in his research?"

Drai paused and contemplated whether he should answer these questions. In the end, he figured that it was probably alright, especially since the parts that involved him had been completed.

"I’m not sure how Professor Ravi knew about me. He just appeared out of nowhere and stopped me and my parents when we were about to go home from the awakening venue. And the reason he chose me as a research participant was because I fulfilled the requirements, mainly due to my high strength and constitution."

"What about your recommendation here? Is that a deal too? Do you think you’ll do well or poorly?" Mandy pressed.

"Uhm... Honestly, there’s some kind of a deal too regarding my enlistment, but I don’t think I can reveal it. And I’m not sure if I’m really suited for the army or for this squad, but I’ll definitely give my best."

After hearing this, Mandy fell silent, rubbing her chin with a contemplative look. Although Drai was expecting her to ask more questions, Mandy eventually signaled to Frost that she was done.

"June," Frost prompted.

Just like Mandy, Cubes skipped all pleasantries and said, "Do you pick your friends based on their background?"

"What? Of course not," Drai exclaimed, visibly baffled.

"Then why do these close friends of yours come from such backgrounds? Hadn’t you befriended them for the connections? Or are you saying that your special recommendation and you staying with the Velles are just coincidences?"

With a slightly annoyed look, Drai explained, "If you were there during my interview, you would’ve heard me saying to Captain Ailem that I wasn’t actually interested in joining the army. I did visit General Alancho’s house because I was friends with his daughter, but he was the one who offered me a deal that was too good to refuse, not the other way around."

Drai also believed that meeting Max and getting dragged to his family estate had been a coincidence. Unfortunately, he had no choice but to keep this matter to himself.

"And regarding the names on the list, the only ones I consider close friends are Christopher Maglan, Natalia Skyward, and Auri Velles. Professor Ravi was more like a mentor to me, and like I said before, he was the one who reached out to me first. I barely know General Alancho personally, the same with Rector Zar. And just like Professor Ravi, they were the ones who initiated our interactions.

"In case of my three seniors, I did interact with them more frequently compared to the previous three, but I knew nothing at all about their backgrounds. Didn’t you hear me saying to Frost earlier that I didn’t even know their full names?"

Hearing all this, Cubes’ expression changed. She seemingly wanted to say something, but Drai’s rapid explanation left her no opening.

"Besides, I also hadn’t intentionally approached my three close friends on the list. Christo is my roommate. Auri approached me first after the entrance ceremony. Natalia is my classmate, and she was the one who chose to sit next to me before scolding me for staring at her scales. So please, don’t accuse me of cherry-picking friends."

"Alright, alright! I get it!" Cubes hurriedly remarked in case Drai decided to go on. "Although I don’t know if you’re being honest here, I’m sorry for my rude questions. Now, can we move on?"

Looking at Cubes’ face, Drai felt that she looked sincere enough, so he replied, "Sure, what else do you have to say?"

Although Drai had voiced this flatly, Cubes couldn’t help but feel jabbed by the perceived sarcasm. However, she chose to ignore her discomfort and asked, "So, the other details on your dossier, are they accurate?"

"Pretty much," Drai confidently replied, completely ignoring the fact that the Shadowfen Caverns part was fabricated.

"Honestly, I find it hard to believe that you could survive on your own for two months in that kind of wilderness," she remarked.

"I guess I was born under a lucky star. Maybe that explains how I somehow ended up with all these important people," Drai nonchalantly said.

Nobody there realized that he was avoiding the inquiry. Drai still didn’t want to go into his survival details too much, especially after he found out that the location he and Max chose was coincidentally a regular training camp destination for this army’s up-and-coming talents.

On the other hand, Cubes felt that Drai was taking a jab at her again, so she inwardly grumbled and signaled that she was done.

"Linus," Frost called out.

"Bud, how did you get your hands on that?" Gramps blurted as he pointed at Drai’s left wrist.

"My dimensional storage?"

"Duh."

Ignoring the discourtesy, Drai truthfully answered, "My professor gave it to me."

"That Ravi guy?" Gramps asked.

"Yes."

"Give me his contact ID."

"Sorry, but I can’t."

Silence ensued as Drai and Gramps locked eyes. Eventually, the unkempt man said, "Fine. What kind of research site did you discover?"

Drai briefly paused before answering, "It was a jungle."

"A jungle? In Rivideria?"

"Yeah."

"Where?"

"Sorry again, but it’s a secret."

This time Gramps kept going despite the refusal. "How did you destroy the testing machines?"

"For the first one, I punched it into countless pieces. For the second one, I lifted it and ripped it off from an essential attachment connected to the floor," Drai admitted, seemingly without guilt.

"Do you like to play games?"

"Huh? Games?"

"Yeah. RPGs, FPSs, roguelikes—you know."

Although Drai felt like he had heard those terms, he was neither familiar with them nor did he ever play such games.

"No, I don’t play games," he said.

"Shame," Gramps remarked before nodding to Frost, who immediately called for Eric, or Beachball.

"Hiya! How do you feel?" squeaked the short, round man, still wearing his cheerful smile.

"Eh? I don’t under—"

"You’re really eighteen?" Beachball swiftly cut Drai off.

"Yeah."

"But level ten already?"

"Yeah."

"Amazing! Did you use enhancers? Boosters? Experimental drugs? How do you train? Do you even sleep?"

"Uh... I—"

"You’re really strong, huh? Can you flatten our house?"

"Mayb—"

"Why aren’t you big then? Are you made of metal or something?"

"No, and—"

"You can fly, right? How does it feel? Nobody here has a flying skill, though some of us can still technically fly. Surely you can fly better, right? How high? How fast? Don’t you get scared? Is the view amazing?"

Before Drai could even choose which question to answer, Beachball had already moved on.

"Why can’t you use mana? Is your class flawed or unconventional? Are you envious of those with mana? Do you regret choosing your class?"

Drai waited with a blank look, but surprisingly, Beachball simply smiled at him instead of barraging him with a new set of questions.

"Well, my class isn’t flawed or anything and I don’t regret choosing it, I just have another source of energy for my few active skills. And no, I’m not envious of mana users."

Seeing that Drai had finished answering, Beachball giggled and heartily applauded, leaving Drai speechless.

"Daniel," Frost once again prompted.

As Danny excitedly walked to Drai, Frost suddenly warned, "I’m watching you."

"Yo, chill, Frost—pun intended, hehehe," he cheekily replied.

Arriving at Drai’s side, Danny affectionately patted his shoulder, chirping, "Drai, my handsome new best friend, would you be kind enough to sell me The Flipper?"