Chapter 16: The Price of Lying

An absolute white void.


This was the only description his mind could comprehend; the space around him had no walls, corners, or even a horizon to indicate dimensions. It was as if Vain had been plunged into an inkwell of pure, blinding light. 




The visual nothingness in this magical space was so terrifying that the floor itself completely vanished from his sight. He would no longer have been able to tell whether he was floating in mid-air or standing on solid ground, had he not been pressing his feet firmly and feeling that dense, cold surface beneath his shoes to convince himself he was still grounded on something real.





In the midst of this imposing void, there was only one entity breaking the severity of the whiteness: a towering man of exceptional royal stature, overflowing with a dignity that commanded absolute obedience.





It was King Gou... the head of absolute authority and the mover of political chess pieces for the Kingdom of Lyth. Under normal circumstances, a lost, unknown boy like Vain shouldn't have even glimpsed the edge of this man's cloak, let alone sit before him and face him. Dragging a boy in his condition into the labyrinths of high politics and the grinding conflicts of kingdoms was a diplomatic error rulers usually avoided. But fate had played them all, and here he was now, standing alone against the just tyrant.





The king severed the prolonged silence, speaking in a direct, practical tone devoid of any pretense or official protocols:

"Excuse me, boy, for this sudden approach... but you have seen for yourself how dire and complicated the situation is outside. Time is against us, so I will be direct with you; I will ask you some direct questions, and all I ask of you is to answer them with complete honesty... Do we have an agreement?"




Despite the relative calm in the king's voice, Vain felt drops of cold sweat creeping down his forehead and neck from sheer tension. 




Amidst his racing thoughts, the boy realized he was currently experiencing the greatest "disaster" of his new life. 





The problem didn't lie in the types of questions the king might throw at him; Vain had already successfully guessed their content and main focus based on what had transpired in the dining hall. The real disaster and the dead-end wall he faced was... he had no answers! He had completely lost his memories, and the king was unaware of that fact.






King Gou, with all his cunning and experience, still did not know that the boy sitting before him was a body without a past, drowning in the darkness of amnesia. Vain's heart seized with terror at the thought of the king's reaction when he confessed this truth. 



Would he believe him? Or would he consider it a malicious political maneuver, a cheap claim to evade interrogation? Facing a king's wrath in an isolated space like this was a thought enough to make his breath hitch and tighten in his chest.

The eyes of the two counterparts met; young, distracted eyes darting left and right in a desperate attempt to find a way out, and deep, falcon-like royal eyes, piercing his features and searching for the slightest slip.


The king fixed his heavy gaze on the boy, then uttered the first question... the question that represented the greatest mystery keeping the royal court awake at night:

"What is your relationship with Aetherius?"


Silence prevailed once more, but it was a silence heavily charged with the anticipation of an answer. Knowing the exact, inherited nature of their sacred Guardian Dragon, the king knew with absolute certainty that Aetherius was a mythical creature who avoided humans. 





Never in the recorded history of the kingdom had he descended from his heights to carry a frail human between his claws, let alone bring him personally to the palace thresholds, accompanied by a strict order to care for him.




This event was a breach of all natural laws and ancient covenants, and the answer lay behind the lips of this nervous boy.



After a few seconds, the boy decided to tell him what he knew. Just thinking about lying in a situation like this was pure stupidity; Vain instinctively realized that attempting to skirt the truth or manipulate words could cost him his life.




With extreme tension and a faltering voice, Vain began to explain what had happened to him from the beginning. However, he was deeply careful not to mention his encounter with the mysterious entity "Zeel," or his terrifying ability to return from death.


During his account, he focused on waking up trapped inside an unknown room in the middle of a vast icy expanse, with a total loss of memory. He explained that upon leaving that isolation and heading south, he met the Dragon, who decided to help him.




The moment Vain finished his last sentence, the king exhaled slowly.


It wasn't a sigh of displeasure or impatience; it was closer to a sigh of relief. With this narrative, the hypothesis he had formed outside became more cohesive and convincing.




"So... you are saying you went south? And you found Aetherius coming from the south to receive you?"


This was another direct question from the king. Although he seemed relieved at nearing a way out of the negotiation deadlock with the Kingdom of Gerland, his curiosity had not yet been extinguished. How this ordinary human boy met the Dragon remained an elusive puzzle.



"Yes."



Vain answered with a single, decisive, and direct word. He realized that over-explaining and justifying would not help him in this situation, and that short, concise answers were the most appropriate way to deal with a resolute figure like King Gou.




"Well, since Aetherius transported you to the capital himself, he must have initiated a conversation or a dialogue with you before deciding to take you... What exactly did he say to you?"



Another question, more direct and deeply curious. This inquiry, in particular, was the trap Vain dreaded falling into and had tried with all his being to avoid. 




He had absolutely no idea what might happen if the royal family discovered he had "forged a pact" with the Supreme Dragon before entering the room, even if he himself couldn't remember the details of that pact. Just thinking about the terrifying political consequences of this confession made sweat pour profusely from his forehead.




Vain gathered his wits and decided, for the first time since entering this white void, to evade and deflect the answer.





Vain began to recount the details of the fleeting conversation that took place between him and the Great Dragon. He mentioned almost everything... the few words, the Dragon's gaze, and his own sense of awe... but he deliberately concealed the matter of the pact completely.





The king listened intently to every word slipping from the boy's lips. And again, despite his attempts to accept the story, his mind refused to be fully convinced. 





There was something illogical, a hidden gap in the narrative that made him feel a piece of this complex puzzle was missing.The king kept turning the possibilities over in his mind. Perhaps this boy was hiding a dangerous secret. Even though he was the "Protector's Guest" who must not be harmed out of respect for the Dragon's status, the king's instinct and security sense prompted him to ask a blunt, revealing question.





"Boy, are you hiding something?"






It was an intuitive question. Although it seemed delayed and weak compared to his previous interrogation, it was enough to make Vain's heart pound like war drums inside his chest. The atmosphere around them suddenly changed, and the temperature dropped noticeably, prompting Vain to lower his eyes to the white floor to escape the king's piercing gaze.




Vain had already made up his mind beforehand to hide the things that would make his situation more complicated and dangerous, and he would not back down from his decision now. So, he braced himself, and decided to lie directly.


"No."



A quick answer, just a single word. He didn't hesitate, having calculated in his head that once he confessed to making a deal with the Dragon, the entire palace would turn against him, and he would transform from a guest into a prisoner interrogated around the clock.





And the moment he uttered the word of denial and its echoes faded into the void... his hand exploded.







It happened in a fraction of a second.A hideous sound of tearing flesh shattered the silence of the void, and the remains of his right hand flew in every direction. The pristine white space abruptly morphed into a terrifying bloody painting; crimson blood splattered, staining the air and the surroundings, while torn veins and tendons dangled from the upper half of what was left of his forearm.







Vain fell from his chair, thrashing wildly. He clutched what remained of his arm, unleashing hysterical screams that tore through his throat from the sheer, excruciating, lethal agony. 





He writhed left and right on the invisible floor, his mind completely paralyzed and unable to comprehend what had happened. When did his hand fly off? How was it severed? The king had been sitting in his place the entire time, hadn't moved an inch, hadn't raised a weapon, and hadn't muttered a spell!



'It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!'




One single phrase kept echoing in his mind and spilling from his lips like a maddened incantation. The sensation of hot blood gushing profusely like a waterfall from the site of the explosion was something beyond human endurance. 





Despite all the mental and physical torment he had endured since waking up in that cursed room, and despite his previous deaths, he had not, and would never, get used to this kind of pure agony.





Vain scrambled up with great difficulty, drool spilling from his mouth that twitched with screams. He began to back away quickly, dragging his collapsed body, distancing himself from King Gou; the only remaining logic he had dictated that this calm man sitting before him was the sole possibility and cause of this horrific catastrophe.





The king raised his hand incredibly slowly, as if he controlled the very laws of nature, and snapped his fingers coldly. 



He followed it with a single word that commanded the entire space to comply:
"Calm down."

In the blink of an eye, the impossible happened. It was as if time had reversed; the splattered blood vanished from the air, and the red stains were wiped from the white void as if they had never existed. The overturned chair returned to its place. The moment the king snapped his fingers, the massive, torn wound on the boy's arm closed, and the bleeding stopped completely. 




Most importantly of all... the excruciating pain vanished entirely.





Vain was panting heavily, staring with widened eyes at his arm. 





Yes, the pain was gone, the blood was gone, and the space had returned to its terrifying purity... but he noticed one blood-curdling truth: his hand had not returned. It was erased.





"Sit, and let us continue the conversation... That was a truly pathetic sight."



The king spoke in his resonant voice, his features looking slightly fraught with a frown as he delivered his sentence, as if reprimanding a misbehaving child, completely indifferent to the absolute terror the boy was experiencing.






Then the king added in a tone devoid of any pity, revealing the fatal truth:


"I did not tell you this before... but this place does not permit lying. It is an absolute magical space, and the moment you utter a single lie within it... a part of your body will fly off as a toll."




Vain's body trembled, and he stepped forward incredibly slowly, like a broken machine, toward his designated chair. In that cruel moment, he realized he had been right in deciding not to lie at the beginning of the interrogation. 





Despite not providing complete information and using evasion, he hadn't explicitly "lied" until his last question, which was what had saved him in the preceding minutes.






Vain sat in the chair, his face pale as a corpse, his mind at the peak of confusion and disarray. He was staring into the void, until the king's voice pierced the silence once again, announcing the resumption of the nightmare:





"And now... let us continue our conversation.”