"...I'm afraid you don't have a choice," Song Qian Long narrowed his eyes and said this in reply to the red-haired girl's refusal to speak.

The girl in question, however, didn't show any anger or worry. She merely stayed silent, not giving two shits about this conversation.

"Well...Xuan Kai, she's clearly not going to talk. So how about you?" Song Qian Long turned his attention onto me. "Just what is your relationship with her?"

I stiffened as I scrambled to find a good lie in my head. If I told them the truth, 'I don't know', then there was no doubt they were going to investigate the girl, and hold her captive for the time being. Whoever she was, she did save my life. There was no way I was going to pay her back by letting her end up confined in a locked room.

She wasn't strictly a human, but even she didn't want to be treated like a prisoner...probably. Wait, not a human...? That's it!

I took a deep breath, and stared at Song Qian Long straight in the eyes to avoid the suspicion of lying. "She is, in fact, one of my Magic Artifacts."

Song Qian Long, along with the other teachers present, all raised their eyebrows. "Magic Artifact? Explain further."

I cleared my throat, and began saying the most brilliant lie I had come up with yet.

"This girl here, is in fact not a human," I said confidently. That part was the truth. "You can validate this by checking her pulse. She does not have one."

One of the teachers sitting closest to us moved to take the girl's wrist, and she complied, which surprised me. From what she has done so far, I expected her to slap the teacher's hand away. Maybe she understood my intentions...? If so, then she is able to think like a human does, and also is quite clever.

The teacher nodded at Song Qian Long, signaling that the red-haired girl indeed did not have a pulse. I continued.

"As you can tell, it would be difficult to say she is 'alive', much less human," I said, not letting a single sign of lying show.

"Then just what is she? Or rather, what is 'it'?" Song Qian Long pressed on.

I grinned for dramatic effect. "This humanoid girl right here...is actually a golem."

"A golem?" Everyone in the room looked at me wide-eyed, including the girl herself. But I couldn't back down now, and so continued lying blatantly.

"That's correct. Her original form is a stone pendant, if any of you recall the one I wore on my neck every single day..."

"I can validate that," Mr. Wang spoke up. He had seen me in class everyday, there was no way what I wore would go unnoticed, especially now that he began paying more attention to me after the Magic Training Class incident. "However...I never would've guessed that necklace was in fact a Magic Artifact..."

I nodded my head. "It was designed to be inconspicuous."

Song Qian Long was bewildered. "A-Ahem...so what you're saying is that the stone pendant was in fact a humanoid golem?"

"That is correct," I replied. "It was given to me by my deceased parents as a guardian to protect me."

"...I see," Song Qian Long murmured while stroking his beard. "Is it possible for it to return to the stone pendant form, then?"

I shook my head slowly. "I'm not sure. I've never had to awaken it before. It was only because Li Yi Fei fired a projectile that threatened my very life that this golem was activated."

Song Qian Long slammed his fists down on the table and stood up hearing that. "What?! There is no way Li Yi Fei has the power to kill you!"

"C-Calm down, principal..." one of the teachers seated close to him tried to pull him down back into his seat. Her name was...Ms. Wan, I think? She teaches Class 2-B and is especially popular with the students, because of her young, beautiful appearance and sexy body. Apparently, she was also very kind.

"R-Right...apologies, I got worked up," Song Qian Long muttered as he sat back down into his seat. It was understandable he was mad, since I was his godson, but that was information privy to only the two of us. It could spell trouble if anyone else were to find out. I...did appreciate his care for me though.

Ms. Wan sighed and turned to me. "Now then...Xuan Kai, could you please elaborate, regarding what you just said about Li Yi Fei?"

I nodded. From here on, I could tell the truth. "I don't know what exactly it was, but Li Yi Fei held a Magic Artifact that looked a lot like a revolver. In fact, it should still be on him right now..."

I said that last part to hint at the staff to go look for him immediately. Evidence was necessary to convict someone, after all.

And as expected, Song Qian Long quickly glanced at another female staff sitting beside him, who in turn nodded back and hurried out of the room. I pretended not to notice, and continued.

"The revolver wasn't just any normal gun, however. It needed time to charge up a powerful blast, and at full power, not even an Ancestral Mage can block a hit, I predict..."

This caused some suspicion among the masses. "How can you tell?" Mr. Ren, the teacher of Class 2-C, asked me with narrowed eyes.

I acted very frustrated with myself, and looked downwards. "It was just mere speculation, but...I had a very bad feeling when I saw him charging it up. That's all I can say."

"That's not very convincing..." Mr. Ren muttered. "This connects to the severe punishment of a student. If you are caught lying-"

"Whether I'm lying or not, you will find out soon enough," I replied, just as the door swung open, with the female teacher from before standing there. She was holding the Magic Artifact Li Yi Fei had used in our battle.

"Principal. Xuan Kai...was telling the truth. I found this in the possession of Li Yi Fei," she explained, walking into the room. "When I tried to take it away from him, he even tried to attack me with it."

Song Qian Long had veins popping out of his forehead. He clenched his fists and muttered angrily, "How dare that bastard..."

The teacher then came forward and placed the revolver on the table. Only now could I truly marvel at how exquisitely it was designed. It's handle was sky blue, with a beautiful ray-like pattern. The body of the gun was furnished in a brilliant gold, barrel emitting some kind of bright white light. The tip of the revolver was not a hole as you would expect from a gun, but instead a zapper. In general, it looked a lot like The Death Ray skin from a certain popular battle royale game.

"Yeah, this is the gun Li Yi Fei used against me in that blizzard..." I said after some observation.

"Principal, what do we do?" the woman who had brought the gun here asked.

Song Qian Long stood up. "Isn't that obvious? Expulsion."

*****

- The School Roof, Sunset -

After the interrogation with the teachers, we were let off the hook. However, even after dealing with the staff of the school, I still had these four girls to worry about, which could prove to be even more troublesome than the teachers, since they knew me better and were far more perceptive.

And thus, I told them the roof, as usual, would be a better meeting spot for this kind of discussion. And so, here we were. As an aside, the red-haired girl followed along as well, possibly because she didn't exactly have a better place to go to for the time being.

"Now can you tell us? It's clear as day what you said back in the interrogation room was a lie," Feng Mian said, leaning against the railing.

Calling it an interrogation room was kind of unpleasant, but I guess that's what it was. For us, anyway.

I sighed and glanced at the red-haired girl, who was staring blankly at the lingering horizon. "To be honest...I'm not sure who or what she is, either."

"Whew..." Yu An Yan sighed in relief.

"Big sis...why are you...so happy...at that fact?" Yu An Yan asked, gazing intently at her own sister.

"Hm? Oh, um, well, y'know..." Yu An Yan trailed off after blurting out a plethora of interjections.

"Hehe, she's just relieved Big Brother Xuan Kai hasn't gone and seduced a beauty like that girl without telling us, right?" Qing Yue said with a sinister smile.

"H-Huh?! What do you mean?!" Yu An Yan cried, a faint blush creeping up her cheeks. "B-Besides, aren't you the same, An Xue?!"

"Wha..." Yu An Xue could only blink in surprise, before her face also blushed scarlet.

"Okay...I think we're getting off topic?" I said, ignoring the contents of their conversation.

"R-Right, sorry," Yu An Yan murmured sheepishly.

I sighed and turned to the red-haired girl, who was still gazing longingly at the sunset. "Hey, red-haired girl. I don't know your name, so I'm just calling you that. Sorry if that makes you feel uncomfortable, but for now...just who are you?"

The girl finally turned around to face me, and I subconsciously averted my gaze, since if I stared too long I was afraid I wouldn't be able to take my eyes off of her. That was how stunning she was. However, in the end, it didn't matter how beautiful the girl was. If she was an enemy, I would eliminate her. It was that simple.

But the next words that came out of her mouth left me both shocked, and confused.

"I...am an Elemental. A Chaos...Elemental."