Lakshman sat there for a moment, not sure whether he heard him correctly, so he asked him, “Sorry? Can you repeat that? I feel like I misheard you.”

Alestor chuckled and said, “You heard me correctly. I know that he is an alien, and know that he is the very same alien that attacked us more than a week ago.”

His expression was serene, and his voice was soft, which confused Lakshman to a great extreme. It did not make sense that the minister, who had readily eliminated the threat against their king more than a week ago, to suddenly sit down and calmly state the obvious.

The Solaris Hero found his calm and composed attitude to be disturbing, and so he asked, “If you knew, then why are you so calm about it? You’d be acting immediately against him… unless… you’re—!”

As the thought formed inside his mind, Lakshman stopped in mid-sentence and vanished from the seat he had been sitting on and reappeared standing several meters away from Alestor. There, he took a fighting stance and began to surge with power with a serious expression on his face.

The thought that made him act that way was, “He must’ve been hoodwinked just like the rest,” and so he took a guarded stance against the man he once believed was trustworthy.

Seeing him teleport away from him, Alestor burst into a light laughter and said, “That’s quite the unique ability you got there to be able to disappear and reappear before I could blink.”

“Don’t flatter me!” Lakshman replied, trying to deduce what the man before him was trying to do.

Alestor remained as calm as ever, and Lakshman’s Elemental Sense did not sense any hostility from him. This further confused Lakshman, but he remained constantly at attention because he believed his senses were being misdirected.

“Calm down. Please. I’m still me,” said Alestor, raising both of his hands in surrender. “And even if I put up a fight against you, I know I will be grounded in an instant. You’re just that unbelievably strong.”

“You can see all that, huh, but it didn’t let you know that you’d be easily confounded?”

“Like I said, I’m fully aware of myself, and my surroundings,” said Alestor, but Lakshman shook his head with a serious distrusting expression on his face. Sighing tiredly, he asked the Solaris Hero, “Will you believe me if I prove myself? How about asking questions that I am prone to answer without hesitation.”

Lakshman was puzzled, and his sense of hostility towards him faded a little as he started to think that he might have been wrong about him. Even so, he decided to trust the man before him only after acquiring firm proof, otherwise, he would be easily falling into the hands of the enemy. From there, he knew how dangerous things would become considering the dangerous ability this man was carrying in his eyes.

“Okay! Tell me what you think of the aliens that attacked your planet!”

“They must be punished for their crimes, and be crushed for the suffering they caused us,” replied Alestor automatically with a serious expression forming on his face. “What goes around, comes around!”

“In that case, when you know who he is, why did you not act? Why didn’t you do anything to apprehend him?” Lakshman demanded the question that had been bothering him the whole time.

Alestor remained silent for a moment, and Lakshman thought he saw his face become stricken with sadness.

“Let me get one thing straight; knowing about something, and do something about it are two different things. Don’t mix them together because that’s not how it works for me around here,” replied Alestor, making a gesture with his hands and separating them to explain better.

This caused the king from the other world to narrow his eyes in sharpness and ask, “Huh?! I don’t understand.”

“Let me explain,” said Alestor, sighing and going onto his explanation. “I know that he’s an alien, but what do you expect me to do? Just walk up to everyone and start declaring that he’s an alien disguised as a human being? Would people believe me? They’d be hard to believe it without concrete evidence, especially when he clearly tricked everyone into firmly believing that he is, indeed, human.”

He looked at Lakshman with an imploring look on his face and asked, “So, tell me! What can I do? What options do I have to take in the position that I’m in? Can you think of anything, even a single point, that I can use to expose the truth?”

With the firmness in which he spoke, Lakshman completely bought into him and shook his head automatically. By this time, he knew the Alestor was not affected like everyone else and decided to go back to resume his seat.

Once he was seated, the older man asked with a wry smile, “Satisfied now?”

“Yes. Sorry for doubting you,” replied Lakshman in an apologetic voice.

“No. You are right to doubt me when I had openly stated the obvious without a care,” replied Alestor with an understanding smile on his face. “As expected from the king from another world; you do understand how to handle situations like this.”

Lakshman laughed at that and replied, “Actually, this is a first for me.” When Alestor appeared to be surprised, he elaborated by explaining, “All this time, I was able to handle matters with a direct approach, but this is a first for me where the situation is a little tricky. I mean, the alien is good with the way he masked his presence, blended in with everyone and made and good impression of himself in their eyes. So, I am also confused about what to do about this.”

“And that brought you to think that maybe I can do something?” Alestor asked, causing Lakshman to smile a little. He remained silent for a moment, watching Lakshman smile before asking with a knowing on his face, “Or did you come out tonight for something else altogether?”

“What?” Lakshman said automatically, taken by surprise by the sudden words of the older man sitting on the opposite end of the desk. “W-What do you mean,” he stammered, feeling embarrassed as he quickly figured out that the older man had been able to see through him using the unique ability he possessed.

Alestor laughed when he saw the young man become flustered and said, “I suppose any man would enjoy a night out if a woman is by their side. Don’t you agree?”

Lakshman understood that he was trying to cause him to feel discomfort from a sense of embarrassment, but the Solaris Hero was calm and composed as he replied, “Instead of this hide and seek, why don’t you get to the point, Alestor?”

This momentarily surprised the older man, but he quickly recovered and asked, “What’s your aim in going after her?”

Lakshman did not need to ask whom he was referring to since he knew it was the only girl he had interacted with more than with anyone else since he arrived in this world. Now that he thought about it, he understood that there was signs from earlier on that Raze was really Erza but he missed it because of being distracted by the situation he found himself in.

“What do you mean?” He asked back, countering the older man’s question.

He also firmly believed that Raze was much more important than what everyone else were letting on, and wanted to find out more on that detail. At the same time, he kept in mind that Alestor had purposefully sidetracked the topic from the alien to Raze because he found that to be of more immediate importance than worrying about the alien.

“Don’t pretend you didn’t understand my meaning, Lakshman” replied Alestor with a shrewd look on his face as the pressure in the air started to thicken dangerously.

He was trying to intimidate Lakshman, but the king from the other world was unfazed by it as he continued to smile serenely at the older man as he replied back, “Yes. I got your meaning, and let me state straight out that my intentions are not to harm her.” As Alestor raised an eyelid with a suspicious look on his face, Lakshman carried on saying, “Besides, you should’ve already known what my intentions are with your All-Seeing Eyes.”

This made Alestor raise an eyebrow in surprise and crack a smile on his serious face before asking, “So you knew?”

“Well, you’re the one that dropped a huge clue on our first time meeting each other,” replied Lakshman, shrugging his shoulders as he recalled the words that gave it away. “I think it was ’My eyes are not blind like theirs.’ I’m not stupid to not realize the implications.”

The older man remained silent for a moment before he slowly burst into a wild laughter that made Lakshman raise his eyebrows in concern. A few seconds later, Alestor calmed down and looked towards him with a grin on his face.

“In all my life, you’re the only one that’s seen through me!” He said, grinning like a boy enjoying the time of his life.

“Was that on purpose?” Lakshman asked out of curiosity.

“More or less,” replied Alestor with a shrug of his shoulders. “I’ve been meaning to find out if anyone is capable of discovering the ability that I had carefully hidden and used to my advantage to get this far. Finally, after nearly forty years, I find a man capable of reading behind the lines.”

Lakshman narrowed his eyes with a shrewd look on his face, and he asked, “Maybe, but I get the feeling your all-powerful ability also has some drawbacks, otherwise you wouldn’t find the need to ask me what my motive was in moving closer to Raze.”

Alestor snorted and said, “Hardly. You must be imagining things just because I complemented you on figuring out my ability.”

“Well, you’re the one who made it obvious,” thought Lakshman in exasperation while looking amused.

“Tell that to his face and see his reaction,” replied Asura with a chuckle.

“That’s not important right now,” thought Lakshman in reply, and focused on what he the topic at hand and said, out loud, “The fact that you’re asking me about my motive means that she is a very important person.”

For a fraction of a second, he noticed Alestor’s eyes flicker from the momentary shock he received while forcing himself to maintain his composure. It was this small act that made Lakshman suddenly felt like relating him to the previous Phoenix Emperor, Felix Phoron. He was always concerned for people of great importance and made it his personal task to ensure their safety even if he were to be in the line of fire. This relatable characteristic made Lakshman feel as if he was speaking to Felix, but as strangers on this occasion.

Even his response, “Never you mind,” to his question matched with the response that Felix would give if he did not feel the need or the importance to respond to certain questions. This was, obviously, to keep secrecy intact, and he would always sidetrack the subject while slowly extracting information from the other person.

“I hope Zen will become as good as him,” he thought to himself, thinking of the new Phoenix Emperor and the husband of Felix’s daughter, Sasha. Suddenly, his thoughts made him realize the pressure that Zen must be facing and thought, “I think I can understand his struggles. Perhaps I’ll take time off and train him a bit when I return home.”

“The Phoenix Emperor develops their skills and abilities through intense moderated training with the Phoenix Sages. There is no need for you, the Phoenix Titan, to get involved,” replied Asura in a firm voice.

As the first Phoenix Titan, he set the rules and selection for the existence known as the Phoenix Emperor, and had them raised as a powerful warrior. This was so that they would lead the clan in the absence of the Phoenix Titan, which was the time when he lost his entire family and decided to leave the Phoenix Kingdom. Lakshman, who knew some of the methods his past-self conducted, had brought prosperity towards the clan, did not like the brutality that was involved.

Shaking his head and focusing back on topic, he looked at Alestor and asked the question that he wanted firm answer in order to prove his belief that Raze is the real Erza.

“Fine. I suppose I shouldn’t mind, but this is a fact, isn’t it? The Erza that we’ve been presented is a double, and the real Erza is none other than Raze.”

For a moment, time seemed to freeze in the room as the two stared into each other’s eyes in complete silence. Then, Alestor’s composed face broke free and a powerful expression of shock took its place. He could not believe that what he just heard coming from the king from another world and, at the same time, Lakshman finally was sure that Raze was indeed Erza.

“N-N-N-No… way…! H-H-H-H,” Alestor stuttered, struggling for words. “How did you… know?!”

Lakshman smiled wryly and replied with, “Because I care.”

“Just… how?!” Alestor continued asking for a few seconds, banging his desk and staring at it with a serious look on his face. Then, as a sudden thought struck him, he looked up at Lakshman and demanded, “Tell me! You possess an ability similar to my own, don’t you? Don’t you?!”

The Solaris Hero was a little taken aback at the sudden change in Alestor’s attitude as he appeared to have dropped all pretense of keeping a cool face. Now, with a very worried look on his face, he demanded to know how a person from another world discovered such a secret with practically no effort. He firmly believed that Lakshman possessed some kind of unique ability that lets him know the true identity of the other person, which explained why he was able to discern Alestor’s ability, the All-Seeing Eyes.

Once again, with a wry smile on his face, Lakshman replied, “I repeat; It’s because I care.”

“How does that explain how you know something that important?!” Alestor shouted, standing up and banging his fist into the desk that caused it to shudder. “Stop playing jokes with me and tell the truth!”

“Wow. He sure has lost his control over his emotions,” said Asura, quite surprised at the man’s sudden outburst.

Lakshman eyed him coolly and asked, “Okay, but under one condition: explain why you have the need to hide her identity to the point of placing a double in her place and making her weak a mask that clearly hides her identity and as well as her presence?”

He had noticed the part about her presence being hidden upon realizing that Erza’s identity was being hidden purposefully for reasons he did not know yet. This made him think back to all his previous encounters with her and came to a shocking realization that he never once felt her presence.

He understood that Alestor was employing a powerful magic to hide his presence, but with Raze, it was different. Considering her current level of power which was nowhere near as it was in the future, he knew she was incapable of deploying a spell at a constant rate that completely hides her presence. However, she was so well hidden that she is virtually hidden in plain sight and this explained why he missed her presence during his first time using the Royal Bath and found her waiting for him.

“This proves the point that there must be something serious involved to hide her this seriously!” Lakshman thought, remembering the tears she spilled during their flight and clearly recalled the happy expression she had worn upon being flying freely through the sky. “How long has she been constrained in a gilded cage? How many years has it been since she breathed the air of freedom? What kind of life did she lead before meeting me to cry like that?”

Many questions formed in his mind, but he did not know the answer to any of them. In the past, Lakshman did not bother question her about her past and welcomed her as his wife along with eight others that quickly became a loving family. During their time together, he saw her interact happily with the others, help Venezuela as much as she could with government affairs, and helped in cooking with Emilia, Ondine, and Sumara. Not once did he bother to sit down and ask her about the life she had been through in the past.

In the spur of the moment, he suddenly brought his hands to his face and slapped himself three times, hard. It stung him painfully on the cheeks but he ignored the pain because of the extreme angry he felt for himself. He, who had always corrected the wrong doings of others, had never once stopped to know his wife better by learning about her past and possibly freeing her from the burden she alone carried.

“W-What’s wrong?” Alestor asked, surprised by his sudden action to slap himself so hard in the face.

Lakshman glared up at him and asked with simmering anger, “Erza is basically a caged bird. I’m not angry at you, nor the people responsible for it. What I do want is an explanation, and I want it now!”

The older man could not believe the calm and composed person from before has vanished and was replaced by a man filled with simmering anger. He did not like the look in the Solaris Hero’s eyes and felt a slight fear touch his heart, but he ignored it and acted strong because he was not willing to reveal the details of Erza’s confinement.

“I have no—!” He began disdainfully.

“Down!” Lakshman shouted, and slammed his hands down on the desk.

In an instant, Alestor felt a powerful force pull him down and, in the next moment, he found himself sitting with his face slammed against the desk. He felt a powerful pressure being applied to his back, neck and face, pinning him firmly in place. Even when he tried to move, he found his movement to have suddenly become really heavy.

“Aren’t you being a little too forceful?” Asura asked him inside his mind, sounding a little surprised and worried.

He was shocked when he heard his present-self reply, “He’ll be fine.”

Lakshman focused his attention on Alestor once more and said in a quiet voice filled with deadly intent, “I want an explanation… right… now…!”

The older man realized he was at the mercy of the king from the other world, who was seriously angry for some reason. At the same time, he understood that this man was feeling this way from the concern he had for Erza’s wellbeing, and was angry at the people responsible for her trouble. So, after having registered that fact, Alestor sighed and decided to tell him the truth.

“Fine,” he said, and Lakshman instantly released him from his magic grip. Straightening up in his chair, he groaned from the pain from the previous predicament and asked, “I don’t get why you’re so angry.”

“Like I said; it’s because I care,” replied Lakshman in a firm voice, causing Alestor to understand that he does not wish to tell him, so he shrugged his shoulders in resignation. “Now, go on and tell me. Why is it necessary to go so far as to confine her with wearing a mask and placing a double in her place?”

Alestor nodded and seemed to ponder for a moment about where he should begin the explanation from.

“I think everything would make sense better if we start from… the prophecy,” he declared dramatically.