The same as before, I was approached by a pair of the Baron's guards as soon as I stepped inside Gudea's mansion's grounds. This time the identification process took even less, as they invited me, by name, to follow them right as they saw my badge.

The first difference I would see at the entrance. The same butler of the previous time was waiting there, but the other two Baron guards of the mansion flanked him. And before being invited inside, I was actually asked to leave my weapons with them.

{So he's either expecting something or knows something I don't. And to ask me to leave my weapon is a sure sign he doesn't trust me at the moment.} Considering that in my mind, I unfastened the sword and passed it to one of the guards. Then, I did the same with the dagger I had on my belt.

I expected to be checked and patted down, but the butler silently invited me, probably considering what I did was enough. {And what about poisons, magic, concealed weapons? He doesn't feel threatened by them? Or has some other way to counter them? Who guarantees I don't have a couple of swords, or else inside the [Storage] Gudea is perfectly aware I can use?}

The answer to my inner questions was quickly found by reaching the same reception room from the other time. My [Status Screen] flashed me a warning, but it was an unneeded one - I already felt and recognized the effect.

Afflictions: No-Spell Zone, Spell Usage Impossible, Area-effect.

{I see. I was right about Gudea having a way to deal with mages. But why are all the security measures so open? He could have activated the zone after meeting me, taking me unaware. Why before? Is he trying to scare me? Or is he trying to demonstrate something?} This was strange, and it wasn't something I had expected. Still, it wasn't as if I could leave, so I could only go forward. If things came to the worst, Gudea would be surprised that I am far less defenseless than he expects. With [Inventory], [Status Screen], and now the [Original Words] not magic but something else, I could still inflict some damage, maybe even escape. He should have spent more and prepared a full barrier against spells, mana, and spiritual interference or use. At least that would restrict the [Original Words], that while using mana, were not spells, as they affected the world, not the mana in the air.

I wasn't planning to fight, but who knows what could happen, so when I was left alone in the room, I walked towards one of the chairs and, as I sat down, took a chance to look around. Recalling the room's layout from the other time, I found a change. On my previous visit, there was only one small cabinet from which the servant had produced the glasses we used. But now, there was another one. It was bigger, about the size of a man, and it looked a bit strange as it lacked the exquisite finish of all other things in the room.

{So cliche!} I couldn't confirm that it was what I thought, but in all novels and detectives, such ones hid the killer that would appear on the owner's order.

But a moment later, I concluded that Gudea would definitively not do something so easily detectable. He was a damn spy and one that remained undiscovered for years. {Still, if he placed such an eye-catching piece, there is definitively something else.}

***

"I am sorry I had not met you personally on your return! And that's even that I knew it would happen." Gudea, dressed in a golden-threaded crimson and black attire, entered the room with such an apology, showing nothing but remorse on his handsome face.

Standing up to meet the approaching man, I shook my head, refusing the apology, citing that it was good enough that he did expect my return. And why would he do that, actually? It wasn't like he knew I survived the encounter, did he?

After an unexpected bear hug, one that was more akin to a pat down, his hands evenly checking my belt from behind and his chest pressed so hard against mine that if I carried something, he would crush it, Gudea pointed me to the same chair I had been sitting on before. And he spoke only after settling on the one opposite to it, "Now, tell me, what happened? Did anyone but you survive? The Guild, Baron, and even the Viscount sent people to look for you and the others, but we found nothing since you left your last stop, [Enhartar]."

"I see, so Eithne didn't make it back? A shame! I truly hoped she would have." That was my honest thoughts, and I felt them adequate for the moment before starting the story. The true one, only hiding one part, where I met no one else but the [Primordial Being, The Dark One, Ygiriorth].

---

I was aware that one could feel lies, the [Deceit] skill explanation literally saying so. And even if not for the skill, for someone used to falsehoods, it would be easy to sense when they were being lied to. That was common knowledge even on Earth.

In this case, dealing with someone with both skill and a career closely related to lies, deception, and similar, it was clear I couldn't simply omit everything.

Thankfully, SHE had given me a couple of hints of how to explain my survival, and in all truth, it sounded believable, even to myself, who knew it wasn't so. And now, as I spoke with Gudea, it was just a matter of weaving the explanation in the rest of the story, 100% truth, so even if he felt something, he wouldn't be sure what changes I made.

---

"And so, being attacked directly by a wide-area spell, with no hopes to escape it myself, I had no choice but to use the treasured inheritance from my Grand-grandfather, a decently known Relic-mage in the Domain. And while it broke down, leaving me just with the rune-" I took out a piece of stone from inside my wallet, a souvenir from Ygiriorth's cave engraved with an unknown, for most, rune, "-it did send me to the closest, enclosed, a safe place nearby, which turned out to be some underground passage."

Lies, yes, but at the same time, impossible to confirm and not so phony. And if I ignored the pretty cliche part about relatives and life-saving pieces of stuff, it was almost true. I teleported from below the attack and was saved by being sent to a cave.

Completing the story with an explanation of a long, day-long rest and then my arduous journey to the surface, I stopped talking and looked directly into Gudea's eyes.

"Lutrin died, Eithne probably escaped, a mage controlling a golem, and a finishing attack with a direct spell..?" Gudea muttered. His face was blank, his head slowly shaking as if to show how hard to swallow he found my story.

I wasn't mistaken about what he felt, or at least showed, his following words confirming it, "Rador, I know you have no reason to lie, but I truly find it hard to believe."

"I know." I motioned his shake before continuing, "I wouldn't have believed that a mage was behind the disappearances of the Guild payments and foodstuffs. For the Ten, all we carried was worth like ten gold altogether. Such a sum is hardly enough for me to act. What to say about a trained Master?"

"If not for the sudden security measures, I would take out the sixty-three silvers, fourteen town coppers, and eighty small coppers I stored in [Storage] from the places we visited." Gudea was about to question me about the money and stuff, and I interrupted him right before he voiced it. {He thinks I would have killed two people and done all that for such a sum? Or he's just trying to check me?}

"And I don't doubt it, Rador. But-" Gudea ignored my jab about security and started speaking before suddenly stopping for a moment, as if to think, and restarting his phrase entirely, "I have no doubts a prospective Silver Member of our Guild wouldn't risk everything for such a sum. Yet, a trained, obviously powerful mage?"

"I can only speak about what I lived through, nothing more and nothing else. It is Maester Gudea's region, your branch, so it is not up to me to understand or identify the culprit or culprits. " I decided to close this part of our talk, so saying that, I awaited Gudea's follow-up, but with none, concluded it myself, "If the Maester has an idea, then point me at them. I do have a few words to share with them. Or better said, I have to act on what I promised back then to the mage. Right before he tried to bury me."

Seconds and minutes of silence followed. I didn't speak or add anything more. It wasn't the time to start my own play. Not until Gudea either revealed something or, if I was mistaken about him knowing, connected what I so kindly pointed out to him.

"You have no reason to lie to me, not after having all the chances to escape or continue whatever you had to without returning to Chubu, a place where you have no power." Such was Gudea's conclusion about ten minutes after I finished talking.

"So it is. And now, I have my own questions to ask. Questions I am entitled to ask, as I nearly died, saved only by a one-in-a-kind heirloom." With him acquitting me, I pressed on.

"I understand, but I doubt I will have the answers. There is only one Earth-mage, an official one, in the entire region. Yet, that man works for the Viscount's court. He got here directly from the [Profound Tower]! And no cloak of the Kingdom Mage Towers would steep so low as to attack common people, or worse, to risk an assault on the [Cadowden Guild]." Gudea's words seemed true, patriotic even. Yet, I was aware he wasn't of the Kingdom, and adding that to the disguised anger I felt from his fake half-hysteric reply, it was enough for me. I concluded he was perfectly aware of why that man had acted as he had. Has my perception improved? I doubt I could have been so sure someone was faking something before..?

"Then go and ask him to investigate. Or get the cooperation of whoever you can to find who cleaned the spot of the attack. There is no problem for me to show you where it happened." I pressed more, shrugging as I nearly ordered him what to do.

---

I felt that I was getting close to the breaking point. I am unsure why, but I knew that with enough pressing, Gudea would choose to enact whatever he had prepared and silence me rather than risk all this reaching the Guild. So, why did I keep pressing? The answer was easy. I needed a reason to lash out at him, even with the proof I had, not for him but for me and, later, for anyone who became aware of what happened and would happen inside this room on this day.

---

"No, the culprit wasn't a mage. It was something else." And indeed, with the last bit of pressure, Gudea's countenance changed. As he muttered the words, his gaze grew cold, and he made a signal or one that could pass as one by clenching his fist and hitting the armrest of his chair.

***

While I had no clear idea of where the killer I imagined would emerge, the wardrobe being an obvious feint (as I concluded), my [Danger Sense] again showed its awesomeness. Following Gudea's signal, I felt how something carrying danger to me appeared from behind.

I didn't act as if I felt the danger. No, I waited until the chime nearly deafened me, signaling I was about to be hit or killed.

"Drikawr." I muttered, sending ten of my remaining thirteen mana points into [Strenght]. And without even checking how much the increase was, I pressed with my feet, sending myself and the chair flying back. Flying, yes, as pushing would not describe, the crazed speed with which it all happened.

I felt how I crashed against something soft, then against something hard. But I didn't care about anything, not even the feeling of dizziness that assaulted me as the chair stopped with a loud thud. I jumped on my feet, rushing forward, not sparing a single glance behind, and before Gudea could react in any way, my hands pressed against his, squeezing them against the armrests with all of my improved strength. One that reached 28 (!!!), as my memories would allow me to find out later.

"Calm down! And let's discuss what is going on, Gudea, or whatever your true name is." I roared at him, stopping him from resisting. And as he stared at me in a mix of surprise and anger, I added the finishing blow, bringing my face closer to his ear, naming his title in Imperial, "Empire's Own, Two-faced Demon."