"Well, now that you have a clear head, we were hoping you could give us some answers," Ilya said, looking at me with that calm, analytical expression.

They must be thinking I had a clear head because I’d just woken up.

Jokes on them! Haha... hah...

Okay, I should recognize this was actually a predicament. But those familiar faces were tricking my mind, rendering me unable to think of this as the serious situation it was.

"Tch. Look at him. He doesn’t even bow before Her Grace," Kael said, clearly annoyed at my casual expression.

"Pfft." A voice came from the adjacent cell.

It was Betty.

Kael’s attention immediately shifted to that cell, while the Duchess still casually petted the beast before me. She looked like a kid playing with a cat at this moment. And these guys wanted me to act serious?

"Oh right, she’s here..." Kael said, sounding even more annoyed.

At this point, I’d already forgotten what Kael looked like when she wasn’t annoyed.

"Seems like that oddball is giving you guys a tough time," Betty said, her smirk practically audible through the wall.

Wonderful, Betty. Just what I needed. Get them spiteful and make them feed me to the beast for la snack. Very helpful.

"None of your business. Just await your execution, you traitor," Kael snapped with genuine anger.

It was easy for Kael to get annoyed, but very difficult to make her actually angry. I knew that sounded odd, but I was still trying to figure it out myself. For Kael to get this angry... Betty must’ve done some serious shit.

"Enough. Deal with the task at hand," Cass finally spoke.

She stopped petting the beast. Mendy immediately coiled itself around Cass’s leg, rubbing against her like an oversized house cat.

I wanted to pet Mendy too... but I didn’t think they’d be generous enough to allow me. And I got the distinct feeling they’d brought that oversized cat specifically to threaten me.

Ilya stepped forward, opening a box in her hands. She inclined it toward me, and inside, fitted perfectly, was my ingot.

Yep. That was it. That was mine.

Three runic symbols, one on top, two at the center. Though I didn’t know what they meant, I was pretty sure it was the same one.

"You do recognize it, don’t you?" Ilya asked.

"Yeah. That’s my ingot," I replied.

"Where did you find it?" Cass was the one who spoke this time. Her voice contained a small bit of urgency in it.

Strange. She was usually a master at disguising her state of mind.

"In a wooden box that had runic symbols on it," I said, telling them what I knew.

I mean, it had always been in the box. Even I didn’t know how it got into my belongings in the first place.

Kael clicked her tongue and hurled Mendy toward me.

The beast lunged forward and jolted backward just before reaching me, its chain snapping taut. Saliva flew through the air from the sudden stop, landing on me from my face down to my waist.

I have never wanted a bath this much in all of my lives.

I take back everything I said about petting that damn cat.

"Don’t joke if you don’t want to become a snack for the beast," Kael said, her tone deadly serious now.

"You know... I could break you and get the answers out of you if I wished to," Cass said, her eyes glinting with something dangerous. Her voice was full of cold remorse. "You’d better answer before you try and find out exactly how I do that."

I sighed. "Threatening me won’t get you what I don’t know. That ingot has always been in the box, along with my other belongings."

I stopped being casual too. This was getting serious.

Cass looked down at me with her ember eyes. I looked directly back at her.

It had been too long since I’d been threatened like this. Seemed like I’d gotten a big ego in these years of being almost untouchable.

"I see. Seems like you don’t want to do this the easy way," Cass said as she took the chain from Kael.

"Cass... I mean, Your Highness, what are you planning to..." Kael’s voice trailed off as she understood Cass’s intentions.

Cass let the chain fall loose. The beast looked at the chain on the ground, then looked at me.

Its pupils widened as it lunged at me in one fluid jump.

Hmm... this was getting on my nerves.

I moved to the side, slamming myself against the wall. The beast skidded on the prison’s stone floor before leaping at me again.

I caught the beast by its long canines, its full weight pressing down on me, pinning me to my knees. The sharp teeth pressed dangerously close to my hands.

"Still don’t feel like answering?" Kael asked. I could sense a bit of anxiety in her "meant to be cocky" tone.

"I told you guys what I know. It’s you who chose not to believe me," I said through gritted teeth as the beast pressed down harder.

"You have no use for me, then," Cass said coldly.

Is she letting me go now?

"Bring in his friends you mentioned," Cass ordered.

"What!" I said, trying to get up. "Why would you need my friends?"

I pushed against the beast bit by bit, my muscles straining.

"Maybe they’ll make you remember how you got the ingot," Cass said, smirking.

"They joined me recently! They don’t know anything!" I replied desperately.

Grrawww!

The beast growled and slammed me against the wall with its full weight.

Damn it. I couldn’t bring out aura or mana in this cell.

"I already told you what I know! I don’t know how I got the ingot into my belongings either!" I said, biting back a groan from the pain.

The original owner of this body’s memories had started from when he was in the orphanage. Nothing about his past before that at all.

"You can’t fool me," Cass said as she picked up the ingot from the box in Ilya’s hands. "After all, the runes on the ingot... they are absolute."

She clutched the ingot tightly, like she was reaffirming her resolve.

I panted as I pushed the beast back with my legs. Its remaining teeth were almost at my neck now.

"I don’t even know what those runic symbols mean either!" I shouted as I kicked the beast with the last of my strength.

If not for dumping those stat points into my stats, I would’ve been dead by now.

Cass wasn’t playing around.

"Selka is on her way to bring your friends here anyway," Cass said, her eyes full of cold remorse. "I should know how many of your kind are lurking in the orphanage too."

"Look, Duchess! I’m telling you, I don’t know anything about how the ingot got there, and neither do my friends!" I said, my tone completely serious now.

I stood up, facing the beast head-on.

"Maybe he is telling the truth..." Kael said hesitantly to Cass.

"You don’t know how cunning his kind are, Kael," Cass replied coldly. "He might as well be from the Netherworld."

What!? That sounded ridiculous. What was she even saying?

[Don’t you feel like something is wrong here, Rune?]

’....What do you mean?’

[Why is Kael speaking up for someone who she has met just yesterday? Why is Mendy, despite being a beast of fire attribute, didnot incinerate you yet? and Rune... have you ever heard Cass mentioning the name of her spies? Much less speak like you know sho she is?]

’..Yeah, how does she know I knew who Selka is?..’

’Wait... no way..’