"So... Declan Ezra, is it?"
She asked once more as Declan sat opposite her.
She was currently scrolling through her device with one finger, her crimson eyes occasionally flicking across the information displayed on the screen.
"Yes." Declan replied, settling into the chair opposite her.
"According to what I have here, you’re described as a... child prodigy. You finished SSC at twelve and graduated from TIM at fifteen?"
Her eyebrows creased slightly as she read through the information.
Graduating from a Mech Science School at fifteen was already quite remarkable.
"Your excellent achievements earned you the attention of the Mechnoheart Organization, after which you were drafted into a special program."
"Completion of the program would have earned you the opportunity to move to Kiora City and further your studies in Mech Design."
She paused, glancing up at him.
"I don’t think any of that was ever published on the Mordternet..."
Declan muttered beneath his breath, in quiet suspicion but she did not respond.
She placed the device on the glass table, drew another cigarette from her box, lit it, and took a slow inhale.
Then she stared at Declan for several seconds, and without saying anything, tilted her head toward the device on the table.
"Huh?"
"Pick it up."
Declan glanced at the device.
His hand reached toward it, but halfway there, he stopped, as his eyes landed on the image displayed across the screen.
A destroyed laboratory.
Blood and chemicals were splattered across the floor, with the remains of the facility barely recognizable beneath the destruction.
"Your current status is marked as deceased due to a fatal laboratory incident that killed every scientist assigned to the project."
Her voice remained calm, even as her eyes piercingly observed him.
"And from what I can read, you were also one of the primary reasons behind the project’s failure. Mechnoheart even left a rather regretful note about ever taking you into the organization."
Declan stared quietly at the device.
None of what she said was false, for all the information was there on her screen, accompanied by news reports that had spread across the Mordternet.
The story of the child prodigy whose recruitment had supposedly become one of Mechnoheart’s greatest mistakes.
The catchphrase attached to the reports had been particularly memorable.
’A Child Prodigy... Still a Child.’
’I gave them success, and they repaid me with death and a tarnished name.’
Declan’s thoughts darkened, but his expression remained completely calm.
Instead, he leaned back in his chair without ever picking up the device.
Huuuuuuu,
Smoke drifted from between her lips, a moment of silence before the words cut through.
"How did you survive?"
"Mechnoheart wouldn’t make the naive mistake of declaring someone dead while they’re still alive."
"If they said you’re dead, then you must be one hundred and one percent dead, so...how did you survive?"
This time, there was a serious glint in her eyes.
A seventeen-year-old possessing a degree of superhuman strength without being a Nexian wasn’t particularly unbelievable.
She had encountered a few anomalies like that before.
Some were even more impressive, having been nurtured from childhood to possess bodies far beyond the limits of ordinary humans.
The heirs of the great Mech Families were especially notorious for possessing such physical advantages.
But someone returning from the dead?
That was an entirely different matter.
"How I survived..." Declan began, before continuing calmly, "is part of my secret."
He looked directly at her.
"And you said you weren’t interested in my secrets."
"I am interested now."
Her response came almost immediately.
"I get to keep my secret safe from the world, including you. Those were your terms, and that’s the reason I’m sitting here right now."
Declan’s voice became firmer.
"If you force me to reveal the secret to you, then you’ve already violating the terms of agreement."
"You said you had a way for both of us to prove that we’re worthy of what we’re claiming. Yet here you are, already trying to go back on your own words."
Her eyebrows furrowed slightly, and Declan leaned forward slightly after.
"Are you really trying to prove how worthy you are?"
"Because if you are, you’re doing a pretty bad job."
The woman stared at him for a moment.
Then she took another slow inhale from her cigarette before reaching toward the small smoke plate beside her and extinguishing it.
"You know of the Ember Race, don’t you?"
She asked amidst the action and Declan nodded, even when he didn’t quite understand what the Ember Race had to do with their current conversation.
"Embers are different from us," she began. "They lack empathy, and they’ve killed billions of Mordrans."
Her voice grew colder.
"Until eternity comes, only us or them shall remain. That is the end of the Planetary Anthem."
Each word carried clearly through the night air.
"The ability to return from the dead is something impossible for any human, even with the level of technology we currently possess, making the only explanation that could potentially account for such an occurrence be Arcane."
Declan’s eyes narrowed slightly.
"The power wielded by the Ember Race."
"Arcane has accomplished things that defy reason. Miracles that shouldn’t be possible."
She continued,
"Resurrection has never been recorded, but if it were ever possible, Arcane would be the only known power capable of accomplishing it."
Finally, Declan understood.
"Are you saying I’m associated with the Ember Race?"
"I’m saying that if your secret has any association with the Ember Race whatsoever, then every agreement between us, whether now or at any point in the future, becomes void."
"Forget about the world discovering your secret."
She also leaned slightly forward.
"If I discover that you can control Arcane in any way, or that you’ve struck a deal with an Ember, whether in the past or at any point in the future, I’ll be the first person to slice your head off."
Her crimson eyes seemed to glow faintly beneath the moonlight.
"Do we have that term clear?"
"Yes. We do."
Declan nodded, with no hesitation in his answer.
The Ember Race were humanity’s greatest adversary.
This wasn’t some pointless conflict manufactured by powerful people to make money or expand their influence.
It was a brutal, merciless war between two races, and humanity had been forced onto the defensive.
According to the reports, ninety percent of Nexians never died of natural causes.
They died on battlefields against the Ember Race.
Millions of human lives had already been lost to the invading race, and the war showed no signs of ending anytime soon.
Anyone associated with the Ember Race was therefore considered an enemy of humanity and would naturally receive the same treatment as the enemy itself:
Instant death!
Declan knew he had absolutely no association with the Ember Race.
The power he possessed didn’t come from him affiliating himself with the Ember race. It had all come from the system so, he wasn’t worried in the slightest.
With that agreement settled, the woman picked up her device once more and began scrolling through the information.
"That’s almost everything I have on you."
Her finger stopped.
"But... your parental information is missing."
She frowned.
"That’s weird."
"What’s weird is how you even managed to get all of this information in the first place," Declan muttered.
"There are ways to obtain information."
She glanced at him.
"And with enough status and power, almost nothing remains hidden from you."
"The Mordternet is merely one method of gathering information. It’s the one designed for ordinary, statusless people... people like you."
Her lips curved into the faintest smile.
"Pity that’s all most of you will ever know."