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As the Tower Master remained on guard, deep in thought, Gary, standing beside him, suddenly spoke up, as if something had just occurred to him.
"Why not use the Truth Choker?"
At Gary's words, the Tower Master nodded and reached his hand into empty air.
I tilted my head, wondering what on earth a Truth Choker even was.
Come to think of it, was that the fabled spatial storage magic I'd only ever heard about?
"If you are truly innocent, then wear this."
The necklace he pulled out of the pocket dimension was a choker with a small, crudely made square ornament attached at the center.
"Understood."
I still had no idea what this thing was, but I put it around my neck regardless.
The square ornament pressing against my throat was quite uncomfortable.
Feeling a bit like a dog on a leash didn't sit well with me either.
"This necklace was crafted personally by Lady Frigia, the very founder of this academy. It is the single most precious among all the ancient relics still in existence today."
"..."
"This choker comes as a matched pair. Whoever wears one of these must never, under any circumstances, lie while wearing it. Do you happen to know why?"
"I don't."
"Because the very moment you tell a lie, a blade will spring out from the box pressing against your throat, ending your life."
I immediately wanted to take it off.
Given how crude the thing looked, I'd assumed lying would maybe deliver a small electric shock at worst; I never imagined there was a hidden blade in there.
"The downside is that once used, it can't be used again for an entire month... but it has the strength of forcing both parties to answer five questions each with nothing but the truth, and despite that drawback, it's precisely why I've kept it as a treasured possession."
With those words, the Tower Master fastened a choker around his own neck as well and began muttering some kind of incantation.
The wooden ornament on his neck darkened, letters rising up from it.
[Hot Night: Sweet and Savage Truth Game]
What in the world had I just seen?
Hot night? Sweet and savage truth game?
The technique's name was oddly cute, in stark contrast to the ominous choker itself, and for a moment I genuinely doubted my own eyes.
I found myself wondering exactly what kind of situations this Frigia person had used this thing for, to have named it that.
"Now then, let me start with the first question... are you a member of Silver Ring?"
Setting the "hot night" part aside, the fact that the spell's name contained the word "savage" suggested a blade really would spring out, so I made sure to speak nothing but the absolute truth from that point on.
"I am absolutely not a member of Silver Ring."
Even at my words, the choker showed no reaction at all, and the Tower Master's expression twisted with confusion.
Well, of course, given that he'd attacked me completely one-sidedly without even properly hearing me out, and here I was telling him I wasn't Silver Ring after all.
Anyway, if the structure required each of us to ask five questions, I figured I might as well take this opportunity to get some answers of my own, so I spoke up.
"How does the Tower Master even know about Silver Ring?"
I'd only learned about them myself through my memories before the regression and reading through Aden's life, but I was curious how the Tower Master, who by this point in time should have had no way of knowing anything about a group as obscure as Silver Ring, not only knew about them but was wary of them to this extreme degree.
"They contacted me directly and asked me to become one of their members. Of course, I killed most of them for it."
I supposed being at the level of Tower Master meant even direct door-to-door sales... no, door-to-door recruitment, I guess?
Anyway, I hadn't realized he'd even received a request like that.
"My turn again. If you're not a member of Silver Ring, then what exactly is your relationship with them?"
Even before the regression, Silver Ring had been tangled up with me through the most bitter kind of enmity.
The original owner of the Marionette's Ghost, a crown prince who had gone mad.
From the point I first fought him onward, I'd learned that behind every single major incident, there were always people bearing that distinctive silver ring-shaped tattoo.
Back then, I remembered simply calling them "the Circle," since they seemed to just be using the ring shape as their symbol.
"My relationship with Silver Ring is simple. Purely adversarial... nothing more, nothing less."
At my words, the Tower Master finally looked somewhat relieved.
His expression showed that whatever suspicion he'd held had at least partially cleared.
"What exactly did Silver Ring ask of you when they contacted you?"
Based on what I'd just personally experienced, the Tower Master clearly had a somewhat aggressive streak, but he didn't seem like the type to try killing someone just for showing up and saying, "please join our organization!"
I figured they must have made some particularly unusual demand.
If I could figure out what that was, I thought I might be able to predict Silver Ring's next move.
"Since we're adversaries, there's no reason not to tell you. They proposed that I use the power of my family, which has served the Imperial Family loyally for generations, to overthrow the current Imperial authority and establish a nation ruled by mages instead."
Something about this felt like a puzzle piece clicking into place.
Before the regression, the period when the crown prince had begun going mad and Imperial authority started collapsing had oddly coincided with the timing of the Tower Master's succession.
If it were true that the Tower Master's sudden death three years from now was Silver Ring's doing...
Then Gary's efforts to support the crumbling Imperial family, all the way to the end, might well have been him carrying on the will of a Tower Master killed by them.
Actually, wait, how had anyone even managed to kill a monster like this in the first place?
"How exactly do you know about Silver Ring?"
Just as my thoughts were beginning to drag on too long, the Tower Master asked his third question.
I'd naturally expected this question would eventually come up given the circumstances, but even so, I was genuinely at a loss for how to answer.
Telling a random lie just to get a blade lodged in my throat wasn't exactly appealing either.
"Among the people I've fought before, there were some unusually marked with silver ring-shaped tattoos on their bodies. And I happened to read a book that mentioned their true identity."
"A tattoo on the body...? And a book, you say...?"
"Yes."
I blended together, somewhat vaguely, the moment I first learned such a suspicious organization existed and the moment I discovered their name was Silver Ring through reading Aden's life.
It was an ambiguous answer, but every word of it was true, so the choker still showed no reaction.
"What's the name of this book?"
"...Is that your question?"
"It is. I don't mind using it as my question, so would you tell me the book's title?"
I briefly recalled the title written on the cover of the book that recorded Aden's life.
"The Academy's Rank X Sword God."
"...Huh?"
"Yes."
"The Academy's what?"
"Rank X Sword God."
"What's Rank X? Some kind of special class or ranking?"
"Honestly, I'm not entirely sure myself. Though if I had to guess, I'd assume the X might be some kind of special code..."
"Well, this is rather perplexing... Gary, look into locating a book called The Academy's Rank X Sword God!"
"Yes, sir!"
Gary answered loudly and immediately jotted something down.
Was note taking just a habit of his? He'd taken notes earlier when I was throwing up too.
"Sword God... does that mean Duke Snowtier? No, wait, if there's a book about it... does that mean this is all somehow connected to him..."
The Tower Master fell into muttering to himself, deep in thought.
I could have given him time to gather his thoughts, but for the sake of removing this choker pressing hard against my throat as soon as possible, I needed his contemplation to wait for later.
"Then I'll ask two questions of my own. What are your plans for dealing with Silver Ring going forward? And what compensation are you offering me, given that you attacked me out of nowhere?"
Of course, the second one was what I truly wanted to know.
"Silver Ring is something I plan to continue searching for, as I've always done, relying on trustworthy people I can count on, while keeping a close watch internally to prevent any traitors from emerging. It's unfortunate that they haven't properly revealed their true form yet, since it makes them practically impossible to locate. And as for you... well... honestly, my genuine preference would be to just pretend this whole thing never happened..."
Oh my, would you look at this man's complete lack of shame.
At least 5 gold...
No, even 10 gold would have been enough to send me quietly back to the academy without complaint!
"You're an academy student, and enrolled in the Magic Department, correct? Then I shall have the Tower cover every single expense you incur while you remain in the Magic Department."
"Every expense? All of it?!"
"That's correct. This is my personal token; until a proper token can be made specifically for you, use this one to settle your accounts."
This was, quite genuinely, an incredible turn of events.
With just this one token, I could finally afford to buy uniforms for every single day of the week instead of washing and rewearing the same one all week, and I'd never have to scrounge around for tuition money again.
Most importantly, instead of the sandwiches I was already thoroughly sick of, I could live off nothing but meat from here on out.
"Is it perhaps not enough?"
I quickly reached out to take the token from his hand, but he pulled his hand back slightly and continued speaking.
"You understand, of course, that my supporting you so generously, materially and otherwise, isn't purely meant as an apology, don't you?"
I'd wandered through five long years in a place soaked with blood.
This wasn't some small, few gold trinket; by value alone it was worth well over a thousand gold, and I never assumed for a second that it was meant purely as compensation for the trouble he'd caused me.
"If I learn anything related to Silver Ring, I'll report it directly to you, Tower Master."
The Tower Master nodded, apparently satisfied with my answer.
Given he was covering literally all my expenses, this much was really nothing.
"I tried to kill every Silver Ring member who approached me, but I couldn't get them all."
"...!"
"About five of them... yes... individuals at least on Marey's level. Unfortunately, they got away."
"Are you referring to a version of big sister Marey with her restrictions lifted, by any chance?"
"That's correct. It would be more accurate to say they were roughly as strong as Marey without her restrictions."
Even senile old hag that she was, Marey, with her restrictions lifted, was strong enough to potentially go toe to toe with a catastrophe-class monster like a Kraken.
Whether she could actually win was another matter, of course.
Regardless, someone that strong, and not just one of them, but as many as five people like that had shown up?
I was fairly sure only two people in Silver Ring were supposed to be that powerful.
The distortion of time... could this be its effect?
'Wait, actually, setting all that aside, is this man really saying he's disappointed he couldn't kill people that powerful, instead of just being grateful he survived facing them at all?'
"Given that a group like that has members like these, you should remember that even carrying out an investigation under my name won't necessarily keep you safe from danger."
"..."
"So once our time of questions and answers concludes, I'd like to hold a brief session to gauge your actual capabilities. What do you say?"
My mind started spinning at full speed.
If I could somehow manifest the ghost, or recover my previous Body score, that might be one thing, but as I currently stood, I already had a track record of getting thoroughly beaten by a Marey still under restrictions, so facing an unrestricted Marey would be completely hopeless.
'But giving up the token isn't exactly an option either...'
No, wait, thinking about it, given I only ever stayed within the academy, wouldn't the Tower Master have no real way of knowing whether I was actually investigating anything or not?
'Maybe I could just play along, feed him a piece or two of information I already know here and there, and just live a comfortable, noble sort of life off this token?'
I briefly considered ways to slip out of this, but thinking it through, the end result was that I genuinely needed to stop the ancient being Silver Ring intended to revive, no matter what.
Given that a meeting between the Tower Master and me might turn out to be just as much of a key factor in twisting the future as the meeting between Duke Snowtier and Aden, I couldn't afford to just brush this off carelessly.
Looking at it that way, wasn't it fair to say that rather than the Tower Master dragging me into this matter, it was actually me dragging him into it?
"Very well. I will fully cooperate."