757 Protector of the seat of Diligence [4]

The moment those words escaped from my mouth, the very air around the room chilled entirely, and as I sat in front of Waylan, I found myself blinking for a longer time than I usually would have. 

There was something nagging at the back of my mind, and for a moment, I hesitated to voice my thoughts, unsure of whether I was overthinking or not.

But as I studied Waylan's expression, the nagging feeling persisted within me, urging me to speak up.

I cleared my throat, breaking the silence between us.

"You know, Waylan, I've been thinking."

I said slowly, my voice laced with uncertainty.

"I couldn't help but wonder if there's more to Kevin's memory wipe than just sparing everyone the pain of his passing."

I thought I knew Kevin well, but after thinking about everything that had happened, I realized that I actually knew almost nothing about him.

The Kevin I knew was a lie. 

...and thus, it made me question whether he truly erased everyone's memories to spare them from being hurt by his death. 

Perhaps it was true to some extent, I felt that there was more to it than just that... 

Waylan's eyes flickered with a hint of surprise before he lowered his gaze, his hand coming to rest on the wooden table between us.

"What do you mean?"

He asked, his voice neutral.

I blinked slowly once more, deliberating over the words that I was about to say. 

"It's just that... apart from me, no one else should know about Kevin. And yet, somehow, you do."

I watched Waylan's hand tense slightly at my words, but he remained silent, listening intently.

I leaned forward, my eyes locked on his.

"So, how is it that you know?"

I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

"How is it that you don't know about his death and the changes he's made while I do?" 

For a moment, Waylan's hand hovered uncertainly over the table, his expression unreadable. But then, he let out a soft chuckle, his features relaxing into a smile.

"Heh, so it's true then..."

he said, more to himself than to me.

His casual demeanor intrigued me, and I found myself studying him more closely, searching for any hint of deception or guilt.

"What have you figured out?"

I asked, unable to hide the curiosity in my voice.

Waylan looked up at me, his eyes glinting with amusement.

"Why did you suspect me? I thought I had done quite a good job up until this point..."

Despite his attempt at nonchalance, I sensed a hint of unease in his voice. Clearly, he wasn't as unaffected as he tried to play himself out to be. 

"You shouldn't have suspected a thing... Everything was perfect... There should've been nothing to indicate you at all of the matter..."

He mumbled to himself as if to reassure himself more than me.

"...and yet, I did."

I replied calmly, my eyes never leaving his.

"There was a certain nun that I met a little while back, and she told me something intriguing..."

Waylan's eyebrows furrowed slightly, and I could see a flicker of confusion pass over his face.

"What did she tell you?"

He asked, his voice laced with curiosity.

"Only a Protector knows the name of another Protector."

I repeated her exact words, watching as Waylan's expression slowly changed, his eyes widening in realization.

"Only a Protector knows the name of another Protector?"

He echoed, almost to himself.

I nodded, pursing my lips.

"Indeed..."

I silently mumbled to myself before looking back at him. 

"I didn't really notice it at first, to be honest. To me, there was nothing really wrong with your name. I called you that, and everyone called you that."

It was how it was supposed to be. How I thought it was supposed to be. 

But I guess I thought wrongly. 

We sat in silence, each lost in our own thoughts. But then, Waylan spoke up, his voice hesitant.

"But things have changed recently, haven't they? You found something?" 

I looked up at him, my gaze steady.

"Yes, they have."

In my perspective, that was his name, and that was all there was to it.

Things, however, changed recently.

"It's funny, at first I thought it was because history was different. It wouldn't be surprising if some things were different... It made perfect sense if you thought about it. Why would there be no change when history is the same?"

"…It made sense and I had no faults with it. Even after everything that I saw, I still didn't feel that there was something wrong with your name… the same was for when I came back." 

I looked straight into Waylan's eyes.

"When I came back, everything was the same as before. Your name was what I thought it was, there didn't seem to be any change, and I felt my suspicions die down… That was until I remembered something." 

'Only a Protector knows the name of another Protector.'

Even after I left, the nun's words kept sticking in my mind. I wasn't sure why, but I felt that those words were of extreme importance to me.

I leaned back against my chair.

"It was a farfetched thought, but… what if… and I mean what if… for some strange reason that I don't know… I have the power of a Protector?"

It was wild thought, but thinking about Kevin… I had the sudden thought that perhaps, the name shift in the other world wasn't necessarily a historical flaw.

Then… If I took the nun's words to mind, wouldn't it mean that from my perspective, only I would know his true name?

What if, my mind automatically translated how everyone was referring to him, and how I was referring to him?

What if the entire time I had been calling him Oliver without me knowing?

Was it all a matter of perspective?

"You see…"

I looked at Waylan with a complicated look. Drumming my fingers over the armrest of the chair, I silently sighed. 

While I did come here hoping that I was wrong, I had already confirmed things beforehand and was just clinging to the little hope that never existed, to begin with. 

"…There's this skill that I have. It's a very nice skill, and it's called Memory Manipulation." 

Probably one of my favorite skills.

"It's a skill that enables me to alter and see the memories of others. Judging from how you're looking at me, you seem to have an understanding of where I'm getting at, right?" 

Wyalan kept staring at me with an impassive look on his face.

I continued.

"It allows me to see things from another one's perspective rather than just mine."

I let out a long sigh.

"It was a bit of a farfetched thought, and I hoped I was wrong… I really did."

My head lowered in disappointment.

"But it turns out I wasn't wrong after all. It turns out that my hunch was correct… and you really are Oliver Roshfield in the mind of others."

I was baffled at first. Perhaps even shocked, but as I went through the other's memories, I came to realize that my hunch was true.

From everyone's perspective, he was Oliver Roshfield.

Only in my perspective was he Waylan Roshfield, and it only dawned upon me once I carefully looked through their memories and paid attention to every little detail in them. That was when I realized that they were calling him Oliver. 

If that wasn't enough proof, I tried something different. 

I called out Waylan's name before them and used memory manipulation shortly after to see if there were any changes. 

Shockingly enough, peering through their memories, my heart sank the moment I realized that the word that came out of my mouth was not Waylan, but Oliver. 

"Haaa…"

I let out another sigh when I thought about what I had recently found. The realization had taken a toll on me mentally as it made me realize a lot of things. 

From the very moment I met Waylan, I thought he was someone I could trust. Someone I could work with… but it turns out it was merely wishful thinking on my part.

Waylan was merely a mask.

…A mask to hide something deeper.

"I'm rather impressed." 

He said all of a sudden, his voice taking on a monotone quality.

"Impressed that you've managed to figure all of this out. But more than anything, I'm impressed at 'him.'"

His name didn't need to be mentioned for me to understand to whom he was referring to.

"You see..."

Waylan continued, his voice growing more powerful with each passing moment.

"We Protectors don't have the same powers as him. Our roles are completely different. We are in charge of keeping balance, while his job was to eliminate our biggest threat. It's only natural that his powers are different from ours."

As he spoke, I watched in seriousness as Waylan's skin began to deform, and his hair started falling out. A bright light enveloped his body, and I could feel the power radiating off of him, suffocating me in its intensity.

"He was unique."

Waylan said, his voice growing quieter.

"We… don't have the ability to leap back in time and retain our memories like him. That's something only he has the privilege of having… he was unique. An existence we put our faith into, and yet…"

Waylan paused, and the bright light enveloping his body magnified. It was so bright that I couldn't even see his figure.

He continued.

"…he chose to betray us. The ones who created him and given him his life."

The light slowly faded, revealing a blond-haired man with starry eyes and a long scar that ran across his forehead and down the side of his face. He exuded a pressure that was almost suffocating, but I refused to back down.

"I,it looks like you've finally shown yourself."

I wasn't intimidated by the pressure in the least bit. The pressure was strong, but as a thin white film coated my body and the faint outlines of golden letters appeared around it, the pressure around me started to fade. 

"Hm?"

Waylan raised his brow the moment the white film appeared on my body, and his face became colder.

"The laws… He truly did betray us."

I wasn't sure if he was angry or not, but his expression showed no signs of such. The light that had covered his body soon disappeared, and the pressure that was enveloping the entire room also disappeared. 

All of a sudden, the entire room turned quiet as an eerie calmness pervaded it. 

…Of course, I knew this was merely the calm before the storm.

At that moment, Waylan stared at me for close to a minute before he closed his eyes and opened them up again.

"Do you know why we do what we do?"