15 KILL ME!

Since there...staring competition was going to get them nowhere, Helkep decided to confirm a few things.

One of which were...Whether he would kill Helkep or not.

Helkep coughed twice to get his attention, after getting his attention, he did a cutting motion on his neck.

The monster...tilted his head.

"...How am I going to get him to understand?" Helkep thought of that one thing through which they were able to communicate, somewhat.

"KILL ME!" Helkep said in an extremely eerie voice.

The monster...tilted his head.

'Sigh! Isn't there anything?' Helkep's eyes fell upon the knife, which he had already taken out of the bed.

He grabbed the knife, turned its hilt towards the monster, and while grabbing it that way he plunged it inside his neck, only a bit, only till some blood came out. He did this very calmly.

Then he stretched his hand with the knife, to the monster.

The monster...grabbed it. He looked at the knife very strangely before in an instant his hand was right next to Helkep's throat.

Helkep's heart beated excitedly. He looked at the monster and the monster looked at him.

They monster's eye turned into narrow slits, as if he was contemplating something.

In the end he sighed and dropped the knife. Before he slowly started getting engulfed by a... shadow.

'...I truly don't know what I should think of this.' Helkep sighed heavily.

He grabbed the knife put it in its place and went to sleep. The sun would rise soon .

– – –

The next day Helkep was walking towards his class, when he reached his class he saw Noil standing in-front of the class door.

Noil saw Helkep and came running towards him.

"Hey! How are you?" Noil greeted Helkep with a smile.

"I am good. What about you?" Helkep replied blankly.

"I am completely recovered now." Noil replied not minding Helkep's...blankness.

"So where are we going?" Helkep already smelled trouble when he saw Noil in-front of the door.

"...Ha-Ha! You are quick to notice things. Well we still do have over assignment to complete. It's not like after a single set-back we are going to give up, are we?" Noil replied with an awkward smile.

"...And?" Helkep just wondered why he was not coming out clean.

"...HaHa! Well...we have been asked to report what we encountered in the dungeon." Noil replied with an even more awkward laugh.

"Ok. So we will be heading there first. Lead the way" Helkep stepped aside as if telling Noil to get moving.

Noil laughed awkwardly and started walking.

'This questioning is probably arranged by the Jill family. That's why he is that nervous. He probably tried to stop this, as things like this happened quite often inside the dungeon but the Jill family must have ignored him because...I was with him inside the dungeon, it's quite weird indeed that a useless level 7 was actually the one to walk out with the other being knocked unconscious for two days.' Helkep analysed the situation very calmly. He didn't really mind either since...well just see.

Noil brought Helkep to the Interrogation department's main building.

This was also were some unruly students were kept. This served as the prison of the academy.

Walking inside, a bald man was sitting on the receptionist desk. Noil went towards him.

Helkep could see the man staring at him.

Noil returned and they went to the upper floors of the building.

On the third floor, where they used to...interrogate the students or others for...different matters, Noil went inside a room which was tagged 671.

The inside of the room was divided into two by a transparent wall. Helkep saw that there were four chairs inside the room, on the other side, which were empty.

There was a man on the the side where Helkep was. He looked at them and spoke, "Are you Helkep and Noil?" He asked.

"Yes." Noil gave a simple answer.

The man nodded and pointed towards the transparent screen.

"Call Miss Julia." The screen lit up as three dots, that conveyed that the call was connecting, appeared.

'The heck!? They caked Julia for this?' Cold sweat dripped from Noil's forehead.

"Have they arrived?" A calm voice replied from the other side of the call.

"Yes ma'am." The man replied respectfully.

The call disconnected, Helkep couldn't help but think how bad mannered the woman was.

The man asked them to wait on the chairs, on the other side of the transparent wall. They could go inside from anywhere as the wall was transparent.

When they got inside they could no longer see through the wall, as if it wasn't transparent anymore.

They sat on the chairs, waiting for their interrogation to begin. But 10 minutes passed with no one showing up.

Helkep rested his head on table, with his arm as a pillow. His other arm was below the table.

The man and Noil noticed nothing as Noil was on the left side of Helkep.

Noil was busy surveying the room. The man simply didn't notice it as Noil blocked his vision somewhat and he thought that since one arm is on the table, the other would be as well. He was dumb.

This allowed Helkep to calmly search the table's below. Though he wasn't going to let Noil see that his arm was missing either. So when Noil turned his head. Helkep was straight and stretching his arms.

After about 7 minutes more, finally someone walked through the wall.

It was a woman and behind the woman was a man.

The two came and took their seat in front of the two boys.

"I am Julia and this is my assistant Boul." The woman introduced herself and the man.

"You two don't have to worry, this interrogation is simply for enforcing the security of Volcanic Land. If something abnormal is going on in the dungeon then we must lock it down and get expert's help." Boul comforted the two, his voice quite heavy.

"A trial interrogation." Helkep said looking at Boul.

"...Yes." He confirmed.

The woman looked at Boul from the corner of her eyes.

"Let us vow that we shall be truthful with our words." Julia said as she clasped her hands, Boul and Noil followed suit.

"A vow...I will not vow...its pointless when a human can't understand the value of a promise... I will show you my honesty, whether a lie or truth, I will show with my next words." Helkep looked at Julia in the eyes. His words contained a deep meaning, Boul and the man on the the other side of the wall, both gave Helkep a thumbs up, mentally.

Julia looked at Helkep, before she put her hands down and said, "Would you like a glass of water before we begin."

"Coffee for me." Helkep replied with a blank expression.

Noil stared at Helkep for a while before he said, "No, nothing."

"...Ok, tell us what happed in short words?" Julia said, putting on a serious face.

"My coffee!?" Helkep reply, left the four dumbfounded.

Julia had obviously said that out of courtesy for Noil, the future master of the Jill family.

"Cough, Cough! Well we didn't find the monster we were searching for on the first stage. So we headed on to the next stage. There, we still didn't encounter the monster we were searching for. Instead we found something like a gorge, instead of water, it was ground with some lava visible on some places, having no luck on the safer area, we headed inside. It was a risky move, but we still headed inside. There we found an unusual monster, he appeared from the front, but instead of charging like the usual monsters it stood at some distance from us. Soon as we were pondering what to do, one more came...then one more, and more, and more. Until we were surrounded...with no place left for us to go. We fought for sometime before we were overwhelmed, fighting a monster I lost consciousness...That's all." Noil didn't mention the part that no monster appeared because of Helkep. What a nice guy.

"...I see. What do you remember last?" Julia asked.

"I saw darkness...overwhelming darkness, I was scared, I was shivering...eventually I found myself losing consciousness. In the darkness, I wondered if my time had come to an end." Helkep replied this time.

'Hmm! Those words...they sound familiar.' Noil thought, he was getting a weird feeling hearing those words.

"...Noil are you alright?" Julia asked.

Noil wondered why she asked this, then his eyes fell upon his hands, they were shaking, terribly.

"...I am alright." Noil replied in a blank voice.

'I was correct, the fear has been engraved in his subconscious mind.' Helkep thought.

"Noil can you tell us what you remember last?" Boul asked.

"Truth be told, I was knocked unconscious before Helkep, he would know more then me.

"Oh! Why is that, with your level you should have lasted longer, shouldn't you?" Boul asked.

"Sigh! I was surrounded, I managed to take three monsters down, yet one managed to pass through my defence. Without Helkep I would be dead." Noil replied, twisting the truth a bit, he made it so, as if Helkep was also fighting.

"Oh! Well then Helkep, what do you remember last." Boul asked.

"Losing consciousness." Helkep replied while rubbing his eyes, as if something went inside of them

"..."

The four people wondered just how big of an idiot was this guy.

"What he means is what kind of situation you remember being in, what you saw before losing consciousness." Julia said.

"Oh! Then you should have said it like that, well...a horrifying pressure came, a monster came from the ground. All the monster coward away in fear. The horrifying pressure caused me to lose consciousness." Helkep replied, blankly as usual.

"Did you happen to see the monster's appearance." Boul asked.

"Somewhat," Noil gulped before continuing. "He had white hair, red eyes, with two long horns."

"...He...It had a humanoid appearance?" Julia asked with a frown.

"Yes." Noil conformed.

Julia and Boul glanced at each other.

"....This interrogation is over. You may take your leave." Julia said, her words sounded a bit rushed.

Helkep nodded his head, and got up.

Followed by Noil, Helkep took his leave.

A heavy atmosphere took over once the two left.

"Boul we must hurry, inform the master, I will go meet with the Headmaster of the academy." Julia had a nervous and excited expression.

"This little interrogation has been quite the luck." Boul shared the same enthusiasm.

"Right! Who would have thought there would be a humanoid monster. The one with the strongest potential, if we can capture it...the Jill family will benefit." Julia added, her eyes shaking in her excitement.

"Sigh! Though that boy was something else, He was so blank, he had no emotion, I couldn't feel anything. He was...creeping me out. He felt...more like a robot than a human." Julia said, her face filled with disgust.

After calming down a bit, Julia placed her hand below the table, she scanned it from below and a frown appeared on her face, "Hey you! Where did you place the recorder?" Julia asked the man on the other side of the wall.

"Ma'am! I placed it under the table." The man replied nervously.

"It's not here." Julia glared at the wall as if she could see the man on the other side.

The man hurried inside and looked below the table, he scanned it throughly, yet his shocked expression only grew bigger.

"Where is the recorder?" Julia asked.

"It, it was right here. I, I placed it here myself. I, I don't know where it- –" Cold sweat dripped from his forehead.

"Tch! How am I going to answer to master?...This mess is all because of you." Julia glared at the man.

The man's future was already doomed. He wondered where the recorder went, what he was sure about was he had placed the recorder, So where did he go?

– – –

Noil who was walking with Helkep, was still wondering about his strange interrogation.

"IT WAS FROM THE MOVIE!" Noil suddenly exclaimed out loud.

'Yes! It was from the movie, 'Sage Of The Mountain' it was his final conversation with the monster chief, that's when he said that line, when he spoke a very big lie and secretly led the whole conversation.' It seemed that Noil was unable to shake his weird feeling he felt from Helkep's words.

"Is everything okay?" Helkep asked, worried about Noil's sudden exclamation.

'Did Helkep...lie?' Noil wondered.

"...Yes, sorry for the sudden shout." Noil replied to Helkep.

'No, no. Why would Helkep lie, and does he even have something to lie about?' Noil wondered.

"Hey! Have you seen Sage Of The Mountain?" Noil asked while gulping.

"...Yes, why? Helkep asked and thought internally, 'This boy...he isn't as dumb as he seems.'

"No, nothing." Noil's went back to his thinking.

'Then, he must have also seen that scene...Did he actually...lie.' As Noil was left confused, Helkep was also analysing the interrogation.

'Boul was not only a mere assistant. His skills were just as sharp as Julia's. If I am not mistaken, Julia must have an innate skill that allows her to see through people's words. But she must have never met a case like me...Still they were quite a disappointment. I expected more from the Jill family or maybe they sent a less skilled person thinking that I was just a kid. Though they were still a disappointment, I led the whole conversation without them even realising it. Sigh! And here I was thinking I would have had to strain my brain.' Helkep had no plans to ever tell the truth.

Noil didn't realise it but what he had thought off was actually true, Helkep had said that in utter disdain for the two, the two who interrogated them looked like children to him.

He had led the whole conversation, at the start he had acted like an idiot, lowering Julia's and Boul's guard.

They he remained quite and let Noil explain, he expected Noil to say everything truthfully, since Julia's innate skill would be useless on him, he wanted to let Noil explain so she didn't doubt things.

Then when he explained things, he spoke like an outsider reading a book, he didn't tell her things from his point of view, his point of view would have blown Julia's mind.

At the end, he let Noil explain the monsters characteristic, for she would have had doubt if Helkep had said that.

Noil didn't know the value of a humanoid monster but Helkep knew it very well, he knew human greed, he had already planned to end the stupid interrogation at that point.

Helkep put his hand in his pocket and drew out a circular shaped object. This was a recorder. The one he... borrowed from below the table.

Helkep had been the one to be one-step ahead the whole time.

'In a trial interrogation, the interrogation isn't recorded.' Helkep thought disdainfully before throwing the recorder in a dust-bin.

"To Volcanic Land?" Helkep asked Noil.

"...Yea." Noil replied while peeking at Helkep from the corner of his eyes

"Okay." Helkep busied himself with the thoughts of...his monster friend.