Chapter 15: Meeting

This woman looks very familiar. She’s not very tall and actually kind of small for a Filipina woman. She's maybe around 4’9 or 5’0 in height, enough to get teased as small but not that small that it counts as dwarfism. Black hair, wrinkly face, around 40 to 50 years old. She knows me.

The girl's mother said, “Paul, is that you? Why do you look so young?” I replied, “Who are you? Why do you know me?” She harrumphed and said, “It’s me, Joyce!” Confused, I replied, “Joyce? Topher’s Girl? You look so old, who did this to you?” The guard posted on the side smashed the bars of my cell and said, “Disrespect her once more and you’ll be charged with death,” showing a voice not of lust, or reverence but that of loyalty towards Joyce. “Yes, it’s me. What happened to you? We saw you turn into dust right in front of our eyes.”

I'm still in doubt of this "Joyce." She might look familiar, but with magic and shapeshifting being possible, how will I know who she really is? Ah yes, let’s abuse the powers of the Library to verify the truth. First, let’s make it compile a book about her for me. I then said to her, “How would I know if you are telling the truth? After monsters started popping out everywhere, I don’t know what to believe anymore. If you really are Joyce, can you show me your combat technique to verify the truth about you?” She then looked at me funny and blew a punch. It was very strong, around as strong as what I can do if I combine my physical body and my mana cultivation in terms of force. I couldn’t determine anything else past that. But that doesn’t mean the Library can’t show me more.

“Flaws!" I mentally commanded the Library to compile a book on this "Joyce." When I checked, the book stated, "Joyce Adkins, Mortal Mage Rank-5. Knows Fist of the Air Nomad. Flaws: Slow rotation of wind causes the efficacy of the fist technique to only around 30%…” and so on and so forth. As suspected, the Library can generate the names of people as well when a book about them is compiled. Joyce Adkins is the right name, but that doesn’t give me much confidence yet.

I decided to use the other method of the Library to determine flaws. When I touch or see a written statement, a book gets compiled in the Library and its contents show the flaws of the written statement. I then told her to write a statement regarding her identity. She didn’t have a pen and paper with her, so she wrote in the air. She raised her hand and her forefinger lit up with fire. She then started writing and whenever her hand waved or wrote in the air, the trail of fire didn’t disappear. I made her write: “I am Joyce Adkins, married to Topher Adkins. Graduated batch of 2011 in the Montessori in Angono, Rizal. Classmates and friends with Paul Knight. And I was there, the night when Paul Knight turned into ashes, September 22, 2021.” Joyce wrote exactly what I said. And again, I commanded, "Flaws!" A book was compiled and there, I saw that there is only one flaw present in her written statement. Topher Adkins and Joyce Adkins never had a wedding that was recognized by the heavens. When I saw this, I felt sad. With what I saw, I am now convinced that the "Joyce" right in front of me was my friend. She really is Joyce, but older. I then said, "I believe you now, Joyce. How did you become so old?" This statement made her very angry.