The Unrecorded Extra



'Don't get swayed Zio! Remember what your purpose here is!'

Clearing my throat, I started the conversation.

"So… What's the occasion? To think you'd invite me to hang out like this, just the two of us. I was surprised honestly."

She was peeking at me while she placed her order to the waiter that came to our table. As she had done, she turned to face me and slightly cocked her head.

"Surprised? Why?"

"Why you said? You literally looked like someone who didn't want to get bothered by people. Even I am still reluctant to talk to you."

"You talked a lot to me these past few days doesn't seem reluctant to me."

"Well. That's because I was bored. Enzo always sleeps, and Niah and Lio are always together like two different sides of a magnet. You're the only one I've never tried to strike a conversation in the group."

"You're popular in class. Surely there is someone else you can try to talk to if you are bored."

"I said in our group," I sighed. "By the way, what happened to you? You seem a bit chatty today. It's unusual."

Ember tilted her head, "Do you like it when I stayed quiet?"

"That's not what I meant… but, no. I like it when people are noisy. It helps me reduce the voices and activities inside my head," I said. My index finger glued near my temple.

Ember stared at me, her expression turned sour as I said that but she tried to keep her composure.

"Did—" She stopped a moment, holding back what she was going to say.

When she was about to say a word again, the waiter came with Ember's order. A strawberry ice cream with Oreo toppings.

I didn't know if strawberry was her favorite ice cream flavor but I made sure to remember it.

"Anyway, Ember," I called her, my expression serious. "I have a few questions to ask you. First, do you know Utopia? Second, are you faking your circumstance? Third… Is that your favorite ice cream flavor?"

I didn't just ask any random questions to her, well except for the third one. To break down the questions:

With the first question, I would know whether she was a regressor or a reincarnator or whatever that made her know about the future event. Why did I ask her about Utopia?

As you all already know, Utopia is the future villain organization that will replace Dystopia. I asked her this because Utopia wasn't known to everyone in the world yet, hell like I knew if they had made a preparation for raising the stage to the surface.

In my opinion, this is the question that is suited to this situation. 

If she is someone from the future who regressed back in time or someone who was reincarnated into this world, then she must have known what Utopia is. If she doesn't know, well, then she isn't what I suspected her to be.

How would I know whether she told a lie or a truth? Don't worry, I had already prepared something to prevent the lie with my brand new skill I got from exchanging my merits with a D-rank book skill!

Lie Detection!

It cost me about 600 merits, almost spending all of the merits I had, which I just gained from the midterm exam. 

From about 500 merits plus 100 merits from the midterm exam, the fruit of my hard work for three months, and it only needed me a day–no, an hour, to spend it all. Damn!

Sparing me a moment of her luxurious ice cream time, she chuckled before speaking out her thoughts.

"Can I start with the last question first?"

I nodded, giving her a green signal.

Her mouth formed a thin smile, "Yes. Strawberry is my favorite flavor."

I got a reaction signal in my brain, a tingling sensation on my brain, indicating that she was saying the truth.

Nom–!

She ate another spoonful of it. The face she made when the ice cream entered her mouth was… cute, I would say.

She really looked different from what I knew of her in the academy.

"The second question. If you're referring to me having memory loss and acting differently after my 'coma', then I'd say yes."

Just as I thought, she was faking her circumstances. 

If you were asking me how did I come to know about that, it was pretty simple actually.

I was a keen observer. I always observed every single thing that other people do. I could tell what someone was feeling or thinking by looking at their body movements, a tiny amount of subtle gestures, I could see it all if I was focused enough.

I could even do it while I was talking to someone…

Ember, every time I talked to her, she was always making that small and subtle uneasiness in her gestures and body movements, especially the day when I talked about Dystopia to her in the library, hoping to find something about my past.

But now, when she was answering my question about her faking her circumstances. There were no subtle gestures I could see from her. She was confident when she said that.

Even my Lie Detection said that she was saying the truth.

"Why are you suddenly being honest with me? I'm sure you were trying to hide the fact and lie to me, remember when I asked you that day? In the library? Aren't you telling me a lot of lies that day?"

"Fuu… I was just tired of acting like this for almost three years. I'm not a person who likes to lie, but circumstances force me to do so," she said, her smile was weary.

I didn't know what she was facing, and I honestly didn't care about it. What I cared about was that she knew about me, she knew about the event of the memory, but why didn't she tell me?

Whatever, it didn't matter for now. What mattered was her answer to my first question.

Does she know about the Utopia?

"I see. I don't know why you did that, but I honestly don't care and don't want to know. So, what's your answer to my first question? Do you know Utopia?"

She pursed her lips and began to speak as if she was reciting the contents of a Wikipedia.

Once she was done, I was flabbergasted by how long and precise her explanation was. I even tried to compare her explanation with the one on the Internet and Wiki, and what she said was 100% similar to Wiki's contents.

'What the fuck? Does she actually memorize each and every word of what the Wikis said?!'

Even my Lie Detection didn't signal me any reaction because that wasn't an answer but an explanation!

"I see you memorized what was written in the Wiki. But that's not the answer I want to hear…"

"What do you want to hear then?"

"Let me rephrase it for you. Do you know any organization that goes by the name 'Utopia'?"

She gently stroke her chin, seemingly to be in thought. A moment later, she looked at me cluelessly.

"I don't know. What's it though?"

I waited for my Lie Detection to send me the signal. When it did, a tingling sensation appeared.

She was saying the truth.