"What can you tell me?"
Nikolai smiled at him then. Again, it made Malic feel as though Nikolai knew him somehow. There was an odd warmth to that smile, a strange and unwarranted affection, as if he were a familiar friend that he found amusing.
"You don't want me to tell you everything?" Nikolai asked.
"Would you be able to tell me everything?"
"Not really."
"Then, there's no point in asking for it." He shook his head, returning his attention to the pot he was stirring. "Just tell me what you're able to share."
"I do like this about you."
Malic huffed out a laugh, ladle dropping with a "ting" of a sound against the pot. He picked it up again immediately after, continuing to stir. There was still another minute before he could add the beef broth, after all."You're not going to act like you don't know me anymore?"
Nikolai put his phone down on the floor and turned to face him completely, legs folded and crossed as he sat. He looked amused, the slight amount of fat under his eyes making his smiling eyes look youthful. "You're obsevant. It's pointless to try and fool you, so I'd rather not waste my time acting."
"Your so-called acting was terrible."
"Please forgive me for being so incompetent."
"I'll consider it."
Nikolai laughed, shaking his head. Even this was telling—the way he laughed with him, the way he smiled even with Malic's less-than-friendly attitude, spoke a million more words than any other truth.
As if reading his thoughts, Nikolai said, "Well, it's true that I know you."
"How?"
"The truth I tell you is going to depend on your answer to my question."
He paused for a moment to consider it, before nodding. God knew he would have been hesitant to admit to the System's fox manifestation if he knew that his conversationalist partner would only call him insane for it.
"How much are you willing to trust my truth, even with how insane it sounds?"
Well, that was easy enough to answer.
"I'll trust it, so long as it's the truth."
Nikolai eyed him with an amused smile. "You mean you'll use your lie detection skill."
"Yes."
He got a nod in response. "That's reasonable."
Of course it was. People had to be more reasonable than ever during the apocalypse, or there was no way they would survive. Cautiousness was all well and good, but paranoia would only sooner kill the paranoid person than anything else.
He set his ladle aside to pour in the beef broth into the pot. As he let it boil, he turned to Nikolai again and said, "Then? Give me your truth."
"I knew you from the moment you were born."
[ Sense the Atmosphere Lv. 93 has been activated! ]
[ This statement has been confirmed to be true! ]
He raised an eyebrow at the strange truth that was just given to him. From his birth? Then this man's age...
Nikolai chuckled. "We're the same age right now. I'm twenty-nine."
[ This statement has been confirmed to be true! ]
What? Then...
"I can't say more than that, or some things might go wrong." Nikolai kept smiling even when Malic glared at him in bemusement. "What I can tell you is that I'm here to help you. Me knowing you for that long has something to do with that too."
[ These statements have been confirmed to be true! ]
"Help me," Malic parroted dryly, eyeing Nikolai with a cautious gaze. "What kind of help can you provide, besides the use of your skills?"
"My knowledge of the System will help you."
[ This statement has been confirmed to be true! ]
He didn't bother to look at the System's fox manifestation. He didn't have to, not when he could already feel its amusement radiating off of its deceptively small body in waves.
[ I wouldn't recommend trusting this man all that much, hero. ]
The creature's words only deepened his desire to trust this man further. This was the System that started everything, the harbinger of the end—
Wouldn't it only make sense to trust what it distrusts?
To Nikolai, he said,
"And where did you get this knowledge?"
Nikolai fiddled with his fingers. It didn't feel like the nervous habit of someone lying, as it did feel like the nervous habit of someone nervous in general. "Let's just say that I've read up on it in a lot of places. I'm an avid reader, you see. Apocalyptic fiction isn't that uncommon ever since 2012 passed, and I've read a lot of fiction with content related to what we're experiencing now."
[ These statements have been confirmed to be true! ]
That was a little too lucky a thing, wasn't it? It was almost too good to be true, to have such useful knowledge just from reading a lot of fiction.
But, he did say he'd trust Nikolai's truth, regardless of how insane it sounded.
"How...fortunate."
Nikolai's smile widened, as if recognizing how tainted with sarcasm his words were. "Right?" he said, a little too cheery than was necessary. "To think being a reader could be so helpful in surviving. Even the reverse scale was something I got from a web novel. Or was it fanfiction?"
[ These statements have been confirmed to be true! ]
"...fanfiction?"
Nikolai's smile faltered, and he looked down at his hands. He didn't bother looking back up again even after ten seconds had passed, looking for all the world like he was ashamed of something Malic couldn't see. "Right," Nikolai began to say, fidgeting. "You're not the type to read those things." He promptly waved a hand in dismissal, as if to tell him to not mind it. "Never mind, then. The important thing is that I read a lot of helpful stories."
Malic could ask about his strange behavior, but something in his gut told him that he shouldn't.
He asked instead,
"Why do you want to help me?"
Round eyes peeked up at him through long, dark bangs. Nikolai looked somewhat mischievous like this, almost as if he were a child holding back an interesting secret.
It was both irritating and amusing. This man was twenty-nine, and yet, he was acting like this with him when they hadn't known each other for that long yet.
Eventually, Nikolai said, "I told you, you're my hero. You saved my life even without knowing it, once upon a time."
[ These statements have been confirmed to be true! ]
"I see."
"Yeah."
He frowned. Though it wasn't the intention, it felt burdensome to be considered so highly when he had no idea what he'd done to gain this man's favor. It seemed to be personal in nature too, as opposed to the general thankfulness of the masses. "There's no debt to be paid if I'm not even aware of the favor owed."
Nikolai shook his head. For a man who couldn't even meet his eyes, he was surprisingly stubborn. "Even if you're not aware of the debt itself, this kind of thing is important to me. That's why, please let me help."
"Do you even need my permission?"
A smile was given to him in response. It had, once again, the energy of a master who was pleased that his pupil got an answer correctly. "No. I intend on doing what I can to assist even if you disagree with it."
[ This statement has been confirmed to be true! ]
"You're a stubborn bastard," he huffed.
"I know. I've been told so by others as well."
"And yet, you're alone now."
Nikolai smiled a winsome smile, so false on his face that Malic couldn't help a frown. "Because I'm not as sociable as you."
Sociable? He was far from it. Just because people often came to him didn't mean he liked it. "Perhaps you don't know me that well after all."
"You deal with other people well enough, is what I mean." Nikolai picked his phone up again, idle fingers tapping on the screen as he looked down at it. It was as if he had to do something with his hands, even when he was talking with someone. "Even in crowds, even in front of an audience. I couldn't manage something like that."
"Is that so."
"You don't really understand what I mean, do you?"
He turned his attention to the stove, ignoring the small snort of a laugh that he got from the man.
He didn't understand such nervousness. There was no point to it, he thought. People would judge you negatively or positively regardless of your intentions, so what point was there to worry? His life was his own, and it didn't matter what other people said about it.
Other people, however, didn't seem to agree with that mindset. Nikolai certainly didn't seem to.
It was quiet, for a while. He watched as the broth boiled, letting his thoughts wander as he digested the information he'd been given.
Nikolai knew him from long ago, even if he himself didn't recognize him. He had been saved by him, just enough that he felt he owed him a favor. He had knowledge on the System and its monsters, and he was a reader.
Though he had received many answers, he still acquired just as many questions.
There was one thing he could be certain of, however.
"Nikolai."
Puppy-like eyes looked at him, blinking in question as they directed their gaze to his nose. Again, Nikolai couldn't look straight into his eyes. Again, he put his entire focus on Malic regardless, as if his words were the law and he need only listen.
"The next mission..."
If there was one thing he could trust about this man, it was that he trusted him far beyond the average friend would, and they weren't even friends.
"...it has to do with you."