"How can the Empire's emperor know these things? Who are you really? What's your background?" I felt uneasy. Though Reider didn't look special, I knew he must be hiding his power as a System user. I spread my blue wings and summoned Water Abyss Sword, asking nervously.
"Isn't that the legendary..." Reider looked shocked at my weapon. After a while, he said in disbelief, "So you must be Feliciana? I didn't expect you to have this power so early. The world has changed more than I thought. Maybe I don't need to worry anymore..."
"Changed?" I kind of understood his words, but also didn't. I pointed Water Abyss Sword at him and asked loudly, "What do you mean? Why do you seem to know us so well?"
I felt goosebumps all over. This guy's reaction was beyond my understanding.
"Now's not the time to talk about my background. I don't understand many things too. Luckily these changes haven't affected the most important part, but it's hard to explain everything now. But..." Reider thought for a bit, not answering my question directly. Then he suddenly reminded us:
"If I remember right, the Cycle of Rebirth will still come on time. It's almost here! You probably have more urgent things to do. As for Midas, it doesn't matter now. You can play with it if you like. Consider it my welcome gift. I'll send someone to get it back when you're done..."
"Then we'll be going now!"
Surprisingly, he didn't want to argue with me. After saying this, he turned and flew back to the base. Adrian and I were left standing there, looking at each other in confusion.
"Does the Ilandra Dominion Empire's emperor have some special connection with your angel clan?" Adrian could only guess, as the other's attitude had changed completely, beyond our understanding.
"Well... I'm not sure, but probably... not?" I answered uncertainly. If there was a connection, the Empire wouldn't be secretly working with monsters all the time! Plus, Reider only mentioned us four travelers. From what he said, maybe we should ask what special connection he has with us...
But I don't know him at all!
Thinking about this made me feel crazy. Why did Reider let us go on purpose? And he deliberately kept us guessing at the end. It's really frustrating!
"Did he really just let us go like that?" As soon as we got back to the cockpit, Cyra asked eagerly, "And why does Reider know so much about our situation?"
But I couldn't answer any of these questions! Probably because the emperor himself allowed it, the imperial airships chasing us all turned back soon after Reider left. So he really kept his promise to us! I don't know what he's thinking...
"From how he talked to you, I felt something was off. Even though Reider is an emperor, he didn't seem to feel like he belonged to the empire. It's like he's not from this country at all!" Reed finally spoke. Even though she's smart, she couldn't understand this strange encounter. But she noticed something unusual.
"Belong? Not from this country? But he's the empire's emperor!" Cyra was surprised, but quickly thought of some related ideas. She asked excitedly, "Do you think Reider might not be from this world, since he admitted he has a System? Traveling between worlds and Systems are a perfect match!"
"Not from this world? Traveling and Systems? Perfect match?" Adrian frowned. He was clearly having trouble understanding these new concepts. But Mia, who knew about our special background, thought and said:
"But that doesn't match what I know about the emperor's background. Reider was a human noble with a complete family history and social life. He was very respected in his hometown before he took power. He lost his father young and inherited the family title at 10. All this information can be checked. It doesn't seem like what you're saying!"
"Maybe all this childhood history is fake! Or he could be using someone else's identity. Maybe the real Reider died long ago, and someone took over his body!" I guessed unkindly. After becoming emperor, he could change any history and "improve" his past easily.
"But even when he was just a noble, wouldn't there be some traces if the history was changed?" Reed didn't seem to agree. She shook her head and asked Mia, "Is there anything like that? Any rumors about the emperor's past not matching the official story?"
"No... Come to think of it, there's nothing suspicious about Reider's past. All his public activities are recorded in detail from age 10. There were never any doubts about fakery in his territory. And I've never heard rumors about his personality changing suddenly..." Mia thought for a while and shook her head. But at the end, she looked confused. "Strange, I've never seen any other noble with such a clear and complete history as Reider. It feels like all the records about him are too perfect, too deliberate! Maybe I'm imagining things? I might be overthinking..."
But these words sounded different to others. Adrian and Reed didn't have many thoughts at first. But Cyra was different. She quickly reminded me with a surprised face:
"Feliciana, could this situation be because of the System..."
"Uh... No way, right? It can't be that extreme. Remember, those are just stories!" I knew she meant how in some stories, Systems can change people's memories and give the user a specific identity to help them fit in. But I couldn't believe I'd really run into such an incredible situation... If that's true, how could we ever face Reider again? We might as well surrender!
"Using made-up stories to guess about real problems is too far-fetched. Why don't we just think it's related to time? I believe Reider really hadn't met you before, but could it be 'in the future'?" Adrian thought and suggested a new idea, since Reider's background was too strange for even Reed to explain.
"...Oh yeah, that makes sense too!" I slapped my palm, wondering why I didn't think of it first. I guess I was too focused on the System idea!
No matter what, I'm used to time being messed up because of Nicola, the Wind Angel troublemaker. Time travel explains most of the questions about Reider better than System tricks!
If he really traveled from the future to the past, of course he could know we'd be at the base today! If his time travel was because of Nicola and not a System ability, that explains even better why he mentioned our four names!
Too bad we can't check this. There's no point discussing it more now. Plus, we really do have more urgent things to do...
"We're almost there. Those white dots I saw earlier were them. I didn't expect them to be so fast!" A few minutes later, we finally reached our destination. The "them" Cyra mentioned were the Angel Fifth Legion that Elara sent to help us!
The Angel Fifth Legion, led by Sheryl, was supposed to arrive later. But they clearly came early and were now fighting the monsters hiding in the forest.
The focus of the battle was mostly in the sky above the forest. Usually, angels can dominate in the air, but the monsters that snuck into the empire could fly too. So both sides were in a fierce close combat, fighting like crazy.
"But isn't this number too small? Did the Fifth Legion not all come for this mission?" Mia walked out of the cockpit and looked up at the sky, suddenly noticing something wrong. It was hard to see the monsters' exact positions in the dark night sky with naked eyes, but the angels covered in light elements were easy to spot.