Silence washed into the space as both parties continued their staring contest.
"You have no intention of reporting me to the authorities?" Elma scoffed, breaking the perfect decorum surrounding them. "So what's your plan? You want to kill me yourself? You want to kidnap me, and—?"
"How about we have a conversation?"
"A… Conversation...?"
Elma's face displayed genuine shock the moment she heard those words from him.
"Yes, a conversation." Ash sighed. "For a long time, I thought I was the only Transmigrator in this world, but knowing there are others—even if it's just one more—opens the door to a bunch of questions."
Elma's confusion slowly vanished as she crossed her legs and leaned in, her face on her palm as she stared very amusedly at Ash.
"Interesting… so you would like to have a talk with a killer, just because she's a transmigrator?"
"Well, I don't have a lot of options, do I?"
Ash smirked, leaning away while also shrugging. "Besides, it's not like you killed them, right? You made Britta do it… because you don't like getting involved in the messy bits."
"Pfft! Is that your roundabout way of trying to justify my actions?"
"How would you justify them, then?"
This question caused Elma to smile ruefully. "Who says I want to justify them?"
"...."
Ash remained quiet as he stared at her.
"Maybe I'm just a psychopathic killer who enjoys the thrill of chaos and death. Maybe I'm not even a girl, but I'm actually a man who reincarnated into this very beautiful body."
Instantly, Ash's face squeezed in disgust.
"Please tell me that isn't the case."
"Pfft! I guess you'll never know." Elma winked, even blowing him a cute kiss.
For some reason, her action—something that would be regarded as cute by unsuspecting men—suddenly felt wrong to him.
Perhaps it was because Elma was possibly a man, or maybe because she was a psychopath.
Either way, her presence was slowly becoming unsettling.
"I was hoping we could rub minds together, and—"
"You mean you're hoping you can glean as much information from me about my transmigration and knowledge of this world before you kill me." Elma interrupted him with a cruel smile.
Ash maintained an innocent expression.
"Don't play coy with me, boy!" She chuckled. "If you don't kill me, I'm going to kill you… and I'm pretty sure you already know that."
".... Did you receive any message when you came into this world? For example, changing the future and reaching its ultimate ending? Is that why you're changing the timeline and—"
"Blah! Blah! Blah!"
Elma jumped to her feet, a crazy smile slowly forming on her face as she shot Ash a very intense glare.
"Are we going to fight or what?!"
Ash sighed instantly.
'Looks like it's no use, huh? She doesn't want to cooperate, which means she probably doesn't have a lot of useful information that she can use to bargain with.'
It was that, or she was indeed a crazy person who wanted to fight and kill impassionately.
'Considering how scheming she has been, I doubt she's merely being crazy.' He eyed her suspiciously.
Elma was after something, even now.
But what?
"Now that you've figured out my identity, there's no place for me in this Academy anymore. I'd be better off just dropping out and escaping somewhere." Elma began. "That means I can show the power hidden in my second Soul… something you can't do, right?"
Ash remained quiet, looking at her intently.
"That means I have the advantage in this fight, which is why you'd rather we don't fight or stall for time until you activate whatever trap you have in mind. Well… I'm not stupid enough to fall for it."
At this point, the boy had no choice but to sigh very loudly.
'Looks like she isn't after anything but survival. She recognizes the kind of threat I pose to her, which is why her instincts are telling her to get rid of me.'
He shook his head in frustration.
"Believe it or not, I genuinely just want to talk to you. If I wanted to set you up or silence you, trust me… you'd already be dead."
"Oh? Is that a fact?"
"Yes, it is." He groaned. "I already revealed my identity to you, and I even told you how I figured out you were the killer. You already know how resourceful I am, so you should also know that I would have already thought about this very thoroughly before approaching you with this."
He wasn't a fool.
Of course, he knew she would have the advantage if her identity as the true mastermind was exposed. Not only would she have less to lose, which would allow her to use her full power, but since he had already exposed his identity as a Transmigrator, she could use such information to her advantage.
"You can be rest assured that I won't report you to the authorities, since you already know of my identity as a Transmigrator and can tell them about my multiple Souls." He added.
With the Empire's latest technology, they could detect his second Soul if they had a reason to look for it.
If they did, they would undoubtedly find his second Familiar as well.
"Once that happens, things would naturally get very bad for me." Ash confessed. "Why would I ever want that?"
"So what? You could be interested in merely killing me!"
"How?"
He was at the disadvantage even if they were to fight at the current moment, since she could use her full arsenal without as many repercussions as he could.
'I have no idea what her second Familiar is, though I doubt it is stronger than mine. Even if it isn't, if she uses its power, I will have no choice but to use the Phoenix' power, or I'll surely die.'
The problem was, even if he used the power of his second Familiar, he would be exposed and this would put him in a pit of troubles.
"Can't you see that I've made myself vulnerable on purpose? I want you to trust me."
"...." For a moment, Elma stared at him in silence.
He stood up, raising both of his hands and stretching them sideways, revealing he had no harmful intentions.
"We can also enter into Soul Contracts, to ensure I don't harm you and you don't reveal my secrets at any point."
Elma was still quiet, but it was obvious that her guard had been lowered.
This caused Ash to smile, returning to sit on the bench, while tapping on the space beside him.
"Come… sit." He nudged at her, his crimson eyes gleaming with pure intentions.
"I genuinely want to talk."