The following day, the moment Darian opened his eyes, he found Zrelekai in front of him, putting some tea into a cup on the table. Zrelekai was singing, and his whole body was moving slowly to the rhythm. Darian was roused by the sound of Zrelekai's voice.
"Damn, what's this…" whispered Darian as he slowly opened his eyes, still extremely confused and clearly not understanding what was currently happening.
"Oh, have I woken you up?" said Zrelekai, surprised, even though he had the face of someone clearly intending to do exactly that.
'Why do I have to wake up and see this idiot in front of me…' thought Darian, annoyed. He gave a bothered look to Zrelekai, who wore his usual happy face.
"I've made breakfast for you!" said Zrelekai happily, even though there were the same biscuits as yesterday and Zrelekai had only added a bit more tea because it wasn't finished.
'I guess it's the only thing I can eat…' Darian moved toward the biscuits and the tea, still half asleep. He was about to take a bite of one of them until Zrelekai interrupted him.
"You don't seem happy… maybe you'd prefer this instead?" Darian, hearing these words, lifted his head and looked at Zrelekai's open, empty hand. Suddenly, what popped up inside of it made Darian's heart beat extremely fast; it felt like he had just seen something that he had completely forgotten about.
Inside Zrelekai's hand was a small hamburger with lettuce and tomatoes. Even though it was small, Darian's eyes opened extremely wide. Zrelekai noticed that Darian was craving the thing more than anything and laughed.
"I'll give it to you later…" Zrelekai tossed the hamburger into his mouth and chewed it almost immediately. "But only if you'll listen to me." Zrelekai, after finishing the bite, looked Darian directly in the eyes. Darian looked at the bad biscuits on the table and sighed.
"Alright…" Zrelekai was happy to hear that, so he started to jump while clapping his hands. "Alright!! I'll wait for you outside!!" With that, Zrelekai went outside the room, leaving the door open and waiting for Darian to reach him.
'He still has the pistol with him… when will he put it away?' Darian started to eat the biscuits as he thought of a way to free himself. 'As long as he has the pistol with him, I'll never be able to fight back.'
Darian chewed another biscuit, and because it was terrible, his whole body shook. 'Maybe if I follow him, I'll be able to learn something more about this place…' Darian was sure now, he had to go with Zrelekai to understand more about his surroundings.
'I'll find out where the others are, too… I'll try to ask him.' With that, Darian, lost in his thoughts about the day ahead, finished eating and was ready to go around with Zrelekai.
"Oh, you're done?!" said Zrelekai happily as he saw Darian coming out of the room. Darian nodded.
"First, I'd like to know something…"
"Oh sure, what is it?" answered Zrelekai, waiting for Darian's question.
"Where are my friends?" asked Darian, clenching his fists in anger.
Zrelekai noticed Darian's anger and slowly put one of his hands near the pistol, ready in case Darian tried to attack him. "You don't have to worry about them. Liro, Vane, and Lily are all working for this factory. Yeah, they can't come out and they're living in a prison, but they're doing alright."
After saying these words, Zrelekai took a step forward. "We should not lose any time, let's go!" Darian, lost in his thoughts, started to follow him.
'Strange… he only mentioned Liro, Vane, and Lily… where are Catripple and Snowy?' Darian couldn't find an explanation for this. As he kept thinking, he and Zrelekai passed near some robots.
"Oh, hello, Sir Zrelekai!" The robots made a 'two' with their fingers the moment they saw Zrelekai; it felt like a sort of greeting.
"Oh, hey guys!" Zrelekai made the number 'three' with his fingers. The two robots faced each other and bumped first their fists and then their knees; Zrelekai, seeing that, laughed softly.
'Maybe he's actually doing experiments on them? Catripple is different and she has wings on her back, and about Snowy…' Darian thought about everything Zrelekai had told him about Snowy, his face became twisted in anger.
"Hey, don't you find it funny, too?" Darian had completely forgotten that he was walking with Zrelekai; in fact, he hadn't even noticed the robots next to him. The moment he looked at them, his heart started to beat faster.
These robots weren't as beautiful as the ones he was used to in his old world; in fact, you could clearly see all the wires in their bodies. But Darian was surprised to see a robot in this world, and especially noticed that these robots had rifles built into their arms.
"Guys, let's do it again, alright?" Zrelekai made the number three again with his fingers and the robots did the same thing as before. Darian had a look that was both horrified and extremely intrigued.
"Hehe, I taught them how to do this," said Zrelekai, having a lot of fun. The moment he clapped his hands, the robots returned to their original poses. "See you later, Sir Zrelekai!" The robots began walking away.
'He has programmed them?' Darian, from what Catripple had told him, knew that there were robots in Ardoris, but he had still been a bit unsure. The moment he noticed them, he couldn't believe it.
"And listen… how did you teach them to do that?" Darian wanted to play dumb, hoping that Zrelekai wouldn't understand that he clearly knew what they were and that to make robots understand something, you need to program them.
"Why would I tell you? You know it well…" Zrelekai had an amused smirk on his face. He then turned around and started to walk. Darian looked at the robots walking away behind him. 'I haven't told him about my true self yet… he shouldn't know that I come from the old world.'
"Don't get lost!" Darian was lost in his thoughts and hadn't realized that Zrelekai had already gone ahead. Hearing Zrelekai's voice, he realized he couldn't lose any time and immediately ran toward him. "Sorry!" Darian walked next to Zrelekai.
"I was just trying to understand what you meant by 'you know it well'… you see, I don't know it at all," said Darian, playing dumb.
"Why are you hiding it? You know…" Zrelekai laughed as he spoke with Darian.
"No one in this world has a telephone… so why did you have one? And especially, one that works perfectly fine…"
'Damn, he's seen it!' Darian realized that before entering the ruins of Karyuz, he had put his phone back in his backpack, and now that it was no longer with him, Zrelekai had all the time to inspect it and understand how it works.
"Oh, and don't say it's an old model that still works. There wasn't any telephone at the time that had these colors, only two apps, and only one contact named Rusty…" Now Darian understood that Zrelekai had completely discovered his past and it was useless to cover it up.
Still, Darian decided not to answer. He hoped that Zrelekai didn't understand everything. 'Or maybe it's a total bluff…' Darian immediately shook his head at this thought. Zrelekai, next to him, smiled amusedly. 'It can't be a bluff… he literally said Rusty. What am I even thinking?'
"And tell me… what is this Rusty supposed to be?" Zrelekai, seeing Darian's reaction, stopped for a moment.
"I've thought about this name. 'Rusty' means something like rusted metal? I don't think any other object can be described as rusted…"
"It's a…" Darian, not wanting to say it, clenched his fists. Zrelekai waited patiently. "We have the whole day, I can wait for you to say it."
"It's a robot… I don't know why it was there, but I found it while searching around," answered Darian, still trying to bluff.
"Mmph… and you expect me to believe something that stupid? And listen... why would it even help you?" Zrelekai was starting to get annoyed; his voice was becoming more bothered and he didn't have the same face as before.
"Well, you see… it just happened, you know? It was a sort of love at first sight…" Darian looked away, clearly not enjoying the pressure of Zrelekai next to him.
"Answer my question!" Zrelekai smashed his hand on the wall right behind Darian. Because the hand was half Krukin, it created a small crater in the wall. Zrelekai was breathing heavily, extremely angry, his eyes didn't even meet Darian's.
"It's just that I came to the base and we started to get to know each other…" While Darian was speaking, he was looking away. Suddenly, Darian heard a bang from Zrelekai, who had the pistol in his hand and had just shot the ground, the projectile remained stuck in the metal floor.
"Yes? And why was it calling you 'Master' in the texts?" Zrelekai tried to calm himself down, but it was impossible. In pure anger, he pointed the pistol directly at Darian's head and got closer.
"Answer me or your head will explode." Zrelekai was directly next to Darian; the pistol was literally touching his head and Darian had started to sweat. 'I can't lie anymore, can I…?' Darian tried to look away, but Zrelekai's pressure made him terrified.
"I don't want to kill you… just answer and we will be done with this, so we can go around the laboratory." Zrelekai breathed heavily, trying to calm himself down.
'I don't have any other choice to save myself, do I?' Darian looked around, hoping that someone would arrive to help him, but it was impossible; no one was coming to help him. The halls were empty.
"You're right… I actually come from the old world." Darian said it with a serious expression while looking Zrelekai directly in the eyes; his heart beat faster as he saw the pistol on his forehead.
"And don't you have something else to say?" Zrelekai, who was less angry now, still pointed his pistol at Darian's head.
Darian didn't know what to reply; in fact, he didn't even understand what Zrelekai was talking about.
"I've read about Snowy in your diary… about the true nature of that creature. But I still want to hear it from you."
Hearing these words, Darian finally understood what he was talking about. 'I lied about Snowy's true nature, too…'
"Yeah, that creature isn't from Earth. In fact, I found it on another planet, the one I was sent to before the start of the great catastrophe." Hearing these words, Zrelekai remained surprised; he slowly removed the pistol from Darian's forehead and held it in his hands.
"Another planet? I don't know anything about this." Suddenly, the smile was finally returning to Zrelekai's face. Darian understood that he had finally been able to calm Zrelekai down, but as he looked at the pistol and the bullet on the ground, he realized that lying was no longer an option.
"Do I have to explain how black holes work?" asked Darian. Zrelekai shook his head extremely fast, as his whole body had started to shake in excitement.
"I've understood how they work. It's simple: the closer you are to them, the slower time will pass for you… wait…" Zrelekai felt like he finally understood how Darian was able to be over 500 years old.
"This planet… called XERBAB-7, was near a black hole, and because of it, I was able to return after all this time."
"Yes, yes… everything makes sense now…" Suddenly, Zrelekai created two small metal pillars and left them on the ground, then created a sufficiently large and resistant slab and positioned it on top of the pillars, creating a sort of bench.
"You'll tell me everything about this topic…" Zrelekai slowly tilted his head as a creepy smile appeared on his face. The gun was slowly getting closer to Zrelekai's mouth, right before it was about to enter, he spoke again. "Right?"
Darian, looking at that, could only accept. He sat down on the bench just created and nodded his head.