Jest leaned back in his chair. "Everything you described to me about your Chain Trial was very dull. From my experience, I've come to the conclusion that your trial had been messed with, which is normally impossible, unless the person or being is extremely powerful, at the level of a deity."
"What I mean by this, what you went through in your trial strongly deviated from the true history, obviously this is expected to a degree because you were implanted there, but not this much. Here are some speculations that I think are very probable. 1. Rykel never was supposed to be suspected until he was at least deep inside the Bright Castle, however this did not happen due to his nose bleed, which was then noticed by that knight. This likely occurred because he had to fight somewhat during the journey through the forest, which put some strain on his body, which ultimately happened because you, the Drifter, was suddenly incompetent. This seems like a logical conclusion, but trust me it's not." Jest took a sip of some black tea, then ate a couple of sweats before continuing.
"2. Both Agar and Rykel were at a decently high level based on your descriptions. That means that both of them are capable of rational thought, scheming, manipulation, etc. The higher the grade one goes, the more your memory, mental fortitude and thinking ability is enhanced. No one at a high grade is an idiot, no one. Rykel, even though he was already suspected, never would've revealed himself like that, not until he made it to his true destination, which I'm thinking is somewhere deep in the Bright Castle." Jest opened a bag of potato chips this time, and began snacking on them.
"3. Even with the previous 2 alterations, I actually think that your Chain Trial was forcefully cut short. I believe that you should've been incinerated by Agar's flames and actually died then, but your trial ended shortly before your death. Let's say that instead, you decided to follow the other mundane people into the keep. Based on the powers that those two had displayed, Rykel should've won, then you and the other mundane people would've had to confront him. Luckily he most likely would be on death's door after his battle with Agar. From that point on, it's too much speculation so I'm not going to go on further from this point." Jest finished eating his chips, finished drinking his tea, then sat forward with a serious expression on his face.
"4. This is the most blatant alteration. You didn't know what your gift was and how to use it. That isn't normal at all. Everyone's gift is natural to them, shortly after attaining a gift, you will automatically grasp and absorb the basic knowledge of it. So, you should've known from the moment you started your Chain Trial what your powers were and how to use them, meaning that the knowledge was blocked for whatever reason. Rykel was the one to eventually break it, and it definitely wasn't too strong of an interference if he was able to do it. That's most likely because interfering with that knowledge, within your Chain Trial itself is a near impossible feat. A lot of what transpired in your trial would've been avoided or changed had this knowledge not been barred from you." Jest relaxed a little bit.
"In conclusion, you have a very powerful being with their eyes on you, maybe multiple but it's safe to say at least one for now. I'm not sure what their intentions are, and if there are multiple, if they have conflicting interests of what they want to do with your future. Pretty much, this is confirmation that this being, or beings, have very high expectations of what you'll do and become in the future. Whether what you would eventually do furthers their interests, or interferes with them, to directly mess with your Chain Trial is enough proof."
'Fantastic! This sucks!' Solstice took a sip of his tea. "Can I stay here under the protection of the government for an extended period of time?"
"You know, I thought you would've reacted a lot differently to the information I just gave you. At least freak out a little more! You're way too relaxed! Anyway, I think you should just join the government. Descendants of the Solstice God like yourself are pretty much extinct, so you can't really seek their protection. Speaking of the Solstice God, we should give you a new name, your real name is too troublesome." Jest suggested.
Solstice contemplated his options for a few seconds, with furrowed eyebrows. "What about joining the church of the Hearth Goddess, weren't those two gods very close in relationship?"
"The Solstice God and Hearth Goddess were indeed close so it's not a bad choice, but those two rarely have shown any activity nowadays so I wouldn't rely on them responding when you pray to them. You can't be sure that some Hearth Goddess followers are completely loyal or secretly corrupt either. Also, I don't think you're the devout type, are you? Listen, I'm genuinely not trying to recruit you into the government simply because, well, it's one of my responsibilities to recruit more people. No, I'm saying it's your safest option, until you become strong and can take care of yourself." Jest took a napkin and wiped his face clean after finishing off another fruit-filled pastry.
"I understand what you're telling me, but what if the government's corrupt? At this moment, I'd rather take some time to figure out if I should pledge allegiance, or if I should go alone. I'm more inclined to the latter, even though going alone it's much more dangerous without anyone backing me. I apologize if I got your hopes up that I'll join, I greatly appreciate the help you've given me." Solstice got up from his seat, and walked to the door. He reached for the door handle before he realized his mistake. He had no clue how to exit E-027, The Flying Nautilus.
Upon remembering this, he also remembered they were currently somewhere in the Southern Continent, a completely unknown continent to him. Silence befell the room as Solstice began calling himself an idiot inwardly.
Jest tsked. "Here's an offer and you can take it or leave it. I personally will be staying in facility E-027 for the next few months for reasons I can't disclose, but I can assure you I will look over you so long as we're both here. BCT is usually around 12 weeks depending on your performance, stay in E-027 and complete your BCT as well as learning how things are run around here. Once you're done you can finally decide if you would like to join the government or go off on your own. I'll give you at most 48 hours to think about it." Jest stood up and opened the door for the 2 of them to leave.
"You can stay in the sleeping quarters, to be honest, the staff here barely use them so it's all yours." He pointed to a room that was labeled sleeping quarters, furthest right, down the hall, on the opposite side.
"Jest, that offer is….huh?" Solstice turned towards Jest to ask him a question only to see that Jest was no longer next to him.
'I guess he had enough of talking to me' He walked to the room that Jest had pointed out to, opened the door, and found a shoddy bed to sit on.
It was a very large room that was surprisingly clean for not being used much. There were a total of 16 beds, which were 8 sets of bunk beds separated by 4 on each side. Next to each bunk bed were bedside tables with small lamps atop, each with some random junk in the drawers. Pens, blank paper, paper with scribbles, tissues, old snack wrappers, etc.
There was only one ceiling fan, which was powered on and off by a couple of switches near the front door, one powered the ceiling fan's light and the other one powered the spinning of the blades. A door to the bathroom was directly to the left of the main door, it was relatively spacious as well. 1 sink, 1 toilet, 1 mirror, a medicine cabinet, a bath tub and a separate walk-in shower.
"No wonder nobody uses the sleeping quarters, the beds are crap, and there's only one bathroom. I can't imagine 16 people fighting over using it." Solstice sighed, unsure of how to spend the next 48 hours. He decided to dedicate the next half hour to various stretches and calisthenic exercises, only to remind himself of how he was barely passable as being fit.
Naturally, now that he himself was a grade 0 prosaic, he already gained a large boost to his physical attributes. This essentially allowed him to skip about a few months worth of a good diet and a consistent, strong work out regimen. Additionally, it raised his physical limit to that of a weak superhuman, meaning that when he reached his peak physicality as a grade 0, he would be able to do something like punching right through a solid concrete wall.
Theoretically, for a grade 0, this level of strength could also be surpassed so long as the gift was a type that enhanced the traverser's physicality.
Solstice wiped the sweat off of his forehead, grabbing a cold bottle of water out of a mini fridge that was situated in the top left corner of the room. After working out, he found himself bored again. He decided to rummage through each of the drawers as he was intrigued by what some of the staff kept or wrote down.
'Nothing of note. There's very little stuff here that's interesting.' Solstice sighed once more, he grabbed a couple sheets of blank paper, a pen, and began to mindlessly scribble to pass the time.
To him, Jest's offer was very tempting, but there had to be a catch to it. Jest wouldn't invest so much time and care into him completely for free. Solstice didn't want to tie himself down to any organization or church just yet, not until he figured which direction he wanted to go in his new life as a traverser.
'I wonder how I got to them, I guess they made more of an impression on me than I thought?' After about 5 minutes passed, Solstice looked down on the piece of paper he had been scribbling on. He had managed to make a full-length portrait of the twins he met today, albeit a poorly drawn portrait of the two as he hadn't really been focused on drawing them.
He placed both the pen and portrait down onto the bedside table, he leaned forward clasping his hands. At that moment, as he was still within range of the door to the room he was in, he sensed a couple of bodies standing just outside of the door, before leaving shortly after.
'Huh…they didn't enter.' Solstice decided to shut his eyes, to focus practicing his precision with his sensory ability once more. A headache started creeping up, his ability was still fresh to him, it would take around a couple more weeks before he fully got accustomed to it enough to not gain headaches.
The two bodies who left his range moments ago rentered, standing outside the door to the room. Solstice opened his eyes and watched as they entered, it was the twins who he had met before. They took a couple steps into the room, their eyes simultaneously landing on Solstice's poorly made portrait of them on the bedside table.
'Shit! They're going to think I'm weird!' The corners of Solstice's mouth twitched, pulling his lips up into a slight awkward smile. He flipped the paper over, his fingers on his left hand started rubbing against each other, this was a habit of Solstice whenever he felt nervous or uncomfortable.
"So….Jest sent you guys to stay in here also?"