He heard her thoughts.

(Did he really think I wouldn’t notice? I’m an actress, and an exquisite one at that. I perceive faces better than other people, that’s why I can make up a Theater of the Mind for them so well.)

Ronin scoffed. ‘Well, the one you gave me wasn’t that good. Did not affect me at all.’

She could not hear his thoughts, but her own personal thoughts coincidently answered his taunts.

(I hope he’ll enjoy my next one then. I won’t let him break immersion so fast this time.)

This made him steel himself, and prepare for the worst that Calla Lily can throw at him. After all, with the right use and the right scene, her powers would have been unstoppable and have great potential to rue the world itself.

She can fool someone into killing their own parents, for example. She can make a king kill himself even, start a war, and bring both peace and chaos. The possibilities were endless.

In fact, he envied her a little for having this skill. He must have been able to do these illusions too at Level 100, maybe have even more power than that.

If not for Cermin starting at Level 1, tsk.

While he was meandering about this, his two girl partners had introduced the topic already. They have divided their parts equally, and have laid out how to go from discussing the cultural influences of performers like Calla can have, up to Calla using her skill in the class—

But she interrupted right after Edelweiss introduced her and what she can do, and said in a loud voice._.

“Listen well, all of you! First of all, may I know who has hearing deficiencies in this classroom? None? Fantabulous!”

She was much more assured in her speaking compared to the other two girls. Her movements were large, easily gaining attention from people.

“Now, before I begin, I would like you to think about these words for a moment.”

“What is it that drives a human to keep living?”

Everyone was a little baffled by this question, not expecting something so philosophical to come up from an entertainer.

“I know, I know.” Calla chuckled. “It was quite the question, isn’t it? But it was worth gaining answers to….”

She went over to sit at a male student’s table, that almost fainted with a goddess like her sitting so close and giving him a good view of her assets.

“Don’t you think? What’s your answer to that, pretty boy?”

The student gulped. “Uh… Purpose to the world?”

“Purpose to the world… Hmm, that’s a tad too vague for me. What is a person’s purpose to the world then?”

She moved on to the next chair, sitting with her legs crossed and raising her short skirt.

The man tried hard to impress her by saying. “To serve others with the duty of the path we had taken for ourselves, whatever that may be.”

“Duty to others. Not bad. But what about people who are not so altruistic?” She just abandoned the boy and moved to the next. “There are people out there that couldn’t care any less about others.”

She turned to her partners, who looked so confused why she was suddenly going off-script. But she seemed to be looking at Ronin specifically when she said.

“There are some people who do not see the goodness in being good. Who believes being kind is a weakness, or something foolish, at the very least. Why do they keep living, if not for the duty of serving others?”

“Depravity, then!” One raised his hand. “Greed, the pleasures of worldly matters like food and sexual gratification!”

“That is a good point.” She praised the boy. “That may be their reason for living too, but that’s not enough. That was for the selfish and materialistic type of people. I am looking for an answer that could apply to everyone.”

“Something that both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ people keep living for. Something for both the simple-minded and the intelligent. The naive and wise.”

“Desire.”

Everyone turned to the voice.

It was one of the presenters that answered that. It was no other than Ronin himself.

“Everyone has desires, no matter what that may be. The ‘good’ desires for the well-being of the world, while the ‘bad’ desires for its destruction.” He explained.

Calla Lilly clapped her hands together, and ushered everyone to do the same. “There you go! Our very knowledgeable Ronin Willowe answered the question for us.”

She gave a bright, red-lipped smile.

“Indeed, the word I’m looking for is desire.”

As she said this, the world had changed.

Ronin was in a field, away from the suffocating classroom with many people. In front of him was a boy picking flowers in a field.

It was a young Cermin Drychspiel, even younger than when they first met.

He must only be 3 years old here. And yet he was pulling out different flowers, all alone.

Daffodils, dahlias, bluebells….. He just picked them all, and stepped on the weeds with his tiny feet.

Then, he encountered a mushroom.

It was by Ronin’s feet.

He seemed to be interested in the mushroom, with those bright blue eyes gleaming at it just the same way as it gleamed at the flowers. But he did not pick it up.

He instead just observes it, sitting beside it.

“Can you even see me, little brat?”

Ronin was well-aware that this was just another Theater of the Mind by Calla. But since he was interested in her presentation earlier, and the questions she raised, he just entertained this theater as if it was real for a while.

He wanted to see where this one goes. She knows now what he desires to see.

Not Duchess Akasa or any characters in this story at all. None of them matters.

Only this little child in front of him.

He squatted down beside Cermin. Then, the mushroom suddenly changed.

It turned into a dagger. A ceremonial type of dagger, with a dark hilt and a dark blade.

The toddler Cermin now looked at this dagger, and saw that it slowly raised in the air.

Ronin took it. The child could not see him. He would have no way of knowing he had been stabbed, and once he realized it, he can no longer run or escape.

The child stared at him with those blue eyes full of innocence as he held the dagger.

He raised it, aiming for the tiny heart, and…

“Presentation over! Thank you for listening, wonderful, wonderful people!”

He soon realized that everyone had broken apart from the immersion of the Theater of the Mind, and there was only him still affected by it and staring blankly into space.

Edelweiss noticed this and nudged his shoulder. “Are you alright, Ronin?”

He did not answer.

He just looked at Calla wearing a triumphant smile while she was starting to wear her vest and glasses, reverting back to Lily.

He lost, but still smirked. ‘You got me this time, you cunning witch.’

He took notes on how she did this successful presentation for the one that he and Professor Vyrill would have just a week from now.

But….. he disregarded the small theater scene completely. He only praised Calla’s skill in his head, but did not pay attention to what it could have meant and why he was shown that at all.

Perhaps it was because the scene did not receive a proper ending. It leaves him hanging, just like all good presentations should.