How to Raise Your Regressor

"What the hell," Voloha quietly muttered.

Hehe, that's what you get for being so predictable, Princess.

I knew that sooner or later, she would resort to peeking into my fate to confirm my claim of there being a Secret Organisation behind me.

That's why before coming here, I had masked my fate with that of a normal person's. That's why when Voloha saw my fate, all she saw was that I too am affected by the machinations of fate.

And just now, I removed that masking, reverting to my original state of standing above fate.

"Is something the problem?" I asked. "Your face is pale. Did you see a ghost or something?"

"…" She quietly looked at me. "W-what… what was that?"

"Are you talking about this?" I turned on the fate masking feature again. "It's a simple yet effective trick."

"W-who," her voice trembled, but she calmed herself down after a deep breath. "Who are you?"

"Me? I'm Samur. Who else?" I smiled.

"No, it's not possible. The Samur I knew-"

"Well, it's only natural for you to suspect that I'm an impostor. But believe me when I say this; I AM the original Samur."

Well, technically I am not. The original Samur was a traumatised 12-year-old boy. I'm the, you know, First Being, the man who brought forth existence from the void.

"Bullshit," she snarled.

Oh, feisty. I like that.

"But it's the truth."

"That's impossible," there was a certain coldness in her eyes and tone.

If the metaphorical coldness in them could affect the physical world, I would have long been frozen to death.

"For you, maybe. But there is a case, a certain possibility, where me being the original Samur is possible."

"Oh yeah? And what's that- ah," her eyes widened for the second time today.

"It's possible if we assume that I have been a part of this organisation before I met you."

"No…" her voice trembled again. "That's… that's not possible. Samur-"

"Princess," I stopped her before she could spout any bullshit. "You keep saying Samur, Samur, but what is it that you actually know about him?"

"!!" She gasped.

"I'm sure you launched an investigation on me after our first meeting, but I doubt my family was stupid enough to let anything useful slip."

That's what I'd like to assume, at least. But then again, they are the guys who thought that having black hair meant that person would bring ruin to the world.

"…"

"In other words, you know practically nothing about me, so you have no right to tell me what 'Samur' is actually like."

"…Then," she paused for a moment. "If we assume that you were a part of that organisation long before you met me… does that mean that our meeting was planned as well?"

Ah, is that what she's worried about?

Hmmm, let's tell her the truth this time, but only after manipulating some small details.

So basically let's lie to her.

Wow.

"Well, here's the neat part. There is another possibility aside from the one I mentioned."

"Which is?"

"I joined the organisation after meeting you, and we being here is just our fate."

"That's-"

"Now hold on, hold on," I stopped the over-excited wanker. "Before we go any further, I'd like to tell you about a certain skill of mine."

"A skill?" She asked confusedly, perhaps because of my sudden change in topic.

Talking about sudden, what the fuck is Azell doing?

Well, remembering had nothing to do with the term 'sudden', but still.

That letter had a single sentence: 'You know what's coming for us in the future. We need your help.'

It would have been different for a normal person, but for Azell, a Regressor, this statement should hold a tremendous weight. After all, it basically declares that the sender of this letter aka the Secret Organisation (who in reality is just me) knows that Azell is a Regressor.

Even if this doesn't make him believe that there is someone behind me, it should at least give him an incentive to believe me.

And as long as he has that incentive, it would be more than easy to water, fertilise and grow the seed of doubt that has been planted in his mind today (which just means that I would easily be able to prove the existence of this Secret Organisation to him).

…God, that was a terrible metaphor. I need to work on them.

Anyway, what's the Regressor doing? Reading a single sentence shouldn't take so long.

I looked back and found him sitting in his chair with his cheek resting on his palm. With his other hand, he was performing some cool knife tricks with the letter opener like a champ.

He seemed to be deep in thought.

Oh well, he'll come around eventually. That leaves only Voloha.

"Right, a skill," I replied. "It's a skill that I was born with. It's an incredible skill, but until now I have been unable to control it."

"What kind of skill is that?"

"The skill that allows me to jump outside fate."

"Wha!?" She almost stood up from her seat.

"I'm quite used to this reaction," I chuckled; maintaining character is essential if I want to fool this mamacita. "Using this skill, I can free myself of the strings of fate for some moments. It's incredible, right?"

"…Way too incredible," she eked out.

"Exactly. However, like I said, up until now, I was unable to control it. This skill had the tendency to activate on its own. But a certain condition had to be fulfilled before it activated. Do you know what that is?"

"No," she shook her head.

That's only natural. I would have been surprised if she knew what that condition is, but then again, it's not that difficult to deduce the answer.

All one has to do is pay close attention to the flow of the conversation till now.

"The skill activated whenever someone peeked into my fate," I smiled.

"Ahhh…" her eyes widened and she slightly nodded in understanding.

With this, all the pieces should have clicked inside her head and formed a complete picture.

I just need to push her a little in the right direction and my manipulation will be complete.

Phase 2 of my Epic Prank complete.