"Heretic? What do you mean by that, Her Ladyship the Saintess?"
Greg's heart pounded wildly. Could his identity have been exposed already?
Meanwhile, Nightmare was exploding with agitation inside his mind, shouting, "Get ready to fight! Get ready to fight!"
Veronica slowly opened her eyes, which had been closed until now.
They were beautiful eyes like stars—clear and bright, as though harboring infinite light.
But when Greg met her gaze, he felt an invisible pressure.
"Playing dumb is useless."
Veronica's voice remained soft, yet her tone held an unquestionable certainty:
"Because right now, I am entirely certain that you are no ordinary student."
Greg forced himself to calm down, maintaining a confused and innocent expression on the surface:
"Her Ladyship the Saintess, I truly do not understand what you mean. I am merely a second-year student from Glory Cael Magic Academy. I took the preliminary defense, submitted my answer sheet, and was then summoned here by you. If you believe there is an issue with my answers, please enlighten me."
Veronica quietly observed him for a moment before speaking slowly:
"There is nothing wrong with your answer sheet itself... If anything, it is unnaturally exceptional. But it is precisely this exceptional performance that exposed you."
She stood up and walked slowly to the window, turning her back to Greg as she continued:
"The optimization plan regarding mana conduction loss you proposed in the preliminary defense touches upon various ancient secret knowledge that was lost long ago."
"And in today's surface world, only high-ranking members of the Holy Church of Light are permitted access to such knowledge. There is no way an ordinary second-year student at a magic academy could come into contact with it."
She turned around, her eyes locking onto Greg once more, her starry gaze filled with the calmness of a predator inspecting its prey:
"Therefore, the only explanation is—you do not hail from the surface. You came out of the dungeon."
"!?"
Greg froze.
Only now did he realize that being summoned here was actually a huge misunderstanding, all because the knowledge summaries compiled by the community veterans were far too hardcore!
Those answers, countlessly tested and optimized, contained massive amounts of secret knowledge known only to the high-ranking members of the religious order in this world.
And because he had copied all that information wholesale without changing a thing, he had ended up getting targeted.
He hadn't expected such an information gap at all.
But at the same time, he caught an important piece of information from Veronica's words—people actually lived inside the dungeons?
This was never explicitly mentioned in his memories of the original game. He had assumed the ancient dungeon civilizations were long dead, but it seemed things were far more complicated than he had thought.
"Talk about an unexpected mix-up..."
This unexpected realization shocked Greg, but it also allowed him to breathe a slight sigh of relief.
Because at least for now, he could be certain that Veronica didn't know he was a believer of Nightmare, the Goddess of Night... Or rather, fortunately, she didn't know he was half a god of night himself.
Otherwise, there certainly wouldn't be any talking scene like this right now; it would have immediately jumped straight to a battle encounter.
However, Greg's thoughts quickly picked up on something off.
In the original game, he had also used Victoria to submit this exact set of answers.
But back then, aside from earning an exceptionally stellar grade, she hadn't been summoned individually by Veronica over this knowledge like he was.
So what was the difference between his current self and Victoria back then?
"Besides gender, there seems to be... identity."
Unlike him, certain high-ranking officials in the Holy Church of Light knew Victoria's status as the Hero, knowing she carried the will of the world as the Chosen One.
Therefore, her possessing such knowledge didn't seem strange to them—after all, she was the Hero, blessed by the world, so knowing a few secret truths was only natural.
Meanwhile, in the eyes of the Holy Church of Light and Veronica, he was currently just an ordinary student.
An ordinary student possessing ancient knowledge known only to high-ranking order officials would naturally appear extremely suspicious.
Once he sorted out this line of reasoning, an idea immediately flashed through Greg's mind:
If I can give myself an identity where knowing this information isn't strange either, wouldn't the problem be solved directly?
"Speak. Why have you only now left the dungeon to come to the surface after all this time?"
Veronica's voice interrupted his thoughts.
A faint light-attribute magic lit up in her hand; the glow was soft, yet carried an underlying threat. "What is your true purpose?"
Greg took a deep breath, raised his head, and spoke in a sincere and solemn tone:
"Her Ladyship the Saintess, I believe you have truly misunderstood. I do not come from the dungeon. The reason I possess that knowledge is that I am a Heroic Spirit! A Heroic Spirit who once followed Lady Serafina in ancient times and fought by her side!"
Greg paused, then continued:
"Perhaps because this world is about to fall into crisis once more, my soul only recently awakened. That knowledge consists of fragments remaining from my past life's memories, not something from the dungeon."
This explanation did not sound out of place in this world.
For the concept of 'Holy Spirit' existed in this world.
So-called Holy Spirits referred to a tiny fraction of individuals who possessed noble souls in life, were chosen by the gods, and were granted the chance to return to the mortal realm under specific conditions after death.
A Holy Spirit's soul was pure and noble, and their memories would be partially retained through reincarnation, making it entirely reasonable for them to know lost ancient knowledge.
Veronica listened quietly to his explanation before saying slowly, "It seems you have run out of decent excuses."
Her voice remained calm, but within that calmness lurked an even more dangerous undertone:
"I know you are merely quibbling right now. Reincarnated Heroic Spirits do exist, but you have no proof whatsoever to substantiate your identity. If a mere word of mouth were enough to prove it, the Inquisition would not have brought so many heretics to trial in the past!"
Sweat began to coat Greg's palms, but he had known all along that smooth talking alone would likely fail to convince this woman.
It was time for him to bring out the trump card he had spent a fortune to acquire.
Greg took a deep breath, looked straight into Veronica's eyes, and spoke in a steady and firm voice:
"If Her Ladyship truly refuses to believe me, you may invite Headmistress Olivia of Glory Cael Magic Academy here right now to testify on my behalf in person."
Rate on N.U.
