Alwyn woke up, blinded by darkness.
An eerie silence enshrouded the carriage. The forest made no sound. No wild animals, no Revenants, just the perpetual flow of the wind.
In that numbed state, the only thing he could perceive was the cold metal edge pressed on his neck. By the feeling of it, it was the blade of a weapon. A sharp one.
When the assailant noticed that he was awake, the pressure on his neck progressively increased.
Alwyn remained still, trying to adjust his eyesight, while cold sweat formed on his back. He didn't know who the assailant was, but there were not many options he could think of. Just one actually.
'I trusted you... Eline.'
He did not move nor speak, fearing that she would consider those actions as a reason to cut his neck. So he waited, until a masked silhouette with feminine traits gradually appeared before him.
And when he could finally distinguish every detail in the dagger to his neck, the girl spoke.
"I ask, you answer. First, are you lucid?"
Alwyn could only comply.
"Yes."
"...Good. Second, who are you?"
"Lynn Goldheart."
"Is someone controlling your body?"
Alwyn found himself conflicted.
Her suspicions were reasonable, Lynn was supposed to be dead. And now a person from another world was inhabiting his corpse.
'Should I tell the truth? Can she tell if I'm lying?'
The Church was in possession of a couple artifacts that could do exactly that, but he doubted that they had given something so useful and precious to her. She had only recently become a Reaper and she was the lowest rank among the ones that took part in this expedition.
"...No."
"Why did you hesitate?"
"I didn't, I was just trying to understand what you wanted from me."
"You don't have to understand, just answer the questions. What happened after your death?"
"I… woke up. And discovered that I was still alive, somehow."
"Elaborate."
"What else am I supposed to say?"
Suddenly, Eline put even more pressure on the blade and a first drop of blood rolled down his neck.
"Okay, okay! I'll tell you everything I know! When I opened my eyes it was already evening. I saw that my wounds were healing, so I dug a shelter for the night. The next day I started my journey to the Whispering Woods and here I am now."
"Wounds… healing?"
Without a warning, Eline lifted his shirt up and started inspecting his chest, touching over the heart.
"Hey! What are you-"
"I-It's gone…"
At that moment, her tone changed. Confusion became fear and then turned into hostility.
"What the hell are you?! I've reaped your soul with my very hands! I stabbed your unmoving heart, you should be dead!"
Sensing that she was about to harm him, Alwyn instantly grabbed her arm and pushed it with all his strength, hoping to catch her unprepared.
He succeeded, and there was now enough space between the bed and the blade of the dagger so that he could slip his head through the gap.
After freeing himself, he immediately got on his feet and charged Eline, crashing into the shelves on the wall.
A shelf broke and collapsed, potatoes rolled across the floor and tableware produced loud metallic noises when hitting the ground.
But after slamming into the wall, Eline was already preparing a counterattack.
She lunged forward, her hand firmly gripping the dagger, aiming for the heart of the enemy.
The attack landed, but the sound was not that of flesh being pierced.
Scrape.
A small metal object in his breast pocket had diverted the attack, and the blade could only make a shallow cut on his side.
The compass had saved his life.
Alwyn took a step forward, grabbed her arm and used the legs to hold her in a cross arm lock.
The two fell on the ground and the fight momentarily stopped. Eline wrestled to free herself from the lock, but Alwyn seized the opportunity to talk to her.
He was short and concise, as she would overpower him shortly after.
"I don't want to fight you!"
After hearing that, she stopped trying to subjugate him but still continued to resist, just in case he was baiting her. It was her way to tell him to elaborate his statement.
She was giving him a chance.
"I can assure you I mean no harm and I'm not your enemy. I am just as confused as you are, so please let's put an end to this waste of energy."
Eline remained silent for a while, probably pondering her next moves, until she eventually stopped resisting altogether.
"...I apologize. I lost my temper."
Alwyn clenched his fist in frustration.
'Of course you did, you tried to kill me!'
But he could not alter her mood further, so he kept the complaint for himself and released her from the lock.
Eline got up and adjusted her clothes.
"So you are not a puppet of the siren?"
Alwyn was caught off guard.
"...The siren?"
"Yes. There's a siren in this area of the forest."
"W-Wha- And you are telling me only now?! Why didn't you warn everyone while we were traveling?!"
"I'm not even sure whether it really is a siren, but since I'm the only Reaper left it's highly possible."
Alwyn was furious.
'So you tried to kill me with nothing but a theory?!'
But of course he could not say that out loud.
"Now that you mention it, sirens can only hypnotize human males. Did your teammates, by any chance, disappear during the night?"
"Yes. That's why I waited for you to fall asleep."
What she did was a smart move.
If Alwyn was still a human, he would have turned into a mindless puppet and Eline could have followed him to the siren's nest, saving the other Reapers. And if he was not a human anymore, nothing would have happened and he would have preserved his lucidity.
So she had assumed he was some new type of sentient Revenant, and the regenerative ability he had shown only increased that suspicion.
It all clicked together.
"Wait, now I remember. In the last two nights I had some strange nightmares. You are telling me that was the siren trying to hypnotize me?!"
How did Alwyn survive such powerful mind attacks?
Perhaps he had retained some of the high stats from his previous life, such as Mental Resistance.
Eline replied.
"There's no doubt then. We need to find its nest as soon as possible."
The more they waited, the lower the chances of saving the four Reapers were.
And for Alwyn to exact his revenge.
"We?"
Alwyn asked her in a dubious voice.
In response, Eline stretched her hand towards him.
"Partners?"
Alwyn replicated the action.
"Partners."
The two shook hands.
"But this time I would highly appreciate it if you didn't try to kill me."
"It won't happen again. I swear."