The Academy's Strongest Undercover Professor

I didn’t react when I heard him mention Zero’s name. After all, I had somewhat expected it from what I knew about my short encounter with him. There was a good chance that the connection was Zero.

However, I was still curious about something else. What was the relationship between Zero and Lurok. I remembered Lurok being quite scared of Zero during the whole duration of the auction as if he had something over him. Maybe that was why he was scared, the other option was simply the fact that Zero was a lot more powerful than Lurok.

Nevertheless, hearing about Zero gave me the idea to ask my last question about him. I needed to learn more about him.

’How could you have forgotten about their relationship?’ I thought in the back of my mind as I shook my head out of annoyance because of how stupid I was.

"Tell me about how you met Zero and your relationship with him then."

Lurok frowned even more. "Why do you want to know? Why are you so interested in him?"

I smirked again. "What did I say earlier?"

He sighed. "You ask the questions, blablabla. Whatever. It’s gonna be my turn soon enough."

"Alright, I’ll answer your question. It’s not like it’s anything crazy," Lurok muttered. "I met Zero years ago, even before the war against the demons even began. He was unlike anyone I had ever seen in my life. He had so much talent, and he was so knowledgeable for someone his age."

I stopped him right there. "Wait, do you know about his real identity?"

He shook his head. "No, I never saw his face. He never removes his mask, even when he was younger. He never removed it for some reason. I never thought much of it, though. Still, let me continue."

I nodded, letting him speak his mind, gathering all the information that I could about him.

"I don’t know what happened, but right as the war was about to start. Zero changed completely. He was no longer happy about anything; he was frustrated, and to be honest, I still ignored the reason. All I know is that the war against the demons changed him."

"He took part in the war?" I asked.

"That wasn’t part of your question, sorry."

This time, it was Lurok who smiled as he stared at me as if saying, "Got him."

"You still didn’t answer where you him though?"

"Right…I met him here, in Atlantis."

"Here? Was Zero born here? How old even was he when you met him for the first time?"

Lurok shrugged. "I don’t know if he was born here, but he was probably 15 years old when I first saw him. However, he didn’t live here. I think he was mainly passing by. At least, that’s what I figured at the time."

I nodded.

All the information I could gather about Zero was useful, and I made sure to keep all of it in the back of my mind as a single word could become extremely useful in the future.

"Now!" Lurok exclaimed as he clapped his hands. "I think that answers all your questions, right?"

"It does," I said with a stiff nod, knowing what was coming.

"Do you want to continue this conversation?" He asked me with a smirk that made me uneasy.

"Depends," I said. "What do you want to know, and how do you want to proceed?"

"We’ll ask each other a question one after the other until we’re satisfied. We can ask about anything, there’s no limit."

I paused for a moment. "You can ask about anything you want?"

He nodded.

"Then, no. I can’t do this. I’m sorry."

Lurok frowned, not expecting something like this to happen. He was almost sure that I would have taken the bait from the looks of it. However, I didn’t want Lurok to ask me questions and know more about me, he couldn’t learn about my past. It was too risky, and he could discover too many things about me, which was the last thing that I wanted.

After all, he could go to Zero with that information about me. That was the last thing that I wanted to happen. It would just make things a lot worse as a result. There was no doubt about that part.

"Wait! Wait! What’s the problem?" Lurok said, almost sounding desperate.

"You can’t ask about my past or how I obtained my strength, and if I deem the question to be too personal, I have the right to refuse to answer it. If you agree to those conditions, I’ll agree to continue this conversation."

Lurok frowned. "One question. Let me ask one question about your past and how you became strong, deal?"

I thought about it for a moment, thinking if it was worth it to take such a risk. However, even if I accepted, I could potentially refuse to answer, and Lurok wouldn’t be able to do anything. So, after a few seconds of thought, I nodded.

"Alright, I agree."

I sat back down and looked at him straight in the eyes.

"Ask your question. Don’t make it too general, or I won’t answer."

Lurok didn’t speak up just yet as he was deep in his thoughts, unsure what the best question could be. He couldn’t ask something too general like "Who are you?" and things like that. He needed something precise.

"Alright, I got it. You can’t refuse to answer that question."

I sighed. "What’s your question."

Lurok nodded. "I know you participated in the war against the demons, and I want to know why it is that no records of you can be found anywhere. I asked about some of my connections, and no one knows of you. No matter how much I talk about you, it’s as if no one has a single memory with you in it."

I nodded. It was actually a question I had expected, and I didn’t mind answering it.

There could have been much worse questions.