The room was completely still, with not a single word exchanged between them. The question Vonessia had posed to Assad left him momentarily paralyzed, unable to respond. It wasn't fear or deceit that held him back; it was simply that he had nothing to say.
For a brief moment, his mouth opened as if an explanation might just come to him, but nothing materialized.
His mind felt like a blank slate, as if someone had come along and scooped out every word he had, leaving him unable to string together even a simple sentence.
How could he possibly prove himself to Vonessia when she wasn't even there to witness it?
On his very first day at the agency, Shuren had introduced him to Vonessia, but she hadn't been around. So how could he even give her an answer at this very moment. Assad's posture was still but his mind was all over the place.
Vonessia sees the shaking Assad, she starts to chuckle a little bit and then smiles.
"How about you forget my question because it seems that you're struggling to give me an answer." Vonessia said.
Assad looked at Vonessia, with a slight bit of disappointment as he could not even answer her question. But then he took a deep breath and looked straight at Vonessia's eyes.
"I'm terribly sorry that I couldn't give you a proper answer to your question." Assad said with a bow.
"It's nothing at all, you almost did your best."
Assad nodded at Vonessia's statement which made her smile again.
"Oh I believe you were asking Shuren some questions right?"
"Yea I was." Assad replied.
Assad felt the tension in his shoulders as a bead of sweat trickled down his temple. Vonessia let out a breath that was neither a sigh nor a laugh, just something in between.
"Well," she said, casually folding her arms, "if you still have questions, I can help you out. I have a hunch that Shuren put you on the three-question limit… am I right?"
Assad glanced down for a moment, a hint of embarrassment creeping in as he chuckled softly.
"Yeah," he admitted, a bit sheepishly. "She did."
Vonessia raised an eyebrow, intrigued.
"And?"
Assad rubbed the back of his neck, his voice lowering a notch.
"She didn't even give me a complete answer to my first question, and then she told me to forget about the walls."
"The walls, huh?"
Vonessia's face remained neutral, but there was a spark of amusement in her eyes.
"But of course she did," Vonessia said with a knowing smile. "Classic Shuren."
She strolled back around her desk, tapping a finger lightly on its surface.
"She really dislikes answering questions, and when she finally does decide to respond," Vonessia continued, settling into her chair with grace, "she only shares the bits she finds interesting."
Vonessia then clasped her hands together, fingers intertwined, and resting just below her chin or on the desk looking straight at Assad's eyes and with a smile she says, "But I believe I have some answers to your questions so you can ask me if you please."
Assad did not move for a second thinking about the possibilities of asking Vonessia, the boss of the Sweepers, any question that he had in his head but could not decide on which one to ask. That's when he took a deep breath and looked at Vonessia.
"I have a question ma'am." Assad said.
"Oh and what may the question be?" Vonessia asked.
"May I please have the full explanation of why Qi and Kaku are living in the same world or what they mean?"
Vonessia looked at Assad for a second, a little bit surprised at his question. Who thought that the question that would come out of Assad's mouth would be that one.
"Ok Assad if you truly want to know then I can give you a full explanation of the two powers of our world." Vonessia said.
Assad smiled, he will finally have information of why Kaku and Qi are colluding with each other.
"Let me see how I should start. Ah I have it, you're ready."
"Yes ma'am."
Vonessia smiled and chuckled then began her explanation.
"So five hundred years ago Chi was already a thing but it actually came from something called magic that was turned from life energy."
"Life energy?" Assad asked.
"Yes, life energy was already a thing in our world but then someone used it to develop magic from it, but then someone from a family that used to breed assassins only used the life energy to create something called Kensei."
Assad looked at Vonessia confused.
"It's okay, you won't understand that part of history. Anyway, Kensei was then developed by the seventh son of the family of the assassin clan to Chi as he was using it in weird ways that looked like what he called martial arts. Creating new techniques for himself and others when he taught them how to use Chi and that's how Chi was a thing."
Assad nodded as he understood the part of Chi now the other part he wanted to understand about Kaku. What about it?
"Now then we move onto Kaku. As you might already know probably from Shuren it is called sacred water as it's the actual source of it to gain Kaku. Now the reason I'm not that very certain but I do know of its history" Vonessia said.
"Oh that's a bummer." Assad added.
"Funny boy. Now then about the sacred water it was believed to be a gift from the gods but people did not believe in gods five hundred years ago as the people at that time saw themselves as gods because of their surge of power. For the person who discovered it, his name was Chi Do Hyeon."
Assad stands shocked as he heard that exact name not so long ago from Shuren. He was the person that discovered sacred water.
"Judging by your expression Shuren already told you about him. He was the person who found the sacred water and it made him so powerful because he drained the pool when he found it. Making him the strongest human five hundred years ago and also the worst human being to ever exist at that, as he was nicknamed the Heavenly Demon. But that's another story for another time.
Assad nodded, his second question had a lot of information that could help him finding his way back home possibly