Convince Me,

"Hey, young kid! What do you think you're doing? You're walking right into your death!"

A voice hissed at Yuuta, making him stop short in his tracks as he whirled his head around the place. Since he was closing his eyes, he was only relying on sensing figures around him but he couldn't pinpoint who spoke to him. If it were Miki or Yua, they'd have called for him a second time before speaking, and if it were the Minths around them, then they'd have said their sentence twice since Yuuta is a human and they're still convinced that Yuuta couldn't really understand their language quite well.

However, none of those happened. The voice just hissed at Yuuta and demanded an answer from him. The only clue that Yuuta could glean from the words he heard was that the voice sounded like a deep growl as if an old man was speaking to him.

"Who are you?" Yuuta whispered back at the voice, fully convinced that he was just hearing things. He thought that maybe the voice wouldn't answer if he were to talk to it.

He was wrong though.

"It's me! Aarkra!" The voice was so desperate that Yuuta thought the person behind it was screaming his lungs out. "Weren't you the one who put me here?!"

Upon hearing who it was, Yuuta became a bit perplexed. "Aarkra? One of the most powerful Evil Sp— I mean, Minths to ever exist? You're still alive? I thought the Black Grsrzy Scarf consumed you?"

"Sigh~ no, this Scarf traps Minths. I don't know where you got this from but this is a very powerful item. With this, you can actually give our leader a right hook to his guts, whatever that means." Aarkra talked as if he was indifferent to the matters of the outside world, but Yuuta could sense a bit of concern in Aarkra's voice.

"So, why are you warning me of your leader? Shouldn't you be leading me deeper into this trap so you can get your freedom?" Yuuta asked, implying that Aarkra wanted to ask him for a favor.

And he was right on the money.

"Actually, I require your assistance on a certain subject. But before that, how could you speak our language? Just a few seconds ago you can't do it?!" Aarkra exclaimed, then he cleared his throat. Yuuta felt rather weird talking to the Black Grsrzy Scarf in his pockets but he didn't mind. Right now, any distraction is better than concentrating on their situation.

"Don't sweat out the small details, just, what do you need from me? And why are you siding with me instead of your leader? Do you have any ulterior motives? If so, then spell it out for me. I'd judge your motives after hearing your case."

The Minth cleared his throat and then continued speaking. "Before I say anything, I mean, please hear me out, this is the last thing I'd have to tell you before I tell you of my motives." Aarkra desperately pleaded since he knows that Yuuta could just ignore him if he wouldn't be convincing.

"Go ahead, just make sure it's worth my time. How do I know if you're lying or not?"

Aarkra ignored Yuuta's suspiciousness and continued on. "First, don't you think it's strange that those guys who trapped me know my name? They don't speak our language but they know of my name, right?"

"Mmm, that certainly is strange. But what's stopping you from making it up? What if they just stumbled upon your name in some sort of relic somewhere? Don't beat around the bush and tell me everything."

"Our leader, he sold me out! He thought that I have the chance of overthrowing him and so he decided to throw me under the gutter with the help of those people with White Robes. I'm telling you! Those humans wearing white robes are in cahoots with our leader! And they're planning to conquer the whole world of Lucid."

"Mmmm, nothing new. I've heard the news about world domination from your friend Abhr here. And the Sacred Stones? In cahoots with your Leader to conquer the whole world of Lucid? What on Lucid are you on about?"

"Why do you think I kidnapped that faery from the human city? Why?"

"To kill her? To make her your vessel or something? That's what the Sacred Stones said. That's also the reason why they hunted you down."

"How many Minths do you think are in this world right now? How many humans have they killed? And yet these guys are hunting me down for simply kidnapping a faery, which is not even a human?! Why are they trying to protect the faeries when they were the ones who basically killed their entire race?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Those damned humans! They're the ones who drove the faery race to the brink of extinction! You don't even know that?!" Aarkra continued. "Because of that fact, I resorted to asking for help from the faeries. Some humans have allied themselves with the Minths and so, I can't fully trust them."

"You're a Minth as well, so you don't trust your own race?" Yuuta was genuinely confused, and yet, for some reason, some of it was starting to make sense. Although he doesn't believe every word that Aarkra was telling him, he knew that he was speaking of the truth, or rather, what he believes is the truth.

After all, as mentioned before, Yuuta is an expert at sensing lies. He had gained that ability when he became blind two or so years ago.

"It's a complicated issue. I'd have to tell you everything from the start before I can ask you anything. I'll make it as fast as possible since you're about to meet our Leader and die. And let me tell you this, I am not your enemy, Yuuta."

"How do you know my name?"

"Your friends behind you keep on calling you that. I assumed that was your name. So I was correct, huh." Aarkra nonchalantly uttered. "In any case, let me tell you my story, and then you can either believe me or sell me out to our leader who would definitely kill me. I'd much prefer you help me out instead of me dying though."

"Go ahead, convince me," Yuuta said as his heart rate started increasing a little bit. Somehow, he could tell that Aarkra hasn't said a single lie and it's bothering him a little bit.