Checkers and chess

'She already knew?'

'The part where she said she only browsed 8 years of my life is not credible at all."'

'Upcoming series of events. Having me dressed up as a noble. How does it connect?'

'Why not just force me to cooperate? Is she trying to get my favor after realizing what I could do? No... likely that she is trying to get information out of me by searching for the gaps of my knowledge'

'How is she confident that I would help out anyway? How about I just start to blurt out obscenity in front of the emperor and cause her to lose face?'

"Your time is limited, are you sure you want to waste it pondering?' the princess asked with an amused expression.

After thinking for a few more moments, Rio carefully asked, "What makes you think I would cooperate with you, and what gives you the confidence that I could help you?"

As if expecting the question, the princess replied without a thought, "I will consider that a single question as a sign of goodwill." She continued, "All I need you to do is to stand next to me, and I will do the rest. Whether or not you try to sabotage me doesn't matter; you will understand soon enough."

She paused for a bit before smirking a little. "Oh, you don't have a choice anyway. You're powerless in front of me. If you want to run away right now, I will just turn you into a puppet of mine. But it's rather troublesome, so I want to avoid it if possible."

"Also, let me reiterate. Don't try to run. Judging by your prodigious growth in your childhood, you must have grown to be someone powerful in the future. But you should realize by now that you cannot circulate mana at the moment, so in front of me, you're nothing but a slab of walking meat. So cooperation would be in your best interest."

"Does that answer your question?"

"Yes," Rio said without a hint of fear. He then asked, "Will the following cooperation be dangerous?"

Rio smirked after finishing the question.

'Although I do want information regarding this world, it seems like I have gotten into a dangerous situation. I should gauge the level of danger first.'

"That would depend on your actions," the princess paused for a bit, then added, "but my honest guess is you are very unlikely to die by the end of our cooperation."

'This weasel *****. She must understand that I am trying to gauge the level of danger ahead. But she instead gave an answer that could be interpreted in too many ways to be useful.'

'I thought the goal was to gauge my knowledge by knowing my knowledge gap of this world. Did she have other goals? Or has she already obtained what she needed?'

'This type of selfish person couldn't have possibly just stopped after just browsing 8 years of my memory...'

Rio paused for a bit.

'I did see a man standing in front of me before I died. He finished off two of the most powerful beings on the planet within 10 seconds of appearing.'

'I think he said "enjoy" before I passed out. Then after that, I woke up in this world.'

'Him and this world must be connected in some way.'

'What is his goal in transporting me to this world? Why in front of this princess? If he wanted to kill or torture me, he should have the ability to do that in a million ways based on what he has shown to be capable of.'

'So it must mean that the current situation shouldn't be too dangerous.'

'I guess I should conclude the questions for now, then ask more once the cooperation is finished.'

Rio then asked the final question after some hesitation, "Is everything you've said true to the best of your knowledge?"

The princess looked at Rio for a moment before replying, "I thought you would ask more about this world considering you've just been transported here. You're more careful than I thought; I should reevaluate you a little bit, hehe."

'Of course I do, you weasel. Just wait until the cooperation is finished. You better not throw me away immediately; you best believe that I would stick around until I get my answers.'

"Well, of course! Everything I've said is the honest truth. How ungentlemanly of you to assume a lady of noble status would lie to a street rat."

Rio twitched his eyebrow, then said, "Then swear by it. I know the magical system works similarly here. Swear to the god of this world that everything you've said is the truth."

'Heh, didn't expect that, did you?'

Rio smirked at the thought of his genius idea.

The princess's smile froze for a bit. Cyan also seemed to have some sort of reaction as she suddenly put her hand on the hilt of her sword, and an extremely oppressive force suddenly exploded from her.

'Crap.'

'Depending on what I do, is it? Haha, did I just kill myself?'

"You're smarter than I thought," the princess added coldly. "Well, no matter. Cyan, please come here."

"Understood."

The princess stood up, then put her hand on Cyan's shoulder and said solemnly, "I, Clara Wakeford Valoria, hereby swear to the almighty and all-knowing god Moira, that everything that I've told Rio, the young man in front of me, is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." A column of light then enveloped the two figures.

After the column of light disappeared, Clara and Cyan remained standing there as if nothing had happened and looked at Rio with a cold glint.

"Does that answer your question?"

'Huh, she really didn't lie.'

'I guess I could trust her for now.'

'But I do wonder why she needs Cyan's help on this. Could she also not use mana? Was her threat of turning me into a puppet a lie ?Is not being able to use mana common in this world? Heh, looks like I've just gained another valuable piece of information.'

"Yes," Rio returned to his neutral expression.

"Well then, shall we go? We have wasted a little more than 3 minutes; we best be on our way," Clara said as she walked past Rio and opened the door to the hallway.