"Are you a Jinn?"
Peace could only allow those words to hang in the air for so long. Thankfully, he'd already figured out his solution… the truth.
"No…"
Truth was a subjective matter…
It was something that each person could decide for themselves. In this world, this universe, there was no such thing as an objective truth, only common conclusions.
Just because it is widely believed to be true that two plus two equals four doesn't mean that it is everyone's truth. If someone firmly believes that two plus two equals five, then that is their truth. It may seem wrong from an outside standpoint, but to them, it is the whole truth.
While It may seem dumb or illogical to stake this claim with something known as a solution, but it is only dumb and illogical to those who know two plus two equals four. The very fact that a subjective mind created the notion of objectivity is proof of this fallacy.
So, the truth that emerges from marketplace of ideas is anything but objective, no matter how grounded in facts it may seem.
So, then, applying that notion to something that looks for truth. What was it actually looking for?
It couldn't determine the objective truth of a subjective variable. This could only mean it looked for the subjective truth; in simpler words, if Peace believed something to be true, then it was true.
Peace, while in his cell, had thought for a long time about this…
What was a Jinn?
He wasn't too well-informed on Arabian mythology, but he knew that Jinns, or djinns, were spirits capable of possessing human bodies.
There was the issue of how this world had this terminology, but that was an issue for another day. What mattered now was his own view of himself.
Peace had decided to convince himself, or more so, delude himself, that he wasn't a Jinn. It was only if he genuinely believed that truth that he would be able to avoid the question.
At first, the task seemed impossible.
He'd woken up in this Night Elf's body and stolen his life… even if it wasn't his own will, he effectively killed this young man.
Then he thought of the executioners killing the Jinns.
He pictured their terrified, pleading faces. Faces of innocent people who'd done no wrong.
While Jinns in Arabian mythology could be evil or good… the people here seemed to use that term entirely for evil. And was he going to lie down and accept that labeling?
Peace thought about it in a modern light.
'...If someone were called a racial slur, why the hell would they take whatever was said to them to be the truth?'
Why would one allow someone else to degrade their status? To influence one's subjective view of themself by way of baseless hate?
Peace had reached his conclusion.
These people could call him a Jinn all they wanted. But he knew he wasn't the evil spirit they made him out to be. He was just a simple brother who loved his sister.
Peace couldn't deny the fact that he was a bodysnatcher. If she'd asked that, he would have been in trouble; however, she asked if he was a Jinn.
And, at least at the moment, Peace wholeheartedly believed himself to be nothing more than a simple man dangling on a thread of naive hope. A man who deserved neither to be called a hero nor a villain.
Slowly, the crystal lit up a light shade of green as if a little unsure of its own answer.
Inspector Ashren stared at the crystal as the light faded and returned to blue, before slowly pittering out and becoming a dull shade of gray.
Time had expired on the Eye of Truth.
"It seems you're an innocent man with an unlucky appearance."
Peace couldn't help but scoff.
"First uncanny, now unlucky… how ugly am I?"
Ashren couldn't help but let out her laugh; she'd barely managed not to stifle it.
"Sorry, I didn't mean you were ugly… I'm saying your likeness to the devils of the Night Parade… You didn't get too lucky in the genetics department."
'They know about genetics here?'
Peace couldn't help but wonder about the technology of this foreign realm and the strange link that seemed to exist to Earth. Maybe they discovered genetics on their own… but Jinns? Opichus? All the other districts named after Zodiacs?
…Well, maybe Peace was going about it the wrong way.
He was transported into the world of a game after all…
He'd been just assuming everything around him to real because that's what all of his five senses were screaming, but maybe he'd truly been transported into the game.
Maybe everyone and everything around him were ones and zeroes. Maybe everything was fake, and these people were true NPCs. Maybe there were some inconsistencies because the game developer slipped up.
'Maybe...'
For now, it would stay a 'maybe.'
In any case, whether it was real or fake, it was his current reality.
Peace slowly drifted his eyes toward the terrified guard in the corner of the room who didn't dare flip up his helmet's visor. For some reason, it seemed he couldn't even fathom that Peace was an innocent man. Or it was more like Peace didn't have to commit any actual crime to be guilty in this man's eyes.
It was as if his existence was a crime in and of itself.
"O-oh. Yeah…"
The man slowly shuffled over, then unlocked Peace's shackles, freeing his wrists.
Ashren stood up, letting her long hair fall into her eyes, then she picked up the Eye of Truth and walked away, and pried open the door. She looked at Peace with a sidelong glance and said:
"Lorkel will escort you to the waiting area… we should have you an ID made in about ten minutes… don't worry about commission, a royal decree five years ago got rid of that requirement."
Ashren walked away, leaving the two men alone. At least, the guard was probably a man. That's what his voice sounded like.
Peace just smiled as he slowly brought himself to his feet.
"After you, friend."
The guard was visibly shaking to the point where the plates of his armor clanked together.
"R-right!"