Isaac felt his head throb, overwhelmed by everything.
It felt exactly like the side effects of using his Evernight skill, which resulted in various nasty effects that affected his mentality.
But this time, this headache didn't stem from a forbidden power provided by the system, no, it stemmed from the sheer amount of knowledge being processed by him.
"You're trying to imply that..." Holding his temple, he said weakly. "That I'm your knight all the way from back then...?"
Alice remained silent for a moment before smiling softly.
"I'm going to have to be honest. At first, that was what I thought too."
Seeing the confusion deepening on his face, Alice chuckled and continued. "How should I put this... You're like him, but also not him, if that makes sense."
[In the first place, we don't even know much about our first knight beyond the journals he had left behind that are now in the form of books and stories.]
Nicole stated.
[But you... How should I put this... Have you ever experienced déjà vu, Isaac?]
"Déjà vu... Yeah, I get it every once in a while." He said with a hesitant nod. "Why?"
Nicole smiled.
[That's exactly it. We can't exactly remember who our knight was, but when looking at you, I can most certainly say that I seem to have some sort of familiarity towards you, even when I know that I haven't met you before.]
[And when Alice decided to let us watch you for a while, that strong sense of familiarity stayed and never left.]
Barbeloth nodded as Nicole spoke through all of their minds, and eventually gave her own thoughts too.
"Nicole is right. The fate of Teyvat is not easily tampered with. Even when records are deleted or overwritten, they still remain in other forms. And you..."
At that point, a complex sigil made out of hydro suddenly manifested right beside Barbeloth. The sigil was a series of overlapping symbols and circles, and spun continuously as it hovered beside her.
She looked at that sigil for a bit before silently nodding.
"Yes, the scryglass shows it as well. Even when your fate is warped, it could still be interpreted, and indeed, you have an extremely faint but very much present connection to us witches. Although..."
She paused.
"You don't seem to know that yourself."
"Of course I don't."
After hearing them and their evidence, Isaac still had to voice out another part of him that rejected this notion.
"I'm not... I'm not like that." He said with a grimace. "I'm not some insane knight going from one place to another fulfilling some sort of self-righteous ideal, nor am I the knight that you all seem to paint me to be."
"I'm Isaac! Isaac Alder!"
He declared firmly, trying his best at maintaining his rationality and sense of self from being shaken.
"I run a café in Fontaine!"
"I have a student whom I entrust my skills to!"
"I have my friends from all over Teyvat who I deeply cherish!"
"And..." He clenched his fist. "I have a lover whom I'm ready to lay down my life for to be with forever."
He then raised the book he had been holding which was given by Alice earlier and looked at them.
"I'm not this cursed figure. Never have, never will. And even if I were..."
He clenched his teeth for a moment before saying, "I will never do anything he has done."
Isaac knew himself too well.
If he were to entertain their idea and assume that he really was that knight whom they had known, then was that knight really him?
Even if he was that same figure from centuries ago, serving under the Cryo Archon, he knew he wouldn't be doing anything that any of them were saying.
It would be out of character for him.
In the first place, why would he even challenge the Hexenzirkel? They roasted powers that no ordinary person could even comprehend. He valued his life too much for that.
Secondly, why would he slay Abyssal creatures with a cursed sword? Unless it gave some sort of reward, then he would have understood, but all that bloodshed only led to insanity in the end for that knight.
And lastly, why would he serve under the Cryo Archon?
Her Majesty the Tsaritsa...
Anastasya Feodorovna Snezhnaya.
...well, the witches did say that she had saved the knight in a frozen tundra. That one, Isaac could understand why the knight would feel indebted to her and thus work under her.
But beyond that, there were no other reasons.
Alice quietly listened to his protests and nodded along with a gentle smile on her face, as if she were listening to her own child.
After a while, with a curious tone, she said, "Then can you explain that bone blade?"
"What?"
"That blade you summoned when you fought Il Capitano." She clarified. "Didn't it feel all too familiar in your grasp? Its immense power gushing through you like a dam collapsing..."
"Just so you know, that blade, Tyrving, was also used by our knight." She added. "It had accompanied him the longest before even meeting us, and had a peculiar ability to seemingly freeze and capture Abyssal energy to entomb it within itself."
"With a single swing, he could summon darkness around it and command it like an extension of himself. Anyone and anything that had witnessed that blade all saw misfortune and serenity in their final moments as the darkness enveloped them."
"For only in death can one find tranquility."
Remembering the blade that he had indeed summoned from back then, Isaac knew that he also needed to address the elephant in the room.
"That bone blade... Tyrving... that was..."
He didn't know how to rationalize it.
Even he didn't know where that sword came from. It had just manifested from within him after he was subjected in a dangerous life and death situation.
Running out of reasonable thoughts to conjure, he began to get more and more agitated.
'Was it true?'
He dreaded it.
He didn't want to believe that he was that knight all the way from the past. Not necessarily because of who or what the knight was, but because of himself.
If that knight was truly him, and he couldn't remember any of it, then how could he trust himself?
But just as that existential dread settled in his mind, Nicole once more spoke.
[That's why we also have another idea for you, Isaac.]
"What?" He looked at her, puzzled.
This prompted the angel to continue with a nod.
[Indeed, you and that knight are all too vastly different. It would be odd for you to be the same person, that's why we have a theory about you.]
She paused and looked at the other witches, who all nodded at her, before she continued.
[We believe that you and that knight shared the same source or essence. After he disappeared centuries ago and that same essence resurfaced in you now, we have reasonably believed that...]
She paused, then nodded with a smile.
[Yes, he reincarnated. To you.]
'Uh...'
At that moment, Isaac didn't know whether to correct her or not, especially with his true situation.
'I transmigrated, Nicole. Not reincarnated...'
But he had to admit, what she was saying was indeed watching his attention and was proving to be quite a reasonable thought.
Moreover, their narrative was also something that he could play into. It was so reasonable that it might even just explain his special powers to them without having to reveal his system and true origins as a transmigrator.
'Now that I think about it...'
There was another matter that had always been at the back of his mind that he had been ignoring since he had arrived to this world.
It was the origin of his current body.
All he knew about it was that he had been a former researcher in the Fontaine Research Institute before it had exploded. And even then, those were just jumbled memories that he had received from the system and from the authorities who had found him in the ruins.
'They said that the knight last went to Fontaine to do some sort of task...'
In his mind, pieces he didn't even know existed were falling into place.
Alice, having sat down by now and was sipping her tea as she listened to Nicole, finally spoke once more.
"Nicole is right, and so are you." She said slowly. "You and that person are completely different, yet at the same time, the possibility that you were once him cannot be ignored."
She lingered for a moment as she cradled her tea cup then continued. "As much as I want to have our knight back... To be honest, our current knight isn't so bad. Unlike him, Varka actually spares time for others."
"And so..."
She then extended her hand and once more invited him to a seat.
"Even if you're not him, won't you let these witches reminisce a bit? Just this once, indulge our selfish request."
Isaac remained silent. He didn't know what to do, yet at the same time, he was only being offered limited paths to choose from..
And... they're not too bad either.
'That knight... If he really was my previous self, then...'
Isaac had never expected that he'd find out some sort of dark truth about his body in this mission, but here he was.
Truth be told, he was interested to learn more about that knight. To know who his previous self was.
His gaze lingered upon the witches who were all expecting his response to their invitation.
'Even if it's true, the facts still matter.' He sighed heavily before walking up to them. 'Me and that knight are different.'
'So what if he was my previous self?'
He smirked. Then, standing right in front of the witches table, he lingered there in silence before lowering himself to a bow.
"Just this once."
He was Isaac, not that knight.
A lover of tea, peace, and tranquility. Someone who would go out of his way for his closest friends, and would enact the most nefarious vengeance upon anyone who hurt him or anyone around him.
Alice nodded once upon hearing his reply. "Very well. Then, with the power bested upon me by myself, I henceforth... temporarily... reinstate you as the Knight of Witches."
"The Walpurgis-Knight."
Isaac straightened his back and heaved a soft sigh before a wry smile formed on his face. "That is... certainly a title."
"Hey, don't make fun of it." Alice pouted. "I thought of that you know? Well, my past self did, but it was still me."
"Yes, yes, Ms. Alice..." He nodded solemnly. "Then, I'm guessing Varka also has this title?"
He lingered. "...and the knight before?"
"Indeed." She agreed. "This title is only held by the knights of the Hexenzirkel."
She paused, then said, "Oh, and you don't need to keep referring to the previous knight in that way. He has a name, you know?"
"A name?" He repeated, surprised and curious.
Alice hummed. "Indeed. It was written in one of his anthology stories in passing, wherein he described an event with his name on it. His name was... Ah yes."
With a snap of her finger, the book that Isaac had been holding since earlier left his hands and hovered right before him.
Then, with a sway of her hand, the hook opened. The pages fluttered as they slowly landed on a single page that read...
"Icarus, the one who calls himself a Flame-Chaser."
Upon hearing that name, Isaac felt something deep inside of him churn, as if that name alone carried more weight than it lets on.
But more importantly...
'He's a larper...' He thought. 'And he even used the term Flame-Chase...'
Perhaps that guy really was him.