Interlude Chapter — The Lie of Years
The chamber was silent.
Not the ordinary silence of an empty room, but the kind that pressed against the mind—thick, deliberate, aware.
Kairo stood at the center of it, barefoot on obsidian tiles veined with slow-moving shadow. Above him, fragments of light hovered in circular arrays, each one a memory shard projected by CIEL.
Faces.
Battles.
Decisions made too early for any child.
CIEL's voice descended without emotion.
[Chronological discrepancy detected among external observers.]
Kairo didn't look surprised.
"They noticed," he said quietly.
[Yes.]
One of the projections shifted. A timeline unfolded, splitting into layers instead of a single line.
[Biological Age: 14 years, 3 months.]
[Chronological Memory Accumulation: 19 years, 8 months.]
Kairo raised his hand. The memories reacted instantly, freezing mid-motion.
"When I reincarnated," he said, "my body reset."
CIEL continued.
[Neural imprinting did not.]
The chamber filled with scenes Kairo had never lived physically—yet remembered perfectly.
A war council that never happened.
A negotiation simulated a thousand times.
Deaths avoided only because CIEL ran the outcome first.
"Five years," Kairo murmured. "Compressed. Replayed. Refined."
He clenched his fist.
"My mind aged. My body didn't."
[Correct.]
Another layer appeared—thin, dark, pulsing.
[Umbra Shadow Field Effect: Biological entropy suppression.]
[Purpose: Prevent premature cellular collapse due to cognitive overload.]
Kairo exhaled slowly.
"If my body matched my mind," he said, "I'd be dead by now."
The shadows around the chamber stirred, as if agreeing.
"To the world," Kairo continued, eyes sharp, "I'm fourteen."
CIEL added the final notation.
[Public Age: 14.]
[True Operational Maturity: Restricted Information.]
Kairo lowered his hand.
"Let them underestimate me," he said.
The shadows dimmed.
The explanation was complete.