A few seconds of silence took place between them following the abrupt answer Aria had given to Eric.
Although Eric had already somewhat anticipated this response from her considering everything that Aria had seen about him so far in this life, coupled with the fact that Aria had actually accused Aurora of being 'abnormal yet insightful' somewhere in the middle of the novel before, it was still shocking to hear it come out of her mouth.
After all, when Aria didn't know about her regression at the time and had accused Aurora of being abnormal initially, she never referred to her insightful abnormality as a 'higher-level entity.'
No, rather Aria instead referred to it as "Future Sight" instead, since Aurora kept accurately predicting events that were to happen ahead of time based on her countless previous other regressions.
However, considering that Aria had also seen him not react to his injuries at all, and even called him out for it, he could see how Aria had arrived to that conclusion.
'And if that's the case, then... isn't this quite a good opportunity for me to take advantage of?'
Even though Eric had originally decided to not get involved with Aria again simply just because she was too much of a hassle to deal with, this sudden change in development might exactly be what Eric needed to bring down Aurora once and for all.
After all, if he could somehow manage to get Aria to trust him to a certain degree and get her to set up situations where Aurora would be vulnerable, then he could easily kill Aurora in a heartbeat without her even realizing it.
And sure, while Aria might retaliate back against him if she ever realizes this, and might also try to kill him afterwards as well, the pros significantly outweighted the cons, making this a no-brainer decision.
Of course, in order to gain Aria's trust though, he needed to also be honest with her about some things, and use his knowledge from the novel to better help his cause, but there shouldn't be any major issues with that as long as he was careful about what information to reveal.
Thus, after planning his next moves accordingly and making sure to be cautious around Aria, Eric finally opened his mouth and let out an answer to the person that could perhaps be his strongest ally against Aurora.
"I'm not a higher-level entity like you think I am. I'm a human being, just like everyone else." Eric calmly stated and then waited to see what Aria would say.
But seeing as though Aria didn't seem to be buying it, as expected, Eric kept speaking and continued on with his own explanation.
"However, since you seem to be aware of it already, I won't bother trying to hide it from you any longer. The truth of the matter is that I actually know quite a lot of things pertaining to certain individuals that are very clearly special and unique in many ways." Eric said while trying to be as vague and ambiguous yet still truthful as he could.
"...What? So do you like, stalk people who looks good or something and then find out everything about them?" Aria didn't try to come off as rude at all, but she still couldn't help but instinctively give a sharp remark after hearing what he had just said.
"Oh no, I didn't mean it like that. What I mean is that if someone has some sort of ability that puts them way above everyone else, or if someone has a unique characteristic about them that is extremely rare in this world, then I know and am aware of their existence, and know details of them, regardless of if I've even seen or looked into them personally or not." Eric corrected.
"Hmm... I think I get it now somewhat, but I can't imagine that the information just randomly pops up in your head, right? Is there any other prerequisite to it or something like that?" Aria was clearly still trying to make sense of all of this and asked with a suspicious look on her face.
"This... well, it definitely wouldn't be wise for me to delve into the details any further, so I won't tell you more about it. I'm sorry, Miss Aria." Eric shook his head and tried to sound as genuine as possible since he couldn't come up with anything on the spot.
"I understand." Aria nodded her head in response, even though she wasn't at all satisfied with the answer.
In fact, she was starting to lose it again with this guy since he didn't sound sincere at all, and appeared to be making stuff up now as his story didn't take into account a lot of things like how he's able to not react to injuries and whatnot.
And it definitely didn't help whatsoever that just looking at his soulless face still made her genuinely want to cringe in disgust.
Honestly, she was really starting to debate about whether or not she should just get up and leave now while she still could without snapping.
But just as Aria was about to make up her mind and come to a conclusive decision however, she deeply thought about what Eric had just said and began speaking again.
"Wait, so you know almost everything about me since I'm apparently special in some kind of way, right?"
"Right." Eric nodded.
"And you knew about my skin cancer beforehand even though I wasn't aware of it simply because of this strange ability of yours, correct?"
"That's correct."
"In that case, do you know every single detail of every event that has occurred in my past if I was involved in it in any way at all?" Aria energetically asked.
"Yes, Miss Aria, if it's something that has significantly affected you even indirectly beforehand, then I'm aware and know everything of it." Eric answered back as he maintained a composed face.
"Then..." Aria quickly opened her mouth and was about to ask another question.
But for some reason, right when she was about to ask it, her heart slowly started to beat quicker and quicker, and before she knew it, no words wanted to come out of her mouth at all.
Maybe perhaps it was because she was afraid he might not actually know about it, or maybe perhaps it was because she was afraid of knowing the truth...
But regardless of the reasoning, she just couldn't seem to ask him the one thing she has been dying to know the answer to ever since she was extremely young.
However, Aria was determined to uncover the mysteries behind what had happened on that day, no matter what.
So after doing her absolute best to calm down like how she did when she first went into his house, Aria managed to finally bring herself together once again and mustered out the courage to eventually ask him...
"Can you tell me why I'm the only one who remembers about that incident on the day I turned 5 years old?"
Hearing this, Eric stared at Aria for a few seconds and didn't say anything whatsoever.
He wasn't sure how he should be behaving right now, as he didn't want to mess this up.
But eventually, Eric's mouth couldn't help but slightly curve up into an odd smile as he let out the words that Aria wanted to hear.
"Sure. I don't mind."