Whee! ^^ Slayers introspective pieces are fun! Well, I've already given the world a Lina introspective-thingie, now here's a Xellos one. This one's in first person; hope you enjoy it!

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One of the most enjoyable things in life is to know that you know things. To just have the knowledge that you alone know what's going on at any given moment, while everyone else is running around like newly-decapitated chickens.

I've made it my business to know everything, in order to do just that- sit, relax, and smirk in a pitying sort of way at my as they do my errands for me and, more likely than not, make complete fools of themselves in the process. It's quite entertaining, really.

Knowing things has all sorts of other benefits, too- a goal truly worth achieving. And yet few actually have the common sense to look for the kinds of information that will prove helpful, and spend their entire lives looking for spells, artifacts, or other practically useless information. Rather ironic, isn't it? I've always been rather fond of irony.

Everyone thinks my motives are so complex, and yet they're really quite simple. When you come down to it, I'm purely self-motivated; whether it be by helping Lina and her little group of friends fight some random mazoku or remaining in Juuou-sama's good favor. I just try to do what will benefit me most, and often go out of my way to make things a bit more entertaining- I appreciate good entertainment.

And yet I'm so easily misunderstood.

Am I mysterious? I hope so.

Am I a trickster? Certainly.

Am I an evil mazoku? By all means, yes.

Am I manipulative? Of course.

But I most certainly am not a liar. I conveniently forget to divulge rather important information at times, yes, but I never lie. It simply goes against my morals.

It's all fair to tell certain things that automatically make people jump to the wrong conclusions, but lying is playing dirty.

What's more, it's just a trick for the weak. If you lie, you're showing that you can't handle the consequences of the truth. It shows that you're afraid and not confident in your own abilities. Which is a truly pathetic outlook that will never get you anywhere in life.

I, for one, do not particularly wish to practically shout out the message I have to resort to cheap tricks because I'm not good enough to do anything else.

Because I know that I'm stronger than that. It's so much more fun to win when your enemy has to resort to such stupid tricks and you don't. It gives you the opportunity to laugh in their face about it when they lose. And so I've trained myself from the moment I learned things to adapt a more method of deception. And very well it works, too- especially since everyone on this planet seems so predictable.

Which makes them manipulatable.

It really is fun to know that I know all this; to understand that I can pull practically anyone's strings at any given notice. Everyone is my marionette, and I am the puppet master. And I'm the only one who realizes it.

Of course, someone could find out anything from me rather easily if they just asked in the right way; I wouldn't lie to them.

But they never think to ask the right questions.

And I take great confidence in this fact. I know that they never will; and so I'll never have to tell them anything. I'll always remain on top; because I have the patience to not flaunt my power like my superiors, the confidence that I'll sustain it, the intelligence to disguise it, and the knowledge that so many fail to look for.

Oh, it's so enjoyable to know that I know things.