The crucial question

In that instant, Angel needed two lifetimes' worth of self-control to keep her expression from changing.

Of course, what she suppressed was neither surprise nor panic, but a teasing smile. After all, this colleague had once stood with his hands on his hips in Klein's dream, accusing "Angel Granger" of being "Irene," "Angelica," and the "Unaging" Demoness who had gone to great lengths to infiltrate the Tingen City Nighthawks Squad. Angel, hiding inside a mirror, had found the whole thing hilarious.

But his sudden challenge now, asking this question of "Christine Teresa," who should have had no connection whatsoever to any of those people, still made Angel a little curious.

This was most likely a spur-of-the-moment idea, not one of his planned questions... If he were fairly certain that I was Angelica Zaki, the "Unaging" Demoness he spoke of, or the "Golden Queen" who had just repelled the "Abomination" Suah on the Sonia Sea, he couldn't possibly ask me so directly. That would be far too dangerous. Even the most reckless person wouldn't do that...

But if he wasn't very certain, asking this would only tip me off. It wouldn't help him verify his suspicions at all...

The only possibility is that, during this questioning and our several previous encounters in the Physical World, he noticed how much my undisguised purple eyes resembled his former colleague's. Then he remembered that I was close to Mr. Fool's believer, Dwayne Dantès, and suspected I had some connection to Dwayne and Klein, or was even a member of their secret organization... Angel immediately arrived at the likeliest explanation. Putting on a slightly surprised expression, she answered:

"Of course I've heard of her. But I suppose that familiarity only goes one way.

"After all, the mysterious 'Golden Queen,' who sails across the five seas,