Risk Level <4>: Girl — The Truth Game
"Ah, aah..?"
She stared down at the board game as if unable to believe what had just happened. I couldn't help but smile at the sight.
"...This is... ugh, that's so unfair."
"I didn't break any rules, though."
At my smug reply, she lifted her head, bit her lower lip, and puffed out her cheeks.
"But... ugh, I couldn't concentrate at all. That strange sensation kept stimulating my body..."
"Hmm..."
Of course she couldn't. The one sitting right across from her was deliberately provoking me with her selfish beauty and voluptuous figure. When she had taken the form of a child, I had remained unmoved, but now she had returned to imitating Harpy's appearance. Even just sitting still, she made it difficult for me to know where to look.
Still, the reason I had managed to seize the advantage in this game was because the stimulation I felt was unfamiliar to her, making her far more flustered than I was. Her breathing had grown slightly rough, and I could clearly see her chest rising and falling rhythmically right in front of me. The effect on me only grew stronger, becoming impossible to ignore.
"So... in situations like this, I'm supposed to feel disappointed or frustrated, right?"
"That's the idea. Though if it's too intense, that would be a problem too."
I had briefly explained the experiment using my ability, and she hadn't strongly objected or resisted. It wasn't directly threatening her safety, and she had already undergone various tests when she was first brought to the facility. This was probably just another one of them in her eyes.
"Mmm..."
She recalled the time she had gone out shopping and missed a limited-time sale on beef by a single step, returning empty-handed. She tried to summon the disappointment and frustration she had felt back then.
"...Ugh, I think I get it."
The emotion seemed to have been successfully conveyed. She nodded and continued learning diligently. Throughout the board game, I had admittedly been somewhat swayed by her beauty as well, but I believed I had still done a decent job of teaching her the appropriate emotions for each situation.
"I'm disappointed. I really wanted to eat the Counselor's cooking..."
She skillfully appealed to me, layering the newly learned feeling of disappointment into her voice. I had heard her intelligence was high, but she was learning remarkably fast. Then again, she already knew instinctively which expressions and tones of voice could captivate someone. All she had to do was slot the new emotions she had learned into place like puzzle pieces.
"Don't be too disappointed. It was just a bet, but I can still cook for you if you ask."
"Really? That makes me happy... But your tone changed again, Counselor."
After finishing the board game, I had unconsciously slipped back into polite speech, realizing it was now counseling time. Contrary to my expectation that she wouldn't mind, she immediately pointed it out.
"In that case... what does feeling disappointed feel like, Counselor?"
"Hmm..."
It wasn't a big deal, but the fact that I had reverted to formal speech apparently meant she felt slighted. Her proactive attitude caught me a little off guard. Still, this was part of the education too, so...
"..."
Come to think of it, something similar had happened recently. It was a little different, but I had felt disappointed when I sensed that Nero still didn't want to go outside. I had also felt a pang of worry, wondering if there was something I hadn't done well enough for her. That emotion was successfully transmitted to her this time as well.
"...I think I understand. It's sad, but it also feels very gentle. Is that right?"
"Gentle... I'm not sure about that part, but it's close enough. Emotions aren't something that fit neatly into formulas anyway."
"...Counselor."
"Yes?"
Once again, as if she had to immediately apply what she had learned, she looked up at me with an extremely dejected, sulky gaze. Her head was slightly lowered, casting a faint shadow across her face, yet she maintained that upward glance while timidly parting her lips. It was a textbook display of an honor student. And those eyes... The mysterious lavender irises were already beautiful on their own, but the cautious, passive way she looked at me made her seem so pitiful that I felt as though I had done something terribly wrong.
"Please speak casually, like before."
"That's..."
"...Can't you?"
"..."
...I was truly weak to those words. I already had trouble refusing when someone asked me for something, but that particular phrase struck straight through my heart. There was no way I could say no.
She smiled faintly.
"...?"
Had she sensed my troubled feelings? For a moment, the corner of her mouth seemed to twitch upward, but it was probably just my imagination. When I blinked, she was once again wearing that earnest, pleading expression.
"Understood... No, I got it. So please tone down that expression a little."
"Yes...!"
She nodded brightly, her beautiful hair swaying, and I felt as though the tangled threads in my mind were spinning wildly.
"Anyway, a bet is a bet... So, would it be all right if I asked you for something now?"
"Of course. You can ask me for anything, Counselor."
I quickly looked away as she once again skillfully pressed her breasts together to seduce me. I mentally praised myself for reacting so quickly. She really would try to charm me the moment she saw an opening. It had to be instinct. Still... anything, huh... No, I needed to stay focused. The Team Leader was watching.
"...And don't say 'anything' so lightly. One important point of this experiment is that you need to value yourself as well."
"Ugh... I don't really understand, but I'll do as you say, Counselor."
Of course, figuring out the conditions she needed to maintain her existence was important, but I believed the first step was making her question whether she really needed to go that far just to seduce someone. Whether that reason came from self-love or learned morality, either direction was ideal.
"My request is that you participate sincerely in a new game we're about to play."
I pointed at the spinner in the center of the board game as I spoke. Originally, landing on the bonus space would let you spin it to receive a penalty or reward, but it could be used differently too.
"The game we're going to play now... is a truth game."
"A truth... game?"
She tilted her head cutely, as if hearing the term for the first time, and waited for my explanation.
"We'll take turns spinning this spinner. Whoever stops closest to the single golden space gets to ask the other person one question. Simple, right?"
"...I understand, but can this really be called a game?"
"There are conditions. The person being asked must answer truthfully. And if the question is too difficult to answer, well..."
Hmm... I had come up with the game, but I hadn't thought of a penalty for refusing to answer. This was usually played as a drinking game, after all. I couldn't exactly flick her pretty forehead or slender wrist as punishment instead of making her drink.
"...Right. Let's say the person who can't answer loses the game. We'll play the same bet as before one more time, so you'd better win, okay?"
This should work. Even if she couldn't answer properly, I would still win the bet, so I could just think of the next plan or ask a different question. Though, come to think of it, wouldn't it have been simpler to just ask her to answer truthfully? No, this way was better. By giving her an equal position where she could ask me questions too, I might be able to draw out more of her true feelings. The atmosphere of playing a game together would be completely different from the usual coercive experiments when it came to eliciting honesty.
"All right. Since you won the previous game, you can start first, Counselor."
"Yeah...! That's right."
Perhaps my reasoning had gotten through to her, because she readily agreed to play. This game, where you couldn't lie when asked a question... Of course, she had never told a single lie so far. Not only did she not recognize her own words as lies, but she also possessed the anomalous ability to turn falsehoods into truth the moment the person she had charmed accepted them. I had no means of forcing the truth out of her either, and her inner voice had always matched her actions. The best I could do was observe the subtle changes in her emotions.
Still, an opportunity to speak so openly like this didn't come easily.
Whirrrrrrr...!
The spinner began to rotate vigorously. The blurry yellow shape gradually became clearer as it slowed, determining who would get the first right to ask a question.
...I couldn't help but feel tense at the possibility that I might end up being the one questioned after spinning it myself. Still, the odds were fifty-fifty. Watching the rapidly decelerating spinner and the golden space, I clenched my fists.
Just a little more, just a little more, just a little more...!
Click.
"Yes...!"
The golden space had narrowly crossed over from her side and landed in my territory. I swallowed a sigh of relief and let my joy slip out without thinking. Worried that I had been too obvious, I glanced at her, but she didn't seem particularly concerned, perhaps thinking she hadn't lost yet as long as she could still answer the question.
In truth, unlike her, my goal in this game wasn't victory. The longer I could drag the game out, the more answers I would be able to get from her. So my first question was...
"Can you... tell me your name?"
*
In the center of a beautiful indoor garden, the Management Team Leader watched the two people playing with the spinner through the screen, tapping her finger on it with interest.
"...I suppose we should call it surprising that he's doing his job so well?"
The other management team staff, who had been wondering whether they should respond to her muttered words or stay silent, decided to quietly focus on the screen. Even through that unpleasant voice of hers, her clear displeasure was obvious.
Of course, when she said he was doing well, she meant the Counselor... but her dissatisfaction wasn't directed at him. It seemed aimed at the containment subject instead.
"..."
Silence had been the right choice. The Management Team Leader closed her mouth again and stared at the screen. This entity, which had quickly given up and lost interest upon realizing it couldn't eat, freezing like a doll and causing trouble for the experiments... was now either genuinely interested or simply refusing to give up, stubbornly playing along with his pace.
It had been natural for her, who could nullify abilities, to lead the experiment to uncover information about the girl. Feeling exhausted from the difficulties was also a common occurrence when working here, so she hadn't felt anything particularly unusual about it. However, there was another reason why the Management Team Leader especially disliked this containment subject.
It was the girl's anomalous ability: Ideal Transformation.
The Management Team Leader had learned that the entity would appear in the form of the most ideal woman to whoever stood before her. That fact made her even more uncomfortable. The face, the distinctive expression, the body type, and even the atmosphere that had appeared before her eyes... belonged to someone she knew very well.
Because it was the face of that bitch she could confidently say she hated most in this world. Having to see it even in this final refuge was causing her stress beyond imagination.
"...Hmph."
Right now, the girl had taken on the appearance of the adorable, shy Harpy, but every time the Management Team Leader saw that lavender hair and eyes, that other face inevitably came to mind. It was like a trigger for a seizure.
Wait, that's right. Once Woong finished properly educating her...
"Hehehe..."
After several thoughtful hums, a meaningful laugh that made people extremely uneasy echoed out. The management team staff pretended not to hear and buried their faces even deeper into the screen. Whether they did or not, the laughter continued for a while longer.