Chapter 95: Everyone Lies
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 95: Everyone Lies
The Undying, who I thought would storm out immediately, didn't appear for quite some time. The Regressor declared she would observe their movements—the most brazen declaration of stalking in the world—and left.
Thanks to her, I had a moment to myself.
I sat in a corner of the yard and took out a deck of cards. Gripping the deck between my thumb and index finger, I bent it slightly and riffled the edges with my fingertips.
Fwip.
The cards, oppressed by my right hand, leaped out in search of freedom. Fwip-fwip-fwip. One by one they fled, until the very last card escaped the tyranny of my right hand and settled gently into the embrace of my left.
But there is no paradise for fugitives.
The left hand, which had so gently embraced them, soon revealed its true nature and became the same monster as the right. The spine of the deck bent like a bow. Straining to escape once more, the cards seized their chance and returned to the right hand they had just fled.
I was in the middle of shuffling the deck back and forth between my hands like this.
“You're quite skilled with your hands.”
It was Tyr's voice. Still carrying her jet-black parasol on her shoulder, she had been sitting demurely atop a large coffin. She stopped smoothly before me, alighted gracefully, and approached.
I chuckled and snatched the cards out of the air in one fluid motion. The cards, which had been fluttering like butterflies, folded their wings and held their breath in my hand like a chrysalis.
“‘Quite skilled’ for just this? I'm sorry, but this is as easy as making a five-year-old cry after catching him stealing candy with his eyes darting all over the place. If I showed you what I can really do, you might just faint.”
At my slick reply, Tyr covered her mouth with a curled hand and giggled.
“Why would a grown adult go around making children cry?”
“Huh? You don't ever feel that way? Is it just me?”
“You shouldn't do that either.”
“Really? When you see a kid with shifty eyes trying to escape a crisis with an obvious lie that you can see right through, don't you feel an urge to point it out, just to be a little mean?”
Though I'd asked in jest, Tyr fell into serious thought.
How would she react if a small child tried to deceive her with a clumsy trick? After seriously running through the simulations, Tyr soon reached a conclusion.
“I would not do such a thing.”
“Wow, really?”
“Of course. The only thing to be gained from pointing out a child's lie is a base pleasure, is it not? One who has aged ought to act with a bit more dignity.”
Oho. A base pleasure. Base…
Base?
“Hey, are you taking a roundabout jab at my personality?”
“In truth, your personality is not exactly gentle, is it?”
Tyr said playfully, a mischievous glint in her smile.
Oh-ho, so we're close enough to trade jokes now, are we?
Alright then. Let's see.
“Tyr. Let's make a bet.”
“A bet?”
“Yes. I'll hide a card, and you have to find it.”
Without looking, I drew a card from the deck and handed it to her. Tyr accepted it with an intrigued expression and examined its front and back.
The back had the same regular, symmetrical pattern as the other cards, making it impossible to tell top from bottom. The front showed two bright red hearts and the number 2.
Wondering if there was something hidden, Tyr even rubbed the card with her finger, but it was perfectly normal. She tilted it this way and that as she spoke.
“There doesn't seem to be any trick to it.”
“It's an ordinary card. I swear on my honor as a magician.”
“There is no need for that. If I fail to notice a trick beforehand, that is merely a lack of my own ability.”
In an age when knowledge was not freely shared, knowing was power, and being deceived out of ignorance was considered natural. As someone who had lived through that era, Tyr meant every word.
Of course, I was being sincere too.
“No, we should at least be on equal footing when it comes to the tools. It's no fun to bet using a trick only I know.”
“If you insist.”
Nodding, Tyr returned the card to me and asked.
“Alright. A bet must have a reward. What shall we wager?”
“A wish. How about it?”
“…A wish?”
‘A wish… any wish at all…? In that case.’
For a moment, Tyr's eyes turned blood-red. A chill ran down my spine, and I quickly added.
“Within mutually agreeable, common-sense limits, of course! Obviously!”
“…Ah. Of course. I understand.”
…Thank goodness. For some reason, I felt like the wish to turn me into a vampire had just flickered through her mind. To be by her side forever, undying even in death…
In any case, Tyr accepted my proposal.
“Very well. Go on, then.”
“Heheheh. Excellent. Now, prepare to be amazed by the sleight of hand of the new generation.”
“And you, do not be disheartened if I guess too easily. It will only mean your opponent was too good.”
“I'll say the same to you. Don't feel too cheated when you lose.”
I placed the rest of the deck on the ground and spread my hands wide to show I was hiding nothing. After confirming, Tyr nodded.
Then, using only two fingers, I picked up the Two of Hearts.
“Alright. Here I go.”
“Yes. Begin.”
Tyr's eyes glowed a deeper red. She was focusing her power into her vision so as not to miss a single one of my trivial movements.
I'll live up to your expectations. I smiled confidently and began to move the card back and forth.
From left hand to right, from right hand to left.
The card spun and twirled, darting busily between my hands.
Like a drunken butterfly, or a leaf scattered by a whirlwind. As she watched the card's dizzying dance, Tyr's expression grew peculiar.
‘…It's… far easier to see than I expected.’
Her red eyes moved ceaselessly. They weren't trembling; they were tracking my card. Even when it shook, when it suddenly shot out of her field of view and returned, or when it hid behind the back of my hand and vanished for a moment.
Her piercing red eyes followed my card from moment to moment.
‘It's certainly flashy… but for all that, it's too easy to see. It's not that fast, and while it's dizzying, the movements are simple.’
“…Hngh!”
I let out an anxious groan. My fingers trembled with tension, and I almost dropped the card several times. Each time, I barely managed to catch it and continued moving it desperately.
And then, at a certain moment.
I crossed my hands, and using the brief moment my view was obscured, I hid the card in my fist and held it out.
I exclaimed with an awkward smile.
“Ta-da! Where is it?”
“Ah…”
Tyr let out a small sigh. Her red eyes glanced up at me, then flickered toward my left hand.
She wore a deeply troubled expression, not because she had lost track of the card… but because she had tracked it too perfectly.
‘I feel bad for Hu, but… I saw everything. As he crossed his hands, he pretended to hide it while actually slipping it into his left sleeve.’
A vampire can even control their eyes with blood energy. Aided by her Bloodcraft, her rapidly darting red eyes had tracked the flashy movements to the very end, movements an ordinary eye would have lost.
Fearing I would be embarrassed, Tyr hesitated, unable to bring herself to give the answer.
‘Should I not have enhanced my vision? The word 'wish' tempted me, and I took this too seriously…’
“Heheh. A little difficult, wasn't it? It's okay, don't be disappointed. There's no cure for old eyes, after all.”
‘…But his smugness is also rather irritating. Perhaps I should show him the world isn't such a pushover.’
One word was enough to change her mind. Provoked, Tyr pointed a finger at my left hand.
“Show me your left hand.”
“The left hand! You said the left hand, right? No take-backs! Now, could it be! The left hand? Let's find out! Ta-da, ta-da-da, ta-ran, ta-da.”
I immediately opened my left hand. As expected—by both me and Tyr—there was nothing in it.
“…Oh dear! What a shame! Nothing in the left hand! I guess the card was in my right hand! Well then. Since you were wrong, I win the bet—”
“No, I meant your left sleeve.”
“Gasp!”
Tyr pointed precisely at my sleeve, and I sucked in a sharp breath.
I started sweating bullets and avoided her gaze.
“M-m-my left sleeve? What's that?”
“Here. Do you not see it?”
Tyr was kind enough to seize my left hand and twist my arm so the sleeve was in full view. The faint outline of a card was visible inside.
Incontrovertible proof. A situation that, if discovered at a gambling table, would have people reaching for a hammer.
I chuckled and shrugged.
“See? A shallow lie. You can't help but point it out, can you?”
Well, the reasons are many.
To teach someone a lesson about the harshness of the world, because their actions are pathetic, because of a base desire, or simply because you hate to lose.
You can frame it however you like, but in the end, when you witness a lie right in front of you, you want to expose it. It's practically a universal instinct.
Tyr asked again, a look of disbelief on her face.
“Did you… perhaps make this bet just to say that?”
“Something like that. Tyr, how ridiculous did I look? Shamelessly hiding something in plain sight, then stubbornly playing dumb. You just couldn't resist grabbing my arm and exposing me, could you?”
She couldn't deny it. Her actions just now were proof enough.
Tyr replied with a hollow laugh.
“I've been completely had. However, you are not a child.”
“Compared to you, I'm practically a baby. If we generously assume a human lifespan is 100 years, then at twenty-four, using the Tyrkanzyaka Age Comparison Law, I'm nothing more than a two-year-old. Goo goo ga ga.”
Tyr shot me a glare, pouted primly, and pulled the card out of my sleeve.
“Alright. You are right. It seems I am not as dignified as my words suggest. I admit it. In any case, I have found where you hid the card, so this bet is my victory—”
It was as she said this that Tyr flipped the card over.
Her eyes widened in surprise as she saw its face.
“…Huh?”
The two hearts on the white background were gone. In their place was a stern-looking queen, seemingly newly drawn, holding a flower and staring straight ahead.
The Queen of Hearts.
It was clearly a different card from the one I had picked up.
As Tyr, who had been staring as if mesmerized, turned back to me, I pointed to my still-clenched right hand.
“Let me finish what I was saying earlier. I guess it was in my right hand! Ta-da!”
Making a sound effect with my mouth, I opened my right hand. The Two of Hearts she was supposed to find was curled up in my palm.
Tyr looked back and forth between the card in her hand and the one in mine, bewildered. Toward her, still lost in confusion, I felt a lofty pleasure and took a deep bow.
“Well, one must overcome such things to be called a magician.”
Tyr asked again, her face baffled.
“H-how did you do that?”
“I'm not telling. A magician must never reveal his tricks to the world.”
When you focus intensely, your vision narrows. This applied to Tyr as well.
To gain one thing, you must give up another.
Prey, which developed a wide field of vision to spot predators from any direction, became unable to properly discern things right in front of its nose.
In contrast, predators, whose eyes faced forward to track a single target to the end, were saddled with the penalty of being unable to see behind them without turning their heads.
Humans are predators in both name and reality. And Tyr, a predator among predators who feeds on human blood, focused her blood energy into her eyes to track my card. Her ability was so exceptional that even I couldn't completely shake her gaze.
So I deceived her from the start.
While the Queen of Hearts personally lured the Queen of Shadows, the Two of Hearts was leisurely hiding on the back of my hand, only making its appearance later.
“Someone who can't deceive others has no right to brag about seeing through someone else's deception, now do they?”
Well, this was mostly thanks to my mind-reading, but whatever.
At this point, I am mind-reading and mind-reading is me. We've spent a lifetime together; how could we possibly be separated?
In the first place, if I couldn't read the thoughts of others, I'd never be able to notice the deceptions they've hidden so deeply.
“That's… incredible. Honestly, I still don't quite understand how it happened. I was so sure I was following it.”
Tyr clasped her hands together in admiration. I like how honest people are with their reactions here.
Feeling smug, I rubbed the spot under my nose and replied.
“Haha. You should be thinking about how you're going to grant my wish.”
“However, Hu.”
“Yes?”
Tyr cautiously raised her head and pointed to the Queen of Hearts in her hand.
“This may not be the card with two hearts… but you did hide this card, did you not?”
“Huh?”
“If that is the case, then I have won the bet.”
“Eh?”
Hold on. What did I say?
‘I definitely said I would hide a card and she should find it. This isn't the card with two hearts, but a hidden card is a hidden card. In that case, she did find a hidden card. Which means…’
Wait, she's right?
“Why did I say that?”
“Why are you asking me that?”
Good point. What was I thinking? Did I want to grant her wish?
After carefully reviewing the terms, I finally nodded.
“Now that you mention it, you're right. I can't logically refute that.”
“Then, you must grant my wish.”
“Come on. Have some pride as a Progenitor. You were completely fooled, and now you're going to claim your wish on a technicality?”
Nod.
Tyr nodded readily. Her mood seemed to have improved, as the life had returned to her eyes.
Well, whatever. Tyr, who pretends to be so dignified, won't make a strange wish, right? If she does, I'll shut it down immediately.
Just then, I sensed movement from inside the prison. I gathered my cards and got to my feet.
“I'll hear your wish later. The person we've been waiting for has arrived.”
Immediately after, the Undying and the officer appeared from the prison. The Undying was patting his stomach as if he'd just had a hearty meal, while the officer emerged into the yard, letting him walk ahead.
Good. Now, will Lieutenant Colonel Callis be able to be honest with her own heart?
The preparations are complete. All that's left is to watch.