The next day, Tuesday at lunchtime.
It was his first real break in a long time, but there was no time to relax.
Ex roused Lola from her nap and brought her to one of the library’s study rooms.
He had something he needed to test, and while he was at it, he could tutor Lola, who almost never studied.
The test went like this.
“I’m not actually a commoner. I’m a noble.”
“W-What?! Are you serious?!”
“I’m actually trying to prevent the end of the world.”
“Liar! You think I’d fall for something like that?”
Lola was shocked by one thing Ex said, only to be shocked all over again by the next.
Somehow, the words coming out of his mouth sounded completely true one moment and like outrageous lies the next.
Her thoughts became such a tangled mess that her eyes practically spun in circles.
“Uuugh… I-Is it true? Are you joking?”
“The truth is out there…”
“You’re messing with me again!!”
Ex nodded to himself after seeing Lola’s wonderfully explosive reaction.
‘So that’s how you use it.’
What he was doing now was testing one of his new talents.
『Ten Thousand Lies (S) / Active / Demon Skill
Your lies become more likely to deceive the target.
The Activation Point requirement rises according to the magnitude of the lie.
Activation Points are reset when One Truth (S) is used.
This skill ignores all truth-detection effects.
Activation Points: 10000/10000』
‘This is pretty good.’
Ten Thousand Lies, the talent he had used on Circe yesterday.
It was an ability that made other people believe his lies.
The number of Activation Points consumed rose in proportion to the magnitude of the lie, so he couldn’t use it on anything too outrageously implausible.
For example, it worked like this.
“Young Lady, I’m actually the Hero. I’ve simply been hiding my true strength.”
『Insufficient Activation Points to activate Ten Thousand Lies (S)!
Required Points: 100,000』
“…You?”
Lola shot him a sidelong look and sighed.
“Everyone knows Leon was chosen as the Hero. Who would believe a lie like that?”
“You didn’t fall for it… As expected, Young Lady, you’re very clever.”
“Do you seriously want to die?!”
That was how the talent was affected by plausibility.
The more reasons the other person had to be certain that something couldn’t possibly be true, the more absurdly high the Activation Point cost became.
That was why the lie he had just told required one hundred thousand points.
Conversely, the more room there was for the target to wonder, ‘Could it actually be true?’ the lower the cost became.
In other words, the right setup could significantly increase his odds of success.
“Young Lady, I was actually born into royalty on the continent of the rising sun, far beyond the eastern continent and across the distant sea. Within my heart dwells a star of freedom that races across the vast plains of Manchuria.”
“Th-This time, I’m definitely not falling for it!”
“Think about it. If I weren’t royalty, how could I possibly have enrolled at this academy? No matter how exceptional I might be, could a commoner really have accomplished everything I’ve done so far?”
“H-Huh? Wait… Really…?”
“So, should I ever return to my homeland, I will show you the radiant glory of our ‘Kim’ dynasty. After all, Young Lady, you are my comrade-in-arms, someone who endured hardship at my side.”
『Ten Thousand Lies (S) activated!
Points Consumed: 100』
“I-Is that really true?!”
“Well, no. I’m joking.”
“Hey!!!”
When he used the talent after thoroughly confusing the other person like this, the Activation Point cost dropped dramatically.
The effect was even stronger on someone as innocent and trusting as Lola.
That was why he had only consumed one hundred points just now.
‘Ten Thousand Lies has plenty of possible uses. But…’
As Lola furiously yanked at his hair, Ex examined the other talent.
『One Truth (S) / Active / Demon Skill
After telling too many lies, even your truths will no longer be believed.
The Activation Point requirement rises according to the magnitude of the truth.
Using Ten Thousand Lies (S) generates Activation Points.
When this skill activates, Activation Points are reset.
This skill ignores all truth-detection effects.
Activation Points: 100/10000』
‘I can’t think of any way to use this one…’
This talent was much harder to make sense of.
An effect that made people refuse to believe him even when he told the truth? Compared to Ten Thousand Lies, it was practically useless.
If he had to guess why it existed at all, it was probably some kind of penalty.
‘So I have to use One Truth to restore Ten Thousand Lies to ten thousand points. Then One Truth drops to zero.’
This talent consumed points according to the same rules as Ten Thousand Lies.
When he told the truth, the cost was lower if the target found it impossible to believe, and higher if they trusted it completely.
However, the only way to accumulate Activation Points was to keep using Ten Thousand Lies.
‘Since I just spent one hundred Activation Points on Ten Thousand Lies…’
『One Truth (S) / Active / Demon Skill
Activation Points: 100/10000』
One Truth now had one hundred Activation Points.
It was exactly the same number of points he had spent on Ten Thousand Lies.
With a structure like this, accumulating points would be brutally difficult.
‘Why is this S-rank? The effect is weird, and the restrictions are awful.’
By all appearances, it was nothing more than a penalty disguised as a talent.
Even so, there was a reason Ex was racking his brain trying to analyze it.
‘This is exactly the sort of ability that turns out to be a broken cheat.’
His instincts, honed over ten years as an editor, were screaming that this talent was the real cheat.
Of course, he still failed to reach any meaningful conclusion.
‘Still… thank goodness they have this trait.’
On the surface, they were merely two talents that manipulated whether someone believed him.
But their true value lay elsewhere.
‘Ignores all truth-detection effects.’
They could neutralize lie-detection methods such as the Book of Eibon.
That was the true power of these talents.
‘There are more lie detectors in this world than you’d think.’
There was Circe’s Book of Eibon, which he had seen the other day.
There were also the theocracy’s Inquisitors, along with any number of magic devices and artifacts.
Even fooling one of them a single time would make the talents worthwhile.
Most people trusted the results of lie detection absolutely, so it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that successfully bypassing one made the lie twice as effective.
‘That’s enough for these two.’
He finished analyzing the talents.
He had a general idea of how he should use them in the future.
To reset the points, he tried activating One Truth with a harmless enough statement.
“You know I care about you, don’t you?”
『Insufficient Activation Points to activate One Truth (S)!
Required Points: 10,000』
“I don’t believe you, you liar! Like I’d ever fall for that again!”
‘Huh?’
The unexpected result left Ex momentarily stunned.
Meanwhile, Lola stopped tearing at his hair, sat across from him, and continued grumbling.
As she studied, she kept sneaking glances in his direction.
It didn’t take him long to realize what that meant.
‘She’s so bad at being honest…’
The implication was obvious.
Lola believed Ex’s sincere statement without the slightest trace of doubt.
She was only grumbling that she didn’t believe him. Deep down, she felt the exact opposite.
‘Ten thousand points’ worth of trust…’
He couldn’t help wondering when he had built a bond of trust worth ten thousand points with this little hellion.
Apparently, if he wanted to use One Truth on her, he would have to say something truly significant.
“Actually, I’m not part of a secret society.”
『One Truth (S) activated!
Required Points: 100』
“…What are you testing this time?”
If that only required one hundred points, it meant she could no longer believe that he wasn’t part of a secret society.
It also meant his earlier lie had taken deep root.
‘If she ever finds out, she’ll rip every hair out of my head.’
Praying that day would never come, he hurriedly smoothed things over.
“It was a test of faith. The fact that you didn’t believe me means you passed.”
“You’re seriously asking for it!!”
Ex barely managed to stop Lola from coming after his hair again.
Just as he was about to analyze the other changes,
「That isn’t how you’re supposed to use it.」
Someone’s voice reached Ex’s ears.
“Mm? Young Lady, did you say something?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
The innocent expression on Lola’s face told him she wasn’t lying.
‘Is someone in the room next door?’
Ex focused on every sound reaching the study room.
But he couldn’t hear anything.
‘Did I imagine it…?’
It wasn’t wise to dismiss something like that so quickly, but he had no way to investigate the hallucination any further.
With no other choice, he decided to let it go for now.
He never noticed the Soul Trap Ring on his left index finger flash for a single instant.
***
By the time he finished helping Lola study, evening had already arrived.
After eating with Lola, who made an enormous fuss about starving, he brought the day’s study session to an end.
Once he returned to his room, he went over everything else that still needed checking.
His first priority was obvious.
“I need to figure out what Elysia is up to.”
He immediately opened Setting Edit to check his Author Points.
However, he couldn’t access them.
『This condition has been blocked.』
“…Haa. So she caught on.”
He had expected this day to come eventually, but it had arrived far sooner than he had anticipated.
Now he could no longer monitor changes in his Author Points and use them to prepare for whatever was coming.
‘I couldn’t even check when I got hit with that penalty last time.’
He tried several different methods of accessing his Author Points, but none of them worked.
Every attempt merely told him that the condition had been blocked.
One of the most powerful weapons at his disposal had been neutralized.
It made his guts twist, but there was nothing he could do about it.
“No helping it… I’ll have to check the other things first.”
He returned to the remaining talents he hadn’t finished examining.
『Humanization (-) (In Effect) / Transformation Skill
Assume the guise of a human, suppressing your demonic aura.
However, receiving a sufficiently powerful sacred attack will forcibly dispel the transformation.』
『Demonization (-) / Transformation Skill
Manifest in your original form.
Enhances Base Stats and Demon Skills.
Demonic Aura Concealment cannot be used during Demonization.』
“So these appeared because my race changed to demon…”
Only then did the reality that he had become a demon truly sink in.
“If Demonization means returning to my original form… then I really did become a demon…”
While he was at it, he used Setting Edit to check whether he could turn himself human again.
『[Race Change: Human] Required Points: Impossible』
“Why is this…”
He had expected as much, but seeing it displayed in front of him still drew a groan from his throat.
The status window responded to his lament.
『This condition is the result of a temporary measure.』
That was unexpected information.
Based on what it said, his transformation into a demon wasn’t part of the system’s normal operation.
‘Maybe the system isn’t omnipotent either?’
No answer would come no matter how long he thought about it, so he ignored the issue for now.
Thinking of it as some kind of bug made him feel better.
“More importantly, when is that damned temporary measure going to be lifted?”
『Unable to answer.』
“Damn it. That’s one more person I want to thump on the head.”
The next thing he needed to examine was how Demonization would change him.
The enhancement of his Base Stats and Demon Skills.
He needed to understand exactly what those effects involved.
There was no question that he should test it, but…
“Will this really be okay? Turning into a demon won’t mess with my mind or anything, right?”
He couldn’t help feeling uneasy about it.
He had personally experienced what demons were like.
The thought of transforming into such a being himself left him with complicated, conflicting emotions.
『More precisely, you would be returning to your original form.
Your human form is merely a guise.』
“So is it safe to do or not?”
『It is not recommended.
A temporary measure has been applied to this condition.』
“That damned temporary measure again…”
No matter what he asked about the temporary measure, Serry refused to answer. When he asked what would change after Demonization, she only responded that she was unable to answer.
In the end, there was only one way to find out.
He would have to test it himself.
“I can’t do it here, so I’d have to leave the academy…”
The academy was currently under emergency lockdown.
All faculty members and students were completely forbidden from leaving the grounds.
If he was caught trying to sneak out, he wouldn’t merely be expelled on the spot. He could also become a suspect in the recent attack.
“Then again, if I use Demonization here, I’ll become the actual culprit…”
That forced him to postpone testing Demonization as well.
The last things he needed to check were the new products added to the Item Shop and Talent Shop.
‘I currently have 55,200 points.’
With that much, he could probably buy out the entire stock no matter what had been added.
“Uh…?”
Ex’s eyes widened as he looked at one of the newly added products.
“Uh, uh… Why is this here…?”
Looking back, it made sense for an item like this to exist.
Even so, it was exactly the sort of thing he had always assumed would never actually appear.
“‘Add Observer Viewpoint’?”
A cheat code had been added.
***
At the same time Ex finished dinner and returned to his room, a young girl arrived at the academy’s main gate.
“I’ve finally arrived, Goddess!”
She was a beautiful girl with pink hair.
“Huh? Goddess, can you hear me? Goddess Elysia~! You’re not answering… You did say it would be difficult for you to respond for a while… What am I supposed to do now?”
Still lost in thought, the girl made her way toward the academy.
“For now, should I look for this ‘Ex’ person I’m supposed to kill?”
Elia smiled with guileless innocence.
–TL Notes–
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