WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 95: Everyone Lies

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The immortal I thought would come charging out right away did not emerge even after quite a while. The regressor made the world's most brazen declaration of stalking, saying she would keep an eye on their movements, then left.

That left me with some time to kill.

I sat in a corner of the yard and took out a deck of cards. Pinching it between my thumb and index finger, I bent it slightly, then ran my fingertips across it.

Flutter.

The cards oppressed by my right hand leaped out in search of freedom. Flutter, flutter. One after another, they made their escape until even the last card had slipped free from the tyranny of my right hand and nestled safely in my left.

Still, there was no paradise at the end of their escape.

My left hand, which had cradled them so gently until now, soon revealed its true nature and became the same monster as my right. The deck's spine bent like a bow. Desperately trying to break free again, the cards seized an opening and returned to the right hand they had just escaped.

I was moving the deck back and forth between my hands when I heard Tyr's voice.

"You're rather nimble with your hands."

Still carrying her black parasol over her shoulder, Tyr sat demurely atop her large coffin as it drifted to a stop before me. She stepped down lightly and approached.

I snorted and caught the cards in one swift motion. The cards that had fluttered like butterflies folded their wings and went still in my hand like cocoons.

"That's enough to impress you? Sorry, but this is as easy as making a five-year-old cry after they steal candy and roll their eyes around, trying to lie their way out of it. You might faint if I showed you what I can really do."

Tyr covered her mouth with her curled hand and chuckled at my shameless answer.

"Why would a grown adult make a child cry?"

"Huh? Don't you ever feel like doing that? Is it just me?"

"You shouldn't either."

"Really? When you see a kid rolling their eyes around, trying to escape an immediate crisis with an obvious lie you can see right through, don't you want to point out the lie just because they're so irritating?"

It was meant as a joke, but Tyr fell into serious thought.

When a small child tried to deceive her with a hopeless lie, how would she react? Tyr carefully considered each possibility, running through them again and again before reaching her conclusion.

"I would not do that."

"Wow, really?"

"Of course. Pointing out a child's lie brings nothing but a base sort of pleasure. Once you are grown, you should conduct yourself with more grace."

Oh. A base sort of pleasure. Base...

Base?

"Wait. Was that your roundabout way of saying I have a bad personality?"

"To be honest, your personality is not particularly gentle."

Tyr smiled as she said it, teasing me without restraint.

Well, well. We had gotten close enough for her to joke around and poke fun at me now?

Fine. Let's see.

"Tyr, let's make a bet."

"A bet?"

"Yes. I'll hide a card, and you find it."

Without looking at the deck, I drew a card and handed it to her. Tyr accepted it curiously and examined both sides.

The back had the same regular pattern as every other card. It was symmetrical too, so there was no way to tell top from bottom even if it was turned around. On the front were two bright red hearts and the number 2.

Tyr rubbed the card with her fingers, wondering whether something might be hidden on it, but it was perfectly ordinary. Holding it up to the light from different angles, she said, "It does not appear to have any trick to it."

"That card is ordinary. I swear on my honor as a magician."

"There is no need. If I failed to notice something beforehand, it is my own lack of ability."

In the past, when knowledge was not freely shared, knowing something was power, and being fooled through ignorance was considered natural. Tyr, who had lived in that era, meant it sincerely.

Of course, so did I.

"No. At least when it comes to the tools, things should be fair. It wouldn't be fun to bet using a trick only I know."

"If that is the case."

Tyr nodded and returned the card to me.

"Then a bet should have a reward. What shall we wager?"

"One wish. How does that sound?"

"...A wish?"

'A wish, no matter what it may be...? Then...'

For an instant, Tyr's eyes turned blood-red. A chill ran down my spine, and I hurriedly added, "Within reasonable limits that we can both agree on, of course! Naturally!"

"...Ah. Of course. Very well."

...Thank goodness. For some reason, I thought I had glimpsed a wish in Tyr's mind to turn me into a vampire. So I would never die and could remain by her side forever...

Anyway, Tyr accepted my proposal.

"All right. Let us see it, then."

"Heh heh heh. Good. Get ready to have your jaw drop before the sleight of hand of the new generation."

"You should not be too heartbroken if I solve it too easily. Your opponent will simply have been too formidable."

"I'll return those exact words to you. Don't be too upset if you feel like you've been scammed."

I placed the remaining deck on the ground and spread both hands wide, making it clear that I had nothing hidden in them. After checking, Tyr nodded.

Then, using only two fingers, I picked up the two of hearts.

"Here we go."

"Very well. Begin."

Tyr's eyes glowed a deeper red. She had sharpened her vision so she would not miss even the slightest movement I made.

I would live up to her expectations. Smiling confidently, I began moving the card around.

From my left hand to my right, then from my right to my left.

The card spun in circles as it passed busily between my hands.

Like a drunken butterfly, or fallen leaves blown about by a whirlwind. Tyr's expression gradually grew strange as she watched the card whirl around.

'...It is easier to follow than I expected.'

Her red eyes moved without pause. They were not trembling. They were tracking my card. Even when it shook, suddenly darted beyond her field of vision and returned, or briefly vanished behind the back of my hand.

Those red eyes, which seemed able to see through everything, followed my card from moment to moment.

'It is certainly dazzling... but it is too easy to see for something like this. It is not that fast, and though confusing, its movements are simple.'

"...Urk!"

An anxious groan slipped out. My fingers trembled with tension, and I nearly dropped the card a few times. Each time, I barely caught it again and moved it desperately.

Then, at one point, I crossed both hands in an instant. Using the moment when her view was blocked, I hid the card in my fist and held it out.

With an awkward smile, I cried out, "Ta-da! Where do you think it is?"

"Ah..."

Tyr let out a small sigh. Her red eyes lifted to me for a moment, then flicked toward my left hand.

She looked deeply troubled, not because she had lost track of the card, but because she had seen it too perfectly.

'I am sorry, Hyu... but I saw everything. When he crossed his hands and pretended to hide it, he slipped it into his left sleeve.'

Vampires could control even their eyes with blood energy. Aided by bloodcraft, Tyr's swiftly moving red eyes had tracked even the dazzling movements that ordinary eyes would have failed to follow.

Tyr hesitated, unable to give the answer because she feared embarrassing me.

'Should I not have sharpened my vision? I was tempted by the word wish and took this too seriously...'

"Heh heh. A little difficult, right? It's fine. Don't be disappointed. There's no beating aging eyesight, after all."

'...But his smugness is irritating too. Shall I show him that the world is not so easy?'

One sentence was all it took to change her mind. Tyr, now annoyed, pointed at my left hand.

"Show me your left hand."

"Left hand! You said left hand, right? No take-backs! All right, then! Could it really be in my left hand? Let's find out! Ta-da, ta-ra-ra, ta-ra, ta-da."

I immediately opened my left hand. Naturally, and just as Tyr expected, there was nothing in it.

"...Oh dear! What a shame! There was nothing in my left hand! I guess the card was in my right hand! Since you were wrong, I win the bet..."

"No, your left sleeve."

"Gasp!"

Tyr had pinpointed my sleeve exactly, and I sucked in a sharp breath.

Sweating profusely, I avoided her gaze.

"M-my left sleeve? What's that?"

"Here. Can you not see it?"

Tyr kindly grabbed my left hand and twisted my arm so the entire sleeve was visible. A card could faintly be seen inside it.

There was no denying the evidence. If I had been caught like that at a gambling table, I would have needed to start looking for a hammer.

I snorted and shrugged.

"See? A shallow lie. You couldn't help pointing it out, could you?"

Well, there were plenty of reasons.

Maybe you wanted to show someone how bitter the world could be. Maybe their behavior was so pathetic you could not stand it. Maybe it was a base desire. Maybe you simply hated losing out.

You could attach whatever reason you liked, but when people witnessed a lie right in front of them, they naturally wanted to expose it. It was almost instinctive.

Tyr looked at me in disbelief.

"Could it be that you made this bet to say that?"

"Something like that. Tyr, how ridiculous did I look? You could see it clearly, yet I hid it shamelessly, acted stubborn, and pretended not to know. You couldn't help grabbing me like this and showing me, could you?"

She could not say no. Her actions just now had been exactly that.

Tyr gave a hollow laugh.

"I have been completely played. But you are not a child."

"Compared to you, Tyr, I might as well be one. If we generously say humans live to a hundred, then using the Tyrkanzyaka age-comparison method, twenty-four-year-old me is only a two-year-old child. Waaah."

Tyr glared at me, pouted primly, and pulled the card from my sleeve.

"Yes. You are right. It seems I was not as graceful as my own words suggested. I admit it. In any case, I found where you hid the card, so this bet is my victory..."

She said that as she turned the card over.

Tyr's eyes widened in surprise when she saw its face.

"...What?"

The two hearts that had been on the pure white background were gone. In their place was a dignified queen, as if someone had freshly drawn her, holding a flower and staring straight ahead.

The queen of hearts.

That card was clearly not the one I had picked.

When Tyr, staring at it as if enchanted, turned to look at me, I pointed to my still-clenched right hand.

"Let me say what I didn't get to say earlier. I guess it was in my right hand! Ta-da!"

Making the sound effect with my mouth, I opened my right hand. The two of hearts that Tyr had been looking for was curled up inside my fist.

Tyr looked back and forth between the card in her hand and the one in mine, still bewildered. Feeling a refined pleasure as she remained confused, I gave her a deep bow.

"Though overcoming that is what makes someone worthy of being called a magician."

Tyr asked with a dazed expression, "H-how did you do that?"

"I'm not telling you. A magician must never reveal their trick to the world."

When blood gathered, the field of vision narrowed. That applied to Tyr as well.

To gain one thing, one had to give up another.

Prey had wide vision to spot predators that could come from anywhere, but in exchange, they could not properly distinguish things that approached right in front of them.

Predators that faced both eyes forward to pursue a single chosen target to the end had the penalty of being unable to see behind their heads unless they turned around.

Humans were predators in every sense of the word. Tyr, a predator among predators who fed on the blood of humans, concentrated blood energy in her eyes to follow my card. Her ability was so remarkable that even I could not completely shake her gaze.

That was why I had deceived her from the beginning.

While the queen of hearts personally lured in the Shadow Queen, the two of hearts had simply hidden behind the back of my hand before appearing at the end.

"Someone who cannot deceive others has no right to boast about seeing through someone else's deception, right?"

Well, that was mostly thanks to mind-reading too, but still.

Mind-reading had long become a part of me. I had spent my entire life with it, so how could I separate it from myself?

To begin with, if I could not read other people's thoughts, I would not notice the deceptions they hid so deeply either.

"That is... impressive. Honestly, I still do not understand what happened. I thought I was following it clearly."

Tyr clasped both hands together, full of admiration. People here were so honest with their reactions. I liked that.

Growing smug, I rubbed beneath my nose and replied, "Haha. Are you thinking about how you'll grant my wish?"

"Though, Hyu."

"Yes?"

Tyr cautiously raised her head, pointing to the queen of hearts in her hand.

"This one does not have two hearts drawn upon it... but did you not still hide this card as well?"

"Huh?"

"If that is so, then I am the winner of the bet."

"Wait."

Hold on. What had I said?

'He said he would hide a card and told me to find it. This is not the two of hearts, but a hidden card is still a hidden card. Then I did find the card he hid. So...'

Huh? She was right?

"Why did I phrase it that way?"

"Why are you asking me that?"

Seriously. What was that about? Did I want to grant her wish?

After carefully recalling the conditions, I eventually nodded.

"Now that you mention it, you're right. I can't logically refute that."

"Then you must grant my wish."

"Come on. You have the pride of the Progenitor, don't you? You were completely fooled, yet you're going to ask for a wish over something like this?"

Nod.

Tyr promptly nodded. Perhaps because she was in a better mood, life had returned to her eyes.

Well, did it matter? Tyr, who liked to act graceful, would not make some strange wish. If she did, I would reject it immediately.

At that moment, I sensed movement from inside the prison. I gathered the cards and stood.

"I'll hear your wish later. The person we've been waiting for has arrived."

Right after that, the immortal and the officer appeared from the prison. The immortal was rubbing his stomach after enjoying a hearty meal, while the officer came out into the yard with him in front of her.

Good. Would Lieutenant Colonel Callis be able to be honest with herself?

Everything was ready. Now all I had to do was watch.

Footnotes:

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