"Uh-huh. In other words, let's lie."

"Hmmm…" Neia frowned, closed her eyes and cupped her chin, perhaps having an internal conflict about whether she should lie or not.

​​

I actually didn't think she would ponder so much over such a simple matter.

I mean, everyone lies. The world itself is made up of lies, so one more addition to that bottomless pit of lies wouldn't really matter.

But I guess I can think that way because I can look at it objectively. For Neia, however, this particular lie is something she's personally involved in.

She's already carrying the burden of doing those things to me, and to her, lying about it must mean adding to that burden.

She might be under the impression that telling them the truth would lessen her guilt because she will face punishment for her actions.

In my opinion, of course, that would be the height of stupidity. She did those things to me, so I'm the only one who has the right to decide what happens to her burden.

The fact that she's looking for outside help to resolve her guilt is insulting in itself.

But then again, as I always say, to each their own.

"Alright, I understand," she finally relented with a sigh.

Nice. Accomplice gained.

GG, mission complete.

"Perfect. Now, how good are you at lying?"

"Uh, not the best, I'd say."

"Seriously? Woah. The art of lying is a must have in this cruel world, you know? You don't know when your lie could save the lives of you and those precious to you."

"Okay, now you're taking it too far," Neia harrumphed.

"It's the truth. I can give you examples upon examples, but you will never truly understand until you are in that situation yourself. Anyway, you have to be proficient in lying; it has many real-life applications as well."

"Oh yeah?"

"Let's say you're locked in a battle till death with someone, and he's your equal in strength. Then the amount of information you have and how much false information you can give him will decide the chances of your victory."

"Huh, I never thought of it that way," her eyes widened slightly.

"As I always say, the possibilities are limited by your own imagination."

"You don't ALWAYS say that."

"Whatever. Anyway, you're not proficient in lying, right?"

"I never had the chance to perfect the art of lying, unfortunately."

"Don't worry, you will."

She has me, after all.

As someone whose identity itself is based on a lie, I think it'd be safe to say that I'm an expert at lying.

Samur Magnificent Liar Eckart at your service.

"I'll be under your guidance, teacher," she smiled.

"You have a lot of things to learn, my dear pupil. First of all, because you're so inexperienced, we'll create a multi-layered lie to fool Azell."

"What's that?"

"We will lie about lying."

"How?"

"We will start with a flimsy, easy to see through lie, and you will be the one to tell that."

"Why me?"

"With your bad acting, Azell will immediately sense that something is wrong. He'll question the things we will tell him, and arrive at the conclusion that something is wrong."

"Ah, then he'll question us!"

Oh my, looks like Neia is a fast learner.

She might have a talent for lying, after all.

Though now that I think about it, this entire situation is quite odd. I'm actually teaching a motherfucking Dragon how to lie so that she doesn't have to face the wrath of her human comrades.

And I'm doing it even though I was the one who was wronged by her.

So, am I doing it because I don't care about what she did to me, or that I have already forgiven her, or that I find this whole situation quite amusing?

A bit of first and third, actually.

Training a scion of truth to lie is quite interesting in of itself, but the true aim is to create a pawn.

I mean, if I'm to act as a King, I'll need pawns to move around, right?

Though given her potential, Neia would be more like the Queen of the chess board rather than a mere pawn.

She'll be more capable than me but will move on my behalf and protect me.

Seriously though, the King in chess is absolutely useless, but I guess that's just a real-life portrayal of Kings.

"Exactly. You're learning."

"Thanks…" She then sighed. "I have no idea how to feel that I'm getting good at lying…"

"Believe me, it'll come in handy. Anyway, when Azell will question us, you will hesitate and say you don't know what he's talking about."

"I see," she nodded.

"Of course, because we will actually be lying, you won't need to act; you can just be yourself. That will create a believable performance."

If we want to succeed, Azell has to believe that Neia is hiding a 'truth' behind her lie.

"And that's when I'll take the stage. Because I'm frankly such an awesome actor, I'll raise the curtain on our second, real lie."

"Stop praising yourself. Also, why are we doing it in such a roundabout way? Why not just tell him the real lie?"

Oh, she's asking questions. Objectively looking at the teachings and doubting things you don't understand is the mark of an excellent student.

I couldn't be prouder of her.

"The characteristic of a good lie is that the person being lied to is guided towards it."

"Oh…" She exclaimed.

"That way, they are more likely to believe it because it's a conclusion they arrived at by themselves. After all, people seldom doubt themselves."

"Huh, lying is more complicated than I thought."

"That's why I called it an art. Just like any other art, it requires constant practice to master. It has its own tricks, and some are born more talented than others."

"Huh," she slowly nodded.

"For example, there are several marks of a liar. They avoid eye contact, they frequently cover their face with gestures, they have an awkward look in their eyes because the timing of their facial expressions is off. A liar is usually slow to respond. When asked questions, they repeat the question to buy some more time. Liars also try to forcefully change the subject of the conversation. And the list goes on."

"That's… much more complicated that I thought."

"You can learn all the signs of a liar and make a conscious effort to eliminate them while lying, but based on the situation, that in itself might create an inconsistency. Because they are not just the signs of a liar."

"You sure know a lot about lying," she noted.

"That's how you know that I'm qualified to be your teacher."

"How do you know so much though?" Her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"That, my student, is a trade secret."

"Yeah, right," she rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, I'll guide you step by step on the path to concocting a perfect lie."

"Okay," she gulped.

Now, let's lie, shall we?