"You're lying," Azell declared.

"What are you talking about? Who's lying?"

​​

"Both of you are," he squinted in suspicion.

Well, I think it's suspicion.

"And what are we lying about?"

"About what happened today."

"Is that so?"

"That is so."

"And how can you be so sure?"

It's important to determine what exactly raised his suspicion.

I'm sure it was Neia, but what if Azell had actually sent a spy (our domestic assassin Noelle) after us to, I dunno, make sure we were safe or something?

Hmm, it IS possible.

"I don't know," Azell shrugged and looked back at Neia. "You tell me. Are you lying?"

"O-of course not," Neia averted her gaze again.

Her body language is practically screaming, 'I'm a fucking liar!'. Why is this Dragon so nervous?

Is it because I didn't disclose the second part of our plan to her? Is she worried that I might reveal the actual truth to Azell?

Well, this is precisely why I didn't tell her; I wanted her to play her part authentically.

And the only way to do it is to make her aware that she's telling a lie, and make her worried about the consequences if her lie was caught.

In other words, put her in the mindset of a liar because she's otherwise a very terrible actor.

"Look at her and tell me she's not lying," he pointed to Neia.

Aight, Jesus Azell, you didn't have to do her like that. She's trying her best, okay?

I should probably stop him before he shatters her confidence and renders her unable to lie again.

So it's once again on me to save the day, huh?

Except that was part of my own plan so I can't blame anyone. Fuck.

"What is there to look at? She's clearly saying that she's not lying."

"…Samur, I know that you're not so stupid that you wouldn't know what I'm implying."

"What if I am?"

Has he ever thought about that? No, he only ever thinks about himself.

Selfish piece of shit.

"You are not, and you cannot pretend to be. Not this late in the game, at least."

"Wow."

I guess showing abilities far greater than my age has its own disadvantages.

Who would have thought that?

"Now, the truth, please. I cannot arrange the meeting as long as you don't."

"So you're threatening me now?"

"It's just a negotiation," he smiled.

Negotiation my ass.

Azell is shrewder than I imagined. I guess there's a reason he's the Regressor.

Which works in my favour, actually.

After all, he should have reached some sort of conclusion in his own mind. I just need to reinforce it.

And it would be far from the truth.

I mean, if he actually deduced that we were chased by a Dragon who was here to take back his Princess, and I blew up my arms to kill him, then I pulled a prank on Neia who took it way too seriously and left me alone in the forest, which ultimately forced me to use an Elixir, I would have no choice but to assume that Azell has some sort of clairvoyance skill.

Oh well, we'll see.

"Well, what do you think?" I asked.

"I think nothing. Just hurry up and tell me the truth."

He's not falling for it, eh?

Let's just go in blind. I'm sure that nothing would go wrong and it'll all turn out well for me.

"Well, we didn't completely lie."

"So you admit you lied," Azell's eyes narrowed.

"Azell, we're too far into the game to be playing these mind games now. Let's just get over with it. We have a lot of things to do after this."

Like okay, I admit I arranged today's play, but I have no intention of extending it beyond it's runtime.

"…Go on."

"Thanks. Like Neia said, I used the Elixir after a monster attacked me. It's just that the conditions were slightly different."

"How?"

"Well, you tell me. What would I need to do to achieve a clear time of 2 minutes and 48 seconds?"

"You don't mean…" his eyes widened.

"Exactly- wait, are we thinking about the same thing?"

What if he's imagining something else, like me hiring a bunch of mercenaries to carry me through the expedition? What if he believes that the mission went horribly wrong?

Or what if he's thinking that I was trying something new, fucked up, and raised the level of the dungeon to, say, 5-star?

It's better to confirm it beforehand.

"Well… I don't know. Just continue."

"Alright. So, to clear the dungeon within three minutes, it was necessary to travel at a great speed while killing the monsters within milliseconds with extreme precision."

"Okay."

"And as you can imagine, when you're going so fast, the chances of making a mistake rise up exponentially."

"Yes, and that's why I sent Neia with you," he furrowed his brows.

"And that's where the story changes."

"How?"

"I actually fooled Neia and left her behind."

"What?" he frowned. "Why?"

"Because I wanted to make a World Record by myself, duh. Anyway, I used flight magic and disappeared from her sight, and made my way towards the dungeon core. I used magic to slaughter all the monsters I encountered. It was going well, until…"

"Until?"

"Until I came upon a particularly large group of monsters."

"What happened then?"

"I got a bit too much into killing them, lost control of my flight magic, dived into the group of monsters and was mutilated by them."

"…" Azell gasped, while Neia's eyes drooped.

I had specifically instructed her to stay absolutely quiet once I started my story; all she needed to do was remember the guilt of doing what she did to me and wallow in it.

While doing so will probably take a toll on her heart, it still will allow her to put on a believable performance.

"Neia was nowhere to be seen, so I was forced to use the Elixir to heal myself and kill the monsters to save my ass."

"…I see," he sighed.

"And that's the story of how I ended up using the only Elixir I had," I shrugged.

GG, mission complete.

"I'm sorry."

"Oh, no worries. I used an Elixir, so I'm perfectly fine. Also, not only was I able to confirm its effects, I also got a World Record on my name. So all in all, today was a rather fruitful day."

"No, you don't understand."

"I don't?"

What else could he be apologising for then?

"I'm sorry that you felt the need to lie to me about something like… this."

Hmm?