The interrogation room fell into a dead silence. Rosalind stood dazed on the side, completely unable to process the information Ain had just dropped.
“From the very beginning, all of your reactions were an act.”
Ain's gaze was as sharp as a blade. Like a hunter sizing up a prey that was already cornered, his eyes locked onto Belinda without mercy.
With no one else around, Ain no longer held back.
“The moment I exposed your organization's name, shouldn't you have acted completely unbothered to mislead your interrogator?”
“With a forbidden curse of unknown origin at your disposal, that should have been incredibly easy for you, shouldn't it?”
Just as Ain said, he had already formed a hypothesis at that very moment.
A Tier 4 forbidden curse capable of controlling one's emotional fluctuations at will: Zero-degree Grief.
To confirm his theory, Ain remained outwardly calm while silently performing a divination in his mind.
【17】The Star
Broadly meaning: the correct path.
He was right!
Ain leaned back in his chair and began to clap slowly.
“Truly spectacular acting.”
Ain shrugged and continued, “Though I must thank you for helping me get rid of that Arbiter.”
What a joke. Did that old fox really think I didn't know what he was plotting?
Ain silently sneered at Erich in his heart.
Right from the start, he had deliberately guided Belinda to create an illusion for Erich that the answer was within arm's reach.
In reality, the revelations from the Cards of Canal had nothing to do with the words coming out of his mouth.
The most practical application of Divination Magic was determining the truth of an answer or obtaining a specific, concrete number.
While Ain was laying out the cards, his mind had simultaneously begun a silent deduction and divination.
How many digits make up the total number of people involved in this operation?
What are the numbers in the hundreds, tens, and ones places?
Ain had used a total of four divinations.
If he had directly asked for the total headcount, the divination would have only yielded a vague range.
Ain needed an exact number to throw Belinda off balance first, making her realize he could divine the secrets deep in her heart at any moment.
This was also why he had whispered the name of the Nightingale Secret Order.
The more she desperately tried to hide those details, the easier the subsequent divinations would succeed.
The terror on Belinda's face froze. Her expression gradually calmed as she began to re-evaluate Ain.
“But in truth, divining a location only gives a general direction. Your drop-off point is indeed in the greenhouse, but the basement floor and hydroponic rack numbers I just mentioned? I made them all up.”
Ain chuckled.
Divination was incapable of such precise targeting.
“You knew that mere verbal interference wouldn't stop my deductions and divinations. You were afraid—afraid that I would find the most critical piece of information!”
“So, you deliberately let something slip to steer the conversation toward your contact and the drop-off point!”
“Then, after I gave you an exact location, your first reaction wasn't to argue with me or question the validity of the divination.”
“You put on a highly emotional display to signal to me that I had guessed correctly, leading me to believe that was the actual location!”
“You wanted me to let my guard down, to make me believe I had the right answer all along.”
Ain stood up and stretched.
“My, what a brilliant scheme.”
Rosalind instinctively covered her mouth, her face a mask of utter astonishment.
She had never imagined that the interrogation just now contained so many layers of deception.
“So here lies the question: why would you rather sacrifice an actual drop-off point just to divert my attention? What on earth could it be? It's so hard to guess.”
Ain narrowed his eyes into thin slits, a broad smile plastered across his face, though the warmth never reached his eyes.
“...You're right.”
Belinda finally spoke. The panic on her face had completely vanished, replaced by a chilling, vicious smile.
Ain wasn't surprised by her transformation.
In the original game, Belinda possessed ruthless methods and an unpredictable personality.
The more she displayed normal human reactions, the more suspicious Ain became.
Since things had reached this point, he had already gathered enough preliminary information for his divination.
The deeper his understanding of the subject or their past, the clearer the trajectory of fate would reveal itself.
Next was to ask the most critical question.
“What is it that you've been hiding in the depths of your heart all this time?”
The moment the words left his mouth, a card drifted into Ain's hand.
【8】War
Mortal Card
Upright: A hidden threat, an impending conflict.
Reversed: Unavoidable damage, unstoppable turmoil.
Ain murmured, “As expected, it's an attack?”
Just like in the original game, the Nightingale Secret Order would launch a riot in Act Two, triggering Lillian's witchification.
But why had the academy never noticed?
What kind of method did the Nightingale Secret Order use to pull off their schemes right under the noses of the academy's top brass?
“An attack?”
Rosalind's pupils contracted sharply.
Wasn't this supposed to be about a transaction involving forbidden potions?
Why did it suddenly involve an attack? And what was that organization Ain just mentioned?
What on earth was going on...?
Ignoring Rosalind standing beside him, Ain pressed on, “What about the timing?”
“Who knows? Maybe next week?”
“Or maybe the day after tomorrow? Or tomorrow?”
Belinda curled her lips, a seductive, eerie smile creeping into her eyes.
“Even today is a possibility~”
Ain didn't care what she said.
What he wanted was the answer from the Cards of Canal.
This time, the card that drifted into his hand was the seventeenth Mortal Card: The Star.
“What?”
Ain froze.
Belinda wasn't lying!
“The Saintess's glory will eventually return to the world. Only her grace is the irreplaceable treasure of this world.”
As she spoke, Belinda casually placed her handcuffed hands on the table. Her fingertips reached past the magic handcuffs and landed directly on one of the cards on the table.
It was the ninth card in the Spirit Card sequence: The Banshee.
Rate on N.U.
