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149 A Battle of Wits

「Even if the slums burn down, the country won’t feel a thing. At least, that’s what they think.」

「That’s horrible…」

「And that’s not the worst of it. The dead ones might actually be the lucky ones.」

「You’ve caught on, Marge. Us Elves, apparently, look just the way humans like. The useless ones are granted death. The ones that might be useful? They’re reported dead and sold off. For all the taxes they couldn’t squeeze out of the slums, they’ll make it back right here in one go. Wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest.」

「The Knight Orders are made up of humans with an unhealthy obsession with hunting demi-humans. No matter where they hide, they’ll sniff them out.」

「That bastard… left behind insurance like this…!?」

Remonde cursed someone who wasn’t even present. The ‘bastard’ in question was clearly pulling the strings.

「Who is this bastard, exactly?」

「…A human. A pitiful, shriveled old man whose only joy left in life was getting high off drugs. But here’s the thing, Marge—he knew you very well.」

「Me?」

「How many years ago was it now…? He came to Fathie as some bigwig from the government. But about five years later, he was forced to step down from the frontlines.」

「Did he make a mistake?」

「No, it was illness. I heard it was a lung condition. He returned to his hometown across the mountains after that.」

Remonde recalled the memory with a bitter tone.

「The man nearly died when he couldn’t breathe, but with the power of a Skill, he not only survived—he eventually came back to active duty. He returned to Fathie, but his illness hadn’t truly been cured. In fact, it had spread throughout his body and left him in constant agony.」

「…That’s hell on earth.」

「To escape the pain, he began abusing ‘Verdant Decay’. You can guess the rest. His life became a game of ‘which will kill me first—disease or the drug?’ But one day, out of nowhere, he mentioned your name, Marge. That was before you ever clashed with the Duke of Abik.」

That meant it was around the time I left the Divine Silver Sword and devoted myself to rebuilding the Werewolves’ Hidden Village. Back then, we kept the village itself secret, and I wasn’t publicly known as the king of the Werewolves.

「But you were already a bit of a name, weren’t you, Skill Lender-san?」

「Yeah. I was part of an S-rank party. Whether or not that made me famous, my name getting out wasn’t unusual.」

Here in the lands beyond the mountains, the Divine Silver Sword wasn’t widely known. You could tell just by how little the population knew about Altora and the others. Still, the man had lived in that area. It wouldn’t be strange for my name to slip out.

「Exactly. We didn’t think anything of it at the time. Just brought it up in passing, like, ‘Hey, that guy you mentioned before is apparently up to something now.’ Looking back, that was the beginning of the mistake.」

「What did the man do?」

「He figured it out. Nailed it. Your connection to the Duke of Abik—down to the last detail.」

「No way…」

「It’s true. He saw right through you—knew you were pretending to oppose the duke while secretly working together. Even guessed you were using that arrangement to block interference from the Knight Orders. I thought it was nonsense at first, but when I looked into it, it checked out.」

「I can’t believe it…」

「And then came the Vita Tama incident. When I told him about the situation with the Werewolves and the Dwarves, he correctly predicted you’d head there yourself and outmaneuver the knights. Though I admit, he was surprised when he heard you actually conquered a dungeon going through a Dungeon Break.」

At the time, Remonde and his lot were planning an invasion of the neighboring country. The biggest obstacle was me and the Werewolves. That man’s value soared once they realized he could anticipate my thoughts.

「He used to be a government official, after all. Had plenty of connections. We picked his brain constantly to build this plan… and the rest, well, you already know.」

「So he betrayed you?」

「The situation speaks for itself. We figured as long as we kept him supplied with drugs, he wouldn’t—or couldn’t—betray us. Clearly, we were wrong.」

「So the military’s arrival was thanks to his intel?」

「Exactly. If the Elves’ plan worked out, he’d have his drugs for life. But if it failed, he’d leak every detail to the government and save his own skin.」

「So being clever makes you a worse person, huh?」

Angelina’s comment aside, there was something eerily familiar about the man’s methods.

「Think about it. Embedding yourself in a demi-human organization as their brain, while pretending to oppose the government—only to secretly collaborate. Doesn’t that sound a bit like your approach?」

「…Yeah, it does.」

Look at it from the perspective of my arrangement with Duke Abik. As the Werewolves’ king, I publicly oppose him, while under the table we shake hands and cooperate against the Knight Orders and the central government.

Meanwhile, this man took the same approach—posing as the mastermind behind the Elves’ resistance while secretly working with the government to invade their neighbors.

The details differed, but the core strategy, the mindset—was all too similar. And if he’d truly overcome his lung disease with a Skill, then there was little room for doubt.

「That man… was my mentor.」

「So even the great Skill Lender-san had a Meister.」

「Your mentor… and now he’s the one cornering the Elves?」

「Wait, didn’t you come from inside Skill Lender-san’s own ability, Koe-san? You didn’t know about his Meister?」

「I was originally just a function of the Skill. Right after Master awakened his Unique Skill, my presence was faint. As the Skill leveled up and accumulated more points, my sense of self became clearer. Now I even have a body… but my early memories are hazy.」

「Right, I forgot that was your origin. Like a real soul in a borrowed body.」

「…So Koe-chan, the right hand of Skill Lender, that’s your backstory, huh? World’s still full of surprises.」

Remonde looked visibly shaken by the revelation, but I brought the conversation back to the main point.

「Anyway, here’s what I’m thinking. If my mentor’s thought process is the same as mine…」

「Then you can predict his next move. You can read his mind too.」

「Exactly. It might not be a perfect fifty-fifty, but I’d say it’s a 55-45 matchup in our favor.」

「I get the logic, but it might not be that simple.」

「Huh?」

「He might already know that I know he can read my thoughts.」

The classic double-blind scenario. Angelina winced at the complexity of it.

「Ahh… yeah, like, if he knows you know he’s reading you, then he might take the opportunity to outwit you.」

「Right. And even if I read his thoughts knowing he’s reading mine, the thoughts generated by that might also be read, creating a new layer of deception.」

「And if you go on the offensive and try to read his thoughts on purpose, then he might anticipate that and think you’re trying to fake him out—so he might read that as well, and maybe even plan on you not reading him, which he’d also read, and then—」

「It’s an infinite loop.」

「Yep.」

「…Are you two even making sense anymore?」

「Yep?」