CH 86

Mayer’s dark eyebrow rose, a dubious expression appearing on his face. But at least he was willing to listen, so I wetted my lips before continuing. “You can claim that it’s a power specialized for attacks and that it can’t heal. It’s not like there isn’t a precedent.”

Saint Marianne bestowed all kinds of mana to humanity. Those types of mana were called talents. Even if someone awoke to the same type of mana, they may not be able to use the same spells as another. Wipera and I were an example of this: both were support-type mages, but we used different kinds of magic. In reality, this was only intended as a diversity for the “game characters”, but that was how this world worked.

“To begin with, Captain… You’re a devout believer, aren’t you? It’s not that uncommon for a believer without mana to awaken, after all…” I gauged Mayer’s reaction as I kept explaining. Knowing that he was devout only for the sake of suppressing his power, talking about it felt very awkward. “But there are no cases of humans with demonic power, so no one will ever think that you have it.”

“Even if I claim to have manifested holy power, what of my hair color? The hair of anyone that awakens to holy power turns golden, no?”

“Surprising as it may be, saying ‘it’s a rare case’ can serve as an excuse a lot of the time,” I pointed out. Yet, despite my answer, Mayer still seemed anxious. He looked extremely worried about others finding out the truth about his mana. This man had confidence in almost everything: power, ability, wealth… The sole exception was trusting others. Because of his childhood, he built a wall around himself and became unable to trust anyone. He assumed others would be unable to believe in him as well and couldn’t bring himself to trust them… It was a vicious cycle.

“You can say that your holy power isn’t strong enough to change your hair color. People will think it’s something beyond their comprehension. You’re currently the strongest, highest leveled person in existence, after all.” And then, to put him more at ease, I added, “What I mean is… It doesn’t matter what excuse you come up with. There’s no need to give an explanation for every situation. People will fill in the blanks by themselves.”

At that, his expression became odd, a mix of happy and doubtful. A moment later, he let out a low laugh. “You seemed very convincing now. I did not know you could lie so well.”

“I’ve always been a good liar,” I said and laughed at him inwardly. Heh, he’d be shocked if he knew how much I had hidden from him. Whether it be the kisses we’d shared, or the truth about me not being the original owner of this body… It didn’t matter how much he read in my expression, what mattered was that he didn’t discover my secrets. Besides, if I was that bad at lying, everything would’ve been over the moment August had noticed what we had done.

My tongue itched to boast of the great wit I had displayed when evading the priest’s suspicions. But that would be stupid of me to do, so I held back firmly as I said, “And Your Excellency will be the one who will lie. But I’m not particularly worried, though, since unlike me, you’re an experienced liar.”

“I am thankful for the trust.”

“You’re the only one who knows I can use elemental conversion. It’s a technique I haven’t used before even in the first playthrough, so even Fabian doesn’t know.” It wasn’t like I was saving it for anything, I merely didn’t have a use for it. Mayer seemed to think otherwise, however; he looked slightly moved as if I had told him about some special move I’d been hiding all the while. Of course, there was no need to clear up that misunderstanding. “No one will imagine that the element of your mana has changed. Trust me.”

The look in his golden eyes was like a sunset on a rainy day. He nodded, obedient, and I felt ecstatic. I felt like the first person in the world to tame a beast that no one could ever tame. Maybe that was why I started feeling deep pity towards this man who was a head, no, a head and a half taller than me. I felt as if I was the only one who could protect him. But the moment I realized what I was thinking, I shuddered. The one who deserved the most pity was me, having to look after this mess! Was I stupid or something?

Seeing how I’d forgotten how I got bruised all over from bumping into him a few days ago, it seemed I didn’t have a good memory. Either that or my survival instinct was lacking. Feeling embarrassed all of a sudden, I changed the topic. “I’ve been asking Reverend August lately about unusual cases of people manifesting holy power. So even if we reveal that you’ve awakened, he’ll be easily convinced. As long as August acknowledges it, there’s no way the other elites will suspect.”