Chapter 1163: An Array To Understand Intent

Leading the group back to her chambers while Yuna and Solana flanked her sides, the Queen didn’t hesitate to throw herself onto the bed and kick her legs in frustration.

"Arghhhh!!!!" She let out a groan, surprising the group.

Alice half expected it considering what she was like at the bar but the other’s weren’t the same. They thought she would remain composed after her showing in front of all of the Nobles and Lords but now...

"Uwahhh!!! Yuna did you hear what the Elders said? Observe??? Observe my ass! They just want to watch and see if they should defect to Nyer’s side or not!!!" She tossed and turned in bed.

Grabbing her pillow, she unleashed a hail of punches and kick.

"No intentions of standing in my way, leave the matter in my hands. Why don’t they throw themselves into the void of this realm first! Stupid old b*stards with one foot in the grave!!!" She cursed repeatedly as Yuna let out a sigh.

The Queen’s eyes let her see truth and lies. However, not everything in this world was black and white. They may be saying the truth regarding observation but the meaning and desire behind that would be different.

As someone who’s seen people try their best to navigate the effects of her eyes, the Queen was more than familiar with the tricks around it.

After finishing her rant, the Queen sprawled out on the bed and let out a deep sigh.

"Your majesty, might I remind you that you have guests." Yuna massaged her eyes but the Queen simply shrugged.

"Do I really have to care about putting up appearances now? It’s not like I’m in front of all the Lords again."

Sitting up, she looked at Allura.

"So there you have it. I think that should make the stance of the Elves clear for you. We’ll help as much as we can but I can’t make my people fight on the frontlines, only if they choose to do so. In the first place, my position is mostly a decorative one. There’s only so much I can do usually.

"The reason why they deign to listen to me today is because of the dangers that come with losing the Void.

"Without that, my words may fall upon deaf ears." She crossed her legs.

"However, as long as we can set up transport gates and logistical support, even if not all of the Elves are willing to fight, it should help you out greatly.

"The issue now however..." She pursed her lips.

"Ensuring that no one can sabotage it? I’m guessing this is where you are worried about the Elders making a mess of things at the last moment." Allura spoke up as the Queen nodded her head.

Her biggest fear is that when everyone comes to rely on the transport and logistics, the moment anything goes wrong with it, it’ll collapse their entire operation.

"I don’t mind giving up my eyes since it’ll help us filter out most people but... If they already harbour bad intentions or perhaps if they get convinced while inside the barrier, there’s only so much I can do. We can’t exactly fight hard either since if the battle spirals out of control, the World Tree will no doubt take damage and may even try to expel everyone from the realm."

This was another point of annoyance that the Queen had to deal with.

"If we move carelessly before we can find a way to survive out there..." Just thinking about this gave her a headache.

"If you’re that worried about sabotage of the transport and logistics, I can probably do something about that." Alice raised her hand slightly with a lazy look in her eyes.

"Though it kind of depends on exactly what your eyes can do. Whether or not they can be replicated or if they’re something else entirely."

There were a couple of things she could do. However, the main thing was whether or not the Eyes could be replicated.

If she could figure out the workings behind the eyes, the Queen might not need to give them up after all.

Confusion spread across the queen’s face but once she realised Alice wasn’t lying, she couldn’t help but furrow her brows.

"Just think of it as a filter for intention and action. I’m thinking of running scans for the souls of whoever approaches the important parts. So gates, logistic supplies and so on. Anyone who approaches will be scanned on their intentions. 𝖋𝙧ⅇ

"Not that they would know of course." Alice shrugged.

The Queen hesitated. A non consensual scan like this... Especially if the target is innocent...

"Don’t think about weird stuff." Alice scowled, feeling offended.

She was planning on scanning for two key thoughts only. She didn’t care about what else they were thinking about.

"I think it’s better for you to explain how it works rather than letting her guess." Allura chuckled, patting Alice’s head since she could tell Alice was getting a tiny bit heated.

Pursing her lips, Alice nodded her head.

Since she was a projection right now, making tools were a simple matter.

With a snap of her finger, a whiteboard appeared.

"First things first. Your eyes. They will be what serves as a foundation of my idea. You can discern truth from lies yes? A simple yes or no. For example, if we keep the question simple, are you thinking about elephants right now?" Alice asked, writing it down yes and no.

Circling the word yes, she turned to the group.

"If you say yes, her eyes would mark it as true since me saying the word elephant made you think about it. But if we adjust the question into something like, were you thinking about elephants before I asked you?"

Alice circled no.

"Then the truth becomes no. The change in time frame can allow one to figure out the truth even with just a simple yes or no.

"With this in mind, as long as we set up the questions properly, we can figure out intentions rather than what they are doing." Alice explained.

However, seeing the Queen’s confused face, Alice realised she didn’t fully understand yet and made another example.

"Truth and lies can always be mixed together to produce an intended result. I’m sure you’re familiar with that. What is true can be transformed into a lie with a single shift of a word. Despite being 99% true, that 1% difference is what causes it to be registered as a lie."

It was a concept she had only figured out thanks to Caelan. Their game of one truth one lie.

In order to bypass his restriction, he gave her two hints despite one needing to be marked as a lie thanks to this loophole.

Using the same concept, they can avoid falling into certain traps when her eyes simply tell them yes or no to whether or not the target was lying.

"With that in mind, answers matter a lot less than intentions. Take for example, what’s the difference between ’Are you shutting down the gate?’ and ’Are you shutting down the gate because you know it will cause harm?’

"Shutting down the gate doesn’t necessary mean sabotage. It could be a case of trying to close off a compromised entrance. But when asking whether or not they know it causes harm, that yes or no becomes verification for intent.

"If we adjust the arrays properly, we can ensure that whoever approaches the important facilities do so with the right intention. Of course, there may be accidents where the intention causes more harm than good but that’s why you need to make sure whoever takes the jobs are trusted individuals." Alice shrugged.

The array itself wasn’t too annoying to ask.

A series of questions asked to the soul and observed for the reaction. She had the Sigils to make it work.

The annoying part is letting the ’function’ get exposed and understood. Once the enemy understood how it scanned, finding out how to counter it would simply be a matter of time. Sure, they can filter the person extensively but doing so would cause tremendous stress to the soul.

Something Alice wanted to avoid if possible.

At least with this method, the burden on the soul is reduced as much as possible since it’s simple questions with a yes or no response.

Once again, she saw a look of confusion on Yuna and Solana’s faces.

"Please don’t tell me this confuses you as well? Do I really need to go further than this?"

If they’re Lords, surely this concept shouldn’t be THAT hard for them... right?

[You realise that not everyone is specialised in how souls work right? Soul knowledge is usually limited for a very specific number of people or followers of the Moon. Average Lords and whatnot barely knows more than the average person.

[Of course they’re away of contracts and so on but interacting with the Soul is far beyond them.] Cayla reminded as any authority or interaction with the soul is very hard to obtain without being a follower of the Moon.

The fact that Alice managed to get so much help and assistance to reinforce her own manipulation of the Soul is nothing less than a miracle.

It’s a task that Will of the Abyss had also tasked her to accomplish after all.

And if it was simple, it wouldn’t have been a strict requirement.

Scratching her hair, Alice reluctantly nodded her head.

In the end, she simply chose to summarise it.

"Just tell me if you want to or not. The array won’t scan everything but it should help us figure out anyone who wants to approach the important parts with bad intentions."

Snapping out of it, the Queen nodded her head quickly, afraid Alice might take back her word.

After all, between getting a simple yes or no and figuring out their intentions, it’s only natural for her to choose the latter.

Even if the lady in front of her seemed more and more absurd by the minute.

Such a degree of manipulation and understanding of the soul...

Was only ever achieved by the Moon herself and her apostles.

It’s to the point where the Queen even wondered if Alice was actually a spy sent by the Moon.

A secret apostle in training that no one knows about...