Chapter 12: A Smart Lie Against a Smart Knight

"..." All the knights wear silver armor with a golden cross symbol painted on their chests. The armor has crosses on several parts, but an interesting and noticeable detail is the many crosses placed over vital points.

As if the armor were trying to say those points are protected by "divine" will — by the faith these knights believe in.

"Who are you?" One of the knights, clearly the leader because of the gleaming cross pendant he wears and because he’s the first to speak, asks Nio as he dismounts from his horse.

His face is very rigid, and his expression is extremely apathetic, even a little cruel, accentuated by his faded blond hair, sharp gaze, and eyebrows arched forward as if he were angry even though his tone of voice is neutral.

"I’m... merely a young lady. I’m taking a tour through these lands, holy knights. Now, would you grant me the honor of a question? If so, the question is: what do you seek in these remote lands? It doesn’t seem like a fitting place for knights." Nio adapts her entire speech.

Not because she knows how to act, but because she’s excellent at roleplay. So she imagines everything is a roleplay where she’s a noblewoman and needs to make the right decisions while rolling dice for luck, perception, and deception to come out ahead — even though no dice have been rolled and she’s just imagining nonsense at this point.

"..." The knight, accepting the performance well enough, as it seems proper and polite, approaches, though he keeps his hand on the hilt of his sword as if ready to draw it at any moment.

"We are investigating an attack on nearby villages. Perhaps this village will be attacked as well." The knight bluffs to Nio.

"Oh, that sounds terrible. But lying before the sacred is even more terrible, isn’t it? As devotees of our faith, we should always speak the truth, shouldn’t we?" When Nio says this, the knight grinds his teeth for a second.

"Most certainly, miss. Lying is wrong. So I trust you wouldn’t mind telling us if you noticed anything suspicious, such as the sound of an explosion or a dragon attack?" When the knight mentions a dragon, Nio’s entire body tenses almost visibly.

Her eyes sharpen dangerously, and her instincts tell her to kill the man in front of her — who is not just a fool as she initially assumed, but the opposite: someone clearly intelligent.

"Dragon? It sounds even more terrible that a dragon would attack this poor village. Dragons are... frightening. But if a dragon had attacked a nearby village, it would have been seen flying over the area, wouldn’t it? And by dragon, to what kind of dragon do you refer?"

"...The irrational winged beasts." When the soldier gives a more concrete target, Nio calms down. There’s an obvious distinction between wild dragons — stupid, irrational beasts — and dragons like her, rational humanoids.

"I understand. Well, I haven’t heard anything. The nearest village is miles from here... but I did see a cloud of purple smoke rising into the air." Nio partially lies, mixing lies and truth as the knights still on horseback begin to ride around the village and enter it, leaving only the questioning knight with Nio.

"And this man beside you?"

"He’s the chief of this village. He kindly came to receive me. Unfortunately, some bandits killed my knights and stole my carriage. A pity, but I know divine punishment will fall upon such vile people." The knight looks at the village chief, who, still enchanted, nods in agreement.

"I didn’t see any carriage tracks nearby that match those of nobility. After all, noble carriages have metal rims that change the tracks quite noticeably."

’Wh-What the hell?... This maniac, he noticed even that just by looking at the ground?’ Nio keeps her calm.

"I said it was stolen. It would be impossible for me to come to this village with the carriage and leave tracks, wouldn’t it?"

"...Hmm... You have a point, miss. But you seem very well. Bandits usually rape young ladies like you."

"...Let’s just say I’m strong, but I was in a situation where fighting wasn’t favorable. The bandits retreated with my belongings, and I decided it wasn’t worth the risk to start a fight. After all, it doesn’t matter how good we are with magic when there are dozens of people surrounding us, and naturally, bandits avoid facing people who use magic when their goal is material goods."

"..." The knight still seems suspicious, but many things add up, so he decides to set it aside for now.

"What is the name of your family?" Nio thinks quickly when the knight asks about her family, but she decides to do something interesting. There’s an old saying that goes, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." Nio doesn’t know what year that came about, but she knows it’s very old.

So she decides to do exactly that. If she wants to learn about this world, what better way than with highly influential religious people?

"Actually, young knight, I am... a divine emissary, a milestone in the world. I am... an envoy of our faith who came from the heavens as a saint to illuminate the world." When Nio says this, the knight draws his sword, pointing it at Nio’s throat.

"You dare mock our faith by speaking such blasphemy? It doesn’t matter that you’re a noble — the punishment for sacrilege is beheading."

"Blasphemy? You dare accuse a true saint of blasphemy? Very well, then I shall prove my sanctity to you." Nio deftly grabs the sword and pulls the knight forward, stealing the pendant from his neck.

When the knight tries to strike Nio, his entire body freezes. The holy relic, the moment it came into contact with Nio’s hands, emitted the purest white glow.

A holy magic so intense it seemed to ward off all evil around it — a level the knight would only dare say he had witnessed when comparing it to what the saint of his kingdom emits while holding sacred objects.

"O-Oh my gods..." The knight falls to his knees on the ground, while Nio is mentally relieved — because in the game, sacred objects glowed in the hands of someone who had the saint class.

Of course, the glow changes depending on whether it’s a saint or a dark saint. Nio is glad she chose to be a holy saint; it allowed her to deceive the man in front of her.

"S-Saint..." The man can barely speak, because no one told him anything about another saint emerging.

"Listen, fool. Our faith guides people, moves mountains, and protects the oppressed. Our faith guided you to me to lead me to my rightful place. Take me to my ’older sister,’ Saint Stelaria Astra. I wish for us to meet and for our hearts to connect through faith." Nio spouts a lot of nonsense she doesn’t even fully understand.

She doesn’t even know which god or goddess this theocracy worships, so she says "faith" guides, because she’s trying to be as abstract as possible, fearing she might say god or goddess and get wrong which being is worshipped.

’Phew, what a thing, huh? Sacred objects really do glow. In the game it was just a faint, weak glow with simple, small sparks, but here it was an intense and powerful glow... thank goodness it worked.’

"Rise from the ground and show me your honor, and guide me to my destination in the heart of the Theocracy so that I may see Stelaria."