“Director, could you please be quiet for a bit?”
“Why?!”
“Because your voice is too loud.”
“Shut up!”
“That’s what I’m asking you to do.”
Bernard, somewhat eased by the exchange between Claudio and Samael, sat up straighter. “Um, I will speak. However, we’ve never shared this with anyone outside of our family, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to explain it very well.” He gave Ophelia’s hand a little squeeze where it clutched tightly onto his sleeve, then began to speak with determination. “My sister can perceive the lies of people and things.”
“Lies?”
Samael’s expression turned dubious. But Bernard merely nodded in confirmation and continued.
“Whenever she finds herself close to something that’s not in its proper place and form, her arms and legs begin to shake. On the night of the ball, when we were out in the courtyard walking past the open-air corridor, Ophelia’s legs folded and she collapsed. However, she didn’t know what exactly was causing the shaking. That’s why we went to confirm the source.”
“Uh-huh…”
Samael scratched his head, clearly not expecting this answer. Claudio, on the other hand, never turned his gaze from Ophelia as he ordered, “Go on.”
“There was nothing wrong with the exterior walls, so we went inside to check the corridor itself. Ophelia was able to pinpoint the general area but wasn’t sure if the problem was with the floorboards, the walls, or maybe even the ceiling. So I went over to check, and… that’s when I fell through the floor.”
“What you’re saying is that the floorboards were already rotted and not in a state that people would be able to walk over them. They couldn’t serve their intended purpose, which disqualified them from being classified as floorboards. And that caused your sister’s trembling?” Claudio surmised.
“Basically. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say she reacts to ‘wrongness’ than ‘lies.’”
“I see…”
Claudio gripped his chin and nodded deeply, as if he understood. Bernard let out a relieved sigh when he was released from Claudio’s piercing gaze. Then Claudio looked up again.
“And you seriously think I’m going to believe that?”
Under the force of Claudio’s even fiercer glare, Bernard stopped breathing altogether.
“Bernard?! Are you okay? Breathe, Bernard! Breathe!” Ophelia cried.
Angelo thumped him on the back a few times, and Bernard, finally seeming to remember how to breathe, sucked in a huge lungful of air.
“Angelo, tell a lie.”
“Huh?”
Angelo’s mouth gaped open when Claudio suddenly put him on the spot.
“Hurry up.”
“I’m… a woman.”
Ophelia’s leg twitched so forcefully that her foot came up off the floor. Everyone’s eyes landed on that leg.
“Not such an easily disproven lie. Something that only you know the answer to,” Bruno said, coming up beside Angelo.
“I can’t come up with something on the spot.”
“Is everything going well with Marilyn from the General Affairs Division?” Bruno asked.
“Sure, it’s going well enough…” Angelo replied.
“Hah! Th-That’s a lie. I bet he’s cheating… He has one of those faces!” Ophelia exclaimed, holding down her leg with a trembling hand.
Angelo clutched his chest dramatically and said to a frowning Bruno, “Cheating! Such prejudice! I… If you must know, I was dumped…”
Bruno glanced over at Ophelia and confirmed that her shaking had suddenly stopped. Angelo slumped to the ground, deflated. It didn’t seem he’d be moving any time soon.
“Hm… I see, so she only knows if the words are true or false, not the circumstances. Go on.”
At Claudio’s urging, Samael slapped his hands down on his knees and spoke without hesitation.
“I woke up at 6:00 am this morning and immediately began training.”
Ophelia’s legs began to shiver with faint tremors. He would still be groggy when he first woke up, so it was unlikely he’d immediately begin training.
Samael paused for a moment, then continued. “I ate beef stew for breakfast.”
“First thing in the morning?” Angelo cut in incredulously, but Ophelia’s trembling stopped as suddenly as it had started.
“After returning to my room, I went through the letters that had been delivered.”
“…”
“And then I replied to each of them.”
Shake, shake, shake.
“I drank a cup of black tea.”
Shake, shake, shake.
“After that, I rode my horse to work.”
“…”
“I came directly to the Director’s Office.”
Shake, shake, shake.
“Where I diligently worked all day.”
“…”
Ophelia stopped shaking, and Claudio tilted his head dubiously.
“He’s not diligent.”
“Um, if the individual believes, to their core, that they worked hard, that’s not a lie… Or at least it’s not perceived as one…”
Samael puffed out his chest in response to Bernard’s interjection, which trailed off awkwardly at the end. “I take pride in the diligence of my work.”
“Next, Bruno.”
After being nominated by Claudio, Bruno looked up for a moment as he thought, then slowly turned his gaze toward Ophelia. “My name is Bruno Marquis. I’m the oldest son of an earl. It’s nice to meet you.”
“I-It’s nice to meet you, too.”
Bruno bowed as he finished this greeting, and Ophelia reflexively bowed her head in response. Her legs didn’t shake.
“The director’s name is Duke Claudio Stolarni.”
“…”
“He is extremely kind and friendly.”
Shake, shake, shake.
Both Ophelia’s arms and legs began to shake aggressively.
“He’s always smiling and cheerful…”
Ophelia reached out with unsteady hands to try to steady her legs.
“And when it comes to work, he’s precise and extremely strict.”
While the shaking stopped for a moment, Ophelia took the opportunity to sit back deeply on the sofa.
“He never forgets to show appreciation to his subordinates.”
Just when Ophelia had relaxed, her posture was again disrupted. Bruno’s eyes narrowed a bit, as if he’d started enjoying the situation playing out in front of his eyes.
“He always encourages us to go home on time…”
Ophelia raised the arm she’d been using to desperately clutch the armrest and made a cutting motion in the air.
“And he’s never ever asked us to work on our days off.”
“Eek, p-please, enough already!”
Ophelia had slipped almost completely off the sofa from the force of her shaking. Beside her, Bernard glanced back and forth anxiously between Bruno and Claudio.
“I’ve never heard the director raise his voice in anger.”
When Samael jumped on the bandwagon and added that, Ophelia, who’d been attempting to sit back on the sofa properly, fell on her bottom on the floor. Seeing the tears welling in Ophelia’s eyes from the pain, Angelo’s eyes began to sparkle as he still sat on the floor.
What is he so happy about?
As he watched Ophelia flounder to stand, the wrinkles between Claudio’s brows deepened.
“Hard as it is to believe, it seems she’s telling the truth,” Bruno concluded, and almost in response, one corner of Claudio’s mouth quirked up.
“I got a good understanding of what you lot really think of me.”
“We were only speaking the truth.”
“Ahaha. Director, you try telling a lie, too,” Angelo urged, apparently recovered.
“I do not lie.”
Claudio folded his arms and turned his head away sulkily. Ophelia frowned as she examined her arms and legs, which weren’t trembling even the slightest bit, and then her eyes widened.
There’s a person in this world who doesn’t lie? Without meaning to, Ophelia found herself staring at Claudio as if it were too good to be true.
“Just this once!” Angelo pleaded. “Think of it as an experiment. Can’t you think of anything? What secrets are you keeping from us, Director?”
“This is not the time or place to be exposing secrets,” Claudio said.
“Meaning you now believe you can’t keep anything from Ophelia, either.”
At Angelo’s words, Ophelia’s expression became strained. Bernard, his eyebrows lowered, rubbed her shoulders. After watching the siblings for a silent moment, Claudio opened his mouth.
“What about your own lies?”
“Huh?”
In an instant, Ophelia’s body stiffened.
“Oh, right. Good point,” Bruno agreed, glancing down at Ophelia expectantly.
“Of course, my sister also can’t tell lies. They would make her shake as well,” Bernard stated defiantly, covering for Ophelia, who, while timidly looking back and forth between the men, wasn’t shaking at the moment.
Claudio stared fixedly at Ophelia, determined not to miss even the tiniest suspicious movement, but suddenly he said, “All right, I’ve got just the thing. Wait here.” And then he strode out of the reception room.
Ophelia sighed, relieved to be even momentarily freed from his piercing gaze.
Where did he go?
Claudio didn’t return for some time. While they waited, Ophelia and Bernard grudgingly engaged in polite conversation with Angelo.
“Oi! I could hear your voices from outside.”
“Oh, Director. Where did you go? Did you know Bernie and I are the same age?! Hey, are you even listening?!”
Claudio walked right past Angelo without acknowledging him and sat back down on the sofa. Then he tossed a black box onto Samael’s lap.
“Oh, I see…” Samael muttered, recognizing the box. He opened the lid just enough to slip his hand inside. After a moment of rummaging around, he pulled something out. “Lady Narve, do you know what this is?”
Ophelia leaned forward to examine the item Samael was holding out toward her. In his palm sat a single silver-colored coin.
“Money. It’s a silver coin.”
“That’s right. How about this?”
He reached into the box again and pulled out a brown coin. As she examined it, Ophelia’s hands trembled.
“Huh? Is that counterfeit currency?”
“Oh, well done. It’s visually indistinguishable from the real thing. Okay, next.”
This time, Samael produced a bill. Ophelia’s hands shook. Following this, Samael began taking out coins and bills one after another, seemingly at random, and divided them into two piles on the table based on Ophelia’s reaction or lack thereof.
“This is amazing. She was able to tell the real currency from the counterfeits with 100% accuracy. These are all counterfeits discovered circulating in a certain region and have only just finished being analyzed. Many more are still awaiting analysis, so I’m sure the Forensic Division would be thrilled to have your assistance, Lady Narve.”
Ophelia reflexively recoiled from Samael’s expectant gaze. She hadn’t done anything. She’d simply been shown a bunch of coins and bills, and her body had reacted on its own.
“…Remarkable. This is truly an admirable ability,” Claudio muttered, seeming surprised. Ophelia checked her hands, but they weren’t shaking even a little.
He praised it. This is the first time anyone has ever praised my ability.
As Ophelia pressed a hand to her chest, which felt strangely hot and tight, tears prickled her eyes. At this, Claudio, who’d been observing Ophelia carefully with his arms crossed, suddenly grinned.
His terrifying smile gave Ophelia a very bad feeling.