"What do you think Oedipus feels towards her child Turing?" The silhouette turned his face slightly, looking at the bustling crowd and said, "She deliberately allows other families' children to bully Turing and does nothing about it."

"Intentionally attacking Turing's self-confidence in various fields, wearing down her will."

"She even eliminated anyone who could possibly have a good relationship with Turing, and at the very least, erased them from Turing's memory."

"Do you know what she wants to do?"

"She doesn't want a child at all."

"She only wants a tool that will obey her at all times, depend on her forever, and lack a soul."

Merka's face became unpleasant.

Deep blue worries surged from the depths of Merka's heart, almost turning into painful vomit flowing out of his mouth.

"...Why?"

"Because..."

The silhouette paused.

"Forget it, let Mammon tell you."

"I know too much, I shouldn't tell you too much."

"...No."

"Tell me right now."

"Otherwise, you can forget about our agreement."

Looking at Merka's determined eyes, like enduring for millennia in the magma, the silhouette had a brief illusion, as if seeing the enthusiastic members of the forbidden orchestra he entrusted with a heavy responsibility.

Like a human, the silhouette smiled sincerely.

"Aren't you afraid that I'm lying to you?"

"I can read your mind, after all."

"It's as easy as pie to deceive you."

The silhouette reached out and held Merka's hand, the hand wearing the glass ring Turing gave him.

"Since you are so eager to know everything."

"Then like this."

The silhouette used his long, slender claw to gently peel off the ring on Merka's hand, and at the same time, both hands were put behind his back.

"Guess in which hand I have the ring."

"If you guess correctly."

"I will tell you a part of the truth of this world and return the ring to you."

"If you guess wrong, I won't return the ring."

"Bets always come with a price."

"But a glass ring is already quite valuable."

"Do you want to give it a try?"

Merka suddenly froze.

Even if the silhouette was holding a gold necklace that Merka had just received, or even a holy relic left by Joan, he would not resist like this.

At this moment, it seemed like Merka, who had never really shown any anger in his life, finally showed some signs of anger.

His face darkened, his eyebrows furrowed, and the soft black gemstone eyes narrowed, seeming to have some aggression.

The ring mark on his middle finger was imprinted on Merka's knuckles like a kiss mark.

The empty fingers made him anxious and heartbroken.

The silhouette clearly saw through this point of Merka's heart.

In Merka's mind, there was nothing more precious than this ring on him at the moment.

Although Merka wanted to refuse the silhouette directly, after all, the value of this ring was completely different from other things.

But he couldn't.

The truth of the world may be more important than his own life.

He had a hunch that if he knew these things, he would have a better chance in his future confrontation with Oedipus.

"Have you made up your mind?"

The shadow asked.

"Let me think again..."

Merka tried to stir up a chaotic brainstorm in his mind, and his uncertain choices were like a flat boat sailing in the dark sea of his mind.

The shadow couldn't help but sneer.

Even with calculations that easily reached millions, he could respond in milliseconds.

This attempt to confuse me so that I can't see your choice can only be seen as wishful thinking.

Merka remained silent for a long time before finally speaking.

"Let's begin."

Merka, staring at the shadow, seemed to not even notice the shadow's hand, but looked beyond him into the distance.

"Huh?"

The shadow was slightly surprised.

He found that Merka's mind suddenly became clear.

At this moment, Merka had no cluttered thoughts in his mind, only two words.

Left hand.

Although the shadow was puzzled, he didn't think too much and placed the ring in the palm of his right hand, presenting the two closed fists in front of Merka.

He wasn't worried that Merka would suddenly change his mind, because the shadow knew that if Merka really wanted to change his mind, his deep thinking would have this plan.

But just now, Merka didn't think about anything, he just thought about the left hand.

"Do you think I would choose the left hand?"

"I choose the right hand."

Now the shadow was truly astonished!

In Acadia, even if he wasn't a god, he was definitely a similar existence.

He was always the one in control, the one who probed into others' hearts.

When had someone ever managed to voice their thoughts to him?

Unheard of.

It was simply unbelievable!

But the shadow didn't panic.

On the contrary, he was very happy.

He opened his right hand and handed the intact ring to Merka.

"How did you do it?"

According to the shadow's experience, when he asked this question, Merka would unconsciously reveal his true feelings.

But he didn't.

His mind was still as clear as a spring on a stone, without any impurities.

"Ah... you mean this."

Merka turned around and thanked a child behind him, "Thank you, this is the candy we agreed on."

The child smiled happily.

"Thank you, big brother!"

The child opened the candy wrapper, put the candy in his mouth, and returned the black stone to Merka.

"You..."

The little stone returned to Merka's hand, and the familiar chaotic yet kind-hearted world of his mind was once again revealed to the shadow's eyes.

"You are simply too perfect."

The shadow shook his head, seemingly admiring Merka's resourcefulness.

"You took advantage of my distraction and created an illusion with dropback."

"Communicate with the little girl behind you, and by the way, hand over the mechanical divination to her."

"You and her played the same game, except you clearly hid the candy in your left hand."

"So what I just read was the child's heart."

"The pure heart of a child doesn't think so much."

"Right hand is right hand, left hand is left hand."

The shadow looked at the departing child and recounted Merka's plan.

"But let me ask."

"Don't you know that dropback is visible to everyone?"

"Are you not afraid that I saw you cheating in front of me just now?"

Merka pursed his lips, shrugged ambiguously, and spoke.

"I think you shouldn't be able to see dropback."

"And I suspect aside is also useless to you."

"You are not like a human at all, not even like a living being."

"Dropback and aside are effective even for angels, not to mention other creatures."

"But when you first saw me, you immediately knew I wasn't Turing."

"The most critical evidence is that when I used dropback in front of you before, it didn't cost me any magic power at all."

"And you know so much..."

"What do you think you are?"

"I feel like you are a god."

"Beyond the six paths, not within the five elements."

"What do you think of what I said?"

The shadow looked deeply interested, but suddenly seemed to lose interest and turned his gaze back to the stage.

"You got about one-third correct... No, one-sixth."

Merka frowned, said nothing more, and noted down the strange number mentioned by the shadow.

——————————————————————————

"But by the way."

"Where did your candy come from?"

On the closing ceremony stage, there were songs and dances, and the one who would perfectly embody Oedipus to the utmost slowly unveiled the curtain and came down to the center of the stage under the support of servants.

"I created it with dropback."

Merka watched the magnificent performance, his gaze gradually becoming blurry.

"Lies have value."

"As long as they are applied properly."

"Anyone can attain happiness."

The shadow sat beside, nodding in agreement.