Chương 27: Lies, Lies, and More Lies

The woman looked up first, her eyes dark with a secretive intelligence, flitting across Lio as she sized him up. She didn't speak immediately, waiting until she was finished tightening a strap on her pack.

"Yeah," she said finally, her voice cold and unhurried.

"What about you?"

"We're going down to Floor 12," Lio said, rubbing the back of his neck with a small grin.

"First time going that deep actually. Honestly, I'm a little nervous about it." He gave a small chuckle.

"I've been stuck at Floor 9 for about a year now. I just finally decided to just go for it." The heavyset man looked up from his own pack at that, his face echoing Lio's friendly expression.

"Floor 12 is a big jump from 9," he said, his voice gruff yet warm.

"Are you at least going with a group?"

"Two others," Lio said, jerking his thumb back toward Ophila and William without looking.

"They're really competent too. Not bad, honestly." He let out a self-deprecating laugh.

"They're strong enough that I almost feel a bit useless around them." He watched both of them nod along, maintaining his relaxed face and posture to keep up his plausible cover.

"What about you two?" he asked brightly.

"How deep are you going?" The woman and the heavyset man exchanged a glance. It wasn't exactly communicating suspicion, but Lio could now confirm that this wasn't the first time the two were working together.

"We're just going to Floor 12," the man said.

"We're planning on trying to map a new passage we found and selling it on the black market." Lio nodded along, his smile bright with interest. That had been a lie. It had been delivered with a warmth that was very good but not quite good enough. Not quite good enough to fool Lio, who was an unparalleled master in reading people. The microexpressions and body language just didn't add up.

"Oh nice," Lio said, his expression remaining the same.

"Do you have some kind of cartography rune?"

"Something like that," the man said pleasantly. Another lie.

"I'm Lio by the way," he said, extending his hand in greeting. The man took it with a firm grip and shook it with a grin.

"Lupin." The woman declined the handshake, but still introduced herself.

"And I'm Acacia." Neither of them offered anything else. This could be because they were trained professionals, or they were simply just not that talkative. He filed the names away in the back of his head anyway. They were almost certainly fakes, but names were still names nonetheless. More information was better than none.

"Well," Lio said, with a bright and final smile, "maybe we'll cross paths down there again." He gave a small wave.

"Have a safe descent!"

"You too," Lupin said warmly, while Acacia nodded once. Lio turned and walked back toward Ophila and William, keeping the friendly expression on his face in check until he was certain he was outside their field of sight. Then his face went cold, the careful disguise falling away. He looked towards Ophila as he reached them, and an unspoken understanding passed through them, as she realized that Lio wouldn't just do something like that out of the blue. And that meant the other two were suspicious.

Ophila's eyes narrowed as Lio looked away. Then he noticed William. The boy was frozen, like a statue, his mouth hanging open. His eyes were wide like giant coins, as he lifted a shaky finger to point at him. The two boys stared at each other, one completely shocked out of his mind, one completely impassive.

"Close your mouth," Lio said finally, sighing.

"It's unsightly." William's mouth closed, but it soon gaped open again.

"You," he stuttered out.

"You—""Are you okay?" Lio asked.

"No!" William shouted.

"What the heck was that?" His voice had taken on a hysterical tone.

"You were like a different person!"

"I was just being friendly," Lio remarked simply.

"What?" William shook his head vehemently, his voice still slightly unhinged.

"No, no, no." He pointed an accusing finger.

"Why were you acting like a good person? Are you planning on coercing them to do something? A scam? Blackmail?"

"No. I'm just a good person," Lio said. William stared at him for a long moment, then palmed his face. Ophila giggled, hiding her humorous smile behind her hand.

"Okay," William groaned.

"Okay. Fine. You win." He took a deep breath.

"Just tell me who those two are."

"Delvers," Lio said.

"I know they're Delvers," William growled.

"I mean, why did you go talk to them like that?" Lio let out a small sigh, shaking his head.

"Why should I tell you?" he asked, his tone clipped.

"You aren't even part of our group." This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. William blinked.

"What?"

"You've just been following us," Lio continued.

"Nobody invited you." He cocked his head.

"Why are you still here?" William opened his mouth to reply, then closed it, his brows furrowing. He looked over at Ophila, who also looked very interested in hearing the answer to this question as well. He looked back at Lio, a deep frown twisting his lips.

"I—" He paused.

"Well, because you—" He stopped again as he bit his lower lip.

"I mean, obviously I'm here because—" He trailed off completely. A long silence followed as William appeared to ask himself why he had even been following them.

"I… I don't know?"

"Hm," Lio intoned.

"Well," William continued slowly, as his mind worked through the question in real time, "I think it was because of the Skinwalker. After that, I just followed you back to your camp." He frowned.

"And then I went to sleep. And then I woke up and it seemed weird to leave…" He trailed off, staring at the ground. Then he let out a long breath through his nose.

"Look," he said, in a quiet voice.

"My group is gone. I don't know anyone else down here. And going back up alone isn't exactly a great option either." He scratched the back of his neck, looking horribly uncomfortable.

"I'm not asking because I particularly enjoy your company," he added, with a pointed look at Lio.

"I just don't have anywhere else to go." A short silence followed.

"So," William said stiffly, "can I come with you guys?" Lio stared at him for a long moment, so long that the other boy became quickly uncomfortable. He was running through the calculations in his head quietly. Did he need William? Across a thousand loops he never had. The boy's rune was useful, yes, but Lio had managed beyond Floors without him easily. And right now, William's ribs were cracked, his combat experience was rather limited, and his emotional state was innocent and naive enough to be a heavy liability.

By every practical measure, the answer was no. But… No, actually. There was a single practical reason to take William in. Lio glanced at Ophila for a split-second. She'd fixed his strap this morning without being asked. She'd sat beside him in the fog last night. She laughed at his jokes and argued back when he said something she disagreed with. She was, despite every effort Lio was making in the opposite direction, beginning to treat and warm up to William as a friend. And that was useful.

Because the longer Ophila spent time in the company of someone as cold and impassive as Lio, it would also inevitably begin to reflect on her behavior as well. And that wasn't good. He needed her to be as readable as possible to learn the secrets she possessed. And beyond that, if William kept her occupied, she'd ask Lio fewer questions. Turning to William, he asked, "You have enhanced hearing, right?" William stared at him.

"How do you know about my rune? I never told you."

"I was next to you when you told Ophila during breakfast," Lio answered"Oh." William flushed red at the reminder of that incident. Then he shook his head.

"So you were." He frowned.

"Then you were considering me joining you guys this entire time?"

"No, I was just evaluating you," Lio said.

"There's a difference."

"What's the difference?"

"Considering implies some sort of sentiment," Lio said.

"But I frankly don't care about you. You could just be useful. That's all." William glanced at Ophila, his left eye twitching. All she could give him was a small apologetic shrug. William turned back to Lio.

"So I can be in the group because I'm useful?"

"Yes," Lio said simply. There was a short silence as the other boy frowned thoughtfully.

"Fine," William announced.

"Okay, I'll take it." He straightened up slightly, then winced as his ribs protested.

"So, are you now going to tell me about what's going on or not?"

"What do you want to know?" Lio asked. William's eyes lit up immediately.

"Okay, first of all, why did you two team up? You're literally the most different people I've ever seen." He pointed between them.

"Second, who are those two you just talked to and why did Ophila make that face when you came back? Third, why were you searching for Ophila so desperately the other day? And fourth, what Floor exactly are we even going?" Lio opened his mouth to answer, then stopped as he looked around at the cluster of Delvers still milling near the Checkpoint. In particular, Lupin and Acacia were still gearing up, not looking their way, but they were close enough that a conversation would still be audible.

"We'll talk on the way down," he said. William looked at the tunnel entrance with a sour expression.

"In there?" he asked.

"Yes."

"But that place is really dark. And full of bugs."

"Ophila has a lamp," Lio said, trying to be reassuring.

"That's not the part I'm worried about," William muttered pointedly. But he followed them anyway, dropping into the tunnel behind Ophila and grabbing the first iron handhold. The cold air from below rose up immediately, carrying the sharp metallic smell of Floor 2. They descended in silence for a few minutes, the amber light from above shrinking steadily until it disappeared, plunging them into darkness, broken only by Ophila's lamp throwing its small circle of light across the wet tunnel walls.

When the sounds from above had completely faded, William spoke up.

"Okay," he whispered, keeping his voice low.

"First question. Why did you team up?" Lio was silent. He ran through the question carefully, considering how much to give up. The truth was layered, complicated, and ultimately none of William's business. In William's point of view, they had only known each other for less than two days. So there was no trust, or any confirmation that he wouldn't betray them.

Sure, he had good instincts, a useful rune, and had given Ophila his expensive salve without being asked, but none of that changed the fundamental fact that Lio had learned, across a thousand years of painful repetition, that trusting a random person was the worst mistake one could ever commit. And William was definitely no exception. So. A lie then. But it had to be something believable, something that explained his behavior. He turned the options over quickly.

Most of them were too elaborate and would instead just invite more questions. But if it was too vague, William would push hard. No, it needed to be simple and personal enough to feel true without actually being true. Lio frowned, his brows furrowing. Then the corners of his lips curled up. Ah. He had one.

"I'll answer a different question first," Lio answered, looking back at William over his shoulder.

"The one where you wanted to know why I was searching for her so desperately." William faltered at the redirection, then nodded curiously.

"Yeah, actually. I heard from some friends that you ran all over the city. And you even grabbed me by the shirt about it." Lio nodded.

"Don't worry. It's an easy answer." Then without any warning or preamble, Lio reached back and wrapped an arm around Ophila's waist, pulling her smoothly to his side. Ophila went completely still.

"She's my fiancée," Lio said, slapping a gentle smile on his face.

"And my childhood friend. She was taken by slavers from our hometown a long time ago. I'd been searching for her for years." He paused.

"I recently got word that she'd escaped and made her way to Crater City. So naturally, finding her became my priority." A long silence filled the tunnel.