“Celeste!” I coughed in surprise at her sudden words. “What are you saying?”

“Master can’t hear it?” Celeste asked in surprise.

“Hear what?”

“The voices of the men. They were clearly lying. When someone lies, their voice is always different.”

I had nearly forgotten that Celeste was a wind fairy. She had a perfect pitch and was extremely sensitive to vibrations. As it turned out, that included voices. She could tell when someone was lying just by the tones in their voice.

“What do you mean, they were lying?” I asked.

“Most of what they said wasn’t the truth. They were keeping things from Miki. As for her family being sick, it was completely made up.”

Her words caused my heart to tighten. It truly had seemed odd that these men just suddenly showed up. They went to the bottom level of the dungeon and seek her out, just to help her family? They were common foxkin, an animal type that already had a bad stigma in their society because of their spirit tails. Why would they go to that much effort to find her. Plus, why would she even be needed? Surely, there would be other foxkin with fewer tails that could resolve the problems.

These men had an interest in Miki in particular. That also meant they must have known about Miki’s situation. They knew she was a nine-tailed fox who had gained control of it. That left the extremely worrying question of why they had come. To make matters worse, my bond was severed at the worst time. Rather than Miki being alert and wary, she’d be distracted and emotionally vulnerable. I realized my fist had tightened to the point my nails were digging into my palm. These men had taken advantage of an emotionally vulnerable woman. That alone was enough to earn my ire.

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“We need to go to Dioshin.” I declared through clenched teeth.

Celeste nodded. “Miki might be in trouble.”

I furrowed my brow as I thought about what needed to happen next. That was when a sudden thought came to me. I turned to Celeste, my expression turning slightly uneasy.

“Um, Celeste…”

“Yes, Master?”

“About that lying thing… how long have you been able to distinguish people’s lies, would you say?”

“Hmm? I don’t know… I started to realize it once I became a Sylph. It took me a while to figure out what those differences were. Back when I was in Karr’s Dungeon and lived as a mindless drone of my mother wandering the halls of the manor aimlessly, I never learned very much about life. It took traveling with Master for me to gain some perspective.” Celeste explained.

“I see… so, um… hey, listen… about any lies that I might have said…”

Celeste glanced over at me and smirked. “Master, you wouldn’t be worried you might have said something I’d hold against you, would you?”

“N-No! That’s not it at all! I wouldn’t have any suck doubts!”

“I understand.” She nodded, and just as I let out a breath, she turned away. “Liar.”

“Geh! Celeste, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it! I was confused!”

I had begun to apologize for things I couldn’t remember and might not have even done. How could someone remember every fib they told someone? Celeste giggled, shrinking back into her smaller form before flying back onto my shoulder and kissing my cheek.

“Master, all of your slaves can tell when you’re lying. You’re not good at it. However, we can feel the intent behind your words, and that is what matters.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that. I thought I had grown quite good at tricking people. The job Mimic was a lie.