Show Me Your Stats!-Chapter 193

Only then did Ayra fully descend the stairs and look down at Shinje as she spoke. Shinje, terrified, staggered back a step, but Ayra merely smiled. And then, she said:

"Shinje, does it still look like this is my Lord’s Castle to you?"

"W-what?"

As Shinje flinched and lifted his head, a sudden snowstorm swept through. Panicked, he looked around—but all he could see were towering castle walls. The magical tool floating over Ayra’s hand spun again—and with a deep rumble, an avalanche poured down over Shinje’s head.

"This is an illusion! It’s an illusion!"

Shinje shouted, but the snowstorm stung like icy blades and felt too real. Was this truly an illusion? Could it be an actual attack? The moment he doubted, the illusion became reality.

His scream of "Aaaagh—!" was swallowed as he was buried alive beneath a heavy pile of snow.

"That’s it? Boring."

Janus kicked the man foaming at the mouth and collapsed on the floor with the tip of his boot. It sounded less like a tap and more like a thud, the man’s body jerking with each blow.

"I told you it wouldn’t be fun."

Ayra stopped the magical device, which had been spinning on his palm like a music box, softly chiming. The ball of light at the center vanished, and the orbs at each corner returned to their original mismatched sizes.

From Janus’s point of view, Shinje had barely exchanged words with Ayra before collapsing in a fit. But from the perspective of a mage, that brief exchange had been a fierce and intricate magical duel, with surging mana colliding in silence.

Shinje’s eyes were blank, his lips muttering incoherent gibberish. Jinas, who had been watching from a distance, hurried over in alarm. He moved to call for a physician, but Ayra stopped him.

"It’s alright, Sir Jinas. This person isn’t really a guest."

"If not a guest, then...?"

"He’s the spy who’s been snooping around our territory."

The Labyrinth mage who had successfully imprisoned her classmate in a hallucination cell answered with a smile. Now it was time to imprison his physical body as well.

❄

"I-I’ll tell you everything! Please...!"

After spending the entire day trapped in the hallucination cell, Shinje clung desperately to Ayra’s feet, begging. Though only his mind had been trapped and his body had been lying comfortably, his eyes were dark and sunken, and he looked like he’d lost weight overnight. His hands and feet trembled nonstop.

"How dare you lay hands on our lord!"

Now that Bloom had learned the man was the spy who’d infiltrated the territory, he didn’t hesitate to kick Shinje away. Shinje clenched his teeth in shame but didn’t protest. He simply let go of Ayra and curled into himself.

After restraining the criminal, Bloom quickly brought over a chair and placed it behind Ayra. Ayra sat naturally, giving Bloom a sweet smile.

"Thanks, Sir Bloom."

"I’m only doing my duty."

Bloom responded politely and stood proudly at Ayra’s side.

The underground dungeon was chilly, and Ayra shivered in the cold. Janus, standing behind her, nonchalantly passed his hand through a blazing torch and then pressed his palm against the back of her neck. It was so warm it felt like a heat pack, and Ayra’s expression softened.

Bloom clenched his fists as Janus casually rubbed Ayra’s neck. It wasn’t jealousy—he simply thought Janus was disgracing his lord by touching her so intimately. That he could act like this even knowing Janus was a dragon... Ayra was always surprised by Bloom’s boldness.

Janus, as if to rub it in, brazenly tugged at Ayra’s collar and slipped his fingers deeper. Bloom gritted his teeth quietly, but of course Janus didn’t even flinch. Smirking as he looked over the pitiful Shinje, who was trembling in fear of Ayra, he remarked with great satisfaction:

"So, not all Labyrinth mages are the same, huh?"

"Of course not. Why would they be?"

Ayra, who had effortlessly brought down her classmate with a mere flick of her finger, lifted her chin with arrogant confidence. Physical mages tended to fight with dazzling, flashy spells, but mages who specialized in mental magic fought in silence. Their duels were swift—often over in just minutes. Just like how she’d defeated Shinje mere moments after meeting his gaze.

Janus shifted the hand that had been rubbing her neck and now playfully stroked Ayra’s chin, lifting it.

"That so? Just what I’d expect from my lover."

"Don’t forget—I always ranked in the top ten in illusion magic back in the Labyrinth."

"Your magic skill’s definitely top tier."

Ayra, grinning happily, paused. Narrowing her eyes, she turned her head to glare at Janus. ‘Top tier in magic,’ huh? If they hadn’t been talking about magic just now, what was he referring to?

Regardless, now wasn’t the time to fuss over that. What mattered was the interrogation. Ayra raised her hand, and Pebble fluttered down and perched lightly on her fingertip. Having thoroughly tenderized Shinje’s mind overnight, it was now time for a sweet little interrogation with the help of her adorable, mind-reading spirit.

"From now on, you’ll answer every question truthfully, Shinje."

"...Alright."

Shinje hung his head and responded obediently. He kept massaging his limbs—likely from lingering hallucination pain. People exposed to prolonged illusions often continued to suffer phantom pain even after escaping them.

"Was the avalanche on the path to Dalum Village your doing?"

"That was... the second landslide, yeah. I timed it to activate when you passed through... I figured a mage of your caliber wouldn’t die from something like that. The first one, probably... was Sobletz’s doing."

Desperate not to end up back in the hallucination cell, Shinje blabbered excuses. Ayra stroked Pebble, who sat on the back of her hand, and a system window popped up.

[Real-Time Lie Detection Activated...]

[If a lie is ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) detected, a dog barking sound will be heard! WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF!]

Ayra was glad Pebble could read minds. She didn’t particularly enjoy physical or mental torture. Judging by Shinje’s condition, he wasn’t likely to lie either. Being a Labyrinth mage himself, he’d know all about their specialized truth serums. Lying now would only earn him punishment when his answers didn’t match later.

"You were the one who forged the embezzlement documents and framed us?"

"Yeah. That was me too..."

He admitted that he had forged the documents accusing Graffni and Gretel of embezzlement using the puppet. When the guards became stricter in response, he struck a deal with Teon: in exchange for luring the Karkal into Solar, he was given a priest’s identity that allowed him to enter the Lord’s Castle. He knew priests weren’t usually questioned in Solar.

At that, Ayra let out a soft laugh. When he’d first heard of the simultaneous attacks across villages by Karkal, his mind had immediately gone to either a dragon or a mage. No normal human could orchestrate something like that.

This chapter is updat𝓮d by freēnovelkiss.com.

His suspicions were confirmed—but recalling the lives lost to Karkal attacks didn’t make him feel victorious. Whatever Shinje had been trying to gain, the moment he harmed his territory’s people, he was no longer Ayra’s classmate—he was the enemy. Her voice turned colder.

"So, why did you do all this in my territory?"

The moment she asked, a glint of greed passed through Shinje’s eyes. He lowered his head and confessed.

"...Just before leaving Solar, I stopped by Sobletz and got hired by the lord there. He said he wanted to conquer your territory—and asked me to help."

[That’s a lie! :0 WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF! :( ]

A loud barking noise echoed in her mind, and Ayra smiled sweetly. She could’ve used Pebble to delve deeper into his consciousness, but that would’ve cost more mana than it was worth. Instead, she simply snapped her fingers—and cast another hallucination spell.

"AaaaAAAH!!"

Caught in the illusion again, Shinje thrashed like he’d been electrocuted, eventually rolling on the floor. Since he wasn’t just a civilian but a Labyrinth mage, Ayra showed no mercy in the force of her spells. After watching him suffer for several minutes, she finally released him. He gasped desperately for breath, crawling across the floor.

"You really expect me to believe you did all that just to earn a few mana stones? You’re one of the wealthiest in the Labyrinth. I’ll ask again. Why did you do it?"

Ayra’s voice was soft—but it carried weight. Shinje stubbornly insisted he had been hired by the Lord of Sobletz, but after several more rounds of horrifying illusions, his face had turned ghostly pale. His skin visibly broke out in goosebumps, and cold sweat poured down his temples.

"You know I could feed you a truth serum, right? Do you really think it’s worth dragging this out?"

When Ayra raised her hand and snapped again, Shinje jolted violently. She hadn’t even cast a spell this time, but he looked around in panic, groaning. With her thumb and middle finger poised once more, Ayra warned:

"This time it’s real."

"I-I’ll talk! I’ll talk! Just please stop!"

At last, Shinje surrendered, flailing his hands. Ayra gave him a look of utter disdain. Weak and talentless, he’d hidden far away and used a puppet to pull strings—but hadn’t even been prepared for the consequences. In the Labyrinth, arrogant mages like Shinje, who overreached and chased greed, met terrible ends all the time.

"M-my awakening magic... it’s mana stone detection..."