Without hesitation, Ronan said, "I’ll tell you."

Aura’s eyes widened.

She sounded shocked. "You really will?"

Ronan nodded.

She hadn’t expected him to be so compliant. If Ronan suddenly added something like "but only if you do this for me," that trust would plummet back down immediately.

Ronan revealed to Aura that he saw glimpses of the future in his dreams.

Aura looked shocked, whispering to herself questioningly, "Does that mean you’re a prophet?"

Ronan shook his head. "It’s not nearly that powerful. I can just see select things about the future. I can’t control it, and I don’t know how and why the visions come to me. They just do."

He paused, then added, "For example, that’s why I knew where you were. Because in a future memory of mine, I saved you from those slave traders."

Aura was shocked at the revelation.

Of course, it was complete bullshit. But thankfully, this explanation would explain a lot of things without him needing to reveal much to her.

Aura then asked, "What about my mother and my family?"

She hesitated, then added, "I know I said you didn’t have to tell me about that, but I need to know if that’s related to your ’power.’"

Ronan nodded.

Aura frowned. "How, though? That happened in the past."

She asked if he could see the past as well, but Ronan shook his head and confirmed he could only see the future.

"Then how can you possibly know..." Aura trailed off, realization dawning.

She finished her sentence slowly. "Unless... in your vision, I confided in you. I told you my secret."

Aura was extremely shocked at that.

"You got it right."

Aura paused, then asked hesitantly. "In your vision... did I trust you?"

"Enough to tell me about your family," Ronan said with a shrug. Then he grinned, remembering something about her that he was not able to reveal. "Also trusted me enough to tell me those books you’re always reading are actually smut–"

Aura clamped a hand over his face, her cheeks red with embarrassment. "Okay. I believe you. Stop."

Ronan got multiple notifications from the system.

+1 Trust [Aura Acheron].

+1 Trust [Aura Acheron].

+1 Trust [Aura Acheron].

+1 Trust [Aura Acheron].

Ronan smiled smiled outwardly at her reaction, but in reality, he was smiling at the rapid increase in trust.

Of course it had worked. This lie was perfect for Aura Acheron specifically.

He had been deciding between multiple lies, but this one suited hdf best. Why? Because Aura’s mother was a prophet – or at least a self-proclaimed one.

There was only one real prophet in this world, and she lived amongst the elves.

But the point was, Aura already believed prophets existed, ones like her mother.

If Ronan also claimed to be a prophet, she would believe it, because Ronan’s knowledge was simply too perfect. No one else could have known about her family situation, especially not some random deadbeat noble in the human kingdom.

Aura stopped his line of thought, realizing out loud, "That’s how you knew Mesmer. Because either I told you about Mesmer, or we fought Mesmer in one of your visions."

Ronan nodded, not confirming either option.

If she wasn’t asking for specific information, there was no need to give it to her, lie or not. When lying to someone, you only needed to give details on things you knew they’d be suspicious of. If they weren’t suspicious of something, and you gave them unnecessary details, that only created more room for you to mess up your lie later.

Aura spoke again. "But then... what about the demon leech? You surely knew about it as well."

Ronan shook his head. "After I made the contract with you, I haven’t actually been getting that many visions. Only one, and that one was about Mesmer."

Aura nodded at that, thinking. She was probably creating her own ideas, and that was fine.

After a pause, Aura continued.

She told him about the Blood Deity.

"I don’t know much about the deity either, just what my parents told me. The Blood Deity is a figure that demons are forbidden from worshipping. She is one of the three great deities, along with the Goddess of Light and Mother Nature."

Aura paused. "I don’t know the validity of those statements, but it seems true enough considering what I’ve seen in the human kingdoms."

She continued, "My mother once told me that in the past, the Goddess of Light, the Blood Deity, and Mother Nature had been in a long war. But then the Goddess of Light won, and stole their sparks of Divinity, making them a lot weaker. Then, the propaganda of the Goddess of Light spread among the three continents, even among the demons and elves, and worshipping the other two deities was forbidden."

She added, "In reality, in the demon realm worshipping the Goddess of Light is also a sin, so it was a shock to me that people worshipped her so openly among the humans."

Ronan listened with rapt attention, taking in all the new terms.

Mother Nature, sparks of divinity, Goddess of Light propaganda. So many questions in his mind. Why had the two Goddesses been forgotten? Who was spreading this narrative that worshipping them was a sin? Why was it a sin? What were sparks of divinity? Why had they never been mentioned in the novel?

Aura sighed. "That’s all I know of the history, and my mother hadn’t told me much. The ritual is different, and it was something I did not know how to perform, as it was extremely complex, especially drawing the magic circle."

Ronan had already memorized the ritual circle in the time he was there, so there wasn’t a problem on that account, but he didn’t say it out loud.

"And your relationship with Mesmer?" Ronan asked.

Aura went silent at that, and she said that it was a private issue.

Ronan shrugged, letting the issue slide by.

In truth, Ronan already knew. Mesmer killed her father in front of her. Mesmer pretending not to know her during the fight probably served as a way to make her angry. Mesmer definitely knew Aura. And he hated her, and her family.

Ronan sighed as he walked alongside Aura.