"Three. We each ask one question and give one answer. How about that?"
I looked at Valérie, who had spoken those words, and saw her give a knowing smile.
She had a more decadent aura rather than a bright one.
Like most white people, she had a small face and large eyes, accentuated by thick eyeliner.
She was undoubtedly beautiful, but within those eyes, I sensed an intense desire—one that felt almost dangerous.
'Just as I heard.'
I took a sip of my tea, recalling the eccentric tales I had heard about her in my past life.
The Three-Question Game.
It was one of the symbols of the mage Valérie de Belle.
She was the type who could never suppress her curiosity.
Even in my past life, she was well-known for proposing a simple game of exchanging three questions whenever her curiosity went unsatisfied.
She even incorporated this concept into her magic, refining it into her unique spell—"The Three-Question Ritual."
"And just exchanging questions and answers would be boring. I have a spell for this. Let's turn it into a game."
Looking into her somewhat unsettling eyes, I replied calmly.
"I refuse."
"…Huh? Why?"
"This is my first time meeting you. What could I possibly be curious about?"
Her eyes widened in surprise.
"You're not even curious about my eyes?"
"You already explained them without me asking, so not really."
"Hah…"
She blinked her large eyes, as if she hadn't expected that response.
"But the game itself is a little interesting."
I took another sip of tea to moisten my lips.
"Let's make it so that the winner can make one request of the loser. In that case, I'll participate."
"A request?"
Her eyes narrowed.
"You just said you weren't curious. What do you want to ask for?"
"I'll have to think about that. It's not every day you get the chance to request something from a mage with a fully equipped workshop."
She stared at me intently before smirking and nodding.
"Something about this feels off… but fine. Let's do it."
Valérie seemed quite confident.
"Alright, then explain the game."
She nodded and flicked her wrist, making a small ripple in the air.
"The rules are simple. We each ask three questions and give three answers."
As she spoke, a faint, misty magic began to rise around her.
The Three-Question Ritual had begun.
Right now, her magic wasn't even enough to fill a small café like this. But in the distant future, this very spell would allow her to seal a great demon with little effort.
"You can ask anything, and you can answer with either the truth or a lie. The catch is, you have to guess whether the other person's answer is true or false. Whoever gets more correct wins. And the loser must answer all three questions truthfully and in detail."
I already knew the rules, but I listened calmly.
For something as simple as a three-question exchange, the Three-Question Ritual had a surprisingly intricate structure.
Valérie took a sip of her thick, sugar-dissolved espresso and continued.
"Also, you can't ask obvious questions, like someone's gender or name. That would make the game too easy."
I knew this rule as well.
At this point in time, she hadn't yet developed the ritual into her personal magic, but its foundation was already solid.
I asked a confirmation question.
"How do we determine if an answer is true or false?"
"This spell is a type of mental magic. Even if you've trained to hide your thoughts, it reads the unconscious waves of your mind. The same applies if the loser tries to withhold the truth—this mental magic will compel them to speak."
With that, Valérie placed a hand over her chest, then slowly raised it.
At her fingertips, a misty mass of magic gathered.
"I, Valérie de Belle, swear upon my name as a mage. I will uphold my words, use no tricks, and play this game fairly according to the rules."
The misty particles burst apart like a popped balloon, scattering in all directions.
A mage's oath.
Breaking it would mean losing all of one's magical power—an extreme form of binding magic.
"Now you can trust that I won't cheat, right? Any more questions?"
"No, that will do."
"Then let's begin."
A knowing smile played on Valérie's red lips.
***
The magic mist floating in the air condensed above our heads, forming three red orbs.
"You go first," I said.
Valérie nodded in response.
"Then shall we start lightly at first? Hey, what kind of abilities do your Mystic Eyes have?"
Even though he said he'd start lightly, his first question was the one he was most curious about.
"I possess a power similar to yours."
Woong!
The magic sphere floating above my head scattered and disappeared.
"…No, what do you mean by that?"
Valerie furrowed her brows.
"Shall I take that as your second question?"
"…You're pretty clever for a little brat."
Valerie grumbled as she took a deep drag from her cigarette.
"Fine. Now, it's your turn to ask."
"Why are you curious about Mystic Eyes?"
Valerie frowned.
After a brief moment of thought, she calmly answered.
"Because of my thirst for knowledge. I'm just curious as a magician."
Woong!
Her first answer was complete.
It was a vague response, almost as if she were returning my own answer back to me, but it didn't matter.
'In the end, the answers exchanged in the Three-Question Duel aren't all that important.'
What truly matters is the kind of questions you ask and whether you can discern truth from lies.
Ultimately, the winner of this game will obtain a satisfying answer from the loser—not some ambiguous response like this.
So, the key to this game is preparing the right questions in advance and figuring out whether the opponent's answers are true or false.
'And I don't really need to be picky about my questions.'
What I aim for is victory in the Three-Question Duel—more precisely, the "request" I can make after winning.
"For my second question, why did you come to this region?"
I answered without hesitation.
"I came to meet you."
"What?"
Woong!
The magic sphere above Lee Chul's head disappeared.
A startled Valerie's eyes widened.
"Then it's my turn now."
Valerie gazed at Lee Chul.
The violet aura in her eyes trembled slightly.
'That answer… was true?'
Her eyes could decipher all things.
They weren't Mystic Eyes of mind-reading, so she couldn't directly peer into one's thoughts. However, by analyzing muscle movements and eye shifts, she could tell if someone was lying.
And according to her eyes, Lee Chul's answer was undoubtedly true.
'But how? Does he know who I am? No, even if he did, how could he know I'm here?'
She rarely left her workshop. Even when she did, she used transformation magic to disguise herself in the streets.
The Magic Tower knew of her presence here, but they hadn't disclosed it externally, so outsiders shouldn't have been aware.
No matter how skilled an intelligence group might be, they shouldn't have been able to pinpoint her exact location.
She had always erased her traces meticulously to ensure she wouldn't be found.
"I will ask my second question now."
"…Alright."
"Have you decided on the type of magic for your first Unique Magic?"
At that, Valerie's eyes widened in shock.
For warriors who refine their mana and reach the realm of Aura, magicians have their own equivalent—Unique Magic.
A supreme magical system where the user can control everything under the rules they establish.
With Unique Magic, magicians could distort the very fabric of reality.
'How does he…? No, what does he know?'
The reason she had come to Korea was, in fact, to design her own Unique Magic.
She was studying shamanism—developed under a system different from magic—and planned to integrate it into her own magic to create something entirely new.
But that was information known only to a select few in the Magic Tower, including her master.
'Was he just fishing for a reaction?'
She scrutinized Lee Chul's expression closely.
Yet, he continued to wear that enigmatic smile, making it impossible to read his thoughts.
"Why do you ask? Are you not going to answer?"
Lee Chul asked with a grin, his tone playful.
Valerie's eyes gleamed.
"…It's a magic related to the mechanics of mana particles. It's not a combat spell."
Above Valerie's head, the second sphere vanished.
"Now, it's time for my final question."
A purple glow swirled in Valerie's pupils.
"You already know about me. Just how much do you know?"
A question that encompasses a vast range of content.
If he won, it would be a question that could resolve all the doubts that arose during the Three Questions Game.
I briefly gazed into Valérie's eyes.
Before those eyes, brimming with certainty, it felt as if both lies and truths would be seen through.
"I have never once seen or heard anything about you since the day I was born."
Valérie's lips curled into a long smile.
'I won.'
Valérie was certain.
That statement was a lie.
For some reason, she had failed to read Lee Cheol's Mystic Eyes using her own, but that didn't mean she couldn't analyze his facial muscles or movements.
And she didn't miss the slight tremor in his facial muscles.
Despite his young age, he maintained a good poker face. But before the Mystic Eyes, he couldn't hide everything.
'Now, I can hear how he really knows about me.'
She didn't know why he had asked the first two questions, but in the end, she had won.
"This is my final question."
"Go ahead."
Lee Cheol wore a strange smile.
Valérie sensed an inexplicable confidence in that smile.
"Do you think you have won, or lost?"
Valérie let out a scoff.
What a ridiculous question.
She stubbed out her cigarette, which had been resting on the edge of the ashtray, and said,
"Hmph, this is your last question, and that's all you've got?"
"Just answer."
"Fine, whatever. You lost. I won."
And with that—
The final magic formula was triggered.
"Now, shall we determine truth from lies?"
Valérie grinned seductively, as if she were a gambler revealing her hand.
"The answer to my third question. That was a lie. You did know about me."
At those words, the magic in the air began to shift.
I read the flow of magic swirling around me.
And in the next moment—
Whoosh!
The magic turned black.
That meant Valérie was wrong.
"No, why! That's impossible…!"
Confusion filled Valérie's expression.
'Of course, I do know about Valérie.'
But I had said, 'since the day I was born.'
There was a trick in that wording.
A normal person would interpret it as referring to their entire life. But in my case, it only applied to my life after my regression.
In my past life, I had known many things about the magician Valérie de Belle.
However, in this life, after my regression, I had never once heard or seen anything about her.
In other words, my answer was both a lie and the truth.
It all depended on my own perception.
"Now, it's my turn to guess, isn't it? Let's start with the first answer."
I grinned.
The first question.
Why was she so curious about the Mystic Eyes?
Her answer had been intellectual curiosity.
"That was true."
The magic surrounding Valérie turned white.
That meant my answer was correct.
It was an obvious response.
She had probably given me this question as a handicap, thinking she only needed to win with the others.
"Since we're at it, shall we go for the rest?"
The second question.
What kind of magic would she create as her first unique spell?
Sorry, but I already knew the future.
The very magic she was using right now—the one I was trapped in—was her first unique spell and her signature magic.
"You lied about this one."
The Three Questions Ritual was a mental magic spell. It had nothing to do with particle studies or anything of that sort.
"…!"
Once again, the magic in the air turned white.
And the final question.
Had I lost this Three Questions Ritual?
Valérie had declared my defeat.
"But that, too, turned out to be a lie. Because I won."
Valérie's expression twisted comically.
I smiled as I looked at her.
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : http://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]