"Miss Lumina, what exactly caused the Dawn Device to be extinguished?"
After Lumina finished speaking with Herta, Phainon seized the opportunity while Lumina was free and quickly asked.
"Before I tell you the specific reason, if I told you... that Okhema's Dawn Device was already extinguished long ago, would you believe me?" Instead of immediately answering Phainon's question, Lumina raised a hand and asked back.
"Huh?" Upon hearing this, Phainon froze slightly, instinctively wanting to shake his head to indicate his disbelief.
But just as he was about to shake his head, Phainon hesitated for a moment.
If these words had been spoken by anyone else, Phainon definitely wouldn't have believed them.
The Dawn Device has been protecting Okhema until now, yet you're telling me it was already extinguished long ago? Even if Phainon wanted to believe it, his own eyes wouldn't allow him to.
After all, with such a dazzling Dawn Device, no matter how Phainon thought about it, he could never imagine it was already extinguished.
But these words came from Lumina's own mouth...
Based on the various displays of Lumina's immense power earlier, Phainon's heart leaned towards believing her words, yet on the surface, it was still very difficult for him to believe this statement.
"What, find this hard to believe?" Lumina gently smiled, seeing Phainon's conflicted expression.
As her voice faded, before Phainon could even say anything, the smile on Lumina's face disappeared, replaced by an extremely serious and solemn little expression: "So what if I say, those words just now weren't fake, but the truth?"
"..." Phainon's expression stiffened, but he quickly recovered. Without stopping his pace, he looked up at the now-extinguished Dawn Device, his eyes full of thought, unsure of what he was thinking.
Hyacine, beside Phainon, was the same.
Dan Heng and Mem were a bit surprised, but after glancing at the Dawn Device, they didn't dwell on the matter any longer.
As for Stelle, she had absolute trust in her Sister Lumina. No matter what she said, Stelle would fully believe her.
Even if she said this World of Amphoreus was fake, that the entire Cosmos was fake, Stelle would believe it one hundred percent.
But... but if Sister Lumina said that Lumina herself was fake, then Stelle would never believe it.
After all, this concerned Stelle's bottom line.
When it came to her bottom line, Stelle would absolutely not back down!
Observing the group's reactions, Lumina waited a moment until they had all recovered before speaking slowly to explain: "Okhema's Dawn Device actually extinguished hundreds of years ago. It's just that because you all thought it hadn't extinguished, it therefore hadn't extinguished."
Lumina disliked riddle-speakers, especially those insufferable ones who spoke in incomprehensible riddles that required her to guess and think.
But if, if she were the riddle-speaker herself, then Lumina felt that being a riddle-speaker wasn't such a bad profession after all.
To put it in plain language: I despise those who stand at the peak of power enjoying luxury, but if that person were me, then you could just treat the previous sentence as if I'd just farted.
I envy you, I'm jealous of you, I criticize you, all because I want to become you.
The moment I became you, I would do things even more excessively than you ever did.
For example, right now, even though this matter could be explained clearly in a single sentence, Lumina simply refused to say it straightforwardly. Instead, she had to beat around the bush, speaking in sentences that were slightly confusing and puzzling.
"Because we thought it hadn't extinguished, it therefore hadn't extinguished?"
Sure enough, just as Lumina had imagined, when those words were spoken aloud, they were bound to be met with a wave of confusion and bewilderment.
"...A [History Fictionologist] capable of manifesting facts?"
As the group walked toward the city gate, they all fell into a period of silence and contemplation upon hearing Lumina's words.
After a while, Dan Heng, the Astral Express's Archivist, was the first to speak, breaking the silent reflection.
Within the Archive, Dan Heng had learned a vast amount of knowledge.
Therefore, upon hearing Lumina's statement, his thoughts naturally turned toward the [Mysterious].
Because we thought it hadn't extinguished, it therefore hadn't extinguished. Isn't this exactly what a History Fictionologist does?
Penacony's Gallagher was a living example.
Before everyone discovered his true identity, no one knew he was a fictional creation.
But once everyone learned who he was and that he was merely a fictional character, he naturally vanished before all their eyes.
"You mean... an existence similar to Gallagher?" Hearing Dan Heng's words, Stelle also seemed to have made a connection, her mind, like Dan Heng's, drifting back to Penacony.
"Yes." Dan Heng nodded, glancing up slightly at the massive Dawn Device supported by Kephalos. "That must be what Miss Lumina is trying to say."
"But..." Dan Heng's expression turned puzzled as he cast a questioning glance at Lumina. "Miss Lumina, could there be a History Fictionologist in Amphoreus helping them?"
"If that's the case, it would explain everything..." Although he hadn't received Lumina's confirmation, Dan Heng was already convinced of this hypothesis.
After all, Lumina's words could only have this one possibility.
At least... at least in Dan Heng's knowledge, it was the only possibility.
A possibility related to the [Mysterious].
"Yes, but also no." Lumina gently shook her head in response to Dan Heng's words, remaining as cryptic as ever.
But the group had no objections to Lumina's cryptic behavior.
On the contrary, in their eyes, it was perfectly normal for a powerful "expert" like Lumina to speak in riddles to test the logical thinking of her "juniors."
Even the more lively Stelle had no objections.
Of course, Stelle only had no objections to her own Sister Lumina. If it were anyone else, Stelle would have directly thrown a punch.
Riddler, riddler, riddle my ass! I think you want to taste my Galactic Baseballer's fist!
Fortunately, this would never, and could never, happen to Lumina.
Since Stelle and Dan Heng had no objections, Phainon, Hyacine, and Mem naturally wouldn't say anything more.
But Herta, standing beside Lumina, crossed her arms and glanced at Lumina with a face full of exasperation.
Those exasperated eyes seemed to be telling Lumina: "You are really idle, really bored."
In Herta's eyes, Lumina's act of playing the riddler was absolutely a child's behavior.
If Herta weren't so familiar with Lumina, she might have even thought Lumina was actually a child.
Well... maybe she wouldn't even have to think it. In Herta's eyes, if Lumina didn't have that despair-inducing strength, Herta could play with her just like playing with a child.
She wouldn't even need to use her full strength to hold her in the palm of her hand.
Unfortunately, she was someone slightly more mature than a child, and with absolute strength, Herta could do nothing against her...
Glancing at Lumina briefly, Herta then withdrew her gaze and didn't speak to interrupt her.
Since she had this kind of refined taste, she might as well enjoy playing it well.
After all, if she played it a few more times, she would naturally get bored.
"Hmm... could it be that someone in Amphoreus possesses power related to [Mystery]?" As the one serving as the team's intellectual brain, Dan Heng was extremely clever, and faced with Lumina's riddles, he seemed quite at ease.
Within a few seconds after Lumina's words fell, Dan Heng thought of an answer.
And this answer happened to be the real answer.
Dan Heng's clever brain and reaction speed made Lumina take another glance at him.
Although Lumina hadn't played enough with her riddles yet, since Dan Heng had already spoken the truth, she couldn't pretend she hadn't heard anything.
Nor could she lie through her teeth and call his correct answer a wrong one.
"Oh, you're right~" Thus, after thinking for a long while, Lumina nodded, confirming Dan Heng's answer.
Before they could say anything, Lumina spoke up first, continuing, "Under the influence of this power, the Dawn Device, which should have been extinguished long ago, was able to protect them until now, until this power dissipated..."
"Actually, rather than calling it power, it's better to say it's a lie."
"A lie?" Except for Dan Heng and Stelle, who had some understanding because they had encountered Gallagher, the rest of them felt a slight confusion due to Lumina's words.
"Yes, a lie." Lumina looked up at the crimson sky, at the Dawn Device that had completely extinguished and could no longer bring any dawn to the Okheman people.
"This power needs a lie to sustain it. The moment the lie shatters, the power born from the lie will naturally vanish."
"A lie?" Phainon frowned, seemingly thinking of something.
After a moment, Phainon suddenly looked up and said, "Cipher, the Demigod of [Trickery]? The power that sustained the Dawn Device was her trick?"
Although Phainon used a question mark, his words were very certain.
Lumina had already said it to this extent; if Phainon still couldn't figure it out, he might as well smash his head against a block of tofu and die.
Phainon had heard about [Mystery] and [History Fictionologists] from Stelle, but he only knew their names and nothing of the specific details.
But when the words "lie" and "trickery" were mentioned, and combined with what Lumina had said earlier, Phainon immediately locked onto Cipher.
If every word Lumina said was true, then the so-called [Deliverer] should be Cipher.
But...
Now that the power sustaining the Dawn Device was gone and the trickery had been exposed, did that mean Cipher had already...
After all, such a secret known only to her could hardly have been exposed by anyone else's words, right?
That meant there was only one possibility.
The master of the lie had departed... and thus the so-called [Trickery] naturally collapsed.
"Don't overthink it, Cipher is doing just fine right now." Although Phainon didn't say it explicitly, his surface emotions were very expressive. Lumina saw right through his thoughts and spoke up to remind him.
Preventing Phainon from overthinking was a secondary concern. The primary issue was that a lost-in-thought Phainon was cursing her beautiful girl!
Lumina would never allow a beautiful girl to be cursed!
"Then why?" Hearing Lumina's words, Phainon was suddenly a bit confused.
It wasn't that Phainon couldn't understand Cipher still being alive, but he couldn't understand how this lie, which only Cipher knew, had been broken if she was indeed fine.
After all, no matter how Phainon thought about it, he couldn't imagine that Cipher would have actively told this secret.
She must have been forced to reveal it.
But... but since Cipher could manage to become an unknown "Deliverer" for hundreds of years, she absolutely could not have been "forced to reveal" it.
At the very least, so-called threats would definitely have no effect on her.
"Do you still remember that Flame Reaver?" Lumina sized Phainon up and down subtly, her voice extremely calm as she asked.
Lumina still found it hard to imagine connecting the Phainon before her with that Flame Reaver.
If one only looked at their appearance and the aura around them, surely no one would ever connect the two.
At the very least, Lumina and Herta would absolutely never connect the two of them.
However... Aglaea perhaps could.
This was also probably why the Flame Reaver would never appear wherever Aglaea was.
The only time the two of them were in the same place, before Aglaea could even make any observations, she was drawn away from the scene by a series of changes caused by that Flame Reaver exposing the "Trickery" Lie.
"Flame Reaver? I remember, I will never forget..." Hearing this name again from Lumina's mouth, Phainon couldn't help but clench his fists. Toward this Flame Reaver, his heart seemed to harbor countless, unquenchable fires of rage.
No one would feel indifferent toward a murderer who destroyed their homeland. The fact that Phainon didn't immediately go berserk the next second after hearing this name already counted as Phainon having a very good temper.
Even... even this Flame Reaver had now annihilated The Grove where he had studied and lived, and had harmed his own companions. From any angle, Phainon had an irreconcilable blood feud with him.
Either he dies, or I die!
Phainon would absolutely never accept any third ending for the Flame Reaver other than these two choices.
"Hoo..." Calming the rage in his heart, only after slightly settling down did Phainon ask Lumina in confusion, "Does this matter have something to do with that Flame Reaver?"
"Yes." Lumina nodded slightly, looking at the city gate drawing closer and closer before them, and said softly, "Cipher's [Trickery] was exposed by that Flame Reaver."
"In other words, the current situation in Okhema was born because of him."
After saying this, Lumina secretly observed Phainon's expression, and seeing the posture of his anger, which had subsided, surging back into his heart, she withdrew her gaze.
Lumina was still looking forward to what would happen between this Phainon and that Flame Reaver later.
After all, everyone loves to watch the drama.
Anyway, since she had already come to Amphoreus, she would definitely help them clean up the bigger matters.
As a reward, just let her enjoy the drama~