"Oh, you guessed wrong again? Looks like you're out of luck this time, Mera," Kain said with a soft smile. Normally, his smile would make her feel warm, enough to lean into his embrace and fall asleep. But in this situation, that smile was so provoking, she just wanted to bite him, not once, but many times, to vent her frustration.

Mera took a deep breath, relaxing her entire body.

"Don't be mad, Mera, it's only two losses," she whispered, comforting herself.

"I want another round!"

"Are you sure?" Kain asked back, met with a firm nod from Mera.

By now, even a fool would understand that Kain knew Mera was looking for clues based on his gaze, and Mera was certainly no fool. She guessed that Kain had anticipated her reverse thinking, so he had trapped her with a reverse-reverse thinking ploy.

"But, I think I've found a way to win!" Mera thought to herself.

With the girl's intense determination, the third round of the game continued.

It was the same old situation. This time, Mera started by stealthily glancing at Kain's eyes.

Would she make the same mistake again?

No, Mera was only confirming whether he would continue to trick her this way.

And indeed, Kain's eyes darted to his left hand for a moment.

Based on the first layer of deduction, Kain looking at his left hand meant he was hiding the stone in his right hand. Based on the second layer of deduction—just like in the second round—Kain was hiding the stone in his left hand, but he deliberately looked at his left hand to make her guess in reverse that he was hiding it in his right. And based on the third layer of deduction, he was actually hiding the stone in his left hand, contrary to the first two layers.

So, Mera would jump directly to the fourth layer of deduction: Kain was hiding the stone in his right hand!

Mera thought that Kain believed she was still stuck climbing layer by layer, so she would directly skip layers! Breaking Kain's process.

And what benefited her was that, since this was just a small left-or-right game, she could easily jump to a counter-layer because Kain's choices were only two.

"I choose the right hand!" Mera excitedly gave her answer, her eyes fixed on his right hand as if she wanted to devour it whole.

"Please be right... please be right..." Mera was practically praying.

And then, Kain's right hand opened.

Empty. There was no stone there at all.

Mera's face froze, as if struck by lightning out of a clear sky.

Mera truly wanted to flip the table.

Again, and again, and again, she had been tricked by Kain!

"Kain... can't you be a little gentler with your girl?" Mera said, almost grinding her teeth.

At the same time, she was gradually understanding the feeling of others when facing Kain directly on an intellectual level. It was truly indescribable.

It seemed that everything she thought, deduced, surmised, broke through... all fell within the logic he had orchestrated.

Then she couldn't help but think of Faith, that scrawny blond man... how terrifying must he have been for Kain to acknowledge him as his equal?

"So, do you want to play again?" This time, Kain just asked normally, because if he pretended any more, he was afraid Mera would use [Air Magic] to toss him into the sky.

"Give me another round!" Despite being defeated, Mera wasn't disheartened.

More accurately, she had realized that the layers of left-hand, right-hand deduction based on eye movements could no longer be trusted.

Although having only two hands limited Kain, allowing her to "jump" layers and see through deception, precisely because there were only two hands, Kain could also limit Mera's choices to offer suitable tricks.

Moreover, the original data for this "layer-jumping" game was in his hands, so how could Mera possibly compete?

Now, she absolutely had to break free from the thinking of guessing which hand held the stone based on Kain's gaze, as this was clearly manipulated, fake data. It was thanks to this that he could play with her mind not just once, but twice.

So, forget the eyes!

Let him stare till his eyes got tired; she didn't care anymore!

Mera felt as if her shackles had been removed.

And indeed, from the previous two rounds, Kain had built a path for Mera to "ascend," and he was sure Mera would discover this path. More precisely, he wanted that to happen, so Mera could jump up, precisely to the position he wanted her to be.

Mera then thought she had jumped out of Kain's process, genuinely unaware that "Kain's process" in Mera's mind and "Kain's process" in Kain's mind were different.

Kain was always one step ahead in this little "Guess Which Gaze" game within the smaller "Guess Which Hand" game. Just like the chessboard within a chessboard he and Faith once competed on.

The fourth round of the game began.

This time, Mera started by stealthily glancing at Kain again. Of course, she wouldn't repeat old mistakes; she just wanted to ensure he was still deceiving her with his gaze, and she wanted to trick him into thinking she was being tricked by his gaze.

"Bullseye!" Seeing Kain's eyes shift, Mera secretly rejoiced, then ignored his gaze and turned to look at his hands.

This little game had very few clues, so she had to use everything she could.

And what she wanted to use was Kain's hands.

With sharp eyes, Mera noticed a very small detail that was hard to spot with just a glance. Of Kain's two clasped hands, one of them... had two middle fingers slightly protruding more than the other hand.

Mera knew what this meant: the stone Kain was holding had made his stone-holding fingers slightly bulge compared to the hand that wasn't hiding the stone. This was a very valuable detail Mera observed. And it pointed Mera to the target: Kain was hiding the stone in his left hand!