Pretending to deliberate, even feigning another peek, Mera then pointed to Kain's left hand.

"I choose the left hand!"

For the first time, Mera showed an expression of immense confidence.

She was sure Kain wouldn't guess this. So...

Empty.

Mera's face froze, shocked and shattered from within.

Kain merely gently shook his head with a faint smile.

Mera wasn't wrong. It's important to reiterate that.

She abandoned observing Kain's gaze, which meant she discarded a primary clue source that Kain could completely control, preventing him from deceiving and manipulating her again.

Then, Mera chose a new direction: Kain's hands. So, how was this clue different from Kain's gaze?

Firstly, it was a very difficult clue to find, as it relied on microscopic observation to spot the minute difference in the two middle fingers of his hands. Secondly, this clue was formed by two elements: not just Kain's hand—a subjective factor—but also the stone—an objective factor. This created a more objective clue: the hand holding the stone would definitely bulge slightly more than the hand not holding the stone.

And to be even more certain, Mera intentionally checked and tried to trick Kain using his gaze.

However, all of this was within Kain's predictions.

Because he was the one who pushed her out of the "gaze" shackles into a new one: "the hand."

The hand holding the stone would certainly bulge more than the hand not holding the stone; that's correct. So Kain only needed to make his empty hand appear to bulge more than the hand holding the stone.

If Kain were in Mera's position, he wouldn't just compare which hand bulged more; he would also compare the less bulging hand to its basic clenched posture. From that, he could decipher this trap.

Mera wasn't wrong; it's just that her opponent was Kain.

"J-just... one... last... time..." Mera managed to utter, pouring all her remaining strength into the words.

Seeing her like this, Kain sighed. How could he bear to "torment" the most important woman in his life?

But... having come this far, Kain knew Mera herself needed this release.

This time, he really had pushed her a bit too hard.

"Alright, just this once more, then."

Mera simply nodded, without confidence or declaration.

Only intense concentration remained.

Although Kain had indeed pushed Mera a bit too hard, with each failure, she seemed to gain a new understanding.

While she was still far from matching Kain's performance in this game, a good seed had been sown in Mera's heart, ready to break through the soil.

For the fifth round, Kain extended both hands.

But this time, there was no tell from his eyes, no bulge in his hands; everything was identical.

It seemed that this round had reverted to a pure 50/50 game of chance. Mera had nothing to deduce, only randomness.

Mera frowned, pondered, and finally relaxed.

She chose the right hand.

Kain's right hand opened, and there was nothing in it.

Mera lost again, as if fate were mocking her, denying her a single win, even in a 50/50 choice.

But this time, she didn't fuss or get angry; she simply leaned back as if a great burden had been lifted.

"Lost again... but... it was really fun." Mera said with a smile.

For the first time, she discovered that even a simple game could be so interesting. She was frustrated by guessing wrong, she was annoyed by losing, but she couldn't help but jump back in.

It was truly... very Mera.

"So... have you always lived in a world like that, Kain?" Mera turned to him, asking.

Kain was slightly surprised, then nodded.

Yes, that had always been the world in his eyes.

A world of extreme rationality and strategy, where every action and thought operated flawlessly.

But to Mera, such a world seemed cold and lonely.

Suddenly, Kain shook his head, then leaned back and lay down beside Mera.

"I'm not always like that."

"Sometimes, I just want to gaze at the sky because it's the sky, not for any other reason."

"And I also just want to lie beside you, because it's you, not for any other reason."

Mera's face flushed with embarrassment. She clutched Kain's arm tightly, burying her face in his shoulder to hide her swirling emotions of both confusion and joy.

However, Kain still kept Mera in the dark about the secret of the fifth round.

A round that seemed to offer no clues, operating purely by chance with a 50/50 probability.

But that was only true if this round were placed within the first round.

Because... there was nothing random about it.

From rounds one to four, Mera was consistently fed ways to win the game by finding clues, from his gaze to his hands. When the final round began with no clues, Mera was lost on what to choose.

Her thought pattern had changed after four rounds, so when there were no clues, whether real or fake, for her to rely on, Mera was bewildered.

And her subconscious clung to the only remaining, useful clue.

That was the number of times Kain had hidden the stone in each hand. In the four rounds, Kain had hidden the stone in his right hand three times and in his left hand once.

Under such an overwhelming quantity, Mera's subconscious... chose the right hand, because she assumed Kain would repeat hiding the stone there again.

And this was the "randomness" Kain had intentionally sown from the beginning; the number of times he hid the stone in each hand was entirely under his control.

Mera thought that the goddess of luck was toying with her through probability, but that god was precisely Kain, and he had precisely adjusted the probability in Mera's intuition, making it no longer 50/50 for both hands, but 25 for the left and 75 for the right.

"Existence is reasonable."

That was how Kain shaped this world, even from things that seemed to be random, like reaction, action, or even choices.