"Are these our opponents?" Mera whispered, but Kain only responded with a slight shake of his head. This surprised Mera, but Kain didn't offer any further explanation.

A moment later, a polite, elderly man, who appeared to be the butler of the mansion, entered. Seeing that everyone seemed to be present, he cleared his throat and spoke.

"I'm sure you all know the purpose of this gathering. So, I will get straight to the point."

"To select the most suitable person, I want you to participate in a game, and the winner will be the one to get the deal. The game is called... Who is the Liar?"

"You will have one hour to talk and find out who the liar is. Good luck."

Upon hearing this, Mera was stunned. Really? Seriously? Having one hour to find a liar might sound like a decent intellectual game, but there was no hint about what the "liar" was lying about. So, how were they supposed to figure it out?

Not to mention, besides her and Kain, there were ten other people. It would take time for just the two of them to question each person, let alone twelve people questioning each other to deduce who the liar was. One hour was far too little time for all of this.

Mera was growing impatient. After all, she wasn't there to play games; she was there to rescue her sister, Myra.

However, the surprises weren't over yet. Just as the rules were announced, Kain abruptly stood up from his chair. He slowly walked up to the butler, who had been standing still all this time, and said one sentence.

"You're the liar, aren't you?"

Kain's deduction wasn't a guess.

The moment he stepped into the room, he had his suspicions. Selecting intelligent people was not the problem. Gathering intelligent people was not the problem.

But what bothered Kain was the "game to select the most intelligent person." It made no sense, considering the very nature of how candidates were recruited for this game.

He didn't need the maid to tell him; Kain could see that this was an open-ended recruitment. This meant the recruitment was deeply influenced by the participants, not the recruiter. It's a bit hard to explain, but imagine that if Kain and Mera hadn't returned to Adia, this room would have never welcomed them. In that case, how would this room have gathered and welcomed candidates? And if Kain or someone else hadn't come, how much longer would they have to wait?

Kain didn't think that was the case.

Okay, let's assume he was somehow "lucky" enough to get a candidate seat here. And all the other candidates obeyed some rule, making them willing to wait until all the candidates were gathered, even though the method of gathering candidates was full of randomness and there was no telling when it would be complete.

And not long after Kain and Mera arrived, the butler immediately appeared and announced that the selection game could begin. This was the second suspicious point.

For the above conditions to happen, a significant number of "coincidences" would be required. But for him and Mera to "conveniently" be the final candidates selected would make the probability even closer to zero. This is because the recruitment system created by this place didn't have a fixed set of candidates; it searched for them over time and on a large scale.

Therefore, Kain's deduction was that, aside from him and Mera, no one else in this room was a real candidate. The other ten people were just sitting there silently, pretending to be real candidates, so that when Kain and Mera were thrown into this situation, they would assume they were.

And the butler's game that followed was the test for them. "Guess who the liar is."

This vague game confused Mera, because all the games she had encountered had clear rules and regulations, no matter how they were played. But this game was vague from its very name.

Who was lying? What were they lying about?

Mera didn't know because her perspective was still limited to the "twelve candidates." But Kain, with his chain of reasoning, read this game like a book. From the moment he entered the room until now, no one had said a word except for Mera's whisper. The only person who spoke was the butler.

"To select the most suitable person, I want you to participate in a game, and the winner will be the one to get the deal."

This is what the butler had said before the game began to take shape. And that was a lie.

So, wasn't the answer to "who is the liar" already obvious?

Receiving the inquiry, which was also an answer in itself, from Kain, the butler was utterly stunned. For a second, he couldn't control his expression. But thanks to his high level of training, the butler quickly returned to normal, though his heart was still pounding.

Kain had guessed correctly; this was actually a test specifically for him and Mera. The other people were all servants of the estate, disguised as candidates to "participate" in the game with the real ones.

Every genuine candidate would be led into a room like this and forced to participate in a test of their ability to play a "find the liar" game. These candidates were all intelligent people who had passed the "guess where the ball is" game, so they would likely enter confidently or cautiously. But they would soon discover they were heading into a dead end.

The butler had seen many people like this, and without exception, all of them failed. Of course, some candidates struggled in the mire, trying to deduce and find a solution. But their perspective was still limited to the "candidates," so no matter how logical their deductions were, everything they came up with was wrong. No one had ever suspected that the "game master" - the butler, was the liar from the very beginning.

So, why would the nobility do this?

Because they weren't foolish. All the nobles given command of their families in the resource distribution game were generations educated and trained in intellect and problem-solving. Playing well in a "who is the liar" game, or something similar, was already quite good for a "commoner" genius, but the nobles could do the same, and even better.

If that's the case, what reason would the nobles have to hire an outside genius to help their family?

It's because they were looking for someone with a superior vision that went beyond conventional frameworks, someone who wasn't just intelligent but also knew how to look deeply into the nature of a problem and, from there, expose this game as a trap from the start. That was the kind of person the nobility valued.

And Kain was precisely that kind of person. Not only was he intelligent, he was also quick, precise, and even had a touch of cruelty. This was the work style that the nobility preferred most.

"Congratulations, young man Kain. You have passed the test." The butler bowed politely, then looked over at Mera. Her expression, which showed she had just understood the problem, surprised him once again.

Indeed, by connecting Kain's head shake when she asked if the people at the table were their opponents, and then Kain's direct accusation that the butler was the liar, Mera, even without a complete logical deduction had figured out part of the truth.

This was what made the butler sigh in admiration. Kain, of course, scored maximum points, but he hadn't expected Mera to be so sharp either.

Kain spoke up, his voice flat. "She's with me."

With just that one sentence, the butler understood they wouldn't be separated. He honestly led both of them to a guest room.

"Tomorrow, you can meet with the master."

"Just ring the bell, and a dedicated servant will come to fulfill your requests. Enjoy your stay."

After showing them the room, the butler left, leaving Kain and Mera alone in the large, luxurious space.

Mera lay flat on her back on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling or more precisely, the wooden frame of the bed. Since hearing the news, she and Kain had run non-stop from Adia all the way here.

Kain, meanwhile, was inspecting the room. Using the magic skill [Imitative], he simulated the structure of the entire room to see if there was anything noteworthy. Although it seemed overly cautious, this was simply Kain's habit.