The car wound its way up a slope and pulled into a lookout terrace perched above the street.
From here, a whole row of buildings stretched below, with people moving like little chess pieces along the pavement.
Thud—
Ashen slammed the brakes; the tires screeched before settling with a sharp jolt. Lucia shot him a look, but he only offered a casual grin and leaned back as if the rough stop had been deliberate.
Deciding to exchange some easy words with the woman beside him, as his gaze drifted outward, he started, "So, how'd you get so good at acting, anyway?"
"Acting?" Lucia tilted her head. "I don't act, Ashen, I merely lie... Acting is, unfortunately, beyond me; otherwise, I wouldn't be working as just a recruiter..."
By the end, her tone changed to something closer to envious.
Ashen, meanwhile, was now positively curious. 'All that performance... and she considers acting beyond her?'
Lucia sniffed that interest immediately and didn't waste time using it against him. "You seem pretty interested. I'll tell you, but answer a question of mine first."
Ashen, still intrigued, decided to bite. "Shoot."
"Are you in a serious relationship right now?" The tone stayed even, despite the ambiguous question.
Ashen understood the underlying question behind it.
"You want to ask why my family reacted that way when you were acting like my lover?"
Nod.
Ashen's lips turned into a sheepish smile. "Ah, I owe you an apology for that... I didn't warn you beforehand, but I have a reason for it... It's not very rational, but it's a reason still..."
"You know an apology will serve nothing but soothe my ego, so out with the reason, without talking in circles," she shot back without mercy.
And Ashen had no one to blame except his curiosity for putting him in this situation.
"Well, for starters, I wanted to see how you'd handle the situation," scratching his cheek with his index finger, he continued, "Gotta check my partner's competence, after all..."
"You put yourself at risk of being branded as a two-timing scumbag just to test my 'competence'...?" Her voice stayed even, but the accusatory tone didn't go unnoticed.
"Who says I'm not a two-timing scumbag, regardless?" he shot back without warning.
Lucia didn't get a chance to retort as he continued. "The second and main reason is that the woman who my family considers their daughter-in-law has a high chance of going to the other side—don't ask how—and the last thing I want is for her to be on that side—and don't ask why."
A beat later, he added, "And we broke up half a year ago, so I technically didn't lie to you when I said I was single."
Ashen's eyes continued to scan the university gates located beneath the slope, even as he chatted with Lucia, searching for a particular woman.
Braun had given him his daughter's schedule and even her address for cases like these, and according to them, she should be out of class any moment now.
"...Well, I'll accept that for now, but if this becomes an obstacle for us down the line, expect me to ask the 'hows' and 'whys'."
"Fair enough." Ashen shrugged. "Your turn."
Down below, a young woman emerged from the university gates, earnest in her movements.
Curly brown hair framed her face, hazel eyes sharp beneath it, her slim frame carried by a seriousness that clung to her features, as if every passing minute posed a new challenge to endure.
'That's her, just like the one in the picture.'
He followed the rhythm of her steps, the tilt of her head as she spoke with her friends, even the careful tug she gave her sleeve when it slipped off her shoulder.
'Seems pretty normal, for now.'
"C'mon, will you tell me? I really wanna know, maybe I can learn a thing or two."
Lucia, who was following his line of vision toward the young woman, cut her gaze and turned it to him.
"I wouldn't call this advice," she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She then added, tone deliberate, "but if you must know, you need to understand how a con artist operates. Lying and acting are the means… lying is the tool, acting is the essence."
She crossed an arm under her breasts and held the other to her chin. "Anyone can lie, but what makes con artists dangerous is the ability to act so well that the lies feel real... And I... unfortunately am really a bad actor."
Ashen gave her a confused look. "You're serious? That was the best acting I've ever seen. And, uh... I've watched, like, a hundred films—maybe more. Some even without snacks..."
Lucia shook her head. "That's because I've used a trick." She had a ghost of a smile. "Since I couldn't act, I've merely taken my ability to lie to the extreme."
She talked as if it were a matter of fact. "Even with that, deceiving others hadn't been easy; some are simply that perceptive... So, I've had a thought..."
She tilted her head. "A liar begins by making a falsehood appear true to himself. If even I couldn't be convinced by my own words, how will others believe them? "
"Haah...?" Ashen had to take his eyes off the woman he was observing and fully turn to her, as he failed to follow where she was going with this.
"...So I started lying to myself before lying to others instead... at first it was hard. If a lie wasn't plausible enough for me, I wouldn't bring myself to believe it no matter what... but persistence sometimes works wonders..."
She also turned in her seat, now her gaze locked on him with raw intensity. "After going through all that, I was finally convinced… The easiest lie to sell is the one you've already bought. remember this, Ashen."
She smirked, "Why was I able to play the lovestruck girlfriend...? That's because, objectively speaking, you, as you are now, are a man a normal woman wouldn't object to dating."
"I've seen how you've been, what you became, and I know the kind of challenges you had to overcome... It's true that I only saw the results and not the process itself..."
She paused. "...But all I have to do is fill in the blanks on my own, imagine myself by your side, watching you transform on your journey, and hopelessly fall for you..."
Straightening her back, she declared with a tone full of conviction. "I'll keep feeding that lie to myself, keep deceiving myself until Lucia Evernight, the con artist, takes the backseat... and Lucia, the lovestruck fool, emerges..."
She then relaxed her shoulders and fell back, letting the car seat catch her. "The rest is even easier... the things I said to your mother? It wasn't me. They'd be what a devoted lover would say, Lucia, the lover."
"Some of them aren't even lies... She said that she would keep you alive to the best of her abilities... but so would I."
Lucia started dissociating from that version of herself by addressing it in the third person. "The things she said to your father? I'd say it was even an insult to compare merely protecting your country to protecting the whole planet. And where you're going is where such guardians reside."
"...So yeah, it was a given that she lashes out, I would have handled it worse, I reckon." She slowly shook her head. "Making myself swallow the lie that I was your lover was a breeze compared to the other falsehoods I had to make myself believe..."
"I could even go from lover to a woman with a crush on the fly." She let her lips rise for a moment before she continued. "So yeah... I wasn't acting... because that wasn't even me."