"Ma'am, if I said I had mistaken you for someone else, would you believe me?" Sno asked with an awkward yet polite smile. Before him, Bernadette, her exquisite face hidden behind a fine mesh veil, asked in an even, cool voice:
"What do you think?"
"Ma'am, I really did mistake you for someone else." Sno secretly drew upon the power of Origin Quality, applying See Through to himself so that everyone would feel they could see through him, turning himself into a harmless handsome young man. Yet Bernadette seemed entirely unaffected by the change and said in an amused tone:
"Though I do not know what method you used, the very fact that I cannot make a prophecy about you is the best evidence. I cannot possibly consider an existence that cannot be prophesied harmless, so you must have used some kind of power."
"So what, ma'am? As you can see, I am also a Beyonder. Because I accidentally called you by the wrong name, I attracted such terrifying extraordinary power. It is only natural that I would use some means to protect myself, isn't it? Besides, this is Backlund. To use extraordinary power so openly here, your status must be quite high. I am merely an ordinary intelligence dealer. Please spare me."
Sno had lowered his stance considerably, but Bernadette did not believe him. Perhaps it was the intuition unique to High Sequences, perhaps it was because there were simply too many strange things about Sno, or perhaps it was merely a daughter's obsession with news of her father.
In any case, she had no intention of believing Sno. Sitting on a hammock woven from pea vines, she spoke in a gentle but nearly inflectionless voice:
"Since you are an intelligence dealer, let us make a deal. Tell me,