After hearing her, Uchiha Hiko stroked his chin and nodded thoughtfully before saying half-doubtfully, "But... I remember the collapsed vein wasn't a crystal mine. It was just an ordinary silver mine."
Hearing Uchiha Hiko say that, Miss Kobayashi had no idea how to keep making things up. In her panic, she pointed at the necklace. "Look, isn't the material used to set the amethyst at the top of that necklace silver?"
At Miss Kobayashi's words, Uchiha Hiko looked at the necklace as she indicated. However, it was inside a display case, so the material set into it could not be seen clearly. Still, if someone insisted it was silver, plenty of people would believe it.
Before Uchiha Hiko could finish examining it, Miss Kobayashi struck while the iron was hot. "And you know our Silver Mines have all collapsed, so silver jewelry has naturally gone up in price. That's why the ladies who like buying accessories have turned their attention to crystal. When these merchants saw that crystal was selling well, of course they raised the price. There's nothing strange about that."
Her explanation had already left Uchiha Hiko completely stunned. At that point, he had no time to look for holes in Miss Kobayashi's words or verify whether the necklace had truly become more expensive. Instead, he felt that having Miss Kobayashi doing needlework in the Weaving Guild was such a waste of talent. She was clearly a master con artist.
Uchiha Hiko nodded blankly, accepting her explanation, and no longer dwelled on whether she wanted to buy the necklace.
Meanwhile, Miss Kobayashi let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Uchiha Hiko had not continued doubting her. She felt as though she had used up every lie she would ever tell in her life. What she did not realize