"Ah, are you really?"
"Ah?"
"--"
"--"
The air suddenly fell silent. Seeing Bingyu's blank expression, Ivette shook her head. "Vermes didn't say anything. He might not even know who you are. I lied to you."
Bingyu's expression instantly turned miserable. After a long while, she muttered, "--You actually lied to me."
"You've been lying to me for hundreds of years," Ivette said coldly.
"That was--fine." Bingyu had no retort. She drooped her head in resignation, staring dejectedly at the ground. "How did you find out?"
"I'd suspected it before, but I believed you wouldn't lie to me, so I kept waiting until now. It wasn't until we came to Silver Mirror Continent that I became certain," Ivette said.
It wasn't a complicated deduction. In fact, anyone paying even a little attention could notice that in any Puppet Kingdom, highly humanoid puppet constructs were always exceedingly rare. Most of them were clergy of the Sanctum or God's Chosen, and there were even fewer to be seen in everyday life.
Yet her encounter with Bingyu had been full of coincidences. On her second day after arriving on Black Tide Continent, she had happened to run into such an exquisite and adorable puppet girl. Her motorcycle had happened to broken down, forcing her to ask Ivette for help, and they had traveled together to a nearby Puppet Kingdom to recharge it--what were the odds of such an absurd coincidence?
It was only because she had spent too long with Bingyu and grown sufficiently familiar with and trusting of her that Ivette had been unwilling to believe it was true. So she had proactively made an excuse for Bingyu, assuming she came from Silver Mirror Continent. It was the stronghold of the Mechanical Race and the headquarters of the Sanctum; it had to