"You seem to know this place pretty well?"
Under the "unintentional" provocation, Aiko the demigod followed close behind, watching the surroundings.
And her enthusiasm soon seemed to pay off. She studied Fu Qian's search route and asked, "So you think I was lying just now?"
Fu Qian kept moving, threading through the complex corridors without hesitation as he casually asked, "Is that what you think, ma'am?"
Deception had never been a particularly noble way to communicate.
His comment about finding the place familiar hadn't been a lie to set the mood.
The moment he saw Ermu Mansion Palace, Fu Qian had started wondering where that faint sense of familiarity came from. Now he could almost confirm it: the place where the Bronze Headband had been hidden.
That's right—the scene resembling a dream that the Bronze Lady had entered after putting on the Bronze Headband, the reward he'd received from the wealthy Xixi Gatsby in the real world.
The many headless limbs had also knelt before an ancient palace.
Even the finery worn by those limbs was similar to the clothes worn by Aiko the demigod beside him.
Could the headband, which was said to contain the will of an ancestor of the Ji Clan, really be connected to the legendary Larrea court?
And if the place was real, could the scenes he'd seen inside it have actually happened?
He might have to look into whether the Larrea Royal Family had ever had an ancestor with an "especially developed" brain.
"That's right. I really don't believe you."
As Fu Qian pondered his new academic question, Aiko's rather decisive reply reached him.
"Not only did you appear out of nowhere, but your condition was suspicious too. The moment I found you, I wondered whether you were in the same predicament as