But the fact that the question had been posed at all meant Roselle was certain that, one day, someone from his homeland on the Reader pathway would come to this lion for "materials"!
Was the Knowledge Emperor's power of prophecy really that strong?
With a trace of doubt, Abner hesitated briefly before giving his answer:
"Italian Cannon."
He said it in Chinese. Neither Intisian nor Hermes quite captured the meaning.
The lion named Leon looked plainly stunned. "So that's the answer... But what does 'Italian Cannon' mean? What kind of weapon is it?"
Abner was stunned too. "You don't know the answer?"
"Why would I ask about a secret I already knew?" Lion Leon looked at him as if the answer were obvious.
"Wait... Then how do you tell whether an answer is true? What if someone just makes something up?" Abner wondered whether he could have passed by blurting out "Gundam."
"That has to do with the Finks' natural gift. You could think of it as a Secret Art we're born with. By interacting with the Spirit World, it lets us judge whether an answer someone gives is correct...
"But it only works for ordinary secret knowledge. The Spirit World has no answer to the question I asked you. Otherwise, I'd have trained a Reader to help me escape long ago.
"Heh. That person came up with the question and set several possible answers in my 'gift domain.' I couldn't see them before either. I only gained permission to 'browse' them when you said those words."
A complicated look crossed the lion's furry face. His feelings toward the man he called "that bastard" and "that person" seemed deeply conflicted: reverence tangled with hatred.
*Standard information-flow manipulation and Order constraints. When Roselle confined this lion here, he might already have