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"Pfft…" Seeing Klein's gradually wavering gaze, Lin Ruo, who could roughly guess what the other was thinking, couldn't help but laugh, leisurely saying, "Klein, are you wondering if I knew your identity as The Fool from the very beginning, and was just pretending not to know to tease you?"
"Did you?" Klein, not surprised that his thoughts were seen through, retorted, even taking out a gold coin from his pocket with his right hand, as if he would divine the truth if they disagreed.
Of course, Klein's actions were mainly to express his attitude. After all, with Lin Ruo's level, if Klein really divined directly in reality, he would likely not get the true result due to interference, and would have to go above the gray fog.
But you can't blame Klein for taking this so seriously. After all, today's matter is neither big nor small.
"Tsk, you've even taken out the gold coin, it seems you're determined to hear the truth today!" Lin Ruo raised an eyebrow, his posture as leisurely as if he wasn't the one undergoing a trial.
His attitude also made Klein slightly relieved, feeling that his previous guess should be true, and the Capim case was indeed unrelated to Lin Ruo.
However, Lin Ruo's next words made Klein tighten his grip on the gold coin.
"It's true, I knew you were The Fool back then." Lin Ruo also sat up straight when he said this.
He didn't plan to deceive Klein on this matter anymore, because if Klein really went above the gray fog to divine later, Lin Ruo wasn't sure if his lies would be divined.
If it really came to that, the relationship between him and Klein would inevitably crack, so it was better to be honest.
Hearing this, Klein was stunned, his pupils constricting at that moment, and forgetting to be angry, he asked in disbelief, "How did you know? Could it be…" He thought of a possibility.
"You also entered above the gray fog back then?"
"No, I didn't enter above the gray fog back then." Lin Ruo shook his head, telling the absolute truth, "Actually, after you performed the ritual, although I saw that your spirit body seemed to have entered a certain place, I couldn't enter that place, nor could I see what happened there."
This was the absolute truth. Although Lin Ruo knew roughly what happened above the gray fog, knew that Klein would disguise himself as The Fool, and knew that the Tarot Club would do their best, he didn't actually see it with his own eyes.
Even if this passage was divined, it would only be the truth.
"Then how did you know I was The Fool?" Klein was a little confused for a moment.
"You told me yourself." Lin Ruo looked at Klein, his words also correct. If calculated by time, he knew Klein was disguising as The Fool from the original plot, so he knew he was The Fool. If calculated by this world, it was indeed the other party who revealed his identity as The Fool.
In any case, saying that Klein "told" Lin Ruo that he was The Fool was correct.
After a pause, Lin Ruo said with a smile, "Klein, when it comes to understanding Sequence 0, I know far more than you. When you claimed to have encountered an existence named The Fool, I knew you were lying to me, because there can't be The Fool in this world right now."
"Is it because there can only be one Sequence 0… and the Fool's corresponding pathway still has a Sequence 1 existence?" Klein wasn't stupid and immediately thought of this hidden knowledge, also remembering the other party's reaction when he told Lin Ruo that he had encountered a god called The Fool.
Back then, Lin Ruo had actually said that The Fool couldn't exist.
"That's right." Lin Ruo nodded, smiling strangely, "Speaking of which, do you know which pathway's Sequence 0 is The Fool?"
Looking at Lin Ruo's strange smile, Klein had a flash of inspiration in his mind and said, "Seer?"
"Yes, Seer, the Seer pathway's Sequence 0 is The Fool." Lin Ruo didn't intend to hide it, saying this and glancing at Klein, he said:
"Back then, I knew that the Fool you were talking about was probably your disguise, because among those qualified to disguise as The Fool in the Seer pathway, none are in that state, and among those who are not qualified, only an atheist like you who has no reverence for true gods would possibly disguise as The Fool."
"Then why didn't you expose me?" Klein asked sullenly, the anger of being deceived also surging up at this moment, "And you kept deceiving me until now!"
"Don't talk about me, weren't you also deceiving people back then?" Lin Ruo glanced at him, retorting unceremoniously, "If we really want to talk about deceiving, you deceived me first."
The previously aggressive Klein was immediately a little guilty, and his anger lessened a bit.
Lin Ruo suddenly reached out and flicked his head, "Feeling guilty, huh!"
Klein immediately covered his forehead, gritting his teeth and looking at him.
Lin Ruo then said confidently, "How should I put it, not exposing you was actually because of my mischievousness. After all, watching you disguise as a god and disguise as a pitiful person persecuted by evil gods is quite interesting. I wasn't familiar with you back then, since you deceived me first, aren't I allowed to deceive you in return?"
"The Capim case was also like that. Back then, I killed Capim for some reason, and wanted to warn the Storm Old Pigeons about something, but it wasn't convenient to use my own identity… so I thought about impersonating a Tarot Club member, so that when you found out in the future, it would scare you and let you experience what it's like for Li Kui to meet Li Gui."
As he spoke, Lin Ruo's expression became complicated as he looked at Klein, saying, "Later, after we became good friends, you suddenly revealed your identity as The Fool, so I couldn't tell you about this even more. On the one hand, I was afraid you would overthink and hurt our feelings, and on the other hand, wouldn't it be embarrassing to say this?"
"This isn't just a problem of you being socially dead, it's a problem of me being socially dead too."
It would have been fine if he hadn't said this, but as soon as he said it, Klein immediately realized something—if Lin Ruo had guessed his Fool identity a long time ago, wouldn't that mean that they had been acting all along?
Crap! The more he thought about it, the more embarrassed he became!
Klein controlled his expression with the Clown's ability and asked, "Then why did you expose yourself now? If you hadn't scattered those tarot cards, I wouldn't have known about this. You could have continued to hide it."
Wouldn't that be boring!
Moreover… Lin Ruo looked at Klein and said, "If I had to say it, it's probably because I don't want to hide it anymore, and I don't want to continue deceiving you… so I simply took this opportunity to confess."
"This way, I can also breathe a sigh of relief, and I don't have to worry that you'll break up with me one day when you find out about this."
Hearing this, Klein pursed his lips, "Aren't you afraid that I'll break up with you now?"
"Will you?" Lin Ruo looked at him, propping his chin with one hand, his expression not worried at all.
Klein was silent for a moment, then suddenly deflated, and asked, gritting his teeth, "Besides this, how many times have you lied to me?"
Lin Ruo blinked and spat out two words: "Guess."
This time, Klein's fist was really hard. He was actually angry, after all, anyone would be angry if they found out they were being played like this. But besides being angry, Klein actually understood that Lin Ruo's deception back then was human nature.
After all, it was only the first time they had met, and he had taken the initiative to deceive the other party. Under such circumstances, it was too normal for Lin Ruo to deceive him in return.
It's just… I'm still so angry!
Understanding is understanding, but at this moment, Klein still wanted to give Lin Ruo a friendship-destroying punch.
It's just that his fist hadn't been raised yet when a weight came from his head—Lin Ruo suddenly reached out and rubbed his head, his expression rare and solemn and serious:
"Klein, maybe I did deceive you, but I never thought about hurting you."
"I really treat you as a friend, a student, and even a cub to raise, you can go above the gray fog to divine this."
Klein was silent. A few minutes later, he raised his hand and slapped away Lin Ruo's claws, saying unhappily:
"Not again!"
Yes, he chose to believe Lin Ruo.
Perhaps the latter had indeed deceived him, but Klein believed that Lin Ruo was also truly treating him as a friend, as a student.
That was enough.
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