Chapter 350
Chapter 350
Kyon sat in the lotus position on the bed and turned to his tense student: «What’s a lie?»
Triana muttered under her breath: «This is key to achieving dirty goals. It’s inherent in humans and demons! Lies exist to benefit profit and satisfy your vicious ego! Deception is the weapon of the weak! It’s amassing wealth from those who earned it on their own!» – She seemed to have memorized those words from the ancient commandment stone tablet.
This sensitive subject infuriated the tigress. Being a supreme beast, Triana couldn’t stay calm, no matter how hard she tried because she had promised to learn to lie!
It was a vicious circle as it would be a lie if she didn’t keep her promise. Thus, Triana found herself in a mental loop with no other way out as having to lie.
Lovr shook his head, tracing the infinity symbol in the air: «You’re right and wrong at the same time. Tell me who is more powerful: the one who won the race or the one who lost it?»
«The one who one…»
«And if the winner had secretly taken a shortcut?»
«Then…» – Triana balled her hands into fists. – «The winner is a cheater! No one should ever enjoy undeserved fame! The mere thought of it makes me feel sick to my stomach…»
Kyon snorted: «What’s so sickening about it? The winner came first and won the main prize, fame, and maybe even the heart of the beloved one! All is fair in love and war! Deception can provide immense long-term benefits, which means that the ability to manipulate and cheat, something that supreme beasts despise, can be a powerful tool in the right hands!»
Triana hesitated for a moment, then she resolutely said: «Deceiving will bring total chaos where everyone can walk all over you! It multiplies murders, violence, vandalism, looting among your own people! Demons and humans are just disgusting! Noble supreme beasts are nothing like them! We interact in an open, honest manner and are guided by what is right! The weak humbly submit to the strong, and the strong don’t abuse their power because they were born like that! Your so-called tool is nothing but a fetid discharge of your vicious nature! If…»
Lovr interrupted her: «You digress. I repeat: those who masterfully use this tool will achieve greater heights. They will earn the respect of others, get the best mate, and, quite possibly, give life to talented children. Isn’t it a perfect competition that you adore so much?»
«It is, but without…» – Triana tried to continue her line of thought.
«But the supreme beasts’ proficiency level of handling this tool is non-existent. Therefore any human or demon will achieve effortless success in your society. Supreme beasts are not extinct only because they follow their animal nature and reject strangers, but it doesn’t mean that they are stronger or better than others. On the contrary, it only means that they have a destructive habit that makes them unable to compete with anyone. To spare themselves humiliation, they call their innate inferiority virtue, and it makes them proud. It’s ridiculous!»
Triana bared her white teeth and growled. Her heart was racing with anger. She wanted to defend her principles and take this insolent human who humiliated her sacred culture down a notch, but he had given indisputable facts. She needed some time to sit and contemplate, but this nasty monkey wouldn’t give her even five seconds!
Kyon continued pressuring her: «If stupid beasts had mastered even a little bit of this skill, they would lead the animal kingdom, bringing arrogant manticores down a peg. However, your soft and fair nature won’t let you take what is yours. Why can manticores use their innate unique body in the battle, but you can’t? It’s obvious that the poisonous tail gives them a huge advantage in one-on-one combat! What will be their response if you summon a thousand animals with your roar? It will be an unconditional defeat!»
Triana’s chest heaved with anger, her face turned purple: «It’s… it’s not a duel! The battle must be fair! One on one! Their tail is part of their body! It’s their personal power! As for our roar, it’s the power of the whole forest! Of course, we could set the entire forest on them, but we don’t want to win like this! If we acquired the throne this way, we would burn with shame. The forest dwellers would snort at us with contempt! Supreme beasts don’t use dirty formations, or any powerful enchanted weapon, or armor that humans brandish all the time! This kind of power is borrowed from the family. It’s no indicator of the individual talent!»
A sudden fit of contempt activated Kyon’s dark side. It took all his willpower to hold back the urge to swear:
«You give up formations, powerful weapons, and armor because it’s supposed to be family wealth, not personal talent. However, it’s a no-brainer that manticores’ higher cultivation depends on their resources! Their talent doesn’t surpass yours, but their family’s wealth gives them a great head start! You contradict yourself, silly girl.»
«It’s a different thing!» – Triana shook her head vehemently. She didn’t sound so confident, though. – «They are more powerful because… Because…»
Kyon waved her off: «Your vaunted hierarchy is based on injustice, and you’ve never noticed it. Listen to me: the strong will get even more powerful while the weak will get only more helpless. This simple principle applies everywhere in the universe. Unlike you, humans and demons understand this. They would never be ruled by someone inferior to them. If humans changed places with white tigers, you would rule the forest kingdom less than in a week! I don’t think it would happen without sacrifice, but it would totally be worth it.»
«Why don’t you understand?» – Triana growled, piercing her with her ferocious eyes. She wished she could sink her teeth into his thick neck and break it like a dry twig! Why couldn’t he understand the obvious things?
Lovr raised his hands to calm her down: «Alright, alright. Cool it. I’ll put it another way.»
A minute later, when the tigress seemed to have calmed down, Kyon took out a black-and-white picture drawn on paper by Synergy. He covered half of the drawing with his hand and showed it to her: «Tell what you see.»
Triana looked at the image: «Some hefty rude male in dark clothes hugs a delicious girl… I think she is in trouble. His dirty intentions are written all over his face.»
Kyon opened the other half of the image.
Triana was astounded: a man was hugging a girl who stabbed him with a knife. It was now clear that the hefty man had no dirty intentions, but the seemingly harmless girl represented the embodiment of evil.
«Well, did it change your opinion?»
«Yeah…» – Triana intoned, still baffled by what she saw. – «It looked quite different before…»
«The information I showed to you was incomplete, but it was enough for you to make an opinion about the picture. Words can be deceiving in the same way. They are more flexible and safe than pictures because they sound plausible even when based on a distorted perception of reality. Supreme beasts remain silent when they have to handle awkward topics, but in some exceptional cases, they say half-truth, without realizing that they manipulate others…»
«Bullshit!» – Triana exclaimed suddenly. – «We’ll never stoop to manipulation!»
Kyon rolled his eyes: «Do you remember the day when you told me that you pulled a back muscle and needed a massage? You unwittingly used the simplest manipulative tactic. If I knew that you had pulled the muscle on purpose, you might not have gotten what you wanted! You see, you didn’t tell me the whole truth to achieve your goal. You subconsciously hid some information.»
Triana blinked in dismay. It was exactly like he said. She suddenly felt so dirty. But was it her fault? She didn’t see it that way! She was just happy to achieve the result!
Kyon continued to speak in a calm voice: «You have no idea how thin the line is between truth and lies. Say, an offended woman exclaims: “He yelled at me, and I didn’t even touch him!” She wasn’t lying, per se, she was just playing a victim to make those around her stand up for the poor defenseless lady. However, the whole truth would sound like this: “He yelled at me because I had insulted his parents, but I didn’t even touch him!” From this perspective, no one would take the brazen woman side. As you can see, facts can be manipulated, omitted, and shaped to fit a certain point of view and achieve the necessary result. The line between half-truth and lies is almost imperceptible. You didn’t even notice that you had actually deceived me. Learning to lie is easier than you think.»
Triana frowned: «Anything can happen, but there’s a difference between unintentional and deliberate lies! No one will hold it against you if your thoughts are pure! Sooner or later, everything will fall into its rightful place! Supreme beasts never shift the focus from truth to malice or improper motive, as humans do! We are too noble to do that! It’s our sacred duty to protect the honorable way of life!»
«Sacred duty?» – Kyon couldn’t hold back a scornful grin. – «Your traditions are as rotten as ours. I’ve read so much about your cruel ways with intelligent food… Your custom of keeping humans and demons as pets is abhorrent. You force close relatives to mate! What pure thoughts are you talking about, striped bitch?»
Triana gasped and growled angrily: «Don’t you inbreed dogs as well as supreme beasts! At least, we are decent enough not to do it for fun. We keep the bloodline pure! Supreme beasts will always stay honest with themselves!»
Kyon found himself lost for words. He didn’t have a leg to stand on in this debate. Humans and demons were no better than supreme beasts. He couldn’t refer to the culture of his past world because they had different rules, laws, and moral ideas.
After a moment’s hesitation, Lovr clapped his hands to get her attention: «Alright, there’s no need to delve too deeply into all this. Getting back to my story, let’s discuss when lies can be useful, why the inability to lie is a major disadvantage.»
«Go on! I’ll gladly listen to your rant!» – Triana growled, baring her teeth.
«Imagine that you are a mother with three children. The enemy have invaded the forest. They will kill everyone they don’t like and take the rest into slavery. Their army penetrates deeper and deeper until they finally reached your palace, where you have hidden your cubs. The leader comes forward and asks if anyone is hiding in the basement. What will you tell him?»
«I’ll say nothing!» – Triana snapped.
«Alright.» – Kyon nodded. – «What will you say if your cubs are not in the basement?»
«I’ll say nothing! I won’t tell them a word!»
«I see. And what will you say if the children are not there, but the invaders threaten to **** you until you die? They will let you die a quick death if you answer them.»
Triana looked aside and said: «I’ll say there’s no one in the basement…»
Kyon flashed an evil grin: «And what if your kids are really hiding down there?»
«I’ll say nothing! I’ll…» – A fearful idea came across her mind.
«Exactly. You would say nothing. You’d rather die than give your kids away. However, if your children were safe, you’d prefer a quick death. If I were the invader, I would quickly figure you out. Your silence will be the answer! The supreme beast’s mentality will play right into my hands. Thus, your inability to lie, the so-called virtue you are so proud of, is nothing but weakness. You can’t deny the obvious! I can give you a hundred more examples.» – Kyon insisted.
Triana turned ashen. She did not suspect that there was a weakness in her worldview. They could easily get the desired answer even from her silence! If only she knew how to lie, she could have saved her (imaginary) children!
«Now that you see that there’s a flaw in your mentality let’s continue our lesson. We’re going to talk about double-truth; to each their own truth; white lies; manipulation and machinations mixed with truth and lies in different proportions! Let the lesson begin!» – Lovr grinned, a mischievous spark glinted in his eyes. He intended much more than just teaching Triana to lie. She was to learn cheating, the basics of manipulation, and a great deal more. It was all interconnected, so she would learn other things easier once she knew at least one.
Kyon presumed that it was enough to show the supreme beast the thin line between lies and truth to teach her lie. He would have reached his goal as soon as Triana stopped to consider truth as something infallible and unambiguous.