“I’ve heard it said there are three people in the world who look just like you, but I never thought it could actually be true. And to have the same name too... What are the odds?”
The girl spoke with a look of mixed surprise and wonder, and Allen suppressed a sigh as he watched her. What she had just referenced was something he had made up on the spot to explain the situation. Even though he clearly knew her name, she showed no sign of recognizing him. So he’d told her that she must resemble a friend of his. Someone named Noel, whom he had mistaken her for.
Whether that was a lie or not, even Allen wasn’t sure. After all, this girl had introduced herself as the Elven Queen. She had the same face and name as Noel and was calling herself the Elven Queen: something that, as far as Allen knew, only Noel could possibly become. And to make matters more confusing, accompanying her was a girl who not only looked like Mylène but shared her name and claimed to be her bodyguard.
It wasn’t just a case of coincidental look-alikes. That kind of thing simply wasn’t plausible. These two were unmistakably the girls Allen knew. And yet, at the same time, they might not be. The way they insisted they didn’t know him didn’t feel like a lie. Allen had initially assumed it was some kind of joke, but there was nothing in their demeanor to suggest that. If anything, they genuinely believed he was a complete stranger.
That left him with two possibilities. One was that, for some reason, they had forgotten about him. But that didn’t explain why Noel would be calling herself the Elven Queen. At least from what Allen knew of her, she had never shown any sign of wanting to claim that role. Maybe she had thought about it before, but this wasn’t the kind of thing someone suddenly became.
That left the second possibility, one that seemed far more likely.
“So it’s not them who are mistaken. It’s me,” Allen murmured.
A parallel world. He had a theory that he had somehow wandered into this world by accident. Under normal circumstances, he would have dismissed such a notion as impossible. But unfortunately, given the current situation, he couldn’t rule it out.
At the very least, he’d heard from Anriette that such parallel worlds did in fact exist. And if they existed, then the chance of accidentally slipping into one wasn’t zero. In fact, it now seemed like the most plausible explanation.
“I’d really prefer it not to be true, though,” he muttered.
“Hm? Did you say something?” Noel asked.
“No. I was just thinking how identical you are to the people I know. If you two stood side by side, I honestly wouldn’t be able to tell you apart.”
“Wow, that much?” said Noel.
“Unbelievable. Like a miracle,” mumbled Mylène.
“That’s a bit much, don’t you think? I mean, if I were going to witness a miracle, I’d rather it be something more exciting,” said Noel.
Allen watched the two girls—the so-called queen and her bodyguard—as they chatted between the driver’s seat and the carriage cabin, his eyes narrowing in quiet amusement. Despite their official roles, they seemed surprisingly casual with each other. From that alone, they didn’t feel all that different from the Noel and Mylène he knew so well.
“Maybe the miracle already happened?” Allen suggested.
“What do you mean?” asked Noel.
“Being saved.”
“Oh...true. When you put it like that, I guess you’re right. Assuming that wasn’t all part of some grand plan, of course.” Noel looked directly at him as she spoke, but it was easy to tell from her eyes that she wasn’t being serious. Besides, she and Allen were sitting in the same carriage. If she had truly believed he was behind something, they wouldn’t be sharing this space so calmly. That said, to assume she trusted him completely would be naive.
She probably thought she was hiding it well, but Allen could see the unmistakable tension and caution in her gaze, subtle, but very much there. And honestly, he couldn’t blame her. As far as she was concerned, Allen was a complete stranger. Just because he’d helped them didn’t mean they would instantly put their trust in him. They weren’t that naive. Still, if he let on that he had noticed her guardedness, it would only make her warier.
Allen simply shrugged, pretending not to notice a thing. “I mean, I have no way of proving otherwise. All I can do is ask you to believe me.”
“That’s not exactly reassuring. As I said, we’re aware that we’re being targeted, even if we don’t know by whom. Just because you helped us doesn’t mean we can trust you unconditionally,” said Noel, coolly.
“Ungrateful, much?” said Mylène.
“Excuse me? Whose side are you on?” Noel asked, shocked.
“The side that’s right?”
“So I’m in the wrong now? Is that what you’re saying?”
As they exchanged playful jabs, Allen smiled faintly, though he couldn’t shake a lingering bitterness. If he judged only by moments like these, they looked exactly like the two girls he knew.
“But hey, I get it. Trust isn’t something you gain overnight. I understand if you’re not ready to believe in me yet. I’ll just have to earn it, little by little,” he conceded.
“And then once we fully trust you, you’ll stab us in the back?” said Mylène.
“Again, whose side are you on, exactly? I know I’m the one saying this, but still...” Allen chuckled at her remark, which was likely a joke, though with her, it was always hard to be sure. He shook his head slightly. “Mm. I know saying this might make me sound self-important and probably even less trustworthy, but honestly, I really don’t have any reason to go through all that effort.”
“I know,” Noel replied. “We ran from that demon because it was obvious we didn’t stand a chance. But you... You took it down in one blow.”
“If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t need to earn your trust first. I wouldn’t have had to save you at all.”
“Exactly.”