“I’d like to thank you, Roland.”
When we left the meeting room, Elvie bowed to me.
“There are people watching. Stop that.”
I grabbed her cheeks with my hand in an attempt to lift her head back up.
“I fwank yoo fwom the bwuttum—”
Now I had no idea what she was saying.
I released her.
“Your lack of experience made this worse…”
The senior officials still filing out of the meeting room were curious about our conversation. I took Elvie’s arm and led her around a nearby corner.
“Listen, sometimes unexpected things happen. It’s great that you feel responsible as a guard, but you don’t need to tack all the blame on yourself.”
“…”
Elvie was close to tears.
“What?”
“I thought…that it was all my fault… No one ever told me it wasn’t.”
“All right, enough. Don’t cry. I don’t want to deal with it.”
“Y-you’re always like this! You push people away so coldly! And just when I thought you were being kind!”
She tried to push me away, but I batted her hand aside.
“Ow!”
“It’s clear those higher-ups are looking for a scapegoat. It’s less about you as an individual, and more what you stand for as the daughter of a marquis, a member of the party of heroes, and the influential captain of the royal guard. Those guys definitely see you as a regular obstacle. This incident was the perfect excuse to remove you.”
“How despicable…”
“Let me say it again—your inexperience made this worse.”
“Stop repeating it… You’re making me anxious…”
Just like Almelia, Elvie was also prone to nervousness. Sheltered lives made criticism harrowing for them both. The meeting, which had started as a witch hunt, did an about-face and turned into an inconclusive discussion about which prince would be crowned king.
All the officials had their favorites, and no agreement was reached.
“The assassin got through your defenses. We can’t underestimate that threat.”
No one made a single remark about the perpetrator during the meeting. The group only saw the attack as a way of unseating Elvie.
“Are all of Felind’s senior officers like that?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. Some definitely are.”
Elvie had to return to her regular duties, and asked me to wait at her residence.
“I-I’ll be sure to come home before it gets too late! So…if we could eat dinner together…”
“All right. I’ll find a way to spend my time until then.”
“Mm-hmm. That’s a promise, right?”
“Sure.” I waved lightly to Elvie and left the castle, heading for her estate. Undoubtedly, all the servants were awake and active by now.
“Rila.” I peeked into the room, but no one was there.
“…”
She’d drunk some of the water; I saw that the pitcher and cup had been used. I assumed Rila would be in bed with a hangover, but I was mistaken. Perhaps she was wandering around town, then?
I asked a few servants, yet they didn’t have any idea where she went.
“I did see you speaking with her when you returned earlier, however.”
“When who came back?”
“When you did…”
“Me?”
“Yes.” The servant nodded, mystified.
“…”
I’d been with Elvie since morning.
That meant someone who resembled me had spoken with Rila.
I went back to the room and stuck my hand into Rila’s bedsheets.
“Still warm…”
Not much time had passed.
I doubted she was wandering the capital, sightseeing with my look-alike. Rila had good instincts. She’d likely realized it wasn’t me immediately, especially if the person altered their face with magic or a skill. There was no evidence of a struggle. Was Rila taken somewhere before she discovered it wasn’t me?
“But where…?”
Something knocked on the window outside—Rila’s shadow.
If it was here, then…
I opened the window and the shadow entered, speaking with Rila’s voice. “You are being awfully hospitable. Do you truly believe you have me within your control?”
“I don’t intend to control you at all. You can relax as you’d like here.”
The other voice that came through was mine.
Hearing my own voice when I wasn’t speaking felt indescribably unpleasant.
“What happened to your right arm?”
“What happened? I’ve had it since birth.”
Evidently, this look-alike hadn’t mimicked my missing right arm.
“It has been some time since I have seen that skill. What a crafty trick it is.”
“You’re the only one who has seen Unobtrusive and lived, Rila.”
Unobtrusive was called different things depending on who you asked. In my case, Amy decided on the name, and I adopted it in kind. It felt unlikely that someone else would give a skill in the same family an identical title.
Rila even said she hadn’t seen the skill used in a while. It really had to resemble mine.
The more I learned about this opponent, the more he seemed identical to me.
“Maybe it really is me?”
My right arm… The one Rila used as a back scratcher…
Where was it now?
“Skree, skree.”
The shadow pointed in a direction, presumably trying to lead me to Rila.
I put the shadow on my shoulder and dashed out of the estate.
I made my way through the twilit streets, following the shadow’s directions.
When I approached a corner, the shadow screeched like grinding metal and thrust a finger out.
“…”
The double didn’t seem to intend to harm Rila. What was he after? If “I” kidnapped Rila, then the king’s assassination was…
The shadow pointed to the second floor of a dilapidated building. We were in a suburb pretty far from the castle and Elvie’s estate.
Its duty now complete, the shadow vanished.
Not long ago, I had fought Amy, an incredibly powerful opponent. Now I would have to battle someone of the same level. Life was unpredictable.
I’d be able to tell whether he was actually “me” or an impostor once we clashed.
I felt something in the air coming from the ruined structure, as though my arrival had been detected. Blending into the surroundings wouldn’t do much good now.
Rila said she was being treated well, but that had to be sarcasm.
I opened a creaky door and entered a hall that could have comfortably held twenty people.
The stairs had collapsed from rot, allowing a view of the floor above.
“Ah, you’re here.”
A man appeared from the shadows.
Black hair and dark eyes. He was slender, yet possessed muscle that allowed him to utilize his body expertly.
It was me—a perfect reflection.
The only difference was my missing right arm.
“Why’d you kidnap Rila?”
“She’s asleep in a back room. It seems she’s hungover. Don’t worry. I haven’t hurt her.”
“What are you?”
“Can’t you tell? I’m you.”
I clicked my tongue.
How is this possible?
“I think I’ll need to see it to believe it,” I said cynically, exhaling through my nose.
“I suspected that’s how this would play out,” replied the other me.
“For having such keen intuition, you sure aren’t smart. If you know what I’m going to ask, then quit playing around and tell me who you are. You didn’t grow out of my right arm.” My remark was meant as a kind of joke, yet the faker’s eyes widened.
“Now I’m surprised by your intuition. Are you absolutely sure I didn’t?”
“You can’t be serious.”
This was a surprise.
“I thought it best to test my limits against the original.”
For convenience’s sake, I decided to name the impostor Dupe. Dupe picked up a rusted knife from the detritus, tossing it into the air before catching it. Then he found and took another blade.
“I almost feel compelled to humor your attempt to test your skills, you inferior copy.”
“Whoever loses will be the inferior copy. And we’ll learn who that is in a moment. Don’t worry, I’ll be excellent at whatever I do, whether its guild work, being a member of the party of heroes, or assassination.”
I had no idea who would steal my arm, or why, but apparently, Dupe intended to replace me.
“And I’ll take excellent care of Rila, too.”
“Big talk for a newborn.”
We went silent and the air between us grew strained. This felt nearly as heavy as the duel with Amy. A moment’s distraction could mean my demise.
It was a fitting danger, considering I was up against myself.
I invoked my skill, but my timing was off.
Dupe vanished. Thankfully, he seemed to lose track of me as well. As a result, we wound up merely trading places.
However… I had something Dupe didn’t.
The question was if he noticed.
“…”
Dupe silently readied his knife. I offered out my left hand and bent my middle finger in toward me twice.
He only snorted.
Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t one to give in to provocation.
Taunt, watch the opponent’s eyes, observe the weight distribution between their feet, and use a feint to get in. We were both considering the same tactics.
After our exchange revealed we were an equal match, we both knew the best move was to stay put.
Our fighting styles were too similar.
For some reason, meeting an opponent who could keep up with me so well was exciting.
I took in my surroundings, getting a feel for the dilapidated structure.
“So is this whole growing-a-body-out-of-an-arm thing some new technology?”
“Feeling chatty? I know better than to answer questions.”
“Of course.”
The vampire Wawok controlled and amplified mana using glyphs. There were probably many breakthroughs that humans and demons were ignorant of. Finding something you were only vaguely aware of as a possibility and deducing what it was used for wasn’t easy.
I had no idea how long Dupe and I fought. It felt like a minute and an hour at the same time.
“I have a proposal,” Dupe offered. “How about we don’t use our skill? We’ll never settle this by just standing around.”
And there we had it.
“Fine. I’ll bite. Then neither of us will activate Unobtrusive.”
The moment I accepted, we both were on the move.
I picked up a broken rod while running. However, Dupe stopped any swing I made with quick knife thrusts.
He showered me with attacks from both sides, and it was all I could do to defend myself.
One arm versus two. Even a child understood what that meant. Dupe was trying to pressure me with more strikes than I could handle.
The knives were dull and I evaded any mortal wounds, so I wasn’t hurt too gravely.
It was time to call upon my secret!
A knife knocked the rod out of my hand.
Dupe suddenly disappeared.
I knew immediately that he’d used Unobtrusive.
Obviously, he never intended to honor our agreement. I didn’t win battles by being gentlemanly. Fighting dirty took priority over attacking directly.
I was right to assume Dupe would only try it the moment he thought he could kill me.