Chapter 185: A secret envoy from Reubens, part 5
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Translator: Denryuu; Editor: Ryunakama
Perched on my shoulder, the ‘Shadow’ guided me through the streets of Reubens. As we neared a corner, it screeched and pointed at what remained of a ramshackle house.
「…」
If he doesn’t plan to hurt Lyla, then what could he possibly want with her? And if ‘I’ had really kidnapped her, then the person behind King Reubens’ assassination had to be, welll… ‘me’.
The two-storey house was situated on the outskirts of the royal capital, a good distance away from the castle and Elvi’s mansion. Now that we had arrived, the ‘Shadow’, having completed its task, disappeared with a poof.
Aimée had been a formidable opponent. But against this unknown character, who likely had identical stats to mine, who knows whether I’ll have the upper hand?
I’ll find out, I thought, once we exchange blows.
The house itself seemed to have heightened its guard with the awareness that we had arrived. I guess thinning my presence hadn’t been very useful. Though Lyla had been keeping the doppelganger entertained, I was able to sense her underlying sarcasm in every word.
The door opened with a creak, revealing a room large enough to contain twenty or so people comfortably. The staircase leading to the second floor had long since rotten away. I looked up, and was able to get some idea of what the floor above looked like.
「You’re here」, said a man as he appeared from the back.
His hair was jet black, his dark pupils the shape of almonds. He was slim, but clearly had the muscles to use every last smidgeon of the power locked within himself.
Aside from the presence of a single appendage, it was exactly what I always saw in the mirror.
「What are you trying to do with Lyla?」
「She’s asleep in the other room. Looks hungover, but otherwise completely unharmed. Don’t worry.」
「And what exactly are you?」
「Just use your eyes. I am you.」
「Tch.」
Oh, boy.
「You look as if you want to say that your eyes are perfectly fine」, ‘I’ snickered. 「What, am I wrong?」
「You seem sharp, but also dumb at the same time. If you know what I mean, then answer me. A single arm can’t regenerate a full body, can it now?」
I said it half-jokingly, and ‘my’ eyes widened.
「…Oh, that’s a little surprising to hear. But of course.」
「It’s a joke, isn’t it?」
It was my turn to be surprised.
「The best way to test how far I can take it is to take on the original himself.」
The whole ‘I’ and ‘me’ thing is getting confusing, so we’ll scrap that.
The doppelganger found a rusty knife somewhere in the junk heap and tossed it straight upwards before catching it again, all with his right hand. He repeated this twice.
「Wow, your body allows you to do that. Some doppelganger you are.」
「Let’s not resort to name-calling now — the loser will simply be referred to as the loser. We’ll soon see who gets to bear that title. I can fight as a guild employee, a member of the Heroes’ Party, or an assassin. It doesn’t matter. I won’t hold back.」
I had no idea who would have taken the arm away, or why. From the information available, I could only guess that it had been to create a carbon copy of me.
「And I’ll treat Lyla right, instead of you.」
「You talk a lot for someone who could well have been born last week.」
The air thickened as we fell silent. The pressure he exerted was on par with Aimée’s — if I let my guard down, I could even end up falling over backwards.
That’s ‘me’, all right.
I activated ‘Faint Shadow’ —
— but my timing was off.
We lost sight of each other until we reappeared in each other’s places.
To the untrained eye, nothing had changed. Yet, there was something I had that the doppelganger doesn’t.
I wonder if he’s noticed yet.
「…」
The doppelganger brandished the rusty knife. I stuck my left hand towards him, bending my middle finger twice to dare him to come at me.
He simply laughed. Guess he won’t bite.
I tried all sorts of feints including provoking him, staring at him and shifting my weight between my legs just to see how my opponent would move. He did the same.
Is it because our fighting styles are too similar? I actually felt some joy meeting an opponent that could catch up with me for the first time.
I glanced around the room to learn more about the arena I had found myself in.
「How did my right arm regenerate the entire body? Is it some new technology?」, I asked.
「Oh, so you want to make small talk now? You should know that I don’t answer questions.」
「Right.」
Warwick’s incantations had both suppressed and magnified monsters’ magicka. There are, thus, many spells that are unknown to both humans and demons. I wondered where this technology came from, who was using it and for what purpose.
I also wondered how long we had been standing here in a stalemate. It felt like both a minute and an hour had passed.
「How about this?」, said the doppelganger. 「Let’s not use our skills. Or this will never end.」
…So that’s how we’ll play?
「Sounds good. Deal. Neither of us will use ‘Faint Shadow’.」
We moved as soon as I finished my sentence.
The doppelganger thrust his dagger at me, which I parried with the half a bat that I found. He attacked again and again, while I focused on defending myself. Any child who can count to two can tell who had the advantage here.
I took only light damage at the end of the skirmish, partly due to my defensive manoeuvres and partly due to the bluntness of my opponent’s knife. Well, it’s now or never –!
The rusty knife bent when hit by the broken bat.
The doppelganger disappeared the moment it happened. I instantly knew that he had activated ‘Faint Shadow’. Of course, I thought. Can’t expect him to stick to some arbitrary agreement after all.
A dirty trick, yet an orthodox one — a trick only used when you’re sure of scoring the kill.
I had seen it coming from a mile away, and I was right.
He may have disappeared without a trace, not even a sound, but I channeled all my power into a roundhouse kick, aiming for the space behind me. He wasn’t there yet, but I had faith that he would be soon enough.
Faith was all I needed.
He reappeared right before striking the fatal blow.
There we go.
I felt my foot make contact with the doppelganger’s body. He was flung into the air and adopted a defensive position.
You made the first move, I thought. You don’t snooze, you lose.
I approached the doppelganger with the broken bat in hand. He, too, was aware that he had violated our agreement. And given that I had still come out on top, there was no reason for me to hold back now.
Still…
He was calculating when I would disappear. When I did, he would do what I had done, whirling around and taking his revenge blow. The fraction of a second that I reappeared before striking was all he needed to level the playing field.
I couldn’t escape.
So I didn’t. No skill, no tricks, none of those disappearing antics.
I charged him head-on.
The doppelganger, still trying to read my next move, was unable to react in time.
You might expect that someone as skilled as the doppelganger would have sidestepped a frontal attack with relative ease. What you might not know, however, is that an arm is heavy.
I was marginally more nimble than my opponent.
The split second that he needed to ready himself was just enough for the broken bat to plunge into his chest.
「…!?」
A few hundred grams’ difference allowed me the ten centimetres I needed to win.
Again, you might not have noticed it. But at our first clash, my skill deactivated just before his.
Had I accepted Warwick’s proposal, things would have turned out differently.
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