CH 78

“Explain about it quickly. I’m angry.”

“Huh?”

After we returned, the castle was completely quiet.

On the way home while riding Allen, we were silent to each other. Unlike the way Allen was running slowly when we went out, it ran through the city at a fast pace.

Since there would be a breakfast to celebrate the New Year, I knew that a large number of people would start working in a few hours. But after the New Year’s ball was over, everyone was now quietly resting for a while.

I stomped down the hallway carpet, glared at Mika who opened the door to my office, and said so as I walked past his frightened face.

That’s right. I said it myself and noticed it again.

Seems like I’m quite angry.

I had just witnessed a shocking scene.

I should have been shocked as if I had seen a real ghost.

But the fact that my knight had concealed that fact was a bigger problem.

Mika stared at me as I took off my coat while looking back at him, and then with a troubled look on his face, he reluctantly began to speak.

“That fake Nagi started showing up at that abandoned building after the summer break. I say abandoned, but as you saw, that glass building was cleaned up inside and looked like a Salon gathering, didn’t it?”

“That means it’s not an illusion or a make-believe, but he’s behaving like me and doing it with a purpose, huh.”

“Yeah. That’s a real person, and he’s impersonating you with clear malice intended.”

I was still a little relieved, because I thought just a little bit, just a really, really little bit, that my desire might have moved with a will.

However.

…So Mika knew that it was a villain who spoke the name of royalty, but he still left it alone. Even after hearing that much, I realized that I hadn’t lost all trust in Mika.

(I…I think I might trust this man a bit too much…?)

Somehow, I don’t feel bad about it.

But that’s not what I wanted to hear right now.

I sat on the sofa with a thud, and I glared at Mika’s face as he stood.

“So?”

“Uhh… Erm…”

When we ran into the other me back then, Mika tried to turn back immediately.

Putting aside the fact that I might have over-trusted him, there was no way this man would have done such a thing without a certain information at hand. It is highly likely that he already knew the identity of the man who is impersonating me, and I’m sure that the man’s action must be—

“Ah…yeah. I’m sorry for being silent. I have someone I trust keeping an eye on that man.”

“Who is that?”

“…I can only say that it’s a trustworthy subordinate.”

His subordinate, huh? I thought in my mind.

If Mika, who held no position until just six months ago, says so, it must be a subordinate from the Chardin family. Someone who has been serving Mika for a long time. He wouldn’t allow the other knights to see the perversity of a human being who is a living copy of his own lord.

As I was thinking about this, Mika looked strangely serious and tight-lipped.

“What’s with that face you’re making…”

“……Huh?”

“How much else are you lying to me?”

“What?”

I’m a little frustrated with Mika, who didn’t seem to know what kind of face he was making.

I think that when this childhood friend of mine has such a serious face, it’s usually when he was trying to figure out how much to say.

He had always been this way from back then.

In his mind, he’d try to prioritize me having a good time without noticing, even if he had to tell some lies.

(He probably didn’t think that not telling the truth could hurt me…)

For some reason, in my first life, I never protested against it.

I didn’t think I had any important role to play, or that I would be involved in anything or that my decisions would have any impact. It was my mistake to abandon my thoughts, assuming that Mika wouldn’t make a mistake in his actions.

But… not this time.

If I kept being comfortably protected like this, things would change drastically before I knew it.

I’m relying on Mika. I also trust him, but this is different.

“If you can’t even share the facts that you’ve confirmed to me, it might have been a mistake for me to make you my knight. You don’t have to protect me to the point of lying to me.”

“! …Nagi. But, this is-…”

“I don’t think there’s a good enough reason for you to do this.”

I leaned back and crossed my arms.

Judging by how Mika kept standing there without sitting down beside me as usual, he must think that this is serious. I narrowed my eyes, wondering what excuse this man would come up with.

Mika, still wearing his coat, said in a troubled voice as his eyes darted to the right and left.

“Erm…I didn’t want to scare you.”

“Stop screwing around.”

“I’m sorry, really, that’s all…”

“I’m a grown man. I’m offended that you didn’t share that information with me because you thought I might be scared.”

Mika said “sorry” again in a small voice, then shrugged his shoulders.

I turned my face to the side and snorted. I know Mika will probably give me a troubled smile anyway. I noticed Mika take off his coat and toss it with a thud on the sofa across from me.

Then, as usual, he sat down next to me.

(That’s too fast for him to finish reflecting already.)

Irritated, I turned my face away and looked at Mika next to me with just my eyes.

As I wondered what he was going to say, Mika had a weird look on his face and started talking about weird things.

“But, do you get it? Nagi. You feel something when you stand back and watch it like that, right?”

I raised one eyebrow, wondering what he was talking about.

Mika leaned back on the back of the sofa as I did, let out a sigh, and then spoke.

“The sacred atmosphere that you have, I mean.”

“What?”

“I can see it, just like the moon coming down from the night sky. I can see it when I look at you at night.”

Then Mika continued blurting out something that I couldn’t understand, “Daytime is also the same, I’ll be troubled with a different cuteness coming from you.”

But I understood a little bit of what Mika was saying. Because that’s what I myself thought earlier.

“…Ah, yeah, it’s kind of creepy to say it myself, but it also looked like the incarnation of the moon.”

I wasn’t sure if it was only the atmosphere from the other me or if I myself also looked like that. Since Mika said so, maybe I really did look like that.

Mika continued in a small voice, mumbling to himself.

“Usually, you’re aloof and don’t talk to anyone. But, you’ve finally started greeting people and smiling recently. You…you basically seem like an unattainable flower.”

“What?”

“For men, well…maybe it’s not limited to men, but seeing such an inviolable and beautiful thing… makes you want to destroy it… Not just things, but also living things? I guess.”

What Mika was saying didn’t make any sense.

Do I look like an unattainable flower? I see. That’s true, there was something sacred about the other me in that place. There’s an atmosphere like he can’t be touched. But I think that was the purpose of that strange building.

As I was tilting my head, Mika said something outrageous.

“It makes me think that I want to see it being a mess…only in front of me.”

I opened my eyes in astonishment.

What in the world did this childhood friend of mine just say?

I spat it out, while feeling surprised.

“…What are you talking about?”

“Huh? …Ah! No! I-I didn’t say anything about my desire! I-It’s just the common opinion!”

“What?? Common…??”

I was definitely more confused as I watched Mika suddenly start to panic for some reason.

But perhaps this is what Mika was trying to say.

In other words──

“Do you mean that my usual timidity, nervousness and withdrawnness are conveniently creating an impenetrable wall?”

“Ah, yeah. R-Right. That’s what I mean. Because, you see, you’re the most beautiful person in the country if you keep quiet. As long as you keep your mouth shut.”

“Hey!”

As I looked at him with a blank stare, Mika continued, still panicked, saying, “But-”

“You saw how charming he was in a different way to the seamless His Highness Seth, didn’t you? He smiled so sweetly and would touch them like that.”

“……What, have you ever joined them there?”

“There’s no way I did! But the feeling they get when they get an adorable smile just for themself…I can understand it.”

“What?”

I don’t understand what Mika was saying from earlier.

But I think Mika had been telling me for a long time that he liked my smile. I remember being told to keep smiling after I regained consciousness this year, too. I don’t know why Mika would say that, but I know he appreciates my smile.

That means, what is it? I wonder if it means that my smile is worth something.

However. Right now, it was more important to talk about what that thing was, rather than to evaluate my smile.

As I remained frozen with a puzzled look on my face, Mika must have realized that he was missing the point, because he coughed a little and began to talk about the main issue.

“The purpose of that counterfeit is to…to make a scandal about you, Nagi.”

“Do you think I want to hear such an obvious answer?”

“…And! And then! Also for fundraising for his activities, the collapse of the first prince’s faction, and of course, Rubrum is behind the scenes. There’s one more thing, but I don’t want to say it right now.”

“Why?”

Mika showed a disgusted expression and just said, “Because I don’t know for sure yet,” and seemed really unwilling to talk about it. I reminded him to tell me when he had proof, and Mika nodded, so we decided to let the matter rest for now.

But… in the first place, there’s another problem.

“What part of what you just said did you think would scare me…?”

“……No, um, it’s not that. Nagi.”

Mika hesitated a few times, then spoke up as if he had made up his mind.

“As far as I’ve been able to find out…that fake Nagi is a merchant from the same school year.”

“From the same school year?? Does he happen to look that much alike to me? If we were that alike, it would be a hot topic of conversation.”

“No. It’s not like that…I think, he’s…”

Mika seemed more afraid than I was.

Even at this moment, he still seemed to be wondering if he should tell me.

Mika continued.

“It’s probably his unique magic.”

I felt like I saw a vision of a strange purple wind wafting in the air, still fresh in my memory.

What does…this mean? I pondered with my confused head.

Magic that should have been eliminated in history.

It means that there’s now two of them that made an appearance recently…

I repeated it like an idiot.

“Unique…magic.”

“Right. As far as I’ve been observing for six months, he only transformed into you, Nagi. But that’s all caused by magic.”

“……A magic, to become like me?”

“No, I’m not sure about the restrictions yet.”

Looking at Mika’s worried expression, I understood why he thought that would scare me off.

Indeed, if there was unique magic that could make someone turn into me, it was a threat. But I had to think calmly. I tried to recall my first life. Then, I said it to myself.

It didn’t matter if the process of the existence of the other me was accidental or magical. Since Mika is saying that Rubrum is behind it, the important thing is…

(It’s about what the other me did.)

Most of the differences between the charges I was burned at the stake for and what I did in reality, are probably the doing of the other me.

Fornication, and then there was another charge that came to mind. Maybe it’s about what Mika said earlier that he wasn’t sure yet and didn’t have proof.

But if I was guilty of that crime, it would be the worst thing for this country.

(No way, I had thought all those charges against me were lies, but…was it actually happening?)

A sickening sweat ran down my back.

As I felt the warmth drain from my fingertips, I suddenly noticed Mika’s eyes on me. ‘So, you were scared after all…’ I realized that he was looking at me that way and hurriedly denied it.

“No, I’m not scared at all. I was surprised, but I was thinking about something else right now.”

“Huh. At this time?”

“I wonder if everyone is hiding their unique magic… Rubrum really pulls a lot of tricks.”

“Y-You’re unexpectedly calm about this.”

Well, I know I’ve said it before, but I’m sure I couldn’t have stayed so calm if I had known it for the first time.

It was probably partly because I had also seen Baroness Tessier’s unique magic in the summer. But now that I knew what I had to do, I just did what I could.

I sighed as I looked at Mika next to me and said, “Don’t even think that I’ll get scared again.”

I continued.

“And so? Do you know the details?”

“That man is from Lambert territory. That’s why I’d still like to do a bit more investigation on the circumstances behind it, but…”

“From Machina’s place?”

In that case, we might have a good thing going.