episode_0066

When I first created nine clones.

Ascal’s mouth fell open, and her eyes widened in surprise.

‘Well, she had good reason to.’

Ascal thought my ability was to make daggers appear in my hand with a snap of my fingers.

More precisely, I led her to believe that.

Just now, I summoned a dagger without snapping my fingers.

Now, Ascal knew that I could summon daggers even without snapping my fingers.

And before Ascal could process that information, I revealed a new ability.

It was natural for her to look surprised.

What’s more, I created ten additional clones.

The twenty of me in the training ground looked at Ascal.

“Hahahahahahahahaha!”

Ascal, after scanning the twenty of me, suddenly burst into loud laughter, as if to make the training ground shake.

My first thought was that she’d lost her mind, but then I saw the wide smile on her lips and the genuine joy in her eyes, and I knew that wasn’t it.

“Good, yes. Very good. It’s the first time I’ve felt this way towards an academy student since ‘that person.’”

Ascal muttered to herself, looking up at the sky.

My goal was to frustrate her, but it seemed I had instead stimulated her competitive spirit as a martial artist.

“””””So~ which one is real?”””””

The twenty of me threw twenty daggers at Ascal.

The twenty daggers flew towards Ascal, each drawing a different trajectory.

Thwack!

Ascal showed no intention of dodging the twenty daggers. Instead, she charged towards the incoming daggers.

Whoosh!

And she swung her sword towards the daggers.

It seemed she intended to parry one dagger and then use that parried dagger to knock down another.

“…..!!”

Whoosh!

But as Ascal’s sword touched a dagger, the dagger vanished into thin air.

Another dagger targeted Ascal, but she twisted her body to dodge it.

Seeing that, I knew.

As expected, Ascal still hadn’t grasped the nature of my illusions.

Among the flying daggers, only one was real, the one I had thrown myself.

The rest were all fakes, created by illusions.

Swish! Whoosh!

But Ascal, unaware of this, tried to dodge the daggers or parry them with her sword.

Ascal swung her sword at an incoming dagger, but again, the dagger vanished as it touched her sword.

Swish! Clang!

Ascal swung her sword at an incoming dagger.

This time, Ascal’s sword and the dagger clashed.

“Tsk.”

Ascal clicked her tongue despite deflecting the dagger. If all the daggers had been fake, she would have ignored the incoming daggers and charged at me.

But now that she knew there was a real dagger among them, Ascal couldn’t ignore the incoming ones.

Swish. Whoosh! Swish.

Now that my mana had significantly increased thanks to the elixir, my mana could handle creating nineteen clones.

The problem was whether I could move all these clones naturally.

Originally, I had planned to test it once and then reduce the number of clones.

But the feeling now was very good.

Everything in the training ground felt clear.

The confidence that I could control everything without the slightest lag.

Even so, I wouldn’t be able to maintain it for long.

‘About three minutes, probably.’

I estimated the duration I could maintain the clones in my mind.

I and my nineteen clones charged towards Ascal, who had dodged all the fake daggers.

“Hoo… Hmph!”

Ascal, too, took a breath, then charged.

CRAAASH!!!!!!!

The sound of Ascal’s sword and my sword stick colliding echoed loudly through the training ground.

Ascal and I clashed swords, trying to push each other back as if in a test of strength.

Ascal was stronger than me.

“Tsk.”

But Ascal clicked her tongue once and pulled back.

This was because one of my clones had swung its sword at Ascal from the side.

Of course, the clone couldn’t reach Ascal, but Ascal, unaware of this, had no choice but to be wary of it.

Thwack.

One of my clones swung its sword at Ascal.

Swish. Whoosh!

Ascal also swung her sword, but naturally, Ascal’s sword passed right through my clone.

Thud!

With Ascal’s sword now stuck in the ground.

I swung my sword at Ascal, but Ascal lifted her sword from the ground and blocked it.

“You’re really annoying!”

“Thank you for the compliment!”

Ascal, clashing swords with me, threw a dagger with her other hand.

That dagger was identical to the one I used.

It seemed she had picked one up from the floor.

The dagger Ascal threw flew towards my clone, and naturally, it passed right through my clone.

“You’re the real one. The rest are all fakes.”

Ascal said, a corner of her mouth lifting.

“Right?”

“Correct!”

Saying that, I created distance from Ascal and blended among the clones.

“”Then, can you tell which one is real?””

. . .

Two minutes and thirty seconds after I created nineteen clones.

The forms of the clones became distorted.

It was faster than I expected.

Some clones had their lower bodies vanish, and others had no hands.

“Is it getting hard to maintain them now?”

Ascal said, a corner of her mouth lifting, as she looked at the distorted clones.

There were a few small wounds on her body that hadn’t been there before the spar.

Conversely, it meant there were no major injuries.

Maintaining and moving the clones wasn’t difficult.

The problem was reforming the clones’ shapes.

It was impossible to restore all the clones’ forms to normal.

‘Should I reduce the number of clones?’

No.

That’s not it.

I won’t do that.

If I do that, I can’t break free from where I am.

I left the already distorted clones as they were.

I mustn’t be bound by a framework.

The moment I’m stuck in a fixed mold, even for a moment, I can’t move forward.

Flip your thinking.

Don’t be constrained by the framework of common sense.

Nineteen clones. It would take too long to perfectly restore the form of every single one.

“Ascal.”

“Hm?”

“Who do you think is the real me?”

“Well, you, of course.”

Ascal pointed her finger at me, the only one with an intact form.

“Is that so? Then let me ask you again.”

I distorted my own form with an illusion.

If I couldn’t restore all the clones’ forms to normal, then I could just mess up my own form.

“””Now, who do you think is the real me?”””

“……..You’re insane.”

“”””Then, here we go again?””””

Somethings resembling me charged towards Ascal.

* * *

“To think you’d use even this.”

Ascal muttered, looking at the many Lokis charging at her in grotesque forms.

At first, I just asked for a spar because Johanna seemed to like him, and I wanted to see his skill.

But as we sparred, I realized.

If I held back, I would lose.

I was surprised when he summoned a dagger without snapping his fingers.

To think he’d snapped his fingers all along just for that one moment.

Ascal looked at her father, the head of the Freyja Duchy.

‘I’m sorry, Father.’

I never thought I’d have to use a secret technique during a spar.

Platinum-colored mana, symbolizing the Freyja family, enveloped her sword.

This was one of the techniques only direct descendants of the Freyja family could learn.

To think I’d use this against an academy student.

CRASH!!!!!!!!!!

Ascal swung her sword, enveloped in platinum, unleashing a sword slash.

The platinum sword slash enveloped the entire training ground.

Loki’s clones couldn’t avoid the slash and all vanished.

Yes, the ‘clones’, that is.

“To think he actually dodged that.”

Ascal now looked at Loki with a bewildered expression.

Naturally, she thought this slash would end it.

“I can’t let it end so absurdly.”

In truth, the reason Loki could dodge the secret technique was because he already knew about the technique through Croaca.

Ascal held her sword towards Loki and opened her mouth.

“Your magic… no, it can’t be ordinary magic. Is it a unique magic? Your unique magic is to create fakes, isn’t it?”

“Correct. But ‘fakes’ sounds a bit disappointing. If you please, say I create illusions.”

Ascal watched Loki, who created a cat in mid-air, demonstrating his ability.

“Are you going to make another clone now?”

Loki raised both hands.

“No. I don’t have the strength to make any more now.”

She didn’t believe him; what Loki had just said might itself be a lie.

“Then, are you going to surrender soon?”

“I can’t do that. Since I’ve worked hard this far, I intend to win.”

“Is that so?”

Thwack!!!

Ascal kicked off the ground powerfully, rushing towards Loki like lightning.

Thud!

Suddenly, a wall appeared between Ascal and Loki.

She knew the wall was a fake, created by Loki’s unique magic.

Loki, too, seemed not to care if its fakeness was exposed, creating the wall haphazardly.

In fact, it barely qualified as a wall. It was flimsy, like liquid.

“You’re reeeally annoyingly bothersome!”

But even knowing it was fake, it still obscured her vision just the same.

She unleashed a sword slash, obliterating the wall.

Loki, who should have been behind the wall, was nowhere to be seen.

“Then he must be above, of course!”

Loki was falling from the sky, swinging his sword.

‘Parry it and finish this.’

She put power into her lower body to block Loki falling from the air, but as her sword touched him, Loki vanished.

‘A fake!’

Then, where was the real one?

“Behind you.”

I felt Loki swinging his sword from behind my back.

Swinging a sword from there was physically impossible.

Clang!

Ascal blocked Loki by throwing a dagger she had hidden in her left hand behind her.

“My dagger, when on earth did you pick it up?”

“I picked up another one earlier.”

Ascal and Loki widened the distance between them and looked at each other.

“Shouldn’t we end this soon? If we fight for this long, even the onlookers will get bored.”

“I don’t think they’ll be bored, though?”

How could anyone feel bored watching someone fight like that?

Even Father might outwardly dislike Loki, but he wouldn’t be able to deny that skill after seeing it.

Step.

“Actually, I’m quite tired.”

“You’re very honest.”

“It’s one of my strong points.”

Step.

“Then, shall we end this, if only for your sake?”

Swish. Whoosh.

Ascal quickly spun and swung the sword she held towards Loki.

Thud.

Loki appeared in the empty air where no one had been just moments before.

Loki had both hands raised high, as if surrendering.

“How did you notice?”

She didn’t ask, “Notice what?”

She knew he was asking how she had noticed he was behind her.

“You, over there. The wind was blowing, but your hair wasn’t moving, and your shadow was too short for the current time.”

“Even if you noticed that I, over there, was a fake from that, how did you know I was behind you?”

“I heard a very faint footstep.”

Loki muttered, as if feeling regret.

“As expected, the Imperial Knights are different.”

“That was close. I almost lost, you know?”

Ascal said, extending her hand towards Loki.

He was several times stronger and smarter than she had thought.

Loki also extended his hand to grasp her outstretched hand.

“What are you talking about? Almost lost?”

“Hm? Well, I won this spar……….”

The hand she had extended for a handshake passed right through Loki’s hand.

And Loki, who had been in front of her eyes, vanished.

Thump.

And then, she felt a blade touch her back.

“I won this spar. I knew Lady Ascal-nim wouldn’t miss that faint footstep and shadow.”

“……..Ha!”

Ascal, who had been standing still in surprise, realized she had been tricked and let out a bewildered, hollow laugh.

Ascal lowered her sword and raised both hands, just like Loki had done earlier.

“I lost.”