Chapter 111

Going to where Swordmaster Veyl said he was taking Alex, I entered the back garden and immediately knew where to find them when I heard a familiar loud voice shouting at someone who totally deserved it.

In a somewhat closed-off and open area, I saw Alex swinging the black sword that Swordmaster Veyl had brought back to him.

Tears were in the corners of his eyes as Swordmaster Veyl was threatening him to focus and try to listen to the voice of his sword.

Noticing me stopping by, he turned to look at me. I was about to introduce myself, but Swordmaster Veyl was the first to greet me.

“Good morning, Blake.”

I paused when he said my name, one of my aliases, since my hair and eye colors were in their original colors compared to the black and blue when we first met.

However, it was for a bit because he must have recognized my face, given that he was an experienced fighter and all.

“Good morning to you, too, Swordmaster Veyl.”

“Is there anything I could help you with?”

“No, I just came here to watch.”

“Really, don’t you want another sparring match?”

Saying that with a smirk, clearly expecting me to agree to another sparring match, I had to dash his hopes, though it would have been fun to see Alex quivering in fear.

“Sorry, but I cannot accept your offer. There's something I have to do today.”

“Ah, I see. That is unfortunate.”

Sitting on a couple of wooden boxes by a corner, I watched as Alex kept giving me occasional pleading glances. When he did that, swordmaster Veyl got angry, and Alex got hit each time he lost his focus.

However, after doing that one too many times, Swordmaster Veyl got angry, really angry. This time, he didn’t just hit him once; it was a whole-on one-sided beating. Desperate not to get hit, Alex drops his sword and tries to run away, but this makes Swordmaster Veyl even angrier. It was not because Alex was trying not to get hit but the mere fact that he dropped his sword.

“You bastard, you’ve done it now. I’m going to kill you!!!”

“AHHHH!!!! I’m sorry!!! I’m sorry!!! Please don’t kill me!!!”

Watching the funny sight of Alex trying desperately not to get hit, he, being a main protagonist, was surprisingly improving at a really fast rate—not getting hit, to be specific. It was to a point where Alex was dodging, say, around a quarter of Swordmaster Veyl’s swings, though. I could tell the swings Swordmaster Veyl was making didn’t really have any serious intent in them, just emotion.

Seeing those two, the urge to get into some of the action seems really tempting right about now. Oh, what the heck, there’s no harm in some warm-up.

Since I had shaken off most of my rust, specifically my physical combat abilities, I’d guess my magical abilities should be the next thing I should be working on.

Taking a necklace off around my neck, I pretended it was a magical device that let me change my appearance. So, letting mana flow throughout my body as I take my necklace off, my hair turns black and my eyes blue.

“Ahem.”

Coughing a bit to get their attention, Alex looked at me like I was his savior, but I wasn’t.

“Swordmaster Veyl, may I have a suggestion?”

Turning to me, he responded, “Yes, Blake.”

“Can I have a turn with him? I want to try something.”

Walking to pick up Alex’s sword, as I said that, “Maybe we should let him fight back for once—"

GAHHHH!!!!!

Hearing an inordinately loud and ungodly scream, I inadvertently dropped Alex's sword and took a step back from it.

“What the hell was that?”

Saying that out loud, I turn to Swordmaster Veyl and Alex, who give me confused looks.

“What? Do you not just hear that?”

I looked to Swordmaster Veyl, wondering if he had heard it at all, but judging from the lack of a reaction, it must not have been a sound but something telepathic, maybe.

Despite that, for some reason, he didn’t sense or pick up anything from it either.

My smirk gone, I looked at Alex’s sword on the ground, trying to figure out what was happening.

“Blake, what is wrong?”

“I heard someone screaming, and I think it’s from that sword.”

Swordmaster Veyl walked over to me to pick up Alex’s sword with a confused look while examining it closely after I said that. However, after a couple of seconds of examining it, he then said to me.

“Huh… I don’t feel anything. Here, try holding it again.”

Now that’s strange. How come he can’t hear what that sword is saying or something?

Passing me Alex’s sword, I held it out, waiting to see if the same thing would happen—but nothing did. Absolutely nothing happened.

Am I imagining things? I swear I heard it scream at me.

I look at it closely, trying my best to figure out what the heck was going on with that sword. It screamed at me, which means Swordmaster Veyl was correct in saying that it had a mind of its own. There is definitely something I’m missing.

Looking at it more closely than before, I notice this circuit-like pattern all over the sword. That pattern looked oddly familiar to me, like I had seen it before, but that is not the case because Alex found this in a dungeon, meaning this was the first time I was seeing this.

Strange…

Huh… Why don’t I try flowing my mana through it? It can’t hurt to try—I have a feeling it might do something. And in the worst-case scenario, I can just toss it away if it explodes or does something equally bad, especially since we have Swordmaster Veyl here.

Controlling my mana and flowing it through my right arm to the sword, something indeed happened.

The sword started to glow, the circuit-like patterns pulsing outward from the grip.

Turning my head to Swordmaster Veyl, I ask him. “Swordmaster Veyl, do you know what's going on?”

Stroking his chin, he went up to the sword really closely and said.

“Blake, continue giving it mana.”

“Right.”

Doing what he suggested, I poured more mana into the sword, which caused the glowing, small, and numerous circuits to turn into one much bigger circuit from the hilt to the tip of the blade.

I poured more and more mana into it, feeling myself grow fatigued from the effort.

However, when black electricity started emitting from the blade, it was suddenly draining my mana at an alarming rate, like it had a mind of its own, chugging down my mana to a point that in less than a couple of seconds, I had roughly a quarter of my mana left, trying to refill the goddamn thing.

I tried to stop flowing my mana through it, but… why isn’t it stopping? This is not good; I have to—

Suddenly and without warning, a bright light flashed before me and everyone, blindingly so.

Letting go of the sword, dropping it, both Swordmaster Veyl and I covered our eyes while Alex was too slow to react, and he screamed in pain as the bright light burned through his retinas.

On guard, though, I felt too tired even to do that because that sword just absorbed nearly all of my mana, whereas if I hadn’t let go of that sword at just that moment, I would have collapsed and been knocked unconscious from mana exhaustion.

Blinking my eyes to try to regain my vision, I slowly regain my vision to see that Alex’s black sword that fell onto the ground was gone. This was followed by when I heard Alex shouting.

"GAHHH!!! Something has latched onto me. Get it off, get it off!!!”

Swordmaster Veyl, who seems to also recover his vision, and I turn to look at Alex, where both of us stand there still, confused by what we saw.

“What the heck?”

However, like the gentleman Swordmaster Veyl was, he immediately looked away because a girl with black hair and blue eyes was clinging to Alex’s back.

What had shocked both Swordmaster Veyl and me was that that girl looked like the girl version of me, which was just me. Different from me was that she had a completely terrified look compared to my default emotionless expression, but the more concerning part was that she was completely buck naked.

Sensing a grim future would come if Alex saw her naked body, which was my naked body, I had to do something before Alex saw me like that. Closing the distance before Alex’s vision could recover, I suddenly stopped when she shouted at me.

“MASTER! Save me from that devil’s spawn!”

It wasn’t her shouting that made me pause, but the words themselves. How… why the heck is she speaking the language from my world?

Thinking that and remembering that I have to make sure Alex doesn't see my completely naked body again, through that girl.

I poked Alex’s eyes with two fingers, placed my hand on the girl who looked like me, kicked him in the gut, and pushed her away from him to separate them. Then I unbuttoned the cloak I was wearing to cover her.

Now, that is taken care of. One thought came to mind: how the heck am I going to explain this to Alice?

“Argh, what the heck was that for, Ny– Blake?”

Hearing Alex say that, while that troubling thought lingered in my mind, I couldn’t help but think that an angry, yandere Alice was a really scary Alice.

Then, looking at me and following my gaze, which was at my doppelganger, who was rustling with my cloak over her, which I had draped over her.

“What? Who is—”

Before Alex could finish, my doppelganger pulled her head out of my cloak with a really terrified expression. She then desperately swiveled her head all around, looking like she was trying to find someone, which I guess was Alex.

When she finally found him, she immediately made a run for it, as if she were running away from a monster.

The strangest thing was seeing my face being able to make such expressions or even express emotions.

Seeing my doppelganger, Alex, stare at her with a puzzled look as my doppelganger desperately clung to his arm, naked, by the way. However, the silver lining was that she seems to understand the importance of clothing, since she does have the decency to cover herself with my cloak.

He saw my naked body barely covered with a cloak, with my chest pressing down on him, which made his blood start to flow from his nose and his face bright red.

“Alex, you'd better look away.”

Saying that in a very threatening tone, though it always came out flat whenever I tried to emphasize something, he definitely understood the threatening aura I was emitting.

However, it didn’t stop him from looking at me, then at her, back at me, and back at her several times. I promptly walked up and smacked him on the top of his head.

This led my doppelganger to shout out in my world's language.

“Leave him alone, you cursed spawn of that lizard!!!”

Looking at her, what the heck is with that weirdly specific insult? Choosing to think about it later and pretending not to know what she was talking about, I said to Alex.

“Hey Alex, don’t you dare look at her, even if she looks like the girl version of me. It’s just weird.”

Raising my fist in the air, Alex flinched, seeing it. After making sure he didn’t get any weird ideas with my doppelganger, I turned to Swordmaster Veyl and said that it was okay to look.

Walking up to me, he had an amazed look after looking at her.

“Swordmaster Veyl, do you have any idea what is going on?”

I ask him that because he definitely has some ideas.

“Hmmm, she is definitely an ego weapon, I should say.”

Figures as much, like in many fantasy stories, those types of weapons tend to be really rare, if not legendary.

“I’ve encountered a few myself, and I knew immediately that she was one the moment I saw her… though I’ve never seen anything quite like this before.”

Well, yeah, you don’t see this too often, especially when it has a human transformation.

We look at each other, wondering what we are going to do.

First things first, I’m getting Alice and Clare here. Alice was to tell her that a new heroine was in the harem that looked exactly like me, which… I'd rather not get anywhere near, given yesterday’s incident. Clare is to help me deal with her.

I still don’t understand why she looks exactly like me, or why she’s speaking the language from my world in my past life.

“Blake, shall I retrieve Lady Alice over here?”

Shaking my head, no, I said, “Let's get her; that girl over there looks like she is terrified of me.”

“I see.”

Nodding as I began to walk back inside the manor, I asked one of the maids where Alice and Clare were, to which they told me that both of them were in Alice’s office, luckily for me.

Outside of Alice’s office, I opened the door and went inside.

“Rita? Did something happen?”

Asking that after I closed the door, Alice was sitting by her desk like always, while Clare was sitting where I usually sit in here.

“Yeah… something did happen.”

“What is it, Rita?”

“Umm… It’s difficult to explain. It’s about Alex, and I think you need to see it for yourself.”

Giving me a confused look, I turn my head toward Clare and ask her.

“Clare, could you, ummm, get a set of clothes for me before I show you two it?”

“Yes, my lady.”

Awkwardly saying "good," though it was flat, Alice and Clare got up from their chairs and followed me to my room, where Clare went in and got a set of clothes for me. When that was done, I led them to where Alex and Swordmaster Veyl were.

Stopping just before we get there, I said to Alice, “Alice.”

“Yes?”

“Umm, could you not direct your anger toward me? Because that is not me, and it’s completely not my fault.”

Eyeing me dubiously, she slowly said, "Okay," sensing that there was nothing good with what I was about to show them.

Making a turn to where Alex and Swordmaster Veyl were, I heard my own voice shouting out loud.

It had way too much emotion to be me, even though the voice was exactly the same as mine. This caused Alice and Clare to look at me, but I quickly said in my usual flat tone, contrasting the one that was filled with emotion, “That’s not me.”

Making the turn, I saw Swordmaster Veyl, Alex, and my doppelganger, who was shouting her lungs out at Swordmaster Veyl.

“You, creepy old man, how dare you treat my master like that!!”

Though she was speaking my world’s language, the emotions and tone in it, which were way more than I ever could muster, made it clear what she was saying.

I look back at Alice and Clare, and Alice rubs her eyes, wondering if she is seeing things. As for Clare, though she didn’t show any reaction, in her mind, I was sensing that she was blanking out right now.

Geez, where do I start?

Walking up to Swordmaster Veyl, who was eyeing my doppelganger and Alex closely, still trying to make sense of what he was seeing, he noticed me and everyone else.

“Blake, you have come. Have you brought Lady Alice?”

Looking back at Alice, whose pupils were shrinking drastically, I chose to remain silent and instead turned to Clare to bring her back to her senses.

“Clare, umm, could you clothe her, please?”

Taking a full few seconds to respond, Clare quickly nodded at my request.

We both walked to my doppelganger and Alex, and seeing me, my doppelganger clung to Alex even harder.

“Hey, Alex, don’t you dare look.”

“I’m not, I swear.”

“Good. Now move along.”

Hearing my words, he tries to pry himself from my doppelganger, but she won’t let him. However, when I just looked at her, the fear on her face grew even worse, which was still a strange sight to me.

Quickly separating her from Alex, Clare led her to a corner with stacked wooden boxes for privacy. Hearing Clare dress her, I let out an exhausted sigh. This definitely wasn’t how I imagined my day going.

“Alex, what the heck did you find in that dungeon?”

“I—I don’t know. Why did you try giving your mana to her?”

"Because…" Shoot, he got me there. Quickly thinking on my feet, I responded, “It doesn't matter why; what’s done is done. Just look what you did to Alice over there.”

Looking at Alice, who now had one of her eyes twitching like she was going insane, he flinched seeing her.

I felt a phantom stinging sensation behind my back from Alice’s gaze, filled with silent rage, envy, and jealousy.

Be the main protagonist and deal with that because I’m not.

He was about to protest, but Clare came out from behind the boxes and said she had finished dressing my doppelganger before he could do so.

For now, we should just keep her away from any prying eyes, but the more immediate problem was Alice, because she was smiling, but her eyes were not.

The aura she was emitting was thick, causing even swordmaster Veyl to take a step back.

Alex, who was next to me, audibly gulped. I think it’s time for a sacrifice. Quickly grabbing his collar, I knee him in the gut, causing him to double over, gasping for air.

Then, quickly going to pick up my cloak, I went to Clare and put my cloak over my doppelganger and said.

“It seems that you two need to be alone for a good while. We’ll be leaving. Isn’t that right, Swordmaster Veyl?”

Without hesitation, “Why yes, Blake, we shall go immediately.”

Pushing past my doppelganger, I try to leave, but… what? Why is she not moving? It's like I’m moving a massive boulder.

Grimacing internally since I couldn't express it, I saw that she was resisting by planting her feet to the ground.

However, one look at me, at my expressionless face again—no, my appearance—suggested otherwise when she looked at me directly.

Moving her away from where Alice and Alex were, with Clare and Swordmaster Veyl, we all let out a relieved sigh once we were out of the blast zone.

“Truly, there is nothing scarier than the fury of a woman who is truly in love. May we pray for his soul.”

Saying that, he clapped his hands together in prayer as all of us heard an ungodly scream from where we came, which we chose to ignore, pretending that it was not our problem.