After the last of her questions died in the air, a long, strange silence settled between us. With the immediate threat gone, we made our way back down the hills towards Brighthill.
As we approached the village gates, the worried villagers who had been peeking out from their homes came forward to meet us, their faces etched with anxiety.
The chief called out, "Lady Kerina! You've returned! How did it go? The Orcs...?"
Kerina simply stopped, her expression unreadable. She didn't answer him. Instead, she turned around and looked back down the path.
The villagers followed her gaze. I was walking a few paces behind her, my expression calm. And with one hand, I was effortlessly pulling the massive, hulking body of the Orc chieftain behind me. The corpse, easily twice the size of a normal man, left a deep furrow in the dirt road as I dragged it with the casual ease of someone pulling a child's wagon.
A collective gasp went through the crowd. They stared, speechless, at the impossible feat of strength.
Kerina finally broke the stunned silence, her voice ringing out with the clear authority of a completed mission. She addressed the village chief, but her words were meant for all the villagers who had gathered.
She gestured towards the hulking corpse I was still holding.
"This was their chieftain, with him dead, the war band has gone. You can rest easy. For now, the Goblins have lost their nerve, and the Orcs won't be coming back," she announced.
The villagers' nervous silence erupted into joyous, relieved cheers. The chief pushed past a few celebrating people and walked directly to us, his face a mask of profound gratitude.
"Lady Kerina, Hayato. Brighthill is in your debt. I don't know how we can ever repay you."
He then gestured back towards his hut in the center of the village. "Please, come with me. For the official record, the quest parchment must be stamped as complete, and that has to be done in my office."
Kerina gave a sharp, professional nod. "Of course, Chief."
I looked down at the massive Orc corpse I was still holding. "What should I do with this?"
"Leave it… We'll take care of the proof of kill. You've both done more than enough."
I let the chieftain's body drop to the ground, and we followed the chief back through the now-celebrating village.
***
Night fell over Brighthill. The room the chief gave us was simple: one room, an attached bathroom, and two separate, narrow beds. It was more than enough. Not bothering to argue about the arrangements, I walked straight to the bed farthest from the door, lay down, and closed my eyes, the day's events finally catching up to me.
I heard the soft creak of the other bed as Kerina sat down. The silence stretched for a minute before she spoke, her voice thoughtful and low.
"You know, you don't act like any merchant as you claim before."
I opened my eyes to stare at the wooden ceiling. I was too tired for this. "I told you, I didn't do any of the fighting… That was just the duplicate."
"That's what makes it so interesting," she shot back immediately. I heard her shift, and I knew she was looking right at me. "Duplicates, summons, phantasms... they are always weaker than the original caster. It's a fundamental law of magic. But the duplicate I saw out there was incredibly fast and strong."
She paused, letting the implication hang in the air. "So if that was the weaker version... how powerful are you really, Hayato?"
My eyes were open now, staring blankly at the ceiling. My mind was racing, scrambling to build a new lie, a new excuse to explain away the flawless logic of her trap. And for the first time, I had nothing.
My mind raced, but every logical path was a dead end. She was right. The story didn't add up. I had no more excuses, no more plausible lies to construct.
So, I chose the only remaining option.
My eyes, which had been wide and staring at the ceiling, became steady. I took a slow, even breath, and then another. I closed them, my body going still, feigning the sudden onset of deep, exhausted sleep.
A soft, cynical laugh came from the other bed.
Kerina's voice was laced with dry amusement. "Oh, really? That's your move? Just pretend to be asleep?"
She continued, her voice a low, cutting monologue in the quiet room. "Let's review the facts, shall we? First, you claim you're just a simple merchant selling apples. A bit strange, but plausible. But then, it turns out this 'merchant' has a 'duplication' power. That's weird."
I heard her shift on the bed. "Then, your official papers say you have zero mana, just like a commoner, commoner… hmm on carriage I can see there's angel seem talking to you but you doubt that angel even said that angel incompetent like you and the angel was somewhat know each other. But this commoner has skin so hard I can't even scratch it with a knife, and has the strength to drag a dead Orc chieftain like he's a sack of laundry."
She leaned closer, her voice dropping to a near whisper. "So, Hayato. How many more lies have you been telling?"
I kept my eyes shut, my breathing even. After a long moment of silence, I gave the only answer I had left.
"...Sorry."
Her sharp, cynical expression softened at my single-word surrender. A small, genuine smile touched her lips.
"Hayato… Then tell me the truth, i want to know."
She leaned forward, her gaze unwavering. "If you keep telling lies, I can't trust you. I can't have a companion I don't trust, especially after everything I've done for you this weeks."
I was silent for a long moment, lying there with my eyes closed. Then, I sat up on the bed and turned to face her directly.
"You have a choice. Do you want the truth about the lies I've told since I meet you? Or do you want the truth about everything?"
Kerina didn't even hesitate. Her eyes were locked on mine, demanding the full story. "Everything. Start from the very beginning."
I took a deep breath, the weight of the story I was about to tell settling on me. This was a bigger gamble than any investment I'd ever made.
"Okay, but I have to warn you. I don't know if you're going to believe me. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure I believe it all myself," I said, my voice quiet
I looked at my hands, then back at her. "The truth of what happened to me... it's not a normal story. This is some really weird stuff."
Kerina didn't flinch. Her gaze remained steady, her expression unyielding. "I've hunted monsters in the deepest parts of the world, Hayato. I've seen things that would break most people's minds. Just tell me."
I met her determined eyes and gave a final, slow nod. "Alright, it started with a phone call..."
Kerina's expression didn't change as I began my story.
A 'phone call'?
"There's a celestial bureaucracy that handles souls. One of their employees, an incompetent angel named Azakiel, made a clerical error and ended my life by mistake. As 'compensation' for her professional malpractice, she sent my soul here, to this world. I arrived in a forest, eventually made my way to the capital, met your sister Elina by complete accident, which then led me to you."
I finished my bizarre summary and waited for her to call me a liar or a lunatic. Instead, she just nodded slowly, a look of profound understanding dawning on her face as she pieced it all together through the lens of her own history.
"I see… So that's what you are. You're a Summoned. Like the heroes, who were called to our world during the Great War."
I held up a hand, waving away her grand pronouncement with a tired gesture.
"No, stop there. I'm not a hero. I wasn't 'called' to save anyone. I was a clerical error. A completely wrong target. I'm just the guy they kill by accident."
I decided then that if I was telling the truth, I had to tell the whole truth. "And I lied about my power. My power... it isn't called 'Duplication'."
"It's called 'Perfect Illusion'."
Kerina's eyes widened, her brief moment of understanding shattered by a new wave of confusion. "Illusion? But... you said it was Duplication. I saw it. It fought the Orcs. It has a physical body."
"That's the 'perfect' part of the name, it's not just a trick of the light. I can create an illusion of anything I can imagine, and that illusion can interact with the world as if it were real. It can be hit, it can hold a weapon, it can interact with the terrain. The duplicates are just one application of it."
To Be Continued.