“Well.” I sighed while falling down to my bed. “I wouldn’t I’m surprised, I’ll just say, I should have known.”

  From the start, there was a lot of suspicious moments even if it was just in the span of 2 days. I raised my hand in the air and dropped it to the side. My eyes closed, while my heart ached from anxiety. But he hasn’t killed me while I was asleep, there is probably a reason for that. I just didn’t know yet, or maybe I’ll never know.

  The original body was not normal. There has been no sight of any other backing, any other materials, or any other tricks that could reveal the original body’s past. It was something I just had to let go of, that wasn’t me. It will never be me. I don’t know his crimes, that means I never did it.

  “Harry… I’m sorry, I think I have to kill you.”

  My mind slowly drifted away as I fell asleep. The next day would mark my second battle since arriving. This time it isn’t a giant beast who’s only real threat was its enormous strength. Now I was gonna fight humans, they are entirely different.

  The night passed by and morning came. I hadn’t realized Harry coming inside the room, but I was the first to wake up. With his unconscious self, killing him wouldn’t be hard. For a man to sleep completely naked, whatever history of that wasn’t gonna be part of me. As I picked the sword on the ground, Harry woke up from the sound.

  “Do you wanna get a new sword? This isn’t going to last long anymore.” His sword was chipped from the attacks he had blocked from the forest beast. That was a close call, thankfully lying is easy in a world of fantasy.

  “I’ll just change it when we arrive at the palace, Your Highness.” Harry stared at me with a stern face. It seems reaching for the sword was far too suspicious. For some reason, I am feeling immense pressure. I am positive that the original body was no means stupid, yet all this entire time the events were far too suspicious. Yet, I couldn’t even gauge it. In his point of view, that was suspicious.

  “But, if something like the forest beast appears again, you can die!” My eyes were warm. I left my mouth open a little, trying my best to appear sincere.

  A second passed, but his reply didn’t come. That definitely meant he was suspicious of me. “What are you looking at? I’m not on drugs! You saw me yesterday, I was just, you know, getting out of the alley. I just thought it was a restaurant.”

  Then more and more thoughts came to my mind, rattling my brain about everything that could and have happened. Even just the way I spoke was probably different from the original. But he might have just thought of this as me being high, but then, why wasn’t he suspicious before? Is he staring cause he was? Or is it because this was the day he planned to truly kill me.

  “Sorry, Your Highness, I was just lightheaded.”

  “Well, put on your clothes, thankfully that you're still in your blanket.”

  “Huh? What do you mean by that, Your Highness?”

  “Nothing, just, don’t be naked. Alright?” I said. However, it wasn’t like there would be a next time. If Harry was going to kill me, I’m sorry, I’m not the original body, I’ll live.

  Once Harry had finished putting on his clothes and armor, we left the inn and headed to the adventurer guild immediately. Wow, I was overthinking so much that I forgot about the adventurers. It’s probably the guy Harry talked to last night, aren’t they? Wow! Wait! Why am I acting so normal when my life is literally on the line today? Is it confidence? Stupidity? Acceptance?

  “Ah! Knight Harry! The adventurers that have accepted your request are at that table.” She pointed to the second table at the left of the entrance. There were four men, all with their arms over the back of the chair like thugs. They wore simple leather armor with multiple scars all over their body. Beside them were four scabbards leaning on the chair.

  We faced the adventurers and one of them stood up, introducing themself. “You must be Harry! I am the leader of this party, Darren.” That was exactly the same voice last night. It’s them. No mistaking it. My smile immediately disappeared and my eyes stared at their every gesture.

  “I am your employer.” I climbed up the chair and reached into their ear. “The crown prince. Show some respect, okay.” Then I jumped down, stumbling on purpose, distancing myself. “By the way, you don’t have to use honorifics, I just wanted you to know.” Darren didn’t twitch a single bit of his skin. If I didn’t know already, I probably wouldn’t even notice their lack of response as if they already knew.

  “Your Highness, why did you tell them?” Harry leaned in to whisper. “Just cause.” I clapped my hand and moved to the other side of Harry. “Anyway, should we go?”

  “Oh, we have one more person in our party, she is just taking a leak. How about we introduce ourselves first while waiting?” Darren said.

  Another one? Well, six versus one is definitely something.

  “Okay, nice to meet you, Darren.” I reached out my hand and shook his. Following this, the others got out of the table and lined up in a line, introducing themselves.

  “Kaken.” He said coldly. Once I reached my hand out, he shook it once and shoved it off. He clicked his tongue and looked away.

  “Talon.” Said another, doing the same thing as the last one.

  “Kirin.” The third was no different, he didn’t even shake it nor he lifted his hand. Then he went on circling me and whispering something to Darren’s ear.

  “I am so sorry, there are usually nice guys, but we couldn’t eat breakfast, so they are a little angry.” Darren bowed with a smile and shoved Kirin to the side, then also whispering to him.

  They weren’t even trying to hide how suspicious they really were. It seemed Harry never warned them about anything. He wasn’t reacting either, was all this a ploy? Confidence, maybe. However, that confidence, I don’t know where it could come from. The forest beast was a clear sign he couldn’t beat me. Even if I don’t have even a fraction of that power, with mana alone, I win.

  “Oh, there she is. Harry and… employer. That is Elene, our party’s greatest member, a B-Rank adventurer, and a three-ring mage.”

  Behind Harry, from the far left wall. A woman was walking, her hair flowing like a river, her eyes fluttering like butterflies, it was a fairy covered by a blue cloak. Why is every woman I get to, quote and quote, meet, all so weirdly beautiful? Still don’t feel anything though, so hell yeah! I don’t know why I’m so fixated about being asexual, but uhhhh. Okay.

  Waiting for her to walk was like a frozen fountain. Time froze for Harry, his hands, face, and everything about him looked like love. It seemed Elene wasn’t in the alley when they met up. Just to make things more clear, I had to ask. “Is she a permanent member?”

  “Yes, she joined us just a month ago.” Even while Darren talked, his eyes didn’t sway.

  A woman so beautiful every man would fall in love with her. Interesting, she doesn’t seem to know what’s going on. But these people already had her for a month, she should have seen such a thing before. Or else they wouldn’t have made her come. Was it Harry? Did he try to make sure there was a mage? I can’t even detect her mana, other than a grain in her heart. It was definitely a mage if she could conceal mana that much. That was just common sense.

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  “Let’s go.” Said Darren.

  We immediately left the city as soon as we rented a carriage. I sat beside Harry, on the front, manning the horse. He didn’t accept at first, but just a simple throw of the word order, he followed immediately. I didn’t wanna be inside where I could be surrounded and killed.

  The destination was the capital, a few days away from the past city. The attack was definitely going to happen at night. There was no need for them to spend more time with me. We left the city at a time when no incoming merchants nor any other people were leaving. Driving me into some protected area was useless. A simple assassination or a quick battle of 6 vs 1 wouldn’t last long enough to catch anyone’s attention.

  And I plan that too. I don’t want anyone to see anything either. Spending my time awkwardly at the front while the men at the back bickered at random things till the sun went down. Friends. I never really understand it. No matter what, I don’t know how human conversation works. That’s the most deeply rooted flaw of mine. I tried to listen to it. But no use, no point in trying, I’ll just study it next time. I’m not human. At least I hope this life will make me not one.

  Night came and my heart started beating with excitement and fear. It was the mix of the thought of death and the unknown power of a mage. With the equipment inside the carriage, they were able to set up four camps. One for me, Harry, the four, and the female mage. It was a basic discrimination of commoners. But the most surprising thing was that the woman was separated. In such a time, gender equality shouldn’t exist. Well, based on her prestige as a mage, maybe even if it didn’t, power balance does.

  Of course, as the night dwells on the side of the road, at the edge of a nearby forest, I don’t sleep. While I was manning the carriage, I had already thought of many different ways on how I could fight in the middle of the night, but there was one solution to avoid fighting at night. With my ability to read people’s mana, the mage probably had that too.

  The verifiability of my thoughts was of course nowhere near being guaranteed. However, there hasn’t been any reaction, so I was probably safe. Luck, plot armor, bullshit world, I don’t care what the reason is. I’m just thankful.

  Around an hour passed with me lying inside my tent. A few noises came from outside, it was a bunch of footsteps coming closer and closer. I stood up slowly while they walked, making sure to avoid making even a blade of grass make a sound.

  Once their sword was dared to be pulled out of their scabbard, I walked out of my tent, yawning. It was perfect. Their sword wasn’t even out yet, if they just acted like nothing happened, my entire plan would have worked.

  But then, unlike what I was expecting, they didn’t stop with my presence. A sword immediately slashed underneath my chin. If I didn’t react fast enough I would have died. Thankfully I had already allocated qi into my feet in case of this.

  I jumped, flipping backward to the back of the tent.

  “Shit! What the fuck was that!” One of them yelled. I couldn’t care less about identifying who.

  They would probably either circle around or go straight inside and just cut through. But I couldn’t take any chances of choosing wrong. So with the slightest hint of sound, I dash forward, trying my best to sharpen my hand using qi. The cloth of the tent blocked my eyes, but my hand felt a hot sensation of liquid and a feeling of something moving around my hand. Once I pulled the cloth away I had hit directly at the heart of Darren, their leader.

  It was that easy. I killed a human that easily. Ecstasy was filling my entire being. In a split second, the shout of the others struck my ears. Then on the hand of the mage, mana formed into an icicle, firing at me at an incredible pace. It hadn’t even been a week since I had used qi, so even if I could have directed qi into my sides, my natural instincts moved into covering it with both my hands. My left over the right.

  Once the attack hit, my left hand had a hole in the middle of it. Then a gust of wind came from the direction of the mage and I was blasted away into the forest. The other three adventurers went to Darren, cursing with their mouths and then launching at me, while the mage stood still casting a spell.

  I didn’t have much time. In reality, fights with people, or more specifically, fighting multiple people is as fast as an ad. There was not gonna be an opening for me. I covered my entire body with half of my qi. Then I sharpened my right hand, biting my lips for the pain of my left. It was based on pure pain, but I stopped the bleeding by blocking the hole with qi.

  I jumped at the three, slicing their sword up to their head. Their sword touched my body, but on contact it broke, stunning them for a second and letting me kill them in less than ten seconds. The mage was the only one left. She wasn’t attacking, sweat started to fall from her head and her eyes twitched along with her shaking mouth. The spell was not gonna be faster than my speed. It was a win.

  But halfway to the mage, Harry appeared, blocking my attack with his sword. I wanted to talk to you before killing you, but it seems it wasn’t going to happen. His sword broke upon contact. But then his mana suddenly burst, increasing twice the amount. He grabbed my wrist using his right hand and struck me to the stomach with the other.

  “That isn’t gonna do shit, Harry.”

  Even if his mana did increase, I wasn’t slacking. Nor does this body seem to be less talented than a genius. I may have lost all of the qi from fighting the forest beast, but just collecting the remnants of mana in the air at the corpse of the beast was enough to surpass you by more than three times.

  “That small fucking ball ain’t shit to me.”

  Pushing through the pain of my left hand, I grabbed his right hand and crushed it. Then I raised my knee, hitting his balls with as much power as I could. I pushed Harry down to the ground and stomped on both his legs, leaving him crippled on the ground.

  “Wait for me.”

  “I thought… you didn’t… have any more tricks. You bastard.”

  I still wanted to apologize to him even if it wouldn’t matter. For me, it just felt right. I don’t know why, but it does.

  Once I had taken down Harry, unluckily, he had bought enough time for the mage to cast her spell. A giant blade of mana formed into the sky. It went down fast, so fast I couldn’t even think about anything else but dodge. Harry was caught and sliced in half.

  I didn’t try to make any more time for the mage to cast another spell, and so using all of my mana I jumped straight at her. The ground formed a crater, and the wind blue everything into the air.

  I sliced the mage’s head like butter, flying to the air, and dropping to the ground with her body. “That’s it.”

  I stared into the sky, holding my left hand.

  “Wait, that’s it?”

  I looked back, to the remains of Harry, his body split and scattered around because of me. “I wanted to apologize. Well. I’m sorry. I’m not the real body anymore, so my apologies really mean nothing. But.”

  My body fell to the ground, my consciousness fading. The amount of qi I had used once again drained my body. Not only that, but my muscles had reached their limit once again. Though, what muscles? It was never damaged before. Why now?

  To the fleeting moment of mind. I continued what I had to say. It was pointless, but my entire life was made on pointless decisions. Plans that are made too late. Actions that should have been done before the consequences. It seems, that trying to change has once again brought me back.

  “I’m sorry, Harry.”