Doppelganger. Laila silently repeated Muge’s words in her mind.

“That is.”

Laila said. Her voice was choked with fear.

“Something that cannot exist.”

Muge snorted.

“That’s what humans think.”

Her gaze turned to the circle drawn on the floor. Surprisingly, her small shoulders were trembling.

“But it does exist. It was, and is, a real magic.”

The three were enveloped in heavy silence for a moment. No one dared to speak hastily. Laila, with a completely disgusted expression, couldn’t take her eyes off the circle on the floor.

Eustar asked.

“I know that a sacrifice is needed to summon a doppelganger, Olga.”

“That’s right.”

Muge nodded.

“A sacrifice is needed. The very subject that will become the doppelganger.”

She slightly shook the magical tool in her hand to spread the light further and continued.

“In the past, particularly vicious magicians created and used this magic. By summoning a doppelganger through sacrifice, one can control its body and soul. It can be made into a completely bound, perfect slave. A puppet that can move without strings, you could say.”

Muge let out a light sigh. Then she gritted her molars so hard it made a grinding sound. It was a clear anger never seen before.

“Even magicians well-versed in lawlessness and extremes opposed the magic of summoning doppelgangers, saying it should disappear. Because the sacrifice is so great and dangerous. If this magic had been deeply researched, either this country or the magicians would have been destroyed long ago. To see this circle in a place like this is extremely fresh and… disgusting.”

Laila said.

“Olga, how do you… know about such things?”

Muge turned sharply to look at Laila. Her face was strangely contorted, as if she had heard the most stupid thing in the world.

Muge said, looking at Eustar.

“She doesn’t know yet?”

Eustar’s gaze shifted diagonally, as if making an excuse, with his eyebrows slightly raised.

“Laila doesn’t know.”

“I can’t believe that a chatterbox like you has kept your mouth shut until now.”

“There you go again with your sarcasm. I was respecting you, Olga.”

Eustar retorted with a non-rebuttal. Muge let out a scoff of disbelief and turned her head towards Laila. Laila was bewildered, not understanding the conversation between the two at all.

Muge said.

“I am a being born from a magician. No, not born, but created. A being made of magical power that doesn’t age or get damaged, an artificial human. That’s what I am. You know what an artificial human is, right?”

Laila’s mouth fell open.

Now, the circle to summon a doppelganger was no longer the issue. There was an even more unbelievable being right in front of her eyes, something that should only exist in cheap storybooks about ‘all sorts of eccentric old magicians’.

“How…”

Laila wisely trailed off and shut her mouth tightly. However, Muge must have guessed what Laila was about to say without hearing it. In her eyes, as she stared at Laila, there was a mixture of mockery and faint self-loathing.

“I’m more surprised that you never once considered such a possibility when looking at me, Kristrad. A witch should have that much insight.”

“That’s impossible.”

Laila objected, but Muge merely shrugged her shoulders, not seeming to accept her objection.

Eustar said.

“That’s not the immediate problem. Someone in this house has used forbidden magic, and someone has been sacrificed for it. In other words, something that’s not human is roaming the mansion.”

Muge quietly nodded. Laila looked back and forth between the two and asked.

“Then who’s the doppelganger? Is there a way to find out?”

“You tell me, Kristrad. Didn’t you learn about doppelgangers?”

Laila, her lips pursed, silently looked at Muge.

“I know that if light passing through amethyst is shone, it doesn’t cast a shadow.”

“That’s the standard method. But it’s difficult to get an amethyst that big right away. And it’s too dangerous to bring in an amethyst that can transmit light at this point when we don’t even know who the summoner is. Is that all you know? What about you, Eustar?”

Eustar shook his head, holding up his palms defensively.

“I don’t know much about ancient magic. You would know.”

“The method to find a doppelganger is surprisingly simple.”

The two waited for Muge’s next words with ears perked up. Muge, who had just crushed a black spider crawling quickly over the circle with her foot, said.

“They don’t breathe.”

Even after the birthday celebration ended, the Sierou Palace was filled with lively bustle for the first time in a long while. The things some people had worried about—Ord suddenly collapsing or raging in anger—did not happen, and the nobles who had come from the provinces wandered around rarely-seen parts of the palace, chatting and laughing out loud.

However, the expression of Marchioness Himierd was not so bright. It was clear that neither the fragrant wine nor the kind greetings could make her excited or happy.

She turned into the corridor leading to Ord’s bedroom and encountered Baso. He was carrying several large and small boxes on a large golden tray, which were probably carefully selected from among the gifts sent by nobles from various regions.

“Marchioness Himierd.”

Baso greeted her first, acknowledging her presence. The young attendant following behind him swiftly and carefully took over the tray containing the gifts.

Himierd, seeing the attendant step back, said to him while fiddling with the tip of her fan.

“I was just about to go see His Majesty.”

Baso let out a small sigh, as if regretful.

“His Majesty has just fallen asleep, Marchioness.”

Himierd’s mouth twitched ever so slightly. It wasn’t an unexpected answer, but actually hearing it made her quite displeased, as if Baso was blocking her way.

Himierd, who had been tapping her palm with her fan, said.

“Is it thanks to you that His Majesty suddenly regained his strength?”

Hearing this, a sheepish expression appeared on Baso’s face. But to Himierd, it seemed to be just another appropriately fabricated expression, devoid of any sincerity.

Baso said.

“How can you, who knows better than anyone that His Majesty’s condition moves according to His Majesty’s will, say such a thing? I merely faithfully assist His Majesty.”

“His Majesty’s will.”

There was a hint of laughter in Himierd’s voice as she repeated his words. Baso did not bother to point this out, and Himierd did not make excuses either.

Himierd said.

“Perhaps it is that loyalty of yours that has sustained His Majesty to this day.”

“That is not the case.”

At the immediate response, Himierd couldn’t help but glare at Baso, unable to hide her emotion. Only when she met his calm gaze did she realize her mistake, but it was already too late, so she rather proudly raised her head.

“What do you mean?”

Baso, with a faint smile on his lips, said.

“What sustains His Majesty is not the likes of me. Don’t you know well, Marchioness? How can you, who knows His Majesty better than anyone in this palace, pretend to be foolish?”

The last words were a weak but clear provocation. However, Himierd was not one to repeat a mistake she had already made.

With a crooked smile, she said.

“The His Majesty I knew is no longer here. Even if he is, he exists only in a small and faint way. The terrible disease has eaten away at him and tormented him. My heart aches every time I see him exhausted, but I cannot feel the same familiarity as before.”

If someone other than Marchioness Himierd had said the same thing, it would have been difficult to survive.

However, Baso neither became angry nor gave a warning at Himierd’s words. He merely nodded as if it was natural for her to say such things.

“You would think so. I understand your feelings too, Marchioness. Sometimes I have similar thoughts.”

Himierd snorted.

“You?”

“Haven’t you considered that the sense of loss I feel might be greater than yours?”

Himierd looked at Baso without saying a word. This man, Baso, had been by Ord’s side, assisting and caring for him since he was a young crown prince. Therefore, his words could be considered neither exaggeration nor the plain truth.

But Himierd had already experienced too much betrayal and loss to sympathize and feel human compassion for those words. Her heart was a coldly frozen rock. It wouldn’t melt even if spring came.

Baso said.

“Just as you have lost the His Majesty you knew well, how can you not know that His Majesty has also lost the subject he knew well? He lamented where the new head of the Himierd Marquis family, who was kind and clever, had gone.”

“Are you reprimanding me? The kindness in my heart was as weak as the spring breeze. Do you think a mere breeze can hold warmth in the middle of a bleak winter?”

“Don’t you know that such weakness is precisely disloyalty? His Majesty is more hurt by that than by your hasty and presumptuous plans to put the Prince forward.”

Himierd’s shoulders slumped like a doll with its strings cut. It was because the tension she had been forcibly maintaining drained away in an instant.

It was an open secret that she argued that Eustar should inherit the throne instead of the sick Ord, but no one had ever exposed this fact so blatantly before.

The look in Baso’s eyes as he looked down at the pale Himierd was strange. It seemed half sympathetic and half mocking.

Baso said.

“There is a proper time for everything.”

This time, Himierd snorted in disbelief.

“My disloyalty is nothing new, but what is the intention behind your words now?”

“You will know when the time comes. Now, I shall take my leave.”

Baso, who had quietly bowed his head, walked towards the king’s room with his usual expressionless face.

As the soldiers guarding the door opened it for him, Baso took the tray piled with gifts from the young attendant and entered the inner chamber alone.

Ord was awake. However, the energetic appearance from earlier was nowhere to be seen, and he looked weakened again. His dark face trembled faintly as he raised his hollow eyes to look at Baso.