Bathing? I mean. He smelled his own hand just for reference as they walk through the brightly lit hallways of the castle, yeah let’s do that.

Stopping in front of a room, the knight handed him a bag in exchange for his clothes and belongings “Wait,no touch.” He said as he digs out the claymore he brought, cracking the case open and removing the crystal, with the dagger he had on him, destroying the rune, then handing all of it over.

The knight stood in silence, hand already creeping up towards the handle of the sword, though a mask covered up most of his face, his posture gave away most of the message.

Mimic took over the bag from the knight, checked the content inside, then slowly backed away with his hands raised, palms open as to not provoke any further action.

The room was brightly lit, walls decorated with paintings of epic tales, marble tiles covered the room, extending into the pool in front of him, hot, clean water streamed in, replacing whatever was in the pool, pedals of different flowers floated on the water. In the corner steam is being pumped out filling the room with aromas of different flowers, music played from the ceiling mimicking the chorus of heaven.

“Fucking hell, sucks to be poor i guess.” He said as he opened up the bag, a chunk of soap, golden lining ran through the edges, holding it close to his nose the smell of lavender mixed with honey and rosemary.

As well as a towel, white as cloud and soft as feathers, silver lining ran through the edges, the emblem of the royal family can be found in the middle of it. Yeah, we are so very staying here, he thought as he removed his clothes and started bathing.

It has been a while since he had a proper hot water bath, other times it was either just water from the well, or just wiping his body down with a wet cloth, maybe some wood ashes to wash away the oil and gunk on his body once every few days, not the best, but it would do.

Some times later, a few rapid knocks reminded his purpose of the current trip, the door creaked open, and a small wooden box was pushed in, containing his new clothing.

He quickly dried his body off with the towel, then proceeded putting on the clothes.

Why on earth are there so many golden linings? Just chill out with it and use normal stuff. Different from the purple color scheme that Esther was wearing, the one he received was one of blue and white, hood included. After all that was done he pushed open the door, the knight already standing in front. “Evening.” He slightly bowed as he stepped out of the door, pulling the hood up, then following it back towards the room where they left. The door swung open, Mimic was nudged in.

Simple layout, weapons and maps hung on the wall, a few chairs organised in front of bookcases, surrounding a coffee table cookie on one side, and stacks of blueprint on the other. To his right was a tall table where sounds of argument could be heard, a few older males, mostly in their 30s it seems, in full suits of flack armor, standing around a tall desk, listening quietly as a childish voice speaks.

“Ah, finally.” Esther called out from behind the table as soon as she saw the door swing open. “Take a seat, I’ll be with you soon”

She quickly went through whatever topic they were on, thanked them, then called the knight in and had them escorted out of the room.

“Who is this child? Pet of your’s?” A man asked with a discussed tone as he was about to leave the room, looking down on Mimic

“It’s best if we don’t question each other’s moves, general.” She replied in a polite tone as she guided him towards the door, shutting it as soon as everyone was out.

“So, nice place you landed on, what have you been up to?”Mimic said as he took a book from the shelf, the words were as expected foren to his eyes. “Saw the machines outside, those yours right?”

“I would be really concerned if those weren't.” She laughed as she hopped off the chair. “You? See anything…. Unusual?”

He turned his back onto her, hiding his twitching eye, hand clenching onto the book tightly. “Well, I mean…” He chuckled, tongue grinding in his mouth like sand paper, the room felt slightly colder than a few moments before. “The body I was in was impaled, that counts?” He laughed as he put the books away, reclining in the chair nearby, resting one of his ankles onto his other knee, left hand resting on the arm of the chair, his right formed a fist on which his cheek rested.

“Well, that was unfortunate. Anything else?” She said lightly, the smile from her face faded away as she slowly walked towards him.

Sitting down directly across from him, her back straight as a sword, fingers crossed, resting on her lap, standard sitting postion that reviels absolutly jack all. Her eyes locked on to his, staring straight into his pupil, knocking on the doors to his soul.

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“Let’s see.”He said leisurely, shifting his eyeball to the top left to simulate thinking.“I also saw someone disobey the honor code of engagement that this place had.” He grinned, shifting the eyeballs back after the sentence was finished.

In his mind he kept insuring himself that she doesn't know about the duplicates, focusing all his attention on his own breathing as to calm himself.

“Not my proudest I would say.” She tilted her head, still maintaining the gaze.

“Ah, almost forgot, a few gifts, if you will” Reaching out into his backpack he hid one of the daggers into his sleeves, then pulled out the map that contained the supply route as well as the damaged claymore.

“We could end this war within a few weeks.” he said, tossing everything on the table.

She took a glimpse at the paper on the table, not even opening it her tone cold as ice “Planning a raid on the supply route? The one that was stacked with castles right?” a grin gradually developed on her face, the same face when B was told that she would be facing against a copy of herself.

His heart jolted, chest tightened, and left hand clenched tight onto the arm rest, the sharp angles dug into his tender palms, keeping him in the game. “You’ve been spying on me or something?”

‘There is no way she knows’ He kept repeating the same phrase to himself.

“You 100Cs always take more than you can chew.” she said with a condescending tone.

Underneath the robe his abdomen contracted, pushing back hard on the intestine, forcing out a smile on his face, trying to mask the uneasiness of his.“That’s why we’re, well, I'm here isn’t it?”

“We.”She emphasised, leaning forward with her body “Are here to guide this planet, and eventually head back, clean up the mess that led to our creation.”

“So what then? Just sit back, let those people walk over you while you yourself get married over to a prince somewhere else for alliance.” He smugged, taunting her.

“Yes, and you are the prince.”She sighed

“I’m sorry what?” The smile froze on his face, this was too good to be true. If there was a scale of which on one side is getting shat on by a bird after buying a new suit, the other is winning a lottery, this would be as the equivelent as a monkey typing out Shakspear dancing on a keyboard high on cocane.

She shrugged it off like it was just a decision of where to eat lunch “We are making you a price, or a king, whichever works. You take down the opposing side of this battle, get on the throne, and I’ll push for a marriage. We get to have the resource of two kingdoms while losing as little manpower as we can.”

“Yeah all that sounds good, but you lost me at the part where I become the king of a fucking country.”

“Your choice, spark a riot, start a new religion, anything that does not impact this place would be a good choice.”

At this point he just decided to roll with it, she's offering a free ride, and there are no signs of her asking about duplicates “You got um, antibiotics?” He stuttered

“Going with the plague doctor? Sure, we can do that. “ She said as she flipped through the stack of blueprint she had on her desk, picking out a few and laying those out on the table.

“Right, I’ll hand these off to them and have them…” She clicked her tongue, re-evaluating the content “Tsss, nevermind, I’ll hand these over to you, just make it some time. Can’t really trust these people without proper training. Asher!” She called out, handing the papers to the knight who just walked in, the same one that escordted imic around.

“Right, we are all set." She stood up and walked pass him "Here’s a dictionary for this language, and… English right? Yeah, English translation sheet for you.” She mumbled as she pulled books from the bookshelf, handing it over to him, scanning through the bookshelf “Yeah, that seems to be it. Right, those things should be sent to you soon, I'll see you once we can start testing if your drug worked”

“Sent to me?” He looked down at the books she gave, if he was only focused on a few things, those would be not giving away any necessary information, and he does not recall giving her the whereabouts of his location

“The invitation was marked by area. So yeah, deep in the mountains, a hunting comunity? Or bandits and highwaymen?”

“I would go with bandits and probably scavengers, haven’t seen a single person fram in weeks.”

Hearing his answer, her eyebrows twitched “You starving over there?” she reached out and grabbed him by the hand, running her cold slender finger through his arm “No, doesn't seem so.”

“So why did you, all of a sudden, want to raid a convoy?” Letting go of his hand, she looked directly into his eyes, despite having a slight advantage on the height department, the gaze from below still made him unsettled

“To get a voice in the group? Why? You could of waited unti you are more fit for combat.” She asked again “That’s also the reason you scouted out the routes isn’t it?" Pausing for a breif second, her iris shifted off his face for a second, then locking back on as soon as she started to talk again "Doesn’t all that seem a little bit....Rushed?”

“You know me.” He laughed, tilting his head sideways avoiding the glare of her eyes, fingers digging into the book cover, toes burrowing into the shoe “I’m board.” he replied, stretching his arm as wide as he could, giving her the illusion that what he said was true.

Silence devoured the room, seconds stretched out into minutes as they looked each other in the eye. “Ok” She said lightly as she walked past him, getting another cookie and sitting back on the chair “Make sure you don’t get yourself into trouble will you?”

“Can’t promise that, I’ll be back after the drug is done though”

“When you do, just say you are looking for Asher, he’ll recognize you, and reframe from what you called that soldier earlier today, unless you have a thing of getting smacked. The flasks and all those things would be shipped over to you in about two days from now. Anything else you desperately need?”

“Not really.”

“Well off you go then, he’ll give you some peasant clothing to change into, as well as your horse.”

“Till next time.” He bowed as he walked out of the room, books in hand, just glad that all that was over.

He changed into the same peasant style clothing he came in from, and was let out from the back door like just another servant. A few puffs of black smoke could be seen as he made his way to the stable Asher told him about, apparently he’s not the only one that got work done.

They met up at roughly the same spot they parted ways, Primus and him. High in the castle Esther sat quietly in her room “So it’s true.” She whispered to herself as she flipped open a book, metal ran through the edges of the cover, locked together by a few chains.

On their way back Mimic let Primus took control of the horse, himself sitting back and processing each line they exchanged, trying to suss out any potential clue.