“… what about your first lead image then? Keeping a maiden captive and striking a revolt.”
…
“Hey, you! Akansha come with me. I need to talk to you.” Anik summoned Akansha to a room outside the palace’s main quarters near horse stables.
“Yes?”
“I want to be the king.”
“Aren’t you already the king?”
“I am a knight.”
“And Ashleen is the princess”
“I need to overthrow her”
“You can just marry her”
“I don’t want to marry someone dead in the brain like her.”
“You are right but don’t tell me you have any intention of going against someone like her as well”
“That’s right”
“No way! Who are you kidding with? These weird pranks don’t suit you anyways”
“If you are not willing to join me then die.” He pulled out the sword and held it to her neck.
“You can't be serious”
“I don’t want to kill you, you are useful. Especially that guy of yours.”
“Go ahead and try killing me.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t know what you are trying to do but there is no way you’ll go against that dumb girl”
“What about you?”
“I won’t go against her either. It feels nice to be around her… she seems so different yet so common. If it were possible I would have switched partners with you. I kinda like her.”
“Huh?”
“Man, I am not a lesbian. But my heart wants to protect her from everything leave alone betray her”
“Then die”
He held his sword pulled it back to gather inertia and struck it at her neck. She closed her eyes as if accepting defeat. She knows she doesn’t stand a chance against him so better as well die peacefully. The sword stopped right before hitting her.
“You passed”
“I knew it was a test.” She laughed “You should choose a better candidate for next time for example me. It would be easier for people to believe if that’s me.”
“There’s no next time. We just needed you and that guy of yours.”
“Who tested him?”
“He’ll listen to you he has been doing that for a while now.”
“Yeah, maybe”
“Let’s go to her. She needs to explain the plan to you.”
…
A few minutes earlier
“… what about your first lead image then? Keeping a maiden captive and striking a revolt.”
“You are such an idiot. I get why your sister wasn’t able to keep a straight face after all.”
“…Huh?”
“Nothing nothing tell me about your plan.”
“I haven’t thought about it yet…”
“I guessed that. I have a plan then.”
“What’s it?”
…
Ashleen was already dozing off with the kid on his bed.
“… Are you sure she wants to explain the plan?”
“Oh, you guys are back…” She said rubbing her eyes. “I was worried at first but then after I thought about it I had a feeling you won’t want to become that hideous sidekick of a villain.”
“Haha side kick of a villain, interesting.”
“Hey Anik, explain the plan”
“you do”
“I don’t want to and it’s your plan after all”
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“You are the one gonna execute it”
“But that plan of yours is too lousy”
“You agreed with me earlier”
“… You just do na”
He sighed and looked at amused-looking Akansha “Let’s make our people sleep”
“Huh?”
“There are some people I think we need to be wary of,” he said pinching his forehead “I wish to divide that group of people in two and make them sleep in turn; one group then another group. Same about the trustworthy ones so that if there is some outbreak or something then that half group can be there to help us.”
“I don’t think that this plan is that lousy,” she said looking at Ashleen who was half asleep again. Akansha sighed and continued looking at Anik “Who are the ones you suspect?”
“…”
“You need to trust me to have our plan functioning well”
“There are a few people but we especially want to take care of healer aunt and your partner.”
“Healer aunt could have killed you both twice if she wanted to and my partner did his best back then fighting for this sleeping princess.”
“I know but these both are powerful and are the best options for those who want to work behind the scenes. Your partner is sub-general at the moment and he's an easy target. We have you now and he won’t try to kill you when going against us but you can be kept captive, after all in physical strength you can’t win against him and the same goes for healer aunt, the healer aunt… I think she should be an NPC because she doesn’t have a partner.”
“I don’t know whether she is an NPC or not but I don’t think that the criteria of having a partner or not is a good criterion to decide whether someone is an NPC or not. I don’t think you were satisfied with that criteria either” she said pointing at the kid. “It’s possible that not everyone needed to choose a companion.”
Anik knows that very well. everyone here has only seen places in this area and has no channel for any information, whereas Anik has read the comic and he knows that this place has been functioning for centuries, every ten years new people are summoned and older and capable ones become 'higher beings' who enjoy their survival... but he wants to appear clueless among the people around him, to attract the least suspicion possible.
“Guys guys why thinking so much, let your brains rest a little,” Ashleen said drowsing.
“We need to use brain exactly because a competent so-called ruler of ours is not using it” Akansha felt comfortable with these two especially Ashleen so she doesn’t try to be cautious.
“Then I might need to thank my savior… Oh my god!!”
“What happened?”
“I forgot to thank you!”
“For what?”
“C’mon sis you saved me in that small copy of battle.”
“Man! You scared the shit out of me”
“Huh?” even Anik was taken aback by Akansha’s words.
“Oh My God!...” it was Akansha
“What happened?”
“Nothing but you got scared, right?”
“…” Anik glanced at both of them thinking that either there something is wrong with him or these two are not okay.
“Can we be serious for a while?” asked Anik looking at the girls who both seemed to be preparing for counterattacks if the other one said something.
“Yeah, no other options after all,” said Ashleen and sat down cross-legged as if to listen attentively.
Sorry to bother everyone but your arrangements seem to be futile.
“huh…”
You all did well in your first scenario but now you need to know that surviving once doesn’t necessarily mean you are free to do whatever you want to, you need to count on yourself for your survival.
It feels like this announcement was a public one and not just for them but thinking about it why would someone bother to make an announcement specifically for them?
Your next scenario is about to begin
“You feel more humane this time” Ashleen murmured but that creature seemed to have heard and suddenly appeared in front of them. The source of the voice heard by everyone was in front of Ashleen smiling slyly.
“So you can respond to us then why did you ignore last time?”
Haha, you need to be more attentive, higher beings on the both good and bad sides are paying more attention to you and yes I did a thorough investigation on you” That creature clicked its tongue and disappeared even without completing himself.
“… what did he even mean?” Akansha looked dazed after listening to this.
“Man, it feels more and more like living in a novel… I mean I feel like the main lead after he said that higher beings were paying attention. But maybe now I understand how I should have reacted after reading this back in the previous world or maybe… life.”
“That can’t be counted as previous life because we still are the same as before it’s just that we are in a different environment.” Akansha was able to look at her hidden anxiety and sadness maybe because of her skill or maybe just naturally. Akansha wasn’t able to read her like she read others but she could still guess how she felt. Her skill might be another reason why she wasn’t scared even when Anik held his sword to her neck.
Anik didn’t have a skill like hers but he still felt that Ashleen would be a little worried and her ending words showed a hint of sadness but after living all alone and by himself for his entire life he didn’t know how he should react to it.
Just while he was thinking everything turned entirely dark like there was a wall in front of him, pitch black for a second he doubted if he had gone blind but he was partially relieved when he heard Akansha.
“Wtf am I blind now??” She said and touched her eyes.
“No” Anik replies while trying to evaluate the situation.
“Brother” someone tucked his shirt. It wasn’t visible but the voice could still be heard and it was the little kid from the orc’s area.
“Don’t worry I’ll figure it out keep holding me if you feel scared”
“ Wait how did you find him so easily and you even found where his shirt was? Is it your power or something?”
He ignored her and continued “Brother should look for the bad sister”
His sentence and the system’s warning flash, both struck Anik simultaneously. His heart tightened as he heard those words.
Your partner’s mentality is breaking down, your power is fluctuating.
Under the light of the system’s momentary message, he tried to look for Ashleen as much as possible. He still was in the same room and Ashleen was still where she was previously, before he could look at her expression the message vanished along with the light.
“Ashleen!” He tried calling her but there was no response. Anik thought and the only thing he could think of was her demon self overpowering again. He stepped towards her, another step, one after another but he still couldn’t locate her. He knew where she was but is that possible he wasn’t going in her direction at all?
“Bro this way” The kid pulled him in a certain direction and Anik walked behind him silently. Steps were slow and the distance was short; Anik was worried about the kid being NPC and walking him in the wrong direction vanished when the kid stopped and lifted Anik’s hand to touch Ashleen.
“Here she is,” he said and let go of him and moved towards Akansha. She seemed unaware of Ashleen’s demonic power that the kid saw through the wall using his power. Now she seemed to be moving around trying to locate Anik and Ashleen through the noise. The kid walked to her and said in a low voice “Stay back from them you can’t do anything after all” Akansha felt angry at this sudden remark but she listened to him. After all, she really can’t do anything. She wasn’t even able to walk in a straight line leave alone helping others better not be a burden so she moved in the direction kid pulled her.
“Ashleen” he whispered before trying to use the method he previously used. He can’t wait for her to grab his neck again and her nails are sharper than a sword so he’s courting death if he’s not cautious.