Jonah felt it might be entirely possible for Serina to assume he would have managed to free himself after he had explained what he could do with his magic. But after she came back from supposedly chasing away the inquisitors, she seemed to have taken for granted that he wasn’t tied to the chair anymore.

She had also been surprisingly quick about chasing away the inquisitors.

If invaders were as much of a threat as Serina made them out to be and the inquisitors were so dogged in their determination to hunt down and kill all invaders on sight, would they really have left that easy? There should have been a reason or suspicion behind why they showed up at this shed in the first place.

Considering the Rock Roarer had sensed the presence of an invader when he first arrived on Thyskria, it was more than likely that the inquisitors, who almost definitely had access to more advanced magic and detection capabilities than the Rock Roarer, would sense and track him down.

As he thought about it, Jonah confirmed his idea more and more. He didn’t know how they had done it, but…

“Who are you?”

As soon as Serina stepped inside the shed after opening the door, Jonah left his spot behind that door and placed his triangle against her throat while grabbing her shoulder with his other hand.

Jonah pressed the corner of the triangle, pinched between his thumb and two forefingers, against Serina’s throat. Her ponytail and the fact that she was almost a head shorter than him gave him clear access to the seemingly fragile-as-paper skin.

Serina gulped loud enough for Jonah to hear before she slowly raised her hands to show she was harmless.

“What do you mean? Didn’t I already introduce myself?”

Serina’s voice was calm—a little too calm for Jonah’s liking. He hadn’t threatened anyone like this before, but shouldn’t people usually be afraid if someone pressed a blade or something like a blade to their throats?

“So you’re telling me your real name is Astrid?”

Jonah pushed Serina forward while closing the door behind him with a foot. For now, he wanted to confirm whether Serina was just fooling around due to a split personality disorder or not. He also wanted the inquisitor to reveal themselves so he could feel secure in his decision.

‘And since Serina referred to them with plural nouns, this one probably isn’t alone. Let’s hope they care for their comrades.’

“Um…”

Jonah could practically hear the gears in Serina’s brain grind as she tried to figure out what was going on.

“What makes you think my name isn’t Astrid?”

Eventually, the inquisitor decided to go with an answer. Unfortunately for the inquisitor disguised as Serina, it was the wrong answer.

Jonah kicked the back of the fake Serina’s knees and put her on the ground, belly down. Since the ropes weren’t far away, he stretched and grabbed a couple while still pressing his triangle against the fake’s neck.

Since the inquisitor had already revealed themselves, it was pointless talking to them until after he had secured them.

Jonah tied the inquisitor's hands together, their palms clasped together like a lover’s handhold, after shoving a rope in their mouth as a gag.

With both hands and mouth sealed, it should be difficult for the inquisitor to cast any magic. And if they could cast magic like that, Jonah wouldn’t have gotten this far since they would be capable of doing it and stopping him before he got this far.

Jonah sat on the slightly dusty wooden floor below the window as he thought about what to do.

The other inquisitor, or inquisitors, would probably realize something was up when the fake Serina didn’t come back with his head, because that’s what Jonah felt would have happened if his vigilance hadn’t paid off and if he hadn’t realized the Serina worming around on the floor and trying to shout through the rope stumps while glaring at him was a fake.

The fake Serina had probably counted on him lowering his guard when she came back and then killed him with a surprise.

Jonah didn’t want to believe anyone was that cruel, but if he wanted to survive in this world, his best bet was to take the real Serina’s words as strict guidelines he should follow.

Eventually deciding to try and interrogate the fake using knowledge from movies, Jonah pulled her over next to him, so they were both hidden from view unless someone stood right by the window.

The fake looked a little dismayed at the rough treatment, but Jonah didn’t care. Well, he tried not to care.

Jonah steeled his heart and conjured a new triangle since the previous one had lost the mana sustaining it and put it against the fake Serina’s ear.

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He leaned down close to the fake and looked straight into their eyes.

“Shout, scream, cry out, or say anything that’s not an answer to my question, and I will take your ear. If you understand, nod.”

Jonah tried to be as menacing and threatening as possible, so he practically growled his threat with a grave face.

However, Jonah realized something right when he was about to remove the gag after the fake Serina nodded.

He had the most to lose.

If there really were other inquisitors outside, they would only need one shout from the fake before storming the shed and killing him. He didn’t even understand why they hadn’t done that yet. Maybe they were waiting for the fake to complete her mission. There were several things he didn’t understand, which wasn’t strange, considering the foreign situation he had found himself in.

But, in any case, letting the fake get a single opportunity to talk was obviously a loss for him.

“Do you value your life?”

Jonah moved the triangle to the fake’s neck again and pressed just hard enough to draw a thin red line.

“I’m serious. One wrong move, and you’re going down with me.”

The fake Serina nodded again.

“Good. I will remove this, and I want you to tell me who you are and what you’ve done with the real Serina, alright? Anything else, and this thing will become a little redder.”

Jonah showed off the glistening edge of his triangle before putting it back against the fake’s neck. He removed the rope he had shoved inside her mouth.

“AH–!”

The fake Serina, despite Jonah’s warning, screamed. Jonah, startled by the sudden shout, twitched, and before he knew it, his triangle had already slid across Serina’s neck.

Blood welled out as Serina’s scream was cut short.

Jonah jumped back and stared at the life dwindling from Serina’s eyes as his face paled, like he was the one losing blood.

It was a lot harder on him to accidentally kill another human wearing the face of a person he had talked to and gotten to know than it had been to kill the Rock Roarer in self-defense.

However, Jonah knew that he didn’t have time to sit and stare blankly at the fake Serina’s corpse. Even if the disguised person’s death would dispel most kinds of disguise magic, Jonah had nothing to gain by seeing the real face of the fake Serina.

He was about to stand up and prepare for a frontal defense against the inquisitors, who should be storming the shed, when the blood stopped spewing out of the fake Serina’s throat.

It didn’t just stop shooting out like a fountain. It stopped moving entirely. It was as if the fake Serina’s blood and body were both frozen in time. It looked like a video projection had reached its end or started lagging. It was just that it was 3D and more real than anything Jonah had ever seen.

Jonah slowly began backing away.

“W-what–”

And then, while Jonah was still watching the weird occurrence, the fake Serina cracked like a glass statue. The cracks covered her entire body and the blood that had spilled out. Even the stains on Jonah had cracks running through them.

Jonah had a hard time believing what he was seeing. But it didn’t stop there.

After the cracks, dense like the grains in a wooden plank, covered all of the fake Serina, she shattered. Like she had lost all power keeping her body intact, she crumbled like an ice figurine dropped on the floor, and tens of thousands of shiny, glittering shards that reflected the shed’s insides in an endless glimmer crashed to the ground in a silent crystalline rain.

It was dauntingly beautiful. It was enough to make Jonah almost want to pick it up in his hands. But before he could, the shards crumbled even further into faint dust that glittered in the sunlight pouring through the window. And then, before Jonah even had time to process the change, even the sparkling dust faded away into nothingness.

“Wha….”

Jonah had no idea what was going on, and while the sight of the fake Serina’s body crumbling had been beautiful, it wasn’t enough to daze him for more than a couple of moments. He hurriedly stood up and avoided the window as he crept back behind the door.

He anxiously waited for something to happen—anything.

Hadn’t Serina said there were multiple inquisitors? Where were they now that the fake Serina had died and failed its mission?

Jonah was almost tempted to take a gamble and peek through the window. But he was too impatient. Only a couple of moments had passed since the fake Serina’s death. And before he could even make a decision, he heard an explosion outside, muffled by the wooden walls of the shed. He also saw orange light dominate the bright yellow sunlight for a couple of moments.

Jonah flinched as he heard a scream and another explosion some distance away from the shed.

‘Infighting? Or another party looking for me?’

Jonah felt the waves of magic hit the shed and realized that the source of the two explosions was a decently powerful mage. They were at least stronger than him, and if they directed that kind of explosion at the shed, neither he nor the shed would remain.

Jonah stepped away from the door and darted around the shed, looking for another way out. However, the only thing he found were old crates of gardening tools and supplies. There was also an old, rusty splitting axe resting against one of the walls, which seemed way too thin now.

Jonah considered grasping the axe just because a melee weapon would give him a sense of security. But it would be a false sense of security. As long as his opponent wasn’t prepared, his triangles were better since he could launch them from a distance.

Taking a deep breath to calm down, Jonah realized that the shed hadn’t exploded yet.

Whoever it was that created those explosions didn’t seem to want to explode the shed. Maybe they wanted to confirm Jonah’s presence and identity?

Jonah had a hard time being hopeful, but he did his best and hid behind a shelf so that he had a clear view of the door and window, but anyone entering or looking through the window would have a hard time seeing him.

It didn’t take long before he heard a low, grumbling voice outside the door before the handle rustled. Unfortunately, since he was hidden in the deepest corner of the shed, he couldn’t tell what the voice said or whether it belonged to Serina or not.

But since there was someone there, and two explosions had just gone off outside, Jonah was prepared for the worst, and he conjured a black triangle in each of his hands.

And as soon as the door burst open, he sent them piercing through the air toward the figure that appeared in the opening.