房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

Zoemi smirked and shrugged his shoulders, closing his eyes and momentarily letting his consciousness fall into the world of dancing shadow.

Even with their unceasing movement, once the black-haired boy forced himself to look up, pale lights up above were trying their hardest to shine through.

"At least not for me."

Zoemi added and turned back to the plush bear.

|Hey, this is you, right? Make sure to not kill me, okay? That would e a pretty pathetic end.|

The black-haired boy thought to himself - it was supposed to be a joke, but honestly, it was exactly what Zoemi was worried about the most.

|You can see unique shadows of anything possessing mana, doesn't the one right in front of you look familiar?|

The original personality asked back in a calm voice.

|It looks just like my own shadow.|

Zoemi responded without hesitation.

|No.|

|Huh...?|

The original personality sounded as if he shook his head and made Zoemi very confused.

|Wha do you mean, no?|

The black-haired boy inquired.

|I can see my own shadow right now, the two are the same! That's not supposed to happen but I guess it... did...|

Zoemi thought up, almost ready to pick a fight with the suddenly difficult-to-cooperate artificial soul, but then he himself had figured out what exactly the original personality meant.

|You are always you in every single timeline... so by that logic, if you were in two different places in the same timeline, your unique shadow would show up twice, making it seem that there are two identical shadows...|

The black-haired boy sighed internally, while on the outside he slouched and put one hand to his mouth, taken aback.

|Exactly. This is not your shadow, it never was yours. You were never supposed to have mana so you should not have any unique shadow whatsoever. Your ability to use magic always came from me – and that is why... This is my shadow. Go on. Grab my original body. See what happens.|

The original personality confirmed the realization and encouraged the black-haired boy.

"Zoemi... No matter what, you should not try something so reckless, that item killed people before. We still have a few days before the ball, why don't we try to figure out another way, toge... WAIT!"

Valto saw Zoemi's behavior and read it as the boy hesitating, so he decided it would be in his former student's best interest that he stopped him altogether from doing something so dangerous, but just as he was finishing his talk, the black-haired boy reached out his hand and grabbed the toy.

"ZOEMI!"

"Mister teacher. You are quite noisy, aren't you?"

Valto called out in terror, trying to move toward his former student to get him away from the deadly magical artifact shaped like an innocent toy, but he was stopped by Ettemi who held him down securely in his wheelchair.

As for the black-haired boy himself...

"This is... quite underwhelming, honestly..."

"?!?!"

Zoemi breathed out, staring into the toy's dead eyes not reflecting any light with great disappointment, making his teacher flinch and freeze in place, utterly flabbergasted.

It wasn't like there was completely no effect, but as the black-haired boy said so himself, they were nothing special.

The moment that Zoemi held the plush bear, his vision suddenly split in two and he could see through his own eyes as well as the eyes of the toy.

He could not control the toy's movement – it was just a shared vision and nothing else.

|Did you know that it would be like this?|

Zoemi sighed internally and asked the original personality.

|I had a hunch, but it was still worth a try. I had hoped that maybe I could transfer my consciousness back into that body though. You know, move out of your head and take the ability to use magic with me...|

The artificial soul responded, sounding every bit as disappointed as the black-haired boy.

|That would be nice... but you don't sound like it worked out...|

Zoemi thought moving the toy around, carefully checking the stitches and putting it together, and honestly, they looked a lot neater than the ones he saw in the different timeline.

It seemed that the presence was learning how to sew in between switching the timelines.

|Unfortunately, it did not.|

The original personality sighed with disappointment.

|I believe it became like this because I fully awakened...If I stayed half-asleep the sudden connection between our vessels would be bound to cause some sort of effect. As things are now, this is just an empty husk that has my aura and shows my shadow. Unfortunately, it also seems to have lost the deadly properties that your teacher talked about. Sorry. My original body is now just a plushie with a really bad opinion.|

He explained and sounded apologetically enough that Zoemi couldn't help himself and made the plushie in his hands bow its head to him.

"Zo-Zoemi...? Is everything alright...?"

Valto shook his head and managed to ask although his throat has dried out completely because of how nervous he was.

"It could be better, this little guy is no longer a threat – but sadly it is also not very useful for what we are going to do... Ettemi, do you want it? Although it would have to be for the time being, because I am not sure how much the second princess is attached to just the body alone."

The black-haired boy sighed and shrugged his shoulders, turning back to his teacher and the corpse puppet sentinel, and asked while playing around with the bear just to keep his hands busy.

"A plushie that feels like dad?! I want it!"

Ettemi's eyes widened and she stood up, spreading her arms open.

"Then for now it's yours – if the second princess will ever contact us to reclaim it, you will have to give it back to her – but if that happens I will get you a new one, so remember to stay calm and be a good kid."

Zoemi smiled – the expression was far from really satisfied, as the visit to the treasury wasn't even half as profitable as the black-haired boy wished for, but in the end, he was quite happy seeing such joy on the face of one of his sentinels – and threw the black plush bear to her.

"Yaay~!"

Ettemi cheer oud and jumped up to grab the toy mid-air and hugged it without a second of hesitation, despite knowing that it was originally supposed to be a deadly object that took the lives of many people.

Still, they have trusted their creator without a moment of hesitation and certainly were not betrayed.

"...could you explain what exactly happened to that toy...? Could it be that the dangerous spell it was cast upon it finally expired after all these years?"

Valto asked, and even though he could see both Zoemi and the corpse puppet sentinel both touched it and were still alive, he moved his wheelchair back to keep a safe distance between himself and the plush bear – just in case.

"Yeah, you could say that. Although it is quite upsetting, I am not going to lie. Just really wanted to see Cherro shit himself at the sight of the very same toy that originally killed him, to be thrown at one of his comrades and eviscerating them... although... something similar can be arranged, not that I think about it..."

Zoemi nodded, going back to his disappointed expression and walking to the blue-haired man before helping him turn the wheelchair around.

"We can go back, teacher."

The black-haired boy said before motioning his head at Ettemi to follow them, this time without keeping the distance.

"Sure. If you are okay with not taking anything else in place of the bear..."

Valto furrowed his brows, glancing once more at the toy in Ettemi's arms and then turning his head the other way towards the direction of probably yet another artifact that he himself thought of as helpful for Zoemi's case.

"We are taking the bear though. It's enough. I can see that nothing else here has even remotely enough power to help us out in case of battle – unless you are willing to give me the seal protecting the place. That's a different matter altogether."

The black-haired boy assured his teacher with a lighthearted smile, snickering at the end.

"...unfortunately that's something I cannot do. The seal is a part of the castle embedded in the foundation and construction of the building as a whole. If I would allow it to be removed and taken away, the whole thing would fall down upon itself in one horrible mess. Sorry."

And yet for whatever reason, Valto responded to the joke in a completely serious manner, making Zoemi quite embarrassed.

"Teacher – I wasn't serious! The things we got are more than enough!"

He assured the blue-haired man as they were moving past tens upon hundreds – if not thousands – of artifacts and valuable items.

"Ah! You're back! Eh...? Where is the other one...?"

The red-haired woman, Tahlas, perked up at the sight of the returning Valto, but she furrowed her brows and asked in suspicion after looking up at Zoemi and his corpse puppet sentinel.

"Getting lost in here is not only dangerous but also highly illegal and... ISN'T THAT THE KILLER TOY?!"

Tahlas crossed her arms and began naggin in a stern voice – at least until she noticed the plush bear in Ettemi's grasp, and completely flipped out, tripping on her own legs and falling on her but.

"Miss Tahlas, are you okay...?!"

Valto gasped and moved his wheelchair towards the fallen woman, reaching out to her to help her get up.

"Teacher, that would be all from us for today. Thank you for your help – I let you know when my friend would be able to take a look at your spine. Goodbye for now~! Ettemi, say goodbye too."

Using the chance to slip away before being subjected to more questions that he didn't feel like answering anymore, Zoemi waved at the pair of archive keepers and nudged his corpse puppet sentinel.

"Mhmm. Kissing feels good, so have fun! Bye-bye~!"

*WHOOOM*

Ettemi nodded happily and waved, before activating the shadow gate that opened up beneath them both and swallowed them whole without a trace.

"...?!"

"...?!"

The two people left behind in the royal castle's archives were stunned and frozen, staring at the spot where the young high noble and his bodyguard vanished into.

Although Valto was the one more stunned about Zoemi's bodyguard being able to pass all the seals and defensive measures set up in place within the place, Tahlas was in distress because of something else.

"That boy keeps attracting more and more interesting people around him..."

Valto breathed out and turned back to the red-haired woman.

"Miss Tahlas, sorry for the... Umm... is everything okay?"

The blue-haired man nodded apologetically towards the woman, but when he looked up she noticed her fixating on his face - particularly on his mouth, so he asked, checking the corners of his mouth for the smudges of food or something else equally embarrassing.

"N-nothing! It's nothing!"

Tahlas gasped and hurriedly stood up.