Thousand Faces

-Thud! -Thud! -Thud!

While I walking through the dungeon's corridor, I came across some familiar face inside one of the cell.

"You awake?" I said to the man that, sitting alone on the metal bed on the side of the cell. He took a side glance at me before letting out a long sigh in annoyance.

"What do you want, brat?"

"Just want to talk.... Jack."

He finally looked at me after hearing that, as he stared at my eyes deeply, saying "Say it." while furrowing his brows.

With my other arm crossed, I supported my chin, and smiled as a reply.

"I want you to join my..."

***

"Seriously...." Staring right at me, his expression looked annoyed while he was saying that.

To which I replied, "Yes." as an affirmative to his question.

I have my own reasons why I wanted him to join me. First, it was because in the novel, he was non other than the infamous 'Thousand Faces'.

Thousand Faces is a very mysterious person. He only appeared in such important part of the novel like, after Arthur got his sword, Eπta.

At first, I didn't notice that it was him. Even though 'Thousand Faces' was mentioned many times in the novel, it remained uncleared what his gender or what he really looked like in the first place.

Like for example, Thousand Faces disguised himself as the Duke's daughter in his first meeting with Arthur. The only reason they found out that he was an imposter was because Arthur's companion, Cayla, discovered where the 'real one' was hidden.

On their second meeting, he disguised himself as Leigh. Although It didn't take long for them to immediately understood that he was an imposter after noticing that the crest on his hands was not barrier, instead it was mirror.

Yes... The real weakness of Thousand Face's infamous disguised was that he couldn't disguise his crest...

"...." The bangs covered his expression, obscuring it, but surely he was not happy in the slightest. "What makes you think that I'll join you after killing my father in front of me?"

"Let's face facts... I know that you never cared about him in the first place. Because if you ever did, you could have helped him when he attacked the prince... Also."

Taking out a map that shows a coordinate, I've placed it on the ground, facing in front of him.

"This!?!..."

When he saw the map, his eyes shone brightly as if he was seeing a mountain of treasure in front of him.

"I know that you're really obsessed with artifacts... So if ever you decides to join me, this map will become yours."

It was a map that shows the real coordination of the artifact he used in the original novel to disguise himself as someone whenever he wants to.

"So... Do you want to join in...or not?" Folding the map in my hands, and using it to slap his face lightly, I let out a sinister grin on my face.

"Damn, brat. I think that you have a strange habit to tic someone else off..."

"Thanks for the compliment."

Letting out a long sigh, and staring directly at my eyes, he then answered, "Fine, I'll accept the deal. But... Are you really sure that you can make me obey your order?"

I chuckled after I heard his reply. "This is why I prepared this thing in the first place." Taking out an artifact from my pocket ring, I coated my hands with mana and stabbed the artifact straight onto his heart.

"Don't worry, the artifact I placed inside you will only indicate your location. Besides, you don't really need to obey my orders. What you only need to do is to get information from some places I'll mention to you later."

Not long after I removed my hand from his chest, he touched the part to where I stabbed him with his eyes closed.

"I see..."

***

After I finished talking with Jack, I immediately went back to my room to prepare some stuff.

As I was walking, I stopped, and looked at the mirror on my side. I place my mask down, and smiled while looking at my reflection.

"I have no need to use that artifact.... because I already have this after all." Removing my left hand from my pocket, I raised it and touch my face.

-Shhhhh!

My appearance suddenly blurred out for a couple of seconds, including my body, before slowly turning into the man with snake tattoo on the shoulder.

With a grin, I began recalling what happened that night.

*

It was mid-night when it happened.

When I was just walking around the castle's hallway last night, I noticed a portal appeared out of nowhere as a man suddenly walked out of it.

The man wore a cloak that covered his appearance. He also wore a bracelet artifact on his wrist that was used to make the portal.

Seeing this, a plan suddenly escalated inside my mind.

After beating and catching the guy with a snake tattoo on the shoulder, I touched his face, then began mimicking his appearance.

It was two days ago when my 'Stigma' finally finished forming. After I stopped by at the middle of the forest to camp for the night, when I was about to pick up a small branch behind the tree, the back of my left hand suddenly glowed, releasing a colorful light that covered the whole surroundings...

Anyways...

After all that beating, I easily made the guy talk by making a huge cylinder barrier, and aiming it towards his bottom.

"So, choose... Either you talk, or make you're bottom more bigger.... Also, make it faster because I don't have that much time dealing with you."

"I'll talk! I'll talk! I'll talk!!.... So please, point that huge thing away from me!" The man repeatedly said, struggling from the rope I made using my dark magic.

After I finished dealing with him, I delivered him to the King, to let him do what he wants to the guy after. I also informed him that we shall be executing the plan last night, and that we need a cameraman to take a photo of Arnold, with me using the disguise skill I acquired thanks to my Stigma.

Next, after that, I went to the place where Arnold and the snake tattoo guy decided to meet up, and set everything in according.

And just after a few minutes, Arnold finally arrived.

"Where is it?" I spoke up.

Clearing up his throat, "Here, sir." Arnold said, giving me a book full of information.

I took it from his hands, and opened the scroll to see what's inside. Academy, huh... I muttered to myself inwardly. Without knowing it, my lips curved into a smile.

After a inspecting it quickly, I said, "I guess I'm done here..." before placing the scroll inside the storage necklace I took from the real 'snake tattoo guy'.

Right where I was about to leave, I suddenly thought of something that I wanted to ask.

"Oh, yeah. There seemed to be a new guest around here."

When he heard me say this, he tilted his head in confusion. And not long, Arnold finally answered, "Y-yes." while stuttering from his words for a bit. Lightly coughing to clear his throat, he continued, "The man's name is Blanc. Apparently, he was the one who saved the prince from the bandit's ambush we setup. And also, unlike the other people inside the castle, he seems to be much more stronger than them except for the King himself."

"I see..." I smiled. "As long as he doesn't get in our way that much, we don't need to get rid of him." Saying that, I went inside the portal I created using the bracelet artifact that leads to my room.

*

Sighing, I hopped to my bed, and stared at the room's ceiling.

"Well, that's done...." Saying that to myself, I covered my eyes using my right arm, and began to think about something. "Training, huh..." I muttered aloud. Since no one from except me is inside the room, no one could have possibly heard me sayi--

"Are you going to accept it?"

I suddenly heard William's voice just right beside me. Sighing once again, I decided to open my mouth to reply his question.

"I'm not sure.... There is still a possibility that I'll deny his offer because I still have much things to do than just training..."

"I see..."

Hearing his reply, I removed my arms from my eyes, then sat up from my bed. Frowning, I turned my head around to stare at William, who was currently covered in my blankets except for his head on my bed.

"How the fuck did you managed to get here?"

With a surprised expression, William then answered, "We were already here in the first place before you even got here."

Speechless, I shook my head around, saying "Seriously?" because I found his words a little bit unbelievable.

"Yes." He innocently nodded his head as a reply.

Right where I was about to let out a sigh, I suddenly realized something.

"And... what do you mean by 'We' exactly?"

Not long after I said that, I noticed something moving around inside my blanket.

"No way....."

I took the blanket from him, and threw it up in the air, just to see Persia smiling at me, while holding onto William's arm tightly.

After all those years of training.... I muttered to myself inwardly, while looking at them with a devastated expression on my face.

"Haha! Looks like you still need some training." King Adam got out behind my door with a wide smile on his face. This time, instead of looking a bit more devastated from what's happening right now, my shocked expression turned into annoyance.

"Do you three even know the meaning of privacy?"

"You mean four?" Saying that, Ryan flicked my forehead with a wide grin that could be seen from his face.

"Fuck!" I cursed out loud. King Adam heard this and chuckled not long after. Then, he walked and sat onto the chair just right in front of me, and crossed his arms, before letting out a long sigh in contempt.

"Just because we are not excluding any hostility atmosphere that was directly onto you... Anyways, how the hell did you not notice us when you entered the room?!" King Adam looked at me, astonished from what happened.

"I didn't even know that you guys entered my room!!"

"That's the thing. Can you even use your senses? Because of this, I'm not even gonna give you any permission to leave thus place until I finished training you."

"Huh?!! What the hell?! You cannot force me to train!!"

"I can, and I will. So from now on, you will become my student."

"No!!"

I was about to protest when suddenly, the other three grabbed my whole body, and lifted me up.

"Unhand me at once!"

""No!"" The three of them said in synchronized.

"What do you mean by no??! It is still night, for god sake!" I tried struggling, but due to being 3v1, I couldn't even get out from their grasp.

Although I could easily free myself if I used magic, I decided not to because there's a possibility that either one of them could get hurt.

Guess I won't be sleeping tonight...