The Moment Before Disaster 1

As soon as William and I exited the building, we continue to walk away and ignore the crowds around us.

William dodged the people around him, while I followed him from behind.

Soon enough, we reached an open space that was barely filled with people.

"Hey, William..."

He ignored my call as he look around to find the direction of the gate.

"...It's starting soon."

"Okay, what--!?" I was about to ask him what he meant when I suddenly heard an agonizing scream from my head. Because of it, I held my head with both hands.

'ዕዐ ሃዐሁ ፕዘጎክጕ ፕዘልፕ ሃዐሁ ርልክ ቿነርልየቿ ቻዪዐጠ ሃዐሁዪ ዐሠክ ነቿረቻ!?'

The voice in my head spoke.

𝘚𝘩𝘪𝘵...

"Shut up..." I said to myself in a low voice. When William saw me like this, his expression changed. He pulled me away from the crowds as we went through the gate and turned to the right to head in the forest.

As the voice in my head continues, I felt that my craving to kill begun to increase.

I leaned my arm on the tree as support as I clutched my heart. I was breathing frantically, sweats started to become visible in my clothes.

William patted me on the back with a worried expression on his face.

It took me few moments until I could finally calm down. Though I could still hear the voices, I could calmly say that I can control myself... Probably.

"By the way, where's Persia... Isn't she supposed to be with you today?" I slowly straightened my back and as I glance at him from the side of my eyes.

"She's... I don't know." William shook his shoulder as he looked at me in the eyes. I wasn't sure why, but I noticed his lips curling upward before returning to his usual expression. I was starting to get suspicious at his unusual behavior.

A little while later, we proceeds to continue walking for about thirty minutes. None of us said anything, however, as we continue to move further away from the academy, I began to feel that something weird is going on... How should I say this? William was silent, which is quite unusual considering that he's a talkative type of person.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed by uneasiness, "Hey, William." I called out to him, "Do you still remember the two traitors that your father executed back in the castle?"

He didn't even turned around to reply, "Hmm... Yeah. Is there something wrong?" he asked, placing his hands inside his pocket. At this moment, I was able to confirm one thing.

And that is...

This bitch is an imposter.

I stopped walking and stared at the impostor's back after realizing something was wrong. Excluding my deadly aura that was directly towards him, I took out my sword from the scabbard on my waist and prepared my stance.

"You... Who are you?"

"..."

Step.

Step.

Step.

William-This son of a bitch, too, stopped walking after he heard my question. He didn't even bother to turn around to look at me. The impostor just stood there, look up in the sky before letting out a chuckle.

"How did you find out?"

Using my mana enhancement to wrap my sword around with my mana, I responded, "Well, you see, only one of the two traitors died back then. This information was kept a secret; only the His Highness, the real William and me are the only people that knows about what happened to the other guy..."

I gave the impostor a cold glare before continuing, "And also, what gave you away the most is that when it comes to Persia, the real William I know would definitely know her location due to a certain ring artifact I bought and gave the two of them. Unless either Persia or him died, or the artifact connecting the two of them got destroyed, nothing could ever break the their connection from one other."

For a second, I remembered the time when William and I were just about to head to the academy for the first time. The two ring I bought... I never thought that it would be useful in a situation like this.

"....What if I was Arthur?"

"Eh... That's impossible."

When I said this, the fake William in front of me finally turned his head to face me before asking, "Why's that?" With an interested expression.

Frowning, I answered his question with an irked expression that could be seen from my face.

"I admit, that guy is weird. If you can actually act like him, I'll also admit that you're one of the best actor I know. Though, few exceptional things that is likable about him is that he is capable of being both compassionate and critical towards others, when either is most necessary, even to his love ones. Merciful when he can be and just when he must be. He is not concerned by being praised by the masses, but instead prioritize the living an honorable and noble life."

Stopping for a quick second, I continued, "It was also because of his dumb behavior and unable to lie for one tiny mistake that I got beaten up for three hour by Lumine when I accidentally spilled my chocolate drink on her dress when I came in to her room without permission..... Although it was partly my fault, because of those two, I'm really mentally exhausted." I shivered. What I told him was actually half a lie. The person who got beaten up was actually Deus back when he first started controlling my body while I was gone.

After a few minutes of complaining, I finally stopped and once again cleared my throat with a flustered expression.

"Anyway, you're already suspicious from the beginning... I know William's mana signature, and yours was clearly different from his."

And also,

"You are the same as me, aren't you?"

According to what I remember in the novel, there's only two people I know who had ability to turn into someone else. That two is Jack, the Thousand Faces and Athan... Which is me.

The artifact Jack use is one of a kind. There are no other mentioned artifacts that can let the user to change face and body. As for me, the White Fox Stigma is also special because it only choose it's user from the Lohengramm bloodline.

"You've read the nov--"

"Ha ha ha..."

His expression remained like what it was from before. Slightly turning his head to the side, he glanced at my direction before speaking up, "No... Right now, my knowledge about the future is above you, nor the novel."

"--!" When I heard him mentioned above even the novel, my expression stiffened as I looked at him in shock. And then, I question suddenly appeared inside my mind.

"No, I'm not the author either..." As if he could read my thoughts aloud, he answered my question. I was about to say something else when he suddenly burst out to laugher.

"No matter how many times you reset, you're like a cockroach that even the being from the higher plane of existence can't catch." The impostor spoke, making me feel slightly confused.

"Looks like you've enjoyed your stay here, Athan." Said the impostor, his right hands covering half of his face. "Isn't it time for you to face your sins?"

I turned serious, then asked, "What do you mean?"

"You killed them, didn't you, Athan? How dare you live in this world happy?" The fake William in front of me tilted his head. Slowly, his face turned into something hideous before turning into a more familiar faces....

It was..... from my past life.

"H-how...?" I stuttered from speaking.

"Even here, you've been trying hard to run away from your problems here... like what you did in your past life." He said, slowly removing his hands from his face.

"How are you here!!?" I raised my voice, preparing my sword to attack.

He walked towards me while saying, "How? You already know the answer..."

His voice raised as it echoed throughout my head, making me unable to think properly. From his words, I began to remember some... Unpleasant things. "No! I-It was an accident!" I tried denying his words.

"There are no accidents... You chose to kill them yourself." The man before me whispered to my ear.

I held my ear using both of my hands, trying my best to cover up the voices I'm hearing inside my head. While I was doing this, he walked towards me and placed his hands at my neck, as if attempting to choke me.

"That body... Your life... is supposedly mine..."

A tear suddenly fell from the side of his eyes.

"And yet... Why did you have to steal it from me?"

After a couple of seconds, the voices finally stopped, replacing it was a rough breathing sound coming from my side.

"For the sake of this world and for the sake of yourself...

You.

Will.

Suffer."

Saying that, a monster appeared out of nowhere with it's claw ready.

With barely having anytime to react, I managed to parry the attacks away using my sword as I hopped a couple of meters backwards and prepared my stance.

Gripping onto my sword tightly, I jumped and propelled myself in a tree and sliced the monsters on the way.

"Hupp!"

Once I'm done, I wiped the blood that got in my cheeks using my wrist and returned my attention back to the other me, who also had fresh blood covering his clothes.

Then, I noticed some dead professors near his direction.

"Did you killed them earlier..." I asked, staring at the corpses of the professors that looks like it had been cut by something in the neck.

"Me?" He tilted his head. "What do you mean by that? You are the one who did that. Just look at the blood covering your hands." Pointing his finger towards my hand, the man before me smiled sinisterly.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵? I looked down after what he said, then...

I regretted it.

Immediately, I let go of the katana I was holding. The dead monsters in front of me that was cut, was suddenly replaced by dead bodies of those people on his side....

"Isn't it fun?" He asked, "Playing with the lives of people, using them as pawns, letting them kill each other as their blood splashes around, with their desperate screams of help....! Was only yet like a cry of monster in their deep salvation."

I fell on my knees hearing those words come out from his mouth. He crouched closer to me and mumbled something under his breath.

"We are connected by fate, so you can never deny my existence. No matter what you do, the future is ልጌነዐረሁፕቿ."