The Newbie Is Too Strong's
204. Doppelgangers
“Let go Brother Emperor, you damn it!”
“Oho, since when did this kind child of ours start talking rudely? You can be angry later you know.”
“You, don't switch topics! Release Brother Emperor now!”
Luca was silent for a moment. He had just realized the strangeness in Phineas's words he had just spoken to him.
“Mother? What do you mean by Mom?! She's my mother, not your mother!”
“Ehem. You heard wrong, Luca. I just said your mother could be angry.”
As he said that, slowly, Phineas lowered Emperor Cecilia from his sling to a flat roof. He slowly stepped away as if hinting that he was letting Luca take back the captive hostage.
“You? What are you going to do?!”
“And you alone said that I must return this remaining descendant of Lacoza to you. So I did.”
“You? Why can be such a submissive? What is your real purpose?”
“Already expected, apparently the real world has really contaminated our plain Luca. You can be suspicious of others.”
“I was originally like this. It's natural to suspect a suspicious person, especially you. Say it! What exactly is your motive for doing all this!”
“What... That's because three more days are your match days in the world there and I don't want to disturb your concentration by doing unnecessary things. Didn't you already know that I'm also one of your fan clubs? We were looking there at that time.”
“What? So, the person in the hood and wearing the strange mask I saw that time on the bleachers was really you?! What are you really looking for?!”
“Your words are cruel, Luca, to accuse me like that. I was purely hoping for your victory in that match. What else do the people of the world call it? Hmm... E-spot?”
Phineas's lisp tongue made exactly the same mistake as the first time Luca said the word.
“For what? What's all that for?! You even had the heart to kill the innocent guards just to kidnap the Emperor Brother and now you say you will return it easily?! So what about Hendric and the others in there?! Don't tell me that you killed him too.”
“Ah. The company near Lacoza's descendants. I don't really care about their lives, but it seems they're still breathing.”
Hearing Phineas's reply, a hint of relief appeared on Luca's face. However, his anger still did not recede to the cruel figure before him.
“You, why are you so cruel?! What do you think life means?! Why do you so easily take the lives of others?!”
Phineas seemed confused for a moment. His eyes looked at Luca as if to say what this brat was thinking.
“Hei, Luca. Do you think they are human too? That's wrong, right? They are nothing but mere game characters.”
“Clang.”
“Set.”
With tears full of anger, Luca activated his cross-dimensional slashing skill, intending to slit Phineas' neck directly through his holy sword Astaroth. But he failed, In fact, Phineas only caught the holy sword with both of his fingertips as if it was nothing.”
“Hei relax first, Luca.” Phineas seemed to be trying to smile to calm Luca's mind. However, the shape of the half-face mask that covered the top of Phineas's face combined with his smile, instead looking as if mocking Luca. Luca was getting upset about all that.
“You, dammit! I want to hear that from your mouth! If you think that, it means that you and I are the same. We are also nothing but unimportant game characters like you talked about just now!”
However, Phineas confidently denied Luca's argument, “It's not like that, is it, Luca? You are a real human being, different from them, because you are born from a real father and mother. Whether it's you, or me, it's the same.”
Saying that, Phineas removed his mask. His blackish golden hair glistened in the twilight sunlight and fluttered so beautifully by the breeze. And the face that was apparently hidden behind that mask, was none other than a face similar to Luca. The same face that we imagined Luca would be in his forties.
“Actually, I am your brother, Luca.”
Phineas' words instantly became a lightning bolt in Luca's heart.
“Master? Master, what's wrong? You okay?”
“I'm fine, Aura. Just continue your work there.”
“But I can feel the strong mana turmoil of your body.”
“Alright, Master, if that's what you want. But do not forget to immediately send me telepathy if there is anything.”
“I understand, Aura.”
Luca looked straight at Phineas with an angry look.
“From the beginning, I already suspected that something was wrong. Dad always refers to his past when he was stranded to Gardenia as 6 years ago, which means the next ten years are the present, the same as 16 years ago. Real-world calendars state that now is the year 2083, while the time Father and Mother were stranded to Gardenia was in the year 2031.”
“However you see it that it is a 52 year gap, not 16 years. There could have been speculation that time in the real world was faster than in Gardenia, but it was clear that Aura said that she was 12 days old when her eggs had just hatched two days ago in real-world time.”
“By adding the strange words of Uncle Heisel as if I had not seen him for a long time when only four days had passed since I disappeared from Gardenia based on real-world time, however he saw, since, it is precisely the time of Gardenia that is faster than in the real world.”
“Then, I had suspected that Father and Mother both have amnesia so that their memories are always preserved at a certain time. This could be a logical reason why I was wrong in estimating the time and it could justify your argument that there was a child born between me and Grandma Millie as a child of Father and Mother.”
“However, the faces of Father and Mother who indeed looked like they were in their late 20s or early 30s immediately quashed that opinion. Father did refer to the circumstances 6 years ago, not his age was wrong, but the time around Father and Mother was distorted. But why can there be a time difference?”
“I hitherto could not understand it until you appeared before me with the exact same face as me, but older, Phineas.”
“What do you mean, Luca?”
“Shadow world and mirror world. I already know everything. I once saw a dead grandmother with a granddaughter lamenting that her corrupted grave was the embodiment of the devil. And cruelly, this world replaced their existence with a doppelganger from the mirror world then they themselves were banished to the shadow world.”
“I do not hate Grandma Noni and her grandchildren, the dopplegangers of Grandma Noni and her original grandchildren because they are not evil. They also have absolutely no idea about their origins being from the mirror world, which they are merely doppelgangers.”
“What do you want to say, Luca?”
“Already, Phineas. You're the real Luca who was taken to the shadow world, while I'm just a doppelganger from you!”
There was a long silence between the two of them, before finally, Phineas opened his voice first,
“It seems, you already know a lot huh, Luca. I didn't expect any of that. Originally, I wanted to keep all of this a secret from you because at least, you could replace our happy selves as the real Luca.”
“We?”
“You're wrong Luca. I am also a doppelganger, to be exact, the second Luca, and you are the 29th Luca.”
“What?”
“Yes, all of this is due to the restoration of this world that led to an existence like ours being born only to be removed. Of course Luca should not despise the restorative power of this world that Luca was born in the way of light. This is in your favor, if not for the restorative power of the world, you would not have been born on the path of light in place of the original Luca.”
“But for us Luca who was not born and cast out into the shadow world, how we condemn the restoration power of that world. From the first Luca to the 28th Luca, must suffer eternally in the shadow world. Fortunately, I was lucky to be made a tool of demons to destroy the human world and restored before disappearing completely fused with the shadow world.”
“I also gained my power and betrayed them and saved the Luca-Luca who was born after me. Unfortunately, I got my strength too late so I could only save Luca 21st to 28th, and they were still asleep forever in my locket.”
“Even the first Luca I never saw. And I had to witness one by one Luca's third to 20th deaths tragically swallowed up by the shadow world. Isn't it cruel because we are corrupted, we have to be banished to the shadow world and replaced by our doppelganger?!”
“Yes, I know it's for the sake of world restoration so that the world doesn't collapse. What about our unsaved fate?! We groaned in pain and slowly disappeared into the shadow world, even Father and Mother did not remember our existence at all!”
“Already. I'm not in the mood anymore today.”
“Hei, Phineas.”
“Take your beloved Emperor's brother. You see, I can kidnap her anytime.”
“You? Until the end you still think of doing like that?!”
“That of course the matter of Lacoza and his descendants is the core of the world restoration, the source of our misfortune the Luca who got rid of!”
Hearing that, Luca was silent. He did not expect it at all, no, half of him still did not believe Phineas' words.
However, Luca could not say anything more about the turmoil in his heart that somehow made him feel a lot of pain. No, it was his empathy for Phineas and the other Luca who got rid of it.
Luca just stared at Phineas walking and disappeared into a dark portal filled with death aura.