Petty Tricks (5)

Laurie, with her long blonde hair flowing, glared at me.

Intense hostility and tension were evident in her hardened expression, her right hand hovering near her waist. It seemed she was ready to draw a weapon at any moment. From my perspective, it was a good stance, concealing the weapon from view.

"...Frondier de Roach."

Laurie called my name again, as if to confirm.

"Yes, Laurie. Or, is that a fake name too?"

I responded calmly, examining Laurie's appearance.

The way Laurie established her personality was intriguing to me in many ways. Her current appearance was no exception.

While Laurie lived with a fake personality, what was the state of her real self? Did it feel like she was asleep? If so, when she returned to her original personality, would she remember the time spent as the fake personality?

Was the reason she just called my name because the 'real' Laurie was seeing me for the first time at this moment?

"How did you know? There's no way my acting could be seen through."

"Well, that's because it's not even acting."

Earlier, I had asked the fake personality several questions, and the answers were almost flawless. Although the surface-level information was shallow, most of her past and relationships were all set up.

From the beginning, there would be no chance of being caught unless one was suspicious.

However, since I had 'Analysis', the method of concealing her identity through acting wouldn't work on me.

'Laurie isn't her real name, but she didn't have a real name to begin with.'

As I found out through Analysis, the name Laurie was indeed a fake name, but there was no registered real name.

Selena had simply forgotten, but Selena was definitely her real name, but Laurie wasn't even that.

Laurie was different from Selena. Perhaps she was born for this job from the very beginning.

'If I analyze a little more about how the fake personality is set up, I think I might be able to find out...'

Just like when it required a significant amount of mana to find out Selena's family relationships, Laurie's other information also demanded an absurd amount of mana.

I could have found out if I had eaten a Dragon Heart, but if I ate something like that inside the barracks, I would be caught immediately.

"What's your purpose? Why did you target me?"

When I asked, Laurie snorted and smiled wryly.

...Honestly, it didn't suit her at all.

"You're not answering my questions, so why should I answer yours?"

"...Hmm, your way of speaking is a bit old-fashioned."

Her speech pattern was completely different from the fake personality. Was she not affected by it? Then, perhaps the memories weren't being shared either.

"Did you just set up the routine of taking off and putting on the mask for the fake personality, and not get involved in the rest...?"

"...You..."

Laurie's face turned grim. Why was she like that? I hadn't particularly insulted or mocked Laurie.

I was just thinking to myself because it seemed like she didn't want to talk.

Click.

A sword emerged from Laurie's waist. It was a one-handed sword of moderate length, about the length of her arm. It seemed she had no intention of hiding her weapon anymore.

"You know too much. I was just trying to test your skills, but I have no choice. You'll have to die here."

"That's why I said your way of speaking is old-fashioned, it doesn't suit your appearance. This time, your lines are also outdated."

"Shut up!"

Tat!

Laurie kicked off the ground forcefully and approached me. As expected of someone trained, she was fast and agile.

Puk!

"?!"

However, her steps didn't go far. Laurie grimaced in pain and bent her knees.

A wound appeared on her thigh. It wasn't shallow at all, and blood gushed out from the deeply stabbed area.

"Wh, what! What did you do!"

Laurie couldn't understand the situation.

Well, I threw a Weaving dagger, so it was invisible. She was stabbed in the thigh while defenseless, so of course it would hurt. Besides, the stabbed thigh only had a deep wound, and the weapon wasn't visible. It was natural for her to be confused.

'It's been a while since I've done ordinary weaving.'

Weaving nothing had the great advantage of being invisible, but since the opponents I had fought recently were all monsters, I hadn't been able to use it.

Crude weapons were all blocked just by protecting the body with aura, and if I weaved powerful weapons, they would disappear after one cut or stab, making the efficiency terrible. Weaving used much more magic power to create than to maintain.

Moreover, weaving was magic, so people with good senses could feel it even if they couldn't see it. And if they were careful enough, attacks like the one just now could be avoided with almost no damage by surrounding themselves with aura beforehand.

Laurie was overly careless about me and rushed in recklessly, so she couldn't avoid it and got hit.

"Don't rush. We still have things to talk about."

"I said shut up!"

This time, Laurie took something out of her pocket and shot it at me.

Honestly, I couldn't see it well, so I just blocked it with a Weaving shield.

"...!"

Laurie was surprised once again. It must have looked like what she threw bounced off in mid-air.

After blocking it, I saw that it was a throwing weapon resembling a shuriken. It had a strange glint, so it seemed like it was coated with poison.

"Ugh!"

Laurie rushed towards me again. Hmm, her thigh must have been hurting a lot, but her speed wasn't that much slower. If it had been a real dagger, it would have been stuck deeper, which was a shame.

I threw a few more daggers as a test, but as expected, she wouldn't fall for it twice, and Laurie surrounded herself with aura beforehand. The daggers bounced off without piercing her body. Laurie probably felt it too. A smile spread across her lips.

This is...

Weaving

Rank - Rare

Imperial Armory

Lion's Shield 1 sheet

Kaaang!

"Ugh?!"

This time, I created a shield with weaving and slammed it into Laurie, who had come close. Fortunately, she blocked it with the dagger she had carelessly raised, reducing the damage by half, but Laurie staggered back.

No matter how much aura blocked most things, that wasn't the case. I could use aura too.

"...At first,"

I said, watching Laurie as she stepped back and tried to regain her posture. Honestly, she was taking so much time to recover her posture that I could have hit her a few more times.

"When you used goblins to test me, I felt it."

"...?"

While I was speaking, Laurie's face was filled with questions. Why would I suddenly say such a thing? Why wasn't I moving when it was a perfect chance to attack? Such questions, I suppose.

What was this feeling?

I had a similar feeling when I first met Selena.

"You know nothing about me, do you?"

"...!"