A Professional Actor

The air fell suddenly quiet. Karen released his grip and rolled onto the ground, gasping heavily for breath, yet his eyes remained fixed intently on the captain. The captain reached behind his back with both hands, but because Karen's sword had impaled him from behind and the blade was quite long, he couldn't reach the hilt. The awkward contortion looked somewhat comical. The captain could only look at Karen, who remained completely unmoved. With no other choice, the captain grasped the blade protruding from his chest with both hands and pushed the greatsword lodged inside him backward, bit by bit. Once he had worked it mostly through, the captain pushed himself up and leaned forward. At last, the greatsword slipped free of his body and clattered to the ground. Afterward, the captain leaned against a large boulder nearby, gestured with a hand at the wound on his chest, and said, "Heh, right through the heart. You really wanted to kill me, didn't you?" The captain reached out, tore open the wound on his chest, and thrust his hand inside. A wet churning and tugging immediately sounded from within—a noise that would make virtually any sane person deeply uncomfortable. "Good thing I shifted my heart out of the way beforehand. Repairing that spot is such a pain." After restoring his internal organs to their proper places, the captain pulled his hand from his chest. Looking at his blood-soaked hands, he seemed tempted by the principle of waste not, want not to lick them clean. Yet to spare his companion's sensibilities, he simply flicked his hands casually in front of himself. Karen spoke up. "Captain, when did you regain your senses?" "Just now. The fight between the two of you and me drained a great deal of my power, making it impossible for 'him' to maintain control. He had no choice but to go dormant, which allowed me to awaken. Sigh, fortunately I woke up just in the nick of time. Any later, and you'd have been burned to cinders. Quite a close call." "I don't buy it. 'Nothing happening just in time is ever entirely free of deliberate calculation.' You're the one who told me that." "Fine. I woke up when I defeated Ophelia." "Still don't buy it." "I woke up when Ophelia offered me the opening sword salute. But I figured I'd play along for a bit. After all, I'd long heard that Dark Moon Island produces first-rate martial artists—especially superb swordsmen—so I thought I might as well spar with her and test her swordplay." "Don't buy it." Neo turned his head, looked at Karen, and said, "You think I faked it? No, I really lost myself. Really. When you two first stepped out of the cave and I shouted, 'Elisa, you have left me forever,' I truly was lost. But the moment I shouted, 'Jennifer, you have left me forever,' I snapped right out of it. Hahaha! The only woman in my heart is Elisa. How could I possibly call out another woman's name with such deep affection? 'He' overstepped, I felt disgusted, and then I woke up." "So from the moment you prepared to strike, you were fully conscious." "Yeah, you could put it that way." "Why?" "Since we came all this way, we had to leave something behind, didn't we?" "Leave what behind?" "I told you, I hate leaving empty-handed. I originally had a hunch that there would be something extremely important here, but damn it all, there really was something important—except it was an extremely important set of memories! What do I need that for? To satisfy my curiosity? To experience an autobiography in full immersion? I want sacred relics! I want rare materials! I want array notebooks! I want treasures worth point coupons! Yet here, aside from rocks, there were only corpses... Oh, and that pack of pythons that swim out to catch fish. It's not like I could harvest a crate of snake gallbladders to sell back home, could I?" "You still haven't told me what you left behind..." "I didn't leave anything behind for myself except wounds, but I left behind something great for you. The princess of Dark Moon Island was already fond of you. Add the bond of risking your life to save hers, and how do you think things will play out from here?" "Just for that?" "Yep, just for that." Karen was so angry he almost laughed. He desperately wanted to point at the captain's face and curse him out, but he couldn't bring himself to do it—because right now, the captain had no skin on his face. "A young lady from an aristocratic family like that has the status, the experience, the looks, and the bearing. Not to mention she's formidable in a fight, capable in every other way, and has a first-rate temperament. Her only flaw is that she's too young right now. Feelings and romance genuinely require age to mature and understand. So this is the best time to capture their hearts. In a few more years, once she matures in that regard, even if she has feelings for you, she'd easily snuff the thought out." "Are you sharing your expertise here?" "Of course. That's how Elisa was back then. Boys and girls at that age still hold dreams in their hearts." "Captain, you should already know my attitude toward romance." "Yes, I've always known. But you should also know my attitude by now: I'm just here for the spectacle. The bigger the mess, the happier I am. I had no intention of considering your feelings or your romantic choices. I just found it amusing, fun, thrilling, and interesting, so I went ahead and did it." "..." Karen had no words. With the captain being so blunt, Karen truly couldn't refute him. "Actually, you're the same," Neo said, looking at Karen. "You think you're mature. You think you've experienced so much. You think you're calmer and sharper than most people, that you know how to make trade-offs. I was the same back then. Really. And then, I regretted it. Don't be like me. Really, don't end up like me." "Captain, promise me that if you ever want to do something like this again, give me a hint beforehand." "A hint would make the acting unnatural. Miss Ophelia isn't someone easily fooled. She's smart. If you're going to put on a play, you have to act it with complete authenticity so there won't be any flaws." "But using a method like this, don't you feel it's a bit too..." "Too underhanded?" The captain gave a disdainful smirk. "Is deliberately staging a chance encounter underhanded? Is purposefully preparing a birthday gift well in advance underhanded? Is pretending to get drunk to give the other person an opportunity underhanded?" The captain rubbed his rapidly regenerating wound and continued, "When it comes to matters of the heart, how much of it truly happens 'naturally'? Everything that seems natural depends on deliberate pushes from one party—and sometimes unspoken coordination from both. Most people just lack the circumstances to play for stakes as high as ours. The next time you see Miss Ophelia, you'll feel the change in her. You were the first spark of affection in her heart, and then you risked your life to carve out a chance of survival for her. That impression is permanently etched in stone." "I think I'd be too embarrassed to see her again." "What's there to be embarrassed about? When you thrust this sword into me, did you know I was faking my madness?" "I..." "At least in that moment when you created a chance for her to escape, your intentions were genuine, weren't they? So there's no need for guilt or embarrassment. You truly risked your life for her, and you truly saved her. That's an undeniable fact. Of course, you could also choose total honesty and tell her the truth. Tell her that the man trying to kill her was actually your captain, and that your captain deliberately staged the whole thing for the sake of your relationship with her. See if she's touched by your honesty! And then your captain's identity as a Light remnant is exposed; and then your identity is exposed too." "Why would my identity be exposed?" "If you turn me in, do you still expect me to keep your secrets? No one can be that shameless." "Captain..." "Relax. We made an agreement and understand each other. Unless one of us deliberately betrays the other, we will protect each other's secrets no matter what." "Captain, what I meant was: what are we supposed to do now?" "What else? You just have to play along. If she says you saved her, you just have to accept that you saved her. You can't explain it, and you're not allowed to. And then you can continue your polite propriety, treating her just as you did before—keeping your distance and refusing to take that next step. Except she won't try to snuff out her feelings because of your aloofness. Instead, it'll take on a whole new light. The more distant you act, the harder it will be for her to forget you, and the deeper the impression will become." "Captain, you're straying off-topic. What I'm asking is how we wrap this up right now." "Wrapping it up? Simple. That array doesn't lead back to Dark Moon Island. The one that actually transports to Dark Moon Island is on the other side, on another platform." "What?!" "Oh, oh, oh, don't worry, don't worry. That array leads to a different island—inside a cave on a port island. Once she walks out, she'll find plenty of her family's men at the docks. Then she can send word back home that she's safe and board a ship, which will take about three hours to sail back to Dark Moon Island. And I can use that time window to take the other teleportation array directly back to Dark Moon Island, head to the hotel, walk into our room, slip under the blankets, and catch up on some sleep." "And what about me?" "As for you, just stay here and wait for her to send people to rescue you." "I'm staying here?" "Yep." "That makes no logical sense. I couldn't beat you, yet I survived while you disappeared without killing me. The story doesn't add up." "Seems that way, yeah." "What do you mean, 'seems that way'? Didn't you consider this when you started fighting under the guise of losing control?" "I'm not a god. How could I have thought through every single detail in such a short time?" "Then what do we do now?" "That's easy too. We can stage a different scene. Say, my body was ruined, so I tried to possess yours, but the possession failed. Then I went berserk and died abruptly. There are plenty of corpses in that pit, all skeletons of Light believers. We can dig one up, dress it up a bit, ignite a ball of holy fire to scorch it, and leave behind some scorched Light remains. That'll make sense." "Will that really work?" "Sure, because they believe you carry the bloodline of the Dark Moon clan." "Captain, how do you know about that?" The last time they shared secrets, Karen hadn't told the captain about this, because compared to his grandfather blowing up the Temple of Order, it was only a minor matter. "Oh, while you two were chatting in the study, I happened to stand by the door for a bit and heard her say you two belong to the same clan. Yeah, just happened to overhear a little. Looks like she mistook the Dark Moon power you converted with Light energy for being a clansman, right? We can use this misunderstanding to set up the scene." "Will that hold up?" "Depends on how we spin it. You know that when it comes to forging fake identities, I'm a true expert." "Yes, I know." "Let's straighten out our thoughts from the beginning. If you have any extra little secrets that might help our arrangement, spill them now. Our time is limited. Once everything here is set up, I have to get back to the hotel as fast as possible. I can cover for your absence—the honor guard duties don't require the full squad every day anyway—but if the captain goes missing, Bishop Worflen will definitely become suspicious. You don't need to worry about the Dark Moon people reporting this either. First, this island involves their ancestor's sordid ties with the Light remnants; second, they won't want to expose your identity to the Church of Order. So they'll only search for you quietly and won't make any noise about it. "My body was giving out, so I had to switch bodies. From what I said, Ophelia should know I was Philias, but Philias couldn't have lived this long, so he must have 'returned' through some special means. Needing to change bodies makes total sense; after all, he wasn't truly alive. And my body happened to be ruined by your sword, making it unusable, so I subdued you and tried to take over your body. In the process, the Dark Moon power in your body erupted to protect you, severely injuring me. You fell unconscious, my attempt failed, and I burned to ashes. How about that? Very dramatic. Darkness dealt a fatal blow at the crucial moment, while the righteous, handsome young man receives mysterious divine protection. Exactly the kind of drama audiences love." "The Mad Pope of the Philias family once said he didn't believe the God of Light existed. So I doubt the people of the Dark Moon family, devout as they are to the Dark Moon, would believe I'm some chosen Child of the Dark Moon who would be granted overt divine protection like that. And there's an even bigger plot hole: Ophelia saw me fight you with the Dark Moon Blade, so she knows that you knew about the Dark Moon bloodline in me. When forcibly trying to commandeer my body, you wouldn't make that mistake. Like, halfway through taking over my body, you suddenly cry out in shock: 'Ah! I never expected you had Dark Moon blood in you! The Dark Moon is protecting you...' That's just impossible." "Oh, right. So why did you use Dark Moon power back then?" "Can you blame me?" "Fine, let's spin it in another direction. That actually gave me an idea. Maybe we can take this chance to leave even more behind—like boosting your standing in the eyes of the Dark Moon clan's Council of Elders while we're at it. How about this: when I tried to take over your body, Bernard suddenly manifested his spirit and protected you, causing an accident on my end while you survived. What do you think?" "How is that any different from the Dark Moon protecting me?" "Bernard ranks lower than the Dark Moon, so it's much easier to swallow. Look, isn't there a statue of Bernard in the cave? I'll put your body inside the sarcophagus, or you can just lie on top of the lid. Then I'll move Bernard's statue over to face you, posing like he's watching over you, and leave the traces of my remains nearby. An ancestor manifesting to protect his chosen, outstanding descendant—audiences love that too." "Captain, that still feels a bit far-fetched..." "Still not logical enough? Aren't your standards a bit too high? You have to realize that things happening to certain people are inherently illogical. For instance, whose grandfather goes and blows up the Temple of Order? Reality—this damn reality—often has no regard for logic." "Captain, how about this: let's include not just Bernard, but the statue next to him as well. Place them on both sides of my body so they're protecting me together. Because as far as they know, I'm the descendant of Bernard and Miss Purr." "Miss Purr? The heroine of that love story?" "Yeah." "Hold on..." The captain patted the back of his head. "I think I recall some scenes. Bernard was deeply in love with that lady back then, but she never wanted anything to do with him and found him annoying. That's in Philias's memories. When he and Bernard were still good friends working together to develop Dark Moon Island, he teased Bernard about it constantly. Heh. Back then, Bernard would flush red every time he was teased, laughing and cursing at Philias: 'If you dare keep picking at my scabs, believe me, I'll bury you alive!' Let's go with what you said. But the question is, won't adding another figure make it overly complicated and less believable?" "When they enter, I can use Ancestor Allen's fire-attribute power to scorch the surrounding cave. By the time they reach me, I'll pretend to be unconscious and conjure Miss Purr's aura. Captain, if you set up an array to amplify the effect, I can even project a phantom of Miss Purr. That way, to them, it will look like Miss Purr is lying beside me, keeping me company as I sleep." "Miss Purr's aura and phantom? Can you really fake that convincingly? In my memories, Bernard left behind plenty of keepsakes from Miss Purr in his collection room. He even made a puppet with secretly kept strands of her hair to keep him company and talk to. So the higher-ups of the Dark Moon family might have actually encountered traces of Miss Purr. And by that, I mean not just through portraits." "I can do it, because Miss Purr and I share a symbiotic bond." "Oh? Why didn't you mention that last time?" "Because you had no more secrets left to trade, Captain." "Damn it!" Neo slapped the ground hard and said, "In other words, Miss Purr is still alive right now?" "Yeah. Right now, she's a cat living in my home." "Hahaha... Fine. At this point, even if you told me an evil god was a pet dog at your house, I wouldn't bat an eye." "Can we start preparing now?" "Of course. Time to prepare." The captain stood up and opened his hand. A Sword of Light appeared in his palm. "Captain, what are you..." "Preparing." "Why do you need a sword to prepare..." "Oh, because your injuries aren't severe enough. I'm going to add a few more." "..." Karen had no words.