The Mirror

"O-other people?" Lisi blinked, glancing around suspiciously. "But there's only us here..." "Though I don't consider it anything to be proud of, I happen to be ranked second on the Two Wings Mind Chart: Azula Branch." "My nose smells emotions, my eyes see thoughts, and my ears hear desires." Igola walked over to the gramophone and picked out a record from the cabinet below with a cover that looked like the end of the world—which reminded him of a dream he had a few days ago. He placed it on the record player, and sure enough, it was terribly noisy, yet surprisingly good. He took a closer look at the cover. Oh, it was an angel destroying the world. No wonder it sounded so pleasant. "While this kind of music might be a bit premature for you, it's enough to mask our voices," Igola said, taking a seat. "Let's have a sincere conversation, Lisi." Lisi sat nervously as far away as possible, near the mirror. "But I don't want to talk to you..." "It's the mirror, isn't it?" The little girl blinked. The nervousness on her face was no longer an intentional act, replaced by genuine shock. The Swindler was very pleased with this reaction—ever since encountering that damned cult leader, he hadn't managed a single successful deceptive negotiation, to the point that Igola was beginning to suspect his eloquence had degraded to the level of a drunken city councilor. "I've been watching you, Lisi. Not just during the game earlier. Last night, when you played Sorcerer Duel 14 with Yaxiu, you also showed a side of yourself different from usual: competitive, impolite, straightforward—practically like a child..." "I am a child!" Lisi yelled loudly. "If I was only a little suspicious last night, then during the game just now, you completely exposed your secret." Igola walked over, standing where both he and Lisi were reflected in the mirror. "Your medium for 'tagging out' is the mirror. Every time you look into a mirror, it means the person inside might have changed. "A clever restriction—very clever. Others might assume it's a weakness, but I've seen patients tortured to the brink of death by multiple personalities. To a mind sorcerer, patients with multiple personalities are undoubtedly valuable research subjects. And luckily enough, psychological patients are practically a specialty of the Blood Moon Country; mind sorcerers have quite the geographic advantage there. "Sex-industry workers, sin hunters, and psychotherapists—these three professions churn out a steady stream of my favorite psychological specimens. Especially psychotherapists. Those peers stare into the Abyss for too long, and sooner or later they go crazy enough to drop their trousers at the Abyss. "Patients with multiple personalities suffer severely in their daily lives because different personas seize control of their bodies, hopelessly entangled in mutual torment. In the end, they either become sugar folk lost in a drunken stupor, or undergo rebirth, washing away all their emotional memories to become a blank slate. "You, however, don't have that worry. The restriction of the mirror suppresses the impact of multiple personalities to a minimum. Even if another personality develops a problem, you can lock them away in the 'mirror' so they won't affect reality—" "The big sisters aren't locked in the mirror!" Lisi said angrily. "You refer to each other as sisters?" Igola asked with keen interest. "A fairly common pattern. But in the case files I've studied, female patients have a high probability of developing male personalities—or rather, a male persona formed by a woman's impressions. Similarly, male patients almost always develop female personalities; yearning for and drawing near to the opposite sex seems to be an instinct etched into living beings. Do you have an older or younger brother?" Lisi started to say something more, but as if hearing something, she looked reluctantly into the mirror. When she turned her head back, an expression of serenity completely unsuited to her youthful face appeared. Rather than tearing off a mask, it was as if she had donned yet another; beneath the mask lay still another mask. Igola raised his eyebrows. "How should I address you?" "You can still call me Lisi," 'Lisi' said calmly. "Only among ourselves are there distinctions; before everyone else, we are all Lisi." Multiple personalities presenting a united front to the outside world... Igola thought to himself that this was an exceptionally rare case. Generally, different personalities varied drastically from one another, and stronger personalities tended to look down on weaker ones. Thus, the stable organizational model for multiple personalities was mostly a 'monarchic autocracy,' where a monarch personality led the subject personalities, which were further divided into ministers and commoners with strict hierarchies. It was truly holding a grand ritual inside a snail shell—conjuring an entire feudal system within a single human body. A 'democratic republic' where the multiple personalities respected one another like Lisi did was practically the most ideal template for dissociative identity. Even after browsing through databases of psychiatric patients, Igola had never seen such a flawless specimen. Add to that how she had willingly imposed the mirror restriction upon herself, and he already had a few faint conjectures. "Lisi, for the first question earlier—'Would you murder the other five people present to seize the divine wish?'—you voted 'yes,' didn't you?" Though phrased as a question, Igola's tone was entirely certain. 'Lisi' admitted it readily. "That's right. How did you tell?" "I could tell when Yaxiu was interacting with you," Igola said coldly. "The look you gave Yaxiu back then was like looking at a squirming piece of rotten meat. I'm quite familiar with that look—Harvey looks at people that way too." "My apologies. In order to control the vote's outcome, we had no choice but to let a rather violent sister cast the ballot," 'Lisi' said with a slight nod. "That sister treats everyone with that attitude. We bear no ill will toward Yaxiu." "For the second and third questions, you cast votes completely out of character, didn't you?" Igola said. "I thought you wouldn't give up everything for a loved one, yet you voted 'yes.' I thought you couldn't possibly trust the others, yet you still voted 'yes'... Why did you want to control the outcome of the votes?" "Mr. Bojin, since you already know the answer, why bother asking?" 'Lisi' shook her wristband. "First, naturally, was for this reward. Second, it was turning her scheme to our advantage by playing along with Annan's arrangements." "Annan..." Igola chewed on the name slowly, as if eating an undercooked, rare Lalafell. "A brilliantly open conspiracy, wasn't it?" 'Lisi' spread her hands. "She restricted our ability to lie, yet granted us the power to ask anonymous questions... It's as if she locked us in an arena and threw down swords. She didn't need to guide us with words at all, because we would take up the weapons and hurt each other of our own accord. "She wanted to undermine the foundation of our cooperation. Coincidentally, so did I." 'Lisi' rested both hands on the table, sitting upright without any fidgeting. Her serious posture made it impossible for Igola to look down on her. "Compared to you three who went through hardships together, my bond with Yaxiu is far too fragile. Yet Yaxiu is the ally most easily won over. If I can't even win him over, the rest of you would never cooperate with me. "Therefore, I needed to tear apart the foundation of your trust first before I could form a true alliance with Yaxiu. Otherwise, a mere scrap of Contract would never be enough to make Yaxiu stand with me... On this point, Annan and I share a common interest." "So you helped Annan muddy the waters, using the votes to deepen our suspicions?" Igola sighed. "You nearly succeeded. Those two 'yeses' on the first question nearly destroyed all my trust in Harvey and Yaxiu." "Yes, I almost succeeded." 'Lisi' also looked somewhat helpless. "If not for that third question." Igola looked somewhat puzzled. "Still, for that third question, why did you choose 'yes'... Ah! You wanted to seize the chance to boost their favorable impression of you!"