I continued talking with Huwawa.
I could hear a voice, but it wasn't human speech.
Separately from the audible sound, something flowed directly into my head.
It was a strange sensation—fuzzy and elusive, like trying to recall a conversation from a dream, yet crystal clear in its meaning.
"I see. Then give it a try."
At my command, Huwawa descended to the floor, and her outline began to blur.
Her blurry figure scattered like mist, dispersing and gathering repeatedly until—
"What?!"
Alan let out a cry of utter disbelief.
"I-Is this... me?"
"Looks like it. Have someone bring a mirror and stand next to each other."
Alan summoned one of his subordinates—who also looked thoroughly stunned—and ordered them to fetch a mirror.
Meanwhile, the transformed Huwawa lined up beside Alan.
The subordinate brought a mirror, and when Alan peered into it, his astonishment only deepened.
"It's identical..." he muttered, left completely speechless.
The Alan that Huwawa had transformed into was so exact they could have been twin brothers.
"To think she can do something like this..."
"There's more. Probably... like this."
I extended my hand to Huwawa.
The moment she took it—she vanished.
Alan gaped in shock as a perfect copy of himself disappeared into thin air.
An instant later, Huwawa reappeared.
She was still in Alan's form, exactly as she had been before vanishing.
"W-What did you just do?"
"Huwawa, hold out both hands. Alan, touch each of them in turn."
Both complied with my instructions.
Huwawa held out her hands. Alan touched her right hand, but when he tried to touch the left—his fingers passed right through.
"What?!"
"I only materialized the right half of her body. I could do both, but this is just a test."
"She started out intangible like a ghost, and you materialized only the right half...?"
"Yeah."
"I-Incredible..."
Alan's eyes went wide.
What gave Huwawa a physical form was her link with the Ring of Armor.
I had simply done with Huwawa what I had already done with Leviathan and Lutye.
A ghostly shapeshifting ability, given physical form through the Ring of Armor.
It was practically flawless transformation.
"How far does it go? Can you make your stomach growl?"
—Grrrrrumble.
The moment I asked, Huwawa-as-Alan's stomach let out a resounding rumble.
"What about turning invisible?"
"Whoa!"
This time, her left half—the portion not materialized by the Ring of Armor—turned completely transparent.
Seeing precisely half of his own body floating there, Alan let out an undignified yelp.
"I see. You've got the basics down."
"...As expected of Your Highness. To master a brand-new partner so seamlessly..."
Alan had finally recovered from his shock.
Once I had Huwawa return to her true form, I turned to Alan.
"Good work. Contact me if anything else comes up."
"Yes, Your Highness!"
☆
When I returned to the Thirteenth Imperial Prince Mansion, Cecily, the new reception maid, greeted me in the entryway.
"Master, Martha says she has something she wishes to discuss with you."
"Martha? Who's that?"
"Zoe's mother, sir."
"...Ah."
After thinking for a moment, it clicked.
That was six years ago.
When Zoe's hometown of Dosso was devastated by the flood, I had arranged a sinecure for her mother at this estate.
What was the job again...?
I only remembered it was an unnecessary, purely tacked-on position.
"Understood. Send her to my study."
"Right away, Master."
In six years, Martha had probably never spoken to me once, yet now she wanted an audience.
Assuming it might be a sensitive matter, I chose the study.
As befitting a study in an imperial prince's residence, it was shielded with sound-dampening magic.
Normal conversational volume wouldn't leak outside, nor could anything be overheard from beyond the walls.
I waited in the study for a short while until the special chime on the door rang, installed because ordinary knocking couldn't be heard inside.
Immediately after, an elderly woman stepped in.
The old woman—Martha—closed the door behind her and dropped to both knees before me.
"What is it? What did you want to discuss?"
"Yes, Your Highness. By your gracious order, I have been tending to the back gate, opening and closing it each day."
"Ah, that's right."
Her words brought the details back to me.
Her duty was simply to open and close the estate's rarely used back gate in the morning and evening.
For that, she was paid ten Rien a month.
Frankly, it was a pointless job, created purely as an act of charity.
"What about it?"
"For the past few nights, someone has been meeting an outsider by the back gate in the dead of night."
"Meeting someone? Who?"
"Um, the gentleman who came to the estate recently... er..."
Martha rubbed between her brows, struggling to remember.
She looked her age; perhaps her memory was starting to slip.
"Recently?"
"Yes, from the place called... the Imperial Household Ministry?"
"Don Oates?"
"That's him!"
Twitch.
I felt my eyebrow jump.
"Don is meeting someone in the middle of the night?"
"Yes. I don't know who it is, but no one in this household has ever slunk around meeting outsiders in the dark like that before."
"...I see."
I nodded.
Dylan had already looked into him, but this added another solid piece of circumstantial evidence that Don was a spy.
"Understood. Here."
I reached into my pocket, casually pulled out the remaining tens of Rien I had on hand, and handed them to Martha.
"You did well to inform me. Consider it a reward; keep it."
"Thank you so much, Your Highness."
"Speak of this to no one. Not even your daughter."
"U-Understood."
Clutching the coins to her chest with both hands, Martha backed out of the study.
...What a nuisance.
☆
On a pitch-black, moonless night, near the back gate of the Thirteenth Imperial Prince Mansion.
As always, Martha stepped out from the estate to carry out the routine duty she never missed.
With the slow, measured gait typical of her years, she approached the back gate step by step.
Just as she moved to close the gate that had stood wide open until then—
"—Mmph?!"
A figure seized her from behind, pinning her arms and clamping a hand over her mouth.
Martha struggled, but she couldn't break free.
The assailant did something to her.
Her body twitched violently, convulsed, and then went limp like a puppet with severed strings.
With Martha sprawled on the ground, the assailant checked her nose for breath and pressed an ear to her chest to verify her heartbeat.
Seemingly satisfied, the figure hastily melted away into the night.
—And I watched the entire sequence unfold from the shadows.
"That was a close call."
"..."
"..."
Behind me, two women stood in stunned silence.
It was the mother and daughter, Zoe and Martha.
"M-Mother was targeted... is that what just happened?" Zoe asked tremulously.
"That's right. And whoever did it made sure it would look like natural causes. There isn't a scratch on her."
Right as I spoke, the figure of "Martha" lying dead in the distance dissolved into a shimmer of light, returning to the ring on my thumb.
Moments later, Huwawa came floating lazily over.
Martha had witnessed Don making clandestine contact with an outsider.
Anticipating that Don would move to silence her once he caught on, I had sent Huwawa in Martha's place, given physical form by the ring.
The one killed was Huwawa. Because the Ring of Armor allowed her to mimic human vital signs, she was able to stage the perfect death.
"Incredible... The person who looked just like Mother was..." Zoe murmured in awe.
"Zoe."
"Y-Yes!"
"Take your mother's 'body' and return to your hometown of Dosso for a while. If you're going to hold a burial, your familiar home is the natural place for it."
"Um...?"
"It's a cover story. If you stay here, they might come after you next."
"Ah..."
Unlike the merchants and nobles who spent their lives navigating a den of vipers, Zoe was just an ordinary maid, so I laid it out plainly.
"I understand, Master."
"Martha, I'll summon you back once this is settled. Take this time to rest."
"Thank you, Your Highness! Thank you so very much!"
Having her life spared and receiving such consideration on top of it, Martha bowed repeatedly in tearful gratitude.
"Um, Master? Forgive me if this is out of line, but shouldn't someone keep watch on that man?"
"I've already handled it."
"Huh?"
"Haven't you noticed something missing?"
"Huh? Um... Ah! Master's new subordinate is gone!"
Zoe finally realized that Huwawa had vanished without a trace.
"She's actually right next to you. Huwawa, tap her on the shoulder."
"Eh? —Eek!"
Despite my warning, Zoe jumped out of her skin.
Feeling a hand on her shoulder when no one was there had startled her.
"I-Is this..."
"Show just your face."
"Waaah!"
This time, she shrieked at the sight of a severed head floating in midair.
"She can turn invisible like this. Huwawa, stay hidden and tail that guy from earlier."
Huwawa nodded with only her head visible, then vanished completely from sight.
Only then did the pieces finally fall into place for Zoe.
"I see! That's amazing, Master!"
Her cheer of admiration came just a beat too late.