…which ended up proving to be a big mistake…

Gaining momentarily control over the rouge shadow puppet of the deceased Ludier Galamroze had massively drained the black-haired boy’s mana with its ridiculous requirement, pushing him right into the early stages of the mana depletion.

”…”

”!!!”

With blood constantly pouring out of his mouth, Zoemi slowly turned around to face the blue-haired Aerea who froze up, petrified by the nightmarish sight of the bloodloss, lifeless void-like eyes, and the expression of cold fury.

*WHOOSH*

”?!?!?!?!”

Well, at least the blue-haired woman didn’t have to worry about the horror-esque sight as the next moment Zoemi’s body got swallowed by a murky shadow that transformed a demonic-looking armor with beastly features.

Then, without any movement or verbal command from either the boy or the woman, the water spears still sticking out of the boy’s torso suddenly started sinking in deeper and deeper until they disappeared completely in the murky shadow…

”W-wait, I didn’t mean to…!”

Aerea gulped down her saliva and took a step back.

She ended up interfering in the duel and even straight-up wounded the black-haired boy.

Although she did have an excuse because it looked like Zoemi was using one of his spells to finish off the fallen Vianee, that ended up being only momentary trouble with control over a spell that got resolved…

…but she ended up attacking him anyway…

It would be alright for her to kill the boy – as wrong as it sounds – because she never promised to not kill anyone, so she wouldn’t break her word – but her problem was that the black-haired boy didn’t die…

…and since she jumped in to help her younger brother, she was now taking part in the duel…

Officially.

”I just…!”

*GRAB*

”Ghhhh…! GHUGHUGUGUGHUGHUGUU…!”

Aerea, with her enchantments active, raised her hands defensively and tried to return to the dark-blue-haired butler’s side, but before she took three steps, the shadow-armored by reached out to her, his arm enlarged into a beastly paw and got a hold of her in a bone-crushing grip, that instantly squeezed the content of her stomach right back up, making her vomit in a very unrefined manner.

Although it wasn’t just the crushing power that made her do that – at the same time with the physical attack, the armor-clad boy was draining the mana right out of the blue-haired woman straight through her active enchantments, using it to replenish his own and heal his injuries.

Zoemi was of course siphoning mana out of the unconscious Vianee to whom he was still connected via the shadow connect, but since the red-haired man was already unconscious, none of the symptoms were showing up.

”Alright, alright. That’s enough – don’t you think, Aspakeony? Seriously, what’s with all that weird acting?”

”…?”

*thump*

The young dark-blue-haired misty-gray-eyed butler sighed rolling his eyes and walked towards the shadow-armor-clad Zoemi, making the black-haired boy look over his way deactivating his shadow armor, and letting the knocked-out Aerea drop onto the ground right next to her younger brother.

”Honestly, I let you take my master’s corpse only because you said it was really important because one of your beloved students was in need of the guidance of the shadow magician. I also clearly said that you are not supposed to make him too young because someone will most definitely try to use him to convince me to step down. Instead of kicking some reckless kids around, you better tell me how is your end of the deal going? Did you find any trace of the young lady Learen?”

The young butler sighed, shaking his head, and slapped Zoemi’s chest in annoyance, without even looking at his very confused face.

”…sir Benevirau…? Do… you think that I am a corpse puppet…?”

Zoemi gulped down his saliva, surprised that the extremely powerful servant who took over the Banemor territory under the guise of upholding the late lord Banemor’s will had revealed himself so easily, despite showing no intention of doing so earlier.

…the most surprising part was that he seemed to be having a major misunderstanding…

As for Zoemi not being surprised in the slightest – well… a gigantic shadow towering over the city that was attached to the butler in question was the biggest hint of all…

”Come on, you think that just making my lord’s body younger, you would confuse me? I clearly remember how little Vizta sounded when he was sixteen! What, did you get dumber from the last time I saw you? You reek of death attribute mana and you clearly used different attributes from your other corpse puppets – which by the way, I also remember you promising not to do forty years ago after you finally stopped seeing Ghosts in every shadow.”

Benevirau, the thousand years old young-looking butler scoffed, once again slapping Zoemi’s chest while making a very grumpy face.

”…”

That response left the black-haired boy stumped.

His mind was fuzzy from the mana depletion, he was exhausted after subduing and taking control over the shadow corpse puppet of Ludier Galamroze, and now he had to deal with the supposed water sage who was convinced that Zoemi was one of Aspakeony’s corpse puppets.

”Ummm… s-sir Benevirau…? Do… do I actually look like lord Banemor…?”

Zoemi gulped down his saliva and asked, raising his brow in confusion.

He did see Aspakeony’s corpse puppet that must have been the former ruler of the territory he was currently in, and honestly, the black-haired boy himself really could find any matching points besides the black hair and eyes…

”Oh for the… Ha ha ha. Yeah, very funny, you ancient brat – laugh at the blind guy, you… huh…?”

Benevirau graned in annoyance, rolling his misty-gray-eyes to the heavens – before freezing in place as he realized something.

”…hold on a second… why the death attribute mana faded away…? How are you controlling the puppet now?!”

The dark-blue-haired butler gasped, furrowing his brows in confusion, taking back his hand that he was about to slap Zoemi’s chest for the third time with.

”…ekhem… sit Benevirau… this is a really awkward situation for both of us it seems… I am not a corpse puppet… I merely copied Aspakeony’s mana, that is what you must have sensed… I am the student she needed the shadow magician to teach… Oh, and yes, I know about her being the necromancer and the actual headmaster of the Aspaekony Academy.”

”!!!!”

The black-haired boy who finally managed to pacify the shadow corpse puppet of Ludier – and therefore getting rid of the death attribute mana – cleared out his throat and explained, slightly squirmish, making the young-looking butler straighten his back and nervously rub his hands together.

”…you… no. There is no way…!”

Benevirau took a step back and shook his dead in denial.

”But you sound exactly like Vizta did!”

He called out in a kind of desperate-sounding complaint as if he had a really hard time admitting his mistake and was doing everything in his power to prove that he wasn’t the one in the wrong.

”Umm… may…maybe that’s because he was my grandfather…?”

Zoemi also tensed up and asked awkwardly, remembering at the last moment that he was supposed to play his role as the heir to the Banemor territory.

And honestly, the coincident like that was more than welcome, it really complimented the lie perfectly!

”…”

Benevirau lowered his head and started massaging his temples trying to take it all in without making any more mistakes.

”Show me your face.”

”Okay, sure.”

In the end, he breathed out and asked, reaching his hands up, to which Zoemi agreed without any objection.

Since in act the dark-blue-haired young-looking butler was a head shorter than the black-haired boy, he ended up first brushing over his chest, and then made his way up to the Zoemi’s face.

He carefully traced every detail with the tips of his fingers, especially focusing on the jawline, cheekbones, the shape of the nose, and the eyesockets.

The eyesockets were the spot at which he suddenly flinched and stepped back, taking back his hands looking distressed.

”Sir Benevirau…? Did something happen…?”

”…!”

Zoemi furrowed his brows and asked in confusion, making the dark-blue-haired butler take another step back while lowering his head to hide his face.

”E-e-everything’s fine. Just fine…”

Benevirau began nervously combing his hair with just his left hand while continuing to back away, and not only stuttered but even sniffled as if he had a running nose because of a cold, despite not showing any of the symptoms the moment before.

”I… need a moment… Excuse me for now…”

The dark-blue-haired man sniffled again, moving back towards the door.

”Oh. No, no problem. I will go out to the city to…”

”NO, YOU CAN’T! DON’T LEAVE!”

Zoemi waved his hand and shook his head before turning to the gate, about to inform the young-looking butler that he was going to check up on Reo who stayed behind and should be showing up any moment, but his words resulted in Benevirau raising his voice in panic and grabbing onto him as if he was terrified that the black-haired boy would disappear on him.

”…uuummm… Sir Benevirau…? I was just going to…”

The wide-eyed Zoemi gulped down his saliva while still pointing at the gate, extremely confused about the reddened eyes of the extremely strong magician – or rather a sage.

”Zoemi! Did you manage to…? VIANEE?! AEREA?! WHA…?! WHAT HAPPENED?! WHY ARE THEY HERE?!”

As if someone had timed it, at that exact moment, the green-haired Reo showed up, and seeing Zoemi he happily ran over to his side – only to notice the unconsious bodies of two of his older sibling sprawled around the ground, which caused him to raise his voice in shock.