Chapter 41

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Prologue

In this empire, the emperor had no power.

The emperor merely prayed for the imperial citizens while living in a splendid palace built within a forest in the center of the imperial capital.

Even so, the historical emperors had been loved by the people and the current empress, Kazuko, was especially adored. She maintained the beautiful appearance of an innocent young girl using special treatments and yet she had perfected her elegant behavior. She always smiled and wisdom could be felt in her every word.

Even if Kazuko had no political authority, she still held some sway. The imperial citizens would act if she spoke. For that reason, she was limited to speaking harmless things in public and her private life was carefully removed from the public eye.

As a result, Kazuko had several secrets. Some of them were trivial and others were quite major, but the largest of them was not even known by the generations of high priests that had come and gone. The only ones who currently knew this secret were the highest ranking members of the imperial guards and a single girl.

The secret was that Kazuko had a twin sister. This twin was of course the girl who knew the secret.

The imperial family had a number of strange traditions. One of those dealt with the birth of twins. The right of succession was taken from the twin born first and she was instead raised in secret as a body double for her younger twin. Those serving the emperor had faithfully obeyed this custom and Kazuko’s sister had been raised in a hidden part of the palace.

She was not given a name because she was to be a second Kazuko.

“If I’m Kazuko, then who is she?”

While hugging the doll she had been given as a toy, the girl had looked into a bright room of the palace. She had seen a girl who looked exactly like her. This other girl had been sitting before a toy-like desk and learning how to read and write from a teacher.

“She too is Kazuko-sama,” was the reply the artificial human known as a L’Isle-Adam had given her.

“Why can’t I talk to her?”

“Because that is the rule.”

“Why can’t I learn like she does?”

“You will soon learn the same things. However, that can be easily accomplished with a machine, so you do not need to work at it.”

“Oh. So I have it easy. It must be tough being her.”

The girl had smiled then, but she came to understand many different things as she grew up. She eventually realized just how unnatural a situation she was in.

The girl would periodically have the memories of Kazuko the empress inserted into her head. She lived without ever doubting she was Kazuko, but the real Kazuko was a different girl who was only allowed to look on from afar. It was a bizarre feeling no one had ever experienced before.

The girl grew horribly confused over who she was.

She was also forbidden to interact with anyone except for a very small number of L’Isle-Adams. When she tried to leave the secret room that hid her from everyone else, those L’Isle-Adams would always find her and take her back.

The girl had never spoken with a human before, but Empress Kazuko interacted with many different people in the palace. Those memories were implanted into the girl, so she knew the rulers of the world and the high priests quite well. On the other hand, none of them knew she existed.

The girl had no one who could prove to her who she was. The L’Isle-Adams were no help at comforting her on that point. They were unable to answer the true question she was asking.

Even so, the girl could not go mad or commit suicide. She was forcibly given the greatest medical care available. Her mental stability was maintained with drugs and her body was almost entirely altered to give her the same extremely long lifespan as Kazuko.

That life continued for much too long and the girl eventually just stopped thinking about who she was.

She existed in the shadows where no one ever looked.

She was the opposite of Kazuko who lived in the light.

Instead of thinking logically about the issue, she chose to take in that perception of herself as a part of her body. Once she did, she ceased to view herself as human. She felt as if she were similar to a ghost.

She viewed the world from above as an invisible ghost no one could see. She simply observed the things around her while feeling removed from reality herself. She poured everything she observed into her head as data. That was the girl’s everyday life.

However, her life reached a turning point when her magic training began. To match her physical growth, Kazuko began training in magic. The girl who saw herself as a ghost also took this training, but a difference in personality produced a distinct difference between the magic they learned. Kazuko learned almost all magic with ease, but the girl showed little talent. However, she showed startling progress when learning the secret magic pa.s.sed down by the imperial family. This magic allowed one to possess multiple objects with one’s mind, so her ghost-like mindset may have aided her.

She grew obsessed at polishing her skills in this unique magic. Eventually, she learned that uniqueness held great power. She could remotely control normal tools and she could control a supposedly conscious L’Isle-Adam if it was one at a time.

Her guards were entirely made up of L’Isle-Adams, so she could now leave whenever she wished.

This realization was a pleasant surprise. She began to think about what would make an appropriate end for her life in that palace, but her joy vanished in only a few minutes.

She had realized she did not know what she would do.

She was no one and she was not even human, so she had not been given a proper role. And since she could become anyone she wanted by possessing dolls and L’Isle-Adams, it was already impossible for her to face another person with her true personality on the surface.

Her mindset had changed when she had viewed the outside world with a doll body and had discovered a strange man. There was no past data for this man. He too was “no one”. Even so, he was oddly knowledgeable and had somehow managed to arrive at the top of the Cabinet Intelligence and Magic Office.

The girl had decided to contact him. Not because she was interested in his work but because she was interested in him.

The man went by the name Yamato Bouichirou.

The girl had honestly told him her circ.u.mstances and Bouichirou had earnestly replied.

On that day, the girl had decided to leave. She joined the Cabinet Intelligence and Magic Office and she moved from her hiding place in the palace to an apartment.

From that point on, she had her own name.

That name was 2V.

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