Chapter 87: Dream

“Ahh!! I knew I couldn’t trust him! Why am I still reacting to his words?! I even thought he wasn’t so bad! I thought he had repented!” one of my clones cried out. She was the more emotionally open one, always saying what the rest of us were too embarrassed to admit.

I agreed with her. I was lying on my bed, feigning sleep, but my mind was still rattled by his actions. When he held my cheek like that… I could feel my heart skip a beat. It was humiliating. So, I summoned my clones for an internal council.

“Ahem. Let’s just dismiss it as a psychological reaction, shall we? We didn’t do anything,” another, more calm-headed clone said, trying to rationalize things.

“Was he a Guardian? He must have used some sort of charm magic on us!” the paranoid, conspiracy-minded clone shouted.

“There’s no such magic. Feelings can’t be manipulated. It was forbidden. Unless he was Yellow or Dark with a unique ability, he shouldn’t even be able to use any sort of charm magic. And I didn’t sense anything.” Felicia hopped into our discussion with her usual bluntness.

“Then how else do you explain it? Our minds literally spaced out! Our hearts skipped a beat!” My clones accused Felicia.

“Well… —” Felicia was about to say the forbidden word but I interrupted.

“Don’t say it.”

“Alright. I can’t help you there.” Felicia turned away after I silenced her. This was something we needed to figure out.

“Fortunately, there’s no actual damage yet. But this is a major problem. We need to improve our emotional defenses.”

“Agreed. We can’t avoid interacting with Jonathan while we’re spying on NewStar. But if we keep getting swept up in the mood, this could end in disaster.”

“I swear, I’m going to flatten him and that company to the ground!” the raging clone yelled as she slammed her naginata into the wall, venting her stress.

“…We should let a robotic clone handle him next time.”

“We don’t have such things, and our feelings are all connected!”

“We should make a clone immune to his charm. The Ice Yuri—the one who didn’t care about anything! Or Despair Yuri! We need her now!”

We all turned toward the Yuri sitting in the corner—the uncaring one. She was perfect for the job. She never flinched, even when we argued. She was the stone-cold clone who didn’t react, not even when the Shirayuki name was on the line. Her persona had been born from the pressure of facing Mother and Father.

“Very well. If you are so disturbed by a mere handsome face, then you may rely on me,” Cold Yuri said with icy calm.

“As expected of our Yuri! So reliable!”

“Please don’t say that. You guys sound just like Nana and the rest of the students…”

The atmosphere darkened, turning from pink to a gloomy gray in an instant. As expected of one of my cold personas—she could kill the mood effortlessly. But she could handle this. Probably.

“Alright. We’ll have this Yuri deal with Jonathan from now on. No other Yuri is to meet him. His… ‘charm magic’ is too dangerous.”

“Was his charm magic really ineffective on you? We should test it. Let’s use mimic magic. If she can resist Jonathan without wavering, that proves she’s immune,” one of the analytical Yuris proposed.

“Yes! Let’s test her!” the other Yuris nodded in agreement.

“Well, do as you please. I don’t care. Jonathan is merely a man we dumped, remember? We never even liked him. It was all an arranged marriage,” Cold Yuri replied coolly.

In this world, none of us could lie to each other. Our feelings were laid bare. Knowing we could entrust this matter to her brought me real relief.

“Alright! Felicia, pull up the recordings of that asshole!”

“There you go. You can stare at his face as much as you want on the screen.” Felicia summoned a blue display in front of us. A video player popped up, showing Jonathan’s ever-smug face.

“Alright. Hm… Let’s try mimicking him. You all tell me if it’s accurate or not, okay?” A cheerful Yuri volunteered as the guinea pig. It took a full hour, but after plenty of critique—on his posture, smirk, and even the way he walked—she finally looked exactly like Jonathan. Face, body, clothes, everything.

“Okay! This is it—the moment of truth!” one clone exclaimed.

As we locked eyes with the mimic, I felt it again. That same stupid feeling. My heart raced. I knew he was handsome, but I’d never cared before. He always ignored me, so I never really looked at him. But now? He looked… vulnerable. Fragile. My mind started drifting toward all those drama scenes.

“Jonathan” walked up to the cold Yuri. He tilted her chin up gently and, in a voice dripping with drama, said, “Yuri, I need you. Would you help me?”

My breath hitched. My brain short-circuited. I could see myself in that scene—like some lovestruck girl who’d never seen a man before.

But Cold Yuri… she just stared at him.

Unmoving.

Unshaken.

Her face was still.

Her composure flawless.

Her—wait. Was that a blush?

“Nooo! I can’t do it! This is unfair!” Cold Yuri screamed, recoiling. Her cool demeanor shattered like glass. The clones around us groaned in unison.

“No… it’s useless. We can’t win against him. He’s our anathema…”

“But we can’t just give up. Twenty thousand points are on the line!” someone cried out.

I sighed. “Alright, listen. Let’s try this instead. We all agree Jonathan is evil and doesn’t deserve our mercy, right?” I proposed.

“Yes! Of course!”

“So here’s the plan. You guys are fine as long as you don’t meet Jonathan, right?” I added. My clones all nodded. As long as one of us could maintain composure, this plan should work.

“Then, how about this? When I’m meeting Jonathan, you guys whisper to me what I should do. I promise I’ll follow your advice. That way, we won’t get swept up in the pink, fluttery mood like last time, right?”

“Genius! As expected of the original Yuri! You’re the smartest among all of us!” the clones cheered, thrilled to have found a solution to our sudden and embarrassing weakness.

“Let’s test it!” The Yuri mimicking Jonathan stepped toward me. Like a deer caught in headlights, I froze. My heart raced.

“Yuri! Slap him!” the clones yelled in unison.

My hand moved on its own and struck the handsome face with a satisfying crack.

The Yuris erupted in cheers. “Yay! We beat him! We can do this!”

An alarm rang in our consciousness. We all turned to Felicia, who informed us that morning had arrived and it was time to prepare for school. She also added that the plan to rescue Francesca’s father would commence tomorrow, and that we were expected to attend a confidential briefing at the harbor this evening.

“Maybe we should skip class… Once we rescue Francesca’s father—and that other guy Jonathan’s trying to sneak in—he’ll throw us away like trash. We should keep spying on Newstar and Enra while we still have the chance.”

“I’m not calling him anymore,” I declared firmly. To be honest, Jonathan scared me now. The way he could manipulate my heart so easily… it was terrifying.

“Jonathan will call us again. He has to. He doesn’t know when or how we’re rescuing Francesca’s father, right? Without that information, his accusation would be groundless.”

I turned to Felicia for confirmation, and she nodded.

“Indeed. We have seventeen offshore oil rigs around the world, owned by various companies across all sanctuary cities. Three are owned by Shirayuki. Without solid proof, Shirayuki could deny any inspection—especially if they’re backed by Guardian Command,” Felicia clarified.

“We shall wait,” the clone council agreed. I nodded.

I woke up feeling refreshed. As I sat through the boring lessons, I glanced at my status screen. After yesterday’s rank-up promotion, I had been granted 1000 points.

“Hm… what are my options?” I muttered. If this surveillance mission succeeds, I’ll gain twenty thousand points. That would be enough to upgrade my vault into Masterwork and still have points to spare. “Do I have any new skills to buy?”

“Not much. Dark Slayer mainly offers increased stats against opponents. That’s its primary function. Here are the available skills you’ve unlocked across your current classes,” Felicia replied, as a blue screen appeared before me.

[Skill Shop:]

• Parry – 500 pt

• Evade – 500 pt

• Strong Strike – 700 pt

• Weak Point Analysis – 1000 pt

• Charge Strike – 1000 pt

• Charge Shot – 1000 pt

• Advanced Tracking – 2000 pt

• Duel – 500 pt (new)

“Hm... I really should take Advanced Tracking, right? What does Duel do?”

“If you are alone with a single enemy, your stats increase by an additional 15%. That stacks with Dark Slayer's innate boost, giving you a total 40% increase. However, I don’t recommend it—you usually fight alongside your clones.”

“I see. So it’s useless for me.”

“Advanced Tracking would be a good investment. Many higher-ranked Anathema possess some form of teleportation ability. Most Guardians above B-rank have developed countermeasures—and Advanced Tracking is one of them. But personally, I think it’s too early for you. C-rank and below rarely use such advanced techniques. Most don’t even try to flee.”

“I’ll take it anyway. Now, explain Charge Strike and Strong Strike. What’s the difference?”

“Strong Strike is a weaker version of Charge Strike. It increases your STR stat by 10% only during a weapon swing. It’s a passive skill, often used by Attackers.”

“Charge Strike and Charge Shot, however, can increase your strike power by up to 40%.”

“Huh? That seems overpowered,” I said, eyes widening.

“But you need to remain unmoving for five seconds before the swing. Unlike Strong Strike, where you just need to say its skill name. It’s often used for ambushes or flanking. I recommend either Charge Strike or Charge Shot, or both. You and your clones could make good use of them.”

“That’s certainly tempting… I can use my clones to distract the Anathema while I charge up,” I muttered. In a one-on-one battle, five seconds of doing nothing would be fatal—but I never fought alone.

“So, will you buy them?”

“Yes. And lastly, Weak Point Analysis—I don’t think I need it since you already have that analytical software by default, right?”

“All familiars have Anathema analysis software by default. But Weak Point Analysis takes it a step further. Instead of me relaying the information verbally, it displays the weak points in real time. Moreover, when you use it, it emits a mana wave that scans the Anathema. That wave is what I’ll use to analyze their weaknesses. I’ll no longer be restricted to visual cues or battle data.”

“I’ll hold off on buying that.”

“Alright. That’ll be 4,000 points.”

I had just spent half my savings on skills. I could feel myself becoming poorer already. If the spy mission didn’t succeed, the Masterwork Vault would become a pipe dream.

“Would you like to buy a grimoire? We have fire, ice, lightning, etc.”

“But aren’t there only three spells per grimoire?” I frowned.

“After unlocking a grimoire and using its spells, you’ll unlock a mage class. Once you level up that class, you can unlock more advanced grimoires.”

“Hah… that means more points and leveling…” I couldn’t help but feel like the Zenith were a greedy megacorp.

“Everything must start from the basics. If we gave you high-level spells all at once, not only would the point cost be enormous, there could also be unintended risks. Every human is different, after all... Hm. Well, there you go—we have a message from Jonathan,” Felicia said.

I really didn’t want to talk to him. Let’s see what he has to say.

My clones, I’m counting on you.