“…”
Feeling her gaze, Riley agonized over this briefly. It seemed that he had found an answer. He messed up his hair and got up.
“I’ll go too.”
“Um?”
“Why are you surprised? I said I’ll go too.”
Riley had agreed to go with Andal so easily, so Andal wondered if he was just hearing things. He dug his ear holes and asked again.
“What did you say?”
“I think I can understand why you said not to ask twice.”
Riley was not interested in repeating himself for the third time. Riley turned back to look at Nainiae and said,
“You stay here.”
“Pardon? However…”
“Stay.”
Riley told Nainiae to stay at the mansion. He placed his hand on her shoulder and explained why.
“One of us needs to stay, isn’t that right? Are you going to go instead of me?”
“That is…”
“No matter how we look at this, it would be best if you stayed here. Use your magic to trick my family for the time being. I’ll be back soon.”
While he was going to be in Ansyrium with Andal, Riley was asking Nainiae to trick his family for the time being by staying at the mansion. He looked at Nainiae. He was asking if Nainiae could handle it well.
“…”
“Um. If it was Ian, he would have said ‘Finally, you have decided to work hard!’ and shed tears of joy.”
Facing Nainiae’s silence, Riley pretended to be preoccupied. He bought up Ian for no reason and muttered. Nainiae had a dissatisfied look on her face. She took a step closer to Riley and raised her hand toward him.
“… Ah, Uk.”
Feeling the sudden pain from above his forehead, Riley cringed. He stared at Nainiae who was taking a step back.
“You, what was…”
“You asked me, didn’t you?”
Nainiae had taken a strand of Riley’s hair out. Riley was going to argue and ask what that was for, but Nainiae asked him a question instead, so Riley tilted his head to the side.
“I thought we might get found out if I don’t do this properly, so…”
Nainiae dropped the hair to the floor and drew Dragon’s language in the air. The hair she dropped to the floor disappeared, and instead, a doll that looked just like Riley appeared.
“Ms. Sera in particular…She has such great sense of smell, so I think we would be found out even with this, but…”
It was a doll created with magic. It looked just like Riley. Intrigued, Riley stared at the doll. As if he was impressed, he turned to look at Nainiae.
“This is… Me, right?”
“Yes. I tried to make it look exactly like you.”
It seemed the doll could not talk. It just had its mouth vacantly open. It was one unfocused guy. Riley stared at the doll some more and changed the look on his face. In complaining tone, Riley asked,
“By the way, don’t you think this one looks a bit absent minded?”
Having heard his question, Andal and Nainiae responded at the same time.
“No, it is just like you.”
“I think it looks just like you.”
The doll’s face looked like he was about to drool. It seemed that Riley was thinking that this wasn’t right. He shook his head, smiled awkwardly and looked at Nainiae.
“Come on. Still, it is not this much.”
“That is… I made it to look like you as much as possible…”
Nainiae blushed. For some reason, she mumbled while pouting. Andal, who was watching the two from the side, snickered and joined in.
“What do you mean this is not it? It looks identical! The blurry, unfocused look on the face, the gaze that just screams ‘let me sleep’… It’s as if the doll came out of a waffle machine with your name on it. What’s different about this doll in comparison to you?”
Andal looked satisfied. He insisted over and over that the doll that Nainiae made was just like Riley. Riley put a frustrated look on his face.
“…”
“What the, what’s that look for?”
Andal put on violent look on his face. He was daring Riley to voice complaints. Andal pointed at Riley with his chin as he asked,
“That look in your eyes, are you saying that my pupil is not skilled?”
“…”
Riley had a dissatisfied look on his face. With his crumpled face, Riley raised his middle finger at Andal.
‘Y… Young Master…’
Watching Riley give Andal the finger, Nainiae gasped for air in silence and checked on Andal. Andal just stared at Riley and said,