Chapter 575: No one

"I'm sorry, I seem to have eaten a bit too hurriedly."

After noticing Anna's suspicious gaze, Princess Veronica did not panic because her cover was blown. Instead, she felt a bit embarrassed and took the initiative to confess:

"There were really too many unplanned things today. First, I was suddenly proposed to by your brother, and then I encountered an attack by the rebels. It left me without anything to eat since this morning. I just couldn't hold back for a moment, please don't laugh at me."

So that's how it is...

Watching the Princess admit to "scrounging for food" without any avoidance, and recalling her elegant demeanor despite the haste, the suspicion in Anna's eyes dissipated slightly. She was then attracted by the new topic the Princess threw out and asked with some concern:

"So... how is Leon? Are you two together today? Since you encountered a rebel attack, was he injured?"

"Don't worry. Although he ran into a little trouble and was hit by... a small pebble on the shoulder, the wound is probably already healed by now."

After answering about Leon's situation, seeing the frail young girl in front of her visibly heave a sigh of relief, Princess Veronica couldn't help but smile. She then took the initiative to take Anna's hand and said with an intimate look:

"To be honest, when I saw you just now, I was really given quite a start."

"Huh?"

Hearing the words of her "sister-in-law," the frail young girl couldn't help but tremble slightly, as if some hidden little thought had been seen through. She forced a smile and said:

"W-why?"

"Of course, it's because of you."

The Princess, who had neither food to eat nor a place to stay and was in urgent need of a place to land, brought her social skills—honed from navigating the political scene—into play. She praised with a beaming smile:

"Although Leon told me he had a sister about his age, he never told me that you were actually this beautiful."

Looking at the frail young girl beside her, who was so shy from the praise that she lowered her head, yet could not hide her beauty even while wearing a simple white dress, Princess Veronica couldn't help but try to wrap her arm around her slender waist. She then sighed with three parts flattery and seven parts sincerity:

"It's really... so beautiful that I'm a little jealous. Especially your waist... oh my, it's really... when I have my wedding with Leon, you must be my bridesmaid!

But you have to promise me, you aren't allowed to dress too beautifully. Otherwise, I'm afraid none of the guests will look at me, and their eyes will all be glued to you. That would make me lose too much face."

"H-how could it be that exaggerated..."

Made somewhat embarrassed by Princess Veronica's words, two blushes couldn't help but fly onto Anna's fair cheeks. She waved her hands repeatedly, indicating that she wasn't as good as the Princess said.

After suppressing the small bit of bitterness in her heart, Anna looked at the beautiful, generous woman in front of her who had a great figure and spoke so sweetly—a woman who was simply impeccable in every aspect. Anna sighed faintly in her heart, then held the Princess's hand back and said:

"Sister-in-law... Sister, you are the one who is truly beautiful, and you are also so... you have such a good figure. Even if I dress up nicely, everyone's gaze will definitely be drawn to you... By the way, Sister, how old are you this year?"

How old am I...

Hearing Anna's question, the Princess couldn't help but have her expression stiffen slightly. She then forced a smile and said vaguely:

"As for me, I'm just a little bit older than your brother..."

A little bit older? Brother is sixteen this year, so a little bit older is... seventeen or eighteen? Eighteen or nineteen?

After hearing this, Anna thought for a moment. Looking at the plump beauty in front of her with a mature charm, she ultimately reported a slightly higher age and spoke tentatively:

"Sister, are you... twenty years old?"

Does that mean... I look like someone who hasn't reached twenty yet?

Hearing Anna's question, the Princess, a beauty of twenty-eight, couldn't help but feel a surge of joy in her heart. The smile on her face became more than a hundred times more sincere.

Leon's sister is not only beautiful and gentle, but she also speaks so sweetly and cooks such good food. Oh my, it's really... I truly came to the right place today!

"Mm-hmm, about that, about that!"

After brazenly accepting Anna's guess, the smiling Princess pulled her along to continue chatting. With both sides intending to befriend the other, the topics seemed endless, and they chatted until late into the night before stopping.

"Oh my, we chatted so happily that I accidentally forgot the time!"

Having been aiming her peripheral vision out the window, seeing that most of the streetlights had already gone out, and estimating that the last public carriage had already left, the Princess immediately stood up with an annoyed look:

"I originally just wanted to come and see you, but I didn't expect to disturb you for so long. I'm so sorry, I should go!"

Is it already this late?

Looking at the street that had become pitch black because most of the streetlights were out, Anna hurriedly stood up to stop her:

"No, no, it's already this late. Sister, why don't you just stay the night!"

"How could I be so presumptuous?"

"What's wrong with that! You're going to marry in sooner or later anyway, staying for one night now is just coming early."

"But Leon and I aren't really married yet. Isn't it a bit... to stay overnight now?"

"It's fine, he isn't home anyway. Besides, it's already so late. Maybe there are no more last buses. What if you encounter danger on the road?"

"Then... then alright..."

Unable to block the enthusiastic invitation of her future sister-in-law, and after agreeing to stay the night with some hesitation, the very "reserved" Princess was brought into Leon's room to stay.

And after comparing her own dress and discovering that her sister-in-law definitely couldn't fit into it, Anna thoughtfully found a few of Leon's old clothes and placed them on the head of the bed in the room.

Picking up the old clothes to compare them and finding that the size was just right, Princess Veronica smiled and thanked her:

"Thank you, I've really disturbed you today."

"You're welcome, you are after all... hmm... it seems a bit late."

Looking at the Princess, who had quietly let out a small yawn and whose eyelids were drooping, Anna smiled and instructed:

"Sister, you've been tired for a whole day, so I won't disturb your rest. My room is right next door. If you need anything, you can call me."

"Alright, thank you for the trouble."

After sending Anna out of the room, taking off the ill-fitting dress, and changing into Leon's old clothes, the sleepiness on the Princess's face suddenly vanished.

Silently pulling up the quilt and sliding in, she, who had just been full of weariness, sighed lightly. She lay flat on Leon's small bed and stared fixedly at the slightly dilapidated ceiling above her head.

Falling asleep was naturally impossible. The original Princess had already gathered all the conditions and was only one step away from completing her dream.

But in the blink of an eye, she had inexplicably disappeared from everyone's memory. She couldn't even return home, and she had to rely on the information she had about Leon to trick her way into food and shelter just to avoid ending up on the streets.

Now, she needed enough time to think, to ponder her future, and to find a way to retrieve everything she had lost. For Princess Veronica, tonight was destined to be a sleepless one.

However, she was not the only one destined to be unable to sleep tonight; Anna in the next room was the same.

Brother is really going to get married...

Also lying in bed without any sleepiness, after staring at the ceiling for a while, the frail young girl couldn't help but turn her head and glance in the direction of Leon's room.

The sudden appearance of this beautiful "sister-in-law" completely shattered the fact that Anna was least willing to face in her heart... Leon would eventually start a family.

And once Leon had his own family, his own wife, and his own children, even if he still acknowledged her as the sister with whom he had no blood relation, it was destined that they would not be as intimate as they were now.

At that time, Leon would likely move out. The person who could prepare meals for him and wait for him to return under the lamplight every day would become another woman, no longer her...

And besides that, there was that strange man whose expression looked like he was crying!

Recalling the mysterious man who had come to "visit" a few days ago, Anna only felt a chill all over her body. She couldn't help but shrink into her quilt, then looked at the room next door with an extremely complex expression. If that man had really taken the "photo" and made Leon forget everything, she could still try to find him and see if there was another way to become family with him again.

But now, Brother already has someone to marry, so can I... still stay by Brother's side? Will my home... still continue to exist?

Carrying a heart full of melancholy and worry, after staring at Leon's room for a while, she thought of that woman who was so perfect that she had no way to deal with her, and couldn't even bring herself to hate her. Amidst Anna's chaotic thoughts, a certain extremely strong and strange idea faintly emerged.

If... if I were her... how good would that be?

"Zzz..."

A strange sound rang out from the small mirror Leon used to store things. Youha, who was secretly using the sniper rifle barrel to grind its teeth, was startled.

"Woof?!"

(What is that?!)

After letting go of the sniper rifle barrel in its mouth, Youha shook its little golden hair, turned around to look at the pile of sundries Leon had thrown in, and carefully reached out its paw to rummage through them, finding the thing that was making the strange noise.

"Woof-woo?"

(This photo... is a bit strange, isn't it?)

Looking at the strange photo on the ground that was trembling slightly, where the figures on it changed from three people to one person, Youha tilted its head in surprise and felt that this matter should be told to Leon.

"Woof woof woof! Woof woof woof! Woof woof woof!"

(Leon! Something happened, Leon! Take the mirror out of your pocket!)

However, Leon didn't know what was going on. Youha barked outside from the small mirror for a long time and even stretched its head out to nudge him, but still didn't get any feedback.

Youha, feeling a bit anxious, turned around a few times, then forcefully twitched its small, shiny black nose. Smelling the scent on Leon, it moved along the edge of the constantly changing Mirror World and finally found an exit relatively close to Leon.

"Woof-woo... woof-woo..."

(So he's drunk... Humans are truly unreliable...)

Sticking its dog head out from the whiskey bottle and taking a look at Leon, who was lying on the table with blurry eyes, Youha couldn't help but roll its eyes in speechlessness. It then prepared to try and see if it could bite him awake to tell Leon that the photo he put into the Mirror World had undergone a strange change. However...

"What? Do you want a drink too?"

Stretching out a red fingernail painted with polish, the red-haired Director pinched Youha's neck and lifted it out from the whiskey bottle. With blurry, drunken eyes, she gave a chuckle. Ignoring Youha's terrified expression, she picked up a bottle of liquor and poured it down its throat.

"Don't be polite, it's on me today! Whether it's a person or a dog, I guarantee I'll get you drunk!"

"Woof! Woof woof woof!"

(I! I don't @#￥%!)

"Zzz..."

Just as the unlucky Youha fell into the hands of the red-haired Director and was forced to replace Leon as a drinking companion, the photo in the Mirror World that had been making strange noises finally gradually quieted down.

After the last strange contortion stopped, the family portrait on the photo disappeared completely, turning into a plump and beautiful young woman. She looked exactly like Princess Veronica.

"Click!"

Just as the family portrait on the photo turned into the smiling Princess Veronica, a harsh noise suddenly rang out, waking the drowsy old man on the recliner nearby.

This is?!

Following the harsh noise, he lowered his head to look at the watch on his wrist and discovered that all six hands were actually moving. The old man, with his curved eyebrows and gentle appearance, and a face that was naturally smiling, widened his eyes in pleasant surprise.

It's complete! The last condition is actually complete too!

Raising his wrist to look at the last hand that had just started moving, and discovering that the number that appeared was actually 0006, the old man with the natural smiling face—or rather, the Aquarius Director—couldn't help but be slightly stunned.

0006? Wasn't this one a failure?

Standing up from the recliner with a suspicious look and sitting down at the table, the Aquarius Director opened the desk drawer, took out a thick notebook labeled "Full Record of Experimental Subject Numbers," and quickly flipped through it.

"0006... 0006... Found it!"

After glancing roughly at the record above and confirming that it was indeed the item he knew, the Aquarius Director frowned and pondered for a while. After picking up a pen and writing a few lines, he tore off the page regarding Experimental Subject No. 6, then flipped the notebook to the back cover and clipped this record page together with the other five records.

Number: 0006

Name: Anna Bobby Laien

Form: Photo

Inoculation Level: Highest

Target Ability: Substitute Identity, Modify the Past

Experimental Details: Utilizing the experimental subject's longing for a happy family, induce her to generate the idea of replacing others, and select a photo representing the past, memories, and experiences as the carrier, in order to cultivate a functional anomalous object with the ability to "Substitute Identity" and "Modify the Past."

Record 1: Failure.

After learning of her parents' death, although the experimental subject generated an extreme longing for a family, after guiding her to see a large number of happy families, the target did not generate the impulse to replace the children of others. Instead, she longed more to find her own parents.

Note: Judging that because the usual family environment was relatively happy, what the experimental subject envied was not other people's lives, but that the other party possessed real family members. Suggest abandoning the cultivation of the "Substitute" ability and turning to inducing her to resist reality and generate the idea of modifying the past.

Record 2: Failure.

Even after witnessing the process of her parents' pension being embezzled and being driven out of the house she had lived in since childhood, the experimental subject still did not generate the thought of resisting reality. It seemed she also did not hope that her parents could truly be resurrected.

Note: Judging that although the experimental subject is very young, her will is quite firm, and she has already understood the meaning of death. She does not believe her parents can be resurrected, and her natural personality is relatively kind; she has not completely lost hope in human nature, which is why the induction failed.

Record 3: Failure.

The experimental subject activated the anomalous object, but the effect was completely inconsistent with the target ability, changing from substituting identity and modifying the past to regaining family members.

Note: The experiment is temporarily sealed. Wait until the experimental subject is an adult, her spirit is completely stable and has no changes, then attempt to recover her and look for experimental subjects with similar qualities again.

Record 4: Complete Failure!

After a follow-up visit, it was discovered that although the experimental subject's spirit has not yet completely stabilized, she once destroyed the anomalous object she created with her own hands and denied the significance of the anomalous object's existence from the bottom of her heart. After being repeatedly stimulated by me on purpose, her state did not show any new changes. The experiment has almost no possibility of success.

Note: Because the experimental subject's "family member" accidentally joined the Cleaning Bureau's Maiden Branch, the photo anomalous object created by the experimental subject is controlled by the Blood-Haired Maiden, making retrieval extremely difficult.

Record 5: Success?

While preparing to fall asleep at night, the 【Dream-Seeking Wristwatch】 was suddenly activated. It is suspected that the experimental subject's spirit received a huge shock, causing a change in the longing in her heart, which led to a corresponding change in the anomalous object, and the new ability happens to meet the "Substitute" and "Modify" standards.

Note: Awaiting verification.

(End of Chapter)