Charon closed his eyes quietly. Then, he opened his mouth.
"I think it'll be okay for now."
"Are you sure he won't be hostile to us?"
"If he were a demon, there would be no reason to identify the Doppelganger in front of everybody. If he wanted to harm us, we already had several chances. As much as it hurts for me to say this… He could have easily killed us all and disappeared without a trace if he so wanted to. However, he didn't."
Whoever Asher was, or whatever he was, he was not someone that was being hostile to Lord Halvark. If that changed in the future, then they would change their relationship in the future as well with him. But until then, there was no reason to antagonize him.
"We should maintain neutrality with him."
"Even though it's obvious that someone else is in Asher's body?"
"Did the Lord ever care about Asher?"
"Of course not. I don't care what happens to him."
Indifference emanated from Lord Halvark's voice. There was only one person in their family who cared for Asher and that was Venicia, not him.
"Okay, that's enough about Asher."
He was just going to treat the current Asher as a new person and judge them based on their actions. And so far, they had a clean slate, so there was nothing to do unless they started something troublesome with the Halvark estate first.
Now, there was a more pressing matter at hand.
"Van Ester warned me to start building up my forces and tightening my security. Then, shortly after, a Doppelganger appeared in the Empire. If I hadn't heeded his warnings we could have been the ones in trouble. But, the real question remains the same. What's going to happen next?"
"Ugh…Demons."
Charon groaned as he guessed it. It was likely that the Demons would start appearing in earnest.
'That's enough.'
Asher clung to the outside of the windowsill and listened to the two of them talk. After hearing the results of how Lord Halvark and Charon would progress from now on, he lept down.
'Nothing will be bothering me anymore.'
Lord Halvark and Charon's vigilant eyes were constantly grating on Asher's nerves. Now that they had more or less stopped their surveillance on him, he was free to move more earnestly from now on.
Suddenly Asher smiled bitterly as he recalled Lord Halvark's words about him.
'What the hell is he?'
Lord Halvark must have seen the real Asher grow up as he was a child. It didn't really matter too much to him about Asher's past…. But he became more and more curious about the real 'Asher's' past; especially since Lord Halvark had such a bitter resentment against him.
"You're late today again, aren't you? What did you do this time?"
When Asher went to the training area, Reika was training her sword skills again diligently today. Her movements were sharper than before. It was perhaps due to the fact that she could now focus on the path of the sword without paying attention to anything else.
Asher looked at her silently. She, like Lord Halvark, must have grown up with Asher since they were children.
But she wasn't as suspicious of Asher very much in comparison to her father. Putting his thoughts together, Asher suddenly asked her a question while she was swinging her sword.
"Hey, don't you think I'm weird at all?"
"Huh? What the hell do you mean by that?"
Reika frowned as if she was listening to nonsense. Asher continued.
"I've clearly changed."
Lord Halvark, who had seen 'Asher' grow up from when he was a child up until now, didn't trust him at all. Because of this, Asher couldn't help but feel that there was something odd in regards to his relationship with Reika.
Reika clicked her tongue.
"I mean I already told you before didn't I? I wasn't interested in you in any way, shape or form. That means I never cared in the first place."
It was a literal explanation. Reika had no interest in him as a human being back then. It was probably because the past 'Asher' acted like a total degenerate.
"Whether you change or not, it has nothing to do with me. But, do you want me to pay more attention to you?"
Asher had changed for the better. Reika had also been the one to accept the new him the fastest. Therefore, she had told him to put his worries about the past behind him, and move forward.
When Asher blushed suddenly at her words, Reika burst into laughter. Reika was shocked at his expression and found it cute.
"What's wrong? Are you feeling sick?"
"N-no."
Asher waved his hands in dismay and stepped back reflexively.
"Here -uh, just continue your training alone today. There's somewhere I need to go."
"Uh, okay…"
Asher left Reika behind and left the estate to go into the town. The gazes of the townspeople settled on him as soon as he walked out in public and complicated emotions could be felt within their eyes.
'There was no one who looked after the original Asher after all.'
The 'Asher' of the past was a troublemaker, but even as a troublemaker he never received any attention from anyone. The only person who showed him such affection was the Lord's wife, Venicia.
'How sad… Even she has changed.'
There was not much of a reaction from Venicia these days after he had reincarnated. Even she, who had once shown affection towards Asher, felt differently. She didn't give attention or care for him. She was obsessed with his role as an adopted son and didn't truly look out for him.
There was no one who really watched over Asher.
'Poor child.'
No, he didn't feel sorry for 'Asher'. Their indifference to the original 'Asher' was his own karma.
As they had said, the original 'Asher' more or less, had brought it upon himself one way or another. He was just the previous owner of the body and the old 'Asher' didn't have any kind of way to change that.
'That Doppelganger noticed something.'
Asher recalled what happened back at the Belturia Estate. The Doppelganger had recognized Asher's identity and reacted in an odd way. The reaction was completely different from Asher's expectations.
They shouted and reacted, not out of surprise, but because they had recognized something about him.
– Why are you here?!
Asher tried to pry into the unexpected reaction from the Doppelganger, but the Doppelganger killed itself before he could question it. But he could determine one thing from all of this.
The demons somehow knew about 'him'.
Asher continued to walk into the dark alleys of the town. Suddenly, Asher stopped walking and spoke out into the emptiness of the alley.
"Come on out."
"What a quick-witted boy."
At the end of Asher's words, someone walked out from the alley, replying to him. A man dressed rather frivolously, came out, smiled and bowed his head while asking a question.
"You're my new employer?"
"I'm not your new employer, I'm simply borrowing your skillset and agency."
Boros kept his word. In just three days, the intelligence agency that Asher had requested to borrow, had moved their headquarters temporarily to the Halvark Estate.
The man in front of him was the owner of the information agency.
The man spoke and replied as if it were natural.
"Anyway, you're my employer for now, aren't you? Your name is Asher, right? My name is Kiers."
Kiers grinned.
"I watched your performance at the Belturia Estate. It was quite impressive. The fact you were able to kill off the Doppelganger without anyone even noticing.
Kiers chuckled lightly and continued
"I've been watching you from the shadows."
Asher hadn't noticed his gaze. He narrowed his eyes at Kiers.
"If you want to be able to live in a rough world, you have to be able to hide a couple of things and protect them well. If you listened to what the Doppelganger had said and looked for clues, I'm sure there's enough reason for you to understand why I needed to borrow your agency."
"You're quite bright, aren't you?"
Asher frowned slightly at Kier's reply. Kiers continued to speak, dismissing his nonchalant tone with Asher.
"It means that if the information organization can't do something as simple as digging up clues, it's pretty much unusable. Well then, what would you like me to do for you, young master?"
Kiers looked at Asher with interested eyes.
"You don't want to ask me to do something silly like 'finding the missing dog next door', do you?"
"Before that."
Asher clapped his hands and spoke in an authoritative manner.
"Give me all of the information that your agency has."
(Author note : check out this novel . - Ruler of the martial world and thx for all of the power stone
and more importantly I need reviews )