“Did he… just get eliminated?” Bron asked, his tone filled with disbelief.
Everyone in the room was completely flabbergasted, they didn’t understand what happened at all, nor the reason for this reckless behavior of their classmate.
“Doesn’t that mean that the real Vini is the one sitting out?” Minerva asked, her brow furrowed.
“No,” Ludwig said, shaking his head. “That just means that guy who got disqualified is an idiot. This proved nothing,” he thought but mentally Ludwig was frowning, ‘something is wrong here…’He paused, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the room.
“He was disqualified because he attacked a clone. The rules state that,” Minerva said. “So the Vini over there who hadn’t fought is the real one. If he had attacked the real person, it wouldn’t have disqualified him. I’m telling you, the Vini that sat out is the real one”
“I would be more than willing to agree with you, But he didn’t attack anything,” Ludwig said, his tone sharp. “The spell clearly missed.” He stood up, his gaze sweeping the room. “I don’t have the brain cells to solve this. I need to think about this for a while, the two of you will fight as soon as Vini rests.”
Each of them shouting, “But I’m real! Like she said he is the one that made the other guy disqualified!”
“But it didn’t even hit me! How would he be disqualified if the spell didn’t evne hit me!”
Ludwig was getting more and more annoyed, at the two Vini’s protest but Ludwig’s stern gaze silenced them.
The Vini who had fought drank the potions and rested for a some time while the rest of the students were talking among each other on the reason why their classmate was disqualified
Ludwig on the other hand was looking all around the room, feeling that something was missing, but he couldn’t grasp anything yet.
“I’m ready,” The wounded Vini said, standing up.
“I’m telling you, I’m the real one. You’re making a mistake,” the other Vini said, but he reluctantly walked into the arena.
Ludwig backed away, his mind racing as the two Vinis began their fight. He kept glancing at the numbers on the screen, his instincts screaming that something was off.
‘Two people are unaccounted for,’ Ludwig thought.
After all, there was one extra green number. Ludwig, Bron, Minerva, and four others—that’s seven people. Besides the guy who was eliminated, Ludwig turned to look at Vini. ‘There’s also Vini…’
‘But the number above says eight green and two reds…’
Ludwig’s eyes narrowed as he scanned the room. Something was wrong. The numbers never added up.
Perhaps the screen was fake, meant to deceive them. Olim did say to not trust anything they hear or see…
Ludwig kept reminding himself of the rules Olim had stated.
The two Vinis kept battling, this time a far more vigorous fight. The Vini that drank the potion seemed to be more exhausted, resting for one or two minutes was not enough to recover the energy from a prior battle, but the world is unfair and Ludwig couldn’t coddle any of them.
The spells kept increasing in intensity, several of them flying everywhere, while Ludwig made sure to keep an eye on anything strange or anything that didn’t fit.
Suddenly, the Vini who had won his first fight was on the ground, the other Vini pouncing on him with a flaming hand. The downed Vini twisted his body, narrowly avoiding the attack, and retaliated with a fireball that blasted the other Vini’s head off.
The headless Vini’s body soon turned to black sludge that splurged down on the other Vini, coating almost all his body in a thick layer of sludge.
The red number dropped by one, leaving only one fake person.
But something was still wrong.
The surviving Vini wiped the sludge off his body, his expression a mix of relief and frustration. He moved to the winner’s side, but Bron stepped forward, his weapon pointed at Vini.
“Stop right there,” Bron said, his tone cold.
“What is it now? I won!” Vini protested.
“Yes, but the number still says one. And regardless of whether you’re fake or real, if you die, it’ll have no consequences on me,” Bron said, his grip tightening on his weapon.
Vini looked up at the screen, his face pale. “What sort of dumb shit is this?”
“He’s right, you know,” Ludwig said, stepping forward.
“But I’m real,” Vini said, his voice trembling.
“I know,” Ludwig replied, his tone calm.
“Wait, what? You know?” Minerva asked, her brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“I know he is real,” Ludwig said “As for Bron, He is also right. Bron can eliminate you, and it won’t affect him,” Ludwig said, his gaze shifting to the far end of the room.
“What is your reasoning?” Vini asked, his voice filled with desperation.
“If you are real, then you can be eliminated by a player. If you’re a clone, that means you don’t have a survivor student, and that still means he can kill you,” Ludwig explained.
Bron placed the sword close to Vini’s neck, but Ludwig stepped in, moving the blade away.
“But,” Ludwig said, his voice sharp, “that’s not what’s going on here. I finally figured it out.”
He turned, his gaze piercing as he pointed to the far wall. “You’ve all been so focused on the numbers, the fights, the clones… But tell me, did anyone actually count the number of real students?”
Silence. The realization dawned on the room.
Looking at the numbers of survivors, it was one less than what the screen was showing.
Ludwig’s smirk widened. “Come out. I know you’re there.”
For a few seconds nothing happened, which made Ludwig frown.
“If you don’t come out, I’ll drag you out,” He said.
From the shadows, at the far corner of the room two students stepped forward, their forms shifting unnaturally as if they had been fused with the surroundings. Their bodies peeled away from the wall, revealing their true forms. Their hands raised up as they walked forward.
Two students who looked exactly the same.
“This is what was missing from the numbers,” Ludwig said, his tone calm but firm. “There was an extra student hiding from the start, along with his own doppelgänger.”