Finally, after two full days of trudging through the swamp, the party approached Couthen’s border checkpoint – an arch-shaped building positioned to funnel travellers beneath it. The large C-shaped snake crest of Couthen emblazoned above reassured the group they had arrived at the right place.

  Everyone let out a sigh of relief. Especially Linza, who had clearly never had to walk this much in her life.

  As the quartet approached the building, the two sentries were already waiting for them, likely having noticed them long ago. A female coilborn and a male wolfkin – both wearing a blue uniform and a cap.

  The coilborn had leafy green curls of hair falling to her shoulders and yellow eyes similar to their own. Like most coilborns, she had green skin and a thick, long tail for her lower body.

  The wolfkin sported short, spiky cyan hair, sharp brown eyes, and had a no-nonsense air about him.

  For a brief moment, the twins couldn’t help but remember the coilborn they’d failed to save back in Anxia.

  “Halt! Where do you come from and what is your business in Couthen?” the wolfkin barked.

  The party stopped a fair distance away from them and exchanged glances. After a moment, an unspoken agreement passed between them. Everyone nodded.

  Dusk then stepped forward, acting as the representative for their group.

  “We came here from Anxia!”

  “Anxia? That’s quite the trek.”

  Dusk shook his head.

  “We used the underground tunnels. They somehow transported us all the way here!”

  The two sentries frowned, apparently unaware of the tunnels’ odd spatial properties.

  “But that’s not important! Anxia… Anxia’s been overrun! We had to run away in a hurry!” Dusk shouted, panic seeping into his voice despite the distance now between them and the threat.

  Their frowns deepened as they briefly glanced at each other.

  “Yes, we heard. Didn’t expect survivors to appear all the way here, though. Do you have any proof of your claims?”

  Dusk paused, annoyed that they didn’t believe him. Then he pulled out one of the remaining messed up essences they still had.

  “How about this?”

  The wolfkin’s eyebrows rose.

  “What… What is that?”

  But before Dusk could explain, the coilborn who had stayed silent until now cut in, her voice oddly soft.

  “An irrational essence. Dropped by monsters created by an orphaned rift core.”

  Everyone present shot her a surprised look.

  “You know what this is?” the wolfman asked.

  “I’ve seen the aftermath of Jesterocco. It’s the same as back then. Flickering between states, even when crafted into skills…” She got a faraway look in her eyes for a split second before continuing. “So, unless there is another orphaned rift nearby, he’s likely telling the truth.”

  The man paused, then gave her a slow nod.

  “Very well, we believe you. Follow me, I’ll get you sorted.”

  The man turned around and entered a door under the arch, leaving the door open for the coilborn woman to follow.

  The party complied and followed the man into a corridor. The coilborn woman entered one of the side rooms and closed it behind her. In the meantime, the wolfkin led them into what looked like a cross between an interrogation and a meeting room – one big table surrounded by uncomfortable chairs, a desk at the back, and no windows to speak of.

  “Take a seat. Oh, and I’m Donn. Well met.”

  The group introduced themselves as they settled into the clean chairs, still dressed in their tattered and mud-splattered clothes.

  “Now, then. I’m guessing you didn’t really mean to cross borders?”

  “Not really, no. We didn’t even mean to travel in this group, we just stuck together until now.”

  Dawn saw Linza tense and tried not to feel bad about planning to disband this party soon.

  “That is very rough. Good on you to help each other though,” the man absent-mindedly said as he flipped through some papers on his desk. “Let’s get to the point – do you have any identification on you?”

  “We do.”

  The twins pulled out the identification cards they had received in Anxia – they thankfully hadn’t lost them this time – and Layna followed suit.

  “...Um. I don’t?” Linza awkwardly piped up.

  She shrank in on herself as all eyes landed on her.

  “I… I don’t actually remember much from before you found me. I don’t think I’m from anywhere around here.”

  The wolfkin frowned.

  “That might be an issue.”

  “Might?”

  “Depends on your plans. If you plan on entering Couthen, you will either need some kind of identification or… I’ll have to give you a Null mark.”

  The twins grimaced.

  “What is a Null mark?”

  “You don’t even remember that much?” He shook his head and pulled out a very strange card.

  A completely blank white background and simple black text in the middle – rather than the top – saying [Seal].

  “This is a Null card. It can disable other people’s skills. We’ll draw a rune on your hand and I’ll use the skill on it. That will make this effect last until I or someone else with this skill, cancels the effect.”

  Linza’s eyes went wide at the implication.

  “O-Oh. Right. Makes sense.”

  “It’s unpleasant, I know. But it’s temporary. You just need to register in any town and you’ll get it removed.”

  “Right. Okay. It’s in case I’m a criminal or something, right?”

  The wolfkin quirked an eyebrow.

  “Or something. Do you agree to it, then?”

  Linza glanced at the others one by one, uncertainty and fear painting her face. But she seemed to see something in Layna’s expression and straightened up in her chair before nodding.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Okay. Let’s… do it.”

  “Good. Just one last thing then – you’re going to need someone to be your minder. Basically, you’ll have to be with them at all times until that mark is canceled. If you commit a crime and disappear, your minder will be punished in your stead.” He looked at the remaining three people. “I hope one of you can be this minder?”

  The twins tried not to be annoyed at the thought of becoming an official babysitter for Linza. But then again, it would only be until she had her ID, right?

  “Sure, I can do that,” Layna said before the twins could, making them glance at her with raised eyebrows. “Can she do that in the rift city just south of here?”

  “You mean the Crying Curtain? Probably not. That place barely has any facilities. You’ll need to go a bit further to Zenrith’s Trench to get that registration.”

  Even further. Great.

  “That’s… fine, I guess?” Layna hedged, looking at the others askance.

  Dawn shrugged and Dusk hummed noncommitally, trying not to look too annoyed.

  “Alright, onto the next order of business. What can you tell me about what happened in Anxia?”

  The man pulled out a pencil and looked at the group expectantly. Both Linza and Layna then turned to the twins, since they had been the ones at the epicenter of things.

  “Well… We just registered as hunters and were headed inside with our party,” Dusk started.

  “But then everything went wrong – the whole rift shook, the sun turned black, monsters began to swarm from everywhere, two bosses appeared…”

  Donn’s expression turned pinched as he listened.

  “Then Slime Queen shouted that Oln’s priests killed the Shepherd and–”

  The man scoffed, shook his head, and murmured, “Of course she would.”

  The twins paused in their explanation, confused at the outburst. When the man gestured them to continue, they did so, finishing their recounting.

  “Right, that just about fits with what we know. Good.” The wolfkin nodded as he put away his pencil and filed the paper somewhere in his desk.

  “Why did you scoff?” Dawn asked, looking at him with suspicion. “Did we say something weird?”

  “Ah, that? Well, we got the message that Slime Queen was the one who killed the shepherd. Makes sense that she would blame someone else.”

  The twins froze.

  What? That… That didn’t make any sense. Slime Queen had helped everyone when everything went to shit. She couldn’t have been the one to cause it!

  Had she been lying? Or had someone framed her?

  “Alright, other than the mark, we should be done.” He stood up and pointed to a wall with his thumb. “I’ll go prepare that. You lot go and use the wash room next door in the meantime. No need to dirty this place any more than we have to.”

  All four of them perked up at the thought of actually washing themselves for the first time in days.

  The twins still worried about the whole Slime Queen thing, but they could hardly do anything about it even if they knew whether she’d been telling the truth or not.

  In the end, they had themselves to worry about, first and foremost. No point in agonizing about this.

  As soon as the man left, all four people in the room looked at each other. From the expressions, it was clear everyone wanted to be the first one to experience the divine feeling of clean water on their skin. Sure, spending two days in the swamp together had built a lot of solidarity between them, but this was a different matter!

  “I think Linza should go first. That way, she’s available when he comes back,” Layna suggested, pre-emptively cutting off Dawn who had been about to yell ‘going first!’ and dash for it.

  “...Fine,” the geckin grumbled instead.

  With a grateful smile and a soft ‘thank you’, Linza headed toward the wash room. A minute later, she came back, awkwardly asking how to use the water relic. In the end, Layna went into the wash room with her, leaving the twins to stew in the interrogation room by themselves.

  They felt a little guilty for having Layna be the human’s minder. They didn’t like dumping all the responsibility on her. Though, at the same time, they really needed to get going toward their destination as soon as possible. The trek was already going to take weeks at this point, they couldn’t dilly-dally.

  Double sigh.

  They just had to hope their party would wait for them.

  Once the girls returned, the twins both got up to go next. When Layna raised an eyebrow at them, they clarified that they had always bathed together – which was true – and ignored the looks they got for it.

  As they entered the wash room though, they couldn’t help but realize why they got those looks. They were a boy and a girl – a fact they had managed to ignore all this time – and usually, only kids would bathe together if they were of different genders, right?

  “Should we start bathing separately?” Dusk murmured as the two undressed and hung their clothes dry near the drying relic.

  “It’s whatever,” Dawn replied, activating the water-generating relic by the tub and grabbing some soap. “Who cares if anyone thinks we’re childish? We’re twins! This is probably normal for twins, right?”

  “I guess so,” Dusk admitted as his sister… his other body washed his back. “Ahh… this is the top feeling! My skin feels alive again…”

  Dawn felt jealous he got to go first.

  Dawn took a moment to think about her own existence, now that they had a moment. Truthfully, they still didn’t know for sure who was the original, but she had always subconsciously thought of herself as the ‘other’. It was just…

  The twins paused, looked at each other with wide eyes, then turned around and swapped positions so that Dusk could wash Dawn’s back.

  “...It’s fine. There is no ‘other’. We’re the same person,” Dusk reassured, not entirely sure if he was addressing Dawn or himself. No… Dawn and himself were the same person! Argh!

  Dawn sighed, once again thinking about the archivist’s words about negative skills and insanity.

  “It’s getting worse,” she murmured.

  “It’s going to be fine,” her brother other body shot back.

  They finished washing up in silence, too lost in their thoughts once more. After a couple of minutes, Dusk stood up to leave, but Dawn wanted to stay a bit longer.

  They paused at the duality of opinions and looked at each other in horror.

  With clenched fists and closed eyes, they took a deep breath, got out of the tub, and pointedly didn’t talk about what had just happened.

  * * *

  When the twins returned to the interrogation room, now feeling fresh and clean, both officers stood around a seated Linza, doing something to the back of her hand.

  Drawing a rune with her own blood, probably. The twins tried not to grimace at the bad memories they had of this particular procedure.

  They silently stood by and watched along with Layna, tense and nervous despite not being the targets this time. Though going by the pursed lips and wary gaze of the human, she didn’t seem excited about this situation either.

  The coilborn raised her runic brush, scrutinized her work for a minute, then nodded to the wolfkin. He pulled out his [Seal] card and Linza’s hand visibly twitched away, probably on instinct.

  “Is… Is it gonna hurt?” she asked as she eyed the card with trepidation.

  “Not exactly. But it is unpleasant to have your skills sealed.”

  “Right… Okay! Do it!” she said and clamped her eyes shut.

  Donn nodded, pulled out his [Seal] card, and placed it against the rune. The card turned into light for a moment, swirled around the rune until parts of it sank into it, and then turned back into a card.

  The coilborn then leaned down with narrowed eyes before nodding.

  “Alright. All done. You’re free to go now.”

  Linza’s eyes blinked open.

  “Huh? That’s… it? Oh, okay…”

  Why the heck did she look disappointed that the procedure didn’t hurt? Was she used to pain? Did she like it? Weird human…

  With that, the party got up, thanked the two officers for their time, and let them escort them through the rest of the arch. Apparently, even if it looked like you couldpass freely, you still needed an officer to guide you through the invisible wards.

  Still, as the twins left the checkpoint behind, part of them couldn’t help but wish they could have stayed the night there. Even with the bath and being out of the marshlands, they still missed sleeping in a proper bed.

  But alas, the group had decided to make their way to the Crying Curtain city – which shouldn’t take more than about two hours – and spend the night there.

  They didn’t necessarily need to keep their previous formation now that the ground wasn’t going to sink under their feet while wild monsters attacked, but they still did.

  Dawn got a good look at Linza from the back as the human pulled out her [Ricochet Ward] – the skill she’d crafted with ◆Snipe◆, ◆Refraction◆, and ◆Mirror◆. The grayed-out art looked cold to the touch and the chains cinching the title made bad memories flash in her mind.

  The geckin saw the human twitch her hand with the card, clearly trying to activate it, but chains held strong. With a sigh, Linza put the skill into her soul pocket and brought out her [Umbral Acolyte] instead.

  Dawn frowned, seeing the card still faintly glowing and its colors saturated. The chains were still present, though.

  Regardless, Linza once again twitched her hand–

  And the entire group stopped and stared as it transformed into Jim without any issues and rested on her hand.

  “Wha… How can you still activate that?!” Layna asked, shocked by this development.

  “Umm… I don’t know? It feels like…” She turned the shadowy creature into a card and back. “I can sort of feel the [Seal] blocking it, but… it’s like this card can just sidestep it?”

  The twins had no idea what to say to that. This glowing Mythical just kept on giving, didn’t it?

  “What is that glow, anyway?” Dawn murmured.

  “You think it’s that glow’s doing? I thought it’s because it’s a Mythical,” Layna suggested.

  She shrugged.

  “I don’t know! Is there even a difference? I’ve never seen a Mythical before this! Maybe they all glow!”

  “It… might be both?” the human interjected, still switching her skill to card and back while staring at her other skill that remained sealed. “It’s… I think that [Seal] was too weak to hold a Mythical. But there’s also just something different about Jim… Like… Like the seal is a prison, but he’s not even inside that prison?”

  Great. So she can freely use her strongest skill anyway.

  The twins held in their sighs, once again lamenting how much trouble this human would be going forward.

  As much as they wanted to rush back to Vargarott, they wouldn’t want to leave Layna alone with the human. Just in case the ◆Umbrage◆ essence inside her skill would affect her in some way, or in case the human herself proved to be evil and selfish like all other humans.

  So they would keep going with them.

  At least until she properly registers.