The Variant Doppelganger
Henrik, who had just finished carving a wooden bracelet, gripped his chisel tightly.
Kang Yoonsoo sipped the last of the cold liquor with an indifferent expression.
Rustle.
A sound came from beyond the grass.
Shanette stared cautiously in that direction, her hand moving to her side.
At that moment, a long shadow suddenly emerged from the grass.
“May I join you?”
It was a woman with flowing golden hair.
Her attire was as lavish as a noble’s, carrying an air of antiquity.
Her tone was gentle, and her every movement exuded a subtle grace.
Her soft skin looked as though it had never once held a sickle—fair and flawless.
She was a beauty so stunning that a single glance could make one dizzy.
Her charm was so noble that the rain-soaked trees around them seemed to bloom like a valley in full flower.
Yet Shanette spoke with clear wariness.
“Who are you?”
“A thief.”
An absurd answer.
Shanette frowned.
“A thief?”
“I stole something that wasn’t mine. Does that not make me a thief?”
Just then, Henrik suddenly approached and pressed down hard on the back of Shanette’s head.
The sudden force made her bow so deeply it felt as if her neck might snap.
“Kyaa! What are you doing?”
Shanette glanced sideways at Henrik in confusion.
But then she froze in shock.
Henrik, who was usually the picture of nonchalance, looked far more flustered than she did.
His eyes trembled anxiously, as though cold sweat might pour down at any moment. He dropped to his knees and bowed his head low.
“It is an honor beyond words to show my shameful face before Your Highness Princess Kishifran of the Leorcan Empire. To think I would dare meet Your esteemed self in such a wretched and desolate place!”
For a moment, Shanette doubted her own ears.
A princess?
Was the golden-haired woman standing before them truly the empire’s princess—the emperor’s daughter?
Yet Henrik had once been the princess’s personal artisan. Seeing even the ever-relaxed Henrik react this way made it hard to dismiss as a lie.
When Shanette remained dazed, Henrik quickly pressed down on the back of her head again.
“You idiot! A commoner raising their head before imperial blood is a crime!”
“I-I’m sorry!”
Shanette hurriedly bowed as well.
But her gaze wasn’t on the princess—it was fixed on Kang Yoonsoo.
As expected.
Yoonsoo hadn’t bowed at all. He simply remained seated, still drinking his cold liquor.
Kishifran looked puzzled.
“Why do you not bow your head to me?”
“I don’t feel like it.”
Both Henrik and Shanette turned deathly pale.
Shanette, desperate to change the subject, shouted without regard for decorum.
“Y-Your Highness! What brings someone as noble as yourself to such a wretched mountain range? I’m terribly curious!”
“I got lost.”
“…What?”
The answer was so simple that it only made them more bewildered.
Henrik’s gaze toward the princess shifted subtly.
He asked in a cautious voice.
“Are you truly the princess?”
“I am, and I am not.”
A strange answer.
Suspicion began to cloud Henrik’s eyes.
“Pardon me, but may I stand?”
“If you wish, then do so.”
Henrik slowly rose to his feet.
The former personal artisan to the princess studied her face with sharp eyes.
Soon, he carefully held out the wooden bracelet in his hand.
“Would you wear this?”
“Of course.”
The princess answered softly and slipped the bracelet onto her left wrist.
Henrik let out a sigh.
“A doppelganger, then.”
The princess did not look flustered or angry.
She merely wore an expression of mild curiosity, as if wondering why they were so shocked to see her.
“A doppelganger?”
Shanette asked in confusion.
It made no sense, after all.
What business would the empire’s princess have wandering these mountains in the dead of night?
Henrik spoke while looking at the princess.
“I was uncertain at first, but now I’m sure. I saw her often up close. She had an allergy to elven wood used in carving. Any crafted item made from it would make her break out in hives. When I once gifted her a swallowtail wooden bracelet, she nearly had me expelled from the palace because of the rash.”
Henrik pointed at the princess’s wrist, where the bracelet rested.
“That bracelet is made of elven wood. But look—she’s perfectly fine.”
Henrik spoke with certainty.
“Above all, His Majesty the Emperor cherishes his daughter dearly. He would never allow Princess Kishifran to come to a place like this.”
“B-But…”
Shanette lifted her head and examined Princess Kishifran more closely.
Long, beautiful lashes.
Exquisite features.
No word other than “peerless beauty” could describe her.
The thought that such a lively woman could be a monster left her mind in turmoil.
“Is she… really a doppelganger?”
“From your perspective, yes.”
The princess admitted it in her refined tone.
Yet she was different from other doppelgangers.
Unlike the monsters that would scramble minds or attack upon being discovered, the princess simply stood there quietly.
She made no attempt to charm or assault them.
Then the princess pointed at the roasted meat by the fire.
“May I eat that?”
“Yeah.”
Kang Yoonsoo, who had been sitting by the fire, spoke.
He removed the heart, now golden-brown from roasting, and placed it on a flat wooden plate.
The princess shook her head and said,
“Where are the fork and knife?”
“Don’t have any.”
“Then how do you eat?”
“With your hands.”
“I see.”
The princess gazed at Kang Yoonsoo for a moment, then followed his example and picked up the wild boar heart with her bare hands, bringing it to her mouth.
It was a bold act.
She looked every bit the noble lady, yet the sight of her tearing into meat with soot on her lips felt strangely out of place.
Shanette whispered to Henrik.
“If she’s a doppelganger, why isn’t she attacking us?”
“How would I know?”
“I am a variant.”
Shanette and Henrik were slightly startled.
Even though they had spoken in the faintest of whispers, the princess had heard them clearly.
After swallowing a piece of the heart, the princess spoke.
“Ordinary doppelgangers change their appearance constantly. They also harbor great hatred toward other living beings. But I am different. I am a mutated doppelganger.”
A mutated doppelganger?
“An alchemist once infused me—an ordinary doppelganger—with countless new traits.”
The princess continued.
“My appearance is fixed as Princess Kishifran, and I cannot transform into anything else. I also cannot read the minds of others. However, my intelligence is far higher than that of my kin. There are many other peculiarities as well.”
“You talk about yourself like you’re some kind of experiment.”
“Oh my, you understand well. I was an experimental subject.”
“What?”
Henrik’s face twisted in disbelief.
Just then, noise echoed from the mountain path across from them.
Clip-clop! Clip-clop! Clip-clop!
It was the sound of hooves.
Clearly, around twenty riders were approaching.
A man’s rough voice rang out.
“She must be somewhere around here! We have to find and capture her today, no matter what!”
The princess wore an apologetic expression.
“I’m sorry. If they see you with me, they will kill you.”
Henrik’s face darkened with anger.
“Damn it, what the hell does that mean?”
“My existence is a top secret. They will kill even civilians who witness me in a place like this.”
“Who are they?”
“The Imperial Knights.”
“Which division?”
“I believe it is the Third Division.”
“The Third? Then that bastard Lennox is the commander?”
Henrik’s expression grew uneasy.
“You know him?”
“I do, but he’s not the type to be swayed by personal feelings. He’s not the kind of man who would defy an imperial order to save me, no matter our past.”
Henrik glared at the doppelganger with distaste.
“Can’t we just hand you over?”
“I am an imperial secret. They will slaughter every civilian who saw the princess in this place. They are the emperor’s loyal hounds.”
Henrik declared,
“We’re all dead now.”
He quickly gathered his belongings and stood up.
“Let’s get away from this doppelganger right now. Our only chance is to pretend we never saw her and run.”
“B-But is it really okay to leave the princess’s doppelganger here alone?”
“Damn it, I don’t know what kind of power struggle she’s caught up in, but our lives come first. She’s a monster anyway. There’s no reason to risk our necks for someone we’ve never met before. Right?”
Henrik looked at Kang Yoonsoo as he spoke.
Kang Yoonsoo slowly nodded.
“Yeah.”
The doppelganger of the princess.
In a past life, she had traveled with them as a companion.
As a variant doppelganger, her unique traits had proven useful on their journey.
But there was no need to travel with her again.
She could certainly grow stronger.
Yet because she had been born a monster, there would be far too much to teach and look after.
Because of their past bond, he would at least point her toward an escape route where she could survive.
Kang Yoonsoo stood and pointed toward the far side of the mountain path.
“If you take that path and follow the left fork up the ridge…”
“Your face looks haggard. As expected of one who has lived for twenty thousand years.”
“What? Mr. Kang Yoonsoo?”
Shanette looked puzzled.
Meanwhile, Kang Yoonsoo doubted his own ears.
“What?”
Henrik, who had been standing farther away and hadn’t heard the princess, shouted urgently.
“If you want to live, you’d better run now! Hurry!”
They began hurrying down the mountain path.
Kang Yoonsoo approached the princess and whispered.
“…What did you just say?”
“You are living your thousandth life, are you not? Losing to the Demon Lord hundreds of times.”
The princess answered with an innocent face.
But Kang Yoonsoo was different.
A new light had appeared in his emotionless expression.
“How… do you know that?”
Throughout countless regressions spanning thousands of years.
This doppelganger had never once noticed that he had been regressing.
Unlike ordinary doppelgangers, she also lacked the ability to read others’ minds.
So how had she learned the truth?
“Answer me.”
Kang Yoonsoo lightly bit his lip.
His voice was tense.
“I told you to answer.”
The princess smiled faintly and was about to speak when the sound of approaching hooves grew louder.