CH 277

Wayward Concern [Part 1]

“You saw Minato?”

The family gathered in the mansion’s west wing after they cleared all the people out of the building.

“Mina-nee‘s doppelganger was there!”

“Huh?”

“Hm?”

What came out of William’s mouth when he tried to explain the happenings turned out to be a terribly dubious occult story.

Melsa and Leonard unconsciously leaked their disappointment upon hearing this somewhat anticlimactic account.

“Are you sure you weren’t mistaken?”

It was said that three people in the world shared the same face.

This wasn’t Japan.

Moreover, Tanaka Minato reincarnated shortly after the whole Tanaka family was annihilated in the earthquake.

There was no way Minato could be here.

“That was… really me.” Still surrounded by the cats, Emma muttered with a small, quivering voice. She still appeared frightened even though she was already home. Seeing her like this, the cats didn’t dare to leave her side.

“Mother, Kingdom and Japanese people have completely different facial features. Just seeing Mina-nee‘s doppelganger exist in this world struck me with a sense of unease. It was as if I was looking at an alien mixing among human beings.”

The fear William felt wasn’t something just because of simply being startled after seeing Minato’s lookalike from Japan. “Minato’s doppelganger” clearly looked different from the others. She looked so different from the Kingdom’s people, yet he never heard any rumor about people questioning or feeling uneasy after seeing her foreign features.

Did no one notice it?

“Both William and I have developed [Identification] skill through monster hunting training. More than anything, if Emma had said it as [such], it couldn’t possibly have been a mistake.”

Emma grew up pursuing the things she liked, observing insects and sewing, freely without worries in the Stuart family. Thanks to this, Emma had a special ability to precisely guess dress measurements at a glance.

If Emma said it was Minato, then it could only be Minato.

It was exactly because Emma had accurate [vision] that she was shaken up, trembling, and frightened to this extent.

[Anyone who sees their doppelganger dies]

Now she couldn’t just laugh off the occult tale of her previous world.

“But, if that’s the case… that’s not a doppelganger, is it? If there really was a doppelganger, it should appear before Emma with Emma’s appearance, right?” Leonard tilted his head.

“Eh?”

“You’re right. Emma’s doppelganger is not Emma’s doppelganger if it doesn’t look like Emma.”

Leonard and Melsa, who didn’t see Minato’s appearance directly, were much calmer than the three siblings.

“Then, Nee-sama won’t die?”

“ “She won’t.” ”

Although neither Leonard nor Melsa had any definite proof, they gave the anxious William a positive answer with a firm tone to reassure him. They would never let their daughter die so easily.

“R-Right. Thank goodness, Nee-sama. Everything’s alright!”

“Isn’t that great, Emma?”

William and George patted their chests in relief upon hearing their parents’ answer. If it weren’t a doppelganger, that would mean they weren’t facing an unsalvageable superstition where Emma would die upon seeing it, but an opponent they could still fight against. At any rate, it was up to them to believe in that myth or not.

“But… if that is… Minato…”

Emma’s voice was still shaking. When she cast down her eyes, looking very insecure, Koumei licked her cheeks as if to say, “It’s alright.”

“Meowww?”

The moment Emma saw Joanna, the first thing that came to her mind was “doppelganger”. Maybe it was also because she was currently at that age. 

Ah, I will die… Emma thought.

But, even when Emma’s body was trembling, the thoughts in her head were unusually clear and they were continuously spinning around different possibilities.

She couldn’t let go of one of the many hypotheses she had come up with.

‘The scariest and most painful possibility…

…If I turn out to be the fake one, and the Holy Maiden Joanna is the real one…’