I held a paper against my face and studied it carefully. After scanning the letter, I flipped it and held it up against the light orb on the ceiling. After finding nothing suspicious about it, I turned it back and skimmed through the letter one last time.

To the presidential candidate Boss,

You are to deliberately lose the upcoming debate tomorrow against the presidential candidate Senator Terebnis Gloomus Darkius or you shall face the consequences. Attached are two locks of hair obtained from your spokesman Zoweer and… someone named Vakasa of the Darkness. We assume the fat boy is part of your association thus [...]

Signed, Anonymous

Ah, so it’s spelled Zoweer...

“Are you sure this came from Terebnis or one of his underlings?” I asked my companion who stood patiently behind me. “It could be Particia who kidnapped Zoweer, and she’s just playing me against Terebnis.”

“Highly likely, Boss. But, we’re also investigating Senator Particia right now,” my companion reported.

“Go and make sure our scouts are doing their job. I want to know what Particia is up to,” I ordered.

“Alright, Boss.” My companion quietly left the room the moment the kidnapped shade in front of me twitched.

“Huh?!” Terebnis woke up with a startle. He thrashed around, but the binds on him kept him from doing anything meaningful. The shade’s head was covered with a cloth bag, and he was chained to his chair. “Magical chains?!”

I reached out and tightened the bag around Terebnis’s head before leaning back on my chair. “So, you’re Terebnis. We’ve finally met.”

Terebnis stopped moving and faced forward. “You must be the real Boss. I must acknowledge your ingenuity in setting up a trap to circumvent my ambush. ‘Tis not always I would find an opponent who is a step ahead of me.”

“What trap?”

“The-... The fake Boss at the debate?”

“O-Of course! Him! Totally a devious plan set up by me.” I leaned forward and asked slowly, “How did you know he’s fake?”

“My knowledge cannot be freely discerned, my dear foe. In order to- BRRUUERUAAA!”

Daggerless shoved the shade’s face down into a bucket of water and held it down until I gave a signal. As expected, when his head was held up, he wasn’t gasping or anything. Other than his silhouette shimmering a bit, he looked

“H-How is it possible that I am drowning?! I am a shade!”

I snapped my finger and exclaimed, “I can tell you the answer… for a price.”

“Geh. A price?”

“A few hundred Republican dollars would do.”

“Bah! You shall get nothing from I, Senator Terebnis Gloomus Darkius! I do not negotiate with terrorists!” Terebnis declared while holding his head high.

“You seem confident for someone in a disadvantaged position. You do know that you’re the one in danger, right?” I pointed out. “So, start answering my questions.”

“Heh heh…” Terebnis started with just a chuckle, then it turned into a hysterical laugh. “Fool! I am no mere shade! After hundreds of years, I have mastered something no other shade can do! Behold my power!”

The senator started fading away, and the chains holding him started loosening. I lowered my head and quickly studied his so-called power. I snapped my finger and beckoned towards Daggerless as Terebnis faded away from existence.

“Yes, Boss?” Daggerless asked.

“We’ve still got a few boys stationed at the Spirit World, right?”

“Yes, Boss.”

“Oh, good.” I leaned back on my chair and crossed my arm, waiting patiently. Not a minute later, Terebnis abruptly reappeared. Daggerless nonchalantly placed a bag around him and tied him up in a timely manner as if he had practiced this a thousand times already.

“How’s the Spirit World?” I asked with a sarcastic tone.

“H-How did you-...There were thugs and ruffians waiting for me! They ran me over with a carriage and beat me up with all manners of barbaric weapons!”

“Now I wouldn’t say wooden clubs and frying pans are barbaric…”

“Enough! What do you want from me?! What do you gain from kidnapping a prominent figure like me?! You won’t get away from this, you know!” Terebnis shouted.

“Tough words for someone that kidnapped my spokesperson!” I pointed out.

“I did no such thing! You’ve no evidence to make such a declaration. I’ll have you know that I, Senator Terebnis Gloom-”

“This guy is starting to sound like Lard,” I groaned while kneading my forehead. “Knowing him, he probably escaped confinement and is on his way back here.”

“What do you mean? Hypothetically speaking, if I were to kidnap such important person to you-”

“He’s dead weight to me.”

Terebnis continued, “I would’ve put him in one of the finest magical cages in the entire Continent. No being has ever escaped such cages, thus even the republic’s maximum security prisoners use the cages to lock the worst of the criminals!”

“He’s uh…” I sighed. “He’s immune to all forms of magic. He negates them.”

“What?”

The door abruptly opened and I suddenly felt depressed. “BEHOLD! ‘TIS I, VAKASA OF THE DARKNESS! I, Vakasa of the Darkness, was kidnapped by the villanous Senator Terebnis Gloomus Darkius, but I used my superior and heroic abilities to escape certain doom!” Lard announced as he marched in like he owned the place.

“Vakasa of the Darkness?! You’ve escaped my prison?!” Terebnis shouted in shock.

Lard slapped my back and had a huge smug on his face. He pointed at himself with his thumb and said, “Not to worry, Boss! I, Vakasa of the Darkness, used my blessed wits to overcome extreme challenges! Of course, such feats are nothing to someone like me, Vakasa of the Darkness! Still, it moves my heart that you would go to such lengths of getting me back!”

“I didn’t kidnap this damned shade for you! It’s for my spokesman! Where is he?” I asked.

“He’s over there,” Lard answered as he pointed behind me. Zoweer stuck his head out from the door and meekly nodded his head.

“H-Hello, Mister Boss. Sorry for worrying you. It-It won’t happen again, I swear!” Zoweer muttered.

“Great. So I didn’t have to actually torture this shade to get my spokesman back,” I said with a satisfied nod. “You’ll need to write a speech for me—stat!”

“Yes, Mister Boss!” Zoweer replied excitedly.

“And stop calling me that!” I shouted as he scurried off to his office.

“Ahem,” Terebnis coughed to get my attention. “Perhaps if you let me go, I’ll forget this incident ever happening. After all, sooner or later, the Commissioners would find what happened to-”

“No way!” I cut him off. “I’ve done nothing to you and you kidnapped the most important person in my current project-”

“Why thank you, Boss!” Lard interjected.

“Shut up, you!” I retorted. “Anyway, you kidnapped my spokesperson. You’ll pay for it by staying here until the end of the elections.”

“What?! No! You cannot do this to me, Senator Terebnis Gloomus Darkius! I have seen centuries of political web-weaving and-”

I punched him and knocked him out, his ghastly body slumping against the chair. Daggerless gave me a thumbs up while Lard chuckled to himself. We locked the room tightly and left a few of my shadows to watch over the senator.

“What’s the plan, Boss?” Daggerless asked.

“I wonder if I could sell Terebnis off to Particia…” I pondered. “But then, I don’t really know Particia well. We’ll have to play it safe. Though, this shade is right. We can’t keep him locked for too long or it’ll be suspicious. Forced undead submission doesn’t work in Gravia, and we certainly can’t just murder this guy...”

“What about the people that attacked during the debate? Surely they’ve got something to do with this whole mess,” Daggerless said with a shrug.

“Maybe they do. I’ll need to check on High Commissioner for more information. In the meantime, Lard, get me a report on the task I gave you. I want to know if those spectres are on board with supporting me for the elections,” I ordered.

“Oh. We were kidnapped just before we could negotiate with them. I, Vakasa of the Darkness, believe the Educational Bureau is in cahoots with the villanous Senator Terebnis Gloomus Darkius!” Lard replied.

I clicked my teeth and cursed, “Damn. This sounds like a headache.”

Wait.

I stared at Lard and tapped my chin.

“Are you looking at my beautiful visage or what? ‘Tis hard to tell because of your lifeless mask,” Lard asked.

“What beautiful visage? The wall is much more beautiful than you!” I retorted. “Anyway, how do you feel about turning into a shade for a while?”

Lard suddenly planted himself against the wall and started shaking. “I, VAKASA OF THE DARKNESS, KNEW IT! YOU WANT THIS HUMBLE HERO DEAD!”

“What?! No! Shut up! Listen,” I ordered. “Your personality and attitude matches the senator perfectly-”

“What? You compare this great and mighty hero to a villain like Senator Terebnis Gloomus Darkius?! Such impudence!”

“Where is the humble part in this?!” I retorted once again. “Continuing on, I can’t use illusion magic on you, but I can turn my shadows into a shade-like. You can control it like a puppet… sort of.”

“W-Whoa! I get to play as a shadow agent?!” Lard became so excited that he forgot to say his name.

“I have no idea what you mean by that. Anyway, you’ll need to infiltrate Terebnis’ network and find out as much as you can about him.”

“How does this…How does it work?” Lard asked.

I raised a shade-like from the ground and molded it to look as much as Terebnis as possible. It stood perfectly still, but if one looked closely, it was easy to see it shimmer and phase in and out of reality every split second. After pulling out a box from my robes, I unpacked it and placed a few apparatuses onto the floor - a helmet, coils of thin wire, and a few dull-looking gems. The wire was nearly invisible and was quite comparable to string in terms of flexibility.

I hooked the back of the shade-like with the thin wires and connected it to gems, forming a circuit of some sort. Afterwards, I placed the gems on the top of the helmet in a specific pattern—one of the forehead, and three next to each ear. Taking out a pair of silk gloves, I wired the entire gadget into it as well.

I placed the helmet on Lard’s head, then coiled his entire body with the wires. “Put on the gloves.”

After he did that, I snapped my fingers towards the helmet.

“Huh. Nothing,” I remarked.

“What is this supposed to be? Some kind of controller?” Lard asked.

I pulled out a piece of cloth and took out one of my sharp shoulder protectors. After cutting several neat squares with the shoulder protector, I stacked the cloth pads together then stuffed them under the helmet. Once again, I snapped my fingers.

“Bah! Still nothing!” I cursed. “Your anti-magic property is screwing everything up!"

Kendra walked in with a sandwich and asked, “What’s going on here?”

“Kendra! I need you to work with Lard-”

“I’m out. I want to visit the market,” Kendra’s reply came as quickly as she left.

“Now what?” Lard asked.

“I will make this work!” I declared as I started padding Lard’s body with more and more cloth. I summoned my maid Lucia to fetch more clothes, and eventually, Lard had several layers of clothes padded on his body.

“Strange. Now it’s working, though not as strong, I suppose.”

“Hey, tell me what-...” Lard fell silent when he waved his arm. The shade-like also waved his arm, imperfectly mimicking the fat boy. “WHOA!”

The shade-like tried its best to follow Lard’s overly exaggerated reactions. However, it was somewhat unsatisfactory.

“There’s delays in movement, and the movements themselves seem very awkward. Is it because of his anti-magic property?” I muttered. “Or is it because his body is just stuffed?”

“This is almost as good as the stuff back in my world!” Lard exclaimed with a grin as he tried to stretch as best as he could. He was obviously enjoying himself as he made several strange poses in short order.

“You have such things back in your world?”

“Sort of. Non-magical, though.”

“Non-magical, bah. How can you people live without magic?” I snarked. “Anyway, here’s the movement controller. You’ll need to hold it with one hand, so try to hide the arm that uses it.”

I passed a cube with buttons sticking out of it to Lard. After ignoring Lard’s whoas and wows, I handed Lard the last piece of the set - one of the light orbs me and my companions use to capture pictures. It was modified so that it does the opposite, it shows a lot of pictures very fast instead. After hooking the orb up to the entire circuit set, it started projecting what the shade-like was seeing into the reverse light orb.

“This is my only copy of the orb, so don’t break it. It’s still a prototype,” I warned.

“Well, if it’s a prototype, doesn’t this mean that you can change it?”

“What? But why?”

“I, Vakasa of the Darkness, don’t know. It’s hard to see with this orb. Couldn’t you turn this into a screen or at least make it flat?” Lard suggested.

“A square, huh? I wonder why I didn’t think of that…I’ll fix that later. For now, you’ll have to make do with this. Learn the controls for now, and we’ll release the shade-like out. Just know that this button activates voice input, these two buttons are to fold the legs, and so on.”

“Hmpf! Fool! Yours truly does not need a tutorial! I always skip the tutorial! Give me, Vakasa of the Darkness, a dark empty room and I, Vakasa of the Darkness, will gladly fulfill your task!” Lard declared.

“Whatever works! I’m sending him out in a week, so be prepared then!”