“Excu-?”

Was all that came out of my mind as I instinctively took a step back after turning around. Although I could not understand the reason, I felt my senses screaming at me that the person in facing me with a smile right now was a great threat. It appeared that the same was for Ailya, as she tried to move towards the front to stand in between this ‘small’ witch and me, but was unable to properly move due to her shaking legs.

“Mhmm?”

Seeing our frightened reactions, the girl in front of us looked at herself for a bit before turning back to us and saying:

“You two really are interesting… So, who are you two?”

Staring at the witch in front of me, I couldn't help but wonder what I had done to attract such a troublesome existence to us. I had yet to commit a single time in our time here, nor had I used any magic or ability that could have attracted her attention. After all, even our scarce use of [Soul Devourer] had only been used from a point blank range, which should have made it nigh impossible to tell that either of us had used it, even if someone else had the ability to see souls. Yet despite that, this witch in front of us had clearly noticed something of interest from the two of us that attracted her attention. And since I couldn't tell what it was, I didn’t know how to properly prepare ourselves to get us out of this situation.

“Not going to answer my question?… Ah! Forgive me, how could I forget my manners~ Allow me to introduce myself first. My name is Charlotte Logan, a mage you could say. Now that I’ve introduced myself, why don’t the two of you do the same in return? It’s only common courtesy after all~”

After hearing her introduction, a thought crossed my mind wondering if people referred to her by ‘Big Hat’. Deciding that it was not the time right now however, I put these thoughts to the back of my mind as I decided not to anger her for the moment and introduce the two of us as she was imploring as I said:

“My name is Alex Morgan. The girl next to me is my sister, Alice Morgan. The two of us are just simple village girls who came to the city looking for a better life.”

“Oh I see, of course, sisters… So, where did the two of you come from?”

“We come from a village a bit south from here.”

“And the name of this village?”

“Palma”

“So the village that’s right next to the new labyrinth that appeared? Interesting, I see. So, which one you is using that incredible transformation ability”

“Huh?”

“Did you not catch that? I’m sorry, let me repeat myself. Which one of you is using that incredible transformation ability?”

Hearing her repeat her question one more time, I was now fully certain that Charlotte had in some manner that I could not understand, seen through what should have been the perfect disguise of Ailya. I could not understand how she was able to see through it while that hooded old man we met after leaving the forest was unable to, but this meant that there was a way to see through [Doppelganger] and it boded bad news for the future. After all, it was one of our trump cards for getting around safely, and if it could be seen, then the two of us were in a more precarious situation than previously believed.

Remembering that she had asked ‘which one of us’ was using a transformation ability, I realized that for some reason, she was not able to deduce which one of us was using it, and that we might have a way out of this mess. The truth was that to some extent, even I had been using [Doppelganger] since I received it to thin myself slightly. So, hoping to hide one of our more important secrets, I took a step forward as I opened my mouth and said:

“I-I’m the one using it.”

“Really?”

After saying that, Charlotte looked at our surroundings before nodding and said:

“Then, can you put on a little demonstration for me?”

Hoping that by satiating her curiosity she would leave us alone, and I could relieve my body from the constant trembling it had been feeling this entire time, I decided to show a very limited demonstration of my [Doppelganger] ability in hopes that it would be enough to fool her and have her leave us alone.

“Alright, I’ll show you, it’s not really all that impressive. As you can see-”

Right as I was beginning to change the color of my hair and eyes, Charlotte interrupted me as she said:

“You know, the thing I hate the most in this world is when people lie to me. I’ve allowed your earlier transgressions to go by unpunished. However, you must really look down on me to think I’d believe such a stupid lie. After all, even in identical twins, no two people will ever have the same mana signature. Yet standing in front of me are two girls who look oddly identical in appearance and possess an identical mana signature. Now how could that be possible?”

Hearing Charlotte’s statement, I finally realized what mistake we had made, as well as the fact that I had been completely oblivious to it. I knew that Ailya had not only changed her appearance to match mine, but had also changed her mana signature as well so as not to leave a trace of being her being a half-elf. Seeing the girl next to me turn pale as she realized it was her mistake that had brought us to this situation, I held her hand as I tried to reassure her in my mind that this wasn’t her mistake but mainly a stupid oversight on my part, since I had been able to observe her with [Veritas] yet thought nothing of this pecualirity despite the fact that I knew about something like [Mana Eyes] and its potential later on.

Charlotte, looking at our two reactions with interest, took off her glasses as she revealed her dark green eyes glowing with a blue hue as she turned to Ailya and said:

“I take it she’s the one capable of even changing her own mana signature, how interesting~ Now, this time, how about the two of you tell me who you reeeally are. If you are honest, I’ll even promise to let the two of you off for now~”

With the feeling as though we were a cornered mouse facing a ferocious beast, all I could do was release a nervous chuckle as at the thought that my journey to become the Demon Lord, had pathetically come to an end so soon after gaining my conviction…