Adrian hadn’t changed much in the two weeks that they had last seen each other.

“Ellie, lovely to see you again.” Adrian smiled at Noah. His accent was still gentle and friendly, but his expression was twisted. Or was it just Noah’s imagination?

“Don’t call me that. You’ve known that for a long time. I am not Eleonora,” Noah spat out insensitively as she stared at him. The suspicion, which had begun when she assumed that this might be Adrian’s stomping ground, grew in size when she saw the barrier surrounding the entire hotel.

A large-scale, elaborate spell that couldn’t be accomplished by an ordinary wizard alone. The type that was pure magic. There was only one man in Laurent named ‘the master of pure magic’. If anything went wrong beyond common sense, it would have been right to start doubting Adrian. But still, she didn’t think for a moment that he’d be here.

“How did you get here? And how did you know I was here?” Noah asked, folding her arms across her chest. 

“Earlier I received your information about your last location, and I just so happened to be nearby. You didn’t have to go outside; you were kind enough to come all the way here. All I did was make my way down here.” Adrian took a step forward, his arms opened wide.

“As for what I was doing here in the first place, that’s for me to know. Now, you look younger than I thought. When I saw the expressions on your face, I thought you had looked older. And I noticed the dragon called you ‘Noah’? Is that your real name?”

“If I tell you my name, what are you going to do for me?” Noah held onto her arms to stop herself from showing her nerves. “After all, don’t you want to know the name of the woman who has been using the body of the woman you love for two years?”

Adrian sharply inhaled, and then cleared his throat. With a forced smile plastered on his face, he gestured for her to follow him. He held the office door open for her, and then led her away from the crowds. When there was enough distance between them and the gambling ring, Noah finally spoke up. 

“What you know is right. My name is Noah. Now it’s my turn to ask you a question, right? What happened to Lenia? Did you kill her?”

Probably not expecting her to get straight to the point, Adrian didn’t answer and remained silent. But she could clearly see that his face was twisted with discomfort, so she continued questioning him.

“And why did you make this dump of a place Harrell? Why does wastewater flow down here? It’s the poor end of the district. And what do you get from this gambling ring?”

“Aren’t you supposed to ask one question at a time?” Adrian tried to take control of the situation, but Noah interrupted him.  

“I’m sorry, I thought my name was worth more than just one question.” She shrugged. How many questions could she ask Adrian? Probably not as many as she would want, but she decided to throw everything at him that she had been curious about.

“Was it you who took Largo’s eyeball from the Angelic? That was all your idea? Why? To separate Muell and me? And before that, you were the one who made a fuss on the train to Edman. And you knew that I wasn’t your Eleonora, so why didn’t you deal with me beforehand? When did you start caring for me? From right after when Eleonora died?”

Noah stopped there and breathed heavily. The place she’d stopped walking was in front of a wooden staircase quite far from where the gambling was going on. Unlike the hotel’s shabby outer appearance, the interior looked to be managed well seeing that the polished wooden stairs were glossy.

And then there were two important questions left. 

“Was that the real you in Tezeba, or a replica? And how many replicas did you make? Adrian!”

She knew that Kyle had received a single, two-line message from his subordinates in the capital: ‘Secretary Rossinell returns early.’ 

That meant Adrian had made at least one replica.

Was the man standing in front of Noah the real Adrian, or a replica.