Chapter 343: "While the Main Body Enjoys His Honeymoon, I’m Working!"

"Sigh... while the main body is enjoying his honeymoon, I’m stuck here working myself to death."

Zevan leaned back against his chair and cursed Luke under his breath, which was rather ridiculous considering that he was technically cursing himself.

Originally, Luke had controlled his clones subconsciously at all times, continuously receiving their actions, thoughts, and surroundings through his mind, but after experimenting with Nyx’s doppelganger ability for some time, he discovered that constant awareness wasn’t actually necessary. Instead, he could allow the clones to operate entirely through the subconscious portion of his mind, and unless Luke deliberately focused on one of them, or the clone itself wanted to send something important back, the main body wouldn’t remain consciously aware of everything it was doing.

It was somewhat similar to how a person’s brain continuously controlled breathing, digestion, heartbeat, and numerous other bodily functions without forcing the person to consciously understand every process occurring inside their own body.

Because of that separation, Zevan could act, think, and experience things independently while still ultimately remaining Luke.

He tapped one finger against the armrest while recalling when everything had started.

"I arrived here with those two idiots on the 4th day of Fructus."

Naturally, the two idiots he was referring to were Luke’s other clones, who had traveled with him toward the Human Empire capital after leaving the main body behind.

They were currently in **Arvelon City**, the imperial capital of the **Asterian Empire**, and after arriving, the first several days had been spent simply understanding the city, because Arvelon was far too large and complicated for them to immediately establish their organizations without learning how its different districts operated.

One of the more important discoveries had been the existence of an entire Underground City beneath the capital, where much of Arvelon’s darker business took place beyond the sight of ordinary citizens, and after investigating the area, two of the clones had decided that it suited their organizations perfectly.

Zevan had established **The Prime Archive**, Luke’s information organization, while the second clone, who had chosen the name **Warren Skell**, established **The Broken Halo**, Luke’s assassination organization.

After Luke stopped consciously controlling them all the time, each clone had gradually begun developing a somewhat distinct persona of its own, which turned out to be another characteristic of Nyx’s doppelganger ability that Nyx himself probably would have explained if he weren’t currently sleeping.

"Let’s go meet those two."

Zevan pushed himself away from the chair and stood, straightening the simple black shirt covering his upper body, whose sleeves had been folded to his elbows, before adjusting his black trousers and leaving the third floor of the Prime Archive.

Like Luke’s other clones, Zevan currently wore a human-skin mask because none of them could casually walk around Arvelon while using Luke’s original face, especially when the Hero of Light was already becoming increasingly recognizable.

However, despite developing slightly different habits, there was one preference all three clones had inherited without any difference whatsoever.

They liked black.

Because of that, unless a particular situation demanded otherwise, most of their clothing somehow ended up being black or at least dark enough to resemble it.

"Good day, Boss."

"Boss."

Several members passing through the corridor greeted him as he descended, and Zevan acknowledged them with brief nods while continuing toward the entrance.

During the fifteen days in which Luke had been spending his time with Selene, the three clones had been anything but idle, and each organization had already gathered around one hundred ordinary members. Every one of those recruits had been an orphan whom the clones had carefully selected, and Luke’s blood magic had already been used to bind their loyalty, ensuring that even if circumstances changed in the future, betrayal would not become an immediate concern.

More surprisingly, however, the three clones had deliberately prevented their organizations from interacting with one another.

The Prime Archive’s members didn’t know that their actual master was merely one of Luke’s clones, nor did they know that another hundred people working under the same hidden master operated only a few blocks away inside The Broken Halo.

The same separation applied to the third organization as well.

Once Zevan stepped outside, the quieter atmosphere of the Prime Archive immediately gave way to the familiar disorder of the Underground City, where people moved through narrow streets beneath hanging lamps and dim crystal light while merchants whispered deals from shadowed storefronts, armed men pushed through crowds, and suspicious figures watched everyone who passed.

Zevan moved through the streets without slowing, ignoring several invitations, arguments, and attempts to draw him toward questionable businesses along the way.

Even when a nearly naked woman standing beside one of the narrow passages waved toward him with a practiced smile, he simply kept walking.

"Hey, handsome, why are you in such a hurry?"

Zevan didn’t even turn toward her.

"Tch, what a shameless method of gathering information."

Of course, in this place, a nearly naked woman standing along the road wasn’t necessarily selling her body, and that was exactly what made approaching anyone here troublesome, because many of the seemingly helpless women scattered around the Underground City were assassins, informants, thieves, or bait working for larger organizations.

And if someone wondered why they were standing outside instead of gathering information inside brothels, the answer was rather simple.

The brothels were already occupied by people belonging to stronger organizations.

"Competition even exists in a fantasy world."

Zevan’s mouth twitched as he remembered that, during the beginning of their operations, he had actually considered placing several female members inside brothels so they could gather information through music, dancing, and conversation rather than selling their bodies.

The idea had seemed practical at first, especially because the orphans they recruited were usually talented in one field or another, but the moment they tried approaching several establishments, the women were rejected almost immediately.

Arvelon’s brothels didn’t merely demand beauty.

They demanded exceptional beauty.

"Well, this is the Human Empire’s capital. What can I say?"

As that thought passed through his mind, Zevan couldn’t help remembering one particular night when he had thoroughly enjoyed the delicate hands of an Elven beauty working inside one of those establishments.

If Luke ever consciously received that memory, he would probably curse his own clone for taking advantage of his body to enjoy such things.

Worse still, if Luke’s wives somehow learned what one of his clones had been doing in the capital, the main body would probably be the one suffering the consequences despite not even being consciously involved.

"But what does that have to do with me?"

A shameless smile briefly appeared beneath Zevan’s disguise before he continued forward.