Chapter 669: Watching Him Win

Nadia arrived at nine with two bags of noodles, shaking rain off her hood while Ashley cleared the whole couch. The laptop waited on the coffee table, the full exhibition paused at Yenna’s raised horn above the reinforced guild field.

"You promised me one whole replay without a single dashboard tab," Nadia said, dropping the bags beside the keyboard.

Ashley lifted both empty hands above the laptop, "Dashboard closed, night queue belongs to the night team, I swear on these noodles."

"Good, press play before I steal your share."

The horn dropped, and Darven Holt drove his spear straight at the original body while Oric’s shield closed the front. Blunted arrows hissed from Ilsen’s side as Hajin’s camera swung low, catching the clone only at the frame’s left edge.

Nadia leaned so close her chopsticks hovered right over the trackpad.

"Wait, wait, wait, why doesn’t the copy just summon itself another sword?"

Ashley dragged the bar back to the pre-match setup, where Hajin pressed the treated ash staff into the clone’s hands.

"It can’t," she said, tapping the frozen handoff, "the camera showed him hand it over, nothing he owns gets copied, that staff exists exactly once."

"So your magic boy has rules," Nadia pouted, puffing one cheek around a noodle.

"Rules he actually showed us, I’m not inventing prettier ones for him."

’Say what the footage shows, never what the forums wish it showed tonight.’

She let the match run again while a popular reaction streamer’s muted replay played in the corner of her screen.

Hajin met the spear head-on, then let the rush shove him back, and all three challengers followed.

Nadia stopped chewing, then jabbed her chopsticks at the frame’s edge.

"Hold on, he’s dragging them toward the copy’s side, so the archer has to step over her own marked lane to keep shooting—"

"Watch the left edge," Ashley whispered, already smiling.

Ilsen crossed her marked line for one clean shot, and the clone’s staff snapped down across her committed draw wrist. The bow spun loose, and moments later the clone rammed Oric’s shield strap, jammed it crooked, and swept him flat.

Eight seconds later, the reaction streamer in the corner leaped from his chair, mouth stretched wide in a soundless scream.

"Eight seconds late," Nadia drawled, sitting back with deep satisfaction, "and people pay him for that?"

Ashley laughed into her sleeve, "You didn’t need me at all."

"I design store layouts, buddy, funneling people where they don’t want to go is my entire job."

Ashley dragged the bar back three seconds and played the crossing again at half speed.

"Look at Hajin, he never even glances left before the archer steps over."

"He told the challengers outright," Ashley said, tracing the frame’s edge, "the copy judges where it stands, nobody steers it."

"And they still walked right into it."

’Three ranked fighters heard the rule and still forgot the quiet one with a stick.’

On screen, Hajin ripped the spear out of Darven’s grip, folded him into a controlled pin, and held him flat. Yenna’s call carried over the barrier, naming all three challengers finished while the stands erupted around the whole exhibition field.

Then Hajin grinned down at the pinned spearman and delivered the final taunt of the afternoon.

Ashley winced and froze the frame on Hajin’s smug face, "Okay, that last line was too much."

"He pinned a fifteen-Shard spearman in front of everybody, he gets one line."

"He hauled Darven up right after."

"So it was a polite taunt," Nadia snickered, stealing a dumpling from Ashley’s side of the bag.

"That’s not a real category."

"It is now, I’m the one who caught the trap first."

Ashley rolled her eyes and let her have the dumpling, since arguing would only cost her a second one.

Her phone buzzed against the table before the clone’s dissolution finished on screen.

She read the email twice while the replay ran on, then turned the screen toward Nadia without saying one word. A late-night show producer wanted her on air next Thursday, billed loudly as the person closest to the mysterious fighter.

Nadia’s eyebrows climbed toward her hairline as she read it, "Closest, like they want to put you on a velvet cushion?"

"Like I’m the receipt for his whole life," Ashley muttered, setting the phone face down.

’They don’t want my work, they want a stand-in they can point at.’

"So you’re saying no?"

"I’m saying no to that sentence."

"Admit it, part of you liked that email."

Ashley picked at the knot on the noodle bag, "Part of me liked a real producer knowing my name, yes."

"Then that part gets a vote too."

’Being taken seriously and being sold as proof are two different invitations.’

Nadia tucked her feet under herself and waited, the way she did when a client almost knew what they wanted.

"I have every public recording," Ashley said slowly, "timestamps, corrections, the things he said aloud, I could talk about what anyone can actually check."

"Then ask him first, you clearly want to."

Ashley opened the supported summoner inbox and typed before her nerve could cool off.

[ Ashley → Hajin | Private: Someone offered me a public spot as the person closest to you, and I like being taken seriously, but I hate being sold as proof of somebody else’s story. ]

The reply came while Nadia was still pretending not to read over her shoulder.

[ Hajin → Ashley | Private: Damn, they want to rent you out as my proof, tell them the closest one is Loccy and she charges in bread. ]

[ Hajin → Ashley | Private: Seriously though, you earned people listening, so speak for yourself however you want, and whatever you decide, I’m backing it. ]

Ashley pressed the phone against her chest, and her face went warm before she could stop it.

"He made a bread joke," Nadia observed flatly, "and you’re blushing at a bread joke."

"He didn’t decide for me."

"Mm, that’s the part you’re blushing at."

Ashley lobbed a couch cushion straight at her friend’s head, "Eat your noodles and stop reading my face like a client brief."

"Your face is a very easy brief."

Nadia caught the cushion one-handed and hugged it, still smirking over the rim of her noodle cup.

Ashley answered the producer instead of arguing, laying out the only version she would ever accept on any public stage. Every claim must sit beside public footage, and every gap stays labeled as an open question with no guesses attached.

The producer called back within ten minutes, and Ashley put her on speaker so Nadia could hear.

"Verified clips and open questions only, I can sell that," the producer said, papers rustling behind her.

"No closest-person billing," Ashley added firmly.

"Gone, you’re the moderator who keeps the record, and I’ve got a question for that record already."

"Go ahead."

"At the feast, Ferra lifted that recovered folio, and the camera caught a triangle under the maker’s stamp on its binding."

Ashley pulled the feast replay open and froze the frame where the brand sat beneath the old stamp.

"It’s on the public broadcast, anyone can pause it," she said carefully, "I’ll show what the camera caught and nothing closer until he agrees."

"Then that’s our opening question, what that mark is and who made it."

The call ended, and the stream chat still scrolled beneath the replay, celebrating the win without a single coin.

[ IronVanguard: The lane trap holds up on rewatch, he dragged them right onto the clone. ]

[ Seoul_Tactician: Disarm, controlled pin, Yenna’s call, every rule satisfied on camera. ]

[ HearthKeeper: And then he hauled Darven up off the sand, I’m still smiling about that. ]

[ ashley(mod): Feast footage of the folio binding is public, please keep guesses about the mark labeled as guesses. ]

Nadia nudged the last dumpling across the table toward her, "You’re going to stare at that triangle until two in the morning."

"Only until midnight," Ashley promised, pulling the mark into the center of her screen.

Nadia gathered the empty bags and paused beside the couch, holding back one last question for her friend.

"Are you nervous?"

"Terrified," Ashley admitted, keeping the paused binding centered on her screen, "but this time it’s my own name standing beside the footage."

’Somebody out there knows this shape, and now they’ll finally get to see it.’