Chapter 19: A Good Solution for a Future Problem

"Stelaria... girls are really—"

"E-Enough!! Please stop asking questions!! It’s been 8 hours... I want to rest, I need to eat, I haven’t even spoken to anyone yet, I haven’t worked, stop asking questions!!! There’s a limit to being proactive!!!" Stelaria raises her voice at Nio.

"Look at the window! It’s already night!! I need to sleep... not to mention the bizarre questions about the female body, why are you asking such obvious things? Aren’t you a girl? You should know this stuff" Stelaria, unaware of the secrets of Nio’s gender, simply doesn’t understand some of the questions.

But for Nio, information means the difference between surviving when she meets her wife or losing and possibly even dying, since she doesn’t know the mindset of her natural enemy, so she asked question after question.

"...Alright, you can go sleep if you want, thank you for answering my questions, tomorrow I’d love to learn more, but I’ll look for books and let you work properly" Nio says, touching her own belly.

’Why do women bleed down there? What a strange thing... now I feel inadequate... I hope it takes a long time before I end up going through that’ Nio, who never had a relationship and never sought love, incredibly knows "little" about women. Everything she knows about women she learned through research to create her Gap Moe-style character.

’Although Stelaria got really mad, I only asked what women feel during those days... she didn’t have to get so angry...’ Nio watches Stelaria leave the room.

"I should clone myself, right? I should still be able to use magic for that... I can’t stay in this kingdom forever, and I’ll need to leave from time to time. Creating a copy that obeys me is useful."

"So without a doubt, [Faceless] magic is the best option... I’m glad I learned all kinds of useful magic instead of focusing only on attack magic."

[Faceless] Espionage Magic that creates a copy of the user. This copy acts exactly like the user in behavior, but possesses only 40% of the user’s level and can only use 10% of the user’s abilities. All memories, vision, and sensations of the copy are transmitted to the magic user.

"In the game, a behavioral analysis AI controlled the created NPC and sent data like recordings, but now I wonder how it works... well, it doesn’t matter. I don’t want to leave this kingdom for now, I don’t need this copy yet, it’s good just to have it for the future..." Nio locks the door and places a chair in front of the latch.

Then she closes the window blinds, leaving herself alone, and uses the [Faceless] magic to summon her copy.

"Wow... you’re exactly like me!!" She speaks excitedly, seeing her own creation in front of her. In terms of detail, it’s an exact copy—even the glints on the wings, horns, and tail are the same as Nio’s.

"Wow!! You’re totally identical to me!" The copy adopts Nio’s exact attitude, becoming fascinated by her original self standing before her. Both stare at each other with fascination before turning serious.

"Hmmm" The two murmur, placing a hand on their chins thoughtfully.

"I’m the strongest!" They say the same phrase, sizing each other up, even though the copy didn’t need to try to assess the original—but even that gets copied.

"Singularity!"

"Copy!"

"Meat pie!!"

"Gap Moe!!"

"I hate farming random items that take days!"

"...You really say everything I say, proving you think just like me" The two repeatedly say the same thing at the same time, which gives Nio a good grasp of what her magic does.

"Two heads think better than one, but what happens when both heads think alike?" Nio asks her copy, who looks thoughtful.

"Sounds kind of useless."

"Right, that’s complicated, but it’s great to have you here to help." Nio has an entire conversation with herself, which normally would be super strange.

"Oh, I had a great idea. If we think about different things, we can double efficiency, even if they’re the same ideas! Like, you think of something to do and I’ll think of weaknesses I’ve noticed I have." Nio proposes while the copy agrees.

"We could loot the Theocracy using the inventory. Books are valuable. Robbing the coffers would also be interesting to get this world’s money." The copy gives an idea of what to do.

"I noticed we need to sleep every day for a good while, which is a problematic weakness. If we don’t rest constantly, we could get drowsy in combat, something dangerous." Nio states the weakness almost simultaneously, proving her theory.

"Wait, if you think just like me, wouldn’t we fight over our differences?" The two make a confused face and then let out a little giggle.

"No, that sounds stupid! You-I, don’t-aren’t high enough level." The two speak simultaneously, cutting off each other’s sentences. By aligning their thoughts, they avoid the problem of trying to fight each other.

"It’s great to fix problems before they happen. I also learned quite a bit about women from Stelaria. We can improve our acting."

"I agree, I agree. We’re girls and we need to act like girls and use our cuteness and bodies to deceive anyone we need to." The copy says something both agree with, making Nio change the subject.

"For now, we need to widen our advantage! So, being a saint, we can have practically total control over the entire theocracy. Stelaria is already practically an obedient slave—even if she doesn’t like us and wants me gone from here, she won’t disobey if I ask nicely."

"But I’ve never had to manage something like a kingdom. It’s better not to try meddling in Stelaria’s affairs and let her keep controlling everything..." Nio says to her copy, who sits down on the bed.

"Let’s think calmly! I can always be unmade and a new version remade!" The copy speaks without caring about its death, since its function is to serve the person who created it, and Nio is very open-minded about its situation, making the copy simply accept this fact instead of having an existential crisis.

"...Now let’s move on to tests. Take off your clothes, toss them aside. The clothes I’m wearing now were cloned onto you. If you take off the clothes and I unmake you, do the clothes vanish? If they don’t vanish, that would be like a duplication bug!! I’m also going to give you real pieces of clothing. If you disappear with real clothes, do the clothes stay? If they don’t stay, giving you items is stupid because you’d vanish with them."

"So many possibilities!" Nio, who still isn’t sleepy, grows anxious to test everything she can and make good use of the time. After all, she still hasn’t taken a moment to test her new powers in general.