Free Web NovelChapter 587: Chapter 586 Fictional Character_1
"Who is this person..." Seeing the person locked in the cage who looked exactly like herself, Deborah couldn’t help but widen her eyes, "A doppelganger murderer? Why has it become me?"
"Long time no see, my dear champion of justice," the doppelganger murderer greeted Deborah with a mocking tone as soon as she saw her. "It looks like you’ve been doing quite well."
"Listen to me, I’ve restricted the use of ’substitutes’ with The Codex; now she can’t change her appearance," Aiden explained to Deborah, "So this is the doppelganger murderer’s true appearance; she looks exactly like you."
"What?" Deborah exclaimed in shock.
"By the look on your face, you also have no clue," Aiden observed Deborah’s reaction.
"Of course she doesn’t know anything, because she is but a delicate flower in a greenhouse," the murderer interjected.
"By that tone, it seems like you do know something," Aiden said, glaring at the murderer.
"Does who I am really matter that much? I’ll tell you truthfully, I killed a total of eleven people, utterly unforgivable. What you should be doing is killing me here and now, instead of gabbing on and on with me. What’s wrong? Trying to persuade me to turn over a new leaf?" the murderer sneered with a grin. ƒгeewebnovёl.com
"I don’t necessarily have to kill you; I could also turn you over to the Tribunal of Heretics. Although being sentenced to death is almost certain," Aiden stared at the murderer and continued, "You keep suggesting we should just kill you, which is strange. What would be the consequences of killing you?"
"...I should have the right to remain silent, right?" the murderer raised an eyebrow.
"You can choose to keep silent, but I think you’ll confess on your own," Aiden said as he wrote the rule of compelled truth on The Codex, eliminating the possibility that the other party could lie, "Now, confess everything, why do you look exactly like Deborah?"
"Ugh..." The murderer resisted slightly, but it was futile, under the power of The Codex she was forced to speak the truth, "Because... I am her!"
"What?" Deborah was dumbstruck.
"I said I am you, idiot," the murderer countered Deborah’s gaze with a cold sneer, "We are both ’Deborah Awen,’ the Deborah from the southern orphanage in the frontier lands. Born on the frontier lands and sent to the orphanage, discovered at twelve the orphanage was colluding with child traffickers and stealthily escaped. That’s the life trajectory in my memory," the murderer continued to stare into Deborah’s eyes, "You should have some recollection of it, right?"
"Why do you know about my experiences?" Deborah’s face was filled with disbelief.
Aside from Aiden, she had only ever mentioned the past to her foster parents.
"It’s not your experience, idiot!" the doppelganger murderer spat, "Nor is it mine. Have you never questioned your own existence? Because your life has been smooth sailing, completely unlike mine!"
"Why do you say those experiences aren’t yours? Didn’t you just say they were the trajectory of your life from memory?" Aiden challenged.
"Because our memories are fictional. By chance, I discovered your existence," the doppelganger murderer pointed at Deborah, "Someone who looks just like me, possesses almost the same powers, yet has gone through a completely different life. After investigating you, I found that your past seemed to partially coincide with mine. It made me question my own past, so I went back to investigate my own origins—the Deborah from the western orphanage in the frontier lands. And guess what?" the doppelganger suddenly let out a toothy grin, "Haha, I actually found a dead person!"
"What do you mean?" Aiden frowned.
"The real Deborah, she’s been dead a long time! She died of the plague shortly after escaping the orphanage!" the murderer laughed heartily, shouting at Deborah, "You’ve never gone back to that orphanage, have you? I did, only to find that no one there recognized me, nobody believed I was Deborah Awen, because I looked nothing like her!"
"This is impossible! I clearly remember all of it, that orphanage, and the days I spent there!" Deborah was utterly unable to accept the murderer’s words.
"You remember, and I remember, but nobody in that orphanage remembers us. Because our ’character’ is fictional, based on the real orphan Deborah, and only our appearance has been reconstructed," the murderer explained with a smirk, "’We’ are fictional beings created by the power of authority."
Deborah felt as if struck by lightning, "What nonsense are you spouting?"
However, Aiden’s reaction was entirely different; as the doppelganger murderer revealed this answer, he felt as if a cloud of suspicion had dissipated.
What came to his mind was something Abigail had told him: when the witch assembly had planned to assassinate the hound Duboman, a mysterious figure had stopped them and demonstrated his powers—creating replicas of several of the Great Witches, even capable of using magic.
If that mysterious person had the ability to create living beings from real material, then what the doppelganger murderer said might not be so far-fetched.
"Then how do you know all this?" Aiden asked the murderer.
"After I investigated the orphanage, a letter was sent to me, from the creator who made me and this waste of space," the murderer gestured towards Deborah, "He said that to reward my efforts, he would tell me the truth. He told me he was a Dominator, and I was a fictional character he had created with his own power, modeled after an orphan he had encountered. On that model’s basis, he fashioned a new appearance for me, as well as bequeathed some new characteristics."
"Do you mean she was also created that way?" Aiden glanced at Deborah, "That creator, he used a single model to create two people?"
"No, just one!" the doppelganger murderer emphasized, "From the start to end, he only made one person."
"Explain more clearly!"
"According to his explanation, he initially created a ’Deborah Awen’ with dual personalities based on the orphan Deborah’s prototype, crafting a purely evil personality from Deborah’s dark side and molding her remaining conscience into another independent personality. ’Half angel, half demon, cliché, right?’—These were the original words from the letter. So right from the start, he thought the character ’too cliché’, and then, he had a new idea." The doppelganger spoke, her smile a mix of self-mockery and sarcasm, "He gave bodies to both personalities, let them experience different lives, watching to see their ultimate outcomes."
