Chapter 588: 587 Chapter: The Secret of the Phantom Thief Liv_1
"You shaped two bodies, so you and her are not the same person, are you?" Aiden raised a question, "Why do you insist that you are the same person?"
"The form may be duplicated, but existence, it is always one and the same," the doppelganger said, enunciating each word deliberately.
Deborah felt a slight dizziness assail her, overwhelmed by the other’s shocking revelations.
The most terrifying aspect was that what the other said could only be the truth. The only hope she held onto was that the doppelganger, the killer, had been deceived and had unfounded confidence in a lie.
"What you’re saying is just too fantastical," she said to the doppelganger, gently shaking her head.
"Have you never found your own face peculiar? This face... so perfect it’s without a single flaw. How could there be two people with this same face in the world at the same time?" The doppelganger killer seemed to have found an opportunity, excitedly taunting Deborah, "You must’ve noticed that there has always been a close connection between us. Let me guess, how did you find out I was here? Did you use ’Substitute’ on me?"
Deborah was taken aback for a moment, suddenly realizing something, "Could it be, that you also..."
"Every time you use divine words to change your appearance, as long as I think of you, I can also transform into that appearance using ’Substitute,’" the doppelganger killer stated matter-of-factly, "Because we are the same existence."
"But that was clearly divination taught to me by my mother!" Deborah argued loudly.
"Divination? You actually think that? Hahahaha... Do you believe you’re a princess from a fairy tale?" The doppelganger reacted as if she had heard a hilarious joke.
Aiden felt another puzzle piece click into place. He had always found it illogical that divination could be used in tandem with the "Substitute" divine words. From the description of the doppelganger killer, it seemed that as long as one of them, Deborah or the doppelganger killer, used "Substitute," the other could create the same disguise by simply targeting the other.
But if so, calling this technique divination as taught to Deborah by the thief Liv...
"There’s something else, have you noticed?" The doppelganger said with a sinister grin, seizing the chance to pursue her attack on Deborah, "Our appearance is something that others can’t replicate with ’Substitute.’ Because this form, it is a fictitious image created by the master."
"You’re wrong there, when my mother taught me ’Substitute,’ she successfully copied my appearance..." Deborah retorted but suddenly her complexion changed.
At that moment, she felt as if she had plunged into a freezing abyss.
"Noticed, have you? Not too dim-witted, eh!" The doppelganger said with a laugh, "You just said, who taught you ’divination’?"
"Could it be, the thief Liv is also like you?" Aiden was the one to voice his suspicion.
"Ha, clever indeed! If it weren’t for this cage in the way, I’d certainly reward you with a kiss," the doppelganger said to Aiden, her eyes gleaming madly, "That master, he mentioned to me. Before us, there was another successful precedent."
So that was the situation... Aiden thought to himself.
The thief Liv and the orphan Daisy were popular characters in "The Hound Hero," and if Daisy’s prototype, Deborah, was a fictitious character created by the master, then it was possible that the real-life thief Liv was also the creation of the same person.
This, then, suggested that "The Fantasist" was indeed the master orchestrator behind it all.
And with this realization, everything fit together: The thief Liv could copy Deborah’s appearance because she, too, was a fictitious character created by the same master; considering the relationship between the thief Liv and "The Fantasist" and the deception about teaching Deborah "divination," it was likely that she knew her origins and obeyed her creator.
"Even if it’s the master’s power, creating a living person who can exist in the world for years, even decades, that does seem a bit too exaggerated, doesn’t it?" Aiden asked.
"I’m not sure myself, but I have my own theory," the doppelganger killer replied, "There is something within us that is immortal."
"Divinity?" Aiden quickly realized.
Deborah and the thief Liv both possessed divinity, and perhaps it was this undying divinity that let such fictitious beings persist in the world.
This suggested that they, like Aiden himself, were imbued with divinity bestowed upon them from the beginnings of their existence.
"We truly are of one mind," the doppelganger killer said, delighted.
She was indeed delighted, for the look of terror on Deborah’s face granted her a pleasure greater than any murder she had committed before.
All this time, she had envied her other half— their creator had designed completely different life paths for them:
The righteous Deborah Awen was adopted by a couple of legendary heroes, growing up as a naïve young lady with the goal of being a champion of justice.
She, however, could only harbor the malice towards the world that had burned within her since her creation, diving headlong into the crime-ridden underworld.
Upon learning that she was merely a fictitious character, she felt a profound emptiness, as though her life and existence had no purpose in the world.
Yet the righteous Deborah grew up happily unknowing of her fictitious life trajectory.
Now, she had finally destroyed the other’s blissful illusion by dragging her into the same morass where she dwelled.
"I have been looking forward to this day, you’ve finally become just like me," she said to Deborah, finally voicing the words she had long wished to say.
Aiden, taking in the doppelganger killer, said, "Why did you specifically target women who resembled you for murder? Was it because of your hatred for Deborah?"
"The master said our appearance was pieced together from the features of different people. Just thinking that these individuals might be part of my origins, I can’t help wanting to kill them, to erase their meaning of existence!" the doppelganger killer answered with conviction.
"Then why did you target Veronica?" Aiden continued, "Her look is completely different from yours, isn’t it?"
Veronica perked up her ears too; she wanted to know the answer.
"That’s because of you, of course!" The doppelganger suddenly laughed.
"Me?"
"Though she and I are opposites, we are still one and the same existence, and in some ways, we are alike... like our taste in men," the doppelganger winked at Aiden, "Naturally, I would be jealous of the women by your side."
"Ms. Deborah said she admires my sense of justice. How could you possibly be the same as her?" Aiden said, skeptical.
"The same liking, different reasons. What I admire is your strength!" the doppelganger’s gaze burned into Aiden as she spoke.
