Can the sadness that magic cannot take away be offset by love?

The light from the exit was right in front of him, and the transition from darkness to daylight made the subject's vision a little blurry.

In a trance, she felt that the light at the exit was very similar to the light in the laboratory where she had been from the very beginning, always bright as new, always precise and cold.

She recalled that ordinary night, when she, as usual, took advantage of the fact that only Phoenix and she were left in the lab to vent to the instructor about her dissatisfaction with her "substitute" status. That time, her words and demeanor must have been more intense than before, because it was the first time she saw genuine worry on the instructor's face.

As a result, Phoenix, who was frightened by her bold words and actions, talked to her all night, trying to solve her "psychological problems." That night, she and Phoenix naturally did not sleep all night.

The next day, a woman who claimed to be the head of the Ramirez family walked into the laboratory and said she came to see her.

The first question the woman asked her was what the mission of the "experimental subject" was.

The subject knew the answer to this question from the moment she became conscious. She told the woman without hesitation:

"Become the real 'Ecelia'. Take on her identity, handle her relationships, take over her daily life, and complete her assigned tasks without questioning or hesitation."

After hearing her answer, the woman looked at her with appreciation.

After the woman left, she heard her say to the heir at the door, "The experimental subject" - that is, her - is in very good condition today.

The experimental subject at that time thought that after receiving the promise made by the woman after listening to her words, how could her condition not be better? This woman who was in charge of an entire huge family, promised her -

"If you can fulfill your mission, you can get everything you want, including 'freedom'."

Then, for freedom—

The clone pressed his pocket one last time, looked up at Iris who seemed to be walking in front of him unconsciously, and said silently to himself:

"I'm sorry... But, between the two of us, only one can leave here alive."

A dagger appeared under the dim light in this dark place, reflecting a flash of light behind the cloaked girl.

As if touched by the slight reflection, Iris, who was only one step away from the exit, suddenly stopped.

Almost at the same time as the experimental subject made his move, the clown also took action. Facing Iris's back, the clown attacked her without hesitation.

The moment Iris turned her head, she saw undisguised surprise on her face as she faced the clown's direct attack.

This surprise was not even shared with the experimental subject at the side from the very beginning, as if she had never considered from the beginning, and had only not considered that the clown would attack her with the determination to kill her with one blow.

Iris dodged the subject's attack and took advantage of the suddenly shortened distance to grab the wrist of the subject's hand holding the dagger. After a crisp "click", the subject's wrist became unnaturally twisted. The girl's cry of pain had not yet come out completely, and the fear of having her dagger taken away by the opponent after a fierce blow seemed to suddenly cover her pain. Her cry was forced to stop halfway, and then she stubbornly endured the pain and tried to take her dagger back.

As the distance between them and the experimental subject shortened, the clown's attack was avoided. Iris glanced out inadvertently and saw -

A giant arrow, blazing with fire, carrying the meaning of executing the family's sentence, and with a flame that was rumored to never go out as long as there was no flammable material - was aimed at them from high in the sky.

The arrow came from the castle tower, and the location of the shooter was exactly the same as the place where he was almost stabbed by the ice cone before.

The one who launched this attack was Ernest Ramirez.

However, due to the long distance, they could not determine the specific target of the arrow.

The moment Iris discovered it, she was ready to dodge it.

……

One minute before the three entered the haunted house, Ernest appeared at the tower wall where he had been yesterday, and watched the girl in the cloak release the balloon with her own hands. Then he ordered the fireworks to be set off as a response signal and evacuated the crowd.

One minute before the arrow was aimed, Ernest was the only one left on the tower. The blazing flames quickly condensed into the shape of an arrow, but before releasing the arrow, he hesitated for a rare moment.

Should this arrow be directed to Iris or to the experimental subject?

In other words, this hesitation did not arise at the moment when the arrow was formed and needed to lock onto the target, but after he thought he had made the decision and would not hesitate any longer, the two choices secretly resurfaced in his heart and confronted each other silently.

And until he stood in the position that decided everything, about to make the choice that would touch the thread of fate, the hesitation that had been growing in his heart for a long time finally shook his will again.

"Let the experimental subject replace the original chess piece that was not well behaved enough."

This was something he had promised Gracia.

Over the years, he has fulfilled his promises to them and has never violated their requirements. Whether it is a transaction or cooperation, maintaining integrity in contractual behavior is the most basic virtue.

Gracia questioned Iris, who had shown her strength in the simulated exchange match and a series of previous actions. She believed that Iris was not suitable to be a chess piece on the chessboard, because a qualified chess piece could not bite back at the hand of the chess player at a moment that the chess player could not predict.

An unqualified chess piece should disappear and be replaced by a more obedient replacement.

But whether to change the chess piece or not was actually none of his business. This was a question that Gracia and Ellex should decide. Fundamentally, he didn't care about any choice they asked him to make, because when the dust settled, he would return to his original state of having nothing, or achieve true annihilation.

But, Iris - the sudden change in his destiny - is it really still irrelevant to him now? If he really doesn't care, why would he let her sway his decision? If she is really unimportant, why can't he shoot this arrow?

He was on the top of the tall tower, looking at the narrow exit where they were gathered below. One of the two lives that looked exactly the same would leave the world forever today. It was not until now that Ernest realized that taking a person's life might not be as simple as extinguishing a flame.

That might also mean that the person he killed with his own hands would never be able to go to the amusement park again.

All the bitterness, regrets, joy and happiness that have been experienced will return to dust after this arrow is shot, and together with their owners, they will stay away from the noisy and hot world and sleep forever in silence and nothingness.

Perhaps the word "life" has completely different connotations for the experimental subject and Iris, two people with complicated relationships, but the meaning of death to them is no different. What you have had will be lost forever, and what you have never had will never be touched again.

He thought of himself as a person who abided by the rules and would not overstep the line within the scope of the agreement. The flames burning on the tower today were inevitable, but rebellion seemed to be a wrong path he had inadvertently slid into. When he realized that he had made an agreement with Gracia and a promise to Iris at the same time, he might have realized that in this situation where he had to choose between the two, he would one day put all the weights on one end of the scale and allow his own deception and sin to lift the other party's trust high and turn it into a light and empty bubble.

"I will help you eliminate the hidden dangers from the experimental subjects and provide you with a relatively stable rear environment. In return, you must give me a chance to cooperate in the competition."

This was the deal, or rather, the promise, he made with Iris, where Gracia and Ellex were out of reach.

In fact, everything was premeditated. Ernest had threatened her long ago that he had collected her body data and could create another Ecelia at any time to remind her to restrain her abilities. Iris also knew that with Gracia's suspicious nature, it would be dangerous for her to show off in the simulated exchange competition.

But she still did it. Because rather than ignoring the threat of the "replica" and being trapped in the shadow of being replaced by the "stand-in" that suddenly appeared at any time, it would be better for her to intensify the conflict between the two sides and make the appearance of the "clone" an inevitable fact - although she would also face more direct danger, at least the development of the situation became controllable, and she could finally sleep at night.

Furthermore, Ernest had told her before that the prizes in each of the six official competitions would become her crucial bargaining chips. She could not give up such important prizes just because "she could not show her strength and arouse suspicion, leading to complete destruction". Therefore, she needed to resolve the hidden dangers in the Ramirez family as soon as possible before the competition began.

It is almost impossible to directly eliminate Gracia and Ellex, but we can take advantage of the situation and make "Iris" really be eliminated, and the "experimental subject" really replace "Iris".

And if Gracia had not witnessed the process of "replacement" with her own eyes, how could she prove whether what Ernest brought to her later was a clone or the real "Iris"?

Ernest's active deception of Gracia was a powerful means for Iris to resolve her worries.

In contrast, Iris promised him a chance to cooperate in the official exchange competition. There were six games, but only one chance to cooperate, so she agreed.

This was a plan that Iris and Ernest had started planning as early as after the incident with the little baby and just after they left Lawrence.

Because the "exposure" of strength and the intensification of conflicts in the simulation exchange competition started from then on.

This also means that Ernest told Iris almost everything about his and Gracia's plan to "murder Iris", but this does not mean that he can win Iris' trust in this way.

If Iris trusted him because of his "confession", then it would be exactly what he wanted. From Ernest's perspective, there was no conflict between "really killing Iris" and "telling her the plan to kill her". On the basis of deciding to implement the former, the latter would not only help him lower Iris's vigilance, but today - when he let the flaming arrow float high in the air - it would also have no effect on the arrow's locking onto the specific target.

He told Iris that he would kill the clone, and that it didn't conflict with him finally pointing the arrow at Iris, because he was the one holding the arrow.

And if he really wanted to fulfill the agreement with Iris, then at this last moment, he would aim at the clone - Gracia would not discover his rebellion, and Iris would fulfill the rest of the deal as agreed.

In other words, no one can be sure of his true intentions until the arrow flies through the air and hits the target.

This is the room he left for himself.

At the same time, letting Iris know the whole story is to circumvent the restrictions of the "little baby". Without deception and coercion, there will be no "involuntary" and the final "death" will not be touched. If he doesn't want her to die, or hasn't decided whether to let her die, he needs to tell her the truth.

If he finally decided to let her die, the arrow would automatically be aimed in her direction. If he didn't want to, then things would become what he told her, and there would be no deception or coercion.

In this way, the fate of everyone is firmly in his hands. Even if the high arbitrator hesitates before executing the judgment, these pre-arranged situations will increase the arbitrator's tolerance for error when executing the final judgment, so that as long as he chooses one of the parties, the value of this party to him can be maximized, and the negative impact of the other party's betrayal on him will be minimized.

This is how he has been making "judgments" for many years.

Although hesitation was an unprecedented experience for him, he could still use a series of means to reduce the adverse effects that this hesitation might have on him.

Everything is ready, just waiting for him to make the final decision——

Who should the arrow be pointed at?

The towers and city walls stood silently in the bleak autumn wind, long hair and robes fluttered behind them, and time passed silently.

Ernest raised his hand.

I don't know what kind of hesitation he went through in his heart, but at least on the outside, he drew the bow, put the arrow on, and shot, all in one go, without any hesitation.

The arrow whizzed towards the exit of the haunted house.