The Survival of an Inferior

Beneath the dark sky, Armin leans on the balcony, admiring the overview of the city with a glass of wine. He takes one big breath.

"I am going to die tonight." He mumbles. 

Armin takes one last sip of the wine and places it on the railings.

"Isn't that right?" Armin says.

Rafi appears from the shadows with fists clenched. 

"You are a smart person. Why did you do it?" Rafi asks. 

"Do what?"

Rafi jumps in front of Armin and grabs him by the neck.

"Ngh..."

"You are a bastard of the royal family. A disgrace and illegitimate. The Order helped your ascension to the throne yet this is how you repay us?!" Rafi exclaims. 

"Ack...he...hehehe..."

Rafi loosens his grip and throws Armin to the ground. 

"*cough* *cough*...Let's say the grand plans succeed and I hand over the kingdom to the demons. What happens after that? I will simply be thrown away, discarded, killed. What's the difference between dying now and later?" Armin says. 

Rafi cannot respond because it's true. He simply stares at Armin grasping his neck. 

A smirk widens on Armin's face. "Unfortunately, I won't go down alone-"

A swipe of Rafi's arm tears Armin into two, painting the white balcony red. 

...

Armin's remark ponders in Rafi's mind. He is no doubt a disposable pawn, not any less than Armin was. 

Birds of the same feather, Rafi understands Armin well. Armin knew he would die at the hands of The Order and he thought he was helpless with nothing for retaliation. 

But he saw hope in the rebellion, particularly Arsto. 

"An eye for an eye huh..." Rafi mumbles to himself. 

======================================= 

I approach the castle in Hira with a suspicious carriage and show the guards the golden pendant. 

They immediately bow without questioning and let me through, unaware of the forthcoming disaster. 

I park the carriage at the back of the castle and ask servants to help me transport the supplies, saying that Armin wanted all of these. 

In the storage room, after the servants left, I open the large crate. The creature is holed up in there. 

"Wait here for a while alright? Although, I don't really mind if you leave the storage room to kill some people. After all, it's your nature." 

The creature couldn't even hear me. It was salivating at the smell of thousands of prey in the vicinity. 

I close and crate and head to Armin's office. 

Without prior warning, I barge into his office. 

*BAM!* 

?!

"Arsto?" a man that looks like Armin exclaims. 

Oh? What magnificent acting!

"Why the sudden visit? Did you complete what I tasked?" the fake Armin asks. 

When I stare at the fake Armin, a panel pops up, revealing the culprit behind that mask. 

---------------- 

Rafi Lucas

Strength: Disguise, Infiltration, Agility

Weakness: ????

Status: Calm, Confused

Tribe: Human

Lvl: 201

Hp: 900000

Mana: 300010

Atk:283

Def: 481

Dex: 872

Mag: 511

Luck: 9

---------------- 

"How sad...You don't recognise me?" I say.

Rafi raises his brow. "Pardon?" 

He notices something off. The Arsto he knows from the information gathered does not have such a sinister aura. 

I sigh. "Do you really not recognise your best friend, Rafi?" I say with a huge smile. 

!!!!!!

Rafi immediately tears through the disguise, jumping out of my shadow behind. He attempts to rip my neck with his dagger but contact immediately rebounds the damage, pushing Rafi back. 

"What the...?" 

Rafi goes pale when he notices a solid layer of mana on my neck that reflected the attack. 

"A-Aura shield?! You are in the Grandmaster realm?" Rafi exclaims. (Swordsman are ranked from the lowest: Apprentice, Elite, Master, Grandmaster, Lord, Supreme)

When Rafi attempts to escape into the shadows, mana pulls him back and crashes him into the bookshelves. 

"Ack?!" 

Instantly, Rafi understands Armin's decision. There has never been an instance of someone this young in the Grandmaster Realm with mana control akin to a Grand Mage. (To recap, the titles of mages from the lowest goes: High, Grand, Sovereign, Supreme)

A literal fucking monster. 

However, his mind darts back to what I said.

"H-Have we met before?"

I sigh again, disappointed. "Just because my hair turned white and I grew taller, you don't recognise me?"

"Turned...white?"

Rafi widens his eyes. "W-What? No no...there's no fucking way."

I smirk. I touch my hair and the black pigments slowly recover. 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"What...the fuck..." 

Rafi's jaws drop in horror. He instinctively crawls back. "T-Two years ago, you were simply a fragile child! Y-You fooled everyone...!" 

When Rafi heard about my heroic deeds, he didn't believe it. He spent ten years with Samuel and knew him very well. The original Samuel is cowardly and arrogant. 

Yet my eyes tell a different story: dominating, manipulative, and sinister. 

I step closer to the trembling Rafi. This man is the king of information. He oversees the majority of the information organisations and knows everything that happens in the city. However such knowledge is limited to what people know. 

"Wait! I'm sorry for everything but I have a reason! I can even help you!" 

"Three executives from The Demonic Cult, a calculative nun from The Church of Axis, a famous merchant, and a general of the BOV. Do I need to say anymore?" 

I mention the lineup of each member of The Order while giving Rafi a message: I don't need you to be alive.

"AHHHHH!!!!" 

*BANG!!!* 

"WHAT IS THAT-"

"NO! HELP! ARHHHHHHHHHH!"

Screams and chaos erupt outside the room. A splash of blood seeps throw the gaps under the door. 

Rafi's legs lose energy as his final hope is crushed. He was trying to stall for time for someone to check the commotion in the room. 

"Crazy...You are attacking the government?"

My smile stays fixated and I grab onto Rafi's shoulder. 

"Okay okay. Before you take my life, can I request one thing? I did all of this to find the killer of my daughter-"

"I don't care," I reply coldly.

My hand grasps Rafi's face. "In death, everything does not matter, everything is fair. Goals and revenge? Those don't matter when you are dead."

"Ah..." Rafi has read people for his entire life and he knows I am one hundred percent serious. 

A burst of demonic energy engulfs his face, rushing into his body. 

"ARGHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Rafi screams in pain. 

"Don't worry. You can't die yet. Not before you put on a marvellous show for our dear audiences." I whisper to Rafi. 

*Thud!* 

And he falls unconscious. 

"Hah...gosh...what is the original Samuel thinking?" I mumble to myself. 

My original counterpart wanted to use a method that minimises unnecessary casualties. Although I understand that, it's too inefficient and makes things a lot harder for him to eliminate The Order. 

...

In the first place, this method was the strategy my original side used in the game "Elvis Arcane".

...

This is not good. His morality will bite him one day. Only after countless sacrifices can the original Samuel beat the game. 

Now that this is reality, can he clear the game again?

The day after, the words of a mysterious creature attacking the castle sprout everywhere. While knights were able to swiftly destroy the creature, casualties were created and the prince disappeared. 

Three days later, the prince reappeared once again and did something shocking. In the plaza, he holds a bloody knife with a dazed look, as if he is under hypnotism. Rafi, in Armin's disguise, punches the air and reveals The Order in front of countless people, citing that he is a member. He exposes every member of The Order with bright enthusiasm before slitting his throat with the knife. 

The event led to irreversible damage and extreme confusion. 

Amidst the panicking citizens, the puppeteer Samuel smirks and walks away, satisfied.