Two Rins.
Same face. Same voice. Same fractured memory.
But only one was real—or close enough to be spared.
Matthew didn't blink. He needed to stay detached. Emotions were traps in this space, and he knew the system could twist anything it could record.
So he spoke carefully.
"I'm going to ask you both the same question. One at a time."
The Rins nodded in unison. A sickening mirror image.
"Answer honestly," he said. "Or… convincingly. Either way, I'll know."
He paused. Then asked:
"What did you tell me the night before the King's Trail final vote?"
Silence.
Rin #1 shifted. Her eyes flicked sideways—not to him, but to Sora. Calculating.
Rin #2 blinked slowly. "I told you not to choose me."
Rin #1: "I said… to pick whoever you thought could win."
Matthew narrowed his eyes. Both answers were plausible. But one was specific. One carried weight.
Sora stepped forward slightly, but Matthew raised a hand.
Still watching.
Still hunting.
Then he leaned closer to Rin #1.
"You were crying when you said it. Weren't you?"
Rin #1 faltered.
And there it was.
Not just the pause. Not the silence.
But the way her mouth moved.
Too late.
The system had delayed her reaction—like a copy trying to simulate emotion, not remember it.
Rin #2 clenched her jaw.
"Don't—don't bait it. It might learn faster if it figures out where it failed."
But it was already too late for that.
The false Rin began to glitch—shifting between silhouettes, facial expressions flickering like broken film.
Then it turned to Matthew and spoke in his voice:
"You doubt everything. That's your flaw."
And with that, the figure dissolved into thousands of hairline cracks that splintered upward into the void.
Unmarked Copy Disintegrated
Round One: Cleared
Trust Meter: 1/3 Restored
Next memory-swap in 8 minutes
They barely had time to breathe.
Sora's knees buckled.
Matthew caught her.
"I remembered something that doesn't belong to me," she whispered. "The mask… it's still tethered to the Cathedral."
Rin steadied herself, voice cold. "If this is only round one, we're not even in the real game yet. We're in its dream."
Matthew looked at the space where the copy had stood. Then at his own hands.
They were shaking.
But not from fear.
From familiarity.
He recognized the way the copy hesitated.
He'd seen it before. In the mirror.
The system was learning from him.