Mug and I made our way to the courtyard quickly, neither of us interested in slowing down in case one of the royal family had another request to make of us. We were free! With hardly any consequences! Well, Edvald definitely had it out for us now, and the queen seemed like she couldn’t wait for us to fail. Okay, and the king was no peach either, but still. It could have been worse; I knew from a year of observing how quick the king was to punish.

  We had almost made it to the courtyard when a familiar voice called out cheerily. “Oh Lugenhelm! A moment of your divine time, if you would allow!” Stelheim. The man fated to sell out Aeternia. Well, the feeling of freedom had been nice while it lasted.

  I stopped moving my crude legs, orienting my vision toward him. He was doing a strange motion where he pretended like he was running but moved at his same walking pace. His silver hair floated behind him gracefully, and he held his violet robes in his hand. I saw two different chambermaids (and one guard who was doing his best not to be noticed) on the verge of fainting as he floated by them. If my Charisma stat was single digits, it wasn’t far-fetched to believe this guy was near the stat cap. He fluttered his way right in front of me, then bowed so deeply his knees nearly touched his forehead.

  “Oh great Lugenhelm, might I have a few words with you alone? I know it is untoward for someone as low as myself to approach someone as mighty and divine as yourself, but alas, desperate times dictate drops in decorum.” He spoke with a playful tone, but there was an edge of demand in his voice. This was definitely not a question, it said.

  ‘Mug, go make sure they have a donkey cart ready for us. I’ll handle this.’ Mug gave what was his version of a salute, then spun around on his heel and scampered off. Stelheim waved and then turned to enter an empty chamber, beckoning me to follow. I did so, wondering what the hell this psychotic phony could want. A threat? A favor? A chance to see if steel could bleed? Only one way to find out.

  As soon as I was inside, he slammed the door shut and hunched down so that we were at eye level. We sat that way for an uncomfortably long time until finally he spoke, his voice no longer playful.

  “You don’t belong here. I know what you are.” It sent shivers down my steel spine. How could he know? Was reincarnation just something that happened here and Stelheim was aware? What did that mean for Aeternia? More importantly, what did that mean for me? I shot out a hasty note which he read aloud.

  “‘I don’t know what you mean, Master Stelheim. I am simply a spirit of the house of Freise, one known as a “Lugenhelm” in Germanen, as you so graciously provided.’ Ha! No use lying to me! I know what you are, and I know why you’re here too! Admit it, you’re not from this world, are you?” He roughly rapped on my lid before continuing.

  “No, you’re not. You’re just like me, aren’t you? Another poor soul trapped in a new body he never asked for, right? By a cruel Father-God, sent here for reasons unknown? Only, I have figured out why!” Holy crap. He was another reincarnated human from the ‘real’ world? That had not been on my bingo card. I didn’t want to overplay my hand, but meeting another human was too tempting not to bite onto. He caught my next note.

  “‘Are you serious? Are you really from Earth? Like, another human? Prove it; you could just be, I don’t know, using magic to read my mind or like, some trickster god or something. No offense, but I trust you less than a rickety bridge in a tornado.’ Ha! You want proof? Here, try this for proof!” He stood back up, then began to do a flawless running man. He transitioned that into the robot, then ended with a perfect floss. From there, he began to sing bits of several copyrighted songs I can’t mention from a group known for being four British insects. He stopped after singing to me the virtues of a world with no money or religion, only slightly out of breath.

  Okay, he was from Earth. I sent him another note.

  “‘Okay, first off, you have a great tenor,’ thank you Lugenhelm, much appreciated, ‘but why are you here too? Why are we here? How did you get here? What was your life like before that the Father sent you here?’ That is a lot of questions, Lugenhelm, but I will start at the beginning. I believe we are here because of fate; not just me, but you as well.” I thought about that for a second before dismissing it. I had heard the conversation between the mother and the father; I was definitely not fated to be here. I shot out another note.

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  “‘What do you mean, fated?’ Ah, Lugenhelm, I’m glad you asked. You see, back on Earth, I often found myself pondering fate and the nature of the universe. Have you ever stopped to ask yourself what separates humanity from bees? Well, I have—”

  I groaned inwardly as he began to monologue. In anime, you could always tell who an unhinged villain was based on their long-winded response to a question. It always started exactly like this: Have you ever considered what makes man better than beast? Have you ever considered the stars and their effects on us? Have you ever noticed that organs align perfectly with whatever pseudoscience I’ve personally decided is correct? Stelheim might be from Earth, but whatever he was spewing now marked him as an absolute nutcase. I tuned back in to his conclusion.

  “…and that’s when I knew! The first time I took a life, I realized what separated man from bees wasn’t tools or emotions or love, but instead the capacity to knowingly, willingly, take a life and destroy it!” Holy crap, what did I miss? He squatted again to get back to my level, eyes manically wide.

  “Lugenhelm, the reason I am here is because in my first life, I marked myself as a man able to go against the grain and rise to embrace the call of duty to separate myself from nature! On Earth, my sphere of influence was limited—by surveillance cameras, by nosy neighbors, by policemen and barking dogs and people too shy to meet up in private—but here, I can spread my wings and fly the way man was meant to! The way I was meant to!” He stood and opened his arms as if addressing an unseen audience. Great, my first meeting with another reincarnated earthling and it turns out he was some sort of serial killer. I wanted to run screaming from the room, but I figured that would be a horrible idea, so instead I sent him another note.

  “‘Okay, so killing people is what makes you special, got it. What does that have to do with me and why we’re both here?’ Oh Lugenhelm, don’t you understand? It’s all so simple! If I was sent here to do my duty, then you were sent to pose as an adversary! A great game of cat and mouse! Of cops and robbers! After all, there can be no great triumph without great struggle, correct? I was sent to do my work, and you were sent to stop me! Ah, what great fun! The gods are truly wise!” So Stelheim thought I was his fated enemy, the Sherlock to his Moriarty. Well, better that than an ally, I guess. I had a few more questions to ask before I fled as fast as my little legs would allow me.

  “‘Just so you know, I have negative interest in being the L to your Kira. But if what you’re saying is true, why tell me? And what do you know of Aeternia and this story? Because if you did, I don’t think you’d be so jazzed about playing a part. Also, completely unrelated, do you remember your name?’ Lugenhelm, first off, you don’t have a choice; these were the roles destined to us, though I think we are more of a Batman and Joker type, in my mind. Second, I am aware of the world of Crown/Final Decree, thank you. A man I strangled in Detroit had been quite obsessed with it, and once I started playing the gacha I got… well, I got pretty into it too.” Oh, so a gamer serial killer? I couldn’t think of a worse combo.

  “And your final question… of course I remember my name, but I think if I told you it would be quite meaningless; I worked hard to keep my name out of headlines, for obvious reasons, haha! There is a moniker that you might have known me by, however: The Cyber Stalker is what I think the news liked to call me.”

  Being a shut-in semi-NEET, I hadn’t been the most up-to-date on most current events in my life, but even I knew about the Cyber Stalker. He was an actual serial killer, one notorious for tricking lonely losers into meetups and then, well, you know. Killing them. He always left his calling card on victims: a flash drive with his chat logs and communications with the victim as well as spy shots. This was not a man; this was a malign predator, an actual demon from hell. He thought of us as fated enemies.

  I just could not catch a break.

  Stelheim straightened himself up and dusted off imaginary dust from his robes. The mania was gone and he was back to his usual polished self.

  “I tell you these things, Lugenhelm, in the spirit of gamesmanship. I know what happens to this country, and I am honored to be a part of it. I am a worthy enemy, so surely you must be as well. From here on, the game is afoot! The stage set, the actors in place, and the curtain drawn! Good luck, Lugenhelm! Or should I call you something else? Surely, you were a detective or officer hot on my trail before your death? Of course—who else to stop me than some bold officer of the law, so distraught by never catching me that you followed me to another world to enact your so-called justice? Detective! That’s what I’ll call you! Don’t confirm anything, it would ruin the fun!” He turned to leave, his hand on the door handle. I shot out a final note.

  “How did I die? Well, actually, the funniest thing. Three delivery trucks spun out of control and struck me while I was crossing the road going home. Can you believe it?” I could, actually. With that, Stelheim left, leaving me with the trashcan equivalent of a headache.