Although the mysterious woman had spoken very softly, sound seemed impossible to conceal in this strange space. Her words reached everyone's ears clearly.
"What do you mean? Why does it sound as if the two of you are... the same person?"
Baoliu asked in astonishment, repeatedly bringing his left and right hands together and then separating them.
He temporarily gave up trying to figure out whether this was some kind of subspace. Whatever. Who cares?
The woman turned toward Paul and revealed a mischievous smile.
"Paul Greiman, your guess was right. You and I could be said to have 'known' each other for a very long time!"
Paul's heart jolted. It sounded as if she was already very familiar with him, while he knew nothing about her—apart from her appearance, which was identical to Laddie's, though her bearing was entirely different.
This is pretty annoying. Wait, horns on her head?
"I met her. You absolutely wouldn't believe it—the Queen actually looks exactly like someone by your side."
"Lady Laddie Gerard Setia."
"Her face, eyes, hair color... Every detail you could notice was indistinguishable. Oh... except for the horns on the Queen's head."
Back in Crystal Radiance, Paul had hosted Captain Glan when the latter came to visit him—the legendary explorer who had led a fleet in discovering the New World and completed the first Around-the-World Voyage. At the time, he had just returned to Aldo from his second expedition to the New World and had brought back the companions who had been held captive by the natives during the first expedition.
That explorer had described one of his incredible discoveries in the New World to Paul. The local Serdan People were a humanoid race with horns growing from their heads, and their queen looked exactly like Laddie.
Now, it seemed