The real Alfred was suddenly teleported back into his room. As his vision cleared, he spotted his clone sitting by the desk, surrounded by a stack of books, scribbling furiously into one of them. The clone glanced up at him with a bitter expression, his eyes narrowed with frustration.
"What?" Alfred asked, genuine confusion in his voice. He couldn't understand why he was getting that kind of look.
"What what? Is that what you're asking me?" the clone snapped, his voice low and sharp, barely audible to anyone but the two of them. It was calm, but laced with irritation that couldn't be mistaken.
Alfred was taken aback by the reaction. He blinked, trying to figure out what had caused the sudden outburst. His eyes drifted to the tall stacks of books beside the clone
Then it hit him.
"Oh… yeah. I'm sorry about that," Alfred said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.
But his tone wasn't exactly convincing and the clone clearly wasn't buying it.
"You little shit," the clone snapped, slamming a book shut and tossing another one toward Alfred. "You told me you'd help me finish all of this ,that delaying our homework wasn't a problem. But look at this stack! And where were you yesterday, huh?"
Alfred caught the book mid-air and shrugged. "Well, for one, I succeeded in forming my core. And second, I was exhausted from the process, so I decided to sleep."
He smirked, stretching his arms behind his head. "Got a problem with that, huh?"
"Even if you have a problem with it, there's nothing you can do about it," Alfred said calmly, placing the book at the side of the table. He sat down beside his clone, eyeing the intimidating stack of work they still had to get through. The work itself wasn't difficult — just tedious and never-ending.
"So… congrats on forming your magic core. But are you going to do something about this mess?" the clone asked, pointing at the towering pile of books.
"Yeah. Here," Alfred said, pressing his fingers together into a cross-like sign from Naruto. A puff of air flickered as another shadow clone materialized out of thin air.
"Hello, losers," Clone 2 said with a wide grin, looking between the two of them.
"You two can handle this problem," Alfred said, already standing up and walking toward the door.
"Wait — and what exactly are you going to do while we deal with all of this?" Clone 2 asked, clear frustration in his voice.
"I'm going to test my power… just a little," Alfred replied, not even bothering to look back as he exited the room.
The last thing Alfred heard before closing the door behind him was one of the clones shouting for him to stay which he ignored completely, like it wasn't any of his business.
As he walked down the hall of the tower, he caught a glimpse of himself in a glass mirror. He paused, staring at the reflection lean figure with black hair and streaks of red pulled back. Looking at himself, Alfred mused that he was probably a 6 or 7 out of 10 in the looks department.
Which was fine by him. He never really tried too hard when it came to appearances anyway.
"Oh? Looks like someone's fallen for themselves," a sharp, teasing voice rang out from his side — unmistakably female, with a tone laced in sarcasm.
Alfred turned toward the voice, and the moment he laid eyes on the girl standing in front of him, he instinctively clicked his tongue.
Tch.
"Huh? Did you just tch at me?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, clearly amused or possibly offended by his reaction.
Sighing, Alfred shrugged his shoulders and tilted his head slightly."Sorry, girl… but what do you want?" he asked, his voice carrying a hint of impatience.
"Well," she replied, crossing her arms with a smirk, "I just wanted to let Mr. Perfect know that talking to yourself isn't exactly a good thing "
"Oh. Okay," he said simply, brushing past her without giving her the satisfaction of a reaction.
He continued down the hall toward the back room from there, he planned to slip out and head to the abandoned warehouse he often used for training. The Tower was a great place for magical practice, sure, but this time was different. He needed to confirm whether his newly formed core could absorb mana from the environment.
Testing that in the orphanage carried too many risks. If something went wrong if the core flared or drew too much energy there could be unintended damage… especially to the children.
The warehouse, though old and dusty, was familiar. He had used it long before he ever stepped foot in the Tower. And for now, it was the safest place to push his limits.