In the early morning at the sandpit that was used as a training ground next to Kars's personal forge, Juri, in a training outfit of a black tube top, red loincloth, and bandages wrapped around her hands and feet, could be seen in the middle of the sandpit with her arms covering her modest chest and exposed belly in embarrassment while she stood hunched in front of Kars, who only wore a red loincloth with his hands placed on his hips as he looked at the girl with amusement.
"Wha—what is this indecent dress you're making me wear?!" Juri yelled at Kars with flushed cheeks as she glared at the man who suddenly forced her into this skimpy outfit and dragged her here after he rudely barged into her room in the early morning.
"Heh, no need to be shy, little girl. There's nothing for me to see anyway..." Kars taunted, looking Juri up and down before snorting in derision. His mocking expression immediately caused Juri to bristle, her fists trembling with fury, her earlier embarrassment burned away by sheer indignation.
"I—I'll kill you—!" With an enraged cry, Juri explodes with anger and lunges at Kars with her foot stretched out in a pitiful attempt at kicking him, only for him to sidestep her attack effortlessly before he subdues her with his palm planted firmly on her forehead, keeping her away from him while her arms and legs flail wildly in the air, unable to hit him.
"Nghh...! Unhand me, you brute...!" Juri cried out in frustration as she tried to push Kars' hand off her head but couldn't even make him move just a little.
"Hahaha, who knew you would be this enthusiastic for training?" Kars laughed at Juri's futile attempt to remove his hand as he saw her face twisted in humiliation before he pushed her forehead forcefully, sending the girl stumbling backward into the sand and landing on her ass as she yelped in surpise.
"Grrr... why do I have to do this kind of thing..." Juri growled as the sand was quite rough under her palms as she quickly pushed herself up and glared at Kars, who, for an unknown reason, told her that he wanted to train her to fight.
"Girl, do you know why I want to teach you how to fight?" Kars asked, not expecting her to answer as he got closer in front of Juri before he crouched down to her eye level while she wiped sand from her hands and her butt.
"..." Juri honestly has no idea why, as her glare falters under the unexpected intensity of his gaze that currently locks on to her without blinking.
"From the look of it, you have no idea, right?" Kars tilted his head slightly, studying Juri's bewildered expression for a bit as she just stood there in front of him, not knowing what to say before he continued to speak. "It is nothing complicated, really. I'm just going to make you less useless than you are right now so that you can be something actually useful to me."
"Less useless?" Hearing him, she repeated, her fists balling and her voice cracking with outrage and in disbelief at Kars's audacity. "You took me from my home, killed my father, and killed a lot of my family. Now you're playing mentor to your victim?!"
"Hah, stupid brat, you better stop thinking about what I want or what you want but about what you can get out of this situation instead." Kars scoffed at the girl's justified reaction, hitting Juri's forehead lightly with his knuckles and making the girl flinch from pain. "Hate me all you want, but in the end it's not going to matter when you're just some weak little girl, is it?"
"Shut up!" Juri snarled, her fist punching at Kars' face in retaliation, but he just grabbed her wrist mid-swing to stop her fist with ease, while the girl could only glare at him like a cornered kitten. "I'm not weak!"
"We'll see," Kars smirked, twisting Juri's wrist just enough to make her gasp before releasing her as she stumbled back, cradling her wrist against her chest while he straightened to his full height, towering over her. "First let me introduce your sparring partner."
"My sparring partner...?" The girl said as she glanced around the empty training ground, then showing a confused expression on her face since there was no one else in the vicinity besides the two of them.
"You'll see her soon..." Kars's mischievous smirk widened as he suddenly grabbed Juri's face before she could react. His fingers seemingly dug slightly into her temples, and her body immediately went rigid with a sickening, dizzying sensation as if her skull were being split open, but there's no pain.
"W-What are you...?" Juri's anxious voice came out strangled as Kars' grip on her face tightened before he yanked something out of her. Then Juri lost her words as in front of her there's another girl with an identical appearance and outfit to her, currently hanging limply in Kars' hand.
"Eh...?" Juri utters in shock as she sees her own face, her own purple eyes on another her, staring at nothing with emptiness in them while the duplicate body dangles limp from Kars' grip like a doll, its limbs slack, its chest barely moving with shallow breaths.
"What is..." Juri absentmindedly reached out to touch the duplicate's arm, only to jerk her hand back in surprise when she realized that it was not an illusion when she felt the warmth and softness of the skin.
"H-Hey, what on earth is this...?! What did you do?!" The girl starts to freak out, her fingers clutching at her own arms in confused panic as she takes several steps back from the duplicate, her duplicate, that Kars somehow pulled out of her.
"Hahahaha, look at you scared shitless!" Kars barked out laughing, thoroughly amused by her reaction as he used his soul magic to stuff a modified soul he is keeping in his soul reserve into Juri's dupe as green energy pulses around Kars' hand that is holding the dupe body's head before the body stirs, twitches, and then snaps into awareness, its once-empty eyes now burning with eerie green light.
Kars released Juri' dupe from his hand as she landed barefoot on the sand with unnatural grace, her glowing green eyes now locking around her surroundings like a curious baby.
"Here, meet a cooler Juri... nah, let's just call her Kruri for convenience..." Kars said, grinning as the duplicate now called Kruri stretched her limbs and cracked her bones before she tilted her head, studying Juri, her original, with a blank look and giving Juri an unsettling feeling.
"..." Kruri blinked, her glowing green eyes narrowed as she took in Juri's confused and horrified expression. Then, without warning, she suddenly lunged at Juri, and before Juri could even react, Kruri's knee already slammed into her stomach with a force that knocked the air from her lungs.
"Gahhk...?!" Juri instantly crumpled to the sand, gasping and groaning as she clutched her abdomen, her vision blurred with tears as she coughed and curled into the sand, her abdomen screaming with pain where Kruri's knee had driven into it. Juri tasted iron, her own blood, in her throat as her hands held her tummy. Above her, Kruri loomed, green eyes devoid of mercy that currently looked down on her like she was easy prey.
"Damn, girl, you really teach her who's boss!" Kars chuckled, seeing the dupe put Juri in her place very fast, as he walked beside Kruri and patted her head with appreciation while Juri caught the dupe making a smug expression briefly before her face went back to a blank look, as if it were just an illusion.
"Now listen up, Juri; this Kruri here will be your sparring partner from today onward, your second teacher, if you will," Kars said, circling the sandpit as Juri struggled onto her hands and knees, sand clinging to her skin. "She's got the same body and reflexes as you, but with more fighting experience that I put into her. Think of her as something to overcome if you want to be strong; otherwise, you will just be her punching bag."
"You are sick...!" Juri said to Kars as she spat blood into the sand, her angry glare now moved onto her dupe as she forced herself up on her shaky legs while Kruri stood motionless, her green eyes observing her original, ready to fight at any time.
"I'm not going to lose to some freak copy of me...!" Juri wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and glared harder, like it would actually do something, at Kruri through teary eyes. "I will—!"
"Haa!" But Kruri moved before she managed to finish speaking as the dupe drove her elbow into the girl's ribs with an audible crack.
"Arghh—?!" Juri let out a painful gasp as she hit the ground again, rolling through the sand while holding her side, her aura in the negative.
"Hahaha, by the way, don't worry about the injury; I can heal those easily, so you girls can go wild!" Kars' laughter rang across the training pit as he, acting as a ref with his arms crossed on his chest, watched Kruri drag Juri up by her arm before she punched her in the face. The dupe's moves are ruthless, with every strike calculated to maximize humiliation rather than lethality. A fist to the cheek here, a sharp kick to the leg there, and a submission hold to assert dominance just enough to rough Juri up but without knocking her unconscious.
"Ahhhh...!" Juri, the sheltered princess, now has her first taste of violence in the first fighting lesson under Kars' heartless guidance, and she hates it so much she swears to become stronger while getting DDT by her dupe.
Later, after she got beat up and completely healed by Kars's magic, the exhausted Juri was then carried to the mansion on Kars's back as she complained to him the entire way, while Kruri walked beside them silently, her blank green eyes occasionally glancing at her surroundings.
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"Eh, why is there another Juri?" Sophia's voice cut through the silence at the dining table as she stepped into the room and stared in bewilderment at Kruri stuffing her face with food beside Kars, who was currently demolishing his plate that had enough food to feed three people.
"She is Kruri; just treat her as Juri's little sister or something..." Kars, who was chewing on a mouthful of roasted sea monster meat, said to Sophia while gesturing casually at the said Kruri, who was eating quietly next to him with her glowing green eyes locked onto the meal in front of her.
"Hmph, she's not my sister, just a creepy copy..." Juri, on the other hand, glared at Kruri from across the table while clutching her spoon tightly, her body still feeling the phantom ache that her "little sister" generously inflicted upon her. Someday she is going to pay this humiliation back with interest.
"Nice to meet you. I'm a cooler Juri named Kruri." The dupe, now dressed in a cute black frilly dress with a headdress, looks up from her plate and gives Sophia a nod as she introduces herself with no emotion visible on her face.
The clatter of silverware filled the dining room as Sophia slid into her seat, her gaze flickering between the sulking Juri and the nonchalant Kruri with bewilderment still on her face as Siesta, who was waiting for her cue, walked out from the kitchen, balancing three steaming bowls of spiced broth, one of which she placed in front of Sophia.
"Haa... this is still too early for me to deal with after just waking up." Sophia sighed as she shook her head and decided to not question it for the time being. It's not like Kruri is even in the top ten weird things she saw around here after living with Kars for a year...