Hermes had no intention of placing his hopes on Louis. A body? If he couldn't get one, so be it. Compared to that, his own survival was far more important.
That was why he suggested staying behind—why he asked Louis to leave him in this seemingly flawless room that, in Hermes's eyes, was riddled with loopholes.
This way, he could hide himself at any time while making Louis believe he had already escaped.
_Now this is true trickery,_ Hermes thought smugly.
But perhaps it was just his imagination—he couldn't shake a faint feeling that _he_ was the one being tricked.
What had Louis done before leaving?
Hermes drifted off in thought, though his work on altering the Room of Requirement never stopped.
The chamber began to tremble. Hastur, who had been lounging in the corner, sensed the anomaly at once. Its fur bristled, and it sprang up, hissing at Hermes.
Hermes glanced at it, then smiled. "Goodbye, little monster."
Using the cauldron's position as the pivot, the surrounding walls and floor began to flip and shift. Hermes seized the moment, slipping through the turning wall.
Hastur leapt, intending to swallow Hermes whole, but the suddenly rising floor flung the beast aside, tossing it back near the cauldron.
By the time it scrambled back to its feet, the chamber had returned to normal—except Hermes was gone.
"Meow?"
Hastur looked left, then right, letting out a puzzled sound.
Hermes, meanwhile, was already inside a concealed chamber—one he had created as a hidden annex to the Room of Requirement, entirely under his own control.
He surveyed it with satisfaction.
"Now I just need to wait," Hermes chuckled to himself.
The thrill of escape was intoxicating, so much so that even the mental sluggishness he had suffered from being trapped so long in the darkness of the Volumen Hydrargyrum began to fade. His mind felt sharper than it had in ages.
Then, suddenly, unease struck him. That faint sense of being deceived was swelling, like some fraud aimed directly at him was closing in fast.
An unreal sensation enveloped him. His eyes widened—everything around him felt like a dream, fragile and illusory.
That feeling had been there all along. From the very moment he saw Louis leave the Room of Requirement!
"So illusions count as deception too? Heh… never thought you'd be able to sense that."
Louis's voice came from everywhere at once, echoing as if he were omnipresent.
The sudden voice rattled Hermes. He whipped his head around, searching desperately for Louis's figure. But there was no one there. The room was empty.
_Illusion… it's an illusion!_
The realization struck him. In that instant, his surroundings shattered like glass, the false dream crumbling away to reveal reality.
He was still in the Room of Requirement, in the little annex he had created. But the Louis who should have been gone was standing right before him.
And Louis's fingers—index and thumb—were pinching Hermes's tiny head, holding him as if he'd been caught all along.
"Didn't think you had this trick up your sleeve. Impressive, impressive… worthy of the name Hermes." Louis smiled.
The starry halo in his left eye dimmed, extinguishing as the illusion dissolved.
His "departure" just now had been nothing more than an illusion, a fabricated trick. When Hermes suddenly insisted on staying behind—an excuse riddled with problems—how could Louis possibly overlook it?
What Louis hadn't expected, however, was that Hermes was capable of manipulating the Room of Requirement itself. He had nearly lost track of him. Fortunately, his stand-in—the Faceless Phantom—was reliable, and the stand-in of his stand-in was even more reliable.
_No matter how fast you run, can you outrun stopped time?_
"No matter how amazing I am, I can't compare to you. To think you actually used illusion… you win," Hermes admitted helplessly. "But can you let me go? Being pinched like this is rather uncomfortable."
"Wouldn't it be better if you explained everything first? Otherwise I'll just have to waste more effort catching you again," Louis replied.
"How rude. Don't forget, I'm your teacher," Hermes said indignantly.
"That's your trump card? Hoping I'll let you go out of respect for a teacher–student bond?" Louis asked.
"Why not? I taught you everything without holding back. You can't just turn your back on me now," Hermes said in a tone of shameless resignation.
"Sounds reasonable," Louis said with a faint smile. "But… do you really believe you're _Hermes_?"
Hermes froze.
"To be honest, I never thought my clumsy little tricks could fool you. So why don't we both be honest? How about that?" Louis's lips curled, and Hermes felt a very bad premonition.
"Then… forget it. I won't run anymore. I'll keep teaching you. You want to learn how to control the Room of Requirement, right? I'll teach you—guaranteed to succeed," Hermes coughed lightly.
"No need. I already learned it just now—you demonstrated it right in front of me," Louis said, his gaze fixed on Hermes. "Besides, you don't need to run. You were mine from the beginning. Something I crafted with my own hands."
Hermes fell silent.
"Looks like you'd already guessed," Louis said calmly, unsurprised.
"Of course. Who in their right mind only has a single head? Never heard of any curse like that," Hermes muttered bitterly.
"And when I examined your body, I discovered that active energy inside you—the one capable of waking stone statues. When I mentioned it, your expression shifted ever so slightly."
"So you've been suspicious of me since then?" Louis asked. "And yet you still taught me?"
"I was hoping to build some goodwill. That way I could beg you to spare me later," Hermes admitted. "After all, I'm just a false god. Letting me go wouldn't cost you anything, would it?"
"I'll have to think about that," Louis said casually.
Hermes blinked, then sighed. "Even _that_ was a lie. Looks like you already decided how to deal with me long ago."
"Then take a guess how I'll handle you," Louis said.
Hermes glanced at him. "You hate it when others see through your lies. So you won't keep me. Especially since I know too many of your secrets—your unusual powers, your identity as a non-wizard."
"Exactly. My original plan was to let you experience my results as my teacher, then allow you a peaceful end. But since you tried to escape, there's no point anymore," Louis said evenly.
"Like you said—if you'd kept up the act, I would've let you leave with some dignity."
"Heh. You learn quickly," Hermes sneered, then suddenly roared, "I curse you—!"
But before the words were finished, pale yellow wood spread over his head, encasing him in an instant. His form twisted into a grotesque wooden carving, a snarling head frozen in rage.
"Thank you for your teachings, Mr. Hermes," Louis said softly. With one hand, he crushed the wooden head to pieces.
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