Chapter 397 Side Story Chapter 17
Doppelganger (3)
“No one should be alone.”
The Knight said.
Standing in the center.
He insisted that everyone should be watched fairly and thoroughly.
“I think it would be nice to pair up and watch each other.”
“But, our numbers aren’t even?”
It was just as the rcenary said.
The number of people in the group is five.
When paired up, there is one person left over.
“How about spying on two people on each side?”
The Paladin gave an opinion.
It was an idea that seed to co from a sense of wariness that appeared when the rcenary and I were paired.
I hope it does.
“Two people? Wouldn’t the boundaries between us be weakened?”
“No. In this case, it won’t be much different as you’re being watched by two people on either side.”
The Paladin’s opinion seed the most reasonable, and the party decided to follow it.
Looking at the seating chart, the group was seated in a circle in the order of – rcenary – Wizard – Paladin – Knight – .
In this case, I am monitoring the rcenary and the Knight, and conversely, the rcenary and Knight are monitoring .
I wondered if the Paladin would swap places with the Wizard to keep watch over the rcenary, but he actually didn’t.
Was he trying to avoid unnecessary provocation?
Or is it because he was still not sure of the rcenary yet?
Or did he decide that it was safer for the Wizard to be with the rcenary than himself?
I couldn’t be sure.
It would be great if I could read other people’s thoughts.
[Oh, I sotis think that, too.]
said the doppelganger.
The doppelganger who said so was reading my thoughts.
[No, I an that I want to read other people’s thoughts. Reading other people’s thoughts is very useful. Reading really solves a lot of problems. On the other hand, though, it sotis causes a lot more problems.]
The devil laughed quietly.
Goosebumps rose on my forearm, perhaps because of that laughter.
I shuddered at the sensation burning down my spine.
Then the Knight turned his head and looked at .
His eyes were full of doubt.
“Are you all right?”
Did you even watch shudder?
impossible.
I cleverly sat behind the others.
In the situation where I was sitting in a circle, I sat out of sight unless the Knight moved his head.
“I, I suddenly got a chill. It’s okay.”
“I see. Maybe it’s because you’ve been nervous for a long ti. You need to eat sothing first.”
The Knight climbed back to the common center.
He seems to be talking about having a al for a while.
It’s okay to just say it on the spot, but he thought it was a common topic, so he sincerely went to the common center.
The Knight begins by explaining the physical and ntal effects of nutrition for a person before he even talks about eating.
Was it a coincidence?
The Knight was clearly looking ahead.
But as I moved, when I looked at him, he turned and looked exactly at .
Twice.
Is it because his hearing is abnormally good that he stares at even at a rustle?
I don’t think that’s why he turned his head every ti I moved.
Am I mistaken?
Because of the excessive tension, I suffer from hallucinations that the Knight is always watching with an eye on the side of his head.
There was a possibility.
I had seen many adventurers who went crazy in the dungeon and suffered from galomania accompanied by optical illusions and hallucinations.
[This is not an illusion. human friend. To a human like that Knight, vision is nothing more than an auxiliary ans to grasp the world.]
What kind of nonsense is that
* * *
The doppelganger explained the principle of magic.
I didn’t understand at all.
Can you manipulate magical powers to see where your eyes can’t reach?
What is that?
It’s a scam
The al began.
As the advance team was organized, they didn’t know how long the expedition would last, so they had plenty of food.
“Sir, have so of this too.”
In addition to the supply, I had a few more snacks.
This is what I am giving away to my party now.
These are dried plums with a sour taste, sprinkled with sugar and pickled. If you eat them one by one, your mouth will drool, and if you eat it when you are tired, you will feel refreshed.
I had a lot of experience of being in distress or suffering in the dungeon, so I still brought a variety of things even in a situation where there was enough food.
Finally, I handed out the dried plums to the Knight and took a seat close to him.
“It’s delicious. Normally, I wouldn’t have eaten it because it was too sour. Maybe it’s because I inhaled a lot of dust, so the sour taste is really good. Thank you. I’ll enjoy it.”
The Knight said.
I handed out plums to everyone, but this Knight was the most kind, saying thank you.
This gentleman also seems to have a good personality.
He was like a character in a fairy tale, so I felt a sense of alienation.
“Plums are said to be good for recovery from fatigue and intestinal activity, as well as good for eye strain and immunity. Oh, what does immunity an? Humans have a certain level of resistance to various diseases. According to bacteriology...”
Although he’s a bit chatty and likes to pretend to know.
A bit much.
I listened carefully to sothing that didn’t even make sense to and said, ‘Oh, that’s right. Indeed. I knew it. I can’t believe it.’ I replied hard, adding those following words.
While talking to the Knight, the rcenary ca closer.
He seed to want to chat for a bit as we seed to have a comfortable conversation atmosphere.
“Sir Knight, where were you from?”
“Didn’t I tell you? I’m from the Frembe region. Co to think of it, you two said you knew each other?”
So the story of the hotown began.
The rcenary was excited and started talking about his hotown.
The rcenary was actually from sowhere together with .
I just don’t rember him.
“In our village, there was a famous tree rock...”
I rembered
A tree rooted in rocks.
The children used to swing in the tree.
It was an unusual tree, and there were many adults praying under it.
However,
“Is there such a rock in our village?”
“Huh? Don’t you rember?”
The rcenary asked as if he couldn’t rember the rock tree.
“...I don’t know. Haven’t you mistaken it for another town?”
The rcenary said that he could be mistaken, he shouted so, so I hesitated, saying that I did not rember well.
The rcenary said that my mory is not good, and he told to take a decoction of good dicine for my mory and went on.
It didn’t seem like a big deal, but the light of doubt in the Paladin’s eyes who was looking at us from behind, more precisely, the rcenary, grew stronger.
“What was the Knight’s hotown like?”
I asked the Knight to change the topic.
I thought that if it was the Knight, he would make forget this ambiguous situation at once with his unique chatter.
* * *
“The promise I made with that commoner friend had a profound effect on my life.”
Had I known this would happen, I would not have asked the Knight about his hotown.
If I had known the chatter would be this long.
“It was not my intention to beco a Knight. It was my destiny to beco a Knight. I had no desire to beco strong and beco a superhuman, nor did I feel obligated to be loyal to His Majesty the King. I was just being carried away like a boat swayed by the waves. It was that friend who gave aning to my life. eting him gave the goal of living a life where I can protect and help more people. I...”
When the hell will this end? This damn talk...
“So I started practicing swordsmanship again...”
I know a lot of talkative people.
Mainly, they talk a lot when they are drunk, but they have the characteristic of repeating the sa thing over and over again while getting drunk and chattering endlessly.
But the Knight did not get drunk, nor did he repeat what he said.
The fact that the chatter was being filled without overlapping content was surprising, and I was honestly amazed.
“In order to et the qualifications to beco a royal Knight...”
So the Knight continued talking.
Continuously.
[Open your eyes, human friend.]
I was startled by the doppelganger’s voice and opened my eyes.
I fell asleep for a mont.
My heart was pounding.
I hurriedly looked at the Knight, but he was still talking as if he didn’t care that I was sleeping.
The rcenary was listening with much amusent.
“Light!”
“Light!”
The two were imrsed in the story properly, even with strange slogans.
Aren’t they just two idiots?
“It’s strange. The creator of the light sword said that he left only one word. If you don’t think you can do it, you’ll die at once.”
“Ha ha ha ha ha!”
Where the heck is the point to laugh at?
If you don’t think you can do it, then die?
The only answer is to die and be reborn. What is this?
Are you saying to just kill a person with no talent?
It was an upsetting story to hear.
I looked around.
The Wizard was still silent.
The Paladin was still looking at the rcenary.
I had to keep this situation.
The rcenary is under suspicion, but should not be branded as the doppelganger.
If the rcenary even dies due to suspicion, the next victim will be with a high probability.
My goal is never to reduce the number of party mbers.
Let’s say you kill the people in this cavity one by one.
In the end, there will be two people left, including .
And I’ll die as the last one.
As the overwhelmingly weakest , I had to hold on to the ti sohow.
Until the rescue team arrives and the blocked path reopens.
[After the path is open, don’t worry. Activate the stun magic trap beyond the wall once more, kill everyone, and then get out of here.]
Very good.
The people outside don’t yet know about the doppelganger.
If I kill everyone and the rescue team and go back to the entrance alone, I’ll be the only survivor and can make up a story.
I can survive.
I couldn’t die like this.
When I left ho to find the treasure, my life was ruined.
Since then, my life has been like rolling in shit.
Killed people, cheated people, betrayed people.
I was betrayed, deceived, and nearly killed.
All that was left for was that I did not die and survived.
If the end of that long, long abyss is futile death.
I couldn’t accept it.
* * *
The night passed.
Inside the cavity in the cave where neither the movent of the sun and the moon nor the intersection of light and darkness could be seen.
We could tell the ti by looking at the clock.
And apart from the movent of the world
Incidents happened at night.
As always.
As if it was set that way.
People beco more sensitive over ti.
The friendly atmosphere of the altis beca harsh as if it had all been a lie.
The problem was that fatigue and drowsiness after eating were setting in.
The fact that there was still a doppelganger in the cavity made people afraid to fall asleep.
They began to guard each other sharply like a wounded beast.
And sparks flew over the oiled fuse.
The Wizard suddenly insisted on doing business in the corner.
Everyone was against it.
It was too dangerous for one person to disappear out of sight.
“It’s because I can’t! Damn it, I’m so old that I’m so embarrassed about my wrinkly things. We all should go away little by little and get business done.”
The rcenary fiercely opposed it.
But the Wizard didn’t give up.
He insisted on doing business in a place out of sight no matter what.
It may be inevitable that the rcenary suspects the Wizard as a doppelganger.
To the rcenary, the only person in the group who was acting suspiciously was the Wizard.
He accidentally pulled out his axe.
The Paladin who was watching him accidentally raised the hamr and blocked him.
“What, this! You should attack that old man, why stop !”
Instead of responding to that, the Paladin used a holy spell.
“Cast a shadow under the light. Holy Mark.”
“Bastard, you want to try it with now!”
The hamr of the Paladin and the ax of the rcenary began to collide.
The Knight was perplexed by the sudden developnt of the situation, and I was quietly watching.
As if dealing with the enemy of his life, the Paladin swung his hamr desperately with a frightening expression on his face.
However, the fighting power of the warrior representing the rcenary guilds covering the entire continent was formidable.
“Keuk!”
The Paladin fell on his butt.
Then, in the eyes of the rcenary, I saw the Wizard casting a spell.
“This crazy old man...!”
The rcenary pulled out the dagger hidden in his abdon band and threw it.
The Wizard was hit by the dagger and fell.
“Stop it!”
Kuang!
A sudden burst.
As the Knight swung his sword and hit the floor, there was an explosion like magic, and the floor shook.
While the rcenary looked at the Knight in amazent, the Paladin threw the hamr unhurriedly.
“Holy Smite!”
The hamr that even had a holy spell on it hit the rcenary.
The rcenary just fell to the floor.
[Hoho, this is totally ssed up.]
It was as the devil said.
Damn, I should have stopped the fight sohow.
The fight broke out much more suddenly than expected.
There was no room for to intervene.
I didn’t even have the strength to stop their fight.
If I had intervened blindly, I would have died within a second.
The Paladin jumped up and picked up the hamr again.
The Knight also approached and began to stop the Paladin from trying to end the fallen rcenary.
It’s fucked up.
Really fucked up.
Those excited gents didn’t seem to notice, but the rcenary’s head was bleeding.
It’s bursting like a waterfall.
“Stop! Why are you doing this all of a sudden!”
“Get out of the way. He’s a doppelganger! Let’s take this opportunity to put an end to it...”
The Paladin clouded the end of his words.
It was then that he discovered that the back of the rcenary’s head had been completely smashed.
The fact that the body of the rcenary, which had already been stretched out on the floor, was not moving at all.
“is, is he dead?”
The bewildered Paladin’s eyes slowly rose and turned towards .
Before new doubts appeared in those eyes.
I reflexively did what I was supposed to do.
“No!”
I ran to the fallen rcenary with bitter tears.
And grabbed the Paladin’s leg.
“Paladin! Please use a healing spell!”
“Bu, but...”
“If a doppelganger is in danger of dying, should he reveal himself! This man is definitely not a doppelganger!”
Even in the midst of embarrassnt, the Paladin poured healing spells into the back of the rcenary’s head.
The rcenary miraculously survived.
Just for a second.
“If I beco successful and go back to my hotown soday.....I want to propose to your sister..... Yuri... “
The rcenary grabbed my hand and said so.
That was his will.
At the end of his last words, he died completely.
“No!”
I wept and wept like the end of the world.
anwhile, my mind was filled with unresolved doubts.
But who the hell is this rcenary bastard?
I can’t quite rember who he is.
How does he even know my sister’s na?
My doubts were not resolved.
The only rcenary who held the key to the answer was already dead.
While the bewildered party was silent, only the sound of my crying as I hugged the rcenary’s corpse reverberated in the cavity.
And
[Hihihihi.]
The sound of the devil’s laughter also accompanied the cavity.
Reviews
All reviews (0)