“Hilde…! Here you are! I was worried!”
As expected, just five minutes later, I was able to reunite with Friede.
Friede, who had come running with the black iron greatsword slung over her shoulder, threw herself into my arms, and I chuckled softly as I stroked her head.
“Thanks for worrying about me. Thankfully, it seems it was closer than I thought. Honestly, I thought it would take over an hour to meet again.”
“I thought my heart was going to drop! Was there a trap in the teleportation gate? I was afraid we wouldn’t see each other again, or that a monster would attack me while you were gone!”
“Yeah, yeah. No need to worry. Where would I go without you, Friede?”
After a long time calming Friede, who was sniffling from worrying so much, we set off to explore the maze together again.
– KWAANG!
Or should I say, dismantle the maze?
Friede wore a slightly hesitant expression at my plan to just break everything since she didn’t know the way, but she didn’t outright oppose it.
She only expressed a bit of concern if this was really okay.
“Um, won’t the monsters hear all this noise and come running, or will Reed run away and hide…?”
“Let them come! We can just kill all the monsters, and as for Reed…well, if we destroy all the places to hide, he won’t have anywhere to run!”
“Uh… um, I suppose that makes sense!”
Friede averted her gaze slightly and forced a smile.
I wanted to say, “What kind of foolishness is this?” but, being her, I just smiled without saying anything. That was the kind of expression she had.
“Okay, so Friede, just put away that greatsword and pull out the Holy Sword instead. If we break stuff together, it’ll go faster.”
“…the Holy Sword?”
Friede, who had been glancing around, suddenly paused and looked at me again.
“Yeah. Nibelung. It seems you hid it again so Reed wouldn’t find out, but since we’re going to kill it anyway, showing it shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
With the Nibelung’s sword energy, we could crush a much wider area in one blow. There was no better weapon for our demolition work.
Even if those walls ended up absorbing the sword energy like the crystal monsters, I could just swing the Holy Sword itself to break them down.
“U-um… that is…”
However, instead of pulling out the Nibelung, Friede nodded but then licked her lips with a troubled expression. She even broke out in a sweat.
That was a strange reaction.
“What’s wrong? Is there a problem…?”
I asked, cocking my head.
Could it be that the magic of the shining crystals here was too strong for the Holy Sword to be drawn out, or something like that?
“Well, um… that…”
No, that couldn’t be. I had just smashed all the surrounding walls. So at least here, there shouldn’t be any reason she couldn’t pull out the Holy Sword.
‘Then why…?’
My mind, which had become a bit more rational from the effect of [Ice Heart], shook awake parts of my brain that I rarely used, deducing possible answers.
Like a carousel, everything I had seen and experienced upon entering this dungeon flashed like a panorama in my mind.
Slime. A crystal monster affected by transformation magic.
Max, who vanished overnight after rejecting Arine’s healing. Reed, who called Mint Herb Dainty Mushroom Stew trash without even tasting it.
The Crystal Knight that had been mimicking our movements. An incomprehensible betrayal that had come out of the blue. And this place, a crystal maze filled with mirrors.
Fluid. Transformation. Miracle rejection. Mimic. Mirrors.
An incomprehensible betrayal.
‘Wait, could it be…!’
The words that had surfaced chaotically began to combine into the most plausible hypothesis that could explain the current situation.
I broke out in a cold sweat, pondering whether this hypothesis could actually be true.
If I resisted recklessly, only to find out it wasn’t true, there would be no fixing it afterward.
– Clatter.
But whether to call this causation or fortunate coincidence, I found something in my waist bag that could validate that hypothesis.
As if saying, “If you’re curious, check this.”
…Alright. Then let’s see if my thinking is indeed correct or just a mere figment of my imagination.
“If it’s hard to explain, that’s fine. The Holy Sword seems to be causing trouble. It’s not essential, so let’s just break down some walls for now.”
I smiled at Friede, who seemed stuck between a rock and a hard place, pointing at the walls that were still standing.
“Yes, yes! That sounds good!”
Friede, with her face brightening, nodded and raised her black iron greatsword, approaching the wall and swinging it.
I watched her back and carefully took out the item from my bag, opening the lid.
“…uh?”
Just as Friede, who had just smashed a wall, turned in surprise to look at me.
– SHWAAACK!
A clear, transparent liquid suddenly splashed all over her face.
It was the holy water that Arine had gifted me.
“AAAAAAAH!!!”
Friede shrieked, covering her face and staggering back as if I had doused her with sulfuric acid, gray smoke billowing between her fingers as she obscured her face.
…No, this wasn’t Friede.
There’s no way the goddess’s hero could take damage from holy water. The only being that could react like that after being hit by holy water was—
“I got you, you bastard.”
I swung my sword, eyes glinting with blue light, at the girl in front of me. So fast that even Friede wouldn’t have been able to react in that stance.
– SPLAT!
The head of the girl was violently severed from her body, rolling across the floor.
A monster that had been disguising itself as Friede, lying in wait to ambush me.
The head of the Doppleganger.
◆◆
Doppleganger.
A monster that mimics a person’s appearance, abilities, and memories, killing and devouring the original to take their place.
That was the identity of the betrayer who had shattered our party.
‘No way, I can’t believe it was a Doppleganger…’
Once I killed it and confirmed the truth, everything fell into place. The reason Max had disappeared overnight, and why Reed had betrayed us.
The Max we rescued was never Max, but rather the Doppleganger that had devoured him. That’s why it rejected Arine’s healing.
The act of pretending to be terrified as if it had lost its mind was because it knew that Arine couldn’t use her mental purification miracle due to Max’s memory.
If Arine had been a priest who had learned that miracle, she probably wouldn’t have pretended to be calm at all.
In any case, it had tricked Reed into letting his guard down before it devoured him, then continued to mimic the dead Reed from that point on.
It hadn’t bothered to get treated even while its back ached, nor disliked my stew recipe with a mental stabilization effect, all to keep from revealing its true identity.
It had killed Arine and made some strange excuses while fleeing, all to disguise itself as just a simple betrayer.
To keep hiding its identity until the very end, so it could seize the opportunity to ambush me in the guise of Friede.
However….
‘It seems it didn’t know Friede had the Nibelung.’
Perhaps it had just transformed into Friede, and it hadn’t fully replicated her memories yet.
Or maybe it had transformed into Friede but hadn’t eaten her yet.
The Doppleganger had completely overlooked the Holy Sword, allowing me to discern its identity thanks to my instinctive conclusion.
It was quite possibly a stroke of good fate.
If I hadn’t had the holy water, I would have been left to ponder how to confirm its identity, and if it had perfectly read Friede’s memory, it would have given up trying to mimic her entirely.
Dopplegangers could almost flawlessly mimic a person’s appearance, gear, and abilities, but they couldn’t mimic sacred items like the Holy Sword properly.
The holy water from Arine and the Holy Sword from Friede had rescued me from danger.
◆◆
After defeating the Doppleganger, I began dismantling the crystal maze at a much faster pace than before.
If that Doppleganger was the only one in this dungeon, then there was no problem, but if there were more lurking about, Friede would be in danger.
In my view, she looked like she would be completely fooled if my Doppleganger showed up, just like she hadn’t noticed I wasn’t Brunhilde.
So, I had to reunite with Friede as soon as possible. Before she got stabbed by the Doppleganger that mimicked me.
– KWAANG!
Was my ardent wish reaching the heavens? Before long, I was able to encounter Friede again. The real Friede, with her Holy Sword drawn.
“Is it a monster…?! Hilde, be careful! It looks as strong as an ogre!”
“An ogre? Now that’s a compliment to your lover, Friede.”
I shook off the sparkling crystal dust and smiled at Friede.
Pointing my Nibelung at the gray-armored knight standing next to her.
So it really was a Doppleganger. Just as expected, Friede seemed to have no idea about the creature.
It was a stroke of good luck that I encountered it before it ambushed Friede.
“Friede, get away from that woman! That’s—”
“H-Hilde is two…?!”
As the dust settled and Friede finally recognized me, her eyes widened in shock, mouth agape.
Then she mumbled in a dazed voice.
“What is this, heaven…?”
Even the Doppleganger, who had been trying to leap at me, stumbled back momentarily at her absurd statement.
“……”
“……”
Both I and the Doppleganger stared at Friede, unable to hide our incredulous expressions.
Silence descended upon the crystal maze.
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