153. How are you doing this to me
[Carbal.]
An often forgotten fact, Cream is surprisingly human. As such, there were times when she needed her break too. Of course, if you can call it a break.
In the middle of a forest where the breath of civilization cannot reach. The moonlight streaming through the cracks in the leaves colored the girl’s rosy cheeks pale. I looked at the figure and suddenly turned my head to the voice calling me.
[You look like a real pervert.]
[No, suddenly?]
As I hesitated at the unexpected surprise, a needlessly refreshing laugh echoed over the sleeping Choco’s arms. I sighed and turned my gaze to the source of the sound.
Time for good children to be lost in dreamland on an old evening. Choco, who is so squeamish when awake, is cute like an angel when asleep. Only the swords are awake at this time.
Under the stars, Muffin was silent as always, and the first to speak was the holy sword.
[What is the gaze looking at the hero…]
[Don’t talk nonsense, if you have something to say, say it.]
As if stabbed to the point, the holy sword shut its mouth. The Holy Sword’s inclination is extremely good. With her compromising stubbornness, she puts the brakes on my actions at every turn, but she doesn’t argue for no reason.
If you raise your blade out of nowhere even though you haven’t done anything wrong, it means that the holy sword has something to say to you. Anyway, his useless pride.
[What do you think of the eternal demon lord?]
[Are you talking about that again? In the first place, you should know all about him. I’ve never met him.]
[Because he is the demon king and you are the demon sword. Isn’t there something in common between the same demons?]
[What?!]
In reality, he clearly knew that it had nothing to do with him, but he did that. As I lit the twin wicks in her eyes and glared at her holy sword, she covered her mouth with her hand and giggled.
[This is a joke, but I’m serious about asking. I’ve been thinking about it, but no matter how much I think about it, I don’t know. How did he get out of the devil’s stigma?]
[From what I’ve seen, it’s an impersonation. Or something like an heir. It’s quite common to borrow a teacher’s name.]
In the first place, I don’t even know why they are making such a fuss over just one word. Do you mean that you believe in the identity of the other person with just one word of self-introduction, without any evidence?
When I asked this question, the Holy Sword replied.
[I can’t be mistaken. I didn’t feel the darkness anymore, but the unique feeling conveyed from the mental wave was definitely the eternal demon king. Yes?]
[······That’s right.]
Muffin, who had been silent, also expressed his agreement in a slow voice. Huh true. What’s the point of asking after you’ve already reached a conclusion? Exasperated, I threw out a random word.
The eternal demon king is dead. And, the one who talked with us just now is the demon king of eternity. If both propositions are true.
[Well, maybe it’s a clone.]
[Clone?]
[A cloned human.]
Of course, there was no such thing in another world, but at least the Holy Sword seemed to understand the context of the word roughly.
[Hmm, if it’s definitely self-replicating. But the Elder Lich isn’t even a slime, so is that possible?]
[I don’t know.]
I don’t really care about the situation of the enemy who will break the head anyway. I shrugged my shoulders as I looked at the night sky embroiled with the same constellations as always.
[What are one or two unexplainable things in the world?]
I don’t know what the holy sword was thinking, but muttered a few words to myself that I couldn’t understand. I rather found her attitude peculiar. Her immediate party, Muffin, is also still.
Even if he was a real demon lord, that’s not the case anymore. And if he’s just an ordinary elder lich, he can’t defeat a champion at all costs. Yes, he does whatever he can.
[Have you heard of Shin Ki-jeong?]
[Shin Gi-jeong(身記精)? Isn’t it the spirit spirit?]
It was then that Muffin, who had been quiet, brought up another topic. What she brought up was a concept completely new to me.
[Body, memory, mind. It’s a term that collectively refers to the three components that make up one existence. But, why are you talking about that now?]
Looks like you know what a holy sword is. She showed signs of actively intervening in the conversation, so I took a step back and listened to their conversation.
It’s just troublesome to directly dig into the identity, but I’m also somewhat interested in the resurrection of the demon king. It’s a way to get out of the curse that’s no different from God’s own.
[The components of existence are closely related to the continuity of existence. However, even if there are only two of the three components, the continuity of existence is maintained.]
[What are you talking about?]
Although he spoke bluntly, he could understand what Muffin was saying. Even though I said it in a dirty and unnecessarily sarcastic way, if I had to explain it simply, it would be.
Body, memory, mind. Even if there are only two of the three, the identity of the being does not change. Even if a person loses their memory, their body and soul remain the same, as if they are still that person.
But, it’s a really absurd story. What does this have to do with the Elder Lich?
[Suddenly, I just had that thought. I wonder if all of this is connected to each other.]
[Connected?]
It was quite a rare sight for Muffin to express his opinions so actively. She could feel the frustration in her voice, as if she were watching people wandering right in front of her answer.
When Muffin sent off the mental wave again, the blurry image of her in my head gradually became clearer.
From noble mtl dot com
[What do you think? Why did the Dark Church endow monsters with intelligence? Just to create a wave?]
Even though we’ve been rampaging recently, the power of a secret society spanning hundreds of years is by no means formidable. If they really wanted to cause more trouble on this continent, they wouldn’t have been so lax.
Planting the stigma of darkness would not be an easy task, but at the gathering place, stigmata were sprinkled not only on upper-middle level monsters, but also on lower level monsters such as Orcs. With that in mind, the leader of the church is one.
If you really wanted to use the power of the monsters, you should have put in more people.
[Ah.]
The sights I saw passing by passed through my mind. The ball in the setting sun, the monsters imitating humans wearing dark stigma, the doppelganger calling out the name of the lover…
The common point of all of them was that they were all touched by the church. Muffin’s sudden hwadu threw me into a mess in my head. Body, memory, and mind.
A monster that behaves like a human, with its body and mind intact, but its memory covered by the ghost’s unconscious. A doppelganger who loses her body but thinks of herself as Emily with her memory and mind intact.
Those who lost their bodies. Who lost their memory. And if anyone has lost their mind.
[You want to say that?]
How did you resurrect Hargath, who must have been dead? No, how did he cleanly wash off the demon king’s seal on his soul?
According to Muffin’s new theory, if the body and memories can be preserved even if the soul is replaced by something else, if it can be superimposed on another soul…
[The Dark Church resurrected the eternal demon king?]
I wasn’t kidding, I didn’t know if I could actually clone the elder lich.
And the Dark Church was the group that handled the soul most skillfully in the other world, except for me.
*
[This is a guess that is close to the correct answer, but not completely correct.]
[Then?]
[The demon king’s declaration is not so easy. If I had torn my soul and left my memories in an empty shell, the darkness of the world would have used that as the center.]
Compared to that of Shire Pen, the workshop is much more shabby. However, in a small alcove where one of the master’s philosophies was firmly felt, a lamp made of Cyclops’ optic nerves swayed slowly.
As the lights dance, the shadow of the figure sitting at the table stretched and shrunk like a monster. The figure, who was turning the pages wearing monocles, soon closed the book.
[So, what I inherited is only memories. Perhaps this body and soul belonged to one of the countless offerings that were sacrificed to me.]
[Are you so calm about knowing that?]
[A thousand years is more than enough to bleach the ego of a young human who has not lived for decades.]
I sighed and looked away. What kind of situation is this? While advancing toward the dungeon, at some point the world turned upside down.
And when I came to my senses, I was with Hargas, the target of this hunt.
[Well, it seems that I’m not perfect yet, seeing as he insists on mental wave with his vocal cords intact, but I’ll say that.]
“·······.”
Fortunately, Hargath was not hostile to me. Even when he said something somewhat provocative, he only slightly frowned and looked away without replying.
At the end of his line of sight, he saw a crystal ball that occupied nearly a third of the wall. Our party could be seen through the muddy orb that had not been properly maintained.
[“This is the same forest as before.”]
The party stopped at the entrance of the dungeon without knowing anything. Seeing that, I shook my head.
I was captured like this by the enemy’s chief and they didn’t even come to rescue me. More than anything, it’s a bit of a shock that Cream didn’t immediately notice my absence.
As soon as I thought that, Cream looked into the scabbard hanging from her waist. Oh. Soon, her hand gripped my handle.
Huh? No, wait. Am i here?
[What is that and that!]
[hehehe, are you surprised? A duplicate of you.]
I can’t steal even the mental waves with the crystal ball, but seeing the hum of the blade that Cream took out, it seemed like he was talking to her.
[A hero is an enemy that cannot be matched. If that’s the case, shouldn’t we meet in the first place? All kinds of magic and the laws of the other world are already perfectly protecting this area.]
Hargas ignored my sarcasm. Anyway, this is definitely tricky. Defense through sorcery or the laws of the other world is different in nature from general defense.
Utilizing the fact that it is not affected by the laws of reality, rather than mitigating damage or absorbing shock. Perhaps something other than strength was needed to break the intangible power that guarded this workshop.
The laws of the other world, and everything derived from the other world, are irrational. The same protective shield sometimes deflects the famous sword that cuts the scales of a dragon, and it is also shattered by a child’s punch.
The important thing is not the strength of force, but the breaking of the law.
[There is only one way to break the barrier here. It is to kill the most loved person in the group. It seems you won.]
Me? There is no word more unsuitable for a demonic sword than love. No, it’s not important right now.
[What does that have to do with my cloning!]
[Whoops, what do you think? I killed the person I love with a single mind, but what if I encounter it inside? The body of the warrior wearing the protective protection may not be able to be touched, but will her spirit, which is still just a young girl, be that strong?]
I’m embarrassed because something is different from what I thought. Of course, I thought there would be a trap, but it was a needlessly creative and vicious trap, so that the years I had lived did not go unnoticed.
Cream was staring at the surprisingly identical sword with me. At first glance, it seemed as if they were in conflict.
[Well, if you don’t have a hard heart and take a step back, that’s the best result. I don’t know until the end that the person I love the most was swapped.]
When I first saw the warriors, Hargas, who was still slightly intimidated, frowned at the arrogant talk. Ugh, because it’s a sword, you can’t shut that guy’s mouth.
If it wasn’t me who fell here, but Cream or Chocolate, the Elder Lich’s weak workshop would have been harpooned that day. Sometimes, the situation of the sword, which could not do anything alone, was miserable.
[Ha, this looks very funny to the hero.]
Well, what is miserable is what is pitiful and what is absurd is absurd. Looking at Hargath’s spirited appearance, I lightly snorted. I was so trembling at first.
You have different souls and different innate temperaments, but you cannot become exactly the same as before just because you inherited your memories. I said That’s an impersonation after all.
I sensed something in Hargath’s demeanor that was out of place with a transcendental being of eminent years. Disparagement, self-confidence. What things like that
[Look. In the first place, wouldn’t the hero fall for such a prank using the laws of the other world… Huh?]
The words he had been speaking triumphantly faded little by little. Cream was standing in front of the door, holding something similar to me, and although the crystal orb didn’t transmit mental waves, I could see the sword trembling and talking.
And then, Cream looked at the black blade, which was surprisingly similar to mine, and immediately shattered it.
[Hey!]
No, how can you do that without hesitation! While I struggled with a sense of betrayal, I heard the sound of the dungeon door creaking open.
Cream and Choco entered the dungeon with light steps as if walking. The figures of the two disappeared into the field of view through the crystal ball, and the crystal ball only reflected the black blade abandoned on the floor.
Of course, it’s thrilling that my duplicate was abandoned like that! How could there be no hesitation! I’m trying to be a bit sad.
[······Hey.]
An exclamation that has a different meaning and emotion than before. I turned to the elder lich in a sullen voice.
[Can I help you?]