Chapter 214. To the Dungeon of the Doppelganger (2)
Monsters hunted humans. They fed on human despair and enjoyed their fear. It was always the humans who died, consumed by despair.
The Imperial Guards who had entered this fortress before Caron's group had met a similar fate—save for a few exceptions.
But this time, things were different. Three hours had passed since Caron, Leo, and Amy had entered the doppelganger's fortress.
"P-Please spare me. I am... I am an Imperial Guard. We're on the same side—" one of the Imperial Guards stuttered.
The balance between the demonic monsters and humans had been overturned.
"Did you know?" Caron asked casually.
"...What?" the Imperial Guard replied.
"The Ducal Family of Leston killed Imperial Guards in the past too," Caron stated flatly.
"What are you talking about—" the Imperial Guard began, but wasn't able to finish their sentence.
Slash!
Caron's blade sliced cleanly through the neck of the guard who had been begging for his life, a twisted smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he added, "I died the same way."
Thud.
The guard's body fell to the ground, lifeless.
"Good," Caron remarked as he casually tossed the severed doppelganger heads into his pouch of dimensional space and dusted off his hands.
Around him, the decapitated bodies of doppelgangers lay scattered like broken dolls.
"Pluto," Caron called out.
Meow!
Pluto, as if waiting for the signal, eagerly devoured the corpses.
In an instant, the remains vanished, and Caron exhaled slowly before turning his gaze toward where Amy and Leo were still locked in combat.
Slash! Slash!
Leo, true to his Leston bloodline, overwhelmed the doppelgangers with ease. Some of the creatures had managed to mimic the empire's swordsmanship a bit, but their sloppy attempts weren't enough to challenge Leo.
Amy was no different.
She's holding up well, Caron thought.
The most terrifying thing about doppelgangers was their ability to mimic the faces of one's comrades. This often led to devastating casualties during subjugations, but fortunately, Amy kept her emotions in check.
Slash!
With a cold expression, Amy sliced through the neck of the last remaining doppelganger, her breathing heavy as she finally lowered her blade.
Caron approached her and lightly patted her back, then asked, "Are you alright?"
Amy slowly nodded in response. She said softly, "If anything, I'm glad I could get my revenge."
"Your swordsmanship has improved a lot," Caron added.
"...This mission wasn't easy," Amy admitted, shaking the dark blood off her blade before sliding it back into its sheath.
Caron patted her back again, then calmly surveyed the area.
The dimly-lit interior of the fortress stretched before them. If not for Pluto's guidance, they likely would have gotten hopelessly lost by now.
But the results spoke for themselves. There was one undeniable truth...
"We didn't need to skin them alive after all," Caron remarked.
There had been no need to go out of their way to keep the doppelgangers alive.
When Caron tossed the severed heads into his pouch of dimensional space, the dark mana infused in the doppelgangers' skin didn't completely dissipate. As expected of a pouch of dimensional space that preserved everything perfectly, it had even kept the doppelgangers' faces intact.
Of course, Caron had only realized that after killing a total of fifteen doppelgangers.
"Scraped together every last one, huh?" Caron murmured as he counted the doppelganger heads stored in his pouch.
So far, the three of them had slain a total of thirty-nine doppelgangers—far more than the number of Imperial Guards who had fallen victim to these creatures.
"But Caron," Leon said, his tone slightly uneasy. "Didn't some of those doppelgangers... seem a little strange? Their clothes..."
"They weren't from this era," Caron replied, his expression darkening.
As Leo had pointed out, a few of the doppelgangers had been clad in attire that even Caron had never seen before. From tunics that looked as if they were made of unfamiliar fabric to bizarrely shaped armor—everything about them felt... out of place, as if these creatures had come from a different era.
"Amy," Caron began, his voice calm but laced with curiosity. "Compared to when the Imperial Guards first arrived here, what's different now?"
Amy hesitated for a moment before answering. "...I'm not sure. The doppelgangers we fought earlier... They were different. When we encountered them, they wore the garb of hunters."
Doppelgangers copied not only the physical appearance but also some of the abilities of their victims. The fact that there were such varied forms of doppelgangers here only meant one thing—many lives had been lost in this place.
Caron stroked his chin thoughtfully. Several theories ran through his mind, but one stood out as the most likely.
"This dungeon may have existed for a very long time," he said.
This place was no sudden anomaly. It was possible that the dungeon had been here for ages, silently accumulating victims over time.
Caron narrowed his eyes meaningfully and glanced at Amy.
Amy, however, sighed and shook her head. "I'm just a low-ranking knight, Caron. If anyone knew anything... It would have been Sir Luke."
"Past tense, huh?" Caron murmured.
"Sir Luke is most likely... dead," Amy said with admirable composure, though the weight of her words had to have been suffocating.
Suppressing emotions and prioritizing reason was the mark of an exemplary knight. After all, a knight's duty was to fulfill their mission no matter the circumstances.
But the words that followed from Caron's lips were far more hopeful than she had anticipated.
"Maybe... Sir Luke is still alive."
"You don't have to comfort me, Caron. I'm a knight. I can handle it," Amy replied.
"No, I'm serious." Caron's gaze sharpened. "I remember every face of the doppelgangers I've killed so far. But Sir Luke wasn't among them. Plus, a 7-Star knight wouldn't go down so easily to these pathetic doppelgangers."
He gestured toward the vast expanse of the fortress. "This place is larger than I expected. If he found a defensible position, he could have held out for a while. And Amy... You didn't see everyone die with your own eyes, did you?"
"...That's true," Amy admitted.
Caron recalled the doppelgangers that had taken on the forms of the Imperial Guards. Including those he had slain in the city, there had been twelve in total.
The reports stated that seven Imperial Guards had managed to escape the dungeon. That meant five were still unaccounted for.
And Luke was among them.
Whoosh.
Caron channeled the mana he had absorbed from the doppelgangers into Pluto, who let out a satisfied purr.
"Personally, I'm hoping Sir Luke is still alive." Caron's voice was steady but carried the weight of anticipation. "So let's move quickly."
There was so much that Caron wanted to ask Luke. Starting with why the Imperial Guards had been here in the first place, and the mysteries surrounding the sword named Rigor.
If Luke was alive, many of Caron's lingering questions would finally be answered. With that thought, he quickened his pace, determination blazing in his eyes.
***
"Commander, it's me. Commander! Please, please open the door! If this goes on, we'll all die... Aaargh! Help me!"
"Commandeeeeeer!"
Agonized screams echoed from all directions, but Luke clenched his jaw and forced himself to ignore those cries.
He had no idea how much time had passed. Keeping track of time had long since lost its meaning.
All he could do now was guard the door, trapped in this vast banquet hall.
The situation was clear. The mission had failed. There was no hope left here.
The only solace he had was that he had managed to evacuate Amy and a few knights on the second day.
Leaning against the door, Luke glanced around the banquet hall. One corpse lay in the center of the room. Including himself, only four survivors remained.
They had entered the dungeon with twenty-four men, but only four were left behind. And even those four were in miserable condition. Not one of them was unscathed.
In this hell where enemies and allies were impossible to distinguish, the honorable Imperial Guards had fallen, one after another. Even the voice pleading for help beyond the door was nothing more than a doppelganger mimicking the cries of a fallen comrade.
"Vice Commander, wouldn't it be better if you escaped alone? We'll clear the way," Charles suggested.
"Charles," Luke said grimly. "We've come too far. The path of retreat is already blocked."
"...But Amy, she might bring reinforcements, right?" Charles asked.
"That's the worst-case scenario," Luke answered.
"Why?" Charles asked.
"Without mages, sending reinforcements will only result in more casualties," Luke explained.
Only four remained out of twenty-four. With such a small number, breaking through the encirclement was impossible. Everyone here already knew that hope had long since abandoned them.
Luke was no exception. Lack of proper rest had drained his core dry, and his body was wrapped in hastily-applied bandages that barely held his wounds together.
I don't understand, he thought.
The Imperial Guards had been sent here by royal decree. To be precise, it was the will of the Crown Prince, who held the real power.
Luke had already heard from the Commander that the emperor was nearing the end of his days. That was why it was even harder for him to accept this situation. He wondered why the Crown Prince had sent them to a place teeming with doppelgangers.
Could it be...? he thought. A chilling possibility crept into his mind.
If his worst fear was correct, then something that should never have happened within the empire was already underway.
As the horrifying thought took root, one face came to Luke's mind: The arrogant youngest of the Ducal Family of Leston, Caron Leston.
Luke realized that he had to get this information to Caron, no matter what, but there was no way to deliver the message. If his worst fears were true, they would be buried here along with his corpse.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
"Commander! Can you not hear my voice?"
"Commander! We're still alive!"
The voices outside the door kept calling out. And each word was a dagger in Luke's heart. He was filled with the guilt of failing to protect his men mixed with the burning resentment toward those who had thrown the honorable Imperial Guards into this hell.
"...All I can do now is trust Amy," Luke said quietly.
Amy was still inexperienced. But at the very least, she had to have sensed that something was terribly wrong.
Luke wondered who she would go to first if she'd survived.
Caron Leston, he thought.
It had to be him. Though Caron had once humiliated the Imperial Guards, Luke vividly remembered the terrifying killing intent Caron had unleashed against the succubus.
If anyone could get to the bottom of this mess, it was Caron. Right now, that was all Luke could hope for.
"Urgh..."
A searing pain flared from his side, causing Luke to bite down on his lip. The wound in his side had long since turned icy cold, the surrounding tissue necrotic and dead. An unbearable chill was spreading from the injury, slowly consuming him.
"Vice Commander, that wound..." one of Luke's men said.
"I'm fine. I'm really fine," Luke replied.
His mind drifted back to the piercing coldness of the white blade that had run through his body just five hours ago. It was a sword as white as freshly fallen snow.
It hadn't taken long to realize that the sword was none other than Rigor, the very artifact they had been tasked to retrieve.
But as for the man who had wielded that sword... Luke was still unsure.
Even in swordsmanship... I was overpowered, he thought.
That man had used Imperial swordsmanship. Not an incomplete form—the perfected version.
The moonlight and petals that had scattered from Rigor's blade when the man wielded it still lingered vividly in Luke's mind.
It was clear that the man had been a doppelganger. But the words he had spoken remained etched in Luke's ears.
"Even after all this time, you've only regressed. The Imperial Guards should have disappeared from this world with me."
Luke suspected that the man had been the master of this dungeon. He was a doppelganger, without a doubt. And Luke had already figured out whose form it had taken.
It was a name too abhorrent to speak aloud.
"Vice Commander, I still don't understand why he kept us alive." Charles coughed up blood as he spoke, his voice barely above a whisper.
Luke gave a bitter smile as he replied, "It's because monsters like to toy with their prey."
That creature could have taken Luke's life at any moment. But it had chosen instead to savor the sight of humans drowning in despair.
"...Don't you think it's been too quiet for a while now?" Charles asked.
Charles' observation made Luke furrow his brow. Charles was right. The voices that had been wailing beyond the door had suddenly gone silent.
Luke held his breath and tightened his grip on his sword.
But then...
Ssshhh.
From the crack in the door, a familiar silhouette began to emerge.
Meow!
It was a cat. Its fur glowed with a soft, dark blue hue.
If what Luke suspected was true, the owner of that cat could only be...
Boom!
A deafening crash echoed through the hall.
"...Caron Leston?" Luke called out.
...It was someone who had no business being here.
Luke instinctively stumbled backward, his eyes darting toward the doorway.
There, standing with a confident smirk, was a young man. He had golden hair that gleamed even through the dusty air, and eyes as blue and piercing as the ocean.
With a leisurely tone, the young man said in greeting. "We meet again, Sir Luke. Just to be sure you're not a doppelganger, I'll need you to repeat after me. Say this: 'The crown prince... is a bastard.'"
"What does that have to do with identifying a doppelganger?" Luke asked.
"Can't do it? Then I'll have to assume you're one of them and—" Caron began.
"...The crown prince is a bastard," Luke interrupted.
"Excellent." Caron flashed a satisfied grin. "Of course, I knew you weren't a doppelganger. I just wanted to make you say it. Feels good, doesn't it?"
Three figures stepped into the banquet hall. They were Caron Leston, Leo Leston, and lastly, Amy Altura.
As the tension eased, a wave of pain surged through Luke's battered body, but he couldn't allow himself to collapse just yet. He said, "Caron, there's something you need to know."
Caron needed to hear the truth.
For that reason alone, Luke forced the words from his throat. "There's a doppelganger of Sir Cain Latorre here."
The unbelievable revelation turned Caron's expression ice-cold.
"...Say that again. Who?" he asked.