Doppelganger (4)

The devil said

[He just wants to live.]

I thought so too.

I want to survive somehow.

I wondered if there was any value left in my future life, but I still wanted to survive.

Rather than hope for the future, I wanted to live because of the frustrations and pains of the past.

How have I survived this far?

I endured those terrible times.

[I won’t do anything. I will only be with you in your body until the end of your life. There won’t be.]

My life was a waste.

I had a friend who told me to find a treasure in the west and become a rich aristocrat.

To use my hometown village as a manor, build a castle, and have knights.

Because of that goal, I left my hometown and family.

[What did you live for?]

I wanted to be a knight.

A shining life.

Like the heroes in the story, I wanted to walk the glorious path.

I bumped into the wall of reality, but I didn’t lose my dream.

The only hope that protected me from the sense of separation was the treasure hidden in an unnamed dungeon to the west.

If only I can possess that treasure, my impossible dream can become a reality.

To do that…… .

First I had to survive.

“Ahhhhh! Jack!”

I cried out the name of the Mercenary.

It was fortunate that I remembered the name of the Mercenary, who had been fluttering in my memory.

I just remembered hearing another Mercenary at a drinking party calling this guy Jack.

I cried desperately.

Like a person who has lost all of his family, I was heartbroken and desperate.

I thought while crying.

The Mercenary shouldn’t die here.

It was never going to happen.

This was an accident.

Pickled plums with stimulants and sleeping pills created an unexpected accident.

My special pickled plums have been tested several times.

It puts people in a state of excitement with short-term arousing effects.

In a dungeon, even in such an extreme situation, it feels like hundreds of people clashing as an emotional battle begins.

If you are so excited, the effects of the sleeping pills will be delayed.

You feel drowsy and sleepy, and the people take it for granted.

It is natural that fatigue and drowsiness are felt because your mental energy is drained in a stressful situation.

Without even suspecting that I put sleeping pills on the food, they calm down and fall asleep.

This time it went the way I thought it would.

I handed out the plums to everyone in the group.

It was good to create an atmosphere of heated fighting.

When people start to slowly calm down from the effects of the sleeping pills, I intervene.

By appealing to the fact that I am in the weakest position, the plan was to gain justification during the arbitration and gain a voice.

My idea was that if I went that far, no one in my party would accidentally think, ‘Let’s kill that guy for now’.

The problem is that the Paladin, who thought the only suspicious one was the Mercenary, was almost certain that the Mercenary was the doppelganger.

And it may be my mistake of not guessing the instinctive disgust and aggression that the Paladin has toward the devil.

Anyway, this is fucked up.

Now that it has been proven that the Mercenary is not the doppelganger, the next suspect is naturally me.

“Ugh…!”

I did the acting of losing a friend with all my might, but.

Even when the party sees me like this, they may think, ‘Even that could be a doppelganger’s performance.’

If the doppelganger is really active, every time the party loses one member, the doppelganger has a huge advantage.

Naturally, the doppelganger will try to kill at least one more when given the chance.

Of course, I was the one who contributed decisively to the death of the Mercenary…….

“Get away.”

Or not.

The Knight instructed the Paladin to retreat.

“It’s better not to approach each other within a certain distance. Take a few steps back.”

The Paladin took a few steps back while panicking at the knight’s strong response.

I called joy inwardly at the sight.

Yes, the decisive culprit for reducing the number of people was not me who provided the clue.

It was the Paladin who blew off the Mercenary’s head directly.

Fortunately, it seemed that I would not be designated as the first suspect.

With a smile inside, I wept.

* * *

The Knight sat next to me.

I had to manage to calm down my body.

It was too close.

If the Knight raises his hand and squeezes the back of my head, I will die.

On the other hand, the Knight sat comfortably as if he had no fear of being attacked by me.

“Aren’t you going to kill me?”

I asked in a hoarse voice.

The Paladin explained everything.

He listed all the evidence he heard and judged, excluding his own feelings and subjective judgments.

Prior to the Knight’s judgment, the Paladin knew that I had leaked the first clue.

I had to protest.

I said the Mercenary was different from what I usually knew.

He said the wrong memories and witnessed him behaving in an uncomfortable way.

Overwhelmed with guilt, I cried and said that my mistake had caused him to die.

Thank goodness for the knight.

“It’s not your fault. It’s all of us, and it’s an accident that was caused by the doppelganger.”

He gave a naive answer.

Such a nice boy.

I could bet all my fortune that if I brought this nobleman to the adventurer city, his underwear would be robbed off in less than two days.

We were seated narrowly in a circle.

There are now four people left in the cavity.

Me and the knight, the Paladin and the Wizard.

Among them, the state of the Wizard was not good.

The dagger thrown by the Mercenary stuck in his shoulder, and he is still unconscious even after pulling the dagger and stopping the bleeding.

The Paladin had to heal him.

It was a very dangerous situation for the Wizard, as he had to be treated alone by the Paladin.

In the end, the Paladin took care of the treatment, and the Knight and I took a few steps away to monitor it.

“I wanted to be a Knight who protects people.”

Suddenly the Knight began to speak.

Are you trying to comfort me?

“My friend asked me. He was surprised that I would become a Knight to save people. I just wanted to be a Knight to save people. After thinking about it, I answered, “I want to protect more people.”

So the story of the Knight began.

The knight’s voice was warm.

It was a voice like a warm bonfire that calmed the listener regardless of the content.

The problem is… that it was way too long.

“It would be ideal to save everyone. That’s what I was hoping for. But as time went on, I realized that it was a false ideal. When I tried to protect someone, someone would be left out. Those who were left out do certainly exist.”

I was starting to get a little annoyed at the endless words of the knight.

Normally, I would have coughed in moderation or cut off the conversation while avoiding my place.

I couldn’t do it because of the circumstances.

I pretended to listen to him and then I pretended to be asleep.

Only then the knight’s chatter stopped.

* * *

I quietly opened my eyes.

There was the sound of the knight’s wheezing.

He, too, sat down and fell asleep, apparently because of the sleeping pills.

Completely defenseless.

I looked ahead.

The Paladin was still healing the Wizard’s shoulder.

That Paladin also ate the special plum, but at the moment I thought he had a great will.

It was confirmed that the Paladin was nodding off asleep.

You’re holding on to that healing spell while you sleep.

If I have attempted a surprise attack, he may come to his senses and counterattack.

[A surprise attack is not recommended, human friend. Especially against that knight.]

The devil advised.

I closed my eyes again and continued to pretend to sleep.

While counting the numbers inside, memorizing the time.

I fell asleep for a while.

Whaak.

Surprised by the fact that I was asleep, I took a deep breath.

Fortunately, I did not writhe or make a sound.

“Ma, maybe… your parents…”

“I’m an orphan. I was given to the magic tower.”

The Wizard and the Paladin were talking.

There was something strange.

One was that the Wizard’s voice belonged to a young woman.

The second was the content of the conversation.

What’s the matter, this

[Interesting, interesting. The Wizard wasn’t really an old man, she was a young woman. She was wearing polymorph magic. And the Paladin looked at that face and remembered the figure of his lost daughter in the past.]

“Then…before going to the magic tower…”

“I don’t know. It is said that there was a wandering troupe who took children who lost their parents during the war and gave them a performance.”

“Is the name of the wandering group …”

The conversation continued.

What, is she really the daughter he lost when he was young?

The Wizard’s past and the Paladin’s lost daughter had a lot in common, enough for me to think so, who started listening to the conversation late.

Place and time of disappearance, things they like and things they can’t eat since childhood.

It really made me wonder if that Wizard was the Paladin’s daughter.

[I have one thing to tell you. Human friend.]

The devil said

[The Wizard used magic. HiHi.]

What magic?

[Familiarization.]

It was the magic I knew.

It was simple magic.

It was just magic that made users feel friendly.

It has a slightly favorable effect, but in this situation… … .

It can lead to great misunderstanding.

Let’s think from the Paladin’s point of view.

Suddenly, the Wizard’s face changed, and the old man turned into a young woman.

There is a sudden feeling of familiarity in that face.

Even about the same age as his lost daughter.

Is this the attraction of blood ties? Enough to deceive.

Using magic to target the most painful past of a person.

She was a wonderful woman.

The expedition has been working together for nearly a year and investigating the dungeon together.

It is not strange that the Wizard picked up the story of the Paladin’s lost daughter during that time.

Obviously, she knew the story of the Paladin’s daughter, and he was deceived with her intentions.

If the Paladin is a doppelganger, I don’t know what she’s going to do.

Are you sure that the Paladin isn’t the doppelganger?

Or is she wondering if he is the doppelganger through such behavior?

I couldn’t figure it out

There is a possibility that that Wizard is the real Paladin’s daughter.

[Looking at that Wizard’s reaction, absolutely not. That’s acting.]

The devil was sure.

“Dad?”

At the Wizard’s watery word, the Paladin collapsed.

[Hehehehe, maybe our human friends don’t need demons anymore.]

* * *

There was no need to panic at the unexpected development.

Not long after, the Knight woke up feeling the fuss.

The Wizard explained that he was imitating the face of the tower master.

That was why she insisted on doing business in the corner and kept her conversations as short as possible.

The Paladin and the Wizard never talked about blood ties.

In this situation where the doppelganger is hiding, did she decide that revealing it would be of no help?

But they didn’t know that I was eavesdropping on the conversation.

Let’s take the opportunity to speak to the Knight and find a way to turn the situation in my favor.

The knight, who had listened to all the stories, seemed to ponder for a moment.

He is standing alone inside the center.

He looked like he was thinking deeply about something while looking at the wreckage that had been broken on the floor during the battle.

The Knight who muttered like that suddenly stood in the center of the cavity.

And he asked us.

“Do we have to live?”

… what kind of bullshit is that?

I thought I was getting used to the chatter of the knights, but those absurd remarks that came out from time to time still puzzled me.

“If we can find the doppelganger with minimal sacrifice, it’d be great, but I can’t think of a way right now. So I’m telling you. If we don’t find the doppelganger in the end.”

The Knight said so hopefully.

“How about we all die together.”

There was no answer.