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Their wrists and ankles were shackled in iron chains, the ends of which led into the mirror behind them.
It was a sign of submission to Anaxia.
“Let’s play together. Hm~~?”
The dreamers winked.
It was a ploy to cloud the opponent’s mind by radiating temptation.
Of course, I simply brushed it off.
“Since there are two of them, we should split into teams.”
A dream demon’s mental attacks worked better on the opposite sex. Although they were low-level guys, there was no need to make things easier for the enemy.
I distributed the group very rationally.
“Ash, Hestio, Ephael. You have the Incubus Servant.”
“Yes, sister.”
“Sure, whatever.”
“Why not the succubus?”
Then Thesilid, who was not called, summoned the holy sword and spoke.
“Then I’m on the Succubus Maid group……”
“No. You just rest.”
“What?”
I declared solemnly, pulling out Serpens.
“I’ll deal with the succubus alone.”
Do people take me for a crazy girl to pit Thesilid against a succubus?
‘Never!’
[‘The Scales that Judges the Soul’ cheers you on with a furious affirmation.]
[‘The Critic who adjusts the balance’ says you’re having a hard time stopping the protagonist from building a harem.]
[‘The Troubled Architect of the Tower of Trials’ is dissatisfied.]
I loaded my sword with aura and stomped the ground.
“Here I go!”
“Kyaang!”
Of course, the succubus maid was knocked out in one blow.
“Sp, sp, spare me.”
“Yeah. No. Bye.”
I let her go without pain, but I guess there must have been emotions in my sword, as Thesilid, who was watching from the side, said in a dazed tone.
“You seem to hate succubi a lot.”
“Yes.”
As I sheathed my sword, I looked around to see if the other three were doing well.
“O-Oh no! I can’t believe my honey trap doesn’t work!”
A half-naked, mumbling Incubus servant huddled into the corner, and his ramblings soon became a will.
“Good job.”
“It was a dream demon, but it’s nothing special.”
Ephael expressed his disappointment over what he expected.
Since I was a kind leader, I was happy to explain.
“Because he was a low-level dreamer, it seems like there wasn’t much he could do other than hypnotize.”
“What about the stronger ones?”
“Well, if we are talking about the Succubus Queen, she could transform into your perfect ideal type and take you down within 10 seconds.”
“Oooooh……!”
“Stop the silly expectations. You can’t even see a demon’s artwork straight.”
The two dream demons crumbled into powder, leaving only a maid uniform and tailcoat.
I rummaged through their clothes hoping to find anything to loot.
One item came out from inside each set of clothes.
[‘The scale that judges the soul’ congratulates you on scoring an awesome costume that you couldn’t get even after using cash in the cash shop.]
‘Well. Can this be called a costume?’
What was held in my hand was a vest and harness made of black leather straps.
[<Item> ‘Dream Demon’s Leather Harness’
It is a clothing item that can be worn under clothing to disguise yourself as a dream demon.
Note: Increases your Charm by 200% when worn, but decreases your Elegance, Majesty, and Charisma by 100%].
I thought about it for a moment.
Could it be useful for infiltration someday?
“That’s a weird-looking belt, isn’t it?”
“Right? What is it for?”
It was an inappropriate topic to be brought out in front of innocent Paladins so I quickly threw the two harnesses into my inventory.
[‘The Scales that Judges the Soul’ commends you for picking up rare clothing items.]
[‘The Eyes that Watch Over the Chaos of All Things’ says that the men’s version is not needed, so let’s throw it away.]
[‘The World-building God’ solemnly requests you to not expose yourself too much.]
I called the attention of my companions.
“Come on, it’s the riddle time you’ve been waiting for. Everyone come this way.”
I pointed to a wall mirror that was mimicking an ordinary decoration. It was the same mirror that was chaining the dream demons that had been killed earlier.
“The mirrors to which the retainers are tied each have names. You have to guess the name to open the next passage.”
The way to get the name hint was intuitive. I stood straight in front of the mirror.
Surururu.
The image reflecting my face faded and soon it was replaced by something else entirely.
Ephael and Ash reacted immediately.
“Oh, this is…”
“She’s a cute girl?”
Inside the mirror was a little girl with pink hair tied into two pigtails. Hestio immediately recognized her and spoke.
“What the hell, this is Ellet when she was little.”
“Really? Was Sister this cute?”
Ash placed his index finger on the mirror surface as if to peck the younger me on the cheek.
The younger me in the mirror moved by herself and placed her index finger where Ash’s finger was.
“Wow, that’s really cute.”
“Yes, our leader had a time like this.”
“With such a cute face and flowers in her hair.”
Hestio smiled mischievously and pretended to nudge my little forehead. Then, the younger me in the mirror sneered and stuck out her tongue with an expression that said, ‘Do you think I’d be pushed around like that?’
When Hestio was embarrassed, the image in the mirror changed. It was his childhood image that happened to be standing in front.
I said, looking at the black-haired kid with a sulky face.
“Yes, our Hestio also had a cute time like this. He cried because he was so disappointed that I gave two sandwiches only to Epahel……”
“He-hey!”
Hestio is fun to tease, too.
Everyone took the time to check their reflection and see their childhood cuteness. With this, the name of the mirror became clear and I said.
“Answer. Childhood Mirror.”
Durururu!
A path appeared on one side of the wall.
“Understand? This is how we go all the way to the boss room.”
We repeated the process of defeating demons and guessing the names of the mirrors.
Since the vassals on the first floor were at most A-level bosses, it took longer to solve the riddle than to fight them.
The Childhood Mirror was the easiest to guess from all the other ones. There were ones that reflected a flower, not a person, and I had to use the cultivation skill ‘Plant Detection’ to get it right.
“Answer. Mirror of the Birth Flower.
Durururu!
There were also uncharacteristic diets.
“Breakfast from yesterday?”
Dururu!
A surreal, grotesque image of something unrecognizable.
“Hmm, Mirror of Nightmares……?”
Dururu!
Some even showed text material instead of visual material.
-He thought as he was being dragged in the pitch-black darkness. It seems like the whole world hates him and wants him dead.
“Hold on, why is RUWS here……”
[‘The Spoiler Inspector’ opens his eyes wide.]
Oops, sorry.
“Uh, hmm, the mirror of the most frustrating novel you’ve ever read?”
Durururu!
Hm, right. I knew it.
[‘The Critic who adjusts the balance’ marvels at how you managed to finish the original novel given your personality.]
[‘The Eyes that Watch Over the Chaos of All Things’ notes that you were also eager to leave comments.]
[‘The Critic who adjusts the balance’ asks if it was comments filled with trolling and hate.]
[‘The Scales that Judges the Soul’ chuckles at the comment ‘Our main character is just set for slow growth, right? RIGHT!?’]
For some reason, this is painful to listen to. Resisting the urge to cover my ears, I hurried down the aisle.
This time, there were stairs instead of a hallway.
As I went up to the second floor, the level of the bosses also rose to S level.
Well, it wasn’t something that could compete with the might of our paladins, so we quickly defeated it.
The problem was, once again, the mirror.
“What the hell? It doesn’t reflect anything.”
“Really?”
Hestio and Ephael snooped around in front of the mirror for a while, but the mirror was as white as a sheet of paper.
There was no reflection for them, but it was the same even when Thesilid and I stood in front of the mirror. This means that four people from our group do not have the correct answer to the riddle.
<All four are not eligible? This is a difficult one.>
Now the only one we could trust was Ash.
“Go, youngest.”
“You are our hope.”
Fortunately, Ash lived up to our expectations. The mirror finally reflected the image that would become a hint.
A red-haired girl appeared, glaring at us with fierce eyes and at that moment, Ash’s expression became distorted.
“Crazy.”
“Wow, the youngest swore.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, sister and brothers. But……haaa, really……”
Our youngest showed a strong dislike.
As we wondered and asked “What? What is it?”, Ash let out a long sigh and blurted out the answer.
“My ex.”
Durururu!
Thanks to this, we had just unintentionally learned a lot about each other’s pasts.
While his older sister and brothers were all single from birth, the youngest, who hasn’t even had a coming-of-age ceremony yet……
“You say you’ve been in a relationship……?”
“Brother Ephael?”
“Ash, you suddenly feel so distant.”
“……?”
Ephael pretended to walk away from Ash.
Thesillid and I glanced sideways at each other.
[‘The Scales that Judges the Soul’ considers the 17th regressor’s still pristine past as desirable, while deeply regretting the transmigrator’s lack of experience.]
[‘The World-building God’ complains about this kind of double standard.]
[‘The Spoiler Inspector’ looks at the protagonist with suspicious eyes and is deep in thought.]
About that time, Ash looked back at me and said solemnly.
“Sister, I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Last time I was very rude.”
“About what?”
“Before I started offering murder contracts for cheap, I should have asked if you had an ex-boyfriend.”
“Do you want to get scolded?”
“No.”
✠
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