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By the time Ellet and her group had made their way through the second and third floors, reaching the fourth floor, the Kingdom’s army and the Magic army faced an awkward situation.
The joint subjugation party of the two countries had a hard time escaping from the Maze Garden and only succeeded in entering the Castle after a siege.
The Castle of Mirrors welcomed them, who were exhausted, with open arms, and as if waiting, the structure of the castle was changed and the subjugation party was scattered.
“This is a truly awkward situation.”
“Yes, indeed.”
The power distribution was extreme.
In the meantime, 8th Circle Archmage Morifis Marcellion and Aura Master Romina Lecandro were still together.
Of course, it wasn’t just the two of them.
There were a total of six people who were separated together, in addition to Morifis and Romina, there were two more from the Magic Army and the Kingdom’s Army.
The Magic Army consisted of one magic swordsman and one white magician.
“You are the only healer. If you act foolishly, know that I will leave you.”
“I’ll make myself useful. Please don’t throw me away, Si……Pr-princess.”
The beauty with the bright blonde ponytail was Princess Odellit and the scrawny girl with dull platinum hair was Hilde, the illegitimate daughter of the Marcellion family and a white wizard.
And the members of the Kingdom’s Army……
“……”
“……”
Were the valedictorian and vice valedictorian of the 117th Class of the Military Academy.
A young man with slightly wavy pink hair and a young man with bright platinum blonde hair slightly parted on one side were creating a desolate atmosphere.
In fact, Frintz and Raywin attended the military academy together for six years, but they had never had a proper conversation.
They had tacitly avoided each other.
Raywin was careful about his actions in everything he did to avoid being swayed by the malicious rumor that ‘The Little Duke who lost his position is bullying the powerless commoner who took the representative seat.’
Frintz also realized that Raywin was uncomfortable with him and matched his rhythm.
As the situation dragged on, the academy realized that the first place and second place were not on good terms and avoided giving them a chance to interact as much as possible.
But now, they were together in an SS-class dungeon, where everyone else was scattered. Since the situation was like this, they had to somehow work together.
Frintz and Raywin tried to drive away the awkwardness that had accumulated over six years.
“Well, Little Duke.”
“Yes, Sir Frintz.”
“……”
“……”
After a brief moment of eye contact, they settled on a speaking order.
After receiving Raywin’s concession, Frintz spoke up, smiling with a slightly embarrassed expression.
“I haven’t been ordained yet, so the title ‘Sir’ is too much for me. Please call me Frintz or Mr.Frintz.”
“I see. Then again, it seems inappropriate for you to call me Little Duke. Please, address me as Sir Raywin.”
“Yes, Sir Raywin.”
“We’ve come together in the same group, so please take good care of me, Frintz……Well, Mr. Frintz.”
“I look forward to your kind cooperation.”
Everyone started moving, following Romina Lecandro’s lead.
As they followed the visible path, they came across a room. Much like Ellet’s group, it was a mid-boss room with a pair of dream demons. A maid, and a servant.
“What?”
“Guests?”
However, there was a slight difference.
The two dreamers were busy working. There was a blackout curtain attached to one wall that was plastered with mirrors.
They grumbled in a voice that was devout of coquettish tones, unlike a normal dream demon.
“I’m so busy that I’m dying of overwork.”
“I need to finish what the head maid told me to do quickly.”
“You guys, just wait a moment. Let’s just hang up a curtain so they can’t see the mirrors here and deal with them……”
Of course, the warriors did not wait.
“Aaaah!”
“Gyahh!”
Two low-level dream demons were reduced to ashes by the flame breath released by Morifis’ chimera bird.
Odellit frowned as she looked around the room.
“There’s no way out?”
“This is a castle of mirrors, Princess Odellit, so perhaps there are clues in the mirrors.”
Romina gestured to the mirror hovering in the center of the room.
It was the same mirror that had been used to cuff and shackle the dream demons they had defeated earlier.
Starting with Romina, everyone gathered around the mirror in a semicircle and soon the mirror responded.
The image of Romina Lecandro, who was in front collapsed, revealing a completely new person.
What the mirror showed was a handsome middle-aged man.
Romina cleared her throat under the questioning stares.
“He is my husband.”
“Your husband is a handsome man.”
“Thank you, Princess Odellit.”
Morifis was a researcher before he was a psychopath and as such, he was curious about the magic mirror.
“I guess it’s a mirror that reflects the target’s marriage partner.”
When the time was up, the image of Marquis Lecandro’s husband was scattered. The next person was Morifis, who had his face pressed against the mirror.
After a while, the mirror was only blank and Morifis was satisfied with this.
“It looks like I will always be single. As it has been for the past 209 years.”
“For 209 years……Ah, yes.”
While Romina muttered inside something along the lines of “Who would want to live with you anyway,” Morifis beckoned to Odelitt.
“Come, Grand Niece. Let’s meet your future husband, who will give our family a good Archmage Grand-Grand-Nephew.”
“……Yes, Great Grandfather.”
In fact, there were two of Morifis’s grand-nieces present, but he didn’t count Hilde, who was illegitimate, as a family member.
Anyway, Odellit could not resist the urging of her ancestors and stood in front of the mirror.
“Huh?”
“Eh?”
“What?”
The person reflected in the mirror was none other than Odellit herself. The identity of the mirror became confusing.
“Come here.”
“Ah……!”
Odellit violently yanked the arm of her half-sister, who was next to her.
The kingdom’s knights frowned but she didn’t care.
The mirror image had changed again, but Hilde’s case was also unique. What the mirror showed was not a portrait or a blank reflection, but an image. It was a fragment of a scene where Hilde was sitting on the floor, and someone whose face was not visible was offering her a hand to help her up.
“Hmmm, I can’t figure it out.”
There were still more samples left.
“Cadet Frintz, stand in front of the mirror.”
“Yes, Marquis Lecandro.”
The mirror reflected the image of a person.
“Hooo……”
“Hmm……”
She was a young lady with bluish-black hair and red eyes.
She was a woman whose cold and haughty expression suited her extremely well, but when Frintz and her eyes met, she smiled softly as if the ice on her face was melting.
Frintz’s face turned bright red at the sight of what he had always thought was his personal delusion.
“Why is this person, no, I mean……”
“Are you okay, Mr.Frintz?”
While Raywin was worried about Frintz’s condition, people from the Republic were looking at the beauty in the mirror wondering who the hell she was.
At that time, Romina recognized the person in the mirror.
“She is a maid of honor close to Her Majesty Princess Celestide. She must be the Young Lady Bianca of Count Gillette?”
“Yes……”
“Now that I think about it, I understand that Cadet Frintz enrolled after receiving a recommendation from Countess Gillette.”
“Yes……”
Despite his unhinged answer, which was unbecoming of a senior graduate, Romina only smiled happily.
“I think I know roughly what kind of mirror this is. Let’s take a look at Little Duke Wallenstein to make sure.”
Frintz fell back with relief as if he had been released from a cushion of thorns, and Raywin stood in front of the mirror with a knightly gait.
Little did he know, he was destined to have the same reaction as Frintz.
A lively image was reflected in the mirror.
“Oh!”
“Ho……?”
The image showed the back of a woman, with her pink hair fluttering, blocking a demon with her sword.
People’s reactions to this were varied.
“Oh, no, why……”
In fact, Raywin himself was embarrassed as he had not expected it.
“What a wonderful knight.”
Romina was impressed by the footage extracted from Raywin’s glorified memories.
“It feels somehow familiar……”
“I know, where I’ve seen this…….”
While Frintz and Odellit narrowed their eyes.
“……”
“……”
Morifis and Hilde stared into the mirror, somehow even forgetting to blink.
Frintz voiced his suspicions.
“Could that be my sis…”
“Well, th-that……!”
An embarrassed Raywin cut off Frintz’s words, but there was not enough time to come up with an explanation. Luckily, Romina was there to back him up with a simple interpretation.
“This is a knight worth admiring. Naturally, it will leave a lasting impression on your memory.”
“……Yes.”
“Well, that answers my question. This mirror is…….”
As Romina was trying to sort out the situation. Morifis walked up to the mirror as if possessed and ran his hand over its surface.
“Great Grandfather?”
“Mr. Morifis?”
Odellit and Romina called out to Morifis, but he didn’t seem to hear.
The reflection time limit had expired and the mirror tried to find something to reflect again.
The person in front happened to be Morifis and although it was an object that had already been reflected once, the second result was quite different from the first.
“Huh.”
“What the.”
The mirror, which had been reflecting a blank just a moment ago, now showed a werebeast with pink hair, cat ears, and a tail.
Morifis’ cheeks flushed slightly.
“I-I want to raise it.”
✠
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