✠
“The mirror of Gender Swap!”
Durururu!
The correct answer was shouted by everyone in one breath and The Castle of Mirrors immediately cleared the wall in one corner to make way.
[‘The Scales that Judges the Soul’ was very pleased to see something rare.]
[‘The Troubled Architect of the Tower of Trials’ is very interested in this niche genre.]
[‘The Critic who adjusts the balance’ denies himself for being interested in a male character.]
[‘The World-building God’ expresses strong disapproval.]
The Bureau of Transmigration must have been idle because the message window was buzzing.
The mirrors in this room seemed quite fun, because even the worst of them all, Mr. Eyes, who urged for slaughter whenever he had the chance, said.
[‘The Eyes that Watch Over the Chaos of All Things’ is mesmerized as he recalls the beauty of Thesilina engraved on his retina.]
Thesilina. They even named the reflection.
[‘The Spoiler Inspector’ clicks his tongue.]
[‘The Eyes that Watch Over the Chaos of All Things’ quickly comes to his senses and urges you to hurry up and slay the boss.]
‘Yes, yes. I’m going.’
I quickly took my steps to get to the next room.
This hallway was unusually long, with many things to dazzle the eye because the mirrors on the walls constantly reflected things of interest to each of us.
“Oh, this dagger is amazing. I think it would be perfect for me to use.”
“Hey, Hestio. What do you think about a mansion on the cliff? When I return to the secular world, I want to live somewhere like that.”
“Sounds good. You can raise a big dog and.….isn’t that black hound over there cool?”
Ash, Ephael, and Hestio were busy walking up to each mirror and looking at them.
This is why it feels like we’re in a museum or an aquarium, not a dungeon.
Thesilid also glanced at the mirrors, but nothing seemed to interest him enough to make him stop to take a look.
Just then, Ash, who was ahead of him, called out.
“Older brother! Brother Thesilid! Come here. There is someone here who looks a lot like you.”
“……”
Thesilid made a show of not being interested but dutifully walked over to Ash.
Ephael and Hestio also flocked in.
I was also planning to go in the direction where my companions were.
Shlururu.
‘Huh?’
An image reflected by a mirror nearby caught my eye.
Against the background of a purplish twilight, there was a man with his body buried deep in the chair. A man with long black hair, and delicate and beautiful features akin to the masterpiece of a master craftsman.
I couldn’t help but recognize the face.
<Reed……>
As Agnes whispered, Thesilid, who was five steps away, turned around, and when I met his sea-green eyes.
Dururururur!
“Uh, what!”
“Come on?!”
It wasn’t the right time yet, but the structure of the castle began to change suddenly. It was the loudest and most chaotic structural change yet.
In rapid succession, walls came down and went up, paths appeared and disappeared. Even the floor moved.
[‘The Spoiler Inspector’ is stunned.]
As seen from the Inspector’s reaction, this is something that didn’t happen in the original.
Coincidentally, I was five steps away from my companion.
“Sister!”
“Ellet!”
“Eli!”
A wall came down right in the middle, mercilessly isolating me from the other four.
The wall came down behind me as well, and I was trapped.
In that state, the floor moved quickly backwards, as if sliding over the rails. I felt like being forcibly transported in a dark cargo hold.
In an instant, the distance between me and my group widened significantly and it wasn’t until I could no longer hear the four calling out to me that the castle stopped shifting.
<It looks like it’s over, Ellet.>
“Yes. First of all, let’s start with regrouping……”
Durururu!
Just in time, the wall in front of me opened up.
Fortunately, my four paladins were desperately looking for me on the other side of the long hallway.
“Hey! Ellet!”
“Answer when you hear us, Captain!”
“Eli!”
“Sister!”
I was relieved to hear their voices.
“Guys, I’m here! It’s okay!”
I called the four and ran to the end of the hallway. But as the distance got closer, I felt a sense of discomfort.
“Ellet!”
“Sister!”
“……”
What?
Why can’t they hear me?
At the time the distance from the group was less than seven steps.
<Ellet, stop!>
I immediately put the brakes on both feet. The next thing I knew, I was asking why.
“What’s wrong, Agnes?”
<Grope in front of you.>
I held out my hand without thinking and it was blocked, now I realized that this wasn’t a hallway, but a dead end. A glass wall so transparent that it could be mistaken for air was blocking my front.
Bang! Bang!
“Terry! Ash!”
Quagwagwang!
“Hestio! Ephel!”
No matter how much I screamed, no matter how much I pounded on the glass, it was no use.
Even when I struck with a sword loaded with aura, not even the slightest vibration reached the party on the other side.
It was as if the two spaces were completely separated.
“Ha, I’m going crazy.”
It was probably too early to say this. Because the crazy thing just started.
Durururu! Surururu!
“Huh?”
<What?>
Agnes and I were forced to witness an amazing and disturbing sight through the glass wall.
✠
Dururu!
The wall that had isolated Ellet and the four of them went up again. Fortunately, Ellet was in the same place.
“Oh, I was surprised.”
“Ellet!”
“Captain!”
“Sister!”
Hestio, Ephael, and Ash jumped in delight at the sight of her, seemingly unharmed. There was a look of relief in Thesilid’s eyes. He too called out to her as he approached her.
“Eli……”
No, he was trying to approach.
“…… ”
His toes stop, and his lips, which were about to call her nickname, close tightly. Meanwhile, the other three were surrounding Ellet and expressing what they didn’t know was resentment or concern.
“Hey! How much we have been calling you! Please answer us.”
“I called you too, but I guess you didn’t hear me, Hestio.”
“This restructuring was so big, it moved even the floor, I thought you were far away, Sister.”
“Ah, Ash. I thought so too, but I guess it was just loud for nothing. I stayed right in the same place.”
“Anyway, I’m glad. All five of us didn’t get separated.”
“That’s right, Ephael.”
Ellet replied to everything, gently calling everyone’s names. After reassuring the three, she turned to the last person left.
“Terry?”
“……”
Thesilid stood a step away, watching the group with sunken eyes. When he heard Ellet’s call, he came to his senses.
Before Ellet looked at him with slightly narrowed eyes Thesilid looked her in the eye and curled his lip upward.
“I’m glad you’re safe. Let’s go now.”
A charming but strangely cold smile and a voice resonating with a lower tone. The things stuck in her eyes and ears remind ‘Ellet’ of some other being.
“Uh, yes. Okay. let’s go.”
She took the lead, unaware that her pupils were torn vertically.
✠
“It’s a doppelganger!”
<It’s a doppelganger!>
A doppelganger slithered out of the glass wall.
It was mimicking me!
I was so mad that I was jumping up and down in a frenzy.
“Wow, me, what the hell?!”
<What the fuck! That doppelganger bastard! Whoa, it’s pretending to be you. Pretend to be you!!>
“Hey, hey, hey! Hestio, Ash, Ephael! Are you being fooled? Why are you being fooled?! HEY-!”
<There is still hope! If it’s Thesilid……!>
But what they saw in the mirror was the face of Thesilid, smiling sweetly as if to seduce the doppelganger.
“……”
<……>
I was shaking.
“B-bad guy……I believed in you…… ”
[‘The Scales that Judges the Soul’ is also disappointed and saddened.]
[‘The Eyes that Watch Over the Chaos of All Things’ is confident that if it were Bianca, she would have recognized you right away.]
Agnes consoled me.
<Ellet, I’ll take care of the ones who didn’t recognize you later.>
“Sigh. Thanks for the kind words, Agnes.”
I pushed aside my feelings of betrayal and depression and turned away from the glass wall. At a dead end, one had to let go of regrets to find another way.
“Anyway, if we go to where the path opens, we will eventually meet in the boss room.”
<Will those four be okay? The doppelganger might lure them into a trap.>
“The trap they’re trying to lure them into is probably the boss room.”
In the Castle of Mirrors, there is only one being with the ability to create a perfect doppelganger, complete with the target’s memories.
That’s the boss, Anaxia.
“So we need to get to the boss room before they do.”
We walked along the path that led to the other side of the glass wall and after a while, I reached the end of the road and could see an arched wooden door.
The door looked different from the rooms we had passed through so far, and it did not open on its own.
‘Is this a special place?’
It seems the prediction was correct.
Ka-tchat.
With a gentle push, the door opened and an unexpected room appeared.
<What? Is this a bedroom?>
“I know, right?”
✠
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