Chapter 177 - Doppelgänger (2)

Always think before you act.

That was the advice I had given Aynar on my first day here. Even then, they hadn't been empty words. That motto had actually saved my life through countless ordeals since.

So, with that in mind...

'Goddammit.'

With that brief complaint out of the way, I focused on the situation at hand.

["I never imagined I'd run into someone who knows me here."]

One piece of information I could glean from her opening words: at least she hadn't come looking for me.

["This is a bit of a problem."]

Information number two: she found this situation just as awkward as I did. But her tone was quite different from before. It felt as though she had yet another reason to keep her identity hidden.

'They said Noark had been sealed off... So is she some kind of spy? Smuggled out before the seal went up?'

Well, it was too early to be sure. There could be some other circumstances at play.

Right now, only one thing was certain.

["Well, I can just beat you up and erase your memories like last time."]

Even now, she didn't intend to kill me. Put simply, that was one thing I didn't need to worry about.

'As long as I don't accidentally step on a land mine.'

The memory-erasing pills didn't work on me. I just had to make sure she didn't discover that. Then things wouldn't reach the worst-case scenario.

That settled my basic approach. I had absolutely no intention of obediently swallowing a pill and letting myself be incapacitated, but... it couldn't hurt to have insurance.

'What did I say back in the sewers?'

It had been a few months, but I soon remembered. When we'd run into each other in the sewers, this was definitely the first question I'd asked.

"... Why do you want to kill me now? I kept my promise, didn't I?"

An inevitable question if my last memory of her was from the Land of the Dead.

"You're saying exactly what you said back then."

"... Back then?"

When I gave her a puzzled look, she shook her head and continued saying her piece.

"But you look much more relaxed."

I couldn't help chuckling.

'More relaxed, huh...?'

I hadn't realized it was so obvious.

I got straight to the point.

"My oath still stands. Can't you pretend you didn't see me and leave?"

"Then take this."

She pulled a pill from her pocket and tossed it to me. It was a dark, round pill with a strangely damp coating.

"It erases memories. Take it, and today's events will never have happened."

For a moment, I thought taking the pill might be the cleanest way to resolve this situation.

But...

"How can I trust you?"

That really was a last resort. Taking the pill would knock me unconscious.

What if she took a fancy to my equipment then? What if she opened my subspace ring out of idle curiosity and found the Dragonslayer Sword inside?

In the end, that was a land mine too.

"You don't have any other choice, do you?"

"What makes you say that?"

I was hundreds of times stronger than when we'd met in the Land of the Dead. Even compared to our sewer encounter, I was several times stronger.

More importantly, this wasn't the pitch-black underground with nobody around to help. This was a city on the surface, where laws and society functioned.

"One shout from me will wake my teammates. You can't handle all of us alone, can you?"

There was no reason for me to give ground to this woman.

"... Now I see. That's not composure. It's arrogance."

"Why don't you find out?"

Despite my bold challenge, she remained silent. She might call me cocky, but she must have known it herself: the situation was completely different this time.

"..."

An incongruously heavy silence settled over the empty predawn hallway.

She was the first to speak.

"Barbarian."

She called to me as she took a step forward. Instead of answering, I turned around.

And sure enough...

TAP-TAP!

I saw that she had split into two.

The doppelgänger's ability, [Autoreproduction].

「Amelia Reinweils has cast [Asura Kick].」

The double that had silently appeared behind me leaped up and swung a foot at me with all her weight behind it. The same attack that had knocked my entire head off last time.

I immediately raised an arm to shield my face.

BOOM!

A tingling impact shot through my wrist. But that was all.

'Does she have any idea how high my Physical Resistance is now?'

Well, the bone might have suffered a hairline fracture... Actually, I couldn't even be sure of that. Thanks to my Pain Tolerance, an injury that minor didn't hurt.

"Behel—raaaaaaa!!"

Roaring the name of my ancestral god, I drove my watermelon-sized fist into the double's face.

POOF!

The instant the blow landed, the double vanished in a burst of smoke like a firecracker. I quickly turned toward the original, bracing for a coordinated attack, but... she was simply standing where she'd been.

"How did you know?"

Ah, she hadn't imagined I could block that.

I readily answered her.

"Sound."

At some point, every sound had disappeared. Even in the dead of night, that was clearly unnatural. Aynar's snoring passed straight through something as flimsy as a wooden door, after all.

The moment the sound vanished, I realized she was planning a surprise attack. Seeing her take a step forward told me how she intended to do it, too.

[Autoreproduction], the skill I'd already fallen victim to once.

'She can summon a double within a five-meter radius.'

She must have been just short of the distance she needed to summon it behind me. Having fought her twice before was what allowed me to counter her like this.

"My offer still stands. Pretend you didn't see me and go about your business."

I repeated what I'd said earlier. As expected, this time her answer was different.

"... How can I trust you?"

Grinning, I gave her own words right back.

"Do you have any other choice?"

I didn't know what she'd used, but its duration must have been short. A few seconds ago, Aynar's snoring had become audible again.

Now all I really had to do was shout, and my teammates would come—

CREEEAK.

Just then, a door opened.

"Bjorn? Who on earth are you talking to, nyah...?"

Misha appeared in the doorway, rubbing her sleepy eyes.

"I'll explain later. Go back inside for now."

"Ow!"

I reached out and shut the door before it could open all the way.

"You! You lunatic, nyah!!"

Misha, who'd banged her head, went ballistic, but I had no choice. That wasn't what mattered right now.

"Hey! Open up! I said open up! That's a woman out there, isn't it? Erwin? Don't tell me she's here again, nyah!!"

Bracing my body against the door, I silently stared at the woman. The message in my eyes was simple.

'Well? What now?'

Her answer came after a short pause.

"If I say I'll leave, will you believe me?"

In other words, wasn't I worried about retaliation?

I answered without a moment's hesitation.

"I will."

Hadn't she spared me before on nothing more than my oath? And I really hadn't reported her. Just now, I'd even used my whole body to keep Misha back.

"You should know by now. I don't care what you're up to. I just don't want to get involved with you."

"... Of course you don't."

There was a trace of bitterness in her mutter. But that wasn't the answer I wanted.

"So, what's your answer?"

"I'll leave."

"I'd also like you to promise you won't come looking for me again."

"I wasn't looking for you. But... if that's what you want, I'll promise that too."

Her words eased my tension a little. This wasn't a world where you could place much weight on a mere promise, but that wasn't true of everyone.

["I'd rather not kill a barbarian with my own hands if I can help it."]

["That was the promise to begin with."]

Back in the Land of the Dead, she'd spared me because of a single promise she'd made to someone. Promises had to carry a different weight for her.

*'I called her a psychopath back then, but once I learned more, that wasn't necessarily true...'

"Then go, human woman."

"..."

She nodded silently at my words, then turned and started down the stairs.

CLICK, CLICK.

Relief welled up as her footsteps receded. It was a real blessing that this had ended without a fight. My build wasn't ready to withstand Aura yet.

City or teammates be damned, if she'd truly decided to see this through, I would have had to bleed too.

"Phew..."

Feeling I wouldn't be able to sleep properly unless I saw her leave with my own eyes, I headed for the stairs.

CLICK.

She had just stepped off the last stair onto the ground floor. Had she sensed my presence?

"... It's not 'human woman.'"

She spun around to look at me. Then...

"Amelia Reinweils."

Leaving those words behind, she vanished like smoke.

My mind went blank for a moment.

"What the hell...?"

Didn't that make it feel like we'd meet again?

KNOCK, KNOCK.

First, I knocked on Aynar's door. All I heard was snoring; the door didn't open.

Unlike Misha's, which opened the instant I knocked.

"Hey! Who was that woman outside, nyah!"

"A peddler."

"What, nyah?"

"Forget it. Let's get some sleep. I'm tired."

"Huh? Wha? Uh... huh? Sleep? Here? Why, nyah?"

I set a pillow on the floor and lay down on the bare boards. I really hadn't wanted to do this, but...

"R-right. I-if you're tired, it can't be helped. C-c-come up here and sleep, nyah. Don't stay down there..."

"That would be a bit... I'll just sleep here."

"Huh? Then wh-why did you come here, nyah?"

Uh...

Because, for some reason, I think I'd be scared to sleep alone tonight.

* * *

Time passed, and the day to enter the Labyrinth arrived.

[10 : 30]

An hour and a half remained until the portal opened. Raven arrived right at the appointed time, bringing us all together.

"Thankfully, nobody's late this time?"

We cast Unity magic first, then set off together. For the record, our starting point was Mister Bear's tavern. I'd decided it would be easier on my nerves to bring him along from here than to spend nearly an hour waiting.

"... There really are fewer people than usual."

The road to the Dimensional Plaza was eerily quiet. It wasn't hard to understand. Given the circumstances, everyone probably wanted to sit one expedition out and see how things developed.

'... But what's this?'

I froze upon reaching the Dimensional Plaza. The scene before me was nothing like the quiet streets.

"Everyone, please line up!"

There were dozens of times more civil servants than usual. And troops, too. Hundreds of squads, each consisting of one knight and four soldiers, were stationed all over the plaza.

'... Are they restricting entry to the Labyrinth?'

The thought crossed my mind, but thankfully, that wasn't it.

"Here, take these."

As we joined the end of the long line, a civil servant hurried over and handed us two items. One was a video-recording orb. The other was...

Well, honestly, I had no idea.

"What's this necklace?"

"An identification tag marking you as an explorer on our side."

"An identification tag...?"

"Yes."

The civil servant explained several precautions, emphasizing that we must never lose the tags. His explanation was as long-winded as you'd expect from official administration, but the gist was simple.

'Lose it, and you're fucked.'

Anyone without this identification tag would be marked for extermination. Conversely, killing someone without a tag wouldn't be considered a crime.

'So this is what they've been cooking up while things were quiet.'

They'd waited until just before the Labyrinth opened to tell us. They must have kept this tightly under wraps.

As a resident of Raphdonia, I didn't mind it.

"B-Bjorn... Are we going to be okay, nyah?"

"Why wouldn't we be? This means the army will protect us in the Labyrinth."

"Oh, is that it, nyah?"

"At least one thing is certain now. The rumors about a portal in the underground city are true."

We chatted as we waited, and about five minutes later, the portal opened. The army entered first, followed by the explorers waiting in line.

"... At this rate, we might not get in."

"Oh, come on, Mr. Urigfried. Surely that won't happen."

Raven dismissed the possibility, but her expression grew increasingly stiff as time passed. The portal shrank in proportion to the dwindling line.

I, on the other hand, welcomed this development.

'Hmm. Then maybe I won't have to tell them after all?'

I'd originally planned to confess what had happened before and use the EXP duplication bug. Having watched Mister Bear over the past month, I knew he placed great value on loyalty. Raven was trustworthy in a different sense.

The incident with the specialist appraiser had been the deciding factor.

["If we tell him, he'll make several times what he paid us off that information. And I won't stand for that."]

She would never do something just to benefit someone else. That was why I'd intended to share the method and keep collecting free EXP, starting with this expedition.

But...

"What are you doing? Hurry up and get in!"

"If you're not going in, move aside!"

Under these circumstances, I might be able to bring about the same situation naturally. Even to my eyes, it was going to be a close call. A major factor was the number of explorers blocking the way and dithering, perhaps frightened at the sight of the army.

"That's all! Everyone, please step back!"

"What! Wh-what do you mean? We've been waiting for over an hour!"

Entry closed with about ten left in line.

"A-are we just going home now?!"

"Huh. I didn't think we'd actually fail to get in."

"This is because you said something weird, Mr. Urigfried."

"... You're blaming me for this?"

"Sigh. Never mind. Shall we all head back?"

Everyone seemed resigned to reality.

Come on, you're hurting this barbarian's feelings. You're giving up over something this minor?

"Bjorn, what are you doing, nyah? You keep staring ahead."

"Now."

At last, the portal's light began to fade. Normally, this was when people everywhere would start shouting, "The gate is about to close!"

"Everyone, get on my back."

"Huh?"

There was no time to explain, so I activated [Gigantification] first. My body swelled in an instant.

"Wh-what are you doing! Using abilities outside designated areas is illegal—!"

I could just pay the fine. It wasn't even that much. As long as nobody was injured, it was about 300,000 Stones.

'That can come out of the team fund.'

I immediately scooped all four of them into my arms and started charging straight ahead.

"You there! What are you doing!"

"Stop!!"

I completely ignored the civil servants' empty shouts. At worst, this would end with another small fine anyway.

There really was no reason not to go in. Just think how much we could make hunting on the fifth floor in a single day!

"Aaaah!"

"Don't tell me you're planning to just go in!"

"Behel—raaaaaaa!"

Did my roar serve as an answer? Tucked under my left arm, Aynar burst into gleeful laughter.

"Hahaha! That's Bjorn for you!!! A great warrior!!"

That's right. Now this was how we barbarians did things.

THUD! THUD!

With a satisfied grin, I raced across the empty plaza.

WHOOOOSH.

The portal had shrunk to roughly human size, its light wavering unsteadily. Then that light flashed and embraced us.

「You have entered the first floor, Crystal Cave.」

Safe.

* * *

「Your character's Fame has increased by +1.」

「Your character's Fame has increased by +1.」

「Your character's Fame has increased by +1.」

「Your character's Fame has increased by +1...」

「...」