Chapter 34
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: 9. Companion
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How is a person defined?
What allows me to think of myself as me?
The body? The soul? Memories?
If the body defines me, then I become a different person every time I switch bodies.
But I am me.
Even if I change bodies, even if I die once and come back to life, I am still me.
'At the very least, it's not the body that lets me remain myself.'
Then is it the soul?
I used to think this was the most likely.
'But the soul isn't it either.'
If the soul defined me, the state of my body shouldn't affect my sense of self.
But the body's condition does influence the self.
Therefore, the soul isn't what defines me.
'What defines me is memory. The self entrusts its existence to memory.'
"Indeed."
The man before my eyes is proof of that.
'I finally succeeded. Finding someone compatible with me is always the hard part.'
Idiots who had lost their minds lay scattered around the seated man.
They couldn't withstand the memory implantation and their psyches broke.
"You're planning to use me as a discard, aren't you?"
As soon as the words hit the air, I tensed my body.
This opponent had inherited my memories and experiences.
In a way, he was a perfect duplicate of me.
If we fought here, victory or defeat would come down to the performance of our bodies.
'I don't think I'd lose.'
This guy had only inherited my sense of self—he didn't have my abilities.
"What'll it be?"
"If your plan had been boring, I would've killed you. No objections."
Duplicate human.
Especially duplicating myself comes with a lot of variables.
That's because my personality is inherently fickle.
'It's also why I avoid making duplicates of myself.'
Two of me would be too much, even for myself.
"By becoming two people, we foil the Saintess's prophecy. Sounds intriguing at a glance."
The man laughed.
His expression seemed somehow broken.
This is probably what it looks like when someone forgets how to smile but forces it anyway.
"Feels strange. To see my own expression up close like this."
"Definitely. This has its own appeal."
The man grasped my hand and stood.
"The plan?"
"You go assassinate the Saintess yourself. Meanwhile, I'll watch you die while sipping black tea."
"Nice. If possible, I'd prefer to be the one watching you die..."
The man stared right through me.
He's me. I have no idea what I'm thinking.
'Psycho bastard. I can hear the gears turning from here.'
"Want to give it a shot?"
"Nah. Killing the Saintess myself might have its own fun."
No need to explain the plan.
That guy's me.
I'd know my own plan.
"Chance the Saintess foresaw there being two of me?"
"Of course it exists. But no problem."
The Saintess's foresight focuses on one event like a camera lens.
By my estimate, the duplicate is another lens with the same focus as mine.
The Saintess loses focus between the two lenses.
If she prophesies that I fall, only one of us will.
To foresee the other me's movements, she'd need another prophecy.
'Doubles her burden.'
If memory defines me,
then a human with perfectly identical memories is essentially the same person as me.
'Of course, it's just an unproven hypothesis for now.'
Whether her foresight sees us as the same person or not remains unknown.
It might, or it might not.
'Doesn't matter.'
Her foresight basically requires interpretation.
With two of me, I can sow confusion in that interpretation.
"Profit either way. What about duplicating me once more?"
"That ramps up the risk."
We're locked in a battle of wits, reading each other's thoughts.
Even two is this intense—what if there were three?
Even without my abilities, I had enough prowess to cause chaos.
'It'd be a total mess.'
If I judge I can't handle it, I'll kill them myself.
Does that guy think the same?
The man stared at me blankly, expressionless.
He didn't seem bothered at all by being a duplicate.
'Makes sense.'
That's just who I am.
The Saintess's residence was hidden in the mountains.
Officially, it was known as an abandoned temple.
I confirmed her hideout from afar.
'No army in sight. Probably inside.'
The Saintess, Ercella, knew my abilities.
She understood the more corpses, the better for me.
'Small elite force. Logical choice.'
To kill the Saintess, I had to enter that residence.
But the moment I did, I'd trigger her prepared traps.
'She probably even foresaw me calculating this from here.'
So ambush is pointless.
'Going through the front gate.'
A blizzard raged on the mountainside. Between protruding cliffs lay an invisible entrance.
Passing through the mana barrier revealed a vast cavern.
An endlessly winding corridor.
The walls seemed alive, splitting and merging like a serpent.
'The Saintess is waiting deeper inside.'
"You've finally arrived."
In the corridor's center.
A man who had been sitting with his back turned stood up.
A middle-aged man with slicked-back hair.
Glimpses of gray streaked through the black.
"I've heard much about you from Lady Ercella. You possess the ability to switch bodies, yes?"
"Correct."
The man's eyebrow twitched slightly.
"But, hmm. This isn't Duke Silverlane's body, is it? Not quite what I expected."
"You heard that much?"
"They held a funeral, yet the corpse vanished."
The man extended one index finger.
"Only one possibility. Someone who can use dead bodies took it. That's the logical conclusion, no? Even Lady Ercella mentioned it."
I opened a subspace. A single sword emerged from the empty darkness.
A relic-grade artifact I'd been saving.
'Can't assume it's like with Leonidas.'
Go all out from the start.
"Don't worry. Even this body is more than enough. I've put some work into strengthening it."
The man drew a spear from thin air.
"Heh. Quite the arrogant temperament. But that's understandable too."
Rumble rumble rumble!!
The corridor shifted. Three massive doors unfolded like a fan around me.
Superhumans appeared beyond each one.
Captain of the 2nd Knight Order, Eldric von Arkmeir.
"I never imagined we'd all gather just to deal with one fallen hero."
Captain of the 3rd Knight Order, Calendar von Us.
"Don't underestimate him, Duke Arkmeir. This is the powerhouse who took down Leonidas."
Captain of the 5th Knight Order, Isode von Linveil.
"Still... overkill... force..."
Three Superhumans, each with different armaments and styles.
Above the fan shape, fourteen more doors opened.
Mages waiting within looked down at me.
"When we've prepared this much for one man, how could we not?"
Shing!
Captain of the 1st Knight Order, Regis von Tiberius, stepped forward with a grin.
"Die quietly, relic of the past."
The moment his words ended, the world's colors faded.
In the frozen world, five figures moved.
Eldric swung his greatsword from the front.
'Block it.'
Claaaaaaang!!
The eardrum-shattering sound ripped through my skull.
Calendar thrust his short spear from the side.
Space crumpled where the supersonic spear tip touched.
I twisted my body. The blade grazed my ribs.
I bent at the waist to deflect it, as a massive scythe skimmed my crown.
I swung my sword in an arc to counter.
Pop!
As color returned to the world, the sky flashed electric blue.
Simultaneous incantation from the fourteen mages who had completed their hierarchy.
By then, all four knight captains had pulled back.
'An attack crushing the entire space. Can't dodge or block it.'
Then—
'Deflect it.'
Accelerated thought raced to its limit.
I drew a circle with my sword at the moment magic collided with blade.
Not a line, but a plane.
The spinning plane became a circle, then an infinity symbol.
Dual polarity circulation.
Kiiiiiiiiing!!!
I deflected the pressure that crushed space itself, guided its direction, made it collide.
My two legs supporting the ground shattered.
My two arms holding up the sky burst open.
The line vanished, the plane vanished, the solid vanished.
A flickering world.
Only the unyielding spirit, forged through hundreds, thousands of deaths, moved the ragdoll body.
Kabooooom!!!
The entire space exploded.
Not a single chunk of debris or stone remained—it all vanished.
A massive crater scarred the corridor's center.
"...Cough!"
I turned my head to stare at the armament piercing my heart and throat.
They had charged in before the magic's aftermath dissipated, aiming to finish me.
But—
"I thought Lady Ercella might be wrong..."
Kriki kik!
I grabbed the greatsword splitting my head with my hand and shoved it aside.
Eldric, gripping the greatsword, let out a hollow laugh.
"She's not at all..."
—I blocked it.