Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: Doppelganger (3)
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"Nice to meet you all. I doubt there's anyone here who doesn't recognize my face. I'm Louis, and at the chairman's request, I'm stepping in to give today's lecture."
The freshmen staring up at me with sparkling eyes from outside the canteen stirred a fresh wave of emotion.
People always feel better when they're recognized and respected by others, right?
Even in this sweltering heat, not a single one was skipping class or zoning out. It made me want to throw in some extra stories I hadn't planned on.
"The creatures that inhabit Helzev fall into two main categories: demons and magical beasts. The difference isn't intelligence or the ability to use magic."
"......"
"......"
I wished there was a bit more enthusiasm from the crowd.
The silence made things awkward.
Well, I guess it was weird having the canteen owner suddenly pop up to ramble about the demon realm.
"But there are rare cases where the line isn't so clear, like our star today."
I pulled out a jar containing a doppelganger larva and held it up for everyone to see.
A few students yelped and went pale.
It definitely looked gross on the surface. And if you knew what it was capable of, you'd be even more wary.
"This is a type of magical beast called a doppelganger. It has a unique ecology where, in its larval state, it copies everything about the first thing it touches."
For example, by eating hair or flesh, it transforms into an exact duplicate of that person.
"At this stage, it has no ego, so it's classified as a magical beast. But oddly enough, once it shapeshifts into a human or demon, it gains not just intelligence, but the target's memories and abilities too. So, it's probably best seen as something in between."
— Clap, clap, clap...
A smattering of applause. I turned to see Adella.
Having some reaction felt nice. I should slip her a bun next time.
"Anyway, the tricky part about doppelgangers is how damn hard it is to tell if someone's real or fake. Let's see..."
Time for a demonstration. I beckoned to a familiar face standing at the back.
"You, come up here."
"Ahem..."
Ansen bristled a bit at being called out but cautiously stepped forward.
I took the sleeping doppelganger from the jar and pressed it against Ansen's hair.
It swelled up instantly and, in less than ten seconds, transformed into an exact copy.
Splurt!!!
"Kyaaah!!"
"What the hell is that!?"
"Guh, huuh...!"
Oh, the reactions are picking up. Great class attitude.
I should tell the chairman to give them some kind of reward.
Did they still have that point system? Or maybe talants.
"As you can see, it copies the clothes and even the hair perfectly. No difference visually. Even Litvice test paper won't work. It replicates karma too—it's the real deal."
Of course, it couldn't use magic above a certain tier, and special artifacts beyond simple clothes were only superficial copies.
There were clear limits, but that wasn't what made doppelgangers terrifying.
"You can't tell who's real and who's fake until one of them dies. Cut off an arm or leg, and blood sprays out just like normal. Only when it flatlines does it turn to ash and vanish. Meaning, you have to kill it to confirm."
A doppelganger's mimicry is perfect. It won't reveal itself unless pushed right to the brink of death.
That's a seriously nasty trait.
What if, on the battlefield, a commander or knight suddenly turns to the demon side?
It wouldn't just mean defeat in combat—it could lead to soldiers suspecting each other and self-destructing.
The horror when a comrade you'd been joking with yesterday turns out to have been eaten, and the beast reveals itself by turning its spear on you... it's beyond imagination.
A plague of suspicion spreading through the ranks.
That's the true terror of doppelgangers.
But if there was absolutely no way to distinguish them, I wouldn't have left the canteen to Liv to come give this lecture.
These kids got lucky today.
"Anyone here know how to spot a real doppelganger?"
"......"
"Or has actually seen one before?"
"......"
As everyone stayed silent, Adella shot her hand up.
She pointed wildly at the doppelganger of Ansen on the left. I ignored her. It wasn't our first rodeo.
"I'm about to show you a foolproof way to tell a doppelganger from a human without chopping off its head."
I drew the dagger from Ansen's belt.
The little sword I'd given him last time we fought. He was sweating bullets, instinctively remembering that day.
"Pay close attention."
I checked the blade—about the length of my palm—and without hesitation, grabbed the doppelganger's neck beside me.
And—
Stab!
"Guhk! Kuuh...!!"
Straight to the heart.
Well, technically just below it.
Doppelganger larvae seem to copy their target instantly, but if you look closely, there's an order.
The heart forms first—the lifeline of all creatures—so the core is located behind and below it.
Thrust the blade diagonally up from the solar plexus to excise only the core.
The human diaphragm is thick, so just be careful not to hit the inferior vena cava.
The key is the angle—stab hard enough to pierce the spine. The skin's tougher than you'd think, and a bad angle might glance off and go through the back.
"A-ahh! It hurts! Save me! B-blood...!"
It's not a vital spot, so a human could heal with magic.
If it's a doppelganger, it'll crumble from head to toe into gray ash.
The thing that had been mimicking Ansen, screaming in pain and begging for mercy, shattered with a crisp snap! the moment I pulled the blade out, like a villain hit with a finger gun.
"......"
"......"
"......Thump!"
The students, seeing this mystical sight for the first time, gaped in stunned silence.
They were so overwhelmed they forgot to breathe.
Thud!
A few even passed out from holding their breath too long—
But hey, better than Ansen, trembling beside me.
I patted his shoulder and opened another jar.
"Alright then."
I announced the real lecture's start to the class.
"Everyone, come up one by one and give this guy a stab."
Seeing Adella clapping silently at the back, this lesson was a smashing success.
Clear explanations, solid knowledge transfer, and a clean hands-on demo to wrap it up.
Maybe teaching is my true calling?
"Piy! Hurry! Fly fast! Go get anyone, anyone right now!"
This wasn't a lesson. It was a transmission of madness, terror, and horrifying despair.
Students who had left their staves behind thinking it was just PE class trembled at the bloodied dagger suddenly in their hands.
"No, you have to hit this exact spot. Your friend's in pain."
Stab! Stab! Stab!
With Louis kindly guiding their hands on angle and force, another doppelganger vanished from the world.
But the girl who heard its dying screams fainted on the spot from the trauma.
How could he call something so barbaric a lesson?
Erzebet, her lips turning blue, was the opposite of her guard Averet, whose eyes were wide as saucers as she stared at Louis.
"Impossible. That's the method Margrave Whitelett taught us...!"
Doppelgangers were so rare and hard to detect that few knew their biology, let alone how to exterminate them.
Even she, from the Hooksclo Knights, had only heard brief descriptions a few times.
Louis's lecture matched exactly what Whitelett had taught her.
It was a bit brutal, but hesitation against demons and beasts meant death.
New recruits to the knights, still hesitant with their blades, were trained the same way.
To strip away their aversion to demons in human skin.
'That killing intent earlier... He's no ordinary man.'
Name... Louis?
Averet recalled the academy rulebook she'd read on the way to Pharenchia.
In case of major incident at the academy, seek help from the canteen owner.
"Next, Adella. You try."
"This one's it!"
"Hey, that's the real Ansen. Stab the doppelganger."
"This is the one!"
She was the only one there who truly grasped the importance of the rulebook Lehel had painstakingly created.
Louis's first lecture for Pharenchia Academy freshmen didn't quite end successfully.
Midway through, the administrative chief came running barefoot, claiming a mistake, and urgently halted the class.
She had students needing mental care escorted to the temple, then swiftly ordered dispersal.
Merins herself fled the clearing without even glancing at Louis.
"Tch, like last time, this academy's got a habit of canceling lectures out of nowhere?"
Ansen sweated beside the grumbling Louis, who was in his element.
Louis handed back the empty jar to the last one lingering and returned the dagger.
"Hey, this yours?"
"Y-yes..."
"Shorten up."
"Yes, sir...!"
Ansen remembered. Who had left him bedridden in the temple for a month.
And how this little blade in his hand had blotted out the sun.
'R-report it. I have to report...!'
He'd never heard of such a terrifying figure lurking in the kingdom.
The guards? Or Viscountess Darling?
As he tried to bolt, Louis grabbed him.
"Oh, right. One left. You do it."
He pointed to the last remaining doppelganger—the one gripping his neck hard enough to snap it, wearing Ansen's exact face.
"You've seen it closest, so you'll do better than the others. Remember what I taught? Stab it."
"D-don't! Put that sword away!"
Like the others that had turned to ash, it begged for mercy.
Ansen hesitated but steeled himself under Louis's piercing glare.
Stab!
He thrust upward below the heart, putting power into his back foot, just as instructed.
Ansen, who had planned to join the knights in his second year, made a surprisingly clean kill.
"Gack...!"
The gruesome feel of piercing flesh.
Warm blood trickling down the hilt.
As panic-shaken Ansen trembled, Louis's near-mutter reached his ears.
"You're really lucky. Nova did tons of research on doppelgangers."
Nova? Who's that?
"Confirmed that without demon contact in larval stage, they lack malice toward humans—just survival instinct. Kinda pisses me off, but I'm pretty much the sole exception."
Ansen watched hot blood run down his hand.
The doppelganger before him was on its last breath.
Louis gazed at it impassively and spoke.
"Know why doppelgangers are so hard to spot? They don't know they're fakes until the moment of death. That's why they react and act just like the real thing. Only when death looms do they realize what they are."
How could such a horrific beast exist?
"You get it now, even without me saying."
What to do. What not to do.
Louis's thick arm rested on his shoulder. The sensation of all mana draining away was like death to a mage.
"Liv quietly. Don't get caught."
Facing the doppelganger corpse that didn't turn to ash, Ansen nodded like a broken doll.