Chapter 225
Chapter 225
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 225
Chapter Title: The Reaper of the Silver Mirror Lake (4)
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The soldiers fell asleep in an instant, pierced by the neck dagger. Duncan hurriedly grabbed the woman's hand and pulled her to safety. No matter how many times he checked, it was unmistakably his wife, whom he had parted with in Maltana.
"Y-Yulia! What happened? Why are you here...?"
"D-Duncan! Is that really you? Why are you here...?"
The couple stared at each other with wide eyes, stammering the same words. It would take a little more time to calm down and talk properly.
What he finally heard from his wife was this: she had been captured by the imperial army and was being transported as a prisoner, but she had luckily escaped. He couldn't hear more details than that. Yulia was fidgeting anxiously and urging him on like this.
"Duncan, this isn't the time! We have to hurry to the 'Silver Mirror Lake'!"
"S-Silver Mirror Lake...? Why there...?"
"Our son is still there! Only I was transported to Untana city from there..."
"...What?"
Duncan blankly twisted his face.
He couldn't make heads or tails of the situation. But he quickly pulled himself together. Seeing his wife trembling with anxiety, it didn't seem like empty words that their son was left alone.
He had planned to go to Silver Mirror Lake anyway, so the plan remained the same... but the situation had become even more desperate. It wasn't easy to slip out alone through tight security, and now he had to take his wife along too.
Unexpectedly, however, Yulia showed him a way out.
"Duncan, earlier I found a hole under the walls over there...? If we go through it, we might be able to sneak out of the castle..."
"I-Is that true?"
It was true. There was indeed a hole like a dog hole in a corner of the castle wall. The drawbridge was wide open too, so the two escaped the imperial army's watch network so easily that their worries seemed foolish.
But on the way to the lake, Duncan couldn't shake off this doubt.
...He was sure there hadn't been any such hole when he had scouted around before entering the castle?
*
Silver Mirror Lake revealed another wondrous sight as night fell.
Guests from distant realms settled over the lake. Twinkling star clouds and the Milky Way. The night sky draped its splendid train all the way to the ground, using the transparent ice as stepping stones. Starlight like sesame seeds lit up the serene lakeside, replacing the water scales that had shattered during the day.
Unfortunately, the two visitors to the lake had no leisure to admire the view.
"Son, where are you! Son, where are you! Sob..."
"... ."
They were desperately searching for their missing son.
Strictly speaking, only Yulia was zealously searching. Duncan was just carefully scanning the surroundings. Then he looked at his wife with clear bewilderment on his face.
"W-Wait a minute, Yulia... What happened? Weren't all the people who fled from Delutana captured here? But there's not a soul around, not even a glimpse."
"That's... I don't know either. They were all definitely gathered here before, the noble ladies and their children..."
"... ."
Suspicion was slowly deepening. In truth, it was strange from the start to leave a perfectly fine castle and keep prisoners by a lakeside. Just as he was about to press her on whether their son was really here.
Splash, splash!
A sound of water came.
"D-Duncan? Did you hear that sound just now?"
"...Huh."
Not far at the water's edge, spray shot up from a corner where the ice had cracked. From the pitch-black water surface, an even darker shadow appeared below.
"Our son! Our son must have fallen in there! What do we do! Hurry, go save him, Duncan!"
"... ."
If their son had really fallen in, he should go save him right away. But suddenly, Duncan recalled a metaphor Kadim had once told him. What would he do if his family fell into the water?
'...Then would you just leave your son and keep doing what you were doing?'
Duncan glared at his wife, who was just stomping her feet, his eyes sharp.
"Yulia... why aren't you thinking of going to save him yourself?"
"What are you talking about? I can't swim, and I'm weaker than you!"
"...Is that so? Then before I go, can you tell me our son's name?"
"Duncan! Is now the time to ask that? Hurry and save our son first..."
"No, no, this is important... Until you tell me our son's name, I won't move a step from here."
"... ."
Yulia's eyes turned inorganic, and she let out a scornful chuckle.
"It's 'Kadim', Duncan. Do you think I wouldn't know the name of the son I birthed in pain?"
"...!!"
For a moment, he gaped in disbelief.
Then suddenly, Duncan's eyes glazed over, and his tongue trembled.
"Gr, grrr, grr... R-Right... You're really you, not someone else..."
"Of course it's me! Who else would it be? Hurry and check if it's Kadim in the water and save him!"
"Y-Yeah... Okay, got it..."
He'd kept feeling something was off about his wife... but it must have been his imagination. With her gruff tone, inability to swim, and correctly remembering their son's name, she was undoubtedly the 'real Yulia'.
As he got closer, the shadow became clearer. It was huge and black, reminiscent of the big fish he'd seen in the moat. Duncan cautiously descended the slope to the water's edge.
But the moment starlight shone down, reflecting his exact image on the water surface.
That image suddenly reached out to him.
Sploosh!
"Gaaah!!"
He dodged the hand by a hair's breadth and retreated. Before he could calm his shock, a hand appeared from behind and pushed his back.
"What are you doing! Go in properly and check, Duncan!"
"Guhack!"
Duncan could dodge that hand too only thanks to his survival instincts honed through countless crises. Instead, he reflexively grabbed the wrist and flipped her over his shoulder, sending the one who had pushed his back splashing loudly into the water.
Sploooosh!
"Phew..."
After a bout of submerging, Yulia emerged from the water as if nothing had happened, not even her hair tips wet.
"That's too much, Duncan. Throwing your loving wife into the water in this freezing winter..."
"You... what are you? W-What's that in the water... and why did you push my back..."
"That was to prove your existential fiction. Too bad. One more step, and I could have given you your true form too."
"...What?"
The thing in Yulia's form dropped the pathetic acting. A glow shone from her eye sockets, and solemn words flowed from her lips.
"Hear me, servant of the devil. According to the feeble banner of humans, all light in the world is illusion, and the water surface is the canvas that holds it. Humans consider their reflected image in light as false form, deeming only the subject perceived through warm blood and flesh, lowly body temperature and touch as true."
"... ."
"But according to the sublime precept of light, light alone is the truest value, the one path to truth... By the mark of blessing given to me by Elga, the light reflected on the water surface inverts the concept of existence. I confine the subject, mere derivative reality, beyond the moist medium, taking its true form that it was unaware of, and prove the fiction of matter and the truth of light."
"... ."
Duncan lost his words at the nonsense that froze his brain. Yulia summarized her tirade with a simple gesture.
"Like this."
Sploooosh!
Spray rose, and Yulia's form changed again. Into Duncan, an Untana official, a Volgaruis lady, an imperial soldier, an Atalain warrior... and finally back to Yulia.
Shing!
The being of a thousand forms raised a longsword. A decagonal star pattern, the 'Stigmata', blazed on its forehead.
"Realize your non-existence and worthlessness, servant of the devil. Decagram's 10th Seat, 'The Star that Illuminates the Water's Surface' Reflectus, personally reflects your false image."
"...!"
Duncan's face turned corpse-white.
His vision spun. Strength drained from his body, his heart pounded. Facing a top-tier Knight of Elga head-on, whom he absolutely shouldn't fight directly... The urge to turn and run surged, but he barely held back thinking of his family.
"Y-You bastard, what have you done...? Where are my wife and son...?"
The being of a thousand forms shamelessly mimicked Yulia again.
"What are you talking about, Duncan? Your wife is right in front of you."
"N-No... Gr, grr, grr... W-Well, that's true, but..."
"Oh! Haha, are you talking about those false forms of blood and flesh? They're all trapped over there!"
Whoosh!
The longsword swung like a conductor's baton. Starlight on the water condensed. The identities of the shadows rippling like shadows at the dark lake bottom became clear.
The high-class families who fled from Delutana, imperial soldiers and warriors, and... Yulia and Duncan. Caught by hands emerging from the water surface, trapped beneath it.
Yet even after hearing it admit to being Decagram itself and seeing his real family in the lake, Duncan couldn't think of the Yulia on land as 'fake'.
'What... what the hell is this...?'
His head felt like it would explode. A flash of someone's words crossed his pale mind.
Advice from 'The Star that Pierces Truth' Hendark.
'Though the lowest in Decagram, it's best to be especially wary of the 10th Seat, Lord Reflectus. The effect of his Stigmata, 'The Star that Illuminates the Water's Surface' is...'
To trap the one reflected on the water surface underwater and freely take their form.
And while taking the form, 'absolutely' twist perception so they can't doubt it's fake.
The compulsion of that manipulation was 'absolute'. Doubts rewrote memories, and even when blatantly revealing its identity, deeming it fake was impossible. 'The Star that Illuminates the Water's Surface' Reflectus, in Yulia's form, slowly stroked his chin.
"Hmm, I've been secretly watching since you entered Untana... Your skills are quite impressive. Taking down Arch Paladin Ferrant alone! As expected, that 'devil' doesn't keep you around for nothing, huh?"
"Grr, grr... N-No, heh, it wasn't that big a deal..."
"But you must pay the price for insulting Elga's proxy, right? Hurry to the water's edge and obediently offer your form. Otherwise, I'll behead you with this."
"Grr, grr... Ack, what..."
Reflectus raised the longsword. The sharply honed blade and crescent smile gleamed coldly. Duncan thought something was off, but before he knew it, he was obeying the command.
But one corner of his mind was still thinking fiercely. How to resist the perception manipulation, how to confront the enemy who stole his wife's form, the counter to 'The Star that Illuminates the Water's Surface'.
He desperately recalled the conversation between Kadim and Hendark.
'...What kind of ability is that? Even knowing it's fake, you can't think of it as fake?'
'Indeed. The Stigmata's power is absolute. Unless one's 'rank' overwhelmingly surpasses it, they'd be helpless.'
'Then is there no way to counter it once already deceived?'
'Well, not none, but it's not easy...'
Duncan widened his eyes fiercely.
Then he veered from heading to the lake and charged at Reflectus like an arrow.
Clang!
The 'Razor's slash was easily blocked. Even a transparent blade couldn't pierce a top Knight of Elga's guard. But Reflectus's face showed clear bewilderment.
"...What? A severe defect in the brain's thought process? Why attack his own wife?"
"... ."
"No way... he overcame the 'Stigmata' effect...?"
It was correct. Duncan hadn't escaped the perception manipulation. He had just recalled Hendark's advice.
'Think of the one you see as insane... Believe they've eaten something wrong or been possessed by a demon and lost their mind... And if you 'firmly believe' that beating them will snap them out of it, even if you can't see them as fake, you can resist or fight 'The Star that Illuminates the Water's Surface'.'
With a crooked smile, Duncan looked at his 'insane' wife.
"No, you're the crazy one, Yulia."
"...What?"
"You seem thoroughly possessed by a demon. To chase out the demon in your head, you'll need a good beating for a while..."
"... ."
The black mantle fluttered. Duncan hid in the darkness, waiting for another chance to ambush.
'The Star that Illuminates the Water's Surface' Reflectus also hardened his expression and prepared to counter.