Chapter 18

“Oh ho, that mirror… it’s enchanted.”

“Magic, you say?”

“Yes. This is night vision. A spell that makes opponents visible even in darkness.”

“…So it was this man.”

Hamel looked at the corpse’s fingers.

The left index finger, bandaged to stop bleeding, stood out.

He was likely the one who left the blood-written warning on the dressing room door.

It probably meant: find this mirror to fight the demons.

Since they’d found the mirror, there was no need to pore over the book, but as he quickly flipped through it, a page written in a frantic hand caught his eye.

Unlike the earlier entries, that writing carried vivid emotion.

Fear and dread.

It read more like a will left by a mage chased by something.

[That madman came right up close. I will soon die. Beware the shadow.]

Hamel quietly mulled over that sentence.

David, who had been watching Hamel, cocked his head.

“Why the look? Is there something strange?”

“No, nothing.”

Hamel shook his head as he answered.

Turning his gaze, Hamel looked at the safe placed behind the corpse.

“Have you checked that as well?”

“Ah. I checked. I opened it—there was nothing of note.”

“Is that so.”

Hamel nodded in acknowledgement.

Then he calmly addressed the group.

“There seem to be no more clues here. We’ll move to the next room.”

“Yes!”

Perhaps because they’d obtained half the mirror without much trouble, the group’s mood lightened.

Watching their backs—more precisely, the back of David who was leading—the man tilted his head in puzzlement.

Somehow, David was lying.

What Hamel pictured after reading the book was ‘shadow magic.’

A signature innate magic of the Gilmore family.

Of course, the book only contained the phrase ‘beware the shadow.’

Even if it was shadow magic, linking it to David would be a stretch.

It would be more reasonable to suspect the head of the house who caused this incident.

‘But…’

The safe David claimed to have opened.

It was a safe that could only be opened by the lord’s signet ring, the one Hamel currently carried.

So David couldn’t have opened it.

He was hiding something.

‘What is he hiding?’

Hamel watched David without making it obvious.

They had lived apart too long to trust him completely.

Meanwhile, the party reached the next room: the doll workshop.

“We’re entering.”

Hamel grabbed the doorknob without hesitation.

Even if he had doubts, he needed to show trust now.

They had to clear the workshop safely.

Moreover, if Hamel showed suspicion, David would become even more guarded.

Click.

He carefully pulled the handle and the interior of the workshop was revealed.

Like the dressing room, the room’s interior was very dark.

Hamel drew his sword and advanced slowly.

Antonio stood with the door wide open, ready so they wouldn’t repeat the earlier mistake.

Gradually their eyes adjusted to the dark and things became visible.

True to its name, the doll workshop had various dolls and parts scattered around.

Then something reached Hamel’s ear.

“…Damn it. Is this how I die?”

Between piles of doll parts.

A man sat with his head in his hands, murmuring low and bitterly.

He seemed unaware they’d entered and continued muttering to himself.

“I wasn’t supposed to get missions like this…”

As Hamel approached, his eyes widened.

Because the man looked familiar.

“…You are.”

Only then did the man notice Hamel’s presence; he snapped his head up and stared.

Then, looking at Hamel’s face, he murmured in a dazed voice.

“…Hamel?”

“Mr. Ono.”

Hamel nodded and called his name.

He was another Exorcist priest dispatched by the order and Hamel’s former comrade.

Ono Paulo.

That was his name.

After staring at Hamel blankly for a moment, he suddenly scowled.

“Because of you…!”

But it lasted only an instant.

He faltered as if he’d noticed something and looked past Hamel.

Soon despair settled onto his face.

“Even the priest that came in?”

“Yes.”

When Hamel nodded, he pressed his eyes with both hands.

“It’s over. We can’t expect reinforcements now.”

“Mr. Ono. What about the other Exorcist priest…”

“Catherine is dead. Haven’t you been to the dressing room? Well, I suppose she would’ve been alive long enough to get this far if she had.”

So she had been turned into wax and died, then.

Hamel quietly swallowed the bitter feeling.

Ono sneered at him and spoke.

“You were always like that. You drag others into death. Blinded by revenge, you take inappropriate missions and get comrades killed. Looks like it’s my turn this time.”

“Mr. Ono! That’s too much…”

The senior priest, who’d been listening, snapped angrily, but Hamel actually restrained him.

“It’s all right.”

“Still the same I see. Even that frustrating personality of yours.”

Seeing that, Ono muttered as if fed up and turned his head.

The priest watched the two with a conflicted expression but could do nothing.

Ono wasn’t entirely wrong.

Now he wandered alone on missions, but he hadn’t always been that way.

Shortly after becoming an Exorcist priest, Hamel had taken on several reckless missions and lost most of his comrades as a result.

He was always the sole survivor.

And…

Among those comrades was Ono’s master.

Perhaps because of that.

Ono showed no inclination to cooperate.

“Is it unreasonable to hope for Mr. Ono’s help…?”

As the senior priest sighed,

Hamel, who had been standing silently, suddenly spoke.

“Mr. Ono always asked me about that day.”

“…What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

Ono flinched at Hamel’s words.

But he couldn’t not understand what he meant.

Ono had asked many times about his master’s final moments.

Hamel had always answered with nothing but apologies.

“Some time ago, I met a person from that village.”

“That village… you mean…”

“Yes, the Decaria Village where a super-class demon once appeared.”

The place where Ono’s master died,

and where Hamel first encountered a super-class.

And…

“Decaria Village is also Antonio the deacon’s hometown.”

It was the village Hamel had saved after brutal fighting.

Antonio, who met his gaze, tilted his head as if he hadn’t heard well.

Watching Antonio, Hamel continued.

“I thought I’d forgotten that day’s memories, but after meeting the deacon, things kept coming back to me.”

“…And?”

“I remembered. His final appearance.”

“…”

Ono looked at Hamel as if urging him to continue.

Hamel continued calmly.

“He smiled. He gripped his mace and charged at it.”

“…Is that all?”

“Yes.”

After that, he was reduced to black ashes by the demon’s flames.

“He went as he always was.”

“Yes. He was the same as always.”

A hollow death.

Yet a valiant end.

In retrospect, the man who was Ono’s master and Hamel’s comrade had always been constant.

He never backed down from any foe and faced them with a proud smile.

He might have been better suited to be a barbarian than a priest.

Hamel unconsciously let a faint smile cross his face as he recalled him.

Seeing Hamel’s smile, Ono’s eyes widened in surprise.

But only for a moment.

Ono clicked his tongue and produced something from his robe, handing it to Hamel.

“Take it. You’ll need it.”

“This is…”

It was the remaining half of the broken hand mirror.

Hamel took the hand mirror from his robe and joined the pieces together.

The two fragments glowed and fused into one.

“What is this? You already had the other half?”

“Yes, somehow.”

Ono cleared his throat and gave Hamel a piece of advice.

“If you’re going to the dressing room, take note. Two kinds of demons are together there. They are…”

“Light Eater and Beholder, right? We’ve already been there.”

“…?”

Ono’s expression shifted in surprise, then abruptly he turned away.

“If you went and came back, you should’ve said so. Tch, I was worrying for nothing.”

“Sorry.”

Hamel apologized perfunctorily and prepared to leave.

They’d gathered the mirror faster than expected.

Now they only had to defeat the dressing room demons and go up to the third floor.

Things were going smoothly.

Maybe they could actually rescue Daniel safely.

Just as he thought that,

Antonio suddenly called to him in a frantic voice.

“Mr. Hamel!”

A bad feeling crept in.

“What’s the matter?”

Hamel hurried to the entrance.

Aaargh.

The usual monster was coming toward them.

The thing that had come out of the dressing room was heading for the lab at an alarming speed.

At this rate, it would catch up with whoever was in the dressing room.

If something like that charged in while they were fighting a Beholder, total annihilation was certain.

“Did it drag that monster along? This is the end.”

Ono trembled as if he knew what the approaching monster was.

“Mr. Ono, do you know what that is?”

“I don’t know it well. But one thing’s clear… it doesn’t die.”

“You’ve fought it before.”

Ono gritted his teeth and nodded at Hamel’s question.

“Catherine and I were chased by that thing to the second floor and ended up like this.”

The other Exorcist priest, Catherine, died in the dressing room, and Ono himself barely survived among the dolls.

Hamel hesitated for a moment, and then—

“Go. Brother.”

“Brother?”

David, who had been silent until now, said with a smile.

“I’ll buy time here. Catch the demons and ascend to the third floor to finish the workshop.”

“But…”

As Hamel trailed off, Ono added with a grimace.

“I don’t know who you are, but buying time against that thing is impossible.”

“That’s something you can’t be sure of.”

“No, absolutely not. Even dozens of veteran knights couldn’t do it…”

“Then…”

David cut off Ono’s words.

The staff in his hand wavered wildly.

Blue mana spread and seeped into his shadow.

Then, in an instant, it spread throughout the doll workshop.

Then.

Creak, creak.

All the dolls in the workshop began to rise to their feet.

“What about hundreds?”

A Gilmore family innate magic that uses shadows as a medium.

Angiography Technique.

“Marionette.”

Hundreds of black shadow-tendrils fanned out and danced from David’s fingertips.

“…”

Not only Ono, but the priest and Antonio were left speechless.

Tick, tick, tick, tick.

A hundred-strong legion of dolls armed with spears and blades aligned with perfect precision.

They were nearly as elite as the order’s knight corps.

Hamel was the only one not surprised.

‘This doll workshop was made for my brother in the first place.’

Their father’s shadow magic was closer to a direct striking technique than to controlling others.

By contrast, his brother David excelled in manipulating things with shadows.

This doll workshop was where David had worked during his time in the family.

That’s why such a feat was possible.

Each of these dolls would bear the inscriptions he left on them.

The dolls here were essentially one with David.

“Trust me.”

“…Yes.”

Even in this situation, he couldn’t bring himself to doubt his brother.

Hamel gave a short nod.

For now, there was no choice but to trust David.

“Ignore the monster and run to the dressing room.”

The monster wouldn’t be able to reach them before passing through the doll workshop anyway.

At Hamel’s words, Antonio, the senior priest, and even the reluctantly involved Ono readied themselves.

“…We’re ready!”

Hamel had one request for them.

“Do not fall behind.”

Once they started running, they couldn’t stop.

If they stopped, it would be one of two outcomes: finish everything, or all die.