The Mad Dog of the Dukes House - Chapter 214



Only Krnovel

Episode 214 68. Doppelganger’s Dungeon (2)

3.

Monsters hunt humans.

Lick human despair and enjoy human fear.

It was always humans who died in despair, and the Imperial Guards who had previously entered this castle also met a similar end, with some exceptions.

But this time it was different.

It’s been three hours since Caron and his party entered the doppelganger’s castle.

“Please, spare my life. I am an Imperial Guard… … an Imperial Guard. Among fellow humans-.”

The relationship between monsters and humans was reversed.

“I know that?”

“……yes?”

“The Duke of Reston has killed Imperial Guards in the past.”

“What the heck… … .”

Crunch-!

Charon raised the corners of his mouth as he cut off the head of the Imperial Guard who was begging for his life with tears in his eyes.

“I died like that too.”

Bam.

The bodies of the Imperial Guards were torn apart with astonishing ease.

“good.”

Charon stuffed the doppelganger’s head into his subspace pocket, then shook his hands lightly.

All around him were the corpses of his doppelgangers, their heads cut off.

“Pluto.”

Mya-!

Pluto swallowed the doppelganger’s corpse as if he had been waiting for it.

The body disappeared in an instant, and Charon slowly exhaled. Then he turned his head to look in the direction where Amy and Leo were fighting.

Crunch-! Crunch-!

Leo, as befitting a blood relative of the Duke of Reston, pushed forward unilaterally even against his doppelganger.

Although some doppelgangers were able to mimic the Imperial Guard’s imperial swordsmanship, their mere skill was not enough to defeat Leo.

and,

‘You fight well.’

Amy was the same.

The most terrifying thing about doppelgangers is that they disguise themselves as the faces of their comrades.

Because of this, the process of subduing them tends to cause enormous damage, but fortunately, Amy was able to control her emotions well.

Crunch-!

Amy, with a cold expression, cut off the head of the last doppelganger and then gasped for breath.

Caron approached Amy and patted her on the back.

“Are you okay?”

Then Amy nodded slowly.

“I’m actually glad that I can get revenge.”

“Your swordsmanship has improved a lot.”

“… … This mission wasn’t easy.”

Amy nodded absentmindedly as she brushed away the blood-stained sword and placed it back into its scabbard.

Caron patted Amy’s back again, then slowly turned his head to look around.

The interior of the castle is filled with only dim lighting.

If it weren’t for Pluto, I might have gotten lost a long time ago.

Still, there were tremendous achievements.

That’s right,

“There was no need to kill him alive.”

There was no need to kill the doppelganger alive.

Even though he was thrown into the subspace with his neck intact, the black magic embedded in the doppelganger’s face did not completely disappear.

As a pocket of subspace that preserves everything, it even preserves the doppelganger’s face.

Of course, Charon only found out about this after he had killed a total of fifteen doppelgangers.

“You must have scraped it all together?”

Charon muttered as he counted the number of doppelganger heads he had stored in his subspace pocket.

The total number of doppelgangers caught by the three of them so far is 39.

The number of Imperial Guards sacrificed to doppelgangers was far greater.

“But Caron. Some of the doppelgangers… … . Didn’t they look a little strange? The clothes they were wearing… … .”

“It wasn’t clothing for this era.”

“huh.”

As Leo had pointed out, some of the doppelgangers were wearing costumes that even Charon had never seen before.

From a tunic that appears to be made of an unknown material to a strangely shaped armor.

They looked like they were from another era.

“Amy, how are things now compared to when the Imperial Guard first arrived here?”

“… … I don’t know. They’re a bit different from the doppelgangers we’ve dealt with. The ones we faced were doppelgangers dressed as hunters.”

A doppelganger perfectly copies the victim’s abilities and appearance.

The fact that there are doppelgangers of various forms means that the number of victims here is high.

Caron stroked his chin and looked lost in thought.

Several guesses came to mind, but the most likely one was this:

“This dungeon may have existed for a very long time.”

This is not a dungeon that just appeared overnight.

It could be a place that has existed for a very long time.

Caron glared at Amy with a meaningful look, and Amy sighed and shook her head.

“I am only a lowly knight, Lord Karon. If it were Lord Luke… … he might have known something.”

“Is it past tense?”

“Because Lord Luke must have passed away.”

It must have been an emotional statement, but Amy controlled her emotions quite skillfully.

It was a very good attitude for a knight to put reason before emotion.

Because a knight must complete his mission no matter what the circumstances.

But the words that came out of Caron’s mouth were more hopeful than I had expected.

“Maybe Lord Luke is still alive.”

“There’s no need to comfort me, Caron. I’m a knight too.”

“No. I remember the faces of all the doppelgangers I’ve killed so far, but Sir Luke’s face wasn’t there. A seven-star knight isn’t someone who would be easily killed by these doppelgangers.”

“So said Caron, pointing around.

“It’s bigger than I thought. If I could find a place of a suitable size, I think I could hold it for a long time. Amy, you didn’t see all those people die either.”

“… … That’s true.”

Charon thought back to all the doppelgangers of Imperial Guard he had encountered so far.

A total of twelve, including the doppelgangers killed in the city.

It was said that seven Imperial Guards escaped from the dungeon, but the status of five of them has not been confirmed yet.

Among them was Luke.

Woohoo.

Charon spoke as he immediately injected the magical powers he had absorbed from the doppelgangers into Pluto.

“I personally hope that Lord Luke isn’t dead. So let’s move quickly.”

There were many things I wanted to ask Luke.

From why the Imperial Guard is here, to the sword known as Ligor.

If Luke were alive, a lot of my questions would be answered.

Caron hurried his steps.

4.

“Chief, I’m here. Chief! Please, please open the door! If this continues, we’ll all die… … . Kkaaaah! Please save us!”

“Danjaaaaang!”

The screams of subordinates echo from all directions.

But Luke had no choice but to grit his teeth and ignore the screams.

I don’t even know how much time has passed.

Time distinction is meaningless.

I’m just stuck in this big banquet hall, guarding the door.

The situation is clear.

The mission failed.

There was no hope here anymore.

The only consolation was that some of the knights, including Amy, retreated on the second day.

Luke turned his back to the door and glanced around the banquet hall.

A single corpse lying in the center.

And a total of four survivors, including himself.

24 people entered, but in the end, only four were left in the dungeon.

Moreover, the condition of the survivors was close to the worst.

There were no knights with holy bodies.

In this hellish place where it was impossible to distinguish friend from foe, the honorable Imperial Guards lost their lives one by one.

Even the voice outside now pleading for the door to be opened was the voice of a subordinate who had been eaten by a doppelganger.

“Vice-Commander, how about you run away alone right now? We will clear the way.”

“Charles, you’re already too deep. The exit is already blocked.”

“… … Amy, won’t Amy bring reinforcements?”

“That’s the worst case scenario. Without the wizards, the damage will only increase.”

Of the twenty-four, only four remained. With this number, it was impossible to even find a way out.

Everyone here already knew there was no hope.

Luke’s condition wasn’t much different from his subordinates.

Because I hadn’t gotten enough rest, my core was dry and my body was covered in roughly wrapped bandages.

‘I don’t understand.’

It was entirely the imperial will that sent the Imperial Guard here.

To be exact, it refers to the will of the crown prince, the current power holder.

I had already heard from the captain that His Majesty the Emperor would soon pass away.

That’s why Luke couldn’t accept this situation even more.

Why did the Crown Prince send them here?

In a place full of doppelgangers?

‘no way.’

The worst-case scenario began to form in Luke’s mind. If his assumptions were correct, then something that should never have happened to the Imperial Family was definitely happening.

Luke, whose thoughts reached that point, immediately recalled someone’s face.

The youngest son of the arrogant Duke of Reston.

Because I felt that I absolutely had to tell that person this news.

But there was no way to convey the news.

Because this worst assumption will be buried here with its own life.

Thump, thump, thump.

“Captain! Can’t you hear me?”

“Captain! We are still alive.”

The voices of the subordinates keep echoing outside the door.

That voice tormented Luke terribly.

A mixture of guilt for failing to protect his men and resentment towards those who had brought the honorable Imperial Guard to this hell.

“… …I have no choice but to trust Amy.”

Amy is still immature, but at least she must have sensed that something was wrong with the situation.

If she were to survive, who would she go to first?

‘Caron Reston.’

That’s it.

Although he was the one who had insulted the Imperial Guard, Luke remembered the terrible murderous intent that Charon had shown toward the succubus.

If it were Caron, he would dig into the details surrounding this matter doggedly.

Right now, I just wish for that.

“Ugh.”

Luke bit his lip as the pain spread from his side.

The wound on his side was already frozen cold, and the surrounding skin tissue was necrotic.

An unbearable cold was spreading from the wound.

“Vice-Commander. That wound… … .”

“It’s okay. I’m really okay.”

Luke recalled the pure white blade that had pierced his body just five hours ago.

A sword that reminded me of white snow.

It was not hard to see that the sword was Ligor, the target of this mission.

But I still couldn’t be sure about the man who used that sword.

‘Even in swordsmanship, I was pushed back.’

The man used imperial swordsmanship.

That too, in its completed form, is the Imperial Sword.

The moonlight and flower petals that the man scattered through Ligor.

It was all still vivid before my eyes.

Clearly, he was a doppelganger. But the words he left behind were still vivid in my ears.

『As time passes, you have regressed further. The Imperial Guard should have disappeared from this world along with me.』

Perhaps he was the one who ruled this dungeon.

It was definitely a doppelganger, and Luke already knew whose form it was taking.

It just wasn’t something worth mentioning.

“Vice-Commander, I still don’t know why he kept us alive here.”

Charles asked, gulping down blood, and Luke answered with a bitter smile.

“The demon must be toying with us.”

That being had the power to take away Luke’s life at any time.

I just want to enjoy watching people die in despair.

“… … But, doesn’t it seem like things have gotten quieter recently?”

Luke frowned at Charles’s comment.

As Charles had said, the voices coming from beyond the door had stopped.

Luke held his breath and grabbed his sword.

But after a while.

Swish.

A familiar figure appeared through the crack in the door.

Miyaaaaah-!

A cat with a soft, dark blue glow.

As he expected, the owner of this cat is,

Kwaaaaaaaang-!

“… … Caron… … Reston?”

This person shouldn’t be here.

Luke quickly pulled back and looked at where the door had been.

There stood a young man with a confident smile.

Brilliant blonde hair.

Blue eyes that shine clearly even in the dust.

The young man greeted me in a leisurely voice.

“Nice to meet you again, Lord Luke. I’ll have to check for the possibility that you’re a doppelganger. Now, please repeat after me, you son of a bitch.”

“What the heck does that have to do with doppelgangers?”

“You can’t do it? Then I’ll just consider you a doppelganger… … .”

“Prince…

“That’s great. Actually, I knew it wasn’t a doppelganger. I just ordered it. How is it? Feels good, doesn’t it?”

Three men and women walked into the banquet hall.

Caron Reston, Leo Reston, and finally Amy Altura.

As the tension eased, pain surged through my body, but I still had to not lose consciousness.

“Charon, there’s something you should know.”

Caron alone should have known this fact. That was why Luke spoke with a strained voice.

“Here is the doppelganger of Lord Cain Rathor.”

Charon’s face hardened coldly at the unbelievable story.

“… … Say it again. Who are you?”

There’s a mad dog living in the duke’s house