“The scent of a Demon Pillar?” Vinny’s expression shifted in surprise. “You are not joking, are you? This is Carillian Academy.”

Damn it. It made it sound as though Carillian Academy were the nesting ground of the Demon Pillars.

‘I am sure! But it is so strange. Why did I only notice it now? Everything was clearly normal before.’

“Come to think of it, who was it that shoved me from behind just now?” Vinny rubbed the back of his neck, frowning.

He remembered there being no one behind him. It was as though a figure had appeared out of nowhere and caught him completely off guard.

“And if I remember correctly, a crazy old man who collected mirrors lived here. Where did that old man go?” Vinny asked.

‘In any case, something is very wrong here. I cannot sense the outside world at all anymore. It feels as though we have been trapped inside a sealed, self-contained space,’ the little angel said anxiously within his Sea of Mind.

“Is that so?” Vinny frowned and channeled mana into [Frostfang].

[Rimefrost Full-Moon Slash]

The spear blade, brimming with bitterly cold power, rose high and cleaved down against the iron door.

A deep, frost-rimmed gash was carved into the metal.

Yet the mark soon vanished completely, as though some creature’s skin had been wounded, regenerated at terrifying speed, and shed its injured outer layer.

“There is something wrong with this door.” Vinny frowned and cast [Illumination Art].

The floating sphere of light illuminated the area around him.

“This is...?”

Vinny stared in astonishment at the black membrane clinging to the iron door, like the epidermal tissue of some living thing. It seemed to have fused the door and the surrounding walls into a single whole.

He looked to the side.

The surrounding walls were the same, their surfaces coated in a thick layer of black membrane.

No wonder something had felt wrong before he came inside.

So where had Margaret gone?

And had that person even been Margaret?

Vinny sank into thought.

If it had been Margaret, what had she wanted? Had he mistaken someone else for her after all?

And if that girl had not been Margaret, who had she been?

Either way, one thing was certain.

This had been a trap laid specifically for him.

There was no need to think hard about which faction could set a trap for him inside Carillian Academy. The Academy had no shortage of priests and nuns from the Church.

So what role did Margaret play in all this?

Of course, that was only Vinny’s initial judgment. What was really going on remained unclear.

“These mirrors...”

Vinny raised his eyes toward the mirrors displayed on the shelves—the mirrors that had not vanished along with that crazy old man.

Now that he thought about it, the entire matter with the old man was strange.

The shop looked as though it had not been operating or cared for in a long time. The old man most likely no longer lived here. As for where he was now, no one knew.

But if he had already moved out, why had he left all these things behind?

How strange.

“Where the hell have they dragged this young master now? Is there another exit?”

Vinny looked around.

Beyond the small area lit by his spell, everything was pitch-black. He hated places like this—places with no light at all, where he could not see his hand in front of his face.

And the light from [Illumination Art] struck the mirrors, reflecting back with an eye-searing glare.

‘This place is so stuffy! I feel like I cannot breathe!’

“You need to breathe?” Vinny shot back.

‘No, it is not a matter of breathing. This space is strange. It feels as though we have been wrapped inside something airtight,’ the little angel replied.

“Could something that incredible really throw us into another dimension while we are still inside the Academy?” Vinny drew a deep breath, but he did not lose his composure. “Something is fishy.”

He looked at the shelves ahead.

With visibility so poor, all he could make out were black outlines.

At this point, standing still was obviously not an option.

Vinny continued forward with [Frostfang] in hand. The little sphere of light sensed his movement and bounced along behind him.

Come to think of it, what if that old man had not merely been raving that day?

He had said his mirror was missing.

Could there have been something wrong with that mirror?

Vinny considered the possibility as he walked between the shelves.

The mirrors on either side reflected his outline and figure.

No wonder the shop was called Forest of Mirrors. Once he stepped inside, it truly felt like a forest made of mirrors. They were everywhere. His gaze could not help falling on them.

And naturally, that meant he noticed the versions of himself reflected in them.

Why did they feel so strange?

Vinny could not shake the feeling that every one of those reflections was somehow wrong.

They were clearly him.

Yet they also did not feel like him.

In this darkness, where he could not see farther than five meters, and amid such an eerie atmosphere, Vinny’s nerves were stretched tight.

This was exactly the kind of setting where some indescribable thing would suddenly crawl out of the darkness and attack him.

“I wonder whether I would have to compensate him if I smashed these mirrors,” Vinny muttered, almost to himself.

These mirrors were far too strange.

He had entered this shop before. Last time, he had not walked between these rows of shelves, but he had glimpsed the counter where he had spoken with the crazy old man just now. It was exactly as he remembered.

He was most likely still inside the same shop, rather than having been transported to some other-dimensional space.

But if that was true, why was he trapped here?

Vinny continued forward.

The mirrors in the shop came in all styles, but under this atmosphere, they all took on the faded cast of antiques. It was as though every one of them had been salvaged from an old house whose family line had long since died out.

No two mirrors looked alike.

Some were yellowed. Some were clouded over. Some stretched his reflection absurdly long. Others might have had too many flaws in the glass, making his face look grotesque, as though it were mottled with cadaverous stains.

This was getting more and more unsettling.

That crazy old man’s collection really was one of a kind.

Vinny shook his shoulders, unable ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) to shake the feeling that something was wrong.

As he passed a corner, he casually glanced back at the mirrors behind him.

The instant he turned away, he immediately spun back and stared fixedly at one of them.

‘What is it, Sister Vanessa?’

“Did my reflection in that mirror just smile at me?” Vinny stared at it.

‘What? No way...’

Even the little angel sounded frightened.

‘Wait. I can sense it again. There seems to be a spot ahead where the Demon Pillar’s aura breaks off.’

“Up ahead?”

Vinny fell silent for a moment. A faintly thoughtful glimmer passed through his eyes.

‘Yes. I should not be wrong. There seems to be something like a gap there.’

“Is that so?”

‘Yes, Master. I am about ninety percent sure.’

Vinny was silent for a moment, then nodded.

“All right. I understand.”

“And what do you want me to do?”

‘Huh?’

The little angel made a puzzled sound, as though Vinny’s question struck it as strange—almost as if he were challenging it.

‘Master, I am only reporting what I know. The choice is yours.’

“Master?” Vinny suddenly gave a cold laugh. “All right. We have come this far, so say it. Who are you? How did you know there was something in my Sea of Mind that could talk to me?”

‘Master, what are you talking about? Do you not remember? I... I am...’

“Who are you? Go on.” Vinny sneered. “I am listening. Conveniently, I seem to have forgotten everything about you. So tell me. How did we meet? What is your name? Where did you come from?”

‘...’

The little angel’s voice fell silent for a long time.

“Interesting. You have plenty of tricks, do you not?” Vinny mocked. “You are even roleplaying now.”

“Too bad you said too many wrong things. The real one would never call me Master, and it does not need to breathe.”

“Deceiver.”

After a moment, the little angel’s voice vanished.

In its place came an ancient voice steeped in emptiness, impossible to identify as male or female, young or old. It sounded like a chorus of broken strings and shattered throats echoing through the ruins of some unreal world.

Vinny could barely understand the language it spoke.

Why only barely?

Because it felt as though the being speaking was trying to imitate human speech.

This was no mere matter of poor pronunciation. It could not even produce the syllables of a human voice. It was forcing out whatever sounds it could make that came closest to human language.

The result was unbearably grating. Vinny needed several seconds just to work out what it had said.

“So it was you. Were you also the one whispering in my ear earlier? How long have you been spying on me?” Vinny raised a brow.

“Who are you? You lured me here. What do you want?”

‘I did not lure you here.’

The metallic, scraping voice continued its strained imitation of human speech. It was so harsh that merely trying to understand it made Vinny feel as though something were eroding and contaminating his mind.

‘You came here yourself.’

“No?” Vinny’s expression turned cold. “Do not take me for some clueless idiot who has no idea what happened. You cast an illusion on me, did you not?”

“No wonder I saw no one while walking down the street earlier. No wonder I ran into something. And no wonder a notice board appeared at the entrance to the Academy Commercial Street when it definitely had not been there that morning.”

“You were behind all of it.”

Under normal circumstances, Vinny would have noticed that something was wrong.

But tonight was the night the double-moon phenomenon descended.

At a time like this, even bizarre events could be dismissed as falling within the realm of possibility.

This thing had some tricks, but not enough.

It knew there was something in his Sea of Mind that could talk to him, and it could imitate her voice, but it did not know what that thing actually was.

Or perhaps it had simply failed to reproduce the [Radiant-Cross Holy Shield] perfectly. That, too, was part of its illusion.

‘Deceiver, you are more intelligent than I expected. But I did not guide you here.’

‘The present, the past, and the future will ultimately intertwine at a single point and return to their proper course.’

‘This is an irresistible force.’

“Enough of that bullshit. Who the hell are you?” Vinny snapped.

‘You already know.’

“I already know?” Vinny frowned. “What nonsense are you talking about?”

‘I am among them.’

“You mean...?”

Vinny looked at the mirrors around him. Each reflected his outline like a frame of surveillance footage.

“You are not some kind of mirror monster, are you?”

‘Now that things have reached this point, do you still not understand? I did not guide you here. You were bound to come here sooner or later.’

“What?”

‘The worldline will ultimately return to its proper course. Do you not understand what I mean?’

‘When you look at all these versions of yourself in the mirrors, what do they make you think of?’

“What am I supposed to think of?”

Vinny looked at the versions of himself in the surrounding mirrors.

Their reflections were gradually fading.

The outlines were still unmistakably his, yet for some reason, he was finding them more and more unfamiliar.

‘They all know that you are an impostor. Yet who would have thought that the colossal lie you spun deceived far more than the people of the Tyrelis Continent?’

‘You even deceived the supreme Divided Twins. You deceived the eyes of the Tadrey Monarchs.’

“The Divided Twins? The Tadrey Monarchs?”

Perhaps the thing’s pronunciation was too warped. Perhaps it kept using unfamiliar, obscure names. Vinny could not even be certain he had understood the words correctly.

What were the Divided Twins?

And what were the Tadrey Monarchs?

‘Deceiver, you do not even possess a name that belongs to you.’

“What are you even talking about?” Vinny’s frown deepened.

‘Do you need me to state it plainly?’

‘Deceiver, you have assumed the identity of this world’s true Vinny Facilis.’

Vinny’s expression changed.

‘You are not the real Vinny Facilis.’

The voice continued without regard for his reaction.

‘You are nothing more than soul residue from the Land of the Lost, a remnant that should have been sent to the Dissolution Pool. Yet through a twist of fate, you came to this world and, through another twist of fate, replaced the true Vinny Facilis.’

“What... are you talking about?”

Vinny tightened his grip on [Frostfang].

This was his greatest secret.

Now that someone had exposed it, he felt as though there was nowhere left to hide. It was as if everything about him had become transparent, laid bare before that being’s eyes.

“Who the hell are you?”

‘Who I am is not important. What matters is that you, deceiver, will go where you were meant to go.’

‘And this world will return to its proper course.’

“Where I was meant to go?”

‘Soul residue, you have a place of your own. But it is certainly not here.’

‘Look behind you.’

“?!”

Vinny froze, then abruptly turned around.

Before him stood a full-length floor mirror webbed with cracks.

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