“I told him,” Daniel Deirus continued, “to fuck off.”

* * *

["Fuck off."]

His vision was fading, his body wracked with pain. Yet his emotions remained clear: hatred for Demon Kings, anger toward humans.

["Is there any need to be so hostile?"]

["I don't cooperate with demons."]

["Are you saying I'm a demon?"]

["Anyone who saw you would think so."]

["Ah, is that so?"]

At that moment, the Demon King of Megaliths' body rapidly shriveled. Its shell peeled away like a doll losing its stuffing.

Standing there was the man as he had looked just before entering the Demon King.

["How about now?"]

["Are you trying to force an answer out of me by showing me something grotesque?"]

["Is that how you see it?"]

["Who the hell are you?"]

["Isn't there something more important than that?"]

["What?"]

["Your life hangs by a thread, and I have a way to save you. And I want to cooperate with you. Is satisfying your curiosity more urgent than that?"]

["..."]

["There's no time. Now that the Demon King is dead, the tower will soon return to the Demon Realm."]

["Even if I return as I am, nothing will change. I'm alone, and they..."]

["Then couldn't you become someone entirely different and build up your power anew? It's the hero named Daniel Deirus they fear."]

["What do you mean?"]

CRACK

The man's skin shriveled like the Demon King of Megaliths' had, then peeled away.

A face with an entirely different look emerged.

["... Is that your true form?"]

["It isn't, but you can think of it that way for now."]

The man approached, carrying the sagging skin.

["... What are you doing?"]

["Giving you a new life. Ah, but first."]

The man reached toward Daniel's wounds. Warm healing magic treated his injuries.

["... You bastard, weren't you a demon?"]

["I am a demon."]

["Then how..."]

["I think we'd best overlook the minor details. Now."]

He draped the skin over Daniel. In an instant, it enveloped his entire body and settled into place. The uncomfortable foreign sensation and obstruction of his vision quickly disappeared.

["... What is this?"]

["Today, here in this place, Daniel Deirus has died. Your name is Cortian Maserina. One of the countless ordinary heroes from Jespine... Skin?"]

* * *

“... Skin?”

Berge's face hardened.

“Yes.”

“So you wore the outer shell he shed. And changed identities with it several times.”

“That's right.”

“Ha. This is insane.”

Berge clutched his throbbing head, wondering whether he'd heard correctly.

'That's impossible.'

Yes, it was impossible.

'No, is it really?'

In truth, he had suspected it, just a little.

When he realized Daniel Deirus had been wearing a shell called Balaf Dislord, one race had come to mind.

But he had dismissed it.

Why?

Because it couldn't be true.

Because it was impossible.

“What's wrong? Is there a problem?”

“Wait a moment.”

Berge immediately summoned the two Demon Kings.

“He absorbed a Demon King and shed its skin?”

“Yes.”

“And changed into someone completely different?”

“Yes.”

Reina's expression hardened.

“Could this hero be lying...?”

“He swore on dimensional power.”

“... Then that settles it. Wow, how did those cockroaches survive?”

Vivian marveled.

“Are you both thinking what I'm thinking?”

“If what you and Vivian are thinking is what I think it is.”

“What else could it be?”

Ha.

Berge gave a hollow laugh.

“Yes, nothing else could explain it. Though I can't understand how it's still alive.”

There was one unusual kind of demon in the Demon Realm.

Parasites that devoured others, wore their skins, and lived off them.

In the Demon Realm, they were called:

“Doppelgangers.”

* * *

Doppelgangers.

Humans knew them merely as demons that copied others, and it was said that meeting a doppelganger that looked exactly like you meant death.

That was wrong.

They weren't creatures that simply copied someone's appearance and showed up.

“To think those greedy parasites survived.”

As Reina said, they were parasitic demons.

Rather than copying someone, they infiltrated and parasitized them. They absorbed their host's power, ultimately devouring them and wearing their shell.

In other words, they couldn't coexist with an original as its copy. There was only a doppelganger whose insides had already replaced the original's.

“I had it completely wrong.”

Berge had thought Jason had spent over a hundred years growing stronger and laying his foundations.

He hadn't. He was a doppelganger who had lived for centuries and devoured a Demon King named Jason.

“We must kill him immediately. We cannot let a doppelganger roam free.”

“I agree. Just sharing the air with those creepy things makes me sick.”

Reina and Vivian spoke as one.

“But we can't act rashly. According to him, he met Jason centuries ago. That means the bastard had been devouring Demon Kings and heroes to grow stronger even before then...”

Perhaps he had become a monster even Berge, as he was now, couldn't handle.

No, that was certain.

Berge glanced at Daniel, who was straining his ears to overhear their conversation.

But Berge had already soundproofed the area with demonic energy. With all his mana restrained, there was no way he could hear.

'A doppelganger. A doppelganger...'

He had never expected it. Not before his regression, nor even up until he captured Daniel Deirus.

He had thought Jason was merely a clever Demon King who concealed his identity well and survived by twisting the Guide, even in the worst possible circumstances of Arain.

He wasn't.

His enemy was far tougher, more powerful, and greater than he'd imagined.

But it wasn't all bad.

“... Perhaps.”

“Perhaps?”

“Things might work out easily.”

“You have a way to kill him?”

“A way to choke him off, rather. Doppelgangers are traitors to the Demon Realm. An extermination order wiped them out.”

For a different reason, they were even rarer than demonic dragons, the race with the smallest population in the Demon Realm.

“What if we tell the Demon Realm that one of those doppelgangers is brazenly devouring Demon Kings and posing as one?”

“Then...”

“Yes. We tell them it was all a lie. That the doppelganger framed us, and that he was really behind every incident.”

The truth didn't matter.

Knowing how zealously the Demon Realm pursued the extermination of doppelgangers, he could pin every crime on him without any trouble.

But there was a prerequisite.

“Reina.”

A connection to the Demon Realm.

Berge's and Vivian's connections had been severed, but Reina's had remained until recently.

He couldn't be certain it still did.

She had appeared in the battle against the heroes, and Jason would surely have learned of it.

If the report had already reached Grand Duke Alkain and he'd severed her connection, this would all be meaningless.

But fortunately:

“It's still there.”

The connection remained intact.

Jason had been too occupied preparing to devour Dorche to pay attention to anything else.

* * *

This was madness.

Utter, complete madness.

“Withdraw from the coalition? What kind of nonsense is this!”

“It is His Majesty's will.”

“I may not like my brother, but he was kidnapped. An imperial city was turned into hell, and ten thousand troops died. And now heroes, including Balaf Dislord, have died. How does withdrawing from the coalition make any sense? Even taking the lead in exterminating the Demon Kings wouldn't be enough!”

“It is His Majesty's will.”

“Grandfather!”

Martin bit his lip. His maternal grandfather, Marquis Aincheil, a relative of the imperial family by marriage, did the same.

“The imperial decree has been issued, and the envoy entrusted with conveying it has attended the coalition meeting. Soon, news of the Empire's withdrawal will shake the entire continent. It is already irreversible.”

“All our people fear the Demon Kings. Every kingdom is calling for their extermination. Yet we're defying them and going in the opposite direction alone?”

“I am a servant of the Empire and of His Majesty. I cannot defy an imperial decree.”

“Does that mean you should support it? You should have refused a wrongful decree, even from the emperor. I would have understood if there had at least been a valid reason.”

Yet their reason was merely that “the Empire's losses have been so great that it needs time to recover.”

Or that “the Empire's enemy is Hellfire, so it cannot afford to turn its attention to another Demon King.”

Of course the Empire's losses were great. Far greater than those of any other nation.

But if that much could shake it, it wouldn't have been called an empire.

The other excuse was no different. With the levitation ship destroyed and Balaf Dislord dead, there was nothing the Empire could do right now anyway.

They were nothing but flimsy excuses.

“This is not an opportunity. Waiting for the other nations to bleed fighting Demon Kings will only turn the entire continent against us!”

Their aim was obvious.

An opportunity. They saw this as an opportunity to expand imperial territory.

That was why the emperor had made that declaration.

Why Duke Osrian had supported it.

And why some of the nobles had agreed.

But however beneficial it might be in the short term, it was the height of foolishness in the long term.

The coalition forces would hardly look kindly on the Empire after exterminating the Demon Kings.

“Of course the Empire is powerful. Strong enough to fight the entire continent. But the outcome will never be favorable. The Empire won't survive either.”

Mutual destruction at best. That was what Martin thought.

That was why, now that Duke Osrian had endorsed the emperor's opinion first, Marquis Bolderbof or Marquis Aincheil needed to oppose it to preserve at least some balance.

Martin had expected them to.

But there had been no opposition. All three great nobles supporting the current Empire had agreed, and its withdrawal from the coalition had proceeded without a hitch.

“Your Highness, I hope you understand that circumstances prevent me from explaining everything in detail.”

“... Are you saying there's something else?”

“What I can tell you is that the Empire has worked with the Demon King of Lies for many years.”

“Wasn't my brother the one who joined hands with him?”

“His Majesty and Duke Osrian brought His Highness the First Prince and Lies together.”

“Then that means...”

Good God.

Martin groaned.

“... You're not just preserving the Empire's strength. You're planning to help Lies strike the coalition from behind?”

The marquis didn't answer. But his silence was an answer.

“... That's an insane plan! There is no future unless humanity survives. If every nation falls into ruin and the Demon Kings grow stronger, what meaning is there in an imperial victory?”

“The Demon Kings can be controlled well enough.”

“You can still say that after the outcome of this hero's journey? Lies helped Hellfire smash the expedition!”

This wasn't right.

However crazed with ambition the Empire might be, this was going too far.

“Your Highness.”

Suddenly, Marquis Aincheil's voice dropped.

Their eyes met.

A chill ran through Martin.

Every hair on his body stood on end.

He had never seen that look in the eyes of his always-kind grandfather.

No, was this really the grandfather he'd known all this time? He seemed unfamiliar. Utterly unfamiliar.

“It is an imperial decree.”

“...”

“Please do not spread word of this anywhere. His Majesty has strictly ordered secrecy.”

And:

“Do not worry. We will not strike the coalition from behind while it fights the Demon King.”

Marquis Aincheil disappeared into the distance.

“... Haha.”

Left alone, Martin gave a hollow laugh.

“No. This isn't right.”

They were Demon Kings.

Bastards who couldn't be trusted.

To join hands with them and stab humanity in the back...

It was utter, complete madness.

That would be abandoning humanity. Even if the operation succeeded, could they sustain their gains after losing the people's respect and all moral standing?

Would the people look kindly on an Empire that betrayed humanity, allied with a Demon King, and annihilated other nations?

Even a victory would be nothing but wounds.

Though they might not show on the surface, they would inevitably fester and burst one day.

'They can't possibly be unaware of that.'

Why had the emperor and all the nobles succumbed to madness?

'I have to stop them.'

But he lacked the power.

Most of his influence came from his backers, House Aincheil. His own independent faction was certainly stronger than those of most nobles, but it wasn't enough to accomplish anything alone.

He needed help.

'But whose?'

The emperor and the Empire's three pillars were united in purpose.

This terrible madness would infect the entire Empire. It was already happening.

'I have to stop His Majesty.'

Ideally, the coalition forces would exterminate the Demon King of Lies with few losses, leaving the Empire unable to even consider stabbing them in the back.

But Martin was pessimistic.

The marquis had said the Empire had nurtured Lies for a long time. He was confident Lies would inflict heavy losses on the coalition forces.

If the emperor and the great nobles were that certain, his strength must be far from ordinary.

'But what if I could reduce those losses?'

One method came to mind immediately.

Having formed a connection with the Demon King while searching for the Tower of Hellfire, Martin had heard things not generally known.

For instance, that Hellfire and Lies were on bad terms and hostile to each other. Or that the rumor about Lies helping Hellfire was a scheme meant to put Lies in a difficult position.

“Use a Demon King to catch a Demon King.”

What if Hellfire, who hated Lies, lent even the slightest hand in killing him?

What if that made the coalition's losses smaller than expected?

What if that made the Empire abandon its plan?

That would be enough. That alone.

Martin hurried to his office.