DBOFS 23

Chapter 23

As Dewey muttered to himself, a strange light flickered in his gray eyes.

“Interesting.”

Something was off.

Anella sensed it instinctively, but Duros, who had already been imprisoned and tortured, was no longer in his right mind.

“Yeah! As soon as it touched the real black pearl, it crumbled like sand!”

“It touched it? Hoh, who figured that out? Who told you to bring the real one?”

“Some young servant! Tell me now. What exactly—what happened?!”

“And then?”

Only then did Duros realize it.

Dewey, the one who had stolen the relic with him and was supposed to suffer the same torture and imprisonment, was—

“Who’s the servant?”

He smiled, his gleaming gray eyes now tinged with madness.

“What’s the servant’s name? What do they look like? Could it be a Guide?”

With a face consumed by lunacy.

Only then did Duros realize something was wrong.

He was impulsive and had sticky fingers, but he wasn’t incompetent by nature.

“…Dewey. You used me?”

“What do they look like? Hair color? Is it pink? Are they good-looking?”

“You—you gave us a fake from the beginning. And you used our merchant guild! Why? Why?!”

“Was it a woman or a man?”

“…It’s in the nature of the late Duke Godwin. The person you’re looking for must be tied to it. So that’s why you gave us the fake. That’s why—!”

Cough! Duros groaned. Dewey’s hand was now tightly wrapped around his throat.

“Ugh, you talk too much. Annoying.”

Looking down at Duros with annoyance, Dewey’s face looked so unfamiliar that Anella doubted whether this was truly the same Dewey she had worked with all this time.

“Aren’t you going to answer? Was it a man or a woman?”

“Kh… Kahek…!”

Choking, Duros finally croaked out a response after a long moment.

“A… A man…”

And the moment he said that, his neck snapped.

Thunk. Dewey tossed the corpse aside like trash and opened his mouth again.

“What do you think?”

“…Wh-what?!”

Anella, stunned by the scene before her, didn’t realize at first that he was speaking to her.

“Did that bastard Duros tell me the truth?”

He might kill me too.

“Or was it a lie told in revenge before death?”

His pale gray eyes turned toward her, and she knew instinctively:

If she didn’t answer properly, she would die.

“…I think he lied.”

Duros must have known. That no matter how he answered, Dewey would not let him live.

‘So, he probably lied out of spite.’

But Dewey wasn’t just any predator—he was a monster among them.

“Yeah, that bastard was just a greedy, petty scumbag.”

Dewey nodded casually. Then he flashed a smile at her.

“Unlike our clever little assistant branch master.”

That smile, blood-soaked but gentle, was more terrifying than any scowl.

It wasn’t comforting at all to be praised, but Anella bowed her head and thanked him on instinct.

“Th-thank you…”

“You’re welcome. Oh, and since you’re being so polite…”

Grinning, Dewey suddenly grabbed her by the collar and yanked her close.

“Tell that woman.”

He yanked her in until she was face-to-face with him.

“Tell her Duke Aindelta lost this round.”

Duke Aindelta?! That infamous guild leader of the legendary assassin organization?

But before she could react, Dewey—no, Duke Aindelta—pulled a gun from somewhere.

“And tell her I’d like to go on a date sometime. Got that?”

With a wink, he placed the gun in his mouth.

And then—

BANG!

A loud explosion.

When the guards and knights rushed to the prison in panic, what they found was…

“…A-aaaaahhh!!”

Only Duros’ corpse and Anella, screaming like a madwoman.

* * *

‘So it really was Duke.’

I let out a sigh. It would be troublesome if that guy appeared here.

‘How did things end up like this?’

The fake “Tear of the Black Mermaid” was already a problem, but Duke wasn’t even supposed to appear at this point in the timeline.

Originally, Adrian and Harris weren’t supposed to escape from prison for another two years.

‘Is this my fault?’

Did I cause a butterfly effect by helping Harris escape too early? And failing to prevent Adrian from becoming a stone?

If so, then I need to take responsibility for this mess.

“He was truly insane. Completely deranged! Dewey wasn’t even his real name, and Duke Aindelta is clearly a false identity too—”

“No.”

The Rosdu branch’s assistant guild leader, Anella, was rambling hysterically when I interrupted her.

“No?”

The former Duke Godwin asked back. I nodded.

“Yes, it’s not a false identity.”

I really wish it were… I don’t want to deal with that pervert in person.

“He claimed to have shot himself, yet there was no corpse, not even a scrap of flesh. And ‘Dewey’ was someone trusted within the guild.”

In other words, Anella had likely conspired with Dewey to stage a fake suicide after helping him escape.

“If he truly killed himself, as she claims, why did nothing remain behind?”

“Th-that’s not true! I definitely—”

As a panicked Anella opened her mouth, I reached out to silence her.

“His Excellency is correct.”

Maybe she was too distraught, but talking back to the former Duke Godwin without permission is a serious offense.

‘Well, I only dared because I had Harris on my side.’

Still, the Rosdu merchant guild had already committed the major crime of trying to sell a counterfeit relic, so she could be punished even more harshly for insolence.

“If he were just an ordinary human, that is.”

“…”

The former Duke Godwin understood. Realizing the next part involved confidential information, he was about to dismiss Anella—but I stopped him.

“Duke Aindelta is one of the few S-Class Awakened individuals in the empire.”

“…!”

I tugged lightly on the duke’s sleeve to stop him.

Because Anella needed to know this more than anyone.

“And his ability is ‘Replication.’”

That’s the truth behind this whole “fake Tear of the Black Mermaid” incident.

“…Replication?”

The duke’s violet eyes glanced at the hand holding his sleeve.

I quietly released him and answered, “Yes.”

“So this ‘Dewey’ was one of his copies?”

“Yes. Dewey was never the original, just a replica from the start.”

That’s Duke’s power.

A type of replication technique, and his copies are identical in specs to the original.

‘Unlike the Tower Master Elysius, whose replicas have only a tenth of his power.’

Anella, shocked, forgot her situation and blurted out:

“R-really? Then…!”

“Yes, that means the ‘Tear of the Black Mermaid’ was likely replicated too.”

That’s why Harris noticed something was off.

‘He probably sensed a trace of mana from the replicated relic.’

I don’t have the ability to detect such traces. I just happen to know.

‘The real one isn’t in the temple.’

Like many other sacred artifacts, the Empress Ayeyas’ necklace was broken apart and sold during the Great War.

But what truly mattered was the black pearl blessed by the Saintess—the “Tear of the Black Mermaid.”

‘And that pearl is currently in someone’s possession… someone they’d never expect.’

The temple, unable to find the relic, couldn’t admit it publicly.

They also couldn’t claim to possess it either—if the Imperial family demanded ownership, it would cause chaos.

‘So they probably made a fake using the Empress’ portrait.’

Because of the necklace’s fame, many counterfeits had been made before, so it wouldn’t be hard.

They even sanctified the central pearl to make it look divine, disguising the fake as real.

They likely did this both to hide that they only had a fake, and to lure out whoever had the real one.

‘Those who know the real thing can’t tolerate fakes.’

At the very least, they hoped to extract some information about the real one.

The Imperial family is aware of this too—they just turn a blind eye.

‘If the real one surfaces, they’ll surely steal it.’

But jokes on them. The real one is with someone they couldn’t even imagine.

In any case, even if it’s fake, the relic is under heavy protection. It’s not something an ordinary guild could steal.

“So that suicide—was it just to destroy the clone?”

“Yes… Rather than suicide, it was closer to using death as a trigger to make the copy vanish.”

That ability was part of why Duke Aindelta became such a legendary assassin.

Even if you kill him, he comes back.

‘And of course, he also has monstrous strength and regeneration like any S-Class.’

After Duke rose to power, other assassin guilds crumbled, and he ruled as the king of killers.

‘But that’s not even his biggest problem.’

Right now, it’s not that he’s an assassin, or that his power is replication, that’s the issue.

“Everyone’s heard he’s an Awakened, but… to think his ability is replication.”

He’s more like a fence for stolen goods than an assassin. I answered Anella’s muttering.

“…That’s just his hobby.”

“Huh?”

Just being an S-Class Awakened assassin isn’t enough to survive in this insane world of <Si Cheon Gwi>. I muttered gloomily.

“Duke Aindelta is a sadistic serial killer who murders people… for fun.”

“…”

He turned his obsession into his profession. In the silence that followed, I let out a long sigh.

‘We’re doomed.’