My Husband Was Definitely a Paladin
Irene knew this fact better than anyone else.
The archive room was filled with records of every unstable dungeon that had ever appeared.
The distortion dungeon they were currently in was one of them.
Unlike the others, it had the peculiarity of vanishing entirely before it could be cleared. Once the signs of its destruction appeared, everyone had to flee immediately.
This was common knowledge known to every purifier and knight.
‘If I can’t escape here when it’s destroyed…’
The archive room also held records of those who had failed to flee unstable dungeons.
Those who disappeared alongside the dungeon had almost never returned.
Most, yes, but not all.
In the rarest of cases, those who vanished had come back. But none of them…
‘Had ever returned alive!’
Irene bit her lip.
Those who vanished with the dungeon would be found as bones years or even decades later, inside another abnormal dungeon that had appeared.
“Michael!”
Irene immediately sought her pair.
Thanks to her shout, the focus returned to Michael’s eyes, which had been dazed.
The other pairs were already sprinting madly down the visible path ahead.
There was no guarantee this path led back to the entrance they had come through.
Still, they could not stand still and wait for death, so they ran as fast as their legs could carry them.
Michael immediately seized Irene’s hand and dashed toward one of the paths without a moment’s hesitation.
Seeing his choice, the others who had been heading elsewhere turned belatedly and followed him in the same direction.
The path he had chosen was the widest of all the visible ones.
Because of this, the figures of those who had gone ahead were visible in the distance.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Behind the running pairs came the sound of something massive chasing after them.
But no one had time to look back.
If they didn’t escape now, they would be trapped here forever with the monsters. That was a terror greater than death itself.
How long had they been running?
Everyone’s breath had reached their throats when, at the end of the path, a flickering black circle came into view.
“The exit!”
The entrance to this dungeon, which had always felt slightly unpleasant, now seemed like a savior to everyone.
They surged forward together toward the outside. Irene and Michael were no exception.
As the exit grew close, a whistling sound came from behind, accompanied by the sensation of something closing in rapidly.
Thud!
It landed with a dull impact. Irene glanced to the side in confusion and stopped dead in her tracks.
A long tentacle, the origin of which no one could tell, had wrapped around Michael’s ankle.
“Michael!”
“Hurry and get out!”
Hearing her call, he waved his hand as if to say not to worry, then drew his sword and slashed at the tentacle without hesitation.
Slash!
The blade made a sound like scissors cutting cloth, and the tentacle that had seized him was severed and fell away.
Just as relief washed over her, the tentacle she had thought was spent suddenly moved again and grabbed Michael’s other leg.
Unlike before, it now shook his body violently, as if trying to escape his grasp.
Because of this, Michael lost his balance and fell.
“Michael!”
Everyone who had come down this path except Irene and Michael had already escaped the dungeon.
So they should escape too…
Boom! Boom! Boom!
While Irene struggled to hold up the fallen Michael, the loud sounds from the path they had come down grew steadily closer.
“Damn it.”
Michael gritted his teeth and clenched his jaw, as if he already knew what was coming.
He looked at Irene and extended his hand.
“Irene, could you lend me the dagger from your bag?”
“What? A dagger? Ah…!”
Irene was bewildered by his sudden request. She remembered the dagger that had come with her and hastily opened her bag.
The dagger she had surely placed at the very bottom was now lying at the top, as if it had known they would need it.
There was no time to ponder.
Irene snatched it up and handed it straight to Michael.
“Now go! Get out!”
Hearing his words, Irene bit her lip.
He was right. She should have run ahead and left him. There was no way this would help in their current situation. It might even hinder them.
‘But if I leave him here like this…’
While hesitating and trying to obey his command to run, a rumbling crash sounded from above. Rocks began to fall toward Irene.
“Ugh!”
Irene retreated as much as she could, waving her hands through the thick cloud of dust.
After a moment, the dust began to settle. Before her stood a massive pile of earth that completely blocked the entrance.
With no path left, Irene turned her body.
In this situation where the escape route had vanished, despair should have come naturally.
“Michael! The path is blocked!”
Irene felt an oddly pleasant sensation.
Standing beside Michael with an indifferent heart that said this was where she belonged, his face became inexplicably complex.
Just as he seemed about to speak, the loud rumbling sounds approached once more.
Irene stood tensely beside him and stared down the path.
The moment a large vibration accompanied by the appearance of a monster at the end of the path, Irene let out a startled murmur.
“...Michael?”
She had not called the Michael beside her.
She had called the one who had appeared at the end of the path.
But it was a clay mass shaped exactly like Michael. Entirely gray. Yet it looked identical to him.
With every step it took.
Boom!
The dungeon shook with a deafening roar.
It was an unbelievable sight. The approaching fake Michael was the exact same size as the real one, as if it had been modeled directly after him.
Same height. Same build.
Yet every step sent the ground trembling.
Whatever monster it was, it possessed far greater mass than what the eyes could perceive.
Meanwhile, Michael pulled the dagger from its sheath and swung it several times.
Seeing this, Irene recalled the question she had pondered earlier.
“Michael, how did you know I was carrying that?”
She had not even realized the dagger had followed her, so how could he possibly have known?
“I just... felt it.”
With that calm reply, he walked toward the monster mimicking his form, dagger in hand.
The approaching monster turned its gaze to his hand. Moments later, its hand morphed smoothly, and soon it stood holding a dagger exactly like his.
‘Is this a monster that imitates its opponent?’
Among the monsters reported so far, there had been one that mimicked a human voice to lure in prey.
But none had ever created an exact duplicate of its opponent’s appearance.
‘Since its color is completely different, there will be no confusion with the real thing.’
Just as she thought this was fortunate, Michael stepped up to the monster and swung the dagger.
Clang!
But the monster blocked his strike with the same motion it had used to approach, as if it were the real Michael.
Michael had expected to fell it in one strike.
Yet the battle with the monster continued on without end.
‘Why ask me for the dagger instead of using the one I usually carry?’
Why request her dagger specifically to fight this monster? And why did it seem to sense the dagger’s presence?
There were far too many strange things to ask now.
Irene kept her guard up, wary of any other monsters approaching, and watched the clash between Michael and the monster.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
They moved in perfect sync, as if fighting a mirror image of each other.
Enduring against a monster that carried the weight to shake the ground with every step.
‘Is Michael really human?’
A sudden thought struck her.
She knew he was a strong knight.
But this form felt even more powerful than in her previous life.
In her previous life, he had been strong within the limits of a human. This time, holding his own against a monster that was impossible for a human to be on par with... meant he was no longer...
‘What am I even thinking?’
Irene reined in her runaway thoughts and looked back at the two of them.
The sight of Michael and the monster staring down each other as if they would remain locked in place forever made it obvious who would break first.
‘Michael will be the one to fall back.’
Somehow, the monster he was facing seemed to have no limits to its endurance.
Then the human Michael would tire first. He would have to do something before that happened.
Irene was wringing her hands, unable to think of a way to help, when the old dagger in Michael’s hand suddenly began to glow.
It flared brightly.
Boom!
The moment the dull blade touched the monster, it exploded like a bomb.
The monster, a gray mass, had surely been made of gray clay inside.
“...!”
Irene covered her mouth and staggered back a step.
In the place where the monster had vanished lay a chaotic pile of human-shaped fragments.
Michael stood quietly among them, gazing at the shattered pieces. He turned his head toward the pile of earth that blocked the entrance.
Then he looked at Irene and spoke.
“Here... it seems only we two remain.”
It was a moment that should have brought despair, yet his voice sounded strangely elated.