Holy Night: My Husband is Definitely a Paladin - Chapter 124
“Ugh!”
She stepped back, coughing as she waved away the dust with her hand.
After a moment, when the dust had cleared slightly, she saw that a huge pile of debris had completely blocked the entrance in front of her.
With her escape route cut off, Irene turned around.
In a situation where she should have felt despair because their escape route was blocked,
“Michael! The path is blocked!”
Irene strangely felt a sense of relief instead.
As she stood by his side with a calm feeling that this was where she belonged, Michael’s face became complicated, filled with emotions he couldn’t describe.
Just as he was about to say something, the thudding sound approached again.
Irene, tense, stood beside him and looked down the path.
Then, as a huge tremor hit, a monster appeared, and Irene muttered in shock.
“…Michael?”
She wasn’t calling the Michael next to her.
She was calling the figure of Michael that appeared at the end of the path.
But it looked like a lump of clay molded into Michael’s shape—entirely gray, yet identical to him.
With each slow step it took—
Thud!
The dungeon shook with a loud noise.
It was an unbelievable sight. The approaching fake Michael was exactly the same size as the real one, as if it had perfectly copied him.
Same height. Same build.
But whenever it moved, the ground trembled.
Though she didn’t know what kind of monster it was, it clearly had far more mass than its appearance suggested.
Meanwhile, Michael drew the dagger from its sheath and swung it a few times.
Seeing this, Irene recalled the question that had been on her mind earlier.
“Michael, how did you know I had that dagger?”
Even she hadn’t realized the dagger had followed her, so how could Michael have known, when he hadn’t seen inside her bag?
“I just felt it.”
He answered calmly and then approached the monster that was imitating his form.
The monster looked down at its hand. A moment later, its hand transformed and soon held an identical dagger to the one Michael was holding.
‘Is it a monster that mimics its opponent?’
There had been monsters reported before that mimicked human voices to lure their prey.
But she had never heard of one that copied someone’s appearance so perfectly.
‘At least its color is completely different, so there’s no risk of confusing it with the real one.’
As Irene felt a slight sense of relief, Michael advanced on the monster and swung the dagger.
Clang!
However, the monster moved exactly like Michael, blocking the strike with the same motion.
Irene had expected Michael to defeat the monster in one blow.
But contrary to her expectations, the fight between him and the monster became a fierce struggle.
‘But why did he ask for my dagger instead of using his usual sword?’
Why had he specifically asked for her dagger to fight this monster? And how could he have sensed the dagger’s presence?
There were too many questions, but now wasn’t the time to ask.
Irene, tense, watched the fight closely, worried that another monster might approach.
Clang! Clang!
It was like watching him fight against a mirror—both Michael and the monster moved in perfect sync.
Even though the monster was so heavy that the ground shook with every step, Michael was holding his own.
‘Is Michael even human?’
That thought suddenly crossed her mind.
She knew he was a strong knight.
But somehow, he seemed even stronger now than he had been in her previous life.
In her past life, he had been strong within the limits of what was human, but now he was holding his ground against a monstrous being, which seemed impossible for any human.
‘What am I thinking?’
Irene shook off the wandering thoughts and focused on watching them again.
While the battle between Michael and the monster seemed endless, it was obvious who would reach their limit first.
‘At this rate, Michael will lose.’
The monster didn’t seem to have any physical limits, while Michael, being human, would tire eventually. Something had to be done before that happened.
Just as Irene was anxiously wondering how she could help—
The old dagger that Michael had been using suddenly began to glow. And then—
BOOM!
The moment the worn blade touched the monster, it exploded.
Irene had expected the inside of the gray monster to be made of something like clay, matching its outer appearance.
“……!”
Irene gasped, covering her mouth and stepping back.
In the place where the monster had been, scattered fragments that were unmistakably human lay all around.
Michael silently looked at the remains for a moment, then turned his gaze toward the mound of dirt that was blocking the exit.
After a moment, he turned to Irene and spoke.
“It’s just the two of us left here now.”
It was something to be despairing over, yet his voice sounded strangely excited.
