Chapter 330: Trick and Treat

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This floor had a big door at the end of a corridor. Sword tilted his head at that.

“A boss room all of a sudden? Yeah, right, as if that was possible. It’s gotta be some sort of room. …How to put it…that’s the demon king’s castle for you. It’s completely different from the dungeon I’ve been to until now.

Sword was quite thrilled about this, and so he opened the door excitedly.

In there we found…

“A “Trompe-l’oeil” room, huh!?”

My motivation soared at once. Sword was dumbstruck, however.

“…What’s this place?”

A looping stairway existed on the ceiling. It was a room full of paintings, making you think they might be objects, and objects making you think they might be paintings.

“His Majesty the Demon King has a fine sense! Sword, this is 『trick art』. Usually it’s being depicted on paintings, but nothing less of a dungeon, I guess. For something like this to actually exist in reality, eh? Moreover, its artistic quality is rather high as well. Marvelous.”

It’s weird, but everything has been placed inside the room while observing a good balance.

Sword looked at me with his mouth open, and then checked his surroundings once more.

“Look! It’s ornamented and designed in a far more outstanding way than the uselessly gaudy, crude church in the kingdom, isn’t it!? This is a true piece of art!”

Sword calmed me, who ran the risk of overheating.

“Gotcha, but this is still a dungeon. We won’t be able to move ahead if we don’t break through this here. Havin’ said that, gettin’ through this in a normal way won’t be possible, right? The stairway is loopin’, isn’t it? Why is the beginnin’ and destination of the stairway the same in the first place?”

“That’s the whole idea behind this!”

Sword sighed deeply at my reply.

“So? What are we gonna do ’bout this?”

I pointed my index finger upwards.

“The simplest method would be to fly to the highest floor of this area on Char.”

“….Sure sounds easy.”

Sword felt disappointed.

“Right? It’s such a rare occasion, so let us enjoy ourselves! We can reserve the brute force approach as our last resort!”

Sword ruffled my hair with a wry smile.

“Well, your right. We can always break through this with force. Then it’s fine to mess ’round a bit to defeat it as intended.”

Indeed! In the first place, trompe l’oeil doesn’t work on us, you know?

Even if it has been built in this state of distorting space, I think it’s a vain idea to try deceive me, who has eyes that will see through everything, and Sword, who can manage even without his sense of sight since he has a sixth sense, with nothing but optical illusions.

Then again, I try not to rely on the power of my eyes if possible. Otherwise, it’ll only spoil my fun!

＊

Sword looked around, wondering what he should do first, and then started to climb the stairs. But soon he stopped, sensing the distortion in space. That’s a sixth-sense guy for you.

“Sword, you won’t reach the answer so quickly, you know?”

Sword looked back at me and smiled.

“Sorry. But now I see. This won’t work overly well on us, will it?”

“I try to avoid seeing through everything with my eyes to enjoy myself. Yet, you immediately sniff out everything with your sixth sense,” I sighed while looking up to the ceiling.

I mean, Sword doesn’t fall for any of the traps at all. He immediately could tell that the painting of a door was no more than just a painting.

And because of that, he also saw through the painting-like monster without any problems and cut it apart with a whoosh.

“That’s a monster I’ve never seen before. …Wait, what’s wrong, Indra?”

*Glaaaaaare*

I was looking at Sword reproachfully.

“Sword, I told you to enjoy it, didn’t I!? That’s a painting! And with that 『setting』, it’s the common idea to fall for that trap!”

“Oh, I see. Say that first.”

Bah! How boring!

Since it couldn’t be helped anyway, I decided to go around with Sword. And I also warned Sword.

“Don’t use your sixth sense!”

“Don’t ask the impossible, girl.”

So it’s impossible? A passive skill, then, huh?

…No choice. Let’s teach him the setting.

“Listen, the door drawn on this wall looks like a real door at first glance. So, if you approach it and try opening it, you should get surprised by it actually being a wall! Moreover, if you take a close look, you’ll spot that the wall’s door is actually a real door after all, so it opens! That’s the sort of cliche this place uses! Got it!?”

“Yeah, gotcha. And?”

“Jump into the trap.”

“……”

Sword sighed.

“Well, sure, why not. But let me tell you, I’m a normal human, so I’ll die if I carefreely step into traps, you know?”

“You’re way too cautious! This world doesn’t have any traps that could kill you!”

“I’m beggin’ you. Please don’t overestimate me so much, alright?”

And while making that request, he was grinding my temples with his fists. I’m begging you. Please stop.

＊

Sword shifted his look to a painting and pointed at it, “So what ’bout this monster?”

Don’t call it a monster!

I testily explained, “That’s a 『painting』! You’re supposed to say, 『What beautiful piece of art this is…!』 while staring at it closely and getting entranced by its attention to detail and beauty! If you do that, the monster will rejoice, thinking, 『Yaaay! He fell for it!』 and attack you!”

Once I explained all this to Sword, the painting trembled and hopped away.

“”……””

Sword followed the escaping painting with eyes, mouth agape. And then he looked at me.

“Didn’t that one run away because you said some nasty things ’bout it?”

WHY!?

“Why would it be nasty for me to point out a cliche?”

Sword scratched his head, looking annoyed.

“…Well…in the eyes of the opponent, it’s probably no fun if you deliberately let yourself get attacked by it while knowin’ its true nature? Moreover, I think it’s inevitable for it to feel embarrassed or sad and run away if you explain its whole scheme so politely.”

……

*huff*

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