"You can't be serious!" the priestess stormed at Maria, fighting off her hold and waving her staff in my direction. "If he's an imposter, we can't let him go! Especially if he's a demon in disguise!"
"Look here," I said with a sigh. "Even if I'm a demon or an imposter, so what? Why are you so intent on attacking me? What did I do, exactly? Have I attacked anyone? Have I hurt anybody? Did you actually see me cause harm to innocent people?"
"You definitely will!" the priestess screamed at me. "It's in your nature."
"And who are you to decide what my nature is?" I retorted. "Are you guys in the habit of throwing random accusations at someone minding their own business and attacking them even though they haven't actually done anything wrong?"
"Your whole existence is wrong to begin with!"
I turned to Harold, trying to clamp down on my anger. "Is there something wrong with your teammate?"
"Sorry." Harold was burying his face in his palm. "I'll discipline her."
"Thank you."
"You can't be serious! Don't listen to him! He's an imposter!"
"How exactly am I supposed to prove that I'm not an imposter?" I rolled my eyes. I poked at my face. "Do I look like I'm wearing a mask? Does this look like an illusion spell?"
"That's…that's…!" The priestess was raving at this point. "You can't hide your demonic aura! I'll definitely make you reveal it again!"
"Well, considering that one way of ascertaining his identity is to ask him questions that the real person should know about…" Maria began. "We can try that."
"He already knows about the expedition to the Tertia Tundra, and remembers saving us from the Frost Giants," Harold reminded her. "I'm pretty sure he's the real deal."
"Not to mention he's behaving like the real Klein. Even if an imposter wouldn't be able to act this well." Arnold was nodding. "Those snarky remarks…his occasional humility…I doubt anyone can fake it to this extent."
"I can also testify that Klein is the real Klein," Stella said, holding her hand up. "Though I don't know how much worth my word as a knight holds."
"Which regiment are you from?" the spearman asked her curiously.
"The Bravia regiment…but I left it when Duke Bradley took over the governance of the province."
"Ah, yeah." The spearman wore a sympathetic expression. "I heard several very nasty rumors about him. He just can't keep his hands off women."
"I can't believe you guys are just going along with them!" the priestess wailed. I really wanted to slap her, but if I did that, I would be proving that she was right. And she was half-wrong. I wasn't an imposter, but she wasn't mistaken that I was now a demon.
"Look, your duty as the Hero party is to protect the innocent, right?" I reprimanded her. "Not go around throwing accusations and attacking people who didn't do anything wrong."
"You're no innocent," she snarled. I shook my head.
"Innocent until proven guilty. Until you actually witness me harming someone, you really should lay off your nonsensical accusations."
"I'll keep an eye on you," she vowed. "And the moment you slip up, I'll definitely…!"
"Actually, we can't stalk them," Harold told her. "We have our own mission to do. Even though Klein says he has already dealt with Miranda, we'll still need to go over and confirm for sure."
He looked at me apologetically.
"It's not that we don't trust you, but we just want to seek confirmation. And meet up with the military investigation unit."
"No, I understand." I held up my right hand. "Just like I said earlier, sometimes you need to witness something for yourself to ascertain if it's true."
"Yeah," Harold agreed.
"Definitely something the real Klein would say," Arnold mumbled. Maria giggled and nodded. The spearman shrugged. Unlike the others (except the priestess), this was the first time he had met me, so he couldn't say for sure.
"There is a way!" the priestess suddenly blurted out. Everyone turned to stare at her questioningly and she hurriedly continued. "To ascertain his identity, I mean!"
"How?" Stella asked icily.
"Magic!" the priestess replied. "Have a mock duel. See if he uses the same skills as before!"
She rubbed her hands gleefully.
"If he ends up using demonic magic to defend himself in the middle of the duel, then it will prove me right! No…in fact, the moment he uses magic, I can tell if it's demonic or not."
"That's fair," Maria mused, pondering. "And I can help judge if the spells used stem from normal magic or a demonic source."
"If you're the real person, then you have nothing to worry about!" the priestess crowed. She was really getting on my nerves. "You should have no reason to refuse, right?"
"No, I don't." I raised a hand and froze an ice sculpture into existence, the crystalline flower fitting perfectly into my right palm. Layers of petals gleamed, the ice lotus seeming to bloom to life before them. "How is this?"
"Definitely normal ice magic," Maria confirmed. The priestess gnashed her teeth and stomped her feet.
"That doesn't count! Even a demon can cast a normal spell like that! I want a duel!"
"There is no reason for us to accept your unreasonable demands," Stella snapped coldly. "Your orders are getting increasingly ridiculous."
"No, it's fine." I held up both hands. "I'll do it. A quick, short duel under one minute. Five moves at the most. I won't waste any more time than that."
"If that is your will." Stella bowed. Then she turned to glare at the priestess. "If Klein proves that he is the real one, then I would like you to apologize for all the trouble you are causing. And also for your rudeness."
"Fine!" the priestess sneered. "You two had best prepare yourselves for purification and execution once we expose your true colors!"
"…uh, how do we do this?" Harold asked, suddenly looking sheepish. The priestess glared at him.
"Just strike him with your holy sword!"
"…you do realize that I'm trying to find a way not to accidentally kill him, right? What if he's the real Klein? I can't be using my holy sword to kill innocent people! And worse, he's a former comrade who fought alongside us during the war!"
"Ugh! Then just cast a spell! Use your Whirlwind Blade spell!"
"Huh? Why? Wouldn't it just get destroyed by Klein's Fixed Damage skill?"
"The fuck are you talking about? What Fixed Damage skill? Are you mixing me up with someone else?"
The priestess ignored me and continued ranting. "What are you talking about? That's the skill that's capable of slicing a high-level demon into half! He shouldn't be able to withstand it!"
"Did you already forget that I just told you that I'm trying to avoid accidentally killing him?!"
"You know what, just attack already." I shook my head. "I won't die that easily. Don't forget, I was formerly a member of the Hero's party under Herman, and I survived against the lord of vampires himself. Even defeated him."
"…okay." Harold took a deep breath and charged at me. I raised my right hand and froze the entire area before he could swing his sword, trapping him in ice.
With a yell, Harold broke free of the ice and propelled himself forward, but I was flinging a barrage of icicles at him. The Hero smashed the icicles with his holy sword, weaving through the heavy bombardment and closing in on me.
"Ugh…?"
He was then forced to dive to the side when a huge icicle erupted from beneath his feet. His godly reflexes saved him from being impaled. He rolled to his feet and swung his sword to smash an icicle that was heading right for his face.
"Whirlwind Blade!"
With a yell, he swung his sword and unleashed his signature spell. Before the rapidly spinning arc of highly pressurized air could hit me, it turned into ice.
Then Harold barreled past it, smashing the frozen whirlwind apart with his holy sword. In a single stroke, he cut through a glacial wall that I conjured and sought to cleave me in half.
"Absolute Zero."
Without any choice, I unleashed my ultimate ice spell and turned the entire space into ice.
"Ugh!?"
Fortunately, Harold had his Divine Blessings, granted upon him by the gods. It protected him from the raw power of my ultimate ice spell. With a roar, he broke free of the ice that entombed him, holy magic pouring out of his body.
Then he collapsed, shivering. Breathing heavily, he looked up at me in surprise.
"It's my loss," he admitted. He winced as he tried to raise his holy sword, only for his violently trembling arms to drop it. "Your spell…it got into my system and clogged up my mana channels. I can't cast any spells right now. At least not as efficiently as before."
"Harold!" the priestess shrieked and sprinted toward him. She immediately cast healing spells on him, to alleviate his condition. Once she made sure that Harold was all right, she raised her head to glare at me. "You bastard! How dare you hurt Harold?!"
"…are you freaking kidding me?" The spearman groaned in exasperation. "You do realize this is a duel, right? One that you imposed upon him? What is he supposed to do if you don't allow him to fight back? Let Harold kill him?"
"Yes!"
"Silly girl." Maria smacked the priestess's head. She glanced at me apologetically. "Yes, now I can be sure that you are the real Klein. You're using the same spells as him. Except for that last spell. The last time we fought together, you had yet to master Absolute Zero. Seems like you've finally learned the ultimate ice spell, huh? No wonder you were able to defeat Vincent Lucard."
"Oh! How impressive!" Arnold looked amazed. He then glanced at Harold and did a double take. "Wait, did you just defeat a Hero? By yourself?"
"Uh, well…Harold wasn't going all out," I pointed out. That was the truth. I had sensed that Harold's attacks were half-hearted at most and already he forced me to use my ultimate ice spell on him. I couldn't imagine how dangerous he would be if he got serious.
"Doesn't change the fact that I lost," Harold replied with a shrug. He didn't seem to be bothered by the loss. If anything, he was relieved that he hadn't hurt me. "And yeah…those ice spells…you're definitely the real Klein. I still remember those ice spells from before. Except for the last one…but it's more than a year, so it stands to reason that you'll learn new spells along the way."
"You held back a lot," I replied and bowed. "Thanks for holding back and doing your best not to hurt me."
"Nah. As you said, it's our job to protect the innocent, not hurt them."
"Where do you think you're going?" Stella asked, seizing the robes of the priestess. While I was catching up with Harold and the others, she had been trying to sneak away. Stella yanked her back and threw her to the ground. "Are you forgetting something?"
"W…what do you want from me?" the priestess cried.
Stella looked disgusted. She shook her head in disbelief, probably wondering how the priestess could be so thick-skinned.
"Did you really forget that you're supposed to apologize to Klein? For your baseless accusations and rudeness?"
"The knight is right." Harold looked at the priestess sternly. "Apologize, Priscilla."
The priestess, Priscilla, wore a sour look. Then she took a deep breath and bowed her head.
"I'm very sorry."
"It is fine," I assured her. Inwardly, I wanted to beat her up, but that would leave a bad impression on Harold and the others. Not a good idea to break their trust after fighting so hard to win it. "You were just being cautious. I know that you only want to protect your party."
Now Priscilla looked truly ashamed of herself. She hung her head guiltily and looked away.
"I'm very sorry," she mumbled again.
"Sorry, Klein." Harold sighed. "Priscilla is a really good person. She's always very concerned for our wellbeing and does her best to take care of us. She's just a bit rigid. I hope you'll forgive her."
"Don't worry about it, it's all right. No harm done." I held both my hands up in a placating manner. "But she's partially right. In order to survive against the vampires, I had to do some…stuff that most people would deem taboo. Perhaps that caused some sort of transformation in my body, which led Priscilla to thinking I'm a demon."
"Taboo?" Harold raised an eyebrow. I shook my head.
"Forgive me if I don't wish to elaborate on it."
"Ah, of course. I understand."
"In any case," Maria cut in. "It's good to see you again, Klein. We should catch up sometime. I'm sure you'll have a few interesting stories to share, particularly about how you literally returned from the dead."
"Oh, you have no idea," I muttered.
"Unfortunately, we're in a rush." Arnold sighed. "The military investigation unit must already be in Riaju City. The south one, I mean. We're probably late."
"If we hurry, we can still make it," the spearman said.
"And there you have it." Harold clapped a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sure our paths will cross again, Klein. So if you need help, let me know."
"Same. I'll help you if you're in trouble. Perhaps it won't be in the way you imagine it, but it'll be for the greater good."
Harold chuckled. "You sound more like a Hero than Herman ever did."
"Nah." I shook my head. "Then again, almost any decent person would be more of a Hero than that self-centered bastard."