My reflection in the glass only caught the parts of my face lit by the candlelight. A ghostly reflection, half there and half shadows. Every feature exactly the same as mine. Except the smile.

I was not smiling.

“You’re quite handsome, aren’t you?” my reflection said, voice neither distinctly masculine nor feminine. So not a copy or a replica; this demon had my face but not my voice. “With a face like this, you deserve a fair warning about this place.”

My mind was racing. How had none of us noticed this before now? There were mirrors in every bedroom. Every piece of furniture had a protective piece of glass over it. Such a simple detail, but I should've noticed.

I hated how I couldn't look away, either. Not that I hadn't studied Gerard's face enough as it was since I'd barely believed that this was my reflection when I first woke up in this world. My doubt that my reflection wasn't reflecting me, that it was smiling while I wasn't, compelled me to look closer, to get a better look.

I barely registered what the demon had said. Handsome. None of the other demons I'd encountered cared for my good looks, but maybe that was what made this a pride demon. Was it reflecting what I wanted to see? Was it reflecting some ideal version of myself--reflect whatever that inner worth that the Dungeon Notice had said.

A paradise for those who wish to reflect their inner worth and a hell for those who refuse, be prepared for an endless march should you test fate and lose.

When my reflection's smile grew into something predatory, I flinched backward and finally looked away. I expected the demon to step out of the glass, and I held my breath to steady myself for the fight that'd surely follow. A lesser demon. I could deal with that. This was a weaker demon than the one that possessed that man who'd tried to kill Danio.

The demon didn't come out of the glass top, though. Neither did it speak again. I was alone again, but what did that mean? That the demon was trapped in the glass and could only converse if you noticed your reflection? Lando would've been such a goner here.

Of course the demon would say something to get me to want to talk to them. Any information about the [10th Dominion] would be invaluable right now, especially if we couldn't leave. The demon would probably tell me the truth in order to gain my trust, but they could then use that to coerce me into a contract of some sort. I'd have to be careful that the demon didn't have a [Persuasion] skill like Dina had. Although it hadn't worked on me, she could've had a lower Mastery of it than this pride demon.

Did I have a skill that could help here? I had [Forgotten Son], but the demon would likely not appear in my reflection if the skill worked as it should. There'd be no conversation to be had, just like there wasn't one happening now.

In my fourth life, I'd had a passive skill called [Cold Blooded Nature] that'd likely work to fortify my mind against the demon. I could use that but with it being passive that meant burning through [7-Time-Returner] when I might need it more later. Like when facing the Dungeon Boss... or simply a dungeon boss if what we had to face after beating this one was the [9th Dominion].

Fuck. I massaged my temples. What a headache. I pulled up my stats.

Name

Gerard Viscoti

Primary Class

Noble Assassin

Secondary Class

Mage

Soul

E-Class (Stage 1)

Strength

46

Cunning

30

Perception

70

Energy

30

Skills

Lucky Number 7 [10.50%]

Silver Tongue [1.60%]

7-Lives-Bloodlust [5.00%]

7-Times-Returner [1.01%]

Synchronize [2.01%]

Demeot Eyes [13.56%]

Deep Pockets [10/10]

[Silver Tongue] and [Lucky Number 7] might work to guard me against what this demon could do to me. I didn't want to rely on something fickle like luck. Surely this was something Di'at would call me stupid for doing. Di'at not calling me an idiot in that last Notice now stood out to me.

The crossed-out letters, one at a time, and with that blue hue I was so familiar with now. Now it was a red hue. Like the sea of fire that surrounded this place. Didn't that just make it more likely that this wasn't a simple dungeon? Or at the very least, the Rashirat had more control over the World System here than outside of the dungeon.

This was all very bad for me, which was why I needed the information this demon could possibly give me. Whether it would be the truth or not would determine whether it was worth the risk.

I sat forward and so did my reflection, except my face brightened in the glass.

"I thought you wouldn't come back," the demon said. "Though that rarely happens. You have questions, don't you?"

For a moment, I hesitated. I did have questions, but that wasn't why I'd decided to talk to the demon. "You said I deserved a fair warning about this place. I decided to listen to it."

"Oh!" the demon somehow leaned forward in the glass, coming closer to me yet still separate, distant. "Wow. That rarely happens, too. You're handsome and interesting. Very well, I'll tell you the warning. But not without a price."

"I'm not paying," I said without thinking, without allowing myself to hesitate again. As quickly as the words exploded out of me, they did as well as [Cold Blooded Nature] to steal me against whatever mental manipulation this demon might try on me. "You said a fair warning. Fair warnings don't cost a thing. That'd be an unfair warning."

[Notice]

Mastery of [Demeot Eyes] has increased by 2%.

The demon's eyes widened, their predatory smile widened, and then they reeled back with laughter. The kind of laugh I'd probably never laughed. Not as Gerard at least. This little shit was too fucking expressive.

"You're very interesting!" the demon said excitedly after they finished laughing. They practically glowed with amusement. "Then here's my fair warning: you won't escape this place whole."

Well, they did seem to want to go for an honest run of it first.

I shook my head. "That's not a fair warning but a vague warning. A fair warning would be telling me your intentions for starting this conversation."

"Telling you my intentions would be contrary to my intentions," the demon said as if having to explain common sense to me.

"Milrozig, isn't it? If you're not honest about your intentions, doesn't that mean they're dishonest?"

The demon didn't laugh this time. They probably weren't used to someone like me knowing their name, and now they were taking the time to reassess their situation. They changed their posture, narrowed their eyes. "Here are my honest intentions: I want to help you, but when I tell you how I want to help you, you'll surely think that I'm not trying to help you. That's why it's contrary to my intentions. You're in a lot of danger in hell, human. Why are you here?"

"You want to offer me a contract then," I said. "To help me be strong enough to make it out alive?"

"...Well, yes..." Suddenly the demon seemed shy. Watching my face put on this particular act was a bit torturous. "You deserve to be stronger. I can tell that you're meant to be very powerful. I can help you reach that potential so that you don't get trapped here. So many don't seem to value themselves enough to help themselves."

"So tell me about the contract. If you want me to think you're being honest, then I need to be able to make an informed decision."

The demon looked exasperated, sputtering for a moment. "Of course! I was always going to tell you the terms. I'll protect you from the demons in hell in exchange for allowing me to take your image. As simple as that. With me around, the other demons won't bother with you at all."

A crash drew my attention from my reflection in the glass. From Rose and Rila's room. Rather than talk to the demon in the mirror, they'd chosen to break it. If they saw me conversing with this demon out here, they'd probably assume the worse. The crash could've also been something worse.

"That's a terrible deal," I said, stood, and broke the glass with my foot and some magic.

I was at Rose and Rila's bedroom door in no time at all, finding the door locked and so kicking it down. The bedroom was about the same size as my bedroom in my apartment in the red light district. An armoire, a full-sized bed, bedside tables. Except the armoire had mirrors mounted onto the doors.

The mirror was shattered on both doors, Rila sitting in front of the pieces of glass all over the floor with a candle next to her. As its flame flickered, she rocked back and forth gently, her arms around herself, but there was only one of her. Rose was clearly the one who'd broken the mirrors, a knife with a heavy pommel in her hand.

"Gerard," Rose said, my name almost folded into a relieved sigh, but she didn't look ready to feel that relief. Instead, she looked prepared for a demon to come out of the shards of glass. "Where'd we first meet?"

"...The night market," I said. "What'd you teach me how to make?"

She flushed. "I'm not saying that right now. So you're you and I'm me. Rila's fine, but she almost wasn't. There was a demon. Her reflection was a demon. She almost made a deal while I was sleeping." She took a big breath. "What about Garta? Kadhi? Professor Widhia? You?"

"I broke the glass when my reflection smiled at me." I checked down the hall.

Without needing a response about Garta, Kadhi, or the professor, we both headed down the hall together. There was no flickering candlelight peeking from underneath their doors, and a reflection in the dark is hardly a reflection. But so was mine in the coffee table. That hadn't even been a mirror reflection. We opened the door of both of their rooms, careful not to make a sound, and found them both sleeping soundly.

"They'll be fine, right?" Rose whispered as she grabbed a blanket back in her shared room with Rila and threw it over the other girl's shoulders. "...It couldn't possibly... Not every reflective surface is dangerous, right?"

"You're asking questions I don't know the answers to," I said. Or, rather, my answer was that we were in hell and we were fucked but that didn't seem like the right thing to say right now.

"I'm the one who should have the answers, but I don't either. Let's err on the side of caution."

With that, we went around and covered everything that could possibly reflect our image back at us. Then we cleaned up the mirror in Rose and Rila's room, then I left Rose to calm Rila down from whatever experience she just had. On the other hand, I found myself on the roof checking for the low tide.

Not only was the tide still too high to cross back over to the portal, but the streets were packed with people. Marching endlessly from the bottom to the city gates all the way up to the tower and back down again.