Frozen Atop the Ancient Dragon
In the forest near the shores of the Aaron Sea, I had used Sharin to corner Hanon, barely managing to capture him. This guy, with his maxed-out Evasion, was absolutely impossible to catch by any other means.
From his perspective, I must seem incredibly shameless.
After all, I had stolen his identity and run wild at Jerion Academy. To the real Hanon, I was the imposter who had dragged his reputation through the mud.
I did feel sorry for him. But regardless of my guilt, I couldn't have him running around causing trouble. I had to live as Hanon until I graduated from Jerion Academy. So, if possible, I wanted to reach a compromise.
"Is that your real face?"
"Fake."
Pinned beneath me, Hanon asked the exact same question Sharin had, a sly grin playing on his lips. My true face belonged to someone who didn't exist in this world. So, yes, it was fake.
"Bummer."
Hanon looked entirely unbothered by the fact that I had stolen his identity. It was just like him—a guy who had long since abandoned the mundane world to chase ruins and legends across the globe.
"I'm sorry for using your identity without permission," I said, sighing as I kept him pinned. "But your goals and mine aren't all that different."
"So, let's talk."
"Like this?" Hanon flailed his arms, protesting my weight.
"I'm sorry, but I know you'll bolt the second I let you up."
"Wow, sharp as a tack."
He was even harder to read than I was.
"I don't have the confidence to catch you a second time. I know better than anyone that if you run away with everything you've got, nobody can catch you."
I adjusted the Bandage of the Veil. Instantly, my appearance shifted back into Hanon. Now that I had captured him, there was no longer any need to maintain a different disguise.
Hanon stared up at me, his eyes wide with fascination as if seeing the trick for the first time.
"The First Prince sent you, didn't he?"
At my question, Hanon let out a loose, slippery chuckle.
"How curious. Since I'm a relative of Lady Iris, wouldn't your first guess be that the Third Princess's faction sent me?"
"You don't belong to the house of Duke Robliaju. Why would they have any reason to send you?"
Hanon's surname, Airey, belonged to a minor noble family on the fringes of the empire. Though he carried the blood of the Robliaju family, he had nothing to do with them. In truth, Hanon worked as a spy for the First Prince. Naturally, he was a man shrouded in secrets.
But who was I? I was a hardcore veteran who had cleared the Flame Butterfly Chapter a whopping twenty-nine times. No matter how elusive of a hidden character Hanon was, I knew everything about him inside and out.
"In fact..." I knew exactly what buttons to push to get a reaction out of him. "You harbor a deep resentment toward Duke Robliaju, don't you?"
For the first time, Hanon's expression completely shifted. The easygoing, nonchalant attitude vanished instantly. He stopped squirming altogether and stared up at me, frozen.
"Who... are you, really?"
Now, it was Hanon asking the questions. In an instant, the tables had turned. He was the one trying to pry information out of me.
"I am..."
I had to seize the initiative here. Hanon's existence was a massive liability for me. If he were to expose my identity right now, my position would become incredibly precarious. At worst, I'd be expelled from the academy and thrown into prison for impersonation. If that happened, not only would I be finished—so would this world.
I had gone through hell and back just to steer this world toward the true history. Now that the conflict between the First Prince's faction and the Third Princess's faction was igniting in earnest, the scenario was finally moving along the correct path, regardless of the messy process. The past Hanon had lived and the events he had experienced remained unchanged.
"Depending on how you play your cards, I can be your greatest ally... or your worst enemy."
To Hanon, I was a mysterious entity who had copied his appearance. He must have been burning with curiosity and suspicion. Right now, the character shrouded in mystery... isn't Hanon, but me. The more doubts that bloomed in his mind, the more leverage I held over him.
"Hanon, you want revenge on Duke Robliaju, don't you?"
The sole reason he had allied with the First Prince was his grudge against Duke Robliaju. Because of this, Hanon also harbored a deep-seated hatred for the Duke's granddaughter, Iris.
Hanon is the character who unravels the story of how Duke Robliaju allied with Akjon, but... he is also the primary culprit behind the game's spiking difficulty. His sudden appearance always threw a wrench into clearing the episodes. Therefore, I had to prevent the real Hanon from interfering with the true history at all costs.
"I can help you get your revenge. If you cooperate with me, I can guarantee a much more thorough vengeance than the First Prince ever could."
Hanon stared at me blankly. His gaze was a mix of deep suspicion and sheer disbelief.
"...Duke Robliaju is not an easy target. He's not someone a single individual can take down."
"Exactly. And because you knew that, you aligned yourself with the First Prince."
Knowing that the Duke was far beyond his reach, Hanon had willingly allied with the First Prince—the strongest backer an individual could ask for. But the First Prince wasn't the only one who could offer that kind of power.
"But you don't fully trust the First Prince either, do you? Wouldn't it be wiser to open up another path for yourself while you have the chance?"
I was also someone who could give Hanon exactly what he wanted. He might be skeptical now, but I could prove my worth better than anyone.
"Well, well."
A dry, amused laugh escaped Hanon's lips. He shook his head, chuckling, before locking his eyes onto mine.
"You're right. I was ordered by the First Prince to find out who you really are."
I had saved Nia and Nikita, who were close to the First Prince. Nikita knew my true identity, but given her personality—always insisting on paying back her debts—she wouldn't have revealed it even to Nia.
To the First Prince, who already knew the real Hanon, I must have seemed like an absolute anomaly.
The First Prince was a pragmatic man who focused on the present. Naturally, he despised unpredictable variables. To him, I was an unwelcome intruder.
Still, since I had saved Nia, he couldn't exactly dispose of me outright.
So, he had thrown Hanon at me. It was a clear warning: "Reveal who you are, or I will use the real Hanon to expose you."
"But now that we're talking, you're a lot more unhinged than I expected."
Hanon tilted his head, studying me, before letting out another soft, breezy laugh.
"Unfortunately, I'm not the trusting type."
As expected, words alone weren't going to convince him.
"So, since my shift is over, I'll be taking my leave."
With those words, Hanon's body began to blur and dissolve. He was using one of the rare artifacts he had gathered during his ruin explorations—his signature tool, the Wind of Concealment. It was a magical item imbued with a Mystery that allowed him to escape to any desired location instantly.
This was the source of his constant composure. I had anticipated this, of course, and was about to react instantly when—
Thump!
A sudden, violent throb of pain exploded in my right eye. Recognizing the source of the agony, I quickly clutched my face, but I was too late.
Whoosh!
A freezing torrent of frost erupted from my body, instantly sweeping through the forest. The underbrush froze solid, and the trees were instantly encased in thick sheets of ice.
The problem was Hanon, who was still pinned beneath me. "Wh-what the...?" Hanon muttered, his lips barely moving as the biting cold began to freeze him solid. The Dragon's Vestige had suddenly flared up. Did it react to his Mystery?
Just as I was about to summon my Fire's Flame to suppress the unexpected surge, Sharin dropped down right in front of me. She had been watching the situation from above and decided to intervene.
"Bad boys..." Sharin drew her staff, spinning it deftly in her hand. "...need to be punished~."
Sharin's eyes glowed with the starlight of her Mirinae. A beam of brilliant light shot from the tip of her staff straight into my right eye. Struck by the light, the thrashing presence of the ancient dragon recoiled in surprise, retreating deep back into my eye.
The raging frost around us began to dissipate. The icy scales that had started to form on my face cracked and crumbled away.
"It seems to be reacting to the Mystery~," Sharin drawled, reaching the same conclusion as I had regarding the sudden activation of the Dragon's Vestige.
But the bigger issue was Hanon, who was still trapped beneath me. Having taken the full force of the ancient dragon's frost, he was completely frozen solid and unconscious. He hadn't actually done anything wrong to deserve this. I felt incredibly guilty.
...Why did I keep finding new ways to owe this guy an apology? Getting him to sit down for a simple chat was proving to be a monumental task.
"Sharin, could you take this guy somewhere warm?"
"Sure, will do~." Sharin erased the lingering traces of the Dragon's Vestige and used her magic to levitate the unconscious Hanon.
"Hanon, I want ice cream~." She was demanding payment for her labor, of course.
"I'll buy you two."
"Three~."
"You'll get a stomachache."
"One is for Hanon~."
I'd buy her four if she wanted.
"I'll head on ahead~," Sharin said, waving her hand lazily as she floated up into the air.
As I prepared to follow her out of the forest, I suddenly sensed a presence just beyond the trees. Instantly reacting to a sharp burst of killing intent directed at me, I threw my body backward. Whoosh! A sword blade sliced through the empty air right where I had been standing a split second before.
Strands of honey-blonde hair fluttered in the wind. The attacker was none other than Isabel.
Isabel quickly pulled her foot back, preparing to follow up with another strike. I frowned at her.
"Isabel, what on earth are you doing?"
"Huh?" Isabel's eyes went wide with shock mid-swing. Startled, she tried to abort her attack, but the sudden shift threw her completely off balance.
"Whoa!" Her ankle twisted, and her body pitched forward. At this rate, she was going to faceplant hard onto the frozen ground.
I quickly lunged forward and caught her in my arms. Thud! Bracing my legs, I managed to absorb the impact and let out a sigh of relief. I looked down at the girl in my arms with a disapproving expression.
"Are you trying to take me down with sneak attacks now?"
Isabel flinched in my embrace. "N-No, that's not it! Someone who looked exactly like you appeared, and... well..."
That bastard Hanon. He really did go to see Isabel. Whatever he had said to her, it had clearly rattled her.
It'll be trouble if he dropped any clues about me. There was nothing more dangerous than Isabel doubting my identity. She was already dealing with an incredibly complicated emotional state lately. Shaking her up further was the last thing I wanted to do.
"What kind of nonsense is that? Are you sure you weren't seeing things?" I played dumb, immediately denying it.
"Seeing things? I'm serious!" Isabel protested, her face flushing with frustration. She looked genuinely pouted that I didn't believe her.
"I followed his trail all the way here, and then I found you!"
"And how long do you plan on staying like this?"
As Isabel continued to pout, I gave a slight shrug, reminding her of our current posture. Realizing she was still wrapped tightly in my arms, she gasped and scrambled backward in a panic. Her face, all the way to the tips of her ears, was dyed a bright crimson.
"Th-thanks for catching m—ah!" Isabel winced, clutching her ankle. It was the price of violently twisting her body to abort her sword strike. She sank to the ground, cradling her injured ankle.
Watching her, I let out another sigh. I felt a bit bad for keeping Sharin waiting, but I couldn't just leave Isabel here like this.
"Get on my back."
"I-I'm fine. I can walk."
"You're a martial arts student. Why are you trying to make your injury worse?"
It seemed like a mild sprain, but pushing herself would only do more harm than good.
"Isabel, if I sprained my ankle, would you just leave me behind?"
"...Of course I'd help you up or carry you."
Once I pointed out that I was only doing what she would have done in my shoes, she finally relented.
Isabel was surprisingly light. It was baffling how someone who trained and built muscle every single day could feel so weightless. A faint, refreshing citrus scent drifted from her as she clung to my back. Furthermore, I couldn't help but notice, entirely against my will, that she possessed an incredibly well-proportioned figure. Shaking those distracting thoughts from my head, I began to walk.
Once on my back, Isabel fell into a quiet silence. Since she was behind me, I couldn't see her face, leaving me with no clue as to what she was thinking.
"...Why did you enroll in Jerion Academy?"
Out of nowhere, she asked. It was a remarkably sudden and unexpected question. Had she experienced some kind of change of heart? Though slightly concerned, I answered her honestly.
"I told you on my very first day. I came to clear the stained reputation of Jerion Academy."
I reminded her of the day I had openly criticized Lucas. But unlike her usual self, Isabel remained quietly subdued.
"...Does that mean you came here because of Lucas?"
Her follow-up question took a completely different turn than I expected.
"I wouldn't say he had no influence on my decision."
I had no idea what was going on in her head, but I answered carefully to avoid raising any unnecessary suspicion.
"I see..."
Isabel didn't press any further. Instead, she quietly buried her face against my shoulder. A warm summer breeze swept past us. What kind of answer she had found in my words, I could not possibly know.