Unveiling

…

Sean and Scias have reached the chapel courtyard. They gasped a lot due to overrunning themselves while evading most patrollers. Thankfully, they don't have to kill anyone…yet.

"Freaking outrageous, huff…" said Sean in a bit of frustration. "Nngh… huff… good thing… huff… we don't have to cause any commotion," said Scias in addition.

"Heerrrgh… gah! Our presence in this palace is already a commotion, mate." Sean declined with a sarcastic voice.

"Huh." Scias replied short. "In anyways, we should find the prince right away. Hopefully, there will be no guards around here," Sean hoped for the best. Scias nodded and thus they headed inside the chapel.

Upon entering the chapel, there's no sign of life around them at all. No birds chiming, no cats meowing, not even bugs screeching quietly during the peak of midnight, it's all empty, only the breezing winds shower in their ears.

"…Where the hell is everybody?" Sean wondered. "Probably to that blown tower," said Scias offhandedly and without a care.

"At least someone's gotta stay behind to guard the prince. It's just strangely quiet." Sean stated. "No sign of mana fluctuation in the region, not even a static one. We're safe, for now." Sean implied about the suspected assassin, Queaz. Although he didn't know the man personally and his thinking of him being the prime suspect was all but a mere conjecture, he was assured that he has the ability to hide mana energy and even hide his presence.

The two entered the chapel with care. When they open the door, they only found the casket of the deceased king. The two then scoured the chapel from first to third floor and alas, the results are complete zero. Prince Chamel was nowhere to be found around.

"Where the frick' is he?" said Sean swearing. "Um… Sean." Scias called softly.

"Yeah?" Sean looked at the tall man. "This but my guess… what if the prince has been slain by the assassin?"

Sean's eyes expand in distrust widely while simultaneously shouts: "IMPOSSIBRU!"

"It's a guess, though. But think of it…" said Scias heavily. "If no soldiers came to his aid at all, wouldn't that mean the prince's life is sitting on a very thin thread? It is logical to see him already dead because of that." Scias stated while searching the chapel.

"Well yes, that makes sense, but… we cannot simply think like that. If the prince's life is doomed we're doomed also," said Sean while scouring every corners of the chapel.

Their search gives them none. The prince is really nowhere around. They even searched the courtyard carefully, even behind the chapel as well. But there's not a dot of the prince's presence. Sean begins to think that Scias could've been right. He walks back into the chapel and regrouped with Scias. He just realized that Scias is holding a piece of paper on the top of the dead king's casket. He looked serious and focused to it.

"What'cha found?" Sean asked.

"Uh? Oh, look at this…" said Scias showing the paper which turned out to be a picture. "Huh, that's the picture of the suspected assassin. It's the same as what was given to me."

"H-Huh…" Scias kept on looking at the picture while Sean ignored it as he tries to find the prince via mana sensing. Just before he starts, Scias comes into asking.

"You still have the picture with you?" Scias asked seriously.

"Hm? Yeah, I still get a hold of it. Uhm, hang on…" Sean searches his pants. "Oh, goddammit where are you, grrrgh, this freaking tight pocket, grrrrrrrr…. Ah! There it is. Here ya go." Sean gave the picture with him, though the paper has been squished due to the tight pocket in his pants.

Scias then put the picture side-by-side with the ones on the casket. Sean wonders why Scias organized them pictures like that, whereas those pictures were both the same. In curiosity, he cancelled detecting the prince and joined Scias' investigation.

"Just as I expected," Scias stated as his eyes discovered something out of order. "What, what is it?" Sean asked quickly.

"Look."

Scias pick the pictures and showed them side-by-side to Sean. "These pictures are different." He said assuredly. The left photograph belong to Sean and so do the rest of the Alidian soldiers while the right one was the one found on the king's casket, possibly belonged to the prince. The left picture poorly illustrates the suspect and all in dark silhouette. Indeed, the suspect in the left image does look so much like Pio physically, but due to the poor image and silhouette, it cannot be trusted.

While the right photo depicts it far greater in terms of resolution, clearness and detail, which tickled Scias' sharp eyes. "How do they get this picture?" he wondered. In the picture shows that the killing took place inside the king's bedroom and it was night time, while there should've been no one else aside them until morning came and somebody discovered them.

"Could it be, though…? I don't want to make a guess leading to that particular magic being used here." Scias thought in his figuring. "That magic existed on our world only. It would be impossible if the people of the world of Tellus have such magic. But would it be possible…" He wondered.

"Sean."

"Hm? Got something?" he asked. "I think I knew how these pictures came out." Scias replied with a dead serious face. "Oh, okay, spill it." Sean's stated implying that he's all ears.

"It appears that these two pictures were made by a particular magic. It is the 'Illusion of Truth'."

"Illusion of Truth? You can't be serious. That's an 'ancient' class magic, a sinister-bringing magic. Furthermore, it only exists in OUR world. Impossible if it exists as well in this world of Tellus. What makes you think that it was made from that magic?"

"It was because the picture had magical runes, Sean. Ancient class magic runes," said Scias with a cynical stare. He then looked at the picture again. "I told you that I don't want to think it would be true," said Scias. He gulped once, "I've seen those kinds of magic in play, Sean. That's why I thought the case with this one must be the same, hence its similarities."

'Ancient' class magic is a magic level that was told to be unspecified and mysterious for its true potential. Exactly as the name says, it was a magic that was commonly used during ancient times. However, its existence is vague during nowadays, probably caused by the growth of elemental magic spells and expansion of other type of magic.

'Illusion of Truth' is one of them. Despite the name, it wasn't actually an illusion. It was a real depiction of what happened during past times. It caught what happened exactly and if transferred into a magically-infused paper, the depiction will be illustrated on it in a short time. However if transferred more than once the result will be that the first and the second picture drawing will not be the same in quality.

Though, Scias didn't know what's the real purpose of such magic existed. Scias told that he did witness and heard someone misused this magic for giving out terrifying truths and led to a massive trouble using the same method with the one happening right now. The pictures were not made up. They were real and so do the pictures he hold with him now.

"It's hard to believe… I don't want to believe it." Scias stated. "That Pio was—

"Give me that!" Sean took the right picture from Scias. He didn't want to believe that 'ancient' class magic was used in this merged world, too. His heart is thumping, hoping that Scias' guess was just a mere guess and wasn't the real deal. On the flipside, he wanted to refute such ideas because he wanted the 'hat man' to be brought to justice and save Pio from being executed for something she didn't do.

He examined the picture with intense accuracy like how he checked passports to his served kingdom. He thinks about Scias' explanation earlier. It is merely impossible to create instantaneous pictures that have realistic visuals in short time, judging by how photos of people made using painters' service in this era. He is squirming in panic, his heart is thumping, his face is all sweaty, and his eyes are not well focused anymore. But even so, he thought about it again, he remembered that there was a magical tool that can record events in both audio and visually, but he quickly discarded the idea, because it was rather impossible for someone to do such thing, especially when the picture was showing the culprit's back.

"I hate this… grrrgh! Scias was right… even this freaking paper has manaskert runes behind it. It's a magical item," he said furiously.

"That little brat… is the... …huh?" Sean's eyes caught something off in the picture. He reels his face closer to the picture to look correctly. A few seconds later, his face rises in a big surprise. He saw a hilt just beside the culprit.

"Scias."

"…yes?"

"Did that little brat ever use a 'sword'?" Sean quickly asked. Without any delay, Scias answered instantly, "No."

"Did that kid not wear any hairbands?" Sean asked again in a heat of panic. Hearing those questions made Scias realize he was missing an important detail in the picture. He answered quickly, "No, she wore a single hairband before finally given four hairbands."

"Kuhuhuhuh…" Sean chuckled slowly. His heart thumping rises up even more, but his body isn't trembling like the panic on him wearing off. "Scias… did that kid… is not human?"

"No, she is human, no doubt. I can sense it within her blood flow." Scias confirmed. "Heheheheheheheheh…. Heheheheh… then she's safe… she's safe, Scias… she's safe!"

"W-What do you mean…?" Scias barely understood. "Look at this!" he pointed his finger at the picture. "If you said that the picture isn't faked then you're right. The killer wasn't that little brat, after all. Because…"

"Because…?"

"Because the killer was a demon all along! Look at this! The killer has a tail that has armored hide. It was a demon… it was actually a demon. Probably one of them that caused the lethal warfare to Napre kingdom!" Sean stated with a gladdened and spirited voice.

"Come on, Scias! Let's go find the prince and defend him! The demon will surely go to him and kill him. We will stop the demon and I shall end it with my Holy element. Demons are sure weak against it!" said Scias in a very rushed tone. He's incredibly eager to move out at once.

"Whoa, chill out, Sean." Scias tried to calm his friend's nerves. "It still didn't solve one thing, however!" said Scias cautiously.

"Huh?" Sean's happiness and spirit halted within a second. What did they not solve? He thought.

"Why would you point out in the plan that the killer was a guy with a fedora hat?" Scias asked curiously. "While those pictures said differently, given out it was valid and real?" he added in a half shouting voice.

"I don't care if the prince dies, his life means nothing to me," said Scias strongly. "I cannot accept that you've sent someone on the hunt of someone who wasn't even involved in this mysterious assassination!"

In a matter of seconds, Sean just realized that he himself falsified the suspected killer's characteristics. He had sent four people on the hunt for Queaz, while the actual killer was still hidden behind the nightly void.

In rebuttal, he stated that the hat man or Queaz deserved death for what he did in Napre kingdom. In reality, it was all but more misunderstanding. Queaz's life is now on a slim thread. With four people hunting him down, he is mostly in danger.

Why, you ask? It was because… Queaz IS in the castle region all this time.