Chapter 67: Chapter 67

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Translator: Vine

Chapter Title: A Familiar Face

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It was a beach path on summer vacation.

I was running, face to face with a boy.

A boy who looked exactly like me.

"It's surprising up close. You really do look just like me."

The real Hahn smiled, looking at me with a curious expression.

"I heard all sorts of rumors about me. They call me a lightning brat, right?"

I flinched.

That was... a bit regrettable.

It meant I'd tarnished his reputation.

"Hmph, it's fine, it's fine. I don't really care what I'm called.

Actually, I found it fun to empathize with your exploits. Maybe that's why."

Hahn's red eyes stared directly into mine.

"I'm dying to know your true identity."

With that, Hahn began to quicken his pace.

Realizing Hahn's intention, I frowned.

I stretched out my arm to grab Hahn.

But Hahn, with his incredibly flexible body, lightly dodged my arm.

That damn evasion master!

Hahn's unique characteristic was [Evasion].

Insane reflexes that could even dodge magic attacks.

If he put his mind to it, even I would find it hard to catch him.

"So I'm going to find out for myself! For today, I'm going to enjoy your life!"

"Wait—"

Before I could say another word, Hahn darted into the midst of children doing their morning training.

If I chased him in there, things would get complicated.

'Damn it.'

Left with no choice, I turned and entered the bushes.

Then, I unwound the bandages of the Veil.

My original face was revealed.

As I re-wrapped the bandages, my face quickly changed.

I instantly transformed into someone who wouldn't look out of place anywhere in this world.

It was my appearance from my original world.

In this form, it wouldn't matter if anyone saw me.

I quickly donned a beach staff uniform and pushed off the ground, running.

While I was changing the Veil's bandages, Hahn had already sprinted away and disappeared.

He wasn't called 'all-in-agility' for nothing.

He was incredibly fast.

'Hahn must know what I've been doing all this time.'

Since he said he'd live my life for a day,

it was certain he'd go looking for the people I'd been involved with.

There were four people closely connected to me on Aron Sea.

Isabel, Sharleen, Hania, and Iris.

'Not Iris.'

Hahn hadn't done this without thinking.

If he went to Iris, there was no telling what might happen.

Moreover, Hahn harbored a subtle fear towards Iris.

'Then Hania wouldn't be it either.'

Hania was attached to Iris's side all day long.

She was naturally excluded.

'That leaves...'

Only Isabel and Sharleen.

My steps quickly moved towards the room where they were staying.

I arrived in front of their room and took a light breath.

Hahn was nowhere to be seen near the room.

Instead, the surroundings were incredibly quiet.

That made it even more unsettling.

It felt like the calm before a storm.

In tension, I raised my hand.

Knock-knock-

And then, I knocked twice.

"Yes?"

A voice came from inside, and someone walked out.

The door creaked open, revealing a familiar face.

It was Isabel's friend, Mina.

She tilted her head, seeing me in a staff uniform.

"Can I help you?"

Hahn wasn't inside.

If Hahn had been there, Mina wouldn't be so carefree.

"I have a message for Miss Sharleen Sazaris. It's a message from the Blue Magic Tower."

"The Blue Magic Tower?"

Mina's eyes widened into perfect circles.

"Ju-just a moment."

She rushed inside.

Then, the sound of her waking someone up could be heard.

"Lyn, Sharleen! The Blue Magic Tower sent a message! Wake up!"

"Uuuggghhh."

Sharleen, who loved her morning sleep, was forcibly dragged out by Mina.

Dazed with sleep, Sharleen stared blankly at me.

Looking at her face, it seemed she didn't have a hangover.

Well, of course not, she'd thrown up everything.

After staring blankly at me for a long time, Sharleen tilted her head to the side.

"...Huh?"

Sharleen could see through the Veil's bandages with Mirinae.

She might not be able to see the face underneath,

but she would have immediately recognized that it was me.

And being as smart as she was, she would have realized something had happened to me.

Sharleen looked at me for a moment, then rubbed her eyes and turned back inside.

"Wait a minute."

It seemed she was going to change her clothes.

Sharleen went back inside.

With her help, I should be able to catch even Hahn, the evasion master.

"Sharleen, what if you fall asleep while getting dressed!"

...I can catch him, right?

***

Thanks to Mina's help, Sharleen, who had safely changed, looked at me with a languid expression.

"Is that your real faaace?"

It was my real face, yes, but.

"Fake."

In this world, I was Bikarmon.

So, it was a fake face.

Sharleen looked at me with a disappointed expression, then leaned her head against the wall with a soft thud.

Her face showed she was still half-asleep.

"So, what brings you here this early?"

Sharleen said, giving a languid smile.

"Did you miss me this morning?"

"The real Hahn Ailay has appeared."

Sharleen's eyes changed slightly.

She knew that I had a certain intention in appearing like this.

"Then what happens?"

"I don't know. That's why I need to catch him."

I didn't know what Hahn would do.

So I had to catch him before he did anything.

"Isabel isn't inside, is she?"

"Bell is diligent, she must have gone to train."

"Then it's certain he went towards Isabel."

I sighed and turned around.

There weren't many places to train on Aron Sea.

I'd find him if I searched.

"Sharleen, help me catch Hahn."

Hearing that, Sharleen approached me and tightly grabbed my lapel.

Then she grinned.

"Caught youuu."

I felt like flicking her forehead, but she was a little cute, so I let it slide.

"Anyway, as long as we catch him, right?"

"While you're at it, you can scold him a bit."

"Sounds fun."

Sharleen showed interest.

With that, catching him was a certainty.

Just you wait.

Real Hahn.

Fake Hahn is coming.

***

A beach path, set apart from Aron Sea.

A woman was walking along a path connected to a nearby beach park.

The blowing wind rustled her honey-blonde hair.

Her name was Isabel Luna.

She was a student at Jerion Academy.

After a light morning run as part of her training,

she was now taking a leisurely stroll along the beach path.

Her eyes gazed at the crashing waves.

The unique scent of the sea wasn't particularly pleasant,

but it still gave off a summer feeling, so it wasn't a bad mood.

However, Isabel's emotions were subdued, separate from the pleasant feeling.

Since Lucas's death,

she often felt this subdued mood when she was alone.

Still, she was much better than before.

Initially, her mood had sunk endlessly, and she had no strength in her body.

It was like the sensation of being dragged down to the bottom of the deep sea with a massive weight, unable to escape.

That terrible feeling where even breathing was difficult.

Now, much of that had faded.

She was at least able to barely keep her head above water.

'...Am I forgetting Lucas?'

They say time heals all wounds.

Isabel had never understood that saying,

but lately, she felt it wasn't entirely wrong.

Lucas had been her most precious friend.

As fellow provincial nobles, they had spent their childhood together and she had thought it would always be that way.

'Lucas was...'

He was like a friend and family to Isabel.

There was also a reason why Lucas had become like family to Isabel.

In Isabel's childhood,

she had an older brother, one year her senior.

A mischievous brother, but one who took good care of her.

However, one day, unfortunately, her brother was caught in a carriage accident.

He barely clung to life, but he gradually weakened from his injuries and eventually met his end.

Her mother cried every day, grieving the loss of her eldest son.

Her father spent his days comforting her mother.

In that process, neither of them could look after Isabel.

She was so young when she lost the significant presence of her brother,

but her grief was buried beneath her mother's sorrow, and no one understood her pain.

And at that time, it was Lucas who took care of her.

'I must have leaned on Lucas to cope with the shock of losing my brother.'

And that dependence had once again exacted a price with Lucas's death.

Unlike her childhood, Isabel had grown too much.

Because of that, she couldn't lean on anyone.

'No.'

She was clearly afraid to lean on someone.

Having already lost someone she leaned on,

she no longer had the confidence to lean on anyone else.

So Isabel had crumbled.

She had walked towards death, just like her brother and Lucas.

'But then...'

Isabel's eyes once again fell upon the sea.

They say that people who decide to commit suicide see no color.

Everything they see feels monochromatic, and they feel none of the world's beauty.

However, the sea Isabel saw shimmered with an emerald light, incredibly beautiful.

The sea seemed to be speaking.

Telling her to live.

"..."

Whose doing was it that she was here now?

Isabel stared blankly at the sea.

There was no need to ask.

One person was already coming to mind.

"As long as he's fuming like that, he won't think of dying."

That day, the words Hahn had said while fighting with her friends came back to her.

"Isn't what you're doing right now the greatest insult to your friend?"

And the day on the city wall, when Hahn had enlightened her, steering her away from the wrong path, came to mind.

"Yes, so we'll have to see whose opinion is right until the very end."

Those words sounded as if he was saying he wouldn't disappear and would always stay by her side.

"More than anything, I have no intention of dating anyone."

Last night.

She remembered rambling incoherently due to drunkenness.

And in that process, she, too, had inadvertently revealed some of her true feelings.

Even though she was drunk, it was an embarrassing thing to do.

But.

Because of that, she realized.

'...I thought I couldn't lean on anyone anymore.'

Yet, she was repeating the same thing.

A part of her heart ached, as if being crushed.

It was clearly anxiety.

Anxiety that had seeped in because she had lost someone precious twice.

Anxiety that this time, she must not lose them.

She clearly recognized that this was dangerous,

but she couldn't find a way to shake it off.

"Lucas."

She quietly called his name.

"Am I broken?"

The day her brother died,

perhaps she had dropped some important part of herself.

Just then.

"Isabel."

A familiar voice reached her ears.

As soon as she heard that voice, Isabel's eyes widened.

The anxiety that had settled in her heart vanished, and her face inadvertently brightened.

It was such a rapid shift in emotion that Isabel didn't even realize it herself.

"You..."

The moment Isabel was about to call out to him as she usually would,

she stopped dead in her tracks.

Standing there was a boy with black hair and red eyes.

His face was certainly familiar, but.

Isabel's bright gaze instantly turned cold.

"Who are you?"