Principal Sun’s teleportation deposited me in a cramped alleyway, where the distinctive silhouette of the Dragon Shrine’s temple could be seen towering above the rooftops. 

I staggered and caught myself against the wall, wheezing. No matter how much I inhaled, it felt like I couldn’t get enough air. 

It made sense. Luka’s strike had pierced through my lung; it must have been filling with blood. If I didn’t get treatment soon, I’d probably drown on dry land. 

That must have been why the principal had sent me to the Dragon Shrine. If I went to get healing there, they could definitely save my life. 

But…

I lifted my head to look at the draconic gargoyles carved under rooftop eaves and sitting atop nearby walls. It could’ve been my hallucination, but I could’ve sworn their eyes were gleaming blue. 

If I went to the Dragon Shrine like this, my identity would definitely be exposed. 

I looked down at the sealed escape talisman still clutched in my hand. 

The thin blue film around it was still there. But even as I watched, its glow was fading. In a few minutes, maybe, it would be gone. 

If I could just hold out for a few minutes, I could use the talisman to escape straight back to my dorm. The life-saving medicine gifted by Saintess Corisande was still there. 

I hadn’t brought it with me just in case Veric or the Great Dragon could sense it on me, a fact I was somewhat regretting now. But still — as long as I could make it there, then I could get away with everything. 

Just as I had that thought, the sky above me dimmed. I looked up to see a massive flying ship, adorned with dragonfly wing-like oars and opalescent sails, blotting out the sun. Pearl-gray clouds billowed out from a large glass chamber in the center of the ship’s body, covering the whole area under its hazy shadow. 

Faint figures lined up along the ship’s railings, opened up umbrellas, and stepped into the air, and floating down towards the ground like dandelion seeds. 

A husky woman’s voice projected itself over the area from the ship overhead. 

“Attention. The Atmospheric Chancery has detected the use of a dangerous and prohibited weather frame in the area. For your own safety, please remain under our cloud cover as we search for the culprit. We will work to resolve this incident as quickly as we can.” 

Fuck my life. 

Since I didn’t want to take off my disguise or reveal my World Proof’s abilities under the Great Dragon’s eyes, I settled for ripping the net amulet off my neck and throwing it into a nearby bush.

Then I took out the second prize I’d received from the exam, this one from my placement and not from Luka’s hands. It was a concealment talisman of the 5E frame. When I crushed it, a tingle of energy washed over my skin and settled there like a feather-light cloak. 

I could have bet on [Face Changer]’s passive effect alone, but I didn’t want to take that risk when I was in a suspicious outfit, bleeding out, and in a locked-down area under high alert. 

With labored breaths, I dragged myself down the alley and away from where I’d thrown the net amulet, just in case the “Atmospheric Chancery” had a way to zero in on it.

I guess the concealment talisman worked, because even when I inched out onto a more populated street, no one glanced my way. Some people sat about enjoying drinks at the cafe; others looked up at the sky, whispering to each other before continuing on with their day. 

I set my eyes on an alleyway entrance down the street. Near enough that I could make it in my current condition, far enough that I wasn’t right next to the net amulet. Leaning against the side of buildings and breathing as evenly as I could through the lancing pain, I slowly made my way forward. 

As I did, I saw two people in uniform walk down the street. They had short, brimless caps and silky gray coats that flared out gracefully from the tasseled rope cinched around the waist. Short, glimmering umbrellas swung from where they hung on the rope. One of them held a pair of metal dowsing rods, and the other a swinging pendulum; they followed them as they swung around, walking ever closer to the alleyway where I’d left the net amulet behind. 

I grimaced, holding in another cough, and ducked around the corner to the next alleyway. A quick check of the escape talisman revealed that Veric’s seal was still fading. 

My heart rate was picking up, and I was starting to feel dizzy.

Which could have just been the injury.

I tried to take a deep breath, only for my diaphragm to seize up halfway through with the pain, sending me into a coughing fit. Pressing my forehead against the alleyway wall, I waited for the worst of it to pass before moving on. 

High in the sky, the flying boat slowly swung around until its nose was pointed in my general direction. 

I grit my teeth and glanced down at the escape talisman. 

Still fading, still with a glimmer of blue. 

Why did Veric’s skill have to be so damn effective?! 

I staggered forward and away. 

Out into a main street, then down another side alley. 

There were more uniformed people passing by now. The airship drifted ponderously to hover overhead. The radius of cloud cover above was gradually shrinking. 

It really hurt to breathe. 

“Attention. The Atmospheric Chancery has found evidence of a prohibited weather frame in the area. Please stay alert and inform the nearest official of any suspicious persons you see.” 

Damn it.

Veric, please, don’t be so talented next time…! 

I hauled myself further into the alleyway, to a small alcove where no dragon carvings could be seen. There, I slumped against the wall, holding anxiously onto the escape talisman.

Even if I donned a different disguise to go to the temple, the Dragon would know who I was by the injury alone. 

If someone was on the verge of finding me, I’d just give up on keeping my transformation ability secret from the Dragon; I’d change into someone else and pretend I was the hapless victim of a vicious attack. 

But I really didn’t want anyone to know, or even to suspect. 

After all, the best deceptions were ones that were never uncovered at all. Once someone started doubting you… your entire history would come under doubt too, wouldn’t it? 

I just needed to hang on a little longer. 

The contaminating force in my wound that had laid inert until now suddenly stirred. The shadows in the alleyway darkened, like an open mouth or a hidden gate. As [Inevitable Survivor] flared, I threw my arms up to protect myself. 

Luka shot out of the shadows like an arrow in the night. His outstretched sword pierced through my forearms and dug into my chest with its sharp tip. The force pinned me against the alcove wall.

I gasped as that familiar contaminating energy flowed out of his sword, into my body, like clouds of ink billowing into clear water. As my senses dimmed, even the sharp pain carving hot paths through my nerves seemed very far away. 

Half-delirious, as if dreaming, I saw myself swallowed by an all-encompassing abyss. It was filled with something indescribably alien, eating my perception like a fevered infection, and at the same time, there was nothing there at all. 

No… 

There was something. A spark, a hypnotizing flame. 

It was burning, just like my dreams. 

“…Ghost?” 

The darkness receded, and with it, the sanctity of delirium. I inhaled sharply as awareness of my surroundings returned — a mistake I paid for with a series of bloody, painful coughs. 

Luka stared at me, unblinking, crimson eyes glowing starkly in the shadows cast over us. 

In one smooth motion, he withdrew his black sword from my flesh. He caught me with one arm before I could slide down the wall to the ground, and with the other, he grasped my mask. I caught his wrist weakly. Should I pick another disguise — no, if he felt “Ghost,” he might’ve already guessed — the talisman still wasn’t unsealed…

My chest hurt. I couldn’t think straight. What did I need to do? 

The indecision cost me. My mask was torn away, clattering to the ground, leaving the fresh air to brush coldly against my face. 

“…Acacius.” 

I was so dizzy and out of breath I couldn’t even find the energy to curse Luka out. All I could do was retch blood onto his arms. 

Luka looked at me a moment longer, tightening his supporting grasp. He wasn’t trying to kill me anymore, which was good. He also didn’t try to take me to the nearby Dragon Shrine. But he did just about the next worst thing I could think of, which was to pull out one of those holographic seam necklaces and start dialing Veric. 

Somehow, I found the strength to grab onto his arm and shake my head. 

“Don’t… you… moron…!” 

Luka was expressionless. He easily shook off my hand. 

“Why do you do the things that you do, Acacius?” 

Veric’s number was still pulled up on the seam’s screen, just a hand gesture away from being called. 

I grabbed onto his shoulder and steadied my breath as best as I could. 

“Listen… She’s having… a hard time… at the shrine.” 

Luka was silent. 

“Wait… one week… see how… the situation… improves. If… it doesn’t… I’ll admit… I was wrong.”

The way this wound had me chopping up my sentences, I was starting to sound like [Deceiver] when it talked. 

Luka held onto his seam. He didn’t speak. He lifted his red gaze to the sky, where the cover of gray clouds was shrinking in on our location. The airship drew ever closer. 

“You did something bad,” he stated. 

I balled up my fist in his clothes, as if it would somehow give me the strength to hit him. 

“Many people were hurt,” Luka added. 

It wasn’t what I wanted to hear. 

“Don’t… tell her,” I choked out. “Please.” 

Didn’t he find Veric more important than all those people, anyhow? 

“She wouldn’t be happy,” he said. 

I would have laughed if breathing didn’t hurt so much. When had I ever said I was someone who could make her happy?

But saying that wouldn’t help me persuade him. 

What else did I have to offer? 

I couldn’t think of anything else, except— 

“If you keep… this secret… I’ll… owe you… a favor.” 

Luka’s eyes flickered. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. 

Finally, he spoke. 

“The Tamlane, once chosen by the Hunt, can never part from it of their own volition; they can only be reclaimed by the ‘Wild Rose.’ According to the ritual, the Wild Rose interrupts the Hunt’s procession and pulls the Tamlane from their place in it. After that, they only need to hold onto the Tamlane, no matter what the Hunt transforms the Tamlane into. A lion, a snake, a burning hot fire. The Wild Rose’s only task is to never let go.”

What the fuck was he talking about now? 

“But the ritual is just a performance, of course,” said Luka. “After all, it is the Tamlane who selects a Wild Rose and urges them to free them from the Hunt.” 

“Hey… you bastard… Time… and place…!” 

“Rhoswen and I are different. Because I think the Tamlane should still find a way to me, even if I had to let go.” 

Luka tucked his seam necklace away. He grasped my hand and inspected the escape talisman held within. Sometime during our conversation, Veric’s seal had finally disappeared. He folded my cold fingers around the talisman. 

In the distance, drawing ever closer, shouts rang out. 

“The traces came this way!” 

“Set up a perimeter!” 

“Send a patrol ahead to intercept any escape!” 

Luka let go of me and stepped away. 

The shadow beneath him darkened and spread, swallowing up the mask and blood that had fallen to the ground. It rapidly raced out the alleyway, dyeing the area black. Darkness swelled and swallowed everything.

Out of sight, from the street, people let out startled cries, calling for others to fall back.

My breath hitched. 

In my last vision, the reason why no one had been able to track down my traces… 

I’d thought it was the Dragon, but was it actually…? 

Luka dragged a hand across his face, as if holding back some great impulse. His fangs lengthened, and when he glared out at me from between his fingers, his eyes held an eerie glow. 

“Go,” he rasped. “Quickly.” 

In this situation, what could I possibly say to him? 

“…Thank you.” 

And sorry, too, that I wasn’t the type of person to say I’d come back.

I clenched my hand around the escape talisman and squeezed.

As it shattered, a warm energy enveloped me, whisking me away. 

The last I saw of Luka was him turning away. 

---

I’d experienced the Five Elements Escape Talisman before in my vision, so I was prepared for the experience of my perception dissolving into five alien sensations and a vague awareness of movement. I wasn’t prepared for the subsequent motion sickness when I rematerialized in the bedroom of my dorm.

Somehow, I kept myself from retching on the floor. I fumbled the nightstand drawer open and grabbed the bottle with the Dragon Shrine’s miracle cure. According to the usage instructions that had been included with it, I uncapped the bottle and swallowed it all down. 

A cool, soothing sensation gathered in my chest around the sword wound. The skin there glowed blue as it knit back together.

I leaned my head against the side of my bed’s mattress and squeezed my eyes shut. My breathing gradually evened out as the pain in my chest faded away. 

In just under a minute, my body was restored to peak state. It was like nothing had happened at all. 

So all that was left to torment me were my thoughts. 

Luka was stronger now. The shadow teleportation thing was new; I guessed he must have ranked up after our conversation about it. He’d used the contaminating power of KP-04’s visual catastrophe, too… Had he gotten more than one title out of that ordeal? How unfair. 

Luka was a part of this world, so he thought my actions were wrong.

And Luka had decided to trust me anyways, for no good reason at all. Just because I asked. 

What kind of weight did our relationship have to him?

I didn’t want to think about it. 

Maybe I should break that trust. Show him what a bad idea it was, so he’d never think of doing it again. With all the bastards that existed in the world, I’d be doing him a favor. 

All the people I’d once had in my life, they’d given me their trust, though who knew the hell why. And what good had I been able to do for them, in the end? 

… 

I was pulled out of my self-pitying thoughts when Clover started chirping on the windowsill. 

I wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone, but Clover was more insistent than when receiving a simple message. It flew over onto my shoulder, chirping loudly until I finally gave in and took a look at the screen. 

Incoming call: Veric. 

I nearly dropped Clover entirely. Why the hell was she calling? 

I nearly didn’t have the nerve to answer, but in the end, worried about any unexpected factors, I forced myself to slide the “Answer call” button on the screen. 

“…Hello?” I said, imitating the low husk of someone who’d just woken up. 

“Acacius.” Veric’s voice was solemn. “Veratrum Row just came under attack.” 

I inhaled sharply and counted out a few seconds before speaking again in a deliberately calm voice. 

“Are you alright? What’s the damage? Any casualties?” 

“I’m fine. No one died, miraculously. A lot of Veratrum Row has been destroyed, though, and the whole neighborhood has been damaged by a huge flood. Remember the Order that attacked us in KP-04? One of their members tried to kill the scions of the Six Families located here.” 

“The Order…” I mumbled. “Where are you now?” 

“I’m at Veratrum Row right now, actually… or at least, what remains of it. Oh, and Cynara is here, too.” 

My whole body went cold. “What?” 

“Ah, sorry, she’s fine! It’s okay. She’s just a little shaken from what happened.” 

I clenched my fingers around the seam. How many things had I miscalculated today?

“Was she there? During the attack?”

“No, but she saw the flood. The Duval residence has been completely destroyed, too. You won’t be getting any of your stuff back. Sorry.” 

I exhaled in relief.

“Forget it. I probably didn’t need it anyways.” 

Veric let out a breath, too. “Okay. Yeah. Anyways… I think Cynara could use some support right now. Do you want to talk to her?” 

That was almost more horrifying than anything else she’d said during this call so far. “Why the hell would I do that?” I said, aghast. “Aren’t you there?” 

A pause. “I’m not her brother, though.” 

Like talking to me would make her feel better. “Oh, so am I her brother in anything besides blood?” I retorted. “Cynara and I don’t talk, and I don’t plan to start now.” 

There was an even longer pause. “Then why did you ask me to—” 

“Hey!” I said sharply, cutting her off. “These are two separate things. Okay?” 

“O-kay…” Veric said slowly. “No, I don’t get it. How is it separate?” 

I refrained from hypocritically asking how an orphan would know anything about complicated family relationships, and responded with the much more mature, “It just is.” A horrible premonition struck me. “Wait, you didn’t tell her I sent you, did you?” 

There was a long silence. 

“Veric!”  

“I won’t apologize for it,” she said. “I’m not going to fix your relationship for you, but I won’t help you pretend that you don’t care, either. Figure out how to deal with it on your own. Cynara, I plan to visit Acacius. Do you want to come?” 

There was a muffled, barely audible response. Even from here, Cynara’s voice sounded small and diminished. 

“Okay,” said Veric. “We’re coming over. I’m not taking ‘no’ for an answer, by the way. You better be prepared for the consequences if you try to shirk this somehow.” 

“What consequences?” I said. “That you won’t talk to me again? — Hey!” 

Too late. Clover beeped a few times, its screen flashing with the message, CALL ENDED. 

I stared at it for a long moment, defeated. 

Seriously, what did Veric think she could threaten me with…? We weren’t friends in the first place. 

I dragged my hand over my face and let out a long breath. Then I picked up Clover back up and sent a message to Veric. 

Me: Give me 20 minutes to wash up.

I needed to get my act together by the time they arrived.

Chapter 62 Back to Index