Alaric's eyes twinkled with a rare light, contrary to how Ian's smiling face went blank. The two stared at each other for a while, one leaning forward and looking intently at the other, demanding answers.
-Uhh, master... D-did he find out something? Should we do something? Masterrr!
Lior rubbed its head against Ian's arm and pushed him with its paws. Alarms were already ringing inside the bluehead's mind even without the child's reminder.
"I... Don't understand what you mean to imply, young master."
After a brief silence, the servant returned the previous smile to his lips.
"Blue hair? It's surprising to know that the crown prince had a similar hair color to mine, but I don't think that's anything strange. Blue isn't an uncommon color, and as you said, I'm just a servant."
The servant's hand moved up while he talked, touched his hair, and yanked out a bunch without any hesitation. Alaric flinched at the sight, but what made him more taken aback was the nonchalant look on his friend's face that showed no pain. Another group of hair was yanked out again, strands falling to the floor one by one. Ian, smiling as usual with his calm face, didn't seem to be conscious of what he was doing.
"Hmm, I-I see. I just thought it was something special, like a congenital feature or something."
"I think if such a thing existed, it'd be already known by people all around the continent. You see, those in power enjoy showing how unique they are to those lower than them, especially the royal families such as The Emperor. He'd tell the whole world that they had a special bloodline or something if there really was such a thing."
Alaric's eyes were glued to his friend's hand, following its movements, which continued to rip apart his hair. The boy's already messy haircut became even stranger. The master nodded his head in agreement after hearing the acceptable reasoning.
-Master!! Stop! Stoppppp!
Lior jumped atop Ian's shoulder then climbed to his head, slapping his hand that was about to pull the blue strands with its paw. Ian halted for an instant, coming to his senses and realizing what he was doing after being hit. He hurriedly lowered his hand and blew on the hair that had fallen on his clothes, avoiding Alaric's widened eyes.
-You are going to go bald if you keep doing this! Quit this habit, stop!
-...I wish I really was bald.
His hair only caused trouble for him all the time. It was such a hassle to hide it. He couldn't even dye the hair because of its shitty characteristics.
"A-anyway, ahem!" with a cough, Alaric dragged his friend's attention back to himself. He pulled on the curtain, gazing outside at the distant capital.
"What I meant to say was that, after thinking about things a little bit, I realized I didn't know much about you. When I asked Ranger about it, he was disappointed, saying that you'd changed overnight as if you were someone else."
Ian tilted his head. Lior, sitting atop him, also titled its head.
"What do you mean?"
Just when Ian thought he was getting used to his master's strange behaviors, the boy showed him a new level of weirdness. He obviously wanted to say something but was unable to state it or drag the conversation in the right direction.
'Is he suspicious of me, or is this just a normal conversation?'
In case he was suspicious about Ian's identity, he could've dragged the conversation about the Royal family a bit more or asked about Ian's origins, his family, and how he ended up becoming a slave. However, the boy changed the topic to something completely different, making it hard for Ian to understand what he meant to say.
In none of Ian's previous lives did Alaric ever hold any suspicion on him, nor did he ever link him to the royal family. The fact that this new Alaric had made such a connection took Ian off guard for a moment. Despite having found a lead, Alaric let go of it as if it wasn't important at all.
'If he's not digging it too deep... Does that mean he's already sure of my identity?'
Was that a test? Did Alaric start a random topic and guide the conversation in this direction to see Ian's reaction after hinting at the Royal family's blue hair? Is that why he brushed it aside that easily? Because he saw what he wanted to see?
But how was that possible? How could he know?
'Unless he knows of the future... Like a regressor...'
Thinking back, Alaric did indeed act as if he knew of the future to come from time to time. For example, when he talked about avoiding The Emperor's banquet.
'It was as if he knew that something was gonna happen there. He wasn't wrong though, in my first life and many other rounds, he was poisoned in the Imperial Castle and lost his life...'
Ian's eyes shifted to his master, face slightly flushed due to his racing heart. The golden-haired boy flinched slightly and sat straight, eyes darting around without rest.
"I-I mean like... someone else..." The nobleman clasped his hands while staring at the ceiling. "As if you've become another person. He said, I mean, Mister Ranger, that you were like a whole o-other person. Do you get what I mean?"
"No."
"...."
Alaric barely stopped himself from smashing his head at the window.
"Why don't you get it? It's like, you suddenly turn into another person, Ian!"
"...."
'What does it mean, bro? What other person? I've always been Ian in all my lives!'
-Meow?
"Aah, this novel is driving me crazy!"
"...This novel? Which novel?"
"Yes, novel! Do you about it?"
"...."
'Why is he suddenly blabbering about novels??? He was just talking about becoming a new person!!'
-Meow?
'Did he go crazy after regressing?'
"Haaah! Forget it, forget it!"
Alaric leaned forward, brushing his face with both hands.
'How should I ask him if he's someone like me? I even mentioned the novel!'
Maybe his guess was wrong, Alaric thought. But then, things didn't make sense even more!
'But then again... No one could've known about that novel besides me!'
That automatically marked his theory as inaccurate.
'Then... Is he really the villain? This can't be! How can Ian be such a person? Nope! He isn't even acting like one!'
Alaric peeked at his blue-haired attendant. Ian was looking back at him.
'What kind of regressor keeps on talking about novels, I wonder.'
Maybe it was another phenomenon Ian wasn't aware of? Just when Ian was making a note in his mind to investigate a bit more about Alaric, the carriage slowed down until it halted. Severin opened the carriage door and bowed to Alaric.
"We decided to take a break and have lunch in this village before moving again."
"Uh... Sure..."
Alaric nodded somewhat half-heartedly and stepped out of the carriage, pulling Ian with himself as if he were a toy. The group entered a small inn and rented a table before starting to prepare food.
"Ah, by the way!"
Alaric suddenly gasped as if suddenly being reminded of something and leaned closer to Ian, whispering something into his ear.
"I received a letter from Elaria!"
"A letter?"
"Yeah! She told me to be careful of Isbert Duky as well as what I eat in the castle. I tore and burnt and threw the letter aside."
Ian folded his arms and looked around while listening. Ranger was glaring daggers at him, who was standing aside and idly chitchatting with Alaric despite being a servant, and the other servants also shot him disapproving looks.
"Did anything strange happen inside the castle?"
"No."
"...Did you carefully choose what you ate?"
"I-I tried..."
A pair of deep blue eyes shifted towards the young man.
"You didn't."
"I-I... I forgot..."
"...."
He forgot to check his food for poison? Seriously? Was he all right in the head?
'...Then how is he still alive?'
Probably because all the poisons used to murder him were the kind that would attack his mana, and Alaric's mana was all right now, so poison couldn't hurt him anymore. Ian didn't harp on that question much but marked in his mind to investigate the Duke's actions later on.
- - - - - -
"We are about to reach the borders. We'll be home soon enough."
"Really? I thought we still had a long way to go."
"Yeah, we arrived here faster than expected."
The two noblemen, Alaric and Barnett, chattered as they drank tea. To their side sat Evelyn. She held her cup without drinking any of it and stared as the tea leaves drifted atop the steaming liquid.
"Is something wrong, Miss Evelyn?"
"Uh? No, nothing..."
Her pale expression and sunken eyes betrayed her words. The two boys exchanged gazes before Alaric leaned a bit closer.
"Are you feeling unwell somewhere? Should we call a doctor?"
"No... There is no need."
"But you don't seem fine."
The girl brushed her hair back and placed her cup down on the table, getting up to her feet while grabbing on the chair's high back.
"I'm sorry I think I should rest a little bit."
"Sure..."
"Take care."
As soon as Evelyn let go of the chair's high back to walk to the door, her body tilted to one side and she staggered uncontrollably, losing her balance.
"Young miss!"
Before Barnett or anyone else could rush up to Evelyn's help, a blue-haired servant caught her, preventing her fall.
"Miss, are you alright?" Asked the servant, the girl didn't respond. It was obvious that she wasn't fine, so why was there a need to ask questions?
Deciding that they shouldn't keep her waiting any longer, the noblemen ordered the servant to help the young merchant to her room while they called for a doctor to check on her.
"Hey, how was it? Did I do well?"
Evelyn asked as she let go of Ian and jumped atop her bed as soon as they arrived at her room. Her previous exhausted expression was gone in an instant, replaced with a cheerful mischief.
"Your acting skills are admirable."
'As expected of my student!'
Ian praised her more, or rather, praised himself, in his mind. He expected Evelyn to mess up and was ready to step up at any moment, but things turned out pretty well.
"Hehehe! Those nobles didn't even realize that I made myself pale using makeup! Men really don't pay attention to details!"
The girl lay down on the bed, preparing to act sick for the rest of the day or maybe even more.
It was just as Barnett said, they arrived at the border towns way too fast. This was out of Ian and Evelyn's calculations, so they had to find a way to stall for time. Acting sick was the easiest method they came up with, and didn't waste any time in executing their planned scenario.
Everything went smoothly, just according to their plan, except for one thing.
"We can't just leave Miss Evelyn and her group behind and leave. We've traveled together all this time. It's not a proper thing to leave like this. Am I right?"
"...Hmm... Yeah, I guess Alaric is right."
Barnett agreed with the other young master, deciding to stay at the border city and wait for the girl to recover. It seemed like traveling together for a few weeks had created some kind of bond between them.
'Well, anyway. This won't cause any problems either way.'
Now, he only needed to sit and wait for the day to come. Ian was worried that this event too, might undergo changes like anything else in this round. If that happened, then things would get a lot more complicated, forcing Ian to change his plans once more.
The wait wasn't long and despite his worries, nothing was unusual.
"Kyaaaaaahh!"
"Monsters! Monsters!"
It was noon when sudden frightened shouts from outside broke the peace in the inn, shocking the quests and alarming the guards.
GRRRRRRRRRR!!!!
GROOOWWLLL!
ROAAORR!!
Taking a glance out the window was enough to understand the exact situation. Monsters, huge monsters were swarming around the small town, wreaking havoc in the whole area. The citizens were running around, horrified, seeking shelter and hiding in their houses.
Flying creatures could be seen in the sky, so huge in size that they almost blocked the sunlight. Bearing their sharp teeth and razor fangs, the monsters which resembled a mixture of eagles and panters launched the the defenseless humans, tearing them apart and gnawing on their meat.
"HELP! Someone, please hel-" A massive paw pressed on the fleeting young man, snapping his body in half as if he were an insect. Nails thrust into the human's body and raised it up, putting the corpse into the monster's mouth and biting on it. The sound of crushing bones echoed around and blood splattered everywhere, dripping down the monster's mouth and dying its body crimson.
The human got swallowed up in less than ten seconds, yet, the monster didn't seem satisfied. It turned its head around, glancing at the humans that had been staring at him since earlier.
"We... W-we must run..."
Alaric grabbed his attendant's hand, pulling him away from the window. The monster was staring at them with its crazy eyes! Ian wiped the splashed blood off his face, pulling his master behind him and taking a step back.
"It'll rush at us if we try to run. These walls aren't strong enough to shield us."
The young noble was trembling while clenching Ian's shirt, his short breaths audible from behind.
"Then what should we do? W-what should we do?"
"Shh!"
Tap
The monster took a step towards the inn, tilting its head without taking his sight off the two humans. It poked its head forward, almost entering his nose inside the room through the open window.
'The monsters are the same, the time is the same, and even their numbers, are like usual. Everything is as planned.'
Though, he didn't expect to be targeted by a monster as soon as the breakout began.
-Lior, don't move away from me.
-Yeah...
'Should I deal with it? It'll consume a lot of Aether, but is better than losing an arm or a leg...'
Furthermore, there were only him, Alaric, and Evelyn inside the room, so it was safe even if they saw him using a few Aether tricks. He had to take care of the situation before the guards rushed it.
'Alright, let's end this quickly.'
Ian clenched his hand, circulating Aether and deciding on the attack he wanted to use while being careful not to agitate the monster before he was ready.
Just then, right before he could launch an attack at the monster, a light shining from behind his back caught his attention.
'...Huh?'
An orange circle appeared to his side, made out of complicated symbols and characters blended with each other. The shape rotated, turning into three intervened circles forming a strange figure in the air.
'...Magic?'
Time didn't wait for Ian to comprehend the exact situation, and in the next instant, the circles brightened up with a warm shade.
"Burn!"
At the call of the mage, a burning blaze shot out of the circles, rushed at the monster, and collided with the huge thing.
BOOOMMMMMM