"That... did you take all the spare masks in my room?!"
Niveus was flabbergasted. He had made hundreds of masks in his free time, each with a distinctive design for a situation like this, where if his previous mask broke, he could wear the others stored in his personal dimensional storage chest.
However, all the masks within the storage chest were gone.
Seeing how Starling held one of his masks in her hand, it was clear she was the culprit.
Niveus, still facing away, stretched his hand behind, his fingers moving with a demanding gesture.
"G-give them back to me! It's not just for hiding my face but also my emergency fund!"
Starling rolled her eyes and then stared at the mask with an intricate design that certainly could fetch a price if it was sold. The details and everything were something a master artisan could have made.
Then she glanced at her brother, who was still desperately facing away while his hands kept demanding the mask back.
Sighing and smiling, Starling stepped closer.
"I'll return it, but after you answer my questions."
"W-what do you want to ask...?" Niveus said, even though he already knew the answer.
But Starling denied his expectations with her first question.
"Huh? Can you say it one more time?"
"Are you a Mystic?"
A Mystic. It was a word Niveus was very familiar with since he first came here. A term that often left Starling's mouth when they were talking about legend and myth every night.
Most people in Aetheris referred to something, especially a person that would only appear in those stories, a Mystic.
As someone who fancied tales that were almost as impossible as Celestia existed, Starling couldn't help but look at Niveus in that way.
"Why do you think so?"
Starling put her hand under her chin.
"Actually, I've already seen your face accidentally before."
"Huh? How? You know the mask can't be taken off by anyone other than me, right?"
"I know, that's true. I tried to take off your mask once when you were a kid, but no matter how much I tried, I couldn't take it off, making it hard for me and the doctor to fully check your condition."
"You mean after you saved me from the avalanche?"
"Yes," Starling nodded. "That, and... last year, when I accidentally saw your face while we were on an expedition, in the lake."
Niveus tried to recall the event Starling was referring to.
He recalled the expedition well enough—led by Starling, the Commander herself, they were on a mission to scout the Tundra region when they discovered a peculiar spot; a warm, spring-like place amidst the biting cold, endless sea of winter.
It had been a long, grueling mission against nature, and the spring-like place with a lake in the center of it offered peace and protection amidst the white world.
Although, Niveus couldn't recall when Starling could have seen his face.
"I don't remember letting my guard down then."
Starling chuckled, and her soft voice filled the room.
"Oh, you did. You think you're always vigilant, aren't you? But, oh dear, you weren't. You were carelessly taking off your mask just for what? Drinking the lake water?"
Niveus's fingers twitched with frustration, still outstretched behind him in a silent demand for his mask.
He had his reason for doing so. Because that lake was the "Lake of Longevity."
The lake was part of the comic's settings. When the protagonist was trapped in an erratic Monolith that initially had a lower danger level but rose up to the highest level instantly after he entered.
The realm was a white, pristine world. An endless snow desert filled with dangerous and colossal-sized monsters. The protagonist had to navigate through that place alone until he finally fainted, only to find himself inside a palace belonging to the Ice Witch.
Then, they cooperated to eradicate all the monsters in the region. It was quite a long arc, but near the end of that part, the Ice Witch took the protagonist to the Lake of Longevity, where they shared a drink before they had to separate.
It was the part where the readers of his comic threatened Niveus through his social account for making a cruel and tragic fate for the Ice Witch because she had to live in that realm alone as she couldn't follow the protagonist through the opened portal.
'Wait, come to think of it... when I first discovered the lake, I never thought about the Ice Witch. Would it be possible for the Ice Witch to exist in this world, too? If she was, oh boy...'
That would be better.
"I caught a glimpse... it was brief... not what I expected... I'm starting to connect the dots," Starling said, but her voice wasn't clear to Niveus as his mind was thinking of something else.
Noticing Niveus hadn't been listening to all this time, Starling sighed.
"This brat..." Starling muttered, hands ready for a swing, then...
Smack!
She smacked her brother with the mask. "Are you listening?"
Groaning and rubbing the spot that was smacked, Niveus turned to face Starling out of frustration...
"What was that for?!!"
...without realizing he had shown his face.
Starling stood there, her eyes wide as she took in the sight before her.
Despite having caught glimpses of his face in the past, even seeing it up close when she carried him back to the fortress, Starling still couldn't help but be bewitched by her brother's appearance.
After a few moments, Starling shook her head and broke into a warm, amused smile.
"You really are something else, brother. No wonder you keep that mask on all the time? Did you worry that much about a pervert who can't differentiate between a man and a woman might attack you?"
Niveus, realizing what had happened, froze. But after hearing Starling spouting nonsense, he shouted at her.
"You're the pervert! Grab a mirror and look at yourself! Why are you looking at me like that, huh?!"
Starling blinked, then quickly composed herself as she wiped her mouth.
"W-what do you mean? I was just reminded of something. That's right! I suddenly felt hungry, so I was imagining food!"
"Shut up, pervert!"
At that moment, even Nono was bewildered.
["This is ridiculous. Why am I even here? Am I making the right choice? Hah..."]
The siblings' banter went on and on for eternity... kidding. They bantered for ten minutes straight.
Niveus groaned.
"Ugh, stop it..."
"You're so stubborn, brother. What use is this mask for you when everyone already knows what your face looks like?"
"It's... whatever. I've gotten used to wearing a mask by now, and I felt like I couldn't breathe properly if I didn't wear one. So give it to me!"
Hearing what Niveus said, Starling's mind snapped as she recalled her objective for coming in here besides teasing her brother.
"Right, that's it. You haven't answered my question yet!"
Sighing, Niveus pondered, not even bothered anymore by his face being stared at predatorily by Starling.
Niveus didn't want anyone to find out he was something out of legends or myths if being a half-blood to ex-Celestial was one. But, if he didn't tell Starling now, he was sure she would keep pestering him until she got the answer.
He couldn't even lie or give an ambiguous answer like "kind of."
Glancing at Starling, whose face was gradually getting closer, Niveus decided to tell her, knowing she was a great secretkeeper.
"Yes, I'm a Mystic."
"Really?" Starling's eyes widened, sparkling like stars. "What kind?"
"What do you think?"
Starling thought for a moment before answering right in the eye.
"I've heard a tale of a Mystic with a unique trait like yours. I don't know if you're the same as those guys, but they were born faceless until someone outside their clan perceived how they would look without the mask..."
Niveus, already knowing where she was going with that, could only smile inside.
"...but you seem to have a face already, which contradicts with the tale. But I think you're the Mystic in that tale, a Morpheal, is it?"
Morpheal is another name for Veilborne. So, Starling was basically right.
Niveus let out a chuckle as he shook his head.
"You're really a maniac for legend and myth."
"What... What's wrong with that? Anyway, does that mean I'm right? You're a Morpheal?" Her voice gradually sounded excited with each word.
"Yes. I am a Morpheal... only a half-blood, though."