Calling him a playboy might be a bit harsh… but the frivolity in the young man’s words and actions was obvious.
Inside the illusion realm, Senia experienced the days he spent in the White Sea Imperial City from an observer’s perspective.
Since being summoned, that young hero had received guidance from the Sage and the Holy Maiden, training hard day and night, and thus gained great power—
This was just one of the heroic tales about the Brave that circulated from wartime Ilansia, tales Senia was familiar with.
In the more than ten years since she parted from him, Senia, who believed in him, had never doubted the truth of these rumors.
“Brother Leon, is this really okay? If you skip today’s swordsmanship lesson too, Sister will really blow up.”
“That idiot woman, when isn’t she blowing up? She’s decent-looking enough, but she always makes a face and beats me with all her might in the name of training! Anyway, I’m definitely skipping today.”
“That lazy bastard… where did he run off to?!”
But the reality was this: the young man, using the cover of the girl who took care of him, dodged the specially arranged training at every opportunity.
Whenever he did this, the Royal Princess, who had become famous for her swordsmanship at a young age and was responsible for teaching him, would fly into a rage, frustrated that he fell short of her expectations.
In the war that drove the Demon Army out of Ilansia, the Hero forged a deep bond with the Royal Princess who taught him swordsmanship and fought alongside him.
After the two formed the first Brave’s Party, the Emperor of Ilansia also promised them an engagement—
This rumor was even more widely known.
During the days they jointly resisted the Demon Spirit Duke’s army in Fenglin City, Senia saw these two entrust their lives to each other more than once and fought with astonishing coordination.
So when she heard that he had defeated the Demon King and returned in triumph, Senia was happy for him, but also worried for a long time about whether the two of them really made an engagement as the legends said…
“Stop right there…! You’re thinking of kidnapping my sister and sneaking out of the Imperial City!”
“Nyah nyah! I’m not letting you have any say in my life anymore! Especially you, the idiot woman whose head is full of muscles and swords. I don’t want to see you for the rest of my life! I’m running away with Diana!”
“Brother Leon, can you put me down first? If people outside the palace hear these words, it will have a big impact on Father’s image.”
Inside the maze-like palace, the young man kept fleeing with the girl in his arms.
Behind him, his teacher, who looked fierce and wielded a longsword, chased him.
“No time! See, she’s even using Sword Qi… she’s seriously trying to kill me! By the way, Diana, shouldn’t you go on a diet? I feel like you’ve gotten a bit heavy.”
“…Brother Leon, even I can get angry, you know?”
‘…Now I kind of understand why Lady Vera took the initiative to break off the engagement with him.’
Watching the backs of the three people chasing and shouting fade away, Senia couldn’t help but think this.
“Feeling disillusioned?”
Just then, she suddenly heard a voice behind her.
She turned around abruptly… and saw a familiar Elf youth standing under the white palace walls.
“Alvin…?”
That youth’s appearance was exactly her brother Alvin.
She walked over, wanting to confirm whether his image was just her illusion—
“After learning that the object of your infatuation is such a waste, are you disillusioned?”
Alvin’s tone and eyes were full of contempt… but not for Senia, for the Hero who had run away.
After saying this, he left the wall he was leaning against and walked toward Senia.
“Look at his frivolous appearance. He has no awareness of the mission he was given, the responsibility he must bear.”
Senia originally wanted to touch him, but her brother brushed past her and continued talking to himself:
“And his feelings are cheap… he loves every one he meets. Look at that girl he’s carrying as he escapes. That girl is not the Duchess who later became his wife.”
She heard that her brother’s voice was full of resentment.
So she lowered her head, thinking bitterly. During that time, a brief silence fell between them—
“…You’re not my brother. My brother wouldn’t hold a grudge against a child.”
After a moment, Senia raised her head again and walked forward. She left Alvin behind her.
“Sister!” After being ignored by Senia, Alvin instead chased after her.
He tried to grab her arm… but his hand went through empty air, passing straight through Senia’s body.
“…So you’re not real after all.”
Senia looked back, and she saw the expression on ‘brother’s’ face change.
“You were not shaken at all.”
Similar to the eerie expression devoid of any anger, ‘brother’s’ voice also became completely flat without any inflection.
“Are you the Ancestor Lord testing me? Though I no longer remember my successes and failures before… I won’t be shaken by something like this.”
“Something like this? You should know very well that all of this is reality. The person you are infatuated with, he is this ugly.”
His hollow eyes gradually revealed a profundity that seemed to draw in whatever they saw… Senia shivered because of it.
But she quickly pulled herself together and looked at him firmly:
“Even if all of this is true, my feelings for him will not change.”
“You love this ugliness?”
“No. I love the nobility shown by the Hero who saved me. But I will not deny his past ugliness because of it.”
“Are you saying that because he was once ugly, he later became noble?”
Brother let out a sneer… his expression changed drastically, now showing a joy that seemed to come from the bottom of his heart.
“How ridiculous. Then continue watching… see what consequences his ugliness brought him, see what price the people around him paid to shape his nobility.”
As he finished speaking, he raised one hand. The white Imperial City twisted drastically with this motion.
“……!”
Senia barely managed to keep her balance in the shaking world and avoid falling.
But after that, she found herself standing in deep water.
Fog filled the surroundings, limiting her vision to a very small space.
Moreover, the fog was as scarlet as blood.
She looked at the ‘brother’ floating on the water surface, looking down at her condescendingly.
A suffocating sense of oppression welled up—
“Ugh…!”
She suddenly felt the bottom she could step on disappear.
She began to struggle to avoid sinking… but clearly her efforts were in vain.
Soon she sank into the deep water… enveloped by a silent darkness.
And when the darkness passed, she found herself lying in a pine forest.
“This is…?”
Thunder and lightning, cold rain poured down from the overcast sky.
Senia got up from the ground and looked around… she found she had no recollection of this place.
But the pine trees here seemed to be the kind only found in the forest land bordering the Jingfeng Forest Region and Northern Elancia.
Just as she was about to observe more, shouts of battle suddenly came from afar—
“What’s happening over there?”
She followed the sound and hurried over.