Stop, Friendly Fire!

<Chapter 28. Kratia's Quest - 2>

"A human? You're a living human being?"

"Yeah, I'm human. Human."

Kratia hurriedly nodded her head while replying stutteringly. But it was clear that she was flustered, and her acting wasn't good enough to hide Lee Shin Woo's identity. As proof, Prince Altania quickly pointed his staff at Lee Shin Woo.

"Then what about you...? Are you an undead? I only felt it for a moment, but I definitely felt powerful death energy. Don't try to fool me. If you're caught by the genius magician, Prince Altania, then even a general would fall in one hit!"

"...There's no way I'd be able to fool you, Senior."

"...Huh?"

Lee Shin Woo's voice, which flowed out from his helmet, caused Prince to flinch. Once Lee Shin Woo took off his helmet and revealed himself, Prince Altania froze. Kratia, who unintentionally looked back, froze as well. At some point, Rem had disappeared from his shoulder, but that wasn't really very important right now.

"...Lee Shin Woo?"

"It's a pleasure, Senior. That's right. It's me, Lee Shin Woo."

Lee Shin Woo replied with a refreshing smile. Prince Altania was temporarily unable to respond and remained stiff, but he soon cleared his throat and withdrew his staff.

"It's strange. It was just for a moment, but I definitely felt death energy."

"I believe it might be due to the energy flowing from the gate, as we opened and entered it."

"That's... I assumed as much! I was just on guard because you were wearing that weird armor of yours! You got it?"

"Ah, you truly are a hero. As expected of you, Senior."

The boy's cheeks flushed, and he attempted to put up a strong front to hide his embarrassment. Lee Shin Woo smiled gently, and agreed enthusiastically. He was even able to sweet talk a general, so Prince Altania quickly moved on.

"You're not bad. I'll recognize you as my junior. ...Ah, then who's that woman over there?"

"This is Kratia Melloi. I met her a short while ago, and we've gotten quite close. It seems like she's still wary of you (seniors)."

"Yeah, Kratia Melloi..."

She confirmed his statement by nodding her head, yet she was still unable to hide her anxiousness.

Kratia kept glancing at Lee Shin Woo in disbelief, and fortunately, Prince took that as her being shy. He nodded his head, made a sudden sound, and furrowed his brows.

"Kratia Melloi... Wait a sec, you're the one who went into the channel and then left right away? The one who met with Lloyd a little while ago?"

"Uh, yeah."

"The one Lloyd said was stronger than him... Keut, you said you were a magician, right? Let's spar!"

Once Kratia nodded her head, Prince raised his staff once more. However, Kratia didn't give him the time of day. She was completely busy glancing at Lee Shin Woo.

Lee Shin Woo could understand how she felt, but it was becoming troublesome, so he re-equipped his helmet, covering his face. Only then did Kratia get a hold of herself, gasped, and slapped her cheek. Her once pale cheeks soon turned red. Jin sighed and spoke with Lee Shin Woo through their connection.

'How did you disguise yourself so quickly?'

'That's what it means to be a pro.'

That's right. The moment someone outside of their party noticed them, he had immediately activated Disguise. The reason that Prince Altania just moved on, and Kratia was so astonished was because of his disguise.

It had only taken 0.01 seconds to change into his human appearance back on Earth with his level 6 Disguise skill! It was so fast that even if he were to disguise himself right in front of someone, they would think they were seeing things and let it go.

"Hey, I said let's spar!"

"...Huh?"

Kratia finally turned her attention away from Lee Shin Woo and towards Prince Altania. She noticed that Prince was pointing his magic staff straight at her, but she didn't really react.

"Why?"

"Why, why... That's right! In a joint operation with a magician you've met for the first time, you're supposed to spar so that you can assess each other's abilities. You didn't know?"

"A joint operation...?"

It seemed like his 'joint operation' was referring to challenging this training facility... Kratia couldn't understand what he was talking about, and tilted her head. As a rational magician, she couldn't understand Prince's actions.

"Whatever, c'mon. Ah, and if you lose, don't go near Lloyd ever again!"

"I don't like wasting my energy. I'd rather focus on the traps here. And I'm not interested in this Lloyd guy whatsoever."

"Urgh... If you're not going to attack, then I will!"

Kratia furrowed her brows at Prince's persistence, and the moment she responded, an overwhelming amount of flames erupted from his staff!

Lee Shin Woo didn't think Prince Altania would actually attack another hero, and just gaped while watching on the side. He'd gotten that vibe from him in the chatting channel, but he really was an idiot!

"...Hoo."

Despite the wave of flames that threatened to swallow her whole, Kratia sighed and waved her hand.

Once the orb (it was a lot smaller than last time), which was stuck to the back of her hand, shined and soared into the air, Prince muttered something, as if to stop her from casting a defensive spell, and cast another spell, but...

"Freeze."

With one word, everything froze.

"...Woah."

In an instant, the area had become silent. The flames, the new flow of mana that the Prince had created, and even Prince Altania himself were frozen.

Lee Shin Woo ended up clapping, as he saw her do something so ridiculous, yet she retrieved her orb with a single gentle hand movement without breaking a sweat.

"He's not dead though, right?"

"He has magic, so he won't die. I held back."

"Yeah, so you did hold back, huh..."

Once Kratia softly waved her hand, the frozen flames completely vanished. Then, the mana that had formed in the air vanished as well. And lastly, the frozen Prince was thrown out of the subspace.

Lee Shin Woo offered up a silent prayer for him, and Kratia tilted her head and briefly spoke her mind.

"He was weird."

"Well, I feel like I can understand where he's coming from..."

"You can understand him!?"

Jin, rather than Kratia, was shocked and yelled. It made sense that he would point his staff at them since he had thought they were undead, but for Lee Shin Woo to understand him, when he had attacked another hero with a shitty reason like assessing her abilities!?

When did Lee Shin Woo become such a saint!? However, Lee Shin Woo shrugged his shoulders and explained.

"We were given all the clues. Like the magician that Lloyd said was stronger. In other words, Prince was pissed that Lloyd thought of Kratia so highly."

"Why would he get pissed over that...?"

"Because Lloyd would want Kratia more supposedly."

"??"

Kratia and Jin both looked confused. He was positive that they still didn't understand how what he was saying was related to the situation at all.

Lee Shin Woo thought about how he could explain the pride of a person with a large ego, or Prince and Lloyd's strange relationship that he'd observed a few times in the chatting channel, but he quickly gave up and went with the easiest way of explaining it.

"Prince likes Lloyd. He's jealous of Kratia since Lloyd thinks so highly of her. They're both magicians, so it must've been even worse for him."

"He's a guy, though!? But I suppose a man can like another man!"

"Yeah, I agree, but that's not the case here. Prince is a girl."

"!?"

"!?"

The effect was tremendous! Jin and Kratia were confused!

But this time, Lee Shin Woo was speechless seeing their faces.

"How can you not know? That beautiful outer appearance, the way she puts up a strong front, yet the delicate gestures... And the deciding factor was the fact that there're traces of mana around her body that indicate that she's using a disguise type magic."

"...Now that you mention it, it all makes sense."

"Plus, the name Prince is clearly being used to show her 'masculinity'. In cases like this, there's a high chance that she's actually the opposite gender."

They ruminated over Prince's appearance. It was exactly as Lee Shin Woo said. When they thought about it like that, they felt like it was weird that they had actually thought of her as a guy.

"It's hard to hide your gender. Prince is the type who thinks that as long as she hides what she looks like on the outside and changes her voice, then she'll be ok. That's why she gets caught so easily."

"That's true, but it really pisses me off to hear it from you...!"

"Agreed...!"

"Huh?"

Why? He thought he'd explained it quite amicably, yet Jin and Kratia gazed at Lee Shin Woo as if they were letdown! Lee Shin Woo couldn't bear their anger, especially since he didn't know why they were mad at him in the first place and turned his gaze. Then, Kratia suddenly grabbed him.

"By the way, what's with that face from before?"

"Ah, that's my face from when I was still on Earth. Though my Disguise skill has leveled up, I can only disguise myself this much for now."

"Disguise? That's a disguise? How's that even possible?"

"Even I'm not sure how it works, so why don't you ask God later?"

Kratia grabbed onto Lee Shin Woo even tighter. Her eyes were filled with excitement.

"Show me one more time."

"We came here to go through the training facility, not research my Disguise skill, right?"

"Just once."

"Hoo."

Lee Shin Woo sighed and took off his helmet. Kratia exclaimed with a 'ooh', approached him, and rubbed his cheek. That fresh feeling and the heat that was unmistakably human caused her to blush slightly. Lee Shin Woo looked down at her and spoke to her with a bit of a chilled voice.

"That's not what I look like right now. It's just a disguise."

"Then is your true appearance that of a bony skeleton?"

"..."

"Who determines what's fake and what's real?"

He could easily say that his disguised appearance was fake. However, his Joker karma stopped him. Since there was no one who recognized him as a fake. Kratia nodded her head as though she understood how he felt and continued.

"One day the boundary between what's fake and what's real will come crashing down. You'll have to think hard when that time comes, Shin Woo."

Kratia's words left a deep impression on Lee Shin Woo. If Lee Shin Woo were able to make a perfect fake, fool everyone, fool himself, and even fool the entire world... could he really call that a fake?

He believed that when he could answer that question clearly, he would become a true Joker.

"You really are a magician."

"That's the ultimate goal of a magician. Deceiving the world and creating what's real."

"I told you, I'm not a magician."

"Kratia, you're getting way too close."

Jin gently pushed Kratia away, who had been continuously rubbing Lee Shin Woo's cheek. At the same time, the barrier opened and someone entered the training facility. It was obviously the Prince.

"Y-Yooooooooou!"

Prince aimed her staff at Kratia while water melted and dripped from the ends of her trembling hair. Lee Shin Woo thought she'd be frozen for a few hours, but it seems like she didn't completely lack in the talent department. He was secretly impressed.

"...I won't go easy on you this time."

"Kuuuuuuu....!"

The orb floated into the air and violently rotated, drawing in the surrounding mana and creating ice crystals. Seeing that, Prince recoiled, but soon grit her teeth and spoke.

"Joint operation!"

"Huh?"

"I... I've seen what you can do, so we should clear it together!"

Lee Shin Woo saw Prince's cheeks get so red that he thought they would explode and erupted in laughter.