MTM 204

Swish…

It was a beautiful beach where the grains of sand sparkled like shattered gems. Warm sunlight poured down. It was hard to believe this was the northern region of the Arcadium Empire, a land frozen all year round. A clear, emerald-green sea stretched around the lush island.

…Thud, thud, thud.

A dull sound disturbed the peaceful scene. Emerging from the calm waters was Krom. He walked onto the shore with Zed and Harto in his arms.

Krom gently laid the two of them down on the sand. He looked down at Zed’s pale face, then raised his rocky fist and pressed down on the young man’s chest.

“Cough! Urgh… Haa, cough!”

Under the pressure, Zed coughed up a mouthful of seawater and regained consciousness. Krom watched silently as Zed hacked and coughed; then his body began to crumble away. The giant mass of rock instantly turned into sand before scattering across the beach until it vanished completely.

“What… what happened? Harto!”

After regaining his senses, Zed didn’t even take a moment to steady himself before checking on Harto.

“Harto, wake up!”

Zed cried out as he anxiously cupped Harto’s cheeks, but he did not respond. He immediately placed his hand under Harto’s nose to check for breath and pressed his ear against his chest to listen for a heartbeat. Fortunately, he was breathing, and his heartbeat was steady.

Zed used his holy power to check Harto’s body for injuries. After [unauthorized copy]confirming that there were no signs of major internal injury, the holy power circulated through Harto’s body before gently dissipating.

“Haa…”

Only then did Zed breathe a sigh of relief; he brushed back his wet hair and finally looked around.

“Where… exactly am I?”

Zed murmured.

The landscape surrounding them was beautiful yet alien. A vast, cloudless blue sky stretched overhead, and the breeze was warm and cozy, like a spring day. Beyond the soft sandy beach lay a shimmering sea, while the island was covered in endless, lush green fields.

It felt like stepping into a paradise from a dream, yet there was one oddity: a fog encircled the entire island like a barrier at the edge of this beautiful paradise. Jagged red reefs, sharp as deer antlers, jutted out of the sea along the line of that mist.

That was when Zed realized where they were.

“It’s Ruinbelt.”

At that moment, a woman’s voice rang out.

He turned his head to see a woman standing where the rolling waves met the white sand.

“You…”

“It’s been a while, Zed.”

It was Rozain. Rozain Belhar, the vice-captain of Night Rage and a comrade with whom he had shared life-and-death struggles for the past three years. Her face looked exactly as it had when they parted ways months ago, yet the right sleeve of her garment was empty.

Rozain gazed at the surprised Zed with cold, lifeless eyes and spoke in a low voice.

“They are waiting. But before that, you’d best dry your clothes. For his sake too.”

Zed pulled Harto– whom he held in his arms –closer in a protective embrace before looking at Rozain. His golden eyes no longer held confusion; instead, they burned with murderous intent directed at her.

“…Why did you attack us? Was this ordered by Walter?”

Zed had already realized the truth. He knew that the person behind the dawn attack was none other than Rozain.

He hadn’t been certain until he actually faced her. However, Isadora’s letter had already informed him that Walter possessed a fragment of Magnus’s flesh and was heading for Ruinbelt. He had simply surmised that any subordinate of Walter’s would hardly appear with friendly intentions.

“If it makes it easier for you to understand, then you can go ahead and think of it as Walter’s doing.”

“So, it’s certain that Walter is here. Were you targeting only the two of us from the start?”

“We faced some unexpected interference… but regardless, I wasn’t the one who brought you here. I suppose you could call it the will of the gods.”

“That doesn’t sound like the you I know, Rozain… Have you been brainwashed or something?”

Rozain did not deny Zed’s persistent questioning. She only gave a bitter smile.

“I was proliferated.”

“What…?”

“You know what that implies without me having to explain it in detail.”

For a moment, Zed stared at Rozain with an expression of shock.

The mass proliferation of Epimer flowers, the mysterious elixir, and even the piece of Magnus’s flesh that had fallen into Walter’s hands. The scattered clues all pointed toward a sinister reality.

“It means I am merely being used by them. Attacking you all wasn’t entirely my own will, Zed.”

“…….”

Rozain calmly added that it didn’t matter if Zed didn’t believe her. She also acknowledged that her words sounded like hard-to-swallow sophistry.

The more he spoke with Rozain, the more confused Zed became.

Does this ‘proliferation’ mean it can even control a living person’s mind? And Rozain keeps referring to ‘them’ rather than just Walter. Does that mean there’s someone behind it all…?

More importantly, the Rozain standing before him felt like a stranger. The Rozain he knew never wore such a look of resignation. While cold-headed during missions, she was a compassionate and humane person, the kind who couldn’t bring herself to turn away a starving child during a plague. That very softness had ultimately led the Night Rage scattering.

“Zed, join forces with me again. This time, we’ll gather only the strongest and build ​unauthorized copy​an ideal mercenary group.”

He remembered Walter’s proposal from back in Belnok. He hadn’t managed to meet Rozain at the time, but Walter surely would have extended the same offer to her, just as he had to Zed.

And Zed had never doubted that Rozain, like himself and Leon, would have flatly rejected the proposal.

And yet… .

‘But what about you, Zed? How can you, someone who has kept your true identity hidden for three years, dare to speak to me about trust?’

The reality before him mocked the trust he had placed in her.

“…So in the end, you accepted Walter’s proposal?”

Zed asked Rozain in a heavy voice. Yet, instead of answering, she simply gazed at him with a look of sorrow.

Why was that? A thought crossed Zed’s mind as he met her gaze. Perhaps, even while opposing Walter’s twisted intentions, she had been unable to ultimately refuse his offer due to the bond they shared as long-time comrades.

Or perhaps, unlike the way he treated Zed and Leon, Walter had reached out to her in a completely different manner.

Whatever the truth might be, Zed had no choice but to accept that she had decided to join forces with Walter; he bit his lip.

“In that case, I won’t be playing along meekly either.”

Zed delivered these words in a decisive tone, then turned his gaze away, signaling that he was done with her. He then checked on Harto, who was cradled in his arms.

“Harto… come on, wake up. Hey? Harto.”

Even after tapping his cheek and channeling his holy power into his body, Harto remained in a deep slumber.

“It’s no use.”

Rozain, who had been watching the scene, spoke again.

“He is currently lost in a dream.”

She spoke as if she could see into Harto’s inner self.

“To be precise, he isn’t dreaming of the world we’re in now, but of another world entirely.”

“…What are you talking about?”

Zed glared at Rozain, who kept spouting incomprehensible words. Yet, her expression remained calm.

“Zed, look closely. Is the person you’re holding right now truly the ‘Harto’ you’ve known all this time?”

“……!”

At Rozain’s question, Zed felt his heart sink ​stolen content​to the pit of his stomach as he looked down at Harto in his arms once more.

In the earlier chaos, he hadn’t noticed it, but Harto’s appearance had subtly changed. He was definitely the Harto Zed knew, yet at the same time, he seemed like a completely different being.

For one, his physique was far more slender than before, gaunt to the point of appearing unnaturally emaciated. Furthermore, when Zed carefully rolled up the sleeve of Harto’s wet shirt, he saw bluish bruises scattered across the exposed wrist and forearm.

In that instant, the image of the other Harto, the one he had seen at the River of Life, flashed through Zed’s mind.

“What… has happened…?”

The black hair and facial features were Harto’s. Yet, despite knowing it was him, Zed hesitated, disturbed by a jarring sensation he couldn’t shake off.

“If you want to save him, hurry and warm him by the fire.”

Rozain walked away with unhurried grace. Zed waited until she had vanished over the hill, then adjusted his hold on Harto and followed after her.

“This place is…”

Following Rozain, he arrived before a white structure unlike anything he had ever seen. It lacked a roof, so calling it a “building” was inaccurate; its smooth, white walls were solid, yet they resembled a model rather than something carved by human hands. In the center of this bizarre space, a bonfire crackled as if it had been waiting for their arrival.

Rozain stopped at the boundary of the structure without stepping inside and signaled Zed to enter with a tilt of her chin.

Zed still didn’t trust her, but with Harto’s body growing colder in his arms, he had no time left to hesitate. He hurried inside, stripped off Harto’s wet clothes, and removed his own upper garment to dry it near the fire.

Zed cradled Harto close to share his warmth and sat before the blazing fire. He gazed at Harto’s face, [Read on]bathed in the fire’s red glow, before lifting his head toward Rozain, who stood outside like a phantom.

“Rozain.”

He called her name, hesitated for a moment, and then finally spoke. “I saw you… in a dream.”

He recalled the images of the Night Rage mercenaries and his other comrades, figures who had appeared in a past dream when they set out to eliminate Hartiros. The sight of Rozain smiling at Hartiros as the latter howled and perished amidst the flames remained etched in Zed’s mind.

“It wasn’t a dream, Zed.”

Rozain replied with a calm expression.

“That was something that had already happened.”