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My eyes snapped awake.

In front of me was a fire. I immediately knew I was lying on the ground, but my head was lying against something softer.

With a sigh, "You’re finally awake," a voice said.

Looking up toward the voice, I saw the face of the one to whom the voice belonged. It was both a familiar yet, somehow, very foreign face to look at.

Despite my confusion, I recognized this face right away.

"Nia?" I muttered.

"Yes, it’s me." She nodded.

She confirmed that it was truly her, but something was clearly very different from how she should’ve been.

A monstrous slither from the other side of the bonfire? I lifted my head from her lap and stood up, looking around. Instead of the figure I was hoping to see, I saw an enormous dragonoid shadow sleeping soundly on the other side of the bonfire.

"Ezra?"

Glancing back at Nia, I saw her nod. Behind her, I saw the giant tree and its two holes on the trunk, which served as a chamber.

Just like with Nia, I recognized Ezra, but just like earlier, there was something different with the both of them.

Dormant memories awakened within me.

I woke up, saw Nia, then saw them, how I reacted, what I did, and what Nia did to stop me.

Glancing at my hand, I finally noticed the strange color it harbored. From the shoulder to the tip of the hand, both of my hands were of a pure black color teemed with a red vessels-like pattern.

"How much time was it?" I asked,"-that I was asleep?"

The next memories I had of the aftermath of what happened that day after we went against Amira were of me having, what I believe was, a dream, so I knew that my body was sleeping, in one form or another, somewhere.

She looked at me, hesitating, as if worried how I would take the truth, but a nod from me urged her to reveal the truth, "Almost two years. But-"

"You stayed..." I muttered, shocked, "I was away for two years..."

That was it, that was so different. Neither she nor Ezra were the same as the last time. They were taller and older than I remember them being.

Though a part of me knew I had already accepted that so much time had passed since the last time we bid each other farewell, a part of me was definitely not ready to hear that two years had gone by since then, after having faced Amira, the Fire Primordial Dragon.

With a sigh escaping my mouth, I went to sit once again on the ground.

"You stayed two years here?"

She handled a bowl filled with fruits and responded clumsily, "Uh... yes, but you know I’ve been a little bit busy these past two years."

Before going on that journey with no return, I remember clearly making the promise of taking her to the human continent, and here we were, after two years, still in the Iharana Great forest.

What would it be now?

Four wasted years here.

Two years wasted on her own. I, being myself, knew very well how painful this can be.

"I'm pretty sure I can roughly guess what you are thinking about right now, but you know, during these two years, it gave me time to deal with various things on my own." She said. Emerging from her back, and clinging on top of her shoulder, was a small red-winged creature, which I immediately recognized as a fiery dragon, a cub one. Patting her head, Nia said, "Ezra and I might have changed from the outside, but we’re still the same."

I knew very well that she was saying that to reassure me, and I appreciated the thoughts, but I was highly doubting what she was saying. Maybe she herself didn't notice the change, or-maybe it's just me. No, that’s it. Despite being the one whose time didn’t feel like having gone by at all, I was the one being different.

"Say, Nia?"

"Hum?"

"Since when did you know?"

"About what?"

It took me some time to come up with a reply " ...When did you know that it was me all along?", I asked, "About Han and Hon."

It took her some time to register what I meant, but she eventually did.

Crawling from her shoulder, the small dragon went onto her lap. "I didn't always know, especially with how difficult communicating was for both of us. In fact, I think I only realized it sometimes when we managed to know each other's tongues flawlessly. When exactly? I can’t tell anymore. "

"Why didn’t you ever talk about it?"

"I... I think it was because I got used to it, so I grew up thinking that it was normal for you to refer to yourself at times as Hon and at others as Han. The only time you didn’t was when you told me who you really were and where you came from, which is ultimately why I settled with calling Hôn."

"I see."

Not only was I good at lying to myself, but my lies was having its effects onto others as well.

A sight escaped me.

She lifted the dragon on her lap and approached and sat beside me.

The small dragon on Nia’s lap flapped its wings and landed on mine. It casually coughed up some smoke, comfied itself, and slept.

"I call him Cyvrae. I found him one year ago as an egg.

"I see."

"You know... If there is something you want to share, I’m here to hear, just like we used to. " She said, slightly leaning to face my gaze.

My eyes met hers.

I know she was honest.

But have you ever felt like doing someone's wrong behind their back and exchanging gasses with that person whose face is completely unaware of the wrong done to him?That’s what I felt.

"Yes, I know."

"If you aren't-"

"You know, maybe, if I had known-if I had realized earlier, maybe that wouldn't have happened to Heon. I know it. If I had realized earlier, I would've... never embarked on this journey like I did. I would’ve been somewhere... on my own. "

A sarcastical laugh couldn’t help but burst out of me, soon followed by me having watery eyes.

A glance at Nia by my side revealed a strange expression that I could qualify as something between pity and confusion.

Sigh.

I’m a mess as a person.

I know I look miserable, no need to look at me like this.

"Sorry for this."

She shook her head,"... I honestly thought you would be angry at me."

"Why would I be angry?"

"For what... I did," she said, clearly regretting something.

"For what you did?" I asked, genuinely confused, yet all she did was nod to my question.

I was left to ponder for several seconds, wondering what she had done to me. I should be the one feeling regretful towards her instead.

Thinking about what it could be, the only thing that came to mind was what happened this morning, which led me to awake lying on her lap.

I was holding a key necklace made of two keys, one from Maa and the other from Mael, as I looked down at my palm, clenched firmly.

"You mean what you did this morning, it was nothing. In fact, I would like to thank you for it. "

"No, it’s—"

It’s true that I wish them a horrible death, but I still wish to do it ...properly, not like that... This morning, I wasn’t in my right mind. It was just that when I saw them,... Seeing them standing there after all those years, all I could think of was to kill them all. But if I had done it this morning, I now fully realize that I would have regretted it. So there is nothing I should be mad at you for. "

"... I see."

A long and empty silence took place. A glance at her told me that she was expecting me to, as she said, talk to her since she was all ears. Yet deep down, I really didn’t know what else to say about that thing about that identity of mine. I no longer had any comment about it, and had no motivation to talk about it, since I myself felt still very confused, so to not let the silence ruin the room any further, I said what I thought would be worth-saying.

"See, Nia, while sleeping in the egg, I dreamed just like you--no, I dreamed or remembered, I can't really tell which one. Nonetheless, being in the lucid dream-like state, I remembered everything."

What I had said extracted a strange reaction from Nia, but I simply brushed it off and continued as she was clearly expecting me to do.

"I once told you that all those years ago, especially my nine earliest ones, I was wondering what led me to become what I was. Wondering why I wasn't a normal baby? How come I was born despite being from a commoner and a noble? I turned out completely while in reality I should’ve been born at all. " Taking a short pause, I continued, "Ironic that now, after a small two-year nap, I finally understand why and how it happened." All these years, expecting the answers to these questions elsewhere, it was within me all along. "

"Tell me about it." She said,

With it, I proceeded to tell her the truth about me, my birth-no, in fact, it was even before that, before my own birth.

Where should I start this, since there is no particularly clear beginning to this? But if I were to choose one, it would be from that point onward.

Years ago, in what I assumed to be the town of Louisianne, two sparkles of light lit up within the entrails of a commoner woman named Barbara; I'll spare you the euphemism, she was pregnant with twins.

Those twins were, despite their commoner mother not being a mere commoner, they were, in fact, born from the union of a noble and a commoner, a combination that is known to lead to nothing but disaster.

Yet despite being aware of what might come out of it, the woman kept her pregnancy going. For what purpose, I can’t tell. Maybe she was simply suicidal or simply hopeful for some kind of a miracle.

Whatever it was, she was fortunate because, whether she expected it or not, the miracle occurred on the third month.At not even a three-month gestation, her twins showed signs of the ability to produce mana, which is something that normally happens during the sixth months of pregnancy for a noble or a mother of a child of light.

There were several reasons explaining their earliness. The least taxing one to explain would be to say that they were special, but the truth was that, differently from any precedent case of noble and commoner union before, they, unlike their "kin", instead of depending on the mother’s mana to balance each other, were depending on each other's mana instead. Both twins were serving as catalysts for the other's survival. They were not only twins by blood and flesh, but also by magic; their mana, despite being different, worked in perfect synchronisation with one another, and the only thing that allowed this was that their souls, what made them who they were, were somewhere meeting.They were two different beings, but they were two who worked as one.

It was this that distinguished them and ensured their survival for the six months following their mana awakening.

As to what triggered their early mana awakening, the answer would be the nature of their magic.

After their mana awakening, they underwent a course of pregnancy similar to one of a simple noble. At least that was until the sixth month, in which, as from what I’ve learned from Luke, things have started to go south.

They, who had managed to keep their mana at bay for more than 3 months after their mana awakening, started to cause what was known by Luke and the others as the rampages.

They were the ones responsible for the destructive rampages, or at least that’s what they believed.

Despite the strange circumstances, anyone in their shoes would've assumed that the ones responsible for these rampages were the nobles or at least half-nobles she bore, not a commoner, but they weren't.

The third party was entirely responsible.

A vile, repugnant entity is coveting, trying to replace and possess one of the twins’ bodies. Attempts which, thanks to the twins' flawless synergy, resulted in an endless series of failures, and yet for more than a couple of months, the attacks onto the twins persisted.

Despite the rampages, all thing considered, things went pretty smoothly for the mothers and the yet to be born twins, that is at least until it happened.

It most likely happened before the woman who bore them for almost nine months went into labor. Just as they were about to finally be born into this world, it happened. The thing that for more than three months has been triggering the rampages, instead of going after them, as it usually did, shifted off target.

The one it went after, this time, instead of them was their mother.

Doing what it most likely planned to do with one of the twins, it started devouring her soul, which eventually led to the current situation she was known to be in after my birth. The facts were that without the twins’ direct reaction to what was going on, maybe-no it would’ve definitely ended with her dying along with either or both of the twin she was expecting, for that was most likely what the being was after, killing the three of them since it didn’t manage to accomplish its original objective.

Barbara, their mother, was a commoner. She had no magic, so needless to say, that thing wrecked havoc on her, unpeded.

Its attacks this time, unlike the previous ones, were highly effective, and it was on its way to killing the three of them.

It was there, during that process, that "I" came into play.

That is when what I would call my existence finally came into light, started, though in its own way it had already started before that.

The truth is that "I" was neither of the twins, nor was I the thing that attacked them.

They were they. I was an entirely different being, which, despite being different from them, was still closely connected to the twins.

In their third month, where their magic awakened, where their soul and their existence joined together, "I" was born.

Well, maybe the word "born" would be unfitting for multiple reasons.

One because I didn’t even possess a physical body, two because I was formless and shapeless, closer to an almost non-existing existence than anything that has ever been alive.

Two, despite having come into existence, I was present the same way a mushroom would sprout from the ground, just an occurrence that happened along the way, not something that was wished for or even least expected. I was a "byproduct".

Despite being able to currently narrate these events, I was back then, before that event, just an unconscious, will-less being on my own.It was only prior to that that I gained what most would call "consciousness".

What I’m currently narrating was neither a memory nor a remembrance of a dream; it’s an insight. But from here, I think I can remember, though faintly, how faintly it felt.

It was a feeling close to sleep. The concept of time was completely foreign to me. The place was filled with a void-like white. It was neither warm nor cold, or at least I think it wasn’t. I wasn’t even totally sure. I just know that not long after, I woke up from that sleep-like state. I did not awaken randomly; my awakening was triggered by what was happening out there, but also by them, the two of them.

I do not remember what I felt back then, but I knew that reaching into the "present" had offered me the opportunity to leave behind a past, mold a world around myself, and yearn for a future life.

Not so long after, Barbara, their mother, with the help of Mathilda and the others, delivered her twins, yet they were no more, only I was.

Instead of both of them, "I" was the one being born.

I was the one who awakened with the body of one of the twins, but not only that, along with it, I also inherited both of their magics, which along with the magic I had awakened during the process prior to my birth. giving me a total of three magical abilities

The magic I had awakened was, because of the process that permitted my existence, of devouring, absorbing and storing the pure form of energy similar to the one that triggered my creation, but can also be found outside, freed upon a living being’s death or, under the right circumstance, the right connection to a certain individual.

"... It was that same magic that allowed the saving of Barbara, their mother, from that thing. I, having taken over one of the twins and having awakened my own magic, I, before my birth, devoured a part of "it."

I once remember being frost-stricken by the idea of being born of having Barbara be my magic first victim, but I now finally realize that she wasn’t, that thing that attacked them was. And that remained true for the next two years, even after that event... even with my magic, I was not able to exterminate it, only to devour it partially, for the same way there was a link between the twin and that thing, there was still a link that connected that thing to me.

For more than two years subsequent to my birth, I, without my own knowledge, through my magic, fed upon it.

Which is why I believe—no, I’m certain from how they looked at me through a magic item that triggered upon stumbling upon a peculiar individual magic that I received—that Faty Adidy from the church became the believed dangerous and threatening Faceless One to be exterminated at any cost.

I was truly the one they were after for all those years, all because I had preyed and absorbed what I shouldn’t have and was now deemed a threat that had to be taken care of with the greatest precaution.