“Long time no see!”

“Ryang-a! You got so much bigger!”

“Of course!”

Right after meeting Ryang-a, Alon came down below the cliff with her.

The moment Penia and Ryang-a spotted each other, they greeted each other warmly.

After that.

“First, let’s go to the hideout.”

Following Ryang-a, Alon arrived at the White Ghost Gang hideout, and there, he couldn’t help but make a strange expression.

“......That is—”

“What do you think, Boss? I carved it!”

Hearing Ryang-a’s words as if in passing—sounding a little shy, yet proud—Alon blankly stared at the cliff inside the hideout—more precisely, at the carved mural on the cliff.

A mural carved with the figure of a man whose back was turned, a black coat fluttering behind him.

“Wow, you did all of that yourself?”

“Yeah.”

“......You did an amazing job.”

Penia let out a small exclamation of admiration.

As Alon, too, admired the mural, he suddenly realized something.

“Ah.”

‘So that’s why Reinhardt asked back then if the White Ghost Gang was connected to something.’

Alon nodded, recalling what Reinhardt—whom he’d met when he first came to the Ronobelli Jungle years ago—had said.

It was a bit idealized, but even so, if it was this level, it really was almost identical to the scene of him using magic.

‘......No, but would you really ask that outright?’

Of course, the carved mural itself did resemble Alon.

That was something even Alon would admit.

But in this world, he wasn’t the only mage who wore a coat.

Wasn’t it a bit of a stretch to guess it was him from just this?

That thought crossed his mind, but Alon just shrugged and turned his gaze away.

“.......”

It had already been years, and it wasn’t something worth worrying about that much.

‘Looks like the details of the back really resemble me.’

Ending the thought there, Alon looked at Ryang-a.

“You made it well.”

“Right?! I made it exactly the same!”

“I agree, too. There’s no way you wouldn’t recognize you.”

At Penia’s agreement, Alon thought, Is it that obvious? and looked at the mural again.

A mural that only showed the back.

It still felt puzzling, but Alon nodded anyway.

“Then let’s go in. Dinner’s not ready yet, right? I’ll make it for you!”

“You know how to cook too?”

“Of course! I practiced!”

As Alon moved along in the direction Ryang-a led, Alon quietly asked Penia.

“Penia.”

“Yes, Marquis?”

“That mural—just from looking at it, is it obvious it’s me?”

At that, Penia turned back with a questioning face and checked the mural again.

‘......Even an idiot would recognize that.’

With only the figure of a man in a black coat, it would be a little hasty to pin it down as Marquis Palatio.

If it really were only the marquis’s back, and if you didn’t know the person who carved it was Ryang-a, you might even think the figure in that mural was someone else.

But one part stood out unusually strongly.

Two eyes.

Two eyes floating above the carved back of the head—something you couldn’t help but see even if you tried not to.

In Marquis Palatio these days, only one was visible.

Penia had recognized it naturally because of that.

......Anyway, if you saw those eyes, there was no way you wouldn’t know it was Marquis Palatio.

“Uh....... If you’ve seen the marquis use magic even once, you’d think it’s all the marquis.”

Penia answered.

“......Yeah?”

“Yes.”

Alon slowly nodded with a sense of fascination, and a strange pride rose up.

He didn’t show it much, but the back of him that Ryang-a had made looked pretty cool.

‘Maybe from now on, I should show my back as much as possible.’

With that pointless thought, Alon followed behind Ryang-a.

Ganma, who was one of the pitiful White Ghost Gang members who—up until just a few days ago—had been getting beaten day after day under the pretext of “training,” because Ryang-a’s mood had been sunk—

was, in real time, losing the ability to be dumbfounded at a rapid pace.

‘That is... the boss?’

Ganma looked at Ryang-a, stuck close to a human man off in the distance—no, after hearing so much about him, Ganma had even memorized the name now: Marquis Palatio.

That innocent, carefree smile—so bright you could recognize it at a glance even from far away.

“.......”

Ganma subtly shifted the gaze and checked the expressions of the others besides Ganma.

Someone was horrified.

Someone was blank.

Someone had a “ugh—” kind of face.

Everyone was staring at Ryang-a.

Of course.

They were the ones who’d been with Ryang-a for hundreds of years.

They’d seen more sides of Ryang-a than anyone, and they prided themselves on knowing exactly what kind of existence Ryang-a was.

But—

‘That... is really the boss??? Really?’

The White Ghost Gang members all, at once, recalled what Ryang-a used to be like.

......In their heads, all that came up were violent images.

Ryang-a’s default method of handling things.

Whether it was hierarchy or trouble, everything had always been solved with fists.

......And if it wasn’t that.

Most of the time, ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ the daily routine was sprawling out and sleeping on the cliff all day long.

So to the White Ghost Gang members, Ryang-a’s current appearance was shocking to the point of disbelief.

“Does that make any sense?”

“The boss can smile like that, like a girl?”

“......No way. Did you see what the boss is doing? She even linked arms with the marquis.”

“Ugh—”

“Did you see her sitting in front of that human man?”

“She’s acting cute.”

“......My stomach feels sick.”

White Ghost Gang members made faces like “Gaaah,” like they couldn’t endure Ryang-a acting prim and proper in a way Ryang-a would never show normally.

But.

For a very brief moment.

Ryang-a, leaning against Marquis Palatio’s leg as the marquis sat cross-legged, looked at the members with an extremely sharp expression.

And at the same time, they recognized it.

The shape of Ryang-a’s mouth.

‘You. Die.’

A silent recitation, moving one syllable at a time so that every member secretly watching could see it.

“.......”

All the members shuddered as-is, quietly turned their bodies, and vanished to somewhere Ryang-a couldn’t see.

The next day.

“Are you awake!”

““Are you awake!””

“......Uh, yeah.......”

Alon, bewildered after being greeted by the White Ghost Gang to an excessive degree the moment he woke up, met Ryang-a soon after—her face clear and bright.

“Did you sleep well, Boss?”

“Yeah. Thanks to you, I slept well.”

“That’s a relief—if the bed’s comfortable, you can stay a little longer, too.”

Ryang-a added quickly.

But Alon shook his head.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think that’ll be possible right away.”

“......Really? Well, I don’t mind, but—”

Even as Ryang-a said that, Ryang-a pouted a little, showing disappointment.

At that sight, Alon smiled without realizing it and spoke.

“Don’t be too disappointed. I’m only busy with work right now, so I’ll come visit again soon.”

“......Really?”

“Yeah. Or you can come find me yourself.”

“......I’ll keep that in mind.”

Ryang-a, laughing with a pleased “Hehe,” continued, like Ryang-a understood.

“So what’s the plan going forward?”

“Mm, I’ll probably stay in the jungle about a week longer before I go.”

“A week?”

“Yeah. There’s something I’m looking for.”

“What is it?”

Alon thought for a moment, then answered slowly.

“I’m looking for the Mask of the One Who Walks Ahead.”

“The Mask of the One Who Walks Ahead?”

“Yeah. It’s an item in one of the ruins in this jungle. I need it.”

“Mmm—”

Ryang-a nodded at Alon’s words and asked,

“Where is it?”

“......Probably where the ruins are gathered together.”

“Do you know the location?”

“Roughly.”

“Tell me?”

Even as a question rose in Alon’s mind, Alon soon spread out the map the explorers had made and pointed out the general location Alon knew.

And then—

“Hm—”

Ryang-a rubbed the chin, nodded like Ryang-a understood, and—

“Wait here!”

“No, wait—”

Before Alon could stop Ryang-a, Ryang-a vanished, leaving behind a huge boom.

Alon froze awkwardly with the hand still outstretched.

Penia, who’d been watching that the whole time, opened the mouth.

“......Marquis, she probably went to get it, right?”

“Seems like it—”

“......If it’s what you said, she’s going to have a hard time.”

Alon nodded like Alon agreed.

The item they were going to obtain this time—the Mask of the One Who Walks Ahead—was an item you could only get after going to the ruins and solving several quizzes.

In other words, if you didn’t know the answers, you couldn’t get it.

So.

“......Do we have to wait?”

“Uh....... She’ll be struggling over there, so wouldn’t it be better to go help?”

“......Then we’d better get ready to go right away.”

After waiting about an hour while looking in the direction Ryang-a had shot off toward, Alon was just starting to get up to prepare—

Boom!

Ryang-a appeared again with a huge noise.

“......I’m back!”

“Ryang-a?”

Ryang-a shouted energetically.

When Alon looked over with a face that said Alon didn’t understand, Ryang-a, wearing a confident expression—

“Here! Take it!”

handed a mask to Alon.

The Mask of the One Who Walks Ahead.

For a moment, Alon and Penia went blank as they stared at the mask in Ryang-a’s hand.

“Huh? Isn’t this it?”

At the innocent voice asking back, Alon came to the senses late and answered.

“No, this is it. Thank you.”

“Hey—between us—”

Leaving the kindly smiling Ryang-a behind, Alon stared at the mask again with a disbelieving expression.

The mask Ryang-a had brought was definitely the Mask of the One Who Walks Ahead.

And one you could only obtain after solving several quizzes.

Not understanding, Alon checked the mask again and again, then asked in a dazed voice.

“......But how did you get this?”

“Huh? This?”

“Yeah. As far as I know, to get this, you have to answer difficult questions......?”

‘Don’t tell me Ryang-a knew all the answers?’

At Alon’s question that sounded like Alon couldn’t believe it, Ryang-a thought for a moment.

“Ah—so that’s what that was?”

Like something occurred to Ryang-a, Ryang-a muttered, then—

“I just broke it and took it by force?”

answered, still bright. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

“......You broke it?”

“Yeah. It just went pasasak.”

At Ryang-a’s crisp answer that fell again without hesitation.

Alon recalled the ruins Alon had only seen in illustrations.

A stone door so thick it wasn’t something you’d describe as tens of centimeters—no, you’d have to describe it as several meters thick—

and on top of that, it had been treated with anti-magic on purpose so it couldn’t be broken with physical force, and dozens of defensive magic circles had been applied to it.

So Alon could only stare blankly at Ryang-a.

‘......Is this that thing where if your body is smart, your head is comfortable?’

Alon couldn’t help but think that.