Chapter 174

Mountain God (2)

It was a place he arrived at once again, yet it still felt unsettling.

Thinking that, I looked at the dark, ominous mountain before my eyes.

“……Isn’t what you’ve accomplished here a bit too outrageous for you to be having thoughts like that?”

But before I could fully dwell on that thought, I heard Rania speak from behind me like that.

…Honestly, I didn’t really have anything to say to refute that.

Noel and Katya said they would follow as well, but after thinking about what I had done here in the first place, they nodded and agreed that this time I could go alone…….

Just considering that, there wasn’t really a need to bring Rania either, but she was actually someone who had to take on quite an important role in this mountain expedition.

Thinking that, I stroked my chin and turned toward Rania.

“……?”

I soon noticed something strange and tilted my head.

“……You’re not smoking?”

“Hm?”

“You usually chain-smoke, but today, somehow…….”

The pipe that symbolized her was quietly stuck behind her back.

At this point, she should have been smoking enough for the scent to fully seep into my clothes, so it felt extremely awkward seeing her like that…….

“……I’m just not in the mood today.”

“…….”

Hmm.

Even that excuse felt a bit off.

I narrowed my eyes and scanned Rania from head to toe.

Well.

The eyepatch, her appearance—everything looked like the usual Rania.

But the atmosphere she was giving off somehow…….

‘……Strangely, for some reason?’

It was a little different.

It was unsettling to pinpoint, but definitely subtly different.

‘She’s also doing things a bit differently than usual.’

It was Rania herself who had insisted on moving up the date and heading to Mount Demon Sealing a day earlier.

Normally, she was someone who would smoothly handle things in accordance with my situation without me even having to say anything, so the fact that she made a request first was extremely rare, leaving me no choice but to tilt my head in confusion.

“……What are you staring at like that?”

And as she quietly observed my gaze, Rania spoke calmly and stood up.

“…….”

Huh.

Wait.

Suddenly, a certain suspicion tapped at my mind.

And as we continued climbing the mountain, that suspicion gradually became more concrete.

You see.

No matter how much a person tries to hide it, there are always certain habits that can’t be concealed.

As someone whose main profession was being a con artist who made a living gathering information about targets by any means necessary, it was practically a skill I had to cultivate.

From that perspective,

the Rania in front of me was showing countless differences from her usual self.

Her tone of speech and behavior were hard to distinguish since she was normally so blunt to begin with, but even so, subtle habits in how she moved her body—like her way of walking—served as another kind of fingerprint.

Aside from that, the fine condition of her skin and various other minute traits were all different.

And above all—

‘……She’s bad at it?’

How should I put it.

From my perspective as someone who made a living through acting and imitation, the level of acting this person was displaying was downright terrible.

“…….”

And once I had read that much, it wasn’t that difficult to figure out that the person in front of me wasn’t Rania, but someone else.

On the contrary, even if the smallest details were different, there was only one person in the world who resembled Rania to this extent.

This was Cretin pretending to be Rania.

…No wonder she suggested leaving a day earlier.

‘……Hold on.’

It didn’t really matter if it wasn’t necessarily Rania who accompanied me on this mountain.

Cretin was also a priestess who had been acknowledged by Urgan, and the ‘being’ I needed to meet in this mountain was one that I could make contact with as long as that qualification alone was met.

‘Then why……?’

But once I figured that much out, it was only natural for that question to arise first.

What reason could there possibly be to go through the trouble of something like this? It didn’t seem like there was any particular benefit to gain from it.

“…….”

Hmm.

As I thought about that, I suddenly recalled how Rania had come by not long ago and left me with a warning.

* My sister likes me more than you think. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

* …….

* Quite a lot.

…Just how that led to Cretin pretending to be Rania now, I wasn’t entirely sure.

For now, though, it was better to keep that in mind.

‘……For now, don’t let it show.’

And on top of that, it wouldn’t be very wise to immediately reveal that I had figured out her identity.

▣

Watching Aiden silently walking ahead, Cretin smirked inwardly.

‘He has no idea, right?’

As expected, her acting was perfect.

All that effort she put into studying her younger sister every day had paid off.

“…….”

“…….”

But if she carelessly spoke out loud, she might reveal something unintentionally, so it was better to just stay quiet.

And as if in sync with that, the other side was also keeping his mouth shut and simply focusing on climbing the mountain with her…….

“…….”

Hmm.

Cretin thought to herself as she brought the pipe hanging behind her forward and put it in her mouth.

“It’s quiet.”

“……Yes, well.”

“Are you always this quiet?”

“When I need to be.”

“Are you saying you don’t want to talk because you’re with me?”

…Ah, damn it.

That came out as something Rania would never say.

Didn’t that sound exactly like a sulking girlfriend complaining about not getting enough attention…….

“…….”

Trying to ease her awkwardness, Cretin put the pipe in her mouth and lit it.

The moment she inhaled deeply, pretending to act like Rania, she immediately broke into a violent cough that felt like it was dragged up from her lower abdomen.

Seeing Aiden in front of her watching that, she felt her face start to burn red.

“……Are you alright?”

“……For some reason, it doesn’t sit well with me.”

Mumbling a poor excuse, she shook the pipe out again and put it back behind her.

It was honestly impressive how Rania could carry something like this around all day and smoke it so heavily.

‘……I didn’t get caught, right?’

Cretin glanced around nervously and looked at Aiden walking ahead again.

The fact that he didn’t say a single word even after seeing that strange display made her even more uneasy.

“…….”

Was this man always this quiet even when he was with her younger sister?

If she had to pick, it was definitely something she didn’t particularly like…….

‘……Shouldn’t he be a bit more affectionate?’

Priestesses were those who communicated closely with beings that possessed divinity, and in that sense, it also meant they had far more information than ordinary people.

In particular, Rania had always had a knack for casually perceiving internal matters that others hadn’t even expressed yet, and while Cretin’s field was different, she too clearly possessed a similar kind of spiritual sensitivity.

Compared to Rania, she excelled at grasping ‘things that had not yet happened.’

It was almost like seeing the future. Rania had a similar type of ability, but compared to Cretin—who could perceive even the entire course of events—she fell far short.

In that sense.

She was, at the very least, someone who had the obligation to act affectionately toward Rania.

“…….”

As her face threatened to flush red, Cretin lowered her head deeply to calm herself.

According to the oracle, both she and Rania were fated to ‘assist’ this man.

“…….”

Exactly how that assistance would be interpreted was somewhat open to debate, but at the very least, it clearly implied that they would develop a close relationship with this man.

And that was precisely the reason Cretin had come out here disguised as Rania…….

‘……I don’t like it.’

It was already bad enough that some unknown drifter was going to take away her twin younger sister, with whom she had spent her entire life, but the idea that she herself would also be bound into that kind of relationship was something she found thoroughly displeasing.

At the very least, she had to test his character like this when they were alone together.

If someone like Elena Ba Del—who was harboring the exact same thoughts toward Noel—heard this, she would likely nod in agreement…….

And after agreeing, she probably would have taken a slightly different course of action.

Noel and Katya would have agreed wholeheartedly as well.

After all, what happened when a woman and Aiden were left alone one-on-one was something most people around him could testify to quite intensely.

Especially in a situation like this—one that could be considered ‘dangerous’—being left alone together made it even more so.

There was something called the suspension bridge effect. The idea that people were more likely to feel attraction toward each other in extreme situations.

And Aiden was someone who constantly carried extreme situations around him.

The very next moment proved it.

“Ah, just a moment.”

As he steadily climbed the mountain, Aiden suddenly said that and stopped walking.

He frowned and looked around carefully, as if comparing this place with the one in his memory.

Following that, Cretin also glanced around.

‘……This place.’

It was somewhere she recognized as well.

A shrine deep within Mount Demon Sealing. A place like a temple that once served an indigenous god long forgotten.

‘……How did he even find this?’

Even as a priestess, she didn’t know the existence of every religion within the Tribal Alliance. She only knew about things like this through records in texts; being told to find such a place in person would be nearly impossible.

She had heard that he spent a long time buried in the Archive, but where did he pick up the ability to locate something like this so easily?

“……Why did you bring a priestess to a place like this? Is there something you want to do?”

“There’s someone I want to meet. Rather than something I want to do.”

“Really?”

To be honest, it didn’t seem like she could be of much help.

As mentioned before, she only knew that such places existed; she wasn’t someone with any specialized knowledge about them.

As she was thinking that, Aiden shrugged and continued.

“You don’t really need to help with anything.”

“What?”

“As long as you’re here, it’s a being that will react. It probably doesn’t like priestesses of Urgan very much.”

“……?”

There was no need to ask what that meant.

Because—

before Aiden could even explain anything—

-…………

-…………!!!

A low, beast-like growl that made her legs tremble just from hearing it echoed in all directions.

Clearly.

Just moments ago, there had been nothing there.

……Yet now, in the center of the shrine, a tiger the size of a house had appeared.

And it was staring directly at Cretin.

“…….”

Cretin desperately suppressed the scream that was about to burst from her lips.