[V13C2] The Tail Is For Expressing Dissatisfaction

(W-W-What is going on…!?)

Thoroughly confused, Monica struggled to make sense of the scene before her.

Only a few moments ago, Isaac reclaimed what was stolen from him, returning to the face of the Second Prince, Felix Arc Ridill. That much was certain.

But after transferring mana to Wildianu, his face reverted back to that of Isaac Walker.

“Gluttonous Zoe!” Cyril shouted. “What is the meaning of this!?”

In his anger, Cyril flipped over the artifact and began shaking it vigorously, thinking that it had stolen Isaac’s face again.

“Can I stab it again?” Pikeh asked.

“Maybe smash it?” Thule followed.

Pikeh raised an ice dagger in her right hand, so she seemed fully intent on stabbing Gluttonous Zoe.

Seeing this, Raul stepped in to mediate.

“C-Come on, Cyril. That probably isn’t going to help!”

“Then what should I do…!?”

Meanwhile, the repeated whispers of “DON’T KNOW, DON’T KNOW” could be heard coming from the box.

Monica placed a hand on her head and began retracing her memories.

First, she recalled the events of the past year, then the previous year, and so on. As far as she could tell, there were no unnatural gaps in her memory.

In other words, her memories had been restored perfectly, even after losing them once.

(So why did Ike lose his face again…?)

Monica thought back to the moment when her memories returned.

At that time, her memories did not come back in a perfect state. They were more like scattered fragments, puzzle pieces that she needed to return to the correct position.

And that was exactly what Monica did. One by one, she manually reclaimed each fragment of her memories.

(In all likelihood, Gluttonous Zoe was never designed to return what it stole… The function simply isn’t there.)

It looked as though Isaac lost his face immediately after transferring mana to Wildianu. Could it be that this act of mana transfer played some role?

Isaac seemed to be pondering the cause as well. He glared at the artifact in Cyril’s hands as he voiced his hypothesis.

“Currently, only Monica and I have reclaimed what Gluttonous Zoe stole from us. Excluding factors like physical constitution and mana amount, I can see two possible causes for divergence.”

Isaac raised two fingers and continued in a soft murmur.

“First, the type of thing stolen. Second, the elapsed time since the theft.”

Among the victims whose “precious things” were stolen, Monica’s memories were lost for the shortest period of time.

But in Isaac’s case, the body manipulation magic for maintaining Prince Felix’s face had been lost for a few additional days.

(Perhaps it’s difficult for the stolen things to settle back into place if too much time has passed. But that means…!)

Monica turned pale.

Compared to Monica and Isaac, far more time had elapsed for the victims waiting in the capital.

Isaac seemed to be thinking the same thing. He turned to Cyril and gave quick instructions.

“Cyril, have Lady Melissa deliver Gluttonous Zoe to the Royal Institute of Magic with utmost haste. Also, inform her of the possibility of the stolen items not settling back, and that the time elapsed may be the cause.”

“I’m not sure if she’ll accept my word on that…”

Cyril seemed concerned with this approach, which was understandable. After all, he wasn’t even supposed to be here, participating in the operation.

Him suddenly bringing Gluttonous Zoe back would look incredibly suspicious.

In addition, Cyril would be unable to offer any reasoning, as their hypothesis was based on Isaac losing his face again.

Cyril was about to brainstorm for excuses to give Melissa, but Isaac interjected decisively.

“You need only say that the Silent Witch regained her memories and told you to deliver the message. Lady Melissa should find that easy to accept. You can coordinate with Lord Roseberg for more backing.”

Despite having lost his face again, Isaac maintained complete composure.

“In the meantime,” Isaac continued. “I want to verify the situation with my face. Like what happens when my mana is replenished, or exhausted again, or if the condition is something entirely different. These factors need to be investigated as soon as possible, so I need your help, Monica.”

“O-Okay. Then we can go back to my house and…”

However, Isaac shook his head at Monica’s suggestion.

“Miss Karina is currently staying at your house, right? We can’t let her see my changed face.”

He was completely right, but Monica struggled to come up with an alternative.

The entire city was in chaos right now. She could not think of a safe location for them to analyze Isaac’s face.

Of course, the Mage Association was completely out of the question, as Melissa and Silas knew the face of the Second Prince.

Ignoring the panicked Monica, Nero asked Isaac in his usual tone.

“So where are you gonna do that? Just borrow some vacant house somewhere?”

“No, there’s a certain person we can ask for help… He already knows my identity, has knowledge of body manipulation magic, and maintains a safe hideout.”

Did Isaac really have such a convenient connection? Monica and the others seemed skeptical.

“The only problem,” Isaac mumbled. “Will be if he’s currently in Sazandol… Well, there’s no way he would want to miss this emergency situation.”

＊　＊　＊

After entrusting Gluttonous Zoe to Cyril and Raul, Isaac led Monica and Nero to Sazandol’s commercial district.

Meanwhile, Wildianu was cowering atop Isaac’s head.

“I am terribly sorry, Master… This is all because I took a portion of your mana…”

The white lizard apologized with a pitiful voice that sounded like someone on the verge of death. However, Isaac responded in his usual tone.

“You don’t need to be so hard on yourself. In fact, it’s probably for the best that this happened so early.”

“That’s true,” Nero agreed. “There’d be a huge commotion if your face changed in front of a crowd.”

Indeed, if Prince Felix’s face suddenly reverted in the middle of the palace, it would be impossible to cover up.

Moreover, they managed to realize the possibility that the precious things stolen by Gluttonous Zoe might not settle in properly. This timing was probably the best they could ask for.

“Wil, can you stay in my pocket for a bit?” Isaac asked, turning his eyes towards the lizard on his head.

However, Wildianu held onto Isaac’s hair with his small hands and replied, “Do you intend on throwing me again?”

“…Wait, are you angry about that?”

The white lizard answered that question with silence.

Right before Isaac fell through the gate to the underworld, he had thrown Wildianu to safety. Apparently, this act went against his contracted spirit’s wishes.

“Look over there, Monica. The lizard is wiggling his tail. Pretty funny, right?” Nero said, nudging Monica’s shoulder with a smirk.

“Shh, Nero! Shh!”

Isaac put on a troubled frown and reached out hand to his partner. However, Wildianu refused to release Isaac’s hair, so he was forced to give up and lower his hand.

“I wanted to keep you outside the gate so I had a marker to return to,” Isaac explained. “But that’s just an excuse. I’m sorry. I promise to never throw you again, so can you go into my pocket?

“…”

“You’ve always been my secret weapon. I can’t just let you stay on my head forever, right?”

“…Understood.”

Only then did Wildianu enter the pocket of Isaac’s coat.

Monica hastened her pace to walk alongside Isaac, then looked at his face from the side.

With the loss of his eyepatch, Isaac radiated a cold and inhospitable aura. However, there was still a hint of gentleness within.

“Ike, Ike, um… do you know your current mana level?” Monica asked.

“Just a rough feeling, but I should have been at around half capacity when I transferred mana to Wil.”

Monica did not know Isaac’s mana capacity, but considering his successful contract with Wildianu, he should have a great deal of mana.

He would probably need an hour to recover the mana transferred to Wildianu, give or take a bit due to individual differences in mana regeneration.

“Let’s measure your mana capacity later,” Monica suggested.

“Good idea. I’ve been putting that off for a while now.”

The tool for measuring a person’s mana capacity was actually quite expensive.

The cost was not an issue to Monica, but she never had a need for it. Since there was no mana measure at her house, Monica silently decided to order one in the near future.

Isaac turned a corner and knocked on what seemed to be the backdoor of a general shop.

“Who’s coming to my shop at a time like this?” asked a voice from the other side of the door. “There’s no way I can do business right now, you know.”

The door opened to reveal a middle-aged man with black hair streaked with white, likely around forty years old.

He wore an apron over his neatly arranged clothes, giving him the appearance of a typical general store owner.

Isaac directed a cold smile at the man, the sight of which sent a chill down Monica’s spine.

His azure eyes radiated hostility. This was the stare Isaac directed at enemies.

“Hey, long time no see,” Isaac said in a friendly tone, in sharp contrast to his stare. “Since the masquerade ball at Ylmarch Palace, right?”

This left Monica confused, as she had no clue what the masquerade ball at Ylmarch Palace was referring to.

But from behind Monica, Nero raised his voice in realization.

“Oh right. So this guy is Creepy. I guess Eyebrows isn’t with him today?”

“Creepy…? Eyebrows…? Huh?”

Ylmarch Palace, Masquerade Ball, Creepy, and Eyebrows.

Laid out like that, it seemed like an incomprehensible line of words to Monica.

She could only look back and forth in confusion, as the middle-aged man curled his lips into a smile.

His grin was like a void in the shape of a crescent moon. He looked far too ominous to be a merchant dealing with customers on a daily basis.

“To think you would trace us all the way here…” The man muttered. “You really know how to get on a man’s nerves, don’t you? How many more times will you break my pride before you’re satisfied?”

The tone of his voice was like scorched honey, sweet and sticky to ears.

Monica recognized that distinctive manner of speaking.

“You’re the spy from the Empire…!”

The man was Yuan, an Imperial mage skilled in body manipulation magic.

But why would a subordinate of the Black Lion Emperor be in Sazandol? And why did it sound like Isaac was acquainted with him?

Isaac reassured the bewildered Monica with a composed smile.

“There’s no need to worry, Monica. He is my contact for dealing with the Black Lion Emperor.”

“Oh dear,” Yuan interjected. “I suppose that is certainly a nice way of putting it.”

“But it’s not exactly wrong either. You’re desperate for information right now, so you have no reason to turn us away.”

Yuan lowered his head and placed both hands on his face. His skin began twisting into a different shape beneath his hands.

The final touch was a firm press of his palms, as if pasting his skin back onto his skull.

Yuan raised his head again, and now he had the face of an average-looking man with an indeterminate age.

“In that case,” Yuan continued. “I would love to know why your face is so different from before, Fake Prince.”

The mention of Isaac’s identity caused Monica to gasp.

Yuan’s employer, the Black Lion Emperor, knew that the Second Prince was an impostor. However, Monica made a deal with him to keep this secret, allowing both sides to avoid unnecessary conflict.

(So when did he make contact with Ike…?)

Yuan gestured towards the door, holding it open.

“Let’s go,” Isaac said, stepping into the shop.

Monica clenched her fists and followed him inside.

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