Yes, the city in its current state that was completely different from a town it was sixteen years before, had been renamed after the missing daughter of the late lord of the region – not the other way around.

The name change was something that lord Banemor had come up with as his dying wish – he wanted his child to not fear to return to her rightful home – no matter why she ran away, no matter what she had done to get by after that – she would always had a place to get back to, no matter what.

An occasional farm worker would look up at the carriage, snickering to themselves because of the local joke going around for more than a decade already – if a fancy carriage is going to the city, the crown will try their luck with Benevirau again.

Funnily enough, unaware to them, this time it really was the truth.

—–

”Some of their crops don’t look suitable for the climate that this area should have…”

”Do they? I am not really big on agriculture…”

Zoemi pointed out while looking through the window, but that observation had earned only a light shrug from the increasingly impatient Reo.

They have been on their way for more than just a few days, so the destination of their journey was far more interesting than any corp could ever be.

Although, in the green-haired boy’s case that could not have been the entire truth…

”…are you feeling alright…?”

The black-haired boy asked with concern, taking his eyes off of the outside world and looking over at the nervous and fidgety capture target.

”Y-yeah, no, seriously – it is definitely nothing… just… I need to go to the toilet really bad – Sorry for the trouble but I might ask to stop the carriage by the nearest place with the proper facility…”

Reo flinched and crossed his arms and nervously rubbed the left side of his chest with his thumb.

”…”

That action had certainly made Zoemi a bit worried – a similar thing happened on their way there a couple of times and Reo would always explain it as problems with his stomach – which was difficult to believe for the black-haired attendant.

Zoemi could see the unique shadows of every single being and thing that had mana – humans, some animals, enchanted objects, and of course, the spells themselves included – and each time Reo just so happened to have his emergency toilet break, his unique shadow would be faltering, barely holding on together, which was not at all how human unique shadows should behave.

Well – that’s not exactly true… there was a certain time during which magician’s shadow would tremble and start breaking apart – it was the moment of that magician’s death.

That knowledge alone was enough to make Zoemi more than just a little bit anxious about the life of the green-haired capture target who finally had his chance to prove himself to his father, unlike his character in the game.

|…is it some terminal illness that he doesn’t want to talk about…? I knew that it was odd that only he was exactly the same as Reo from the game!|

Zoemi made his own assumptions about the reason for the green-haired boy’s suspicious behavior.

In the first place, Reo’s shadow alone was already a bit different from the typical one.

Usually, a shadow was connected with the physical body of the magician in a single point – usually one of the feet – but would hoover behind its owner’s back idly.

On rare occasions, with the stronger magicians, the shadows would be larger in size or more intricate but still easily distinguishable form.

Similarly, with commoners that have little to no mana, the shadows would be smaller and less detailed – but still completely unique.

That was the reason that Zoemi could never mistake two people no matter how similar they were – their targets were always different, even if it was just some seemingly small detail.

The unique shadows never lied revealing the people for whom they truly were.

And… then was Reo…

His shadow was… a box…

A box that seemed to be clipping through him like a badly rendered computer graphic.

Zoemi had encountered genderless shadows before – but… this was literally a box, it couldn’t have been described in any other way.

No distinguishing features, no movement.

A box.

It went against every single unique shadow principle that the black-haired boy had seen since he awakened the ability to see them.

|…maybe I should tell him about it? Hey, Reo, why do you have a shadow as if you were an artifact? Are you secretly an object? No, that’s ridiculous… I should try to secretly heal him and hope for the best unless he opens up to me…|

Zoemi thought to himself, staring in concern at the spot where the unique shadow box was clipping through the green-haired boy – which was coincidentally the spot on his chest that Reo was rubbing with his thumb, making it seem like it was greatly bothering him.

|Could it be damaging him or something…? Nonsense, the unique shadows shouldn’t be able to interact with the physical world…|

The black-haired boy scolded himself over jumping to conclusions, but certainly, the whole thing was suspicious…

Still, speaking about shadows…

”…”

Zoemi turned back to the window – the road to the Learen was following the river and therefore turning the same way the river did, ended up giving the carriage passengers a clear view of the city they were going to…

…and the massive unique shadow hovering over it…

That size was no joke – it could only mean that an overwhelmingly powerful magician – or a sage – was residing there.

Probably the scariest part about it was that it was comparable to the shadow that Raseriat – the members of Ghosts of Bellcephora whom Zoemi managed to kill – had.

Zoemi wasn’t stupid or overconfident – he knew that he managed to deal with Raseriat only because she initially didn’t want to fight and later was blinded by the anger – a flaw in her character – which allowed him for a proper setup.

If she straight up locked on to him and attacked even a second earlier, that would be the end for the black-haired boy, even with her limited offensive capabilities.

Truth be told, if only Zoemi managed to get all of Raseriat’s mana at the moment of her death, things would have been different now – he certainly wouldn’t be nearly as worried about the possibility of being wiped out of existence if he will make a wrong move – but alas, he didn’t get even a speck of mana from the opponent he worked so hard to defeat.

The only positive part of his current situation was that there was a chance that the owner of this particular gigantic shadow would not turn hostile.

”…Reo, Benevirau have never killed anyone trying to make him step down, right?”

”O-of course he didn’t! That’s why he is troublesome – he is using the law’s loopholes and just lives carefree knowing that no one can actually stop him without straight-up breaking the law!”

Zoemi asked for confirmation, and indeed Reo delivered on that, straightening his back and assuring with a serious nod…

…and rubbed his chest, right above his heart…

”…alright, that’s it – let me use check-up on you… I will not let you pass out because of heart failure or something similar like that…!”

That was it for the black-haired boy’s patience too, ad he leaned forward, reaching his hand towards Reo’s chest with clearly stated intention of copying one of the heroine’s spells, but…

”Nooo…! Zoemi, don’t be a pervert!”

The green haired-boy jumped away as far as he possibly could, protectively covering his chest with both hands, staring at the black-haired boy with a pitiful betrayed expression as his chin trembled.

”Wh-what…? No, Reo – I can use the healing spells that Burushi uses. I can see that your heart is bothering you so I was going to just, you know, check what is going on.”

Zoemi raised his hands and assured with a slightly guilty expression.

”No! No touching until I will make it to the shop with cry… toilet! With toilet!”

Reo shook his head while strongly rejecting the idea.

”Alight… As you wish. Sorry again…”

Zoemi got back into his seat and leaned in with an apologetic expression making sure that the green-haired boy feels comfortable enough to move back to his spot.