"Then you’d better explain to me… what exactly are you doing here, Your Highness?"
!!!!!
Nora’s eyes flew wide. Dan’s jaw dropped. At that very moment, Zeedee lunged forward from behind with a fire poker, aiming to stab.
But in her human form, Zeedee still wasn’t as fast as someone born into that body.
Whoosh—
"Zeedee?!"
In the blink of an eye, Zeedee was snatched from the ground, hurled into the air, and slammed down hard. The fire poker shattered into pieces, and The Raven’s boot landed atop her head. Her right arm was locked in a painful twist, ready to snap if he so desired.
"Zeedee!???!"
"Aaaargh!!!"
Zeedee cried out in agony, her mouth wide open.
The Raven prepared to break her arm, eyes locked fiercely onto Mr. Dan Burn and Miss Nora Ophilis.
"So it really is you, Prince Fury… Iskaryx was your doing, wasn’t it?"
—Three months earlier, when Casca Saint Maximin was still in Snowhaven—
There was a certain piece of information that Prince Fury didn’t know.
During the ten years Casca had lived in Diablo, only two people in the world knew her true story.
One was her mother.
The other—was The Raven.
Casca trusted him. She and Raven had graduated in the same class, the same room, at Artheris Academy.
Among the five living heroes, Casca was the closest to him. They were battle-scarred comrades who had endured countless wars together.
And more than that, he knew about her relationship with Fury.
When Casca returned to the human realms and paid a visit to the Empress in Snowhaven…
The Raven had been there.
And he’d had a conversation with his old friend.
“Fury is coming.”
“…What did you say?”
The man turned, as if someone had just casually asked him what he’d had for breakfast.
“I just thought I should tell you… in case something happens.”
“What the hell would Fury be doing here?”
Casca smiled faintly and pointed a thumb at herself.
“Looking for me, of course.”
“…You’re playing some crazy game with him, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. We’re in the middle of one.”
“You’ve lost your damn mind.”
“I’m serious.”
Her golden eyes fixed hard on him. The tall man reflexively pulled his hood down.
“Cut the delusions already,” he said curtly.
“I already went above and beyond by keeping your secret from the rest of humanity… Do you know how shocked I was the day you told me about you and Fury?”
“I know… But I told you because it was you.”
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
“Casca… you’ve placed yourself right on the line between hero and traitor… Are you even aware of that?”
“I am. And before the world brands me a traitor, I need to open their hearts first.”
“Not in our generation.”
“No… but maybe in theirs. The next one.”
Casca’s voice was firm.
“It has to be slow. Layer by layer. I wrote all of it in my letters, didn’t I? The people of Diablo… they’re not demons.”
“You’ve told me that a thousand times. Even if I’ve never set foot there.”
“When that day comes, I want you to go there.”
Casca’s tone was serious.
“And you’ll understand—truly understand—what a ‘demon’ really is.”
Those words stayed etched in The Raven’s mind. Not long after she left Snowhaven, she’d given him some advance warning… to prevent panic.
“Listen, Raven. I get that you cherish Snowhaven the same way I love Luminus… Fury might come here, slim as the chances are. But if that happens—I want you to treat him like a person. Not a demon. Not some monstrous outsider.”
“If he rises from the sea to walk our land, how could people not panic? It’s insane. Unless… he sneaks in.”
“Exactly. He will sneak in.”
“…How?”
“I don’t know. But I dared him. And he’ll do it. For me~ He’d do anything~ Not to brag, but…”
“…You’re bragging.”
“Anyway, if Fury does come, just pretend you didn’t see anything, okay? I didn’t tell him about you.”
“…You’ve never told him about me? Ten years?”
“He knows there were two people who knew the truth about me. But he doesn’t know you’re one of them.”
“…You really love making everything more complicated, Casca. You give me such a headache… So I’m supposed to risk my career and reputation for your twisted little game?”
“Please?”
The Raven let out a huge sigh… His temples throbbed from the stress. And before Casca left Snowhaven—
“Is there anything else I should know?”
“…Actually, yes.”
Casca nodded.
“Fury might not come alone. He could bring at least one retainer—likely Dominic. He’s a trustworthy demon. Back when I was in Diablo, he reminded me of you. If you do meet Fury, Dominic might act suspicious toward you… but deep down, he’s very sweet.”
“…Fine. I’ll remember that.”
——
“…So you’re one of the two?”
Dan stared in disbelief. Nora kept glancing between them, unsure how to react. The Raven still had Zeedee pinned to the floor.
“Iskaryx had tears in its wing—identical to the wounds on that Shadow humanoid on the train. Identical, as if copied. You probably never noticed that, did you, Your Highness? But this is what we humans do. We observe. We study. We learn.”
“Let me go, you bastard! Ugh!”
The Raven released Zeedee. She tumbled over to Mr. Dan and clutched her right arm in pain.
“Ugh!”
Dan caught her tightly and looked up at Raven.
“…You knew all along, didn’t you?”
“The shell stuck in Iskaryx’s teeth confirmed it. I was over 100% sure.”
A raven flew back to The Raven and dissolved into a swirl of dark purple aura.
“I should’ve trusted my instincts sooner. The rebels on the train… that was your doing too.”
Sweat ran down Dan’s face.
There was no fooling him. Not The Raven.
Or maybe the real disaster was just having the bad luck of running into him in the first place.
“If the Shadowkin can disguise themselves as humans, then it’s no stretch that your kind—who adopted their tech—could do it too. If Miss Nora hadn’t been attacked that day, I never would’ve suspected you were that boy…”
Dan realized now—
The real disaster hadn’t been meeting The Raven.
It had been the Shadows deciding to attack Miss Nora.
“Casca told me everything about you, Your Highness… I’ve heard about you for years. But I need to ask—what is going on here?”
The Raven held his temples, clearly more overwhelmed now that he’d pieced it all together.
Zeedee sat nearby, teeth gritted, radiating silent fury at the Hero.
But the situation had deescalated more easily than expected—because The Raven already had a rough idea of Mr. Fury’s presence and purpose.
All thanks to Casca.
Now that everything was out in the open, there was no need for pretense.
“My attacks… leave distinctive scars?”
Dan opened and closed his hands repeatedly, sweating so much that Zeedee wiped his brow.
“You mean to tell me… you figured it was me just from that? That’s insane…”
This was new knowledge to Mr. Fury.
And a hard lesson: humans were far more intelligent than he had assumed.
Diablo had no concept of forensic science. Fury would have to write this down in big letters—he’d underestimated it, and now he was paying the price.
“From here on out, there won’t be a second chance. You’ll need to be far more careful.”
“…I’ll remember that, Lamar.”
The Raven’s eyes widened.
Lamar?
“Casca told you that too?”
“I know about all five of you. Your original name was Lamar, right?”
The Raven—his real name was Lamar Jackson. But today… he was simply The Raven.
Yes… “The Raven” was a title passed down across generations in Snowhaven. And the current holder was Lamar Jackson.
“Your Highness… can we really trust this guy? How do we know he’s actually one of her two?”
“You must be Freya.”
“!”
Zeedee’s eyes shot open.
“Casca told me Prince Fury would be with Dominic… but it seems she guessed wrong.”
“You know Dominic too?!”
“I wouldn’t have, if Casca hadn’t told me.”
“!”
Zeedee looked deeply unsettled.
The fact that The Raven knew this much was more than enough to confirm his good faith.
“You should’ve just come to me directly, Lamar… You didn’t need to go through all this.”
“I wanted to. But I had to be sure you weren’t one of those Shadows.”
“…True enough.”
In truth, if the Shadows hadn’t shown up that day, The Raven probably would’ve just tapped Mr. Dan on the shoulder and said, “I know who you are.”
It had all come down to a series of overlapping, catastrophic timings.
