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Aaron Sea Promenade.

“Who are you?”

Isabel’s low voice resonated through the air.

In front of her stood a boy.

The boy, who was short for his age, blinked at Isabel as he faced her.

“What do you mean, ‘who’? I’m Hannon.”

Hannon looked at Isabel with a confused expression.

However, a sharp tension radiated from Isabel.

“Don’t lie.”

Isabel glared at him with a serious expression.

Hannon awkwardly scratched the back of his neck in response.

“Well, this is strange. I am Hannon, but you’re saying I’m not? Odd.”

Hannon let out a chuckle, seemingly exasperated at being dismissed as fake despite stating his real name.

“Fine. Let’s assume that’s true.”

Hannon smirked lazily as he looked at Isabel.

“How did you figure it out?”

All he had done since arriving was call out to Isabel.

Yet Isabel had immediately noticed that he wasn’t the person she knew.

To Hannon, this was utterly fascinating.

After all, outwardly, he looked exactly like the real Hannon.

“That person doesn’t make expressions like that.”

“Expressions, huh.”

Hannon touched his own face.

Even the smallest change in expression could alter the impression it gave.

While the face might be the same, time left its mark.

Isabel could see through that difference with precision.

“From the beginning, your gaze was off. Do you think he would ever look at me with such a mocking expression?”

To Isabel, the Hannon she knew was always a serious person.

Although he occasionally acted with exaggerated gestures,

he was fundamentally upright and considerate of others.

He would never display such frivolous behavior as the person before her.

“Besides, even your posture is different.”

Unlike the real Hannon, who always stood with a straight back and exuded confidence,

the Hannon in front of her was slouching with one leg lazily supporting his weight.

After hearing all this, Hannon was impressed.

“Wow, I see now. It’s not easy to impersonate someone else. I’ve learned something.”

He acknowledged his mistake.

“Still, even considering that, your observational skills are... unusual. What’s your relationship with him, anyway?”

Her relationship?

Hearing this, Isabel fell silent.

If someone asked what her relationship with Hannon was,

she couldn’t neatly define it herself.

To some extent, she considered him a rival.

But apart from that, she found herself emotionally relying on him more and more.

It was a complicated feeling Isabel couldn’t easily articulate.

“Are you secretly in love with him or something?”

Hannon asked with a playful grin.

In love.

As soon as Isabel heard those words, she felt a heavy weight press deep inside her chest.

“...No.”

Isabel laughed bitterly at herself.

“It’s not something as beautiful as that.”

Whoosh—

A sea breeze blew past Isabel.

Perhaps due to the shadows cast by the trees under the sun,

her eyes seemed to hold no light.

“Complicated, huh.”

Hannon couldn’t grasp Isabel’s emotions.

He could only sense that the depth of her feelings was immense.

This wasn’t something he should meddle in.

Hannon decided to stop teasing her.

Instead, he resolved to extract the information he sought.

“Then, tell me. Before he showed up, did anyone get involved with you? Like someone who declared they’d help you.”

“...What do you mean?”

Isabel looked at Hannon with a face full of confusion.

“There’s no way he came to the academy without a purpose. And yet, the very first thing he did was clash with you.”

Hannon pieced together his reasoning based on the information he’d gathered.

Hearing his question, Isabel stood still without answering.

But her eyes wavered.

Because, deep down, she had thought something similar herself.

That man constantly insulted Lucas and provoked her.

It was as if he was deliberately trying to stir her anger.

At first, she clashed with him without hesitation, driven by her indignation over Lucas being insulted.

But over time, as she observed him more, Isabel began to see him differently.

He wasn’t the kind of person who would carelessly disparage others.

In fact, he shared many traits with Lucas.

It didn’t make sense for someone like him to insult Lucas.

But—

if, just maybe—

he insulted Lucas to save her?

When Lucas was insulted, Isabel found the anger to climb out of despair.

She clawed her way out of the depths of hopelessness.

Insulting Lucas was the only thing that could provoke her enough to act.

Even Isabel herself couldn’t deny that truth.

So who was it that insulted Lucas?

‘It was him.’

And who was it that stayed by her side when she crumbled and helped her rise again?

‘It was him.’

Isabel’s pupils quivered violently.

At the same time, memories from the day before resurfaced.

The moment she learned he was dating Hania, fear erupted in her heart.

Like her brother and Lucas before him,

he might leave her forever.

He might never give her another thought.

That thought alone engulfed her in an indescribable terror.

Possessiveness and obsession.

Another form of separation anxiety.

And yet, once again, he appeared before her and reassured her.

Thump—

Isabel felt a pounding sensation in her chest.

She couldn’t yet fully understand what it was.

But one thing was certain: every time she was about to fall, he helped her stand again.

Isabel’s lips opened and closed repeatedly.

If all of this was true—

‘Why?’

Why was he trying so hard to help her stand?

Isabel had never seen Hannon before their second year, first semester.

She had no prior connection to him.

Why would someone who seemingly had no ties to her recognize her state the moment he saw her and insult Lucas for her sake?

‘It doesn’t make sense.’

Even if it was a series of coincidences,

there were too many peculiarities in his actions.

‘More than that, he seemed familiar with Zerion Academy from the start.’

From his very first day at the academy,

he moved as if he already knew everything about it.

That wasn’t all.

He also seemed to know an unusual amount about the second-year students.

Knowing that much was impossible unless he had deliberately investigated them beforehand.

Someone who knew Zerion Academy well and had researched the second-year students—

Isabel raised her head.

Her gaze met Hannon’s once more.

Hannon had insisted he was the real Hannon.

While she didn’t believe him immediately,

there had always been gaps in her thoughts.

But if Hannon wasn’t really Hannon—

if he had been a fake from the beginning—

those gaps would suddenly make sense.

As that realization struck, Isabel’s pupils widened.

Hannon responded with a sly grin.

Then who was he, really?

‘…Someone who knows me?’

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And someone who would come all the way to the academy to save her?

Isabel’s lips moved slightly.

But she refrained from jumping to conclusions.

There was no guarantee that Hannon’s words were entirely truthful.

It could just be a story he made up to confuse her.

So Isabel brushed away the various questions that arose in her mind for now.

"I don’t know why you’re saying such things."

Isabel slowly drew the sword she had brought for training.

The blade gleamed ominously in the sunlight, as if to announce it was a real weapon.

"I have no intention of entertaining nonsense any longer."

Whether Hannon’s words were true or not,

his appearance was bound to trouble that person.

The truth could be questioned after capturing Hannon.

"Oh, how scary."

He didn’t look scared at all.

With a slightly irritated expression, Isabel immediately launched herself off the ground.

The distance between Isabel and Hannon closed in an instant.

She reversed her grip on the sword and swung it toward him without a trace of hesitation.

The aim was to strike his chin with the flat of the blade and knock him out cold.

Just before her sword could connect,

Hannon bent backward with incredible flexibility, avoiding the strike completely.

She had expected him to dodge.

Without stopping, Isabel pursued Hannon and swung her sword again.

However, Hannon avoided all of her successive attacks.

‘What kind of movements are these?’

Hannon displayed acrobatics that resembled a circus performance,

dodging with reflexes and flexibility that seemed superhuman.

He was quick—

it felt like fighting a squirrel.

Her previous opponent trusted his physical strength and engaged in brutal, forceful clashes.

In contrast, Hannon showed no intention of taking even a single hit.

The two fought in completely different ways.

Hannon performed multiple flips and landed lightly back in place.

"100 points!"

That casual behavior was annoyingly smug.

But Isabel acknowledged it.

This wouldn’t work unless she gave it her all.

"Calm down now, I don’t intend to fight. I just came to ask something out of curiosity."

"After provoking me like that, you expect me to believe you?"

"Provoking? I was just trying to make friends!"

Isabel decided there was no point in continuing the conversation.

She steadied her breath.

A different aura began to emanate from her than before.

Seeing this, Hannon tilted his head slightly, then made a decision.

"Alright, I have something to do, so I’ll take my leave now."

With those words, Hannon turned and ran without hesitation.

Isabel immediately pursued him, but the distance between them widened in an instant.

Hannon’s speed was so great that his running feet became almost invisible.

"What...?"

Isabel stood there momentarily stunned.

No matter how fast someone was, this was too much.

She wondered if such speed was even possible for human legs.

"What is going on here?"

She pushed her complicated thoughts aside, sheathed her sword, and started running.

* * *

On the beach promenade,

Hannon kicked up dust as he ran at an astonishing speed.

Even at this pace, he showed no signs of fatigue, stretching his legs out further as he ran.

‘I originally planned to trick her and get some information.’

He didn’t expect his identity to be discovered so quickly.

He had chosen the wrong first opponent—severely wrong.

‘Who should I approach next?’

There was the daughter of the Blue Tower Master.

As he thought of meeting her,

Hannon noticed the light above him suddenly brightening.

When he looked up, rays of light were pouring down from the sky.

"Oh."

Hannon let out a sound of surprise and immediately changed direction.

The spot where he had just been standing was struck by a beam of light.

Boom!

The light beam tore through the promenade.

As soon as Hannon witnessed its power, he increased his running speed even further.

Dodging each beam of light in a zigzag pattern,

Hannon’s eyes locked on to the sky.

There, holding a staff and floating gracefully in the air, was a girl.

Sharin Sazaris.

The daughter of the Blue Tower Master.

"Looks like my identity is already known to her."

He should have gone to her from the start.

Feeling a twinge of regret, Hannon veered toward the forest.

The forest had plenty of cover.

Sniping from above would be difficult there.

Sure enough, Sharin’s sniper magic ceased.

Hannon ran freely deeper into the forest.

‘Isabel, Sharin… both of them.’

He couldn’t understand why Zerion Academy was so violent.

As much as he regretted not getting more information,

with the Blue Tower Master’s daughter chasing him, he couldn’t afford to dig further.

Just as Hannon decided to escape,

a tree beside him was pierced through, and a hand suddenly shot out.

"What the—?"

Could someone actually pierce a tree with their bare hand?

For a moment, Hannon wore a blank expression.

And beyond the broken tree,

a man with sharp eyes glared at him.

Crunch!

Hannon was grabbed by the nape and dragged along with the shattered tree.

It was too late to escape.

His body was hurled straight down, plummeting vertically.

"Ugh!"

As Hannon hit the ground, his arms and legs stretched upward and then went limp.

The man standing over Hannon—

Vikamon—cracked his neck.

"Gotcha."

Vikamon exhaled deeply.

"I understand your position, and I apologize for using violence. But there was no other way to catch you."

"Too bad. I wasn’t done having fun yet."

Despite the impact, Hannon smiled, seemingly enjoying himself no matter what Vikamon did.

Clicking his tongue briefly, Vikamon replied,

"Sorry, but business hours are over."

It was now time to clock out.

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