‘Damn it, nothing’s going right.’
Klad frowned as much as he could.
Of all things, because he had entered his own memories, things had gotten twisted beyond measure.
‘What do I do?’
No matter how much he worried and worried again, it wasn’t a problem that could be easily solved.
There was no method. No way to approach Jake without being noticed by this world’s Klad.
‘I shouldn’t have surrounded Jake with so much protective magic…’
Among Klad’s protective magic was one that concealed his existence so Jake couldn’t be easily tracked. The problem was that because of that magic, even Klad found it difficult to grasp where Jake was or what he was doing.
Of course, if he tried to break through the protective magic to find Jake, he could. But if he did that, he couldn’t prevent the magic wavelength from spreading throughout the entire capital.
And right now, Klad was in the capital.
The Klad from 750 years in the past.
‘That bastard would notice that my magic is the same as his. Then it’s over.’
The idea that an existence identical to himself exists in the world—how could that make sense?
The past Klad would surely harbor suspicions about this situation and set out to find him. Especially during this time when his nerves were particularly frayed, the probability of him coming out aggressively was high.
If by any chance he didn’t come looking for him but instead first dug into who the existence that used magic was trying to find, that would be even worse. That bastard would easily find Jake, and he would find it extremely unpleasant to see a human of West appearing wrapped up tightly in his own magic.
‘I can’t find Jake… but I can’t not find him either. This is driving me crazy, really.’
There was the option of using tracking magic and finding Jake first before the past Klad could act, then running away, but it wasn’t a wise method. He would know well that the only way for two identical living beings to walk around in the world was through the magic that enters the world of memories, and he would immediately realize that he himself was merely a fake, a fragment of the past.
No existence would be happy to learn they’re fake. The past Klad would start causing havoc from that moment on. He would wreak havoc until not even dust remained of the world. That was partly because he himself was fake, but also because he happened to want to destroy the world anyway.
‘At that time, I wanted to smash this entire world to pieces.’
But his movements were blocked by oaths and dragon rules, so he couldn’t destroy even one ducal castle, let alone the world. However, if this was a fake world, the story was different.
A fake Klad could destroy a fake world as much as he wanted. Then Jake would be smashed to pieces along with the fake world. No matter how much death here wasn’t death in reality, it would have a major impact on his mind.
Above all, there was a high possibility he would never wake up.
‘If I meet that bastard… could I win?’
Klad seriously pondered.
He and the past Klad possessed nearly identical power. If he had practiced magic from 750 years ago until now, he might have improved slightly more than the past Klad, but unfortunately, all Klad had done from 750 years ago until meeting Jake was bemoan his life and act pathetic.
Rather, because he had been stuck in darkness for such a long time, his skills might have rusted compared to the past. Moreover, a Klad who had someone to protect versus a Klad who would pour out all kinds of magic recklessly without looking ahead or behind. If those two clashed, who would win was as clear as day.
‘Who even said you become stronger when you have someone to protect?’
That probably meant that your mindset becomes firm when you have a heart that wants to protect, not that you become physically stronger. In a situation where he didn’t even know where Jake, the one he had to protect, was, steeling his mindset didn’t help at all in the current situation.
What if he provoked that already insane opponent and he spewed out a breath attack?
‘That damned bastard…’
Klad cursed his past self and pondered over and over again. If he could just find Jake, even if he couldn’t achieve the purpose of coming here, he would immediately escape. Originally, if this magic failed to achieve its initial purpose, escape was very difficult, but that was something he could resolve by creating new magic to escape from here.
‘The problem is whether I can find Jake…’
During this time, he had used every method to find Jake’s whereabouts within the limits of not using magic extensively. He investigated through information guilds whether there were any suspicious people who had suddenly appeared recently, and hired slum children to search every nook and cranny of the alleys.
But Jake’s traces couldn’t be seen anywhere.
‘This is bad.’
As time passed, the probability of Jake being safe decreased.
He had added an alarm magic so he could immediately know if Jake was in danger and the protective magic activated, but seeing that there was no response, he was probably still safe, but he couldn’t be certain. If by any chance Jake had fallen in a different area outside the capital, even if the alarm magic activated, it wouldn’t reach him.
‘Did he really fall somewhere else?’
Since the destination suddenly changed during the magic casting, it wouldn’t be strange if an error occurred.
As time passed, his anxiety grew.
‘I can’t stay like this. I have to act directly.’
Klad decided to act, taking on a slight risk.
At least for the past few days, he had been holed up in an inn repeatedly working on concealing his presence, so he wouldn’t be easily discovered. The work of hiding himself so his existence wouldn’t be revealed even to another Black Dragon was troublesome enough to take several days, but thanks to that, from now on he could move around much more at ease.
And there was exactly one thing where Klad could definitely surpass the past Klad.
Information.
Klad remembered everything about when and where the past Klad would move.
‘I just need to find Jake without setting foot within that bastard’s detection range as much as possible.’
It was a problem that the range where he could move was greatly reduced, but… it was fine since his opponent would be entering the ducal castle within a few hours. Because of the magic circle installed in the ducal castle, it would be difficult to accurately grasp the external situation from inside.
‘As long as Jake isn’t inside there.’
But there was no need to worry about this problem. After all, the first place he investigated right after falling into this world and being separated from Jake was the ducal castle.
If a human they’d never seen before, moreover a human who was the spitting image of West bloodline, suddenly appeared at the ducal castle, rumors should have spread throughout the entire capital by now. If not rumors like an intruder broke into the ducal castle or a person who didn’t exist before appeared with a poof from thin air, at least something like ‘the Duke’s hidden son has appeared’ could have spread, couldn’t it? But seeing that there was no such news at all, Jake had clearly fallen somewhere completely unrelated to the ducal castle.
Klad headed to the information guild to collect sightings of blond-haired men. All the information he had obtained over the past few days was about those with similar hair color, and among them, those with blue eyes could be counted on one hand.
This time would probably just be useless information like that too. Klad didn’t have high expectations.
“We found him! The blond-haired, blue-eyed man who’s been wandering around the capital for the past few days.”
So even when the information guild spoke with confidence, he doubted and doubted again.
“This time it’s real. He matches the description you gave us quite closely. For the past few days, he’s been wearing a hood with an artifact that changes hair color, so he wasn’t noticeable. We barely caught him when his hood came off during a fight at a pub when he was drinking and grappling with his opponent, tearing at each other’s hair.”
At the information guild member’s explanation, Klad let out a small sigh.
That figured. Jake didn’t have a hood with an artifact like that. He didn’t enjoy noisy places like pubs or drinking either.
Above all, Jake didn’t have the strength to fight by grappling and tearing at hair with other bastards.
“That’s not the information I want.”
At Klad’s resolute words, the guild member grinned instead of being disappointed.
“I understand you want to hide that you’re looking for Ellen-nim… but there’s no need to act in front of us. Secrets are always with our guild.”
“…Ellen? What are you talking about?”
“Surely you’re not pretending not to know because you’re worried the ducal family’s information might be expensive? Someone who has paid enough to buy all information related to Ellen-nim and still have money left wouldn’t have such worries… Ah, perhaps a grudge relationship?”
At the guild member’s additional explanation, the color drained from Klad’s face.
Unless one was an idiot, there wouldn’t be any dragon who couldn’t deduce from the previous words that the bastard called ‘Ellen’ was a human of the West family with blond hair and blue eyes.
Ellen… Ellen West. The heir of the House of Duke West during this period had that name.
But that didn’t make sense. The range where Klad requested a search was within the capital excluding the ducal castle and the imperial castle. Why on earth would a member of the ducal family be wandering outside the castle? For several days at that.
“Are you certain Ellen West has been away from the ducal castle for the past several days?”
“Yes. He stayed for four days at the ‘Deer Garden Inn’ in the northeast.”
“Are there records of him returning to the ducal castle in between?”
“None at all.”
“Any traces of the ducal family searching for their heir?”
“Surprisingly, none. Um, as a service, I’ll give you additional information—this is the first time knights haven’t come to drag Ellen-nim away within 24 hours of his escaping the castle. Did they give up after all?”
They didn’t give up. The Duke clearly didn’t even know his heir was gone.
“I want to see Ellen West’s portrait.”
“It’s ready.”
After checking the portrait the guild member handed over, Klad became even more certain.
‘They’re alike. If Jake fell in the ducal castle…’
If that happened, ‘that magic’ would have activated. Not only the Duke but everyone in the ducal castle would ‘perceive’ Jake as Ellen.
‘This is bad.’
That must not happen. It meant Jake must not be in the ducal castle right now.
“Ah, customer? Customer!”
Leaving the guild member’s shout behind, Klad ran recklessly toward the ducal castle. Worries like how moving like this would expose his existence to the past Klad no longer concerned him.
No. Rather, he hoped he would notice him and come find him. If not… Jake would soon face him.
And he. The Klad of this period was dangerous.
All the more so if the opponent he faced was a human of the West family.
***
“…Klad?”
At Jake’s murmur, the dragon polymorphed into a black-haired human male, Klad, turned around.
Thump.
The moment he made eye contact with Klad, Jake felt as if his heart was dropping.
‘…This isn’t the Klad I know.’
Klad’s gaze didn’t contain even a bit of warmth.
Inside it was filled with murderous intent.
