'As expected, he dodged,' Ace threw the stick onto the ground.
"So, mind telling me what possessed to attack me," Frank's anxious smile hid his thoughts. 'Did he figure me out?'
"Attack? What do you mean?" Ace feigned ignorance, chewing on the biscuit he pulled out of nowhere.
"Come on! You just tried to pierce my eye with a stick!" Frank let out his frustration and anger.
"You're wrong."
"Huh?"
"I wasn't aiming to attack you, I was trying to test you," honestly said Ace, his blunt response carrying no falsehood.
"Test me?" Frank had a confused expression.
"Yeah," Ace began, finishing the biscuit to the last bite. "If you died then that would mean that you really were weak, and that my suspicion was wrong."
'Damn it,' Frank realized his blunder.
"But since you're still alive, that means my assumptions were correct. In that case…" Ace's eyes seemed to cut the very air itself. "Who are you really?"
"Haha," Frank let out a laugh, his disbelief evident. 'Those eyes of his… He's already figured everything out, didn't he?'
"Haaa…" Frank let the mask drop. "Can't we just act as if nothing happened?"
"No longer acting, huh?" Ace had a completely unbothered expression on his face.
"I'll have you know I've actually been very genuine," Frank kept the tension light before it shifted. "So, how did you figure it out? Was it that time yesterday?"
"Thanks for the kill by the way."
"Bastard."
"And to answer your question, no. I just tried to see if I was right." Ace's blank expression made Frank's expression even more dumbfounded.
"What? It was just a hunch?"
"Pretty much."
Frank let out an exasperated sigh. 'No doubt about it. This guy really is psycho.'
With a single motion of the arm as if trying to grab onto something, a spear made of stone appeared beside Frank, and in a mastered sequence of movements, he started spinning it like whirlwind until his stance was ready for battle.
"I really didn't want to do this, you know?" Frank looked at Ace with an easygoing yet resolved expression.
"Didn't care either way," Ace started loosening his wrists as he summoned his sword and then pointed it at Frank.
'Hmm? This feeling again?' a familiar sensation gripped Ace. 'That must mean…'
"Quick question though," Ace's eyes focused slightly.
"Hmm? What is it?" Frank raised an eyebrow.
"Your target… it's Emi, right?"
"Heh," Frank smirked. "And how did you figure that out?"
"Simple process of deduction. It's weird that her kidnapping back in the second term happened when she seemed to be so well-protected."
Frank remained silent.
'The only change was my enrollment. That old man Hugo definitely knows something,' Ace thought, his mind never letting its guard down. 'There must have been some connection between the two events, and whatever that was, he saw it as a window to act.'
"You're involved in her past, aren't you?" Ace went straight to the point.
"So you even know that much, huh?" Frank momentarily letting his guard down.
'Now,' Ace dashed towards Frank, his sword ready to cut him.
"Predictable."
"Hmm?" Ace's eyes slightly widened as he got blasted upward by a pillar that appeared out of nowhere.
With a mid-air flip, he landed his feet on the ground without any injuries.
"Wow! As expected, you blocked that one. But how about those?" Frank pointed at Ace's back.
Ace turned his face around only to find that his head was right in front of a cannon. 'When did he…?'
"Boom," the cannon fired at Frank's command, Ace evading the shot by a hair's breadth by stumbling on the ground.
'That was close.'
"Just so you know, I'm not holding back right now," Frank tapped his spear three times on his shoulder before pointing it towards Ace.
"Go figures," Ace rose up from the ground, rubbing off the dirt from his clothes. "So, how long do you intend to remain there?"
"What?" Frank questioned Ace's words. "What do you mean by that?"
"I wasn't talking to you."
"Huh?" Frank's expression shifted from confusion to surprise quickly. 'Killing intent?'
When Frank turned his face around in the direction where he felt the killing intent, a thud sprung out from his chest.
"Wha?" Frank saw spikes of frozen blood coming out from both his chest and back before he felt another presence closing in on him.
With a gasp, he saw Ace already at point-blank range from him.
'Shit.'
"Too bad," Ace said as he swinged his sword in an upward slash.
Without even being able to react, a deep cut that went from his right abdomen up to his left shoulder etched itself on Frank's body, the wound bursting out in dripping blood.
Frank fell to his knees, vomiting blood in the process, and as if accompanied by the silence of the night, the echo of Emilia's footsteps followed her as she appeared before them.
"Thanks for the assist," Ace aborded her.
"Ace," Emilia began, her voice calm. "Please keep quiet."
As soon as Ace saw the glint in Emilia's eyes, he froze instantly. He didn't say another word as he simply followed Emilia who walked towards Frank with his eyes.
"That's one hell of a scary look you've got in your eyes," Frank coughed up blood as he looked up towards Emilia who glared at him with a calm yet furious gaze.
"Is it true?" Emilia asked, trying to hide her shaky and betrayed voice behind a calm face. "Are you really involved with what happened to me in the past?"
'So that's what this is about, eh?'
"Yes and no," Frank replied calmly. "I wasn't directly involved, but I am associated with who did it."
"I see," Emilia felt her world crumbling. 'I guess that just proves how blind and ignorant I was. Staying weak as I've been, won't help me achieve anything.'
"Can I ask you a question? Have you ever really been my friend?" Emilia asked Frank from the bottom of her heart, short spears of ice forming and hovering above her.
Frank smiled, his eyes changing to a crimson-red menacing glow.
"No. It was all just an act for the mission. Being your friend was necessary to keep an eye on you and deliver you to big brother."
The color of his eyes made memories resurface in Emilia's mind, making her unconsciously unleash all the spears of ice onto Frank, killing him instantly.
But just as life is a succession of events that come and go, the trials Emilia would now go through had been set in stone, beginning with the voice that called out to her as fireworks bloomed in the night sky.
"What the…? What… is this?" Mira's confused and horrified voice and expression shook Emilia's mind. "E-Emi?"