As soon as Maou Midori stepped through the portal, something clicked in Konrad's mind.
He had seen this exact scene before. It was in one of the visions shown to the king.
And it was one where he had lost. By far.
But the worst part? Gabrielle sped through the images, so he didn't even have an idea how it went down. He only saw the very start and the way it ended—and so far, everything matched.
Well, almost.
The king himself wasn't in the original vision, but he came here because he saw it. The rest was the same—the envoys huddling inside a protective bubble, the dragon trying to burn them.
And Maou Midori arrived to the rescue.
It was odd to think that this was the first time they had finally met.
Months ago, Konrad left the small village of Haiten to seek out the Green Mage as a mentor.
If someone told him back then that Maou Midori was real—not only that, but he was the mage he sought—he would have laughed. The whole time-travel aspect was absurd.
And yet, today, he arrived here as the hero, trying to defeat the Demon Lord.
Even if he looked nothing like he had imagined.
So far, his image was always a blur in someone else's memories.
It was as vague as it felt menacing, but having seen the real deal, he seemed like a frail old man.
He had to lean on a staff—though, Konrad was certain it was a magic weapon—his wrinkled skin loose around his wrists. If he thought the Silver Mage looked old, he had to think again.
Under the large, pointy hat and the long, grey beard was a shaking wizard ridden with illnesses.
But, well, if half the stories he puzzled together were true, this man was two hundred years old.
Considering that, he did look the part. But a menace? It was hard to imagine it.
"Crimson Dragon Lilith," the Green Mage noted, his voice weak and sounding surprised.
"Trickster Mage," Maple responded, raising her head above the new arrival.
Her glare was intense, and for a moment, everyone seemed to have forgotten about Konrad.
"So you have finally broken my seal and come to take revenge?" the old man muttered.
Oh, right. That's how he found the dragon, sealed away in his salt mine.
"Don't flatter yourself, wizard," she scoffed, trying to sound cool. "I never managed to break out."
She couldn't have failed harder.
Maou Midori laughed—a weak, forced sound broken up by coughs.
"Not in a hundred years?" he asked, already out of breath. "I must apologise then. I didn't expect you to be so weak. But your spells? They have kick-started my new life as a conqueror."
Okay, Konrad didn't remember this part from the vision.
But right now, the scene looked more like a sour reunion. It was a showdown between dragon and mage, rather than his fight to save the world. Nobody even acknowledged him—
Well, except the king.
"Why did you come here?!" he demanded, pushing through the ring of his guards.
He kept his voice low, eyeing both the dragon and the Demon Lord with suspicion.
Why indeed?
Because Gabrielle trapped him in a time anomaly, and Lily helped him break free?
If he had a single brain cell, he would've fled as far from here as possible. Instead, he rode into battle on a dragon's back, despite knowing it couldn't end well. He had no real answer.
"I let your demonic lovers see ten different futures," Ronald whispered.
It was one of those rare occasions when Konrad remembered a name he heard not long ago.
But if Gabrielle heard him refer to her as demonic—
"I have seen them, too," he replied. What did Lily say about them? He needed a moment before he could continue. "And I suspect the Demon Lord was only trying to deceive you."
It didn't come out sounding as confident as he hoped, but yes.
That's why he was here.
"I can't abandon this world, even if you ask me," Konrad continued. "You kept demanding I prove myself, and I did—over and over. This will be the last time. I'll prove I can save the world."
Okay, that was way too confident towards the end. But cheesy as it was, it worked.
The king bowed his head and took a few steps back.
"It's not like I can fight either of you," Ronald admitted. "I've only come to surrender."
But he was willing to give him one last attempt before he did that.
That didn't make him feel any better about his chances.
Especially when he realised the Green Mage and his dragon were still glaring at each other.
Wasn't he supposed to be the main hero here? Should he have attacked?
"I can't let you cross these mountains with an army, old man," the dragoness claimed. "Your conquering ends here—and I'll be taking my stolen spells back."
How did someone even steal a spell? Copy the memories and erase them from the host?
No, this wasn't the time to dwell on that.
"I don't have an army with me, Lilith," the Green Mage retorted. "I only sent my envoys, and you tried to incinerate them like a savage. This is unacceptable even in the steppes."
It was a fair point—but Konrad found something odd about this whole situation.
"You have sent your envoys, but who did you want to negotiate with?" he asked.
That might have been the first time the Demon Lord would look at him, seeming more annoyed than surprised. Not the way he wanted to introduce himself—but things didn't add up.
"Who, you ask?" the Green Mage scoffed. "With the king of Kasserlane, of course."
He pointed at Ronald behind him, but that was where things got weird.
"He has come to meet your envoys, yes," Konrad said with a nod. "But only because he saw a vision of them arriving. And that vision was never about negotiating in the first place."
He already knew there was more than one Green Mage due to the nature of time travel.
Which one was this old man? Which one kidnapped him and the king?
How much did this Maou Midori know?
The Demon Lord smirked, the expression making him look decades younger already. He turned to face him, his bickering with the dragon forgotten. As if a mask has fallen off, and—
Before the lightning struck him, Konrad had a split second to erect a barrier.
The thunder still almost burst his eardrums, echoing between the mountains.
This old man was not someone he should've trifled with, but he remained unchatched so far.
"I see," the mage noted. "So the future warned about you, not of this puny dragon."
Did he throw away his one chance for a surprise attack?
Maple's eyes went wide, too, almost as if panicking. But it did answer his question in a way.
This wizard only saw glimpses of the future, too, and didn't arrive from there. Depending on how much he saw, Konrad could have still turned the tables on him.
If only his legs weren't trembling when he saw the molten rocks at his feet.
"Well then," Maou Midori smirked, his staff already leveled at him. "Let's see what I can take from you, boy. Be a nice stepping stone into my greatness, and don't die too soon."