I opened my eyes to a warm breeze blowing.
It had definitely been late autumn when I closed them.
But more important than the sudden change in weather was the scent of blood mixed into that warm wind.
"Ugh. Push harder!"
"We've almost got it. Almost got it!"
"The Illusion Demon King's head is mine!"
Shouts echoed from all directions, impossible to pinpoint front, back, left, or right.
Only then did I grasp the situation.
This was a battlefield.
A battlefield against the rank 128 Illusion Demon King, no less.
The same one I'd fought in about seven years ago.
'What the hell is going on?'
The people fighting alongside me weren't exactly comrades-in-arms.
They were a provisional alliance party of renowned adventurers from various regions.
Demon Kings at the lower end of the rankings had to climb fast or become stepping stones for adventurers' careers like this.
The problem was that the Illusion Demon King was one who could climb quickly.
At this point, only two weeks old, it was already a powerhouse capable of summoning hordes of undead.
"We've broken through! The real body's just one sword swing away."
"Hey, what're you doing? Your sword stopped!"
"Mages, do something about these damn skeletons!"
"One more step. Just one more step!"
Seven years ago, I'd joined this ragtag party to track down the Erosion Demon King.
I was a fairly well-known adventurer even then, so everyone welcomed me aboard.
And one of them had been especially thrilled...
"Dai-il! Where are you spacing out? Snap out of it!"
A voice I'd never heard before.
But it hit me like a soul-shattering blow.
The voice was new, but that face... I'd definitely seen it somewhere.
In the portrait on my pre-regression party's registration cards.
Red hair cascading down past her waist.
Her eyes had a sharp edge, but were large enough to soften any ferocity.
She looked quite young overall, yet carried an oddly mature air that made her age hard to guess.
I tilted my head and asked,
"Rennel, by any chance?"
"Rennel, by any chance?"
"..."
"Yeah. Rennel. Thanks for recognizing me."
Was it always like this seven years ago?
Rennel had joined this provisional party targeting the Illusion Demon King to boost her own fame.
That connection had blossomed into us taking down four Arch Demon Kings together as legendary party members.
But that wasn't the issue right now.
'I can see her face? Hear her voice?'
As soon as my senses sharpened to reality, the surreal crashed in.
The curse of the Erosion Demon King that had bound me my whole life... the Quad wrangles were gone!
Normal faces filled my vision, normal voices rang in my ears.
Forgetting the battle raging around me, I stared straight through Rennel.
A memory surfaced.
One of my party members chatting with Rennel, which I'd overheard.
-Miss Rennel's portrait doesn't match her real face much.
-Don't remind me. That painter scammed me.
-Haha.
-Claimed he had decades of experience, said it was his last commission before retirement, so he'd do it cheap. I was broke back then, so I trusted him. Nearly got my adventurer registration denied because of it.
-That's rough. Why not get it redone now?
-Too much hassle. Plus, traveling with that guy made me famous enough that I don't even need to flash the card anymore.
Just as I remembered.
Back then, I'd thought, How different could it really be? But facing her now, the portrait only captured fragments of her features.
'The gap between the real thing and the drawing is huge.'
A strange awe sealed my lips.
Slowly, I turned my head to survey the scene.
Everything was visible.
All the people had proper eyes, noses, and mouths, just like memories from before age seven.
"I can see it."
"What's wrong with you since earlier?"
"..."
"W-What? That look on your face."
I was probably crying.
I hurriedly wiped my face and composed myself.
'But why can I see?'
And why was I back in the world seven years ago?
That's when it happened.
"...!"
A Quad wrangle appeared.
Chills raced over my skin, my stomach churning.
Having tasted a proper world again, I never wanted to go back.
But fortunately, not everyone was a Quad wrangle.
Only two showed up in my sight.
One sat at the edge of the path the adventurers were charging, overseeing the chaos.
'If memory serves, that spot holds...
The target of this fight: the Illusion Demon King.
'Only non-humans show as Quad wrangles? No, something's off.'
If so, all these scattered skeletons should be Quad wrangles too.
I shifted my gaze to the other Quad wrangle in view.
About three meters tall, off in a spot away from the main fray.
After a moment's thought, I asked Rennel,
"Rennel. What's over there?"
"Don't talk to me. We're in the middle of a fight. Focus."
"That Demon King is a fake."
"Yeah, right."
"We know nothing about the Illusion Demon King. Just that it's two weeks old and ranked 128th. So we misjudged it as some weak summoner."
Reality was different.
And that's why this fight ended in defeat.
"So tell me. What's there?"
"Ugh, fine. ...What? It's just a tree."
A tree?
Her words sparked a memory.
The Illusion Demon King definitely...
Swish.
I moved slowly toward it.
Rennel panicked at my blatant retreat from the battlefield.
"Hey! What are you doing? We're a party, even if provisional!"
"Provisional means we can disband now."
"You crazy bastard. I knew you looked uncooperative."
"Come with me."
"What?"
"Come on. You want to rack up fame fast, get rewarded by the Emperor, live in a fancy mansion with servants?"
It was the excuse Rennel gave before disbanding the party in my memory, but I knew some truth lay behind it.
Rennel flinched.
"N-Nonsense. I just..."
"..."
"..."
"Why stop there?"
"But... would the Emperor really reward us for a rank 128?"
I heard footsteps following as I veered off to the side.
Toward the tree Rennel mentioned.
Toward the entity that appeared as a Quad wrangle to me.
'Never once has a tree been hidden by a Quad wrangle.'
More precisely, no non-sentient being had ever been obscured.
This Quad wrangle felt fundamentally different from the past, when it hid everything.
And if my memory was right...
'The Illusion Demon King could cast illusions even on itself!'
Shing. Ssssh!
I drew my sword and cleaved the tree in one stroke.
The feedback on my blade tip confirmed it.
"Gaaaargh!"
Definitely not wood.
I'd just sliced through blood, bone, and flesh.
"How... how..."
The mortally wounded Demon King collapsed before me.
The subjugation op that failed in my memory.
Because the one lounging up on the dais was an illusion.
Someone had cut through it, but it exploded, swallowing the adventurers.
Rennel and I barely survived, but the Demon King vanished without a trace.
If memory served, the Illusion Demon King later plagued the Empire, only to die by the Radiant Knights Order captain's blade.
Now, it was dying by mine.
Drip. Drip.
The Illusion Demon King looked up at me, bleeding fatally.
Its eyes held confusion, rage, and faint fear.
"How did you know?"
"Too sloppy."
"Heh. Hehehe."
It dropped its head and muttered,
"Lived my whole life deceiving... and in the end, I couldn't fool a single soul."
Come to think of it, Demon Kings were mostly born from 'artificial corruption,' right?
Who—or what—had turned this one?
Didn't matter now.
Thud.
Whoosh.
As the Demon King died, its form reverted to its true body.
"Weird true form."
The Illusion Demon King's body had no face.
No eyes, nose, or mouth.
Like a thick lump of flesh plopped atop its neck.
Freakish, but some Demon Kings were sand grains; this was tame.
As I nodded to myself,
Clatter. Clatter. Thud.
The skeletons filling the area collapsed.
Soon, they crumbled to black ash and vanished.
The adventurers exchanged baffled looks.
But spotting the fallen Demon King before me, they buzzed.
"W-What? That guy's. Is that the real Demon King?"
"Huh? Then the one over there... it's gone!"
"Isn't that Dai-il? Dai-il Magnus."
"The B-rank adventurer in his twenties? The weirdo who joins every Demon King subjugation?"
I ignored their voices and reflected.
'Just as I thought.'
My Quad wrangle hid the illusion as a White Square.
More precisely, it hid the 'fake.'
Distinguishing the false from the true form.
That must be the evolved trait of my Quad wrangle.
I turned slowly.
Rennel stood there, eyes wide as saucers.
"What... what are you?"
"Make your question specific."
"How did you know that tree was the Illusion Demon King? I was casting search magic the whole fight. The Demon King was definitely up on that dais!"
"Gut feeling."
"Gut... You saying your hunch beats my magic?"
"Don't be too disappointed. Your potential's just getting started."
Rennel let out a hollow laugh.
"How long have you even known me to spout that crap?"
"Pretty long."
"We just met in this party, you know?"
"Sure, let's go with that."
"What the hell does that mean? Sigh..."
She sighed deeply, her expression conflicted.
Jingle.
Fiddling with her bracelet.
Even that simple gesture moved me deeply.
Another pre-regression memory surfaced.
-Miss Rennel, fiddling with your bracelet again. Cherished keepsake or something?
The Saintess had asked that.
I hadn't even noticed the habit back then.
Quad wrangles covered everything.
-Nothing special. Just my sister's keepsake.
-That's huge!
-Now that you mention it, maybe it is.
-Sorry, I shouldn't have pried...
-No. Probably the opposite of what you think. Anyway, it's no big deal, so I'll tell you later.
Rennel had clearly dodged the topic, even to me.
Pre-regression, I couldn't ask.
But seeing her bare face now...
Curiosity struck. I asked softly,
"Why the bracelet?"
"Huh?"
"Why fidget with it so much?"
"W-What? None of your business if I fiddle with my bracelet. Asking the weirdest stuff."
"It's not yours."
Her face froze stiff.
Even now, I marveled: That's a stiff face.
No expressions seen since age seven; hard to read.
She looked pissed, though.
"What're you talking about?"
"Doesn't fit your arm quite right for yours."
"Judging from that alone? Rude much? And why do you care?"
"..."
Fair point.
I nodded, convinced.
Then Rennel spoke.
"Thiiis iiis ssiiissterr'sss kkkeppsaakkke."
...?
My jaw dropped.
'A Quad wrangle voice!'
It was saying, 'This is my sister's keepsake.'
No need to wonder why the Quad wrangle voice suddenly appeared.
Quad wrangles had two traits from the start.
White Squares and flattened voices.
White Squares had morphed into 'distinguishing fakes' just now.
So the voice...
'Distinguishes lies?'