"A human? You're a living human being?"

"Yeah, I'm human. Human."

Kratia hurriedly nodded while she stuttered in reply, but it was clear how flustered she was, and her wooden acting betrayed Lee Shin-Woo’s identity. Case in point, Prince Altania quickly pointed his staff at Lee Shin-Woo.

"What about you...? Are you an undead? It was only for a moment, but I definitely felt powerful death energy. Don't try to fool me. Once caught by the genius mage, Prince Altania, even a general would fall in one hit!"

"...There's no way I'd be able to fool you, Senior."

"...Huh?"

Speaking from behind the helmet, Lee Shin-Woo made the Prince flinch. Once he took off his helmet and revealed himself, Prince Altania froze. Kratia, who looked back reflexively, froze as well. At some point, Rem had disappeared from his shoulder, but that wasn't very important right now.

"...Lee Shin-Woo?"

"A pleasure to meet you, Senior. It's me, Lee Shin-Woo."

Lee Shin-Woo replied with an infectious smile. Prince Altania was temporarily unable to respond and remained stiff, but he soon cleared his throat and withdrew his staff.

"It's strange. It was just for a moment, but I definitely felt death energy."

"I believe it might be energy coming from the gate as we opened and entered it."

"That's... I assumed as much! I was just on guard because you were wearing that weird armor of yours! You got it?"

"Ah, you truly are a hero. As expected of you, Senior."

The young mage's cheeks flushed, and he attempted to put up a strong front to hide his embarrassment. Lee Shin-Woo smiled gently as he agreed enthusiastically. He was able to sweet talk even a general, let alone a young hero. Prince Altania quickly moved on.

"You're not bad. I'll recognize you as my junior… Ah, then who's that woman over there?"

"This is Kratia Melloi. I met her a short while ago, and we've gotten quite close. It seems like she's still wary of you seniors."

"Yeah, Kratia Melloi..."

Kratia nodded to confirm her identity, yet it was clear she was still reeling from her shock. She kept glancing at Lee Shin-Woo in disbelief, which fortunately, Prince took as her being shy. He nodded and suddenly made a sound of recognition with his brows furrowed.

"Kratia Melloi... Wait a sec, you're the one who entered the chatroom and left right away? The one who met Lloyd a little while ago?"

"Uh, yeah."

"The one Lloyd said was stronger than him... Keut, you said you were a mage, right? Let's spar!"

Kratia nodded absentmindedly, and the Prince immediately raised his staff once more. However, Kratia didn't give him the time of day. She was still busy glancing at Lee Shin-Woo.

Lee Shin-Woo could understand how she felt, but it was getting troublesome, so he re-equipped his helmet and covered his face. Only then did Kratia get a hold of herself. Taking a deep breath, she slapped her own cheeks, turning the pale skin rosy red. Jin sighed and spoke with Lee Shin-Woo through their connection.

'How did you disguise yourself so quickly?'

'That's what it means to be a pro.'

That was right. The moment someone outside of their party noticed them, Lee Shin-Woo had immediately activated Disguise, which was why Prince Altania had simply moved on, and Kratia had been so astonished.

With his level 6 Disguise, it had only taken him 0.01 seconds to change into his human appearance from back on Earth! It was so fast that even if he were to disguise himself right in front of someone, they would think they were seeing things and let it go.

"Hey, I said let's spar!"

"...Huh?"

Kratia finally turned her attention away from Lee Shin-Woo and towards Prince Altania. She noticed him pointing his magic staff straight at her, but she didn't really react.

"Why?"

"Why, why... That's right! In a joint operation with a mage you met for the first time, you're supposed to spar so that you can assess each other's abilities. You didn't know?"

"A joint operation...?"

It seemed that by 'joint operation', he was talking about going through the training facility... Kratia tilted her head, unable to comprehend what he was on about. As a rational mage, she couldn't understand Prince's actions.

"Whatever, c'mon. Ah, if you lose, don't go near Lloyd ever again!"

"I don't like wasting my energy. I'd rather focus on the traps here. And I'm not interested in this Lloyd guy whatsoever."

"Urgh... If you're not going to attack, then I will!"

Kratia frowned at Prince's persistence, and the moment she was about to respond, an overwhelming amount of flames erupted from his staff!

Lee Shin-Woo didn't think Prince Altania would actually attack another hero, and just gaped while watching on the side. He'd gotten that vibe from the Prince in the chatroom, but the man really was an idiot!

"...Hoo."

Despite the wave of flames that threatened to swallow her whole, Kratia sighed and waved her hand, sending the orb into the air.

It was a lot smaller than the last time Lee Shin-Woo saw it, and it was shining brightly. Prince muttered something like he was going to stop her from using defensive magic and cast another spell himself, but...

"Freeze."

With one word, everything froze.

"...Woah."

In an instant, the area had fallen silent. The flames, the newly formed mana coming from Prince, and even Prince himself were all frozen.

Lee Shin-Woo ended up clapping at Kratia’s ridiculous display, while she retrieved her orb with a gentle hand gesture; she hadn’t even broken a sweat.

"He's not dead though, right?" Lee Shin-Woo asked.

"He has magic, so he won't die. I held back."

"Yeah, you held back..."

With a wave of her hand, the frozen flames completely vanished, along with the mana in the air. Then the frozen Prince was thrown out of the subspace of the facility.

Lee Shin-Woo offered a silent prayer for Prince, while Kratia tilted her head before speaking her mind.

"He’s weird."

"Well, I can understand where he's coming from..."

"You can!?"

It was Jin who had yelled in shock rather than Kratia. It made sense that Prince would point his staff at them since he had thought they were undead, but for Lee Shin-Woo to understand him, when he had attacked another hero with a shitty reason like assessing her abilities!?

When did Shin-Woo become such a saint!?

Lee Shin-Woo shrugged and explained, "We were given all the clues. Prince called Kratia ‘the mage Lloyd said was stronger’. In other words, Prince was pissed that Lloyd thought of Kratia so highly."

"Why would he get pissed over that...?"

"Because supposedly, Lloyd would want Kratia more."

"??"

Kratia and Jin both looked confused. Lee Shin-Woo was positive that they still didn't understand how his explanation was related to the situation at all.

Lee Shin-Woo considered how he should put into words the pride of a person with a large ego, or Prince and Lloyd's strange relationship that he'd observed a few times in the chatroom, but he quickly gave up and went with the easiest way of explaining it.

"Prince likes Lloyd. He's jealous of Kratia since Lloyd thinks so highly of her. They're both mages, so it must've felt even worse."

"He's a guy, though!? But I suppose a man can like another man!"

"Yeah, I agree, but that's not the case here. Prince is a girl."

"!?"

"!?"

The effect was tremendous! Jin and Kratia were confused!

Lee Shin-Woo was speechless seeing their reactions.

"How can you not know? That beautiful appearance, the way she puts up a strong front, contrasting with the delicate ways she moved herself... And the deciding factor were the traces of mana around her body, indicating that she's using disguise magic."

"...Now that you mention it, it all makes sense."

"Plus, the name Prince is clearly being used to show her 'masculinity'. In cases like this, there's a high chance that she's actually the opposite gender."

They ruminated over Prince's appearance. It was exactly as Lee Shin-Woo said. When they thought about it like that, it was weird that they had actually thought of her as a guy.

"It's hard to hide your gender. Prince is the type who thinks that as long as she hides what she looks like on the outside and changes her voice, she'll be ok. That's why she got caught so easily."

"That's true, but it really pisses me off to hear it from you...!"

"Agreed...!"

"Huh?"

Why? He thought he'd explained it quite amicably, yet Jin and Kratia both glared at Lee Shin-Woo as if they were letdown! Lee Shin-Woo couldn't bear their anger, especially since he didn't know why they were mad at him in the first place. He averted his gaze. Then Kratia suddenly grabbed him.

"By the way, what's with that face from before?"

"Ah, that's my face back in my world. Though my Disguise has leveled up, I can only disguise myself this much for now."

"Disguise? That's a disguise? How's that even possible?"

"Even I'm not sure how it works, so why don't you ask the goddess later?"

Kratia tightened her grip on Lee Shin-Woo. Her eyes were filled with excitement.

"Show me one more time."

"We came here to go through the training facility, not to research my Disguise, did we?"

"Just once."

"Hoo."

Lee Shin-Woo sighed and took off his helmet. Kratia exclaimed with a 'ooh', approached him, and rubbed his cheek. The texture and the heat were unmistakably human, and she blushed slightly. Lee Shin-Woo looked down at her and spoke to her in a slightly steely voice.

"That's not what I look like right now. It's just a disguise."

"Then is your true appearance that of a bony skeleton?"

"..."

"Who determines what's fake and what's real?"

He could easily say that his disguised appearance was fake. However, his Joker’s karma stopped him since there was no one here to make that judgment. Kratia nodded as though she understood how he felt.

"One day the boundary between what's fake and what's real will come crashing down,” she continued. “You'll have to think hard about it when the time comes, Shin-Woo."

Kratia's words left a deep impression on Lee Shin-Woo. If Lee Shin-Woo were able to make a perfect fake, fool everyone and himself, and even fool the entire world... Could he really call that a fake?

He believed that when he could answer the question, he would become a true Joker.

"You really are a mage."

"That's the ultimate goal of a mage. Deceiving the world and creating reality."

"I told you I'm not one."

"Kratia, you're getting way too close."

Jin gently pushed Kratia away, who had been continuously rubbing Lee Shin-Woo's cheek. At the same time, the barrier opened, and someone entered the training facility. It was obviously Prince.

"Y-Yooooooooou!"

Prince aimed her staff at Kratia while water melted and dripped from the ends of her hair. Lee Shin-Woo thought she'd be frozen for a few hours, but it seemed she wasn’t completely lacking in the talent department. He was secretly impressed.

"...I won't go easy on you this time."

"Kuuuuuuu....!"

The orb floated into the air and violently rotated, drawing in the surrounding mana and creating ice crystals. Prince recoiled, but soon gritted her teeth and yelled, "Joint operation!"

"Huh?"

"I... I've seen what you can do, so we should clear the facility together!"

Seeing Prince’s cheeks get so red that one would worry she might explode, Lee Shin-Woo erupted in laughter.