Ice had already returned to the inn he was currently staying at (He had vacated the palace guest room earlier, much to Sea and Thelma's disappointment.) and plopped himself wearily on the bed.

He was still shuddering from the earlier incident. This was the second time he was put in a life or death predicament. And the circumstances were exceedingly suspicious. He had stared at the ceiling in silence, trying to take all of the implications of the recent chain of events in.

Truthfully, he had felt a little arrogant when he promoted to a Basic Class. Monsters near his current level or lower were generally no match for him. But the earlier event served to deflate his ego. Sea's prowess was also far too awe inspiring.

"___I've got to get stronger." Ice thought as he gritted his teeth in frustration. He knew being impatient won't do any good. But he couldn't help it.

He had decided to resummon Ibex to check out how he was doing. The stalwart mountain goat summon appeared shortly after Ice used his Skill.

"___So you're alive. That's good." Ibex exclaimed in a relieved tone.

"You alright?" Ice asked.

"___Me? I've already 'died' more times than I could count in the past. This much is nothing." Ibex replied nonchalantly.

Ice smiled lightly in self-derision. He felt so inadequate compared to the rest of his peers and acquaintances, even in El Fabula. Even his summoned creature was tougher and more level headed.

But he halted his current train of thoughts before he went on another negative spiral. What he needed to do right now is get his bearings straight and work extra hard on getting stronger, one step at a time.

But he couldn't do that without running the risk of getting into another crisis like the one from earlier. He could continue relying on Sea and the others for protection. But he got rid of the notion immediately.

Sea had her own responsibilities as royal guard captain. He couldn't just ask her to abandon her duty and become his bodyguard instead. And besides, it would actually be pretty lame of him, Ice thought. He'd solve his problems himself. The only question was how...

Ibex observed him quietly for some time. Finally, after a period of brooding silence, he called Ice's attention with an urgent tone.

"___Hey kid... I have a couple of questions for you."

"Go on..."

Ice looked at Ibex with interest, curious about what he wanted to ask.

"___Was this the first time you've encountered a situation like that of earlier? Or have there been prior incidents? Not the normal monster encounters but highly unusual circumstances..."

Ice was a little intrigued. Why would Ibex ask that? It's as if he'd inferred such events had already happened and was just asking for confirmation.

"___No, this isn't the first time. Something similar happened just a few days after I found myself in Maleena." Ice replied, curious about Ibex's reaction.

"___I see..."

Ibex had remained silent, seemingly struggling while pondering about something. His goat brows were furrowed tight and his eyes were closed. He finally opened them after some time and looked at Ice with a serious gaze.

"You know something don't you?" Ice probed.

Ibex sighed in resignation.

"___Fine. I still feel it's a tad too early, but it seems your case is a bit special."

"What is it then? What do you know?" Ice prompted.

"___It seems I gotta give it to you from the start eh." Ibex exclaimed with a hint of reluctance in his voice. He audibly sighed this time (or made a sound that was as close to a goat sighing as possible) and looked straight at Ice, throwing caution to the winds.

"___Kid... You familiar with the concept of reincarnation?" Ibex asked with a straight (goat)faced expression.

"Yeah, sure. Being reborn as a different existence after dying right? Why?"

Ibex gave Ice a wry grin. Ice's expression slowly turned to one of realization.

"Wait, you're not saying..."

Ibex's grin deepened.

"___Yep. That's exactly what I'm saying kid."

"Y-You've actually reincarnated?!"

Ice's face became red with shock.

***

Ice stared at Ibex with a dumbfounded look.

"___Reincarnation huh... I get that this theme is pretty common in recent web novels but... Come to think of it, getting sent to another world is also pretty common... This sure is one tropey fic…..."

He was having another one of his otaku monologues.

"___Hey kid, I get that you're shocked, but we should really move on with the discussion." Ibex prompted, sounding a bit annoyed.

"Oh, right. Yeah. Sorry. Sooo... Reincarnation huh?"

"___Yep. I died. I mean really died. Head got blown off and stuff. And next thing I know, I was reborn in this world. The place actually looking like it was animated took a little getting used to."

Ibex sighed lightly as he reminisced about past events.

Ice's curiosity was increasing by the moment. If Ibex was reincarnated here, then it was possible he also came from Earth. He asked Ibex to confirm it, but sadly, the answer wasn't what he'd hoped.

"___Earth? No, I'm not from over there. I was originally from a world called Ovis Norvus."

Ice's face darkened in disappointment. He would've wanted someone to talk to about his home world. It was pretty stressful having to pretend not to have any memories of where he came from after all.  

"___Cheer up kid. It's not like I don't know the feeling of being a stranger in another world. And besides, I kind of remember someone from the guardians mentioning he was from Earth. I don’t remember exactly who though. It’s kind of an unwritten rule for us not to talk about our pasts with each other too much. It’s kind of a sensitive topic y’see.”

“Really?””

Ice brightened up a little from that information. At least, now he knew he wasn’t exactly alone, though he had yet to meet this fellow former Earthling. But he did a double take, realizing he just gave away crucial info about himself inadvertently. He wanted to slap himself for getting careless.

"___Ha ha, your expression tells me you're worried about revealing the fact that you're from another world. Don't worry. All the ★Summoners that came before you were in pretty much the same situation. We're all strangers here. Foreign elements that got sent here for some unknown purpose."

"How can I be sure you're telling the truth." Ice asked apprehensively.

Ibex smirked mischievously.

"___You can't. You'll just have to trust me on this. You want some answers right? I'm just adhering to your request. Whether or not you'll believe me is up to you."

Ice narrowed his eyes and looked straight at Ibex. Ibex didn't turn away and returned the gaze. Ice sighed in resignation and scratched his head with a complicated expression on his face.

"Fine, I'll trust you for now. You're my summon after all. You're necessary for me if I want to survive long enough to find out exactly what's going on. If I can't even rely on my summons, then I'm practically screwed anyway."

Ibex nodded in acknowledgement.

"But it must have been hard for you at the start huh. You being reincarnated as a mountain goat and all."

Ibex made a hearty laugh (though it sounded more like bleating to the average person) at Ice’s comment.

“___Gahahahaha! No, no, it’s not like that at all. Ahahahaha! Oh damn… My stomach…”…”

Ice was a bit upset by Ibex’s reaction and retorted in an annoyed tone.

“What? What’s so funny?””

“___No, it’s nothing… Ha ha, it’s not your fault kid. You’ve only seen me in this form after all.””

“Hm?””

Ice already had an inkling as to what Ibex was getting at, but had him continue his explanation to confirm.

“___Kid, the form I’m appearing in right now isn’t my true reincarnated body. I was actually a human, just like you. I was also humanoid when I got reborn here.””

“Then why do you look like that now? Why’d you become a summoned creature in the first place?” Ice asked.

“___Well, put simply, I died… Again… But my soul didn’t move on to whatever plane it was supposed to move on to. I got trapped in some place sort of like limbo or something. Then things happened and I got roped in to becoming a guardian for the first ★Summoner.” Ibex explained further.

“Wait, let me get this straight: You died and were reborn in El Fabula. Then after some time, you died again but your soul didn’t move on and you somehow or other became the guardian from my predecessor.”

“___Yep.”

Ibex nodded in the affirmative.

“That explanation’s a bit lacking in detail. And how are your circumstances connected to my current predicament, exactly?” Ice complained and inquired further.

“___I was about to get to that.” Ibex replied.

“___I’ve clarified the fact that I was reincarnated right? I was born in a world with a pretty advanced civilization - airships, particle cannons and stuff like private virtual idols housed in VR consoles you could actually dive into so he or she could give you a private concert. Or sometimes, even more private things… if you catch my drift”…”

Ibex winked suggestively after the last part.

“That’s some serious tech; especially the virtual idol thing!” Ice exclaimed excitedly.

“___I know right! Mine was a redhead packing some serious backside assets. Had some decent knockers too.” Ibex replied with his face flushed red.

They nodded their heads in silent agreement.  

“___Anyway, as I was saying, I belonged to a family with deep military roots, and so my old man forcefully enlisted me in the army. To get some muscle on me or something. I was pretty wimpy as a kid. My old man didn’t want to have any of it so he packed me away and sent me on a military plane wearing just my trousers”…”

Ibex wore an awkward expression as he continued to recount his past. Ice stayed silent, kind of understanding why.

“___I served as an all-around page for the senior officers during most of my time as a military cadet. I ran around doing errands for those guys practically all day every day.” Ibex continued, his expression turning even more awkward.

“___Just as I thought it couldn’t get any worse, our country went to war. I was also sent to the front lines, and because of some faulty intel, our convoy got ambushed and well… I died.” Ibex finished.

“Wow… That’s some past you got.” Ice exclaimed in amazement.

“___I know right.” Ibex nodded in agreement.

“But that still doesn’t tell me anything.” Ice complained.

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“___Ahaha. Like I said, I was getting to that.” Ibex replied with a stiff smile.

“___I was reborn here in El Fabula as a child of one of the high chieftains of the Silverhorn clan in the northern mountain ranges of the Valis continent. As I was growing up, I noticed that my overall stats were quite a bit higher than the rest of the village kids even as a normal ‘Unit’.

My father Ramus, noticed this and saw my potential. He sent me to train under an acquaintance from the organization you know now as the CQMA.” Ibex continued on explaining.

“___After some time, I was revealed to be the possessor of an Exclusive Class.”

“Exclusive Class?!”

Ice’s expression turned to shock once more. It seems they were finally getting to the heart of the matter.

“___Yeah. I got a Class called ★Frigid Lord. It was a warrior type Class that specialized in offense and had balanced defense and agility. But the real kicker was that I could execute ice elemental attacks with the use of EP instead of MP and without the assistance of an element buff. Which was great cause I got plenty of it.

As I rose in Class and level, the skills got more powerful. I could inflict the Frozen state with almost 100% probability with opponents that didn’t wear equipment that provided resistance or had them naturally from the start. I also had Skills that broke down defense. Then I just hacked them to death with my weapon.

I had great AOE crowd control Skills too. My attacks were really powerful since I used heavy weapons like war axes or large broadswords.

My defense wasn’t too bad as well, since I could equip most heavy armor types, barring full plate mails and other full body armor types. My agility was fine too. I wasn’t as fast as your average light warrior type, but I wasn’t all that slow either. It was amazing.””

Ibex’s expression visibly brightened as he recounted his exploits as a reincarnated human in El Fabula.

“That sounds kind of… broken.” Ice exclaimed while feeling a bit jealous. (Just a bit though. No, really…)

“___Haha. It gets better. I decided I was fed up with playing the underdog, so I set about making a name for myself as an adventurer. I made countless exploits and was an absolute idol in my home town. In the end, I kind of decided to found an empire. Y’know, just cause.”…”

“Eh?”

Ice got even more surprised. The story was quickly turning into something incredulous.

“___I lorded over my newly founded empire with absolute authority. I’d like to think I was a just enough ruler, although I do admit I had some faults. My women constantly egged me about them every chance they got.””

“Women? As in plural?” Ice asked.

“___Yeah. A harem’s pretty common for persons of power over here. It’s just how things are kid. So you don’t have to hold back y’know.” Ibex replied matter-of-factly.

“___This really IS an otakus wet dream. An OP MC, reincarnation and even a harem… Oh boy… I wonder if the rest of my summons would have back stories like this too?” Ice thought as he smiled bitterly.

“You sounded pretty set Ibex. But, if you were so powerful, how’d you die?” he asked, perplexed.

“___Uh, yeah… It was a plot. I got done in… by assassination…”…”

Ibex looked away awkwardly as he replied.

“Must have been a pretty powerful assassin.””

“___Ahaha. Yeah. She was pretty skilled alright.”…”

“She? A woman?””

Ice’s eyebrows knitted up as he stared accusingly at Ibex.

“…”“…

Ibex stayed silent and continued to look away with an awkward expression. But as the saying goes: Silence is the admission of guilt.’

***

Ice decided to cut Ibex some slack and changed the topic of the discussion.

"So you were an Exclusive Class, and you were pretty strong to boot. But you got done in regardless. So how would this connect with my situation? Unless..."

"___Hehe. Have you realized yet?"

Ibex smirked as he prodded Ice for his conclusions.

"You've all gone through this before haven't you? You and the rest of the summons. My predecessors as well." Ice exclaimed.

"___Hehe, pretty sharp kid. That's right. We've already gone through all this stuff after becoming the guardians of the first ★Summoner." Ibex confirmed.

"And your goal was..."

"___To find out the truth. All the guardians came from other worlds through reincarnating, and all of us found unceremonious deaths. Instead of passing on, we just floated around in an empty hell without ever finding out why all this happened to us in the first place. You can't imagine the utter frustration and despair we've all felt.

When your predecessor came and made a covenant with us, we grabbed the opportunity straight away. We wanted to find answers. Even if they would prove to not be the kind of answers we sought. And maybe it would also result in us finally getting our peace. And yet..."

Ibex made a frustrated expression and fell silent.

"And yet what? Don't tell me..."

"___Right. We never found them. Answers I mean. Each time we got close, we were thwarted by situations that lead to the deaths of the ★Summoners that allied with us. It's been like that ever since. Some of us have already given up hope as a result.

This is why I didn't want to discuss this with you just yet. The odds of success are incredibly low. And conversely, the odds of you dying are way up there. It would be understandable if you lost your nerve."

"And yet you discussed it with me anyway..."

"___Yes. Because this is the first time I've encountered such a one sided situation this early. Like it was done to insure you would definitely be eliminated."

Ice grew silent and pondered the implications of Ibex's reason for revealing things to him this early. He looked at Ibex with a determined expression.

"So the odds are especially stacked against me. And yet you did all you could to keep me alive. And you've revealed all this to me... What are you expecting from me Ibex?"

"___I don't have a concrete basis, but I have this gut feeling things would be different this time. And I don't have anything to lose anyway. I've decided to make a gamble on you kid."

"A gamble huh..."

Ice grew silent once more.

"Fine. I don't see any other way out of this other than struggling with all I have anyway. From what you told me earlier, it seems someone or something is toying with our fates somehow. I really don't like that notion."

Ice narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth.

"Let's do this. Let's show whatever it is out there how tenacious we can be."

Ice stated his convictions clearly. Ibex made a genuinely relieved expression.

"___It seems it wasn't a mistake to bet on you after all. But how can you be so determined even after all that? I wouldn't really be surprised if you showed any hesitation or fear. We're talking about a real possibility of death here after all."

Ice pondered Ibex's question for a moment.

Why was it that he felt no hesitation or fear right now? In his heart, he already knew the answer.

"Because there is something I'm afraid of more than death."

It was a cliche answer. He'd heard it from countless characters in many of the fictional stories he'd read and watched. But right now, it wasn't just empty words. He really did resonate with it quite well.

"___If I end up not accomplishing anything this time, then that really would be the same as dying." Ice thought.

He feared dying uselessly more than anything. If he cowered and stopped moving forward because of this, then he felt that would be as good as dying. If his fate was to ultimately die, then he’d do so only after making sure he could shout out ‘How was that world?!” from the top of his lungs proudly.

He’d go out with a bang.

That’s why he clung stubbornly to life earlier. He felt he hadn’t reached anything yet. That he hadn’t brought out all he had. So he would survive. Survive until he proved his worth. Survive until he’s sure he’d emptied absolutely all of himself and faced the world head on.

If that would ultimately amount to nothing in the end, then at least he’d be satisfied. At least he wouldn’t feel empty. At least he wouldn’t feel that he gave up half way.

It is said that dreams are given up when one reaches a certain age. That dreams are only for children who had yet to be mired in the filth of reality. But there would still be idiots that ignored this fact of life and went on proudly even if they knew they would ultimately be thoroughly worn out in the end.

Ice was currently in the process of becoming one of those idiots - Whether or not he’d regret this decision later on, only time will tell.      

“I’ll be counting on you then… partner.”

“___You got it kid.”

The pair looked at each other with eyes that burned with resolve.

***

Two figures loom inside a stark gray room with limited furnishings. Several holographic windows lined up above their heads and were streaming a continuous flow of data.

“Regular report on Case H-42, subject item AD#105-2 Zeta.”

“Go ahead.”

“Contingency protocol Z-10 has failed. Initiated contingency protocol Z-14 but recent reports lead us to believe it has failed as well.

It is possible that the injected foreign Unit has already been recognized and fully integrated into the ‘Lore’.

If so, then erasing it without the proper procedures would result in another forced Lock Out.

We have made contact with the local Operations Overseer and had instructed to refrain from further action until adequate data has been gleaned.”

“We may be forced to initiate another Code Ω if this continues.”

“It seems ‘he’ has made a move once more.”

“But reports said that we have dealt with all the planted ‘Sleepers’.

“We had. There remain no traces in any of the ADs. We have been thorough.”

“Then HOW?!”

“…Excuse me for sounding out of line but… there is a possibility of a traitor in our midst.”

“…A traitor.”

The figure that seemed to sit upon empty air pondered for a moment.

“I will consider the possibility. We have been careful in cleaning our ranks. But it seems it had not been enough. Then again, as expected of ‘him’.”

“I will continue to monitor the situation.”

“Yes, please do. Make sure to update me on any developments.”

“Acknowledged.”

-Chapter 12 End-