Instead of feeling ecstatic after spending the day in town with someone she cared for, Iris entered the Adventuring Guild's hall while feeling sick in her stomach.

Just like she anticipated, her fellow partners were eyeing her from a table in the corner. Reflexively, Iris slightly readjusted her hood.

She feigned ignorance and approached Cyne and Rina while displaying her fakest smile as of yet. "Good evening, you two."

"Yo. We need to talk, Al—" Cyne bluntly started, only to be interrupted by the beast girl next to him who smacked his hand.

"Please, sit down, Iris."

"... I'm fine. Perhaps we could talk in my room?" Iris asked with a weak voice as she looked at the dozen adventurers all around.

As the three of them were silently climbing up the stairs, Iris was running through all the possible ways the conversation could go from there. Currently, it had been the worst scenario she envisioned, being a direct attack from Cyne followed by an awkward silence.

After she made the two of them enter the small room and closed the door behind them, Iris was at a loss for what to do. To buy her time to think, she made Rina sit on her bed while she gave Cyne a chair. When she had to decide where to put herself, though, her brain froze and she eventually decided to remain standing.

(So... What now?)

Cyne and Rina were looking at each other, silently debating who should be the first to talk. They had given up on the idea that Iris would say something first.

And yet, she did. "T-that wasn't me!"

... Only to say quite possibly the most stupid thing she could have said. She was just like a newbie actor saying her line way too soon during a theatrical representation.

Iris' heartbeat increased progressively as she saw Rina slowly facepalming herself and Cyne letting out the longest sigh she had heard from him.

"Or rather, it was me, but..."

"But...?" Cyne repeated.

"It... wasn't my true hair color! You both saw my magic, right? I can freely alter its color at any time."

(T-this might work...!)

"Look," she continued, "Since I trust you well, allow me to reveal my real hair color!"

With, surprisingly, a confident smile, Iris took off the hood of her long robe. Beneath it, there wasn't the absurdly black, flat hair that Rina and Cyne had seen once and twice respectively, but instead dark red hair. The light reflection from the star at sunset was entirely believable, giving a legit, 3D texture to Iris' hair.

[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1099093161634189313/1180801772302897152/SPOILER_Iris.png?ex=657ebe58&is=656c4958&hm=93f035e594627dc15468c22700b3ee53351016afc2cf40ef7bf9f0aa3a796cc6&]

(Behold the completed version of the mana armor: 'hairstyle'! If the energy of a photon is the product of the Planck constant by the frequency, then that means I'm effectively decreasing the frequency from every photon coming into contact with my hair! Since the frequency is inversely proportional to the wavelength, then I am inducing a positive redshift to all photons. Red, orange, and yellow photons get shifted into the invisible infrared while the colder ones like blue or green are reflected as if they had been warmer colors to begin with. This spell is technically shifting the originally invisible ultraviolet photons into the visible range, but they amount to only about 2 to 5% of all light rays from Hiphus. Not to mention we're in a dimly-lit room, and Hiphus has a more oblique angle at this hour, forcing light rays to travel through a greater thickness of the atmosphere and absorbing most of the UV light. As such, the end result is this perfectly realistic dark red color that looks like Mia's hair. They might even think that we're sisters, making it more believa—)

"Do you actually expect us to buy this?" Cyne interrupted Iris' internal monologue, legitimately baffled by her reasoning. "It does look real though, I must say..."

"Then—"

"You're trying to prove your point with that after you just admitted that you can seamlessly fake any hair color? You're really an idiot, huh?"

"L-look, if it were fake, would I be able to move my hair like that?" Iris said as she desperately started headbanging.

In its complete form, this mana armor could actualize its own position relative to her hair at such a high speed that it would be challenging to perceive any aberration. Because this constant spell did not produce much mana, however, Iris' mana pool was taking quite a toll from it. This wasn't a spell she could maintain for more than a couple of hours.

Judging by the embarrassing silence her demonstration had created, she could tell this had not convinced them either.

"You forgot the ears, Iris."

"W-what?"

"While you were moving your head like that, your not-so-pointy ears were visible. What do you have to say about that?"

She reflexively took a step back. "Aaaah..."

(I screwed up. It's over...)

A cacophony of fear and uncertainty was echoing through her mind. The truth had finally caught up to her, and it was more overwhelming than she had ever imagined. Iris was done trying in vain to persuade them, but her mind was too blank for her to speak up.

"I did some digging and I think I pieced together what little you've let slip. And it all points to one conclusion, Iris," Cyne said, emphasizing the name. "Honestly, I should have known something was off from the moment you picked that random name seemingly on the fly. It doesn't even suit you."

"..."

Cyne's bravado faltered a bit when he saw tears welling up in Iris' eyes. "I didn't..."

The moment he stepped back was Iris' cue to snatch her bag and run away, leaving behind her stunned guests in her own room.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"That was an inconsiderate thing to say, Cyne."

"I could tell, thank you. Maybe you could have supported me a bit more during the conversation, you know?"

"Mmh... I'll at least get her." Rina stood up and left before she tumbled down the stairs too, leaving Cyne baffled and alone in a girl's room.

***

(That stinged... But why? He's right. That's not my name. If anything, I should be hap—)

"Iris...! Wait!"

(Hmm? G-gaaah! Why is she coming after me?!)

"Don't speed up!" Rina shouted.

"L-leave me alone!"

Although Iris was running absurdly fast for her build, the beast girl was catching up.

Iris was tapping into her latent potential by using mana to boost the contraction of her muscles, but there was still an upper limit to the output of cross-bridge cycles. That limit was the integrity of her muscle fibers which were threatening to be torn if she were to apply any additional mana into the equation. This was similar to people who hurt themselves after applying too much force to their muscles during a crisis with their limiter inhibited by a surge of adrenaline.

On the other hand, the beastfolk had naturally robust muscles that were powerful enough to close the distance at an alarming rate while still being within the safe margin of muscle stress.

(That's just unfair...! Take this!)

As a big clump of mana was thrown toward Rina to forcefully activate 'Momentum Lock' and make her trip, she merely sidestepped it, increasing their distance by only a small margin.

(What the hell?! Can she see that too?! No, I guess that trick was predictable, especially with me just waving my hand like that. Wait, shut up, me, and focus! She's still reducing the distance...!)

Then, after a quick glance at the gap between buildings she was speeding past, Iris veered sharply, followed closely by Rina who seemed pleased with Iris' choice of path.

As they rounded the corner with their breath ragged, the only thing in front of them was the river. Changing directions once again and going around the buildings would eat away even more distance between the two.

And yet, Iris was running straight toward the water.

"You don't mean...?" Rina muttered as she was made into running at full speed toward the river bank as well.

Her instincts assured her that the distance to cross would be way too large, even with her powerful limbs. She could tell that even Iris, with her strange mix of strengthening and light magic, would only be able to produce as much force in the best case. Even if Iris was planning to swim her way across the river, she should know that a beastfolk would have the advantage. Well, not that either of them had ever swum in any body of water in their life.

(Aaaah... That's my only way out but... Am I really doing it?)

If boosting her strength was not enough to make that jump, she would have to propel herself via a kinetic spell. While she was quite familiar with the accelerating phase, she wasn't as much with the decelerating one; especially when she was the projectile. Still, based on what she had gathered from her maid's description, she had somehow done the same thing earlier that day without realizing it.

(This ought to be as natural as a normal jump for my brain!)

Or so she thought.

(It feels wrong... Off, even.)

As it turned out, she disliked applying kinetic energy to her own body and felt a bit bad for all the living beings she had used her magic on.

Rina watched Iris defy gravity, her hair fluttering with the cool wind rushing past her. At the instant Rina convinced herself that Iris really could do just about everything, the latter fell into the river a short distance away from the opposite bank. That tangent had been enough to distract her from including the braking phase in her calculations for the distance to cross.

(Ugh...! I'll drown! Or I would if those skills weren't ingrained in my procedural memory...)

Despite not having been taught once, Iris was able to coordinate her arms with her legs to soar through the water with grace.

As she emerged from the water, her hair untied and no longer under her spell, she cast a fleeting glance at Rina who was stuck on the other side.

"I'm sorry," she said. No human could possibly get it from this distance, but Iris was convinced the beast girl would somehow catch that whether she used her eyes or ears.

***

"'My only way out'... How stupid can I get...?" Alice mumbled, walking aimlessly in the city of Phesiora at night.

Both she and her bag's contents were completely drenched. Combined with the drop in temperature within the past hour, the girl was trembling from the cold.

(I should have just let Rina catch me and come back there... I was so stubborn that I did not even consider the idea. So... What should my next course of action be? Either I fasten my return to the estate, or I take solace in a nearby inn.)

While the idea was entertaining, she had crossed out stripping in a dark alley to dry and warm up around a fire. If the smoke happened to draw the attention of someone, she knew she would die from embarrassment.

And, after the stupid stunt she had done at the guild, she didn't feel like she could confront them right away.

(They know I am supposed to temporarily leave tomorrow anyway... I've even given Rina all the potions she needs during my absence. Then, it's not too strange if I don't come back. I can just apologize later when I get back from the capital!)

"Yup, let's do tha— Atchoo...!" Alice let out at the exact moment she pushed the door to a nearby inn.

"...! Come on girl, why are you soaked?!" the receptionist, a middle-aged woman, exclaimed after she turned toward that sneeze. "You'll catch a cold like that!"

"That's not how you catch a cold..."

(I'm more likely to die from hypothermia than catching one.)

"... Atchoo!"

"See?! Come with me, I'll prepare a bath!"

"Just a towel and a change of clothes will do! It's just my trigeminal nerve that is being stimula— Atchoo...!"

"..."

"I... I'll come. Thank you."

The following day, Alice eventually returned to her manor while nursing a cold.