Bright violet symbols rotated slowly across the floor, illuminating the dark room with an eerie glow.
WOOSSHH—!
Mana surged violently.
The space itself distorted slightly before a figure suddenly stepped out from the center of the circle as though teleporting directly into the room.
A figure stepped out from the center of the circle.
Wrapped entirely in a black cloak. The oversized hood concealed almost every part of the person's appearance.
Only pale fingers were visible beneath the sleeves.
Ray calmly turned around. Not surprised. Not alarmed. Almost as if he had already expected this. Then a faint smile slowly appeared on his lips.
"…So you finally came."
For several moments, silence filled the room.
Then the figure slowly raised a hand.
The hood fell back.
Long silver hair spilled down her shoulders. Moonlight filtered through the large window, illuminating a beautiful young woman's face.
Sharp eyes. Pale skin. Lips carrying a naturally dangerous curve. Unlike the elegant and mature waitress who had greeted visitors inside the restaurant earlier...
The woman standing here now felt entirely different. Bolder. Wilder. Far more dangerous.
There was even a pair of tiny fangs visible whenever she smiled. An unmistakable sign of her race.
She was Sita—the same waitress from the bar earlier.
Ray simply leaned casually against the window, his expression remaining calm.
"How's that guy?"
Sita's dangerous expression immediately collapsed.
"...Ugh."
She rubbed her forehead.
"A complete pain in the ass," she complained, her beautiful face instantly filling with annoyance.
"Keeping him hidden in that place is already troublesome enough."
Then she threw herself onto a nearby chair.
"The seals need maintenance. The concealment magic needs maintenance. Even the feeding schedule needs maintenance."
She pointed at herself dramatically.
"So make sure you pay me properly."
A faint smile appeared on Ray's face.
"Of course."
Sita remained visibly dissatisfied, looking ready to continue complaining for another hour.
"Fortunately..."
Crossing her legs lazily, she leaned back against the chair.
"The drug is working perfectly. At the very least, he'll stay unconscious for several more months."
She paused briefly.
"Possibly years."
Ray nodded.
"Yeah... that's good," he said. "As long as he stays unconscious, nobody will be able to detect his existence."
Sita nodded, her expression gradually becoming serious.
"Right. But you'd better get there before I run out of drugs."
Ray nodded again before quietly turning his gaze back toward the window.
Moonlight shimmered softly across the lake outside. And naturally... his thoughts drifted back to the beginning.
To the day everything had started.
---
The current Ray was not the real Ray Dafelix.
He was merely a man carrying something dark within himself—a darkness that made it difficult for him to move openly under the light of the world.
Yet he was also a man burdened by ambitions too great to remain hidden forever. Eventually, he would have to step onto the stage.
And three years ago, he found the opportunity to do exactly that.
It happened when he encountered a young man whose appearance was almost identical to his own.
The real Ray Dafelix.
A spoiled young master. A rich good-for-nothing blessed with resources, status, influence, and a future that most people could only dream of possessing.
Everything the fake Ray needed.
From that moment onward, he began studying the young man's life. His habits. His relationships. His daily routines. His weaknesses.
Every piece of information that might one day allow him to take that identity for himself.
Gathering the information wasn't particularly difficult.
The difficult part was execution. The real Ray was constantly surrounded by guards, servants, and people keeping watch over him. Opportunities were rare.
Until the incident at the bar.
With the help of Sita, a low-ranking succubus, everything finally fell into place.
The plan itself was surprisingly simple.
A pathetic man had fallen hopelessly in love with Sita. Like many succubi, she knew exactly how to exploit that kind of obsession. She turned him into the perfect tool.
The resulting chaos created the opening the fake Ray had been waiting for.
That night, inside the bar's bathroom, the real Ray finally found himself alone. No guards. No witnesses. No surveillance.
The young master stood before the sink, irritation written all over his face as he cleaned the stains from his expensive clothes.
The incident earlier had clearly ruined his mood.
After several minutes, he finished cleaning himself and looked up at the mirror, carefully inspecting his appearance. Everything seemed normal.
Then the mirror rippled. At first, it looked like a disturbance on the surface of water. The reflection wavered. And then it moved.
Not because Ray moved. It moved on its own.
The reflected Ray slowly smiled. A smile the real Ray wasn't making.
The young master froze. His eyes widened.
"W-What...?"
Instinctively, he stumbled backward. Panic immediately flooded his face.
The reflection remained motionless, staring at him with that same unnatural smile.
The sight was disturbing. Wrong. Like something from a nightmare.
The real Ray reacted exactly as most ordinary people would.
He turned and rushed toward the door. But before he could reach it, his body slammed into an invisible barrier.
Bang!
The impact sent him stumbling backward.
"W-What is this?!"
He tried screaming. Tried calling for help. Tried shouting as loudly as he could. Nothing came out. No sound. Not even a whisper.
The fear in his eyes rapidly transformed into terror.
Meanwhile, the figure inside the mirror slowly stepped forward.
One foot crossed the mirror's surface. Then another. The reflection emerged as though walking through water.
Before long, it stood directly in front of him.
The two figures faced each other. Same face. Same hair. Same height. Same build. Every detail matched almost perfectly.
The real Ray's face turned completely pale. He waved his arms wildly and kicked at the air while stumbling backward in panic.
"G-Ghost!"
"W-Who are you?! Stay away from me!"
"Help! Somebody help me!"
The desperate cries never reached the outside world.
The fake Ray simply watched him. Amused. As though observing something entertaining.
Then he slowly raised one hand and began chanting.
Dark symbols appeared beneath the real Ray's feet. Complex. Filled with sinister energy.
The fake Ray calmly finished the incantation.
"...Curse activated."
The magic circle erupted.
Black chains burst from the floor and wrapped around the young master's body from every direction.
Ray struggled desperately. It accomplished nothing. His consciousness immediately began fading. His thoughts became sluggish. His memories fractured.
Even his soul seemed to weaken under the curse's influence.
The spell was never intended to kill him. Its purpose was something else entirely.
To distort his aura signature so completely that nobody would be able to locate him through conventional magical means.
And then came the final step.
Tsk!
A needle pierced his skin.
The fake Ray calmly injected a special drug into his body. A drug designed to keep him unconscious for an extremely long time.
The young master's resistance instantly collapsed. His eyelids grew heavy. His body lost all strength. And moments later, the real Ray Dafelix fell unconscious.
The fake Ray crouched beside him calmly. A satisfied smile appeared on his face.
"Then..."
He reached toward the unconscious young man.
"...I'll make good use of your identity."
One by one, he took everything. His clothes. His name. His status. His future. His very existence.
And when everything was finally complete, the fake Ray rose to his feet.
At a glance, nobody would have noticed the difference. He had become Ray Dafelix. Perfectly.
At that moment, a magic circle quietly formed nearby. A woman dressed in a black cloak stepped out from within it. Sita.
Without a word, she grabbed the unconscious original Ray and dragged him into the circle.
The portal closed moments later.
Leaving only one Ray behind.
And from that day onward... the wrong person began living the life of Ray Dafelix.
---
Back in the present, the room gradually fell silent after their conversation.
Ray stood quietly beside the window, his gaze lowering toward his own hand before slowly clenching it into a fist.
"If only I weren't a Dark Energy user..."
A faint sigh escaped his lips.
"...none of this ridiculous trouble would've been necessary."
The reason he had gone through all this effort. The reason he needed to steal an identity instead of simply taking what he wanted by force.
In the end, all of it traced back to the same problem. Dark Energy.
In this world, awakened humans cultivated mana.
Warriors refined it through their bodies. Mages refined it through spells. Different paths, different methods, but the foundation was always the same. Mana.
Ray was different. The power flowing through his body wasn't mana.
It was Dark Energy. An energy said to belong only to demons and creatures lurking beyond the world's shadows.
And if a human was discovered using it... execution was usually the mildest outcome.
That alone made living openly under the sun almost impossible.
Unfortunately, that wasn't even the worst part.
The stronger his Dark Energy became, the harder it was to conceal.
True concealment required a level of mastery he hadn't reached yet. Although his Dark Energy was already fairly advanced, Ray still couldn't guarantee that it would remain hidden forever.
Ordinary people might not notice anything. But the moment he encountered someone truly powerful, the risk increased dramatically.
All it took was one mistake, one careless leak of energy, and they would immediately realize that something was wrong with him.
There were solutions, of course. Powerful concealment artifacts.
Or a second path. Cultivating mana alongside Dark Energy and using the two energies to balance each other. A Dual Energy User.
Dangerous. Difficult. And absurdly expensive.
Either option required resources that an ordinary orphan could never hope to obtain.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"I already awakened Pure Energy years ago. But after cultivating it all this time, I still haven't even reached the middle stage of the basic grade."
That alone showed how difficult his situation truly was.
"Raising it high enough to suppress my Dark Energy..."
He shook his head slightly.
"...The challenge is enormous."
But unlike before, he finally had a chance.
Ray slowly lifted his gaze toward the enormous estate beyond the window.
The Dafelix Family's residence stretched across the darkness like a sleeping giant. Resources, connections, knowledge, rare materials, opportunities he could never have accessed in his previous life.
A faint smile slowly appeared on his lips.
"This family has everything."
For the first time in years, those resources were finally within his reach. The smile on his face deepened slightly.
"With this... I can do it."
Quiet confidence filled his voice.