"You see me through, huh? I guess you will find it eventually, but it's sooner than expected."
Iris said those words with a face void of expressions, so I could not read her properly. But there was one thing I could be sure of: I definitely caught her hiding her real identity. However, I still loved her, and I actually did not know what to do.
"Iris, you are truly concealing something. What will you do next? Will you disclose the information I am seeking?"
"Isolating me here and purposefully baiting me with your tricks... I see. You set me up, aren't you?"
"It doesn't matter. I am sorry, but I have to do this. I know it's hard to believe, but no matter who or what you are, I will accept who you are because I really love you, Iris. I just want to know who you really are. So please..."
What I just said was genuine, and it all came from my heart. It was true that I trapped her in his situation, but I was eager to learn more about her.
She would be my wife, and if she loved and trusted me, she would not be afraid to hide her real self from me. On the other hand, it would be unfair if she was the only one to disclose their own secrets. Therefore, I should be revealing mine as well.
"Hm." Iris curled the corners of her lips. "Usually, I should be disposing of anyone who has discovered the mask I have been wearing in order to cover my identity."
"So that means you are going to kill me right here, right now..."
Even if she said that, I could not sense any hostility coming off of her. Nevertheless, it was probably one of her abilities, so I prepared myself for a possible attack by discreetly maximizing my senses and buffs and deploying defenses.
"It's such a waste, Raphael. I am sorry, but I have to do this. Regretfully, I truly enjoyed our time together."
My entire vision was filled with dust and mind, limiting my field of view. In spite of that, I did not move a muscle so that I could entirely focus my senses on an incoming attack, but nothing came after that.
Even though the attack was done, its winds continued to ravage the area. A single cast of Impregnable Fortress was not enough to block it all, so I had to recast it to protect myself longer, adding five more seconds to the shield's duration.
Fortunately, the fatality of the gust did not last ten seconds, but the winds were still there. When the ultimate defense technique ended, the nonfatal, sharp winds relentlessly scraped my skin, but I did not pay heed to them. Just in case, I prepared a precast Impregnable Fortress.
A few seconds later, the violent winds eventually dissipated, and a chaotic scene unfolded before my eyes. I found myself hovering in the middle of a wide pit. The attack was so powerful that it even made the grass beside the black wall bow.
"Fufu." A girly chuckle rang out in the middle of this calamity. "As expected, you were able to withstand that."
"...Why are you doing this, Iris?" I stared at her seriously. "I thought that you loved me. So all the words you said to me were all lies? So this is the real you, huh?"
"Even if you don't believe me, I really love you, Raphael."
"But then again, why are you doing this? Why are you going to kill me?"
"You just used Impregnable Fortress, don't you?"
"—?!"
Just now, she casually uttered the name of the exact ability that I used. However, my shock was irrelevant. The question was, how did she know that?