"I'm sorry, Kaguya, Lyra. Entrust your lives to me."
"I want to save Ryuu."
The red-haired girl whispered these words, her figure standing at the very forefront, situated within this jungle filled with blood and death.
"I can't see anything anymore, Alise, Kaguya... Sorry... What the hell... That guy... It seems my streak of good luck ends here."
The pink-haired Pallum girl's face was covered in blood; her cherry-pink eyes, usually lively and somewhat cunning, had now turned into anxious, empty voids.
"Since this battle has become a choice of 'who gets to survive,' then as a half-destroyed doll, for setsusha to be buried here is akin to returning home."
The Far East swordswoman, having already lost her right hand, prepared to face death with a firm and decisive tone, her elegant waist-length black hair still fluttering.
They all kept up with the red-haired girl's pace.
Only herself...
Only she stood in place, unable to do anything.
"No... It's not like that..."
The Elf girl in the dream muttered words repeated unknown times, shouting with all her might.
Even if someone had to survive, it should have been you, Alise. As long as you and Goddess Astrea are here, justice would surely continue...
"No, I've said it before: there are as many forms of justice as there are people. Justice has no single answer."
"I also believe that if it's Ryuu, you will surely find the right path."
"So..."
"Promise me, promise everyone, no matter what, you must live, okay?"
"You must survive, Ryuu."
...
"Ahhh!!!"
Ryuu woke up from the nightmare covered in sweat. She gasped for air, her heart feeling like it was about to explode, her ears hearing only the violent thump-thump-thump sound.
Her friend's dying words were like a curse, trapping the Elf girl in the darkest cage of her soul.
You were wrong, Alise.
At this moment, I have no justice to speak of. Someone fallen into the boundless fires of revenge has no face to see the Goddess again.
Ryuu Lion has gone astray, so the one who should have survived was you!
Silent, she sat on the bed for a while.
Calming her mood, Ryuu subconsciously looked at the simple clock on the table. By the faint light of the waning moon outside the window, the time showed 2:13 AM.
There was still some time.
The Elf girl climbed out of bed and simultaneously grabbed the weapons close to her hand—a wooden sword and a kodachi. Only then did she take off the tight leather armor she was wearing.
Ryuu, who maintained a combat state even while sleeping, walked naked into the bathroom, weapons still in hand, and began to shower just like that.
In the darkness, there was only the pattering sound of the icy water spraying out.
Like an endless, small, cold rain, submerging the Elf girl... submerging her...
With the stimulation of the cold.
Her thoughts began to focus again. The first thing Ryuu wondered was exactly how long she had slept.
Probably three hours?
Enough.
A Level 4 adventurer can maintain combat readiness for a long time, but still needs rest.
Therefore, even though every time she slept she would repeat that nightmare moment, the Elf girl still forced herself to sleep whenever possible.
Must recover energy, otherwise revenge cannot continue. Those bastards, they cannot be forgiven no matter what!!
For the past year, Ryuu had been living like this.
As for the end?
She didn't dare think about such things, nor could she. That world where no one existed anymore terrified her from the bottom of her heart.
So before that, she just wanted to seek death, to burn out completely in the flames of revenge, and finally return to nothingness.
This was the destination Ryuu desired most right now.
After a long while.
The "light rain" stopped abruptly.
After toweling dry, she changed into new combat leather armor and black trousers, put on a mask, and prepared all the weapons she needed.
Not just the wooden sword [Alf's Lumina] and the keepsake of her close friend in her hands.
But also explosives, poisons, oil flasks, daggers, throwing knives also coated in poison, and short crossbow bolts. At the same time, she prepared various potions and packed them into the small backpack behind her.
Ryuu silently walked out of the place she was currently living.
This was the 7th District of Orario, the old downtown area situated between Adventurer Street and West Main Street.
Countless ordinary houses stood one after another here, serving as the base for many small and medium-sized Familias, along with all sorts of strange shops.
And under the shadow of the city wall, cheap collective dormitories built by Gnomes coiled there like bloated snakes.
Many suspicious individuals and poor families lived here.
Which included guys like Ryuu.
It was very close to the city wall. The towering walls once used a millennium ago to resist monsters surging from the Dungeon were no longer an obstacle in the eyes of a Level 4 adventurer.
If any accident occurred, she could cross the wall at any time and flee the city, which was why it was favored by someone like the current Ryuu.
She locked the wooden door.
Thick clouds had quietly filled the sky at some point, obscuring the originally bright waning moon.
Before leaving, Ryuu bumped into a neighbor living here.
She walked up silently from the stairwell, evidently just returning. She was covered in other people's blood, which had already coagulated into scabs, yet her whole person projected a relaxed and cozy posture, like an ordinary citizen who had just got off work from somewhere.
"Ya~ Heading out so late, nya? Good luck with work! Don't die out there, or nya will be sad, nya~"
The noisy Cat Person girl had short, capable black hair and eyes like green gems that sparkled in the night.
Her words were clingy and frivolous.
Ryuu had never seen her face, as the other party also always wore a mask. Moreover, the two were not familiar at all; every time, it was just her striking up a conversation on her own.
Heh, an assassin.
How was the current self any different from a guy like that?
Ryuu kept her eyes cold as always, completely ignoring the Cat Person girl passing her by, her figure disappearing into the pitch-black stairwell just like that.
"Ignoring nya again! Damn it!! I'll curse you to fall down at work, nya!!"
The charmingly furious words were particularly loud in the night, and so, very quickly, a more irritable, energetic girl's voice came from somewhere in the distance.
"Stupid cat! If you keep yelling in the middle of the night, I'll come out and punch you to death!!"
"Ha?! Come if you have the guts, nya!! See if nya doesn't sort out you trash Bounty Hunter, nya!!"
"Running dog of the Assassin Goddess... ah no, running cat! What are you arrogant about? A bunch of rats who only know how to hide in the gutter!!"
With this.
Lights lit up in more than half of the collective dormitory. The originally dark longhouse was instantly filled with orange lamplight, and more and more people joined the quarrel.
The heavy haze of the night seemed to be dispelled quite a bit by this.
But by now.
Ryuu had already walked far away, her figure completely merging into the boundless darkness of Orario...
...
About an hour later.
Ryuu appeared in the 4th District, on a rooftop deep in an alley of the Entertainment District.
The night breeze blew gently.
The main street in the distance was still noisy. The glow of magic stone lamps intertwined with colorful neon ribbons, and the air was filled with the scent of women's sweet powder and alcohol.
And right now beneath Ryuu's feet, through a small tile that had been uncovered, she could see the adventurers inside, gathering around a long table drinking through the night.
The smell of cheap ale was incredibly pungent.
Ryuu counted and concluded there were sixteen people in total, outside and inside the house.
This was a dormitory subordinate to a certain merchant guild connected to the Rudra Familia. And the Rudra Familia was the main culprit that had planned the ambush on the Astrea Familia, causing that tragedy.
Unforgivable, absolutely unforgivable!
All of them, and every single guy still supporting this Dark Familia, must be slaughtered completely, not one left behind!!
Ryuu drew her short sword, and thus, the candle flame in the room was instantly blown out by the wind.
In the darkness.
Accompanying the adventurers' initial confusion and roaring, what followed was silent slaughter and splashing crimson blood.
Muffled groans and screams rose and fell.
Moments later, the house was devoured by raging fire. The sky-scorching flames reflected in the azure eyes of the Elf girl standing outside.
It wasn't over yet. The long night continued; she still had to investigate the next target.
Only.
Just as Ryuu was about to turn and leave, the sound of light footsteps came from the dark alley.
"Ah... Why burn it down? What a waste..."
A bright and crisp voice came from behind.
The Elf girl turned around and saw a young boy similarly reflected in the firelight. He looked at her with an incomparably indifferent and lazy expression. His fragmented black hair and the teasing look inadvertently revealed in his brownish-grey eyes, along with the katana hanging at his waist, inexplicably made one's heart tremble slightly.
Ryuu was reminded of an old friend, and so, she once again drew her short sword, which was still covered in filth and blood...
...
"Don't be nervous."
So fast, even faster than Anya.
Isagi couldn't help but marvel. Adventurers really were excessively strictly ranked. Through a day of training, he had barely managed to perceive the Cat Person girl's spear-wielding movements with great difficulty.
But just now.
It was just a sudden brush of the night breeze, and then, the Elf girl with the alias [Gale] had already arrived behind him from a distance. At the same time, the short sword in her hand was already resting against his neck.
Exaggerated.
"Who are you?"
Ryuu's voice was so cold it made one feel as if they had fallen into an ice cave, and the suppressed anger within seemed ready to erupt, starting to spark.
Isagi's peripheral vision.
Collided with those sharp, hideous, and terrifying eyes that looked like blades clashing together.
"I am the Vice-Captain of the Astrea Familia, Senior Ryuu Lion."
Isagi chose a straight ball.
Straight ball effective.
The Elf girl's tense, terrifying expression turned into a look of doubt and incomprehension. Those azure eyes trembled slightly, as if she couldn't believe what she had just heard.
And before the other party could react, Isagi launched his second attack.
Still a straight ball.
To prove he was a dependent of the Goddess of Justice and Stars, the best and most irrefutable way was to persuade the other party with his body—
Isagi took off his clothes, directly exposing his well-proportioned and athletic back.
A God's Falna carves "Hieroglyphs" onto the dependent's back, thereby displaying panels for Ability Scores, Skills, Magic, Development Abilities, and so on.
But very few people can decipher this kind of divine script. Only Elves of great age, or Spirits known as messengers of the gods, as well as scholars who have spent decades on this path, can barely decipher them.
Of course, skilled Deities will "lock" their members' panels to prevent others from peeking, requiring special means, such as an [Unlock Potion] refined from a Deity's blood, to forcibly "pry" it open.
But none of that mattered now.
Before setting out tonight, Isagi had specifically asked the Goddess to unlock his panel so it could be revealed.
Although Ryuu is an Elf, she is only seventeen now, which counts as a young girl even among ordinary humans, let alone for Elves with their long lifespans, for whom it is an even more "childish" age.
So she couldn't read the Hieroglyphs.
But the girl could understand the Astrea Familia emblem carved above the complex status of the boy—
The scales representing "Fairness" and the sword representing "Justice," surrounded in the center by eight pairs of pure white wings of varying sizes.
Straight ball combo.
Now, it seems the effect was super effective.
___
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