When Valetta opened her eyes, the first thing she felt was nausea.
She was locked in a tiny room, the window barred with iron. The place looked like a cage.
But for Valetta, defenses of this level were meaningless. She could break out whenever she wanted.
She just did not dare.
Like a beast cowed by a trainer, too terrified to bite even when its head was shoved into a lion's mouth, she no longer dared to resist.
Half a year ago, Valetta had still been the arrogant, unrestrained Empress of Slaughter. Now, though, she had nearly been broken into a dog.
Only the last scraps of pride she retained as the commander of the Dark Faction kept her mind clear.
But only clear. Nothing more.
Then came the grating sound of metal scraping against metal.
The iron door was being opened.
Valetta recoiled in terror.
That familiar figure instantly dragged every torment of the past half year back into her mind.
"Alfia..."
The nightmare had come in person.
For the past six months, this woman had used "training" as an excuse to torment her.
Every day. Every night. Every day and every night...
Valetta no longer knew how many times she had been "trained," nor where the next attack would come from.
She only knew that she had never been allowed to rest. When she opened her eyes, Alfia was there. When she closed them, Alfia was still there.
The footsteps drew nearer, and Valetta scrambled backward on all fours.
"D-Don't... don't come closer. Stay away... stay away from me!"
"Even among all the noise, you are unusually fragile. Relax. You're being released. As long as you complete the task we've assigned you, you'll be allowed to leave alive."
Alfia had not come to train Valetta today.
Though the woman before her was pitiful and pathetic now, Alfia had still "trained" her thoroughly over these past months.
One sheep or a whole flock—it was all the same.
Under Alfia's "careful instruction," Valetta had only recently broken through to Level 6, finally meeting Shadow's requirement.
"W-What... what do you want me to do?"
Valetta trembled uncontrollably.
Reason told her that someone as powerful as Alfia had no need to lie to her. She was finally about to be free. She should have been overjoyed.
But her body remembered too well.
This woman had carved fear directly into her flesh, her instincts, her very bones.
It was not that Valetta wanted to shake.
Her body was doing it on its own.
Alfia stared at her for a moment, then stepped back half a pace in disgust.
"Among Orario's Level 6 adventurers, choose one. If you defeat them in the duel, you'll leave Orario alive. So—who will it be?"
"...Really? No, I know it's true. I shouldn't question you! I just... Finn. I choose Fi—no, not Finn. I won't choose him. I choose... I choose... Riveria!"
The moment she said it, Valetta remembered.
There was still unfinished business between her and Riveria.
That woman had teamed up with Finn and played her like a fool. That had been the first defeat of Valetta's during the Great Feud.
Now it was time to settle the score.
"Then make your preparations. If you lose, the price is death."
With that, Alfia turned and left, not even bothering to shut the door behind her.
Twenty minutes later, after confirming that Alfia truly had gone, Valetta obediently got up and closed the door herself.
"If I win, I'm free. If I lose, I die. Either way, I'll finally escape that monster..."
Two streams of tears ran down her face.
Inside this cage, she had not even possessed the freedom to die.
When the Dis Sisters arrived in Orario, they had not even made it into the Dungeon before a white-haired, red-eyed girl stopped them.
She was not asking for directions.
She was asking for the date.
"What kind of weird question is that?"
"Seriously. The Great Feud was such a huge event—how could you not know about it?"
Both elves found the girl strange.
She looked as though she had spent her whole life deep in some mountain wilderness, completely ignorant of the world.
Anyone who had read enough web novels would probably have suspected she was a time traveler.
"Thank you so much, big sisters! I'll definitely find a way to repay this kindness someday!"
Bell bowed deeply in gratitude, then turned and ran toward her companion.
Dina and Vina exchanged a glance and let it go.
They had only told her the date. Did that really count as helping?
And as for repayment—that would be in the future.
But they did not even have a future anymore.
Still, the girl had made a strong impression on them.
"She's such a pure-hearted girl. Especially that smile."
"Yes, Sister. It's a good thing we only met her now."
Before meeting Lord Shadow, what they had hated most were pure elves and pure-hearted humans—
People just like that girl.
If this had happened in the past, they might have attacked her on the spot.
On the other side, Bell had barely finished asking for the date before her companion hurried over.
"Miss Ryu, what's wrong? Why are you in such a panic?"
Bell looked in confusion at the short-haired green-haired elf beside her, whose lower face was covered by a mask.
In her impression, this adventurer senior very rarely looked this flustered.
"Are you alright? Those two just now... I think I know them."
Ryu's expression was troubled. She was not even certain she had seen correctly.
In her memory, those demonic sisters should not have been dressed like that.
More importantly, they should have died long ago.
"The two elf sisters? They seemed like nice people to me."
Bell tilted her head, puzzled.
As an elf herself, Miss Ryu ought to have been friendly to her fellow elves.
So why did her face look so grim?
"Nice people... Then perhaps I was mistaken."
Ryu rubbed her eyes.
So many years had passed. Her memories of those two should naturally have grown blurry.
Mistaking them was understandable.
She could not possibly think of those two demons every time she saw a pair of elf sisters.
"By the way, Miss Ryu, I confirmed it just now. This really is after the Great Feud. It should be six years before our own time."
Bell shared the information she had just gathered.
Then she noticed that Ryu's visible eye had become even more complicated.
"After the Great Feud... six years earlier..."
Ryu's feelings were impossible to put into words.
To her, this was good news.
Good news so strange it felt unreal.
She stood there for a long while without understanding what to make of it.
In the end, she could only stare blankly off to one side.
Bell followed her gaze.
There, a gray-haired girl was desperately trying to refuse the good intentions of a vegetable-selling auntie.
As one of Ganesha Familia's star adventurers—and as a girl whose convictions were even firmer than justice itself—she had always been absurdly popular in Orario.
"Miss Ryu... was she your friend in the past?"
Bell could read everything from that one eye alone.
One part confusion. Two parts disbelief. Three parts nostalgia. Four parts joy.
"Yes," Ryu said softly. "I know her."
Of course she knew her.
No matter how many years passed, that image in her mind had never faded even a little.
That girl had once been her closest friend.
The friend who, in the original timeline, should have died during the Great Feud.
The friend who absolutely should not have existed in the era after it.
"Ardee..."
....
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