Walking through the streets of Orario, Alise Lovell casually glanced around before turning into a narrow, shadowed alley.
She whistled as she walked, utterly relaxed, her posture loose and unguarded.
After taking another turn and walking a short distance, she suddenly came to a halt.
Her carefree expression shifted.
"You've been following me for a while now."
She said lightly, tilting her head as her gaze locked onto a specific direction above her.
"I know my beauty is overwhelming and all... hard not to fall in love..."
She grinned.
"But this is just plain creepy, you know?"
For a brief moment, the alley was silent.
Then a figure clad in black robes stepped off a nearby rooftop, landing beside her without a sound.
"I believed my disguise to be sufficient."
Fels remarked calmly.
"To think you noticed me so easily."
"Heh."
Alise puffed out her chest proudly.
"Of course I did. I am the great Scarlet Harnel, after all."
She raised her chin with a smug hum.
Fels paid her bravado no mind.
After all, Alise Lovell embodied justice itself... a blazing light that had shone even during the Dark Age.
A presence so genuine that even the top familias could not replicate it.
That was precisely why she was among the few adventurers he held genuine respect for.
"Alise Lovell, I have a quest for you."
Fels said evenly,
Alise raised a brow, then waved a hand lazily, signaling him to continue.
"There has been an irregular outbreak on the twenty-fourth floor of the Dungeon."
"Multiple adventurers have already lost their lives."
"I wish for you to investigate the cause and suppress the situation as much as possible."
He paused briefly before adding.
"Naturally, you will be compensated generously. Further details are written right here."
From within his robes, Fels took out an envelope and handed it to her.
"Oh?"
Alise accepted it, eyeing the envelope with exaggerated suspicion.
"A super-secret mission from a super-secret figure..."
She squinted at him.
"Yeah, no... this is suspicious as hell. Seriously creepy."
Despite her words, her sharp eyes studied him carefully.
'This person doesn't seem to hold any ill intent or hostility.'
Whatever he was, he didn't feel like an enemy.
Her grin widened.
"I'm in!"
She tucked the envelope away confidently, her scarlet eyes burning with excitement.
...
In the Loki Familia's training grounds...
The sound of steel clashing against steel rang out repeatedly as Judas and Ais exchanged blows, sparks scattering across the stone floor with every collision.
Compared to their previous spars, this bout was on an entirely different level.
Even the level 4 adventurers watching from the sidelines had long since lost track of their movements... both figures reduced to fleeting afterimages, appearing and vanishing in the blink of an eye.
"Crazy... these two are genuinely insane..."
Cruz muttered, a bead of sweat trailing down his face.
"These two... I think they've already caught up to the Captain and the others."
Anakitty spoke with her arms folded.
No one voiced any disagreement.
Simply watching them right now was proof enough.
"Seriously, they've been at it for over an hour without taking a single break. When are they going to stop?"
Raul said as he walked among the onlookers.
It wasn't as if the others were slacking off either... the sweat clinging to their bodies, along with the bruises and shallow cuts on their skin, made it clear they had been training hard themselves.
At the center of it all, Ais surged forward, her sword flashing as the ground erupted beneath her feet.
She twisted mid-air, bringing her blade down in a clean, decisive arc aimed straight for Judas' shoulder.
Judas didn't dodge.
Instead, he stepped in.
His foot slammed into the ground, stone cracking outward as he raised his forearm to intercept the strike.
The impact sent a compressed shockwave rippling through the training grounds.
"This is intense... even just keeping up with them visually is difficult."
Tiona muttered, squinting hard.
"I stopped counting the exchanges after the first thirty seconds."
Tiona said again, her gaze locked onto the spar.
"To think the rookie brat who's only been here for a little over a month already surpassed me. This is ridiculous."
Bete clicked his tongue, hands shoved into his pockets.
Despite the bitterness gnawing at him, Bete knew when to acknowledge strength... especially when it stood so blatantly in front of him.
To the wolf, Judas was one of the very few males around his age that he genuinely recognized as strong. Because of that, Judas had quietly become a rival etched into his heart.
'Just you wait... I'm not handing Ais over to you.'
He snorted coldly.
The spar between Judas and Ais continued for several more minutes, until Judas finally raised his hand and called for a stop... both of them agreeing to a draw.
"Hey, Tiona, why don't you challenge Judas right now? Didn't you say you wanted to be defeated by him?"
Now that the spar had ended, Tione turned toward her sister.
Hearing the question, Tiona glanced back at her, then hesitated.
"Ah... well, I would love to do exactly that, but..."
She scratched her cheek.
"...it'd probably be a mistake."
Tione frowned.
"A mistake?"
Instead of answering, Tiona reached with her hands and pulled out a book, proudly holding it up.
How To Get Any Man Obsessed With You
by Alice Love
"What the hell is this?"
Tione stared at it like it was cursed.
"It's a book I've been reading a lot lately."
Tiona said casually.
"Picked it up at the library the other day."
She flipped through a few pages, then stopped and tapped one with an oddly serious expression.
"It says here that if a woman wants to be valued in a relationship, she has to play hard to get."
"...Huh?"
"Because of how people's brains work."
Tiona continued, nodding sagely.
"If something's too easy to get, they won't value it as much. But if it's just out of reach..."
She paused for dramatic effect.
"Then the other party starts thinking about it more. Like... why can't I have it yet? And then... bam! Obsession."
Tione stared at her.
Silence stretched for a full second.
"...You're telling me, that you're not challenging Judas because of a dating strategy book?"
Tione said slowly, her eye twitching,
"Yup!"
Tiona closed the book with a satisfied snap and hugged it to her chest.
"If I go fight him right now and lose, that's it. I'm just 'that Amazon who got flattened.' No mystery. No tension. No yearning."
"I will wait until I reach level 6 to challenge Judas again and when he beats me after some difficulty... bam, now he will feel like he has earned my affection."
"That is the dumbest thing I've heard all week."
Tione shot back.
"Hey! It's written by an expert!"
"Alice Love sounds super trustworthy."
Tiona protested.
"THAT'S CLEARLY A FAKE NAME!"
Tione shouted.
Tiona just let out a smug little heh.
"You say it's dumb, but how's your love life doing? Any progress with the Captain?"
She tapped her chin lightly.
That was the last straw for Tione.
Something inside her snapped.
"Say something stupid one more time and I will pummel you into the ground!"
Her voice rang out, sharp and fierce, and her face contorted with anger.
Meanwhile, at the gates of the Twilight Manor...
The heavy metallic doors creaked open, and a pair of figures stepped through... a god and a female elf.
"Dionysus... what do you want?"
Loki's voice was sharp, her slit eyes opening slightly.
"Loki, it's always a pleasure to see you."
Dionysus said, the god of winemaking wearing an unnervingly gentle smile that made Loki frown.
"Is there somewhere we can sit down and talk?"
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