Someone quickly wrapped their arms around the falling body.

It was Ban.

Riley, held in Ban’s embrace, watched the tree collapse to the ground. A massive tree that looked to be at least 40m tall was cut down in an instant. How was this possible?

The moment Ban landed on the ground while holding Riley, sharp metal tentacles attacked him. Ban easily dodged them, then pushed Riley away from his embrace.

“Get away from me.”

Riley was pushed so hard that she rolled across the ground and crashed into a rock.

Ugh.

Curled up like a shrimp and groaning, Riley summoned all her strength to get up. Then she looked for Ban.

Ban was standing far away with his back turned to Riley. And in front of him was someone.

Not a monster, but an adult man with long red hair wearing a strange mask.

“He must be watching us from somewhere nearby. And my sudden interference must be annoying, right?”

Ban’s guess was very accurate.

Judging by how quickly he attacked as soon as Ban finished speaking, he was likely hiding very close by. This meant that the masked man was the mastermind behind all of this.

The mysterious man who suddenly appeared unleashed a fierce attack on Ban. Freely manipulating five sharp metal tentacles, every time he launched an attack, holes were punched in the ground where Ban had been standing, turning it into a wasteland.

If those attacks landed properly, one’s body would become a beehive.

Riley anxiously watched Ban, worried he might get hurt. Ban was doing well enough dodging the man’s attacks while counterattacking. He dodged nimbly using spatial movement magic while attempting counterattacks using fire, but his fire attacks were blocked by the metal tentacles.

It was her first time seeing people fight using magic, and it was so fast that it was hard to follow with her eyes.

Then suddenly she realized something strange.

‘…Why is he targeting Ban sunbae instead of me?’

If he had been lying in wait from the beginning, why had he just been watching until now?

Even now, it was the same. He could have targeted me who can’t use magic instead of Ban who can. The enemy was only focusing his attacks on Ban. Treating me as if I didn’t exist at all.

If he had brought me here to kill me, he would have done it already. Yet he left me alone all this time…

‘…Is it really to lure Givnen?’

It seems what Ban said was right. This was the work of an enemy targeting Givnen.

The reason they just kept me confined here quietly was probably because they thought there was no need to actively harm me. They could just keep me imprisoned here until Givnen arrived, so there was no need for both sides to waste energy.

‘At this rate, both Givnen and Ban are in danger…’

That man couldn’t be alone. There were probably more enemies lying in wait in the surroundings.

Riley pressed down on her throbbing head. Now was not the time to stupidly watch the fight. It was a situation where she needed to come up with some kind of plan, but her mind was blank.

What should I do?

Should I run away right now? But Ban is fighting like that? Besides, if there are several people lying in wait around here, is there any meaning in escaping alone? Is it even possible to escape while evading invisible enemies and monsters in this forest crawling with monsters?

Escaping was meaningless. Then she had to fight together with Ban. It was right to reduce the number of enemies that could be a threat to Givnen and Ban, and furthermore to herself, even by one.

But how?

What can I do? What on earth can I do in this situation?

‘If only I could use magic…’

Riley acutely felt her own powerlessness.

There was nothing she could do. She was of no help at all. Ban was fighting desperately like that. If there was something she knew how to do, she would try to help somehow, but with a body that couldn’t even use magic, she couldn’t even join the fight.

‘How pathetic.’

She had always been pessimistic about her own incompetence and resigned herself to it. She never thought she could do anything on her own, and never put it into action either. She only learned how to give up. She only learned how to resign herself.

The reason she lived without even rebelling against the members of the Eadalin mansion was because she gave up first. Because it was easier on her mind if she accepted all that unfairness and her own incompetence and weakness.

It’s no use even if I try.

There’s nothing I can do.

What could someone like me do, what could I change.

I’m weak. I’m incompetent. I’m stupid. I’m… weak.

She had always only learned to avoid situations and give up. Because she had lived believing that nothing would change even if she acted alone.

– Give up and accept this situation, don’t do anything and just stay quiet crying as usual. Then everything will be easier.

A strange voice was heard.

She didn’t know if this was the enemy’s voice or an auditory hallucination. Riley covered her ears and squeezed her eyes shut.

Just then, a scene from the past unfolded.

– If nothing changes either way, it’s right to at least struggle. That way you’ll have no regrets.

– …What do you mean?

– It means I look forward to seeing whether the young lady will just accept this reality quietly and stupidly as usual, or struggle somehow.

Recalling her conversation with Macdalen, the head maid of the Eadalin mansion from long ago, Riley’s eyes flew open.

That’s right!

When she was in a situation where she had no choice but to marry Count Ermeints, she came to her senses after hearing what Macdalen said then. If nothing changes either way, you should at least struggle to have no regrets.

And that struggle changed many things.

Beyond breaking off the engagement with Count Ermeints, she ended up promising to marry Givnen Lianster, and came to live in Blestij and even attend Horizon Academy.

If she hadn’t rebelled at all then and just meekly married Count Ermeints… nothing would have changed!

Riley clenched her fists and started walking.

Towards where Ban and the enemy were fighting noisily.

‘I don’t care if my body is torn to pieces.’

Something has to be done for the outcome to change. If you do nothing, nothing changes. So she had to do something. Even if it resulted in her body being torn to pieces. Even if the end was death.

Riley stretched both hands out in front of her.

– Imagine the magic you want to use in your head.

– The imagination will become a spell formula, and the spell formula will become magic.

– Focus mana at your fingertips and shoot it.

Recalling Arpegio’s words, she focused mana at her fingertips. Her body started heating up and her fingertips felt scorching hot. Trees, forest, tentacles… the things visible to her eyes spread as images in her mind.

The completed image soon became shining letters. A parade of countless characters that she didn’t even know what they were continued.

Her body heated up like a boiling furnace. At the same time, light leaked out.

Bang!

“!”

“!”

Ban and the masked man turned their heads simultaneously at the tremendous impact sound.

A huge tree trunk poured out from Riley’s fingertips, and the recoil sent Riley’s body flying backwards. Her flying body crashed into a rock.

“Ugh!”

She barely held back a scream that almost burst out at the bone-crushing pain by gritting her teeth. Riley focused on the magic and aimed at the enemy.

The huge tree trunk that rose from her rushed at tremendous speed towards the man fighting Ban.

Tree vines sprouting from the trunk wrapped around Ban’s body as if protecting him. On the other hand, the sharply extended tree trunk mercilessly pushed the masked man.

Wherever the tree trunk swept through, trees were smashed and collapsed, turning the surroundings into a wasteland in an instant, but tree vines sprouting from the trunk safely protected Ban and Riley.

Ban stared blankly at the scene before him, dangling while tied up by tree vines.

“What on earth…”

As the dust settled, it could be seen that the area that had been densely filled with trees had turned into a wasteland in an instant.

The masked man was nowhere to be seen, and all that was visible were trees and rocks lying scattered about in a miserable state. Ban, who had been looking around in a daze, hurriedly searched for Riley.

“!”

He saw Riley collapsed in a bloody mess.

Ban hastily cleared away the tree vines and went down to approach Riley, checking if she was breathing and if her pulse was beating. Fortunately, she was breathing and her pulse was beating a little slowly but normally.

‘Did she faint?’

Whether she got bruises all over from not being able to handle the magic, her clothes were all torn and her arms and legs were bent in bizarre shapes. Bleeding wounds could also be seen.

With this level of impact, the probability of internal injuries rather than just bruises couldn’t be ignored. Ban, who had no medical knowledge, didn’t know if the bones inside were intact or if any organs were damaged, so he just picked Riley up for now.

The fatigue accumulated from the recent battle was considerable. Riley’s magic was clearly tremendous magic, but it looked unstable even to Ban’s eyes, so the masked man was probably still alive and not dead. He had to hide before attacks were launched again.

“…If she can use such amazing magic, why was she just stupidly staying here.”

If she could use magic of this level, it seems she could have escaped this place before nightfall with plenty of time to spare.

Ban sighed as he held Riley.

‘Hah, damn it. Did I overdo it too much?’

It would be right to escape from here right away even if it’s overdoing it, but the sudden battle caused too much consumption of physical strength and mana.

In an environment where mana was being drained even when staying still, it was questionable whether he could escape at once using spatial movement magic after forcibly using magic.

If they encountered monsters in this situation…

‘We’d become food in plain sight.’

Ban decided to look for a hiding place for now.

When day breaks and the activities of monsters and magical plants calm down, we can escape using spatial movement magic. Of course, we shouldn’t be discovered by monsters or enemies until then.

‘How on earth did I end up getting involved in such a troublesome situation…’

His worries grew as much as his increasing sighs.

[This is the timeline separator]

Givnen kept fiddling with one earring all day long.

It seemed like Riley’s location would be detected, but it wasn’t being detected. Seeing that the earring wasn’t working even after coming to Lurat, it was clear that there was something interfering with the transmission and reception of mana in the surroundings rather than just a defect in the magic tool.

And based on his experience, there was only one place in this area that could interfere with mana transmission and reception.

“Master, I’ve brought her.”

Sack brought in Hila.

Hila walked in hesitantly, and when her eyes met Givnen’s, she was startled. She was so surprised that she almost fell backwards, but thanks to Sack catching her, she avoided falling.

“I’m sorry for calling you out in the middle of the night.”

“Ah, no, it’s fine…”

Hila doubted her eyes. She wondered if the man in front of her was really the man who often graced the front pages of newspapers with scandalous rumors when he was bored. She never thought the day would come when she would see the Tower Master of Horizon in person.

She had expected to maybe catch a glimpse of him in person someday if she got a job at Horizon Tower later, but she never imagined such an unexpected meeting would happen like this.

Even in this situation, she couldn’t take her eyes off his beautiful appearance. The face she had only seen in photos and videos was even more artistic when seen in person. So a person could look like this too. Even though she didn’t want to stare, her gaze kept glancing towards him.

“I heard you were with Riley until the last moment.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Could you explain the situation at that time in detail?”

Hila mentioned walking on the trail with Riley, and how Riley suddenly disappeared without a trace at some point.

She added that after Riley disappeared, she waited for over an hour in that spot but Riley didn’t appear so she became anxious. There were no threatening or suspicious people visible, and rather, despite there being many eyes watching, no one had seen Riley.

“Could you guide me to that trail?”

“Of course, I was waiting for that actually.”

Hila calmed her surprised heart and took the lead.

“Please follow me.”

·

·

·

Unlike during the day, the trail in the deep night was eerie.

The streetlights were on but couldn’t fully illuminate the darkness, and rather, the soft light created a more ominous atmosphere. Moreover, animal cries that weren’t heard during the day could be heard.

Givnen looked at the tall iron fence hidden in the darkness in the distance.

“Do you think she’s in the monsters’ habitat after all?”

“Probably.”

Givnen fiddled with the earring.

It was still unstable, but Riley’s location was detected intermittently. It was not far from here.

The fact that her location could be detected meant she was still alive, which was fortunate, but her emotional state, which had been anxious and impatient just a few hours ago, was surprisingly calm now. Like someone completely asleep.

Given the late hour, there was a high probability she was asleep, but the possibility that she had lost consciousness couldn’t be ruled out either.

“Are you going in alone?”

“Of course?”

“I’ll go with you…”

“You need to keep watch here.”

The monsters’ habitat was a restricted area. Entry was not allowed without permission, and entrance was only possible during regular monster subjugation periods.

Entering the monster habitat without permission was clearly illegal. It was even considered a felony. It was questionable whether they would let it slide quietly like last time if caught.

“By myself?”

“It’s your specialty, isn’t it? And protect that young lady over there. Do you intend to leave her alone in the middle of the night?”

“That, well…”

“Keep a close watch on who comes. I don’t want to be dragged to the Magic Department again.”

Sack frowned and ran his hand through his hair.

“We’ll be detected anyway if we use magic inside.”

“You never know.”

“…”

“Think of a plausible excuse.”

As soon as Givnen finished speaking, he disappeared in an instant.

Sack let out a long sigh and then extended his hand towards Hila, who was just standing there with wide eyes.

“I’ll escort you back to your hotel room.”

Hila grabbed Sack’s outstretched hand.

Just as Sack was about to activate the portal magic, Hila casually spoke up.

“Excuse me, Riley’s elder brother…”

“…Are you referring to me?”

“Yes!”

“I am not the young lady’s elder brother. And I am a woman.”

“…Pardon?”

Hila’s mouth fell open in shock.

“You’re not her elder brother? And not even a man?”

“I am female and not related by blood to the young lady. If I had to specify, we’re in an employer-employee relationship.”

“T-then, is it true that Riley is in a relationship to marry that person… I mean, the Tower Master?”

Ban had clearly said that Riley’s ‘husband’ would come if they waited, and the Tower Master came.

And rumors of the Tower Master’s marriage had been hot news just this morning.

“Since you’re the young lady’s friend… I suppose it’s alright to tell you. Yes, that’s correct, for now at least.”

“…Good heavens.”

Hila’s face fell.

The scene of her excitedly gossiping about the Tower Master right to Riley’s face flashed before her eyes like a panorama.

‘Oh! This wretched mouth, this mouth!’

Hila didn’t say another word to Sack.

When the conversation ended, Sack opened a portal to take Hila back to her hotel room, then returned. Then he closed his eyes, sat cross-legged, and began emitting mana. It was magic that could detect if any suspicious people approached within a certain radius.

‘…Overtime hell… just kill me…’

The cry in his heart never reached Givnen in the end.

[This is the timeline separator]

Finding Riley’s location wasn’t particularly difficult.

Although monsters and magical plants continuously interfered with mana exchanges and caused disruptions, the state-of-the-art magic tool tracking earring seemed to perform quite well, frequently pinpointing Riley’s location.

As he approached Riley’s location like that.

“…”

An arrow came flying.

Givnen dodged it and looked at the ground. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t just an arrow. It was sharply carved from ice. Not just one or two, but dozens of ice arrows came flying. Of course, those ice arrows fell powerlessly to the ground just before touching Givnen’s body.

Instead of counterattacking, Givnen lit a fire.

At that moment, the figure of a man holding Riley cautiously came into view.

“…You.”

A very familiar face, certainly an acquaintance.

Someone who had irritated him before.

Clearly the man who was holding Riley’s hand back then.

Ban Claff.

The handsome classmate who had helped Riley several times.

There’s another irritating one. As soon as he realized this, his mood twisted and he ground his teeth in annoyance.