Is it wrong to try to meet someone in a dungeon?

Tiona remembers clearly the scene of her sister's mind gradually becoming disordered.

On the same day that Tiony leveled up to Lv.2, Tiona also leveled up. By killing her roommate.

Tiona, whose mental age is far younger than her sister's, only feels "Oh well, I killed someone else" even after killing her close friend who is about the same age.

Tiona loved to fight. Each victory brought praise from her elders (the Amazons) and the goddess (Kali). However, killing her own kind always left her feeling uneasy. Young Tiona couldn't describe this indescribable feeling and kept it to herself.

If she blindly believed in the exhilarating feeling, she would surely be free of worries and become like the other Amazons. Though the thought was unconscious, Diona intuitively understood it. However, an inner turmoil stopped her. Because the girl, acting on instinct and emotion rather than reason, was deeply bothered by the increasingly unpleasant feelings that were inversely proportional to her exhilarating passion. But this feeling was only a hair's breadth away from the desire to cast aside all worries.

On the day of her fifth birthday, when Tiona returned to the stone house, Tione had already returned.

She sat motionless in the corner of the room, her face buried between her knees, surrounded by weapons and masks that had been removed and scattered on the floor.

"Tione, who did you fight?"

"……………………Cerudas".

Tione didn't even look up at Tiona as she walked up to him, and murmured in a weak voice.

Serudas. Diona is also very attached to her; besides Tione, she is the person Diona can open her heart to the most.

The "ritual" will not end until one of them dies. Both Serudas and Tione are desperate to survive.

She felt her inner turmoil seemed to be increasing.

"……fortunately."

This is what Tiona truly thinks.

Although she never expressed any sentimentality about the word "blood ties," her sister Tione remained a special person to Tiona. The fact that Celestas died while Tione survived put Tiona's mind at ease.

Thank goodness you're still alive. Thank goodness you weren't killed. That's what Tiona meant.

Tiony returned the favor with a punch.

Moreover, it carried a clear murderous intent.

To this day, the sisters have had countless minor fights, but this is the first time one of them has had a cheekbone broken and nearly died.

The burning pain ignited Tiona's fury, and she roared as she lunged at him.

However, upon seeing the scene that came into view, Tiona stopped moving.

Tiony is crying.

Her face was filled with grief and indignation, her whole body trembled, and large tears rolled down her cheeks.

The clenched fist loosened, and the arm that had been raised high fell limply to the ground.

Tiona could only stand there, frozen in place, seeing her sister crying.

Since that incident, Tione's words and actions have become increasingly rude.

Her already unpleasant way of speaking became even more offensive, filled with profanity and utterly tactless. She grew increasingly aggressive towards those around her, even Tiona, who tried to get close to her. Her eyes seemed to reflect her increasingly chaotic inner world, growing darker and more blurred with each passing day.

Not only did Tione change, but the personalities of her roommates, who were reduced by half, also changed. After understanding the rules of the "ritual," no one spoke to each other anymore. Some were afraid of developing deeper feelings, while others were wary of being plotted against. Some, however, grasped the truth, surrendered to their instincts, and awakened to become the "warriors" that the Kingdom of Fighting (Tir Scylla) needed.

Each day of the struggle flew by.

Those roommates who survived the "ritual" and elevated their "vessels" began to be accompanied by older Amazons. These girls, who survived on their own, gained recognition and formed so-called master-disciple relationships with their elders.

Tiona's name is Baje, while Tione's name is Algana.

Compared to Tiona and her sisters, who were five years old at the time, Baje and her sisters were exactly ten years older. It seems the pairing was based on the assumption that they were twin sisters and shared some commonality. The older sister, Algana, and the younger sister, Baje, had already shown promise and were among the top candidates for the next leadership position in the country.

Their training was extremely rigorous. Not a single day passed without them being beaten until they vomited blood, sometimes even having their bones broken. If they didn't risk their lives to steal martial arts techniques from their Amazonian master, their lives would be in danger the next day.

"...Hurry up, stand up."

Baje remained unfazed, her cold gaze fixed on her lying on the cold stone floor, filling Tiona with fear for the first time in her life. Later, she learned that Tione, who had been brutally beaten by Algana, was in even worse shape.

As the two continued their "ritual" and training, they inevitably spent less and less time returning to their room. Before long, their roommates had all disappeared. When they came to their senses, they realized that only Tiona and Tione remained in the room.

There's no time to even feel tired each day. Emotions wear down and become dulled day by day. Only victory in a struggle brings pleasure.

In the daily life of the Kingdom of Tir Sculla, where all burdens are eliminated and many "warriors" are born, Tiona goes with the flow.

Just as the year following her upgrade was about to end, Tiona faced a turning point.

She took a break before her workout and strolled like a cat through the deserted arena, where she encountered "that person".

She found a wad of paper scraps thrown in the deserted corridor—fragments of "Heroic Tales".

✉

"..."

Tiona opened her eyes.

The sound of gentle waves and the calls of waterbirds pulled her consciousness from her dream to the surface of the water.

Seeing the scene she longed for in her dream, Tiona suddenly sat up and looked around.

The person sleeping in the bed was nowhere to be found.

"...They ran away so quickly~?"

In the room where her siblings had left, Tiona stretched her body, "Hmm~!"

✉

"I need to narrow down the scope of my investigation."

Loki told everyone this as soon as he opened his mouth at breakfast.

"The Nyord Familia, the Guild branch, and the Mayor's (Medor's) house. These are the three you need to investigate. Your actions will arouse their suspicion and make them more wary, so you should maintain the same attitude as yesterday: pretend you haven't found out anything and secretly investigate everywhere."

Upon hearing the name of the person in question, a commotion broke out in the restaurant on the first floor of the hotel that had been booked. Loki continued to explain to his various retinues:

"Your attempt to spy on God (Njord) will be exposed immediately, so I'll handle that. I'll leave the guild and the mayor to you all—"

"What about the Kali Kinta?"

"Basically, we can ignore them. However, they might come back to cause trouble. Everyone must act as a group."

After answering Riveria, Loki looked at Tione and Tiona.

"Ais and Riveria, you two go with Tiona and Tione. Those sisters seem pretty scary. If you stick together, you can handle them even if they come at you both. Oh, and by the way, you don't have the right to refuse."

Loki cut her off before she could say anything. "If you won't go back to Orario, then behave yourself." Hearing the chief god say this, Tione, who was about to lean forward, put on a sour face in protest.

Loki asked Ais and Riveria to keep an eye on Tiona and her friends, who had a past grudge against Gali and the others, and both of them nodded.

"No questions asked, right? Then let's call it a day."

"As for Tione, I'm wondering if we should..."

Looking up at the still clear blue sky, Tiona murmured to herself.

The two left the crowded, bustling main street and entered a narrow alley. Tiona glanced at the townspeople carrying baskets of laundry or shopping bags, and the children running around, as she walked with Ais.

"With Rivera here, I don't think I need to worry..."

"I hope so—. Sigh, I know that if I'm with her, I'll be more likely to get picked on—"

Tiona answered Ais, who was walking beside her, in a slow, deliberate tone.

Although her words and actions seemed normal, Tiona secretly longed to stay by Tione's side. She was deeply worried about the current situation and even found herself unusually preoccupied with her own thoughts.

At the same time, she had long realized that Ais had been worried about her.

"Ais is concerned about the mayor's affairs, isn't she?"

"Hmm, a little..."

Hearing Tiona change the subject, Ais nodded.

Because Ais indicated that something was bothering her, Tiona and Ais decided to head to the Murdoch family's house and sneak into the Borg mansion. They chose to go alone for secrecy. They hoped to secretly gather some clues while Lefia and the others continued their questioning. As Tiona and Ais walked and talked, a beastman girl suddenly tripped and fell in front of them.

"ah……!"

"Ouch, are you alright?"

The girl seemed to have finished shopping and was heading home when the book she was holding and a few gold coins fell to the ground.

When Ais helped the little girl up after she fell, Tiona helped her pick up the books and coins that had fallen to the ground.

Tiona stopped as soon as she picked up the book.

(...The Heroes of the Argonauts.)

The cover featured a hero battling a half-bullman—a familiar "heroic tale"—which caught Diona's eye.

"Um...big sister..."

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

Tiona apologized to the tearful girl that Ais was supporting and returned the book and gold coins to her.

Seeing the girl carefully holding Hero's Tale in her arms, Tiona bent down and asked her:

"Did you buy this book?"

"Hmm... the uncle at the shop told me that a lot of new books were delivered by ship..."

"...You like heroic tales?"

"--Um!"

This last question brought a beautiful smile to the girl's face.

She thanked the two men, waved, and ran into the depths of the alley.

"Tiona...?"

Seeing Tiona silently watching the girl's back, Ais called out to her.

After standing there for a moment, a faint smile appeared on Tiona's face.

"The collected tales of heroes... I left them all in my hometown (Tir Sculla)."

The girl's happy, carefree figure running away, her innocent smile, reminded Tiona of her own childhood self—the sequel to this morning's dream.

That day, as usual, Tiona was beaten up by Baje in the arena's training room.

Tiona, her face covered in blood, pulled out something hidden in the corner of the room and showed it to Bajie with both hands.

"Bajie...read it to me?"

It was a wad of paper she found before exercising.

Perhaps the books imported from abroad were thrown away by their compatriots, and the paper was written in unfamiliar characters—a common language. The toddler (Tiona), who couldn't even read or write Amazonian language, was curious, but couldn't possibly understand the contents.

Tiona still remembers Baje's expression back then.

This taciturn Amazonian elder was clearly panicked.

Tiona had assumed she was expressionless and cold, but at that moment she was flustered and swayed for a while before grabbing the scraps of paper and hurriedly leaving the room, leaving only the words "...you, you wait a minute."

A few days later, Baje appeared with the scraps of paper and read them aloud to Tiona after her workout.

Bajie could easily ignore the child's innocent ramblings, but it seems she had her pride too. Bajie felt it would be too embarrassing if she couldn't read like a child ten years younger than her and couldn't read to her—a few days later, the goddess (Kari) told Tiona that Bajie had blushed and run to her, begging, "Please tell me what's written on this."

It is said that the goddess (Kali) laughed so hard she almost fell over, while writing the translation of the warrior (Amazonian) language under the common language.

"...The young man, unaware that he had been deceived, said to the king, 'I understand. I will definitely rescue the trapped princess from the labyrinth.'"

"And then? What happened next?"

In the torchlight, the two ignored their injuries from the fight, sitting upright on the cold stone ground, the other cross-legged. Tiona urged Bajie to continue. Bajie seemed to be encountering something like this for the first time, puzzled, but slowly, she would tell Tiona a little bit after each workout.

Of course, every story eventually comes to an end. Not to mention that the scrap of paper was just part of the book, making the end all the more swift. The secret, magical communication with Bajie after the workout ended there, but in Tiona's heart, she was no longer the terrifying figure she once was.

"Lure the enemy to attack. Wait until the very last moment before deflecting."

"How do you play it?"

"...Just bounce it off."

The training, which she had initially only suffered from pain, now made her look forward to it a little.

On the other hand, the young Amazons, who only knew how to fight, had a wish for the first time that was not about fighting.

—I want to know what happened next in the story.

This desire grows stronger every day.

Then, one day...