"Hero!"

Once the fighting finally settled, Roya was already hurrying up, her face full of worry.

Even though Ariel was the final victor in this battle, she had still been fighting someone like a Demon General while crossing tiers—anyone with eyes could tell how hard-won her victory had been.

"Y-you... you’re okay, right?"

Without realizing it, Roya had started using honorific speech. Thanks to that fight just now, her admiration for Ariel had risen another level.

"Wait."

But Ariel suddenly lifted a hand with a serious face and stopped Roya from coming closer, turning her body slightly to the side.

"Don’t come over yet. Let me adjust first."

"Adjust?"

The usually steady Roya immediately panicked, hurriedly pulling out her staff.

"Are you seriously injured after all? Please let me heal you. My healing magic isn’t as good as those top masters’, but at least I can handle an emergency—"

"N-no, it’s not an injury. You’re misunderstanding. I mean something else—something more important."

Ariel showed an expression even more grave than when she had been fighting the Demon General in a bath of blood. She shook her head with a melancholy look.

"If I don’t adjust, I might not be able to hold on."

"I-is that so? That important?"

Even someone as powerful as the hero would use the words not be able to hold on... just what in the world could that be...?

"It’s that important. Turn around for me!"

"Huh? You need me to—"

"Now!"

"Oh."

Even though she didn’t know what that “more important thing” was, if the hero was doing this, then she definitely had her reasons!

Roya obediently turned around.

But even so, she still carried a sliver of curiosity. So while she wouldn’t peek, she listened and sensed carefully.

Yet strangely, she couldn’t sense anything at all. There was no jaw-dropping surge of magic from the hero, no mysterious power spreading out. The only thing she seemed to hear was the soft rustle of fabric rubbing—shk, shk.

"Okay."

Not long after, Ariel’s voice carried a hint of satisfaction.

"You can turn back now."

Roya blinked, turned back, and kept staring at the hero with her curiosity still burning...

The hero looked like she hadn’t changed at all. She hadn’t even had time to wipe away the bloodstains on her body. She looked no different from before.

If there was anything that looked slightly different...

It was that the hero now stood with her head high and her chest out, looking even more confident than just now.

And she didn’t know if it was just her imagination, but she always felt like with every gesture, every movement, the hero was showing off her...

"Hero, you—"

"Don’t call me ‘hero’ anymore. I was just passing by. I can’t bear a title like that."

Ariel looked at the girl and smiled gently.

"Just call me Ariel. We’ve already been through life and death together—there’s no need to be so distant."

"Th-through life and death...?"

Roya’s cheeks flushed slightly.

This was so strange. She was clearly an adult who could scold Termir for secretly peeking at little yellow books without changing her expression, yet just one sentence from the her—no, from Ariel was enough to make her heart start racing again.

"Th-then, Ariel... Miss Ariel, you can just call me Roya. Roya Biscan. I’m an adventurer."

"Roya. A good name."

Ariel secretly sized up Roya in this moment and sharply caught that trace of shyness between her brows and eyes.

She couldn’t help feeling deeply gratified.

"See? Sure enough, as long as I make a little improvement to my shortcomings, my charm shoots up dramatically. Right?"

Ariel spoke softly to the teacher inside her ring.

"And this also proves my route before was all correct. My years of relationship experience didn’t lie to me. The only reason I kept failing was because of that damn Muen Campbell!"

Teacher Ariel: "..."

There was no way to refute it—because from how things looked right now... it actually seemed true?

"Miss Ariel?"

"Ah—n-no, it’s nothing."

Ariel coughed twice and went back to acting proper.

"Miss Roya, your companion from earlier—he’s okay, right?"

"Companion... ah, right, Termir!"

Only then did Roya remember that she did, in fact, have a childhood friend traveling with her.

"I have to go find him. If he still thinks I’m in demonfolk hands and really goes to find people to storm a demonfolk tribe to rescue me, that’ll be trouble."

Roya looked at Ariel with a pleading expression.

"Miss Ariel, could you..."

"Don’t worry. Of course I can go with you and look for him. I’m traveling around everywhere right now too—there’s no fixed destination I have to go to."

Ariel smiled faintly. Lately, she felt like even her smile was becoming more and more perfect—at the very least, it definitely wasn’t any worse than that hateful bastard who was only a little better-looking in the face!

"That’s great!"

"However..."

"However?"

"Seems we don’t need to go through that trouble."

Ariel turned her head, her gaze flicking to the side.

"Big sis Roya!"

All of a sudden, from the other end of this Black Forest that hadn’t been destroyed yet, several streaks of light skimmed along the ground and shot out from the dense trees.

"Big sis Roya, are you okay?!"

The streaks of light turned into three figures. The one in front was none other than Termir, who had just fled.

He was panting, and fear still lingered on his face, but most of it had already been covered by excitement in this moment.

"I brought people to save you! These two are adventurer seniors I happened to run into—... huh? Who are you?"

With support behind him, Termir had finally mustered the courage to come back to the battlefield. When he looked up, he discovered that Demon General Basaroka, who had toyed with him like an insect just now, was already gone.

In his place...

Was a young girl whose chest was especially well-endowed?

"I’m just an ordinary big-chested beautiful young lady who was passing by. Don’t mind me."

Ariel crossed her arms over her chest.

"Ordinary?"

Termir frowned slightly. He always felt like something about this girl made him uncomfortable, but he couldn’t say exactly what.

But now wasn’t the time to talk about that.

"Big sis Roya, are you okay?"

Termir quickly tossed this girl—with a chest so big it was completely not to his taste—out of his mind and hurried to Roya’s side.

"Where’s Demon General Basaroka? I happened to run into these two adventurer seniors. With them, there’s a chance to beat the Demon General!"

"‘Beat’ is overestimating us."

The two behind Termir stepped forward.

One was a swordsman wearing a black trench coat. The other was a muscular brute with his upper body bare.

Both looked like the vicious type—so fierce they looked even more savage than demonfolk. But both wore badges belonging to the Adventurers’ Association, which proved they were also adventurers roaming this Abyss.

"Black Scorpion, Dolan."

"Python, Burt. The two of us are top-tier adventurers in the Association. Our strength is around fifth-tier. If we join hands, as long as it’s not a Demon General in the top twenty, we at least have the capital to tangle with him for a bit."

After giving their brief introductions, their senses quickly spread out in every direction.

Their opponent was a Demon General. They had to stay extremely alert.

But...

"So where’s the Demon General you were talking about? /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ Why can’t we even find a trace of him?"

Dolan’s expression turned strange as he looked around.

A Demon General, no matter what, shouldn’t be so far beneath them that the moment the two of them arrived, he would just run away, right?

That didn’t match demonfolk temperament at all.

"Dead."

Ariel looked at the two of them. Strange light and shadow reflected in her eyes as she suddenly spoke.

"Dead?"

Dolan looked at Ariel, puzzled.

"Could it be another Association powerhouse passed by before us?"

"No."

Ariel shrugged.

"No Association powerhouse passed by, and the Demon General didn’t run. It’s just that the guy named Basaroka got chopped to death by me."

"I see, chopped to death by you—"

Dolan froze, then stared at Ariel in disbelief.

"You?"

A fourth-tier fighter?

"What? I’m not allowed?"

"Th-this... little sister, you can’t just say things like that."

Dolan pressed down the corner of his mouth, smoothing out a trace that was hard to tell whether it was a smile or mockery.

"The Abyss is a dangerous place. Spouting big talk recklessly is an easy way to trap yourself."

"How can you say that? Miss Ariel clearly—"

Roya immediately stepped forward, wanting to explain for Ariel.

But Ariel lifted a hand and stopped her.

"It’s fine. No need to say anything."

For what felt like the nth time, Ariel gazed up at the sky with melancholy. She gave her magnificent chest a little shake and said leisurely:

"Every time I finish fighting a monster, someone pops out and says this kind of thing. I’m already used to it."