(Before the dragon’s attack.)

  “Thivadi! What have you done? Just what have you sent to Ebrilyon?”

  Molt kicked the door to Thivadi’s office open. The silver-haired man stood with his back to Molt and his own desk, staring through a window off into the distance. Much farther than the eye could see.

  “Ahhh… Molt…” A quick glance was all he spared for his guest. “Yes… There’s been a change of plans. Guess I forgot to mention it.”

  ‘Forgot’ my ass… Thivadi did it on purpose. “Explain yourself then. What did you send this time?”

  “My strongest piece… The dragon…” Thivadi chuckled to himself. “Galene failed to kill those wolves, and with those in the way, I couldn’t move him north to fight her later. Then again, she didn’t move like you said she would, so I figured I might as well use him while I have the chance.”

  “This is not what we agreed on!” Molt punched Thivadi’s desk. “This is almost an all-out attack. Galene can’t survive an encounter with that thing yet.”

  “Yes, yes… I’m aware… I just don’t care. Maybe it’s not what we agreed on, but if Ebrilyon falls now, we demons will just have an easier time taking over the world. If that means sacrificing Galene and our promise with you, so be it.”

  Thivadi had the appearance of a human, and he disguised himself as a human noble. His head had no horns, but he was a demon through and through. Molt knew better than to trust him, even if they were partners, yet now…

  Has Thivadi outlived his usefulness?

  With his back turned to him, Molt could kill him right there. Before he could even react.

  Maybe it was time, but he had something more important to do now.

  “I’m going to Ebrilyon. If you won’t help, I’ll do it myself. I’ll pull Galene out of there if it gets too dangerous.”

  “You do that. Just leave my piece alone.” Thivadi smiled as Molt’s steps got farther away.

  “Hmm?” Molt stopped just before leaving the room. “Where did the crazy chick go?”

  “You mean Ayumu? Fufu… She joined my piece for the attack. Seems like her target’s there too.”

  “Where am I?”

  I can’t see anything, but… There’s ground… After that shadow showed up and swallowed me, I completely lost my sense of direction… Slowly, it’s all coming back…

  “Ririna! Caro!”

  No answer… My vision’s now back to normal… The ground was made out of black and white polished stone arranged into a checkerboard pattern. Around me was a starry sky with a deep-blue color. Why?

  Looks almost like the skybox from a game…

  This is the world of a game, but this is just too much… What is this place…? “A pocket dimension?”

  “You got it. Fufufufu~ Welcome, Iroha. I’ve been looking forward to seeing you again.”

  That voice… Ayumu? I turned around, and there she was. She had her hands behind her back to look cute, but she had a cold smile on her face. There was another figure with her, and she was leaning out from behind his back. Just like the last time I saw her, the hair on her head was pink. Is that what happens when she uses her powers? Or is it just that way now? That would mean the thing in front of her is one of her creations. Not sure…

  “Ayumu… What is this…?”

  The figure in front of her was like a samurai with a bell for a head. No swords, just a long staff with yet another bell at the end. I don’t think there’s anything inside the armor. The bell warrior stiffly stood there with the bottom of the staff touching the ground.

  “Didn’t I just say you got it? It’s some kind of pocket dimension. Don’t ask me for the details, though.”

  She walked out from behind the creature with a relaxed attitude. “They gave me a bell that was kind of important for whatever reason, and it turned into this guy when I used my powers. Looks like he can create dimensions or something.” She casually tapped the armor’s shoulder, which made the whole thing rattle.

  “Are you also the one behind the dragon outside? Behind all the undead?” No… Her monsters turn back into the objects they originally were once killed… Which means… “No… You’re working with the one behind the undead, aren’t you?” I gripped my sword harder while glaring at her.

  Her eyes widened. “*Sigh…* It’s not like I like it either. It just kinda happened. I don’t really care about them. I have other priorities…”

  “Other priorities…? You mean the one who helped you steal your powers?” Of course… The separator’s her real master… And the separator is from our world. “Who is it?”

  “Ehhh… You even learned about that? You’ve been looking into me, haven’t you?” She giggled, turning her head to the side. “Too bad I can’t help you. They didn’t show me their face. Not like I would either way.”

  Of course… I raised my sword in preparation. “Because you hate, right? I know… I don’t need you to tell me twice. What now? Are you going to attack me? Try to kill me?”

  The samurai reacted to my sword and grabbed his staff with both hands.

  Meanwhile, Ayumu just crouched. She rested her chin on her hands and her elbows on her knees. Her eyes lazily fell onto the ground. “I’m not totally sure…” She sighed, then looked at me. “If you get on your hands and knees and apologize, maybe I’ll forget about it… Depends on how I’m feeling afterwards.” Her eyes expected nothing, and her expression was blank.

  “Apologize?” And getting on my hands and knees? Seriously? That’s what this is all about? She just wants to pick on me? To humiliate me? “Apologize for what? I don’t have anything to apologize for.”

  “*Sigh…* You’re still saying that…” She then raised her hand and snapped her fingers. “Maybe you’ll remember after you feel some pain.”

  *Ding…*

  The bell monster tapped his staff, then dashed forward. Feels like I’m still in the tournament… He closed the gap in second and swung down his staff.

  *Ding…*

  I met his swing with my sword, pushing up from below. Took a lot of strength just to push him back. Ughh… He’s no pushover… Right…?

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  [Psychological Attack Resistance Activated!]

  [Mind Transience Activated!]

  With my skills I could easily tell. The rings of his bell are triggering some kind of mental attack. Something meant to weaken me. If I didn’t have Psychological Attack Resistance, my strength would have probably been sapped in an instant, but instead…

  Parrying Strike! I easily pushed back his second swing.

  I can fight back… Psychological Attack Resistance reduced the effect of the sapping, so I still have plenty of strength!

  *Ding…*

  Again…? I see… Every time the bell rings, the stronger the sapping gets… It’s a race against time then! Heart Piercer!

  I landed a solid hit, and the armor staggered back, but much weaker than usual… How sad…

  “Ayumu, question…” She had taken a few steps back while watching with a cathartic look on her face. Is it fun to see me struggle? She had her bag in her hand, probably to turn into a monster capable of defending her if I went after her. “If I kill this thing, do we go back outside?”

  “Fuck if I know! Not that I care. Maybe we’ll be trapped here forever. You should probably lose just to be safe.” Screw you too.

  *Ding…*

  That last ring made my vision blur. I feel sick… Of course, this is a mental attack, so the weakening effect affects my mind as well as my body. All my senses are getting duller. Mind Transience allows me to try to force my body to focus and move regardless, but the effects are still there.

  Hurry! I close the gap with Heart Piercer and… huh? It missed? My sense of direction…

  That’s okay… Slash Flurry! Butterfly’s Wings! I unleashed a barrage of blows and pushed the bell samurai back.

  “How can you still move…?” Ayumu gritted her teeth. “Stop it…”

  Damn… I’m missing a lot more than usual, but… The monster can’t block everything. Lots of slashes are making it through, and his guard is slowly breaking. This is it then!

  Heart Piercer!

  I hit the bell monster in the middle of the chest, and he tumbled backwards. Ughh… My head… How far away did he fall? Three steps? Five? Gotta finish this now… While my head, still somewhat working… Focus…

  Agility Bur-

  “Just go down already!”

  “!?”

  A sharp pain ran through my abdomen, and I fell onto my back. Wh- what was that?

  Ayumu? A knife? She somehow lunged at me before I could react and stabbed me through the hole the dragon opened on my dress.

  She put her whole weight behind that charge and fell on top of me.

  “Did it work…? Ahaha… Ahahahahaha! It finally worked! You ran out of strength! You can’t even resist now!”

  Her face was right above mine. Her eyes were locked on mine, and she had a huge grin on her face… What a crazy look… She wiggled to push the knife further in, and one of her pigtails flowed down her shoulder, brushing against my face.

  “Damn you…” Can’t resist? Keep telling yourself that! I grabbed her wrist with both my hands and forced her to pull out the knife. She insisted, pushing back down with every ounce of her strength. Not gonna let you! “How did this happen? Guhhh…!”

  She’s so weak, but… I’m even weaker… I was struggling just to resist the weakening effect, and the pain of being stabbed made me lose focus. All I can do now is hold her hands in place.

  “Did that hurt, Iroha? Ahahahahaha! You’re finally getting what you deserve… How does it feel? Feel like apologizing yet?”

  “For what? I’ve never done anything to you.” That set her off, and she pushed the knife down again. With a last-second deflection, it got stopped by the dress this time. “Ahaha… You can’t hurt me through the dress…” She’s so pissed.

  “You’re still acting tough… I’ll just strip you then. Problem solved.”

  She actually let go of the knife with one of her hands. “Yo- you’ll do what? You damn pervert!” Good thing I was still holding her wrists.

  “Pervert? Who are you to call anyone a pervert?! Your relationship with Miyuki, and the way you were all over the other two transfer students… It’s disgusting… You’re disgusting!”

  “Screw you!” I mustered all my strength. “Is it because we’re all girls? You don’t have to like it, but it’s none of your business!” I need to get up… Just a little more leverage… “I don’t care what you say anymore… Make fun of me or whatever… I like them… And I like girls… Always have… I’ve changed. I won’t pretend to be someone who I’m not anymore. I don’t care if you think I’m disgusting! It doesn’t give you the right to do this to me!”

  “What’s disgusting are your lies.”

  Her eyes went cold. She pushed less hard but somehow slammed me back down.

  “It’s your lies that are disgusting. Your cowardice.” Her monotonous voice grew sharper as she talked. “The others might have picked on you for that, but I couldn’t care less… It’s your lies I can’t stand… Your attitude! I don’t care if you say you’ve changed… Don’t care what you say about the present. Do you think it changes anything now?!”

  Ughh… The knife sank into my flesh again. My lies…? It hurts… My head’s getting heavier…

  “Wh- what lies…?”

  “Miyuki, Carol, Katja… They’re not the first girls you liked, are they? Who was the girl you fell in love with before? What happened to that love? What did you do with it?

  “Before…?” Before Miyuki, Carol, and Katja…? My waifus? No… They don’t count, do they…? In that case… Isn’t it the girl these cold, piercing eyes belong to?

  “That’s right… I was the one you loved, wasn’t I? And I loved you too at some point… I actually did… And what did you do? You betrayed me!”

  Sh- she loved me…?

  She pulled the knife back, and… Grrrr… Another sting…

  “You trampled on my feelings and got together with some random girl instead!”

  “*Haah… haah…* Is that the reason you hate me? Because I chose someone instead of you? Are you just mad that I rejected you?”

  “You rejected me?” She leaned back while straddling me. Her expression was now eerily calm. “Is that what actually happened?” Rhetorical question. “I wouldn’t have become like this if that’s what happened… If you didn’t like me, I could have accepted it… But that was not what you told me, was it?”

  We talked about this…? Somehow… I feel like I’m close to recalling something…

  …

  In a locker room at school… A few years ago…

  “What are you staring at, Iroha? Aren’t you looking at Ayumu a bit too much?”

  “Ehhh? Is she into her? That’s hilarious?”

  I can remember those girls probing me… They were already Ayumu’s groupies at the time, and they were more or less the most popular girls around. They’d spend their days carefully observing everyone’s movements for something to nitpick and laugh about.

  “Wha… I- I- Uhh…”

  I would try to defend myself and fail… It’s not that they were wrong… I wasn’t confident I’d be able to lie to their faces.

  As their leader, Ayumu would also join it.

  “Come on… Pffft… Are you joking? Well, if you confess to me right now, I’ll give you a shot. Go on.”

  “You’re so mean, Ayumu! Look at how red she’s gotten!

  “Maybe she’s actually considering it! Ahahahahahahahaha!”

  “I- I- I wasn’t staring… Just… spaced out…”

  “Yeah, right… Ahahahahahahahaha!”

  I lied, but… I had no other choice… It was a trap… It was obviously a trap… Wasn’t it?

  Lies brought me some breathing room, but I wasn’t safe just yet… Ayumu brought it up again behind the school building… when she caught me alone…

  “So? Do you actually like girls? Do you like me?

  “Just admit it… It’s totally obvious.”

  “We joke about it, but it’s not like we actually care.”

  “No one’s going to say anything, so just confess.”

  “Maybe just tell me. I will keep it a secret. I promise.”

  I had seen how her groupies picked on others before… The pressure… The fake friendliness… I wasn’t going to fall for it.

  “I- I- Is this about what the others said? About me st- staring a- at you? I- I was just spacing out… Really…”

  That’s when she became cold.

  “Is that so…? Hmm… I’m going back to the classroom.”

  That was probably the last normal conversation we’ve had… If it could even be called normal…

  …

  “I remember now…” I grabbed her wrists and tried to pry her off again. “I was only trying to protect myself… I had no idea you had feelings for me…”

  “You were the first one who looked at me like that.” She wasn’t pushing down. It was only her weight I had to fight. “You gave me hope, and then you crushed it! I was close to moving on, but then you started looking at Miyuki with those same eyes… The eyes that were meant for me!”

  She’s pinning me again! “How was I supposed to know? Do you have any idea how you sounded when you talked to me? You acted like an absolute bully! I had no other choice.”

  “You were scared! That’s what it boils down to. You’re scared and chose to be a coward. That’s why you kept your mouth shut instead of being honest!”

  Fear… Hesitation… I’ve come face to face with those a lot recently… I ran away back then, and this is the price I pay… I’m still paying it right now…

  “Ayumu… I’m sorry…”

  “Huh?”

  She was so surprised she stopped.

  “You were right about me being scared… For that, I have no excuse… I’m sorry… But…” I gripped her wrists tightly and gathered my strength. “I’ve learned my lesson now… Everything goes wrong when I hesitate… I’ve seen it too many times, and that’s why I’ve changed!”

  Nghh! I headbutted her and managed to push her off.

  My mind feels much clearer now… I can finally stand up…

  “I can’t change the past, but I won’t let you bring me down because of it… I have too much to lose now.” I bend over while grabbing my belly and pick up my sword…

  “Y- you… How can you…” Ayumu was sitting on the floor and snapped her head to her monster. “What are you waiting for? Get her!”

  The monster immediately rushed me down with his staff raised.

  I won’t hesitate anymore… Let’s get out of here…

  False Flower.

  Hit…

  *Swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish swish!*

  Colorful petals filled the air. Both the monster and stars were cut into ribbons that gently floated to the ground.

  *Ding…*

  The bell returned to its original form, a small handbell, as the pocket dimension slowly faded away.

  “Ah! Iroha! There you are!”

  “Where were you? We were so worried!”

  “Don’t vanish on us like that, please…”

  Woah… All of a sudden, Carol, Hecate, Ririna, and Sarasa smothered me in a big hug from behind.

  “Sorry for worrying you… Everything’s fine now…” I leaned back, nuzzling against their faces. A second later, their eyes went wide.

  “Fine? But you’re bleeding… Hold still! I’ll make something for you.”

  “I’m fine… Really… We can go over this later…”

  “See? They’re all over you!” A spiteful voice accompanied the frustrated glare of the girl on her knees. “No excuses… I was right! I was completely right!”

  “Ughh… Is that Ayumu?!”

  Carol visibly recoiled when she noticed her. Ayumu was on the floor just ahead of us. She was exhausted and couldn’t get up. Even her voice was getting raspy. The only weapon she had left was her hostile expression.

  “That’s her?” Sarasa peeked from under my arm. “Wow… she really looks evil…”

  “Is she the one responsible for what happened today? What should we do with her?” Hecate squeezed my shoulder. I have her support no matter what? Is that what that hand means?

  “I…”

  What do we do with Ayumu? What would be best for everyone? She’s a threat… Even now, I can see it in her eyes… Her hatred hasn’t gone anywhere… I don’t want to, but… What else can I do?

  Breaking free from their warmth, I took a step and brought my sword forward.

  “?!”

  Ayumu saw my sword pointed at her neck. She pulled back her chin, but that wouldn’t help her. While still wary of the sword, she looked me in the eyes.

  Drastic measures… The others realized what was going on the moment they saw me move. They knew it would likely come to this and held their breaths. Bracing themselves…

  Ayumu…

  …

  “*Sigh…* I’ve decided… Let’s take her to the Forest of Illusion and make her return her powers to Hilde. She can go back to her life afterwards, and we won’t have to worry anymore.”

  I looked back. With mostly neutral expressions, they all heaved a sigh of relief. They don’t know the full story, hell, half of them don’t even know the first thing about her, but no one wants to watch a girl on her knees get slaughtered…

  “Fufu… You can’t do it? How can you even say you’ve changed then?!”

  “Iroha! Watch out!” Before I could even turn around, Hecate bumped into me.

  She stood between us as Ayumu got up in a thrusting motion. And before she could blink…

  The knife in Ayumu’s hands pierced her amber eye…