Two weeks after Theodore's group got to the fortress, Arthur's group, which was made up of Arthur, Lucy, Sylvia, Krista, and Eleanor arrived at their destination: Ascurt town.

As they approached the town's gate, they were stopped by the guards. However, as soon as Eleanor removed her hood, the guards hurriedly opened the wooden door.

"Sigh...I wish I was a princess..." Krista looked at Eleanor with admiration.

In response, Eleanor shook her head. "You wouldn't want to. It's annoying."

"How so?"

"Paperwor—"

"Okay! Okay! I get it! Don't ruin my dream any further!"

After that little exchange, they entered the town. The first thing everyone saw was a big statue depicting two figures; one holding an unusual-looking gun, and the other wielding a shovel.

"Charmed by the statue, aren't 'cha?" An old man remarked as he approached Arthur's group.

Arthur, in an attempt to be polite, laughed awkwardly.

"Haha, yes. It looks...very interesting."

He wasn't exactly lying when he said that. One glance and anyone could tell that the girl holding the gun was extremely attractive. The one with the shovel was less so, but still pretty nonetheless. The only thing detracting from the statue was the Gun girl's haughty and arrogant smile, and the mere fact that the other girl was holding the shovel up as if she wanted to hit someone with it.

"Of course, you'd find it interesting." The old man laughed. "They're the saviors of our town after all."

"Saviors?"

"Yes. About two months ago, a Creature of Void masquerading as a noble commanded his army to attack our town. But thanks to the valiant efforts of the two girls right here, the incident ended without any casualties."

"N-No deaths?!" Arthur widened his eyes in disbelief.

"Well, the Void fiend died, so technically, there's still one death." The man chuckled.

While Arthur was staring at the statue with sparkling eyes, Eleanor couldn't help but frown.

'Isn't that...Theodore's disguise?'

She was sure of it. After all, she could never forget that face. However, something was strange. Just why did he help this town? There was absolutely nothing to be gained from it.

Thus, she asked the old man,

"What happened after the incident?"

"Oh, some priests from the Church of Light came, and—"

"Okay, I get it. Thanks for telling me."

There was simply no need for further elaboration. What probably happened was that Theodore wanted the rewards for capturing a supposed Void fiend (which Eleanor was sure was a noble framed of being one since Theodore'd asked her for a Void bomb just before the summer break). However, it was very probable that he didn't read the fine print of the Artmaria pact and thus, didn't get a whole lot of money off this incident.

Thinking about it, she could barely suppress a chuckle. Though, she was snapped out of her own thoughts by an infatuated voice right beside her.

"T-Theodore? I didn't know you could do...good things like this..."

It was obvious Sylvia. Somehow, she knew that the girl was Theodore.

'...She probably figured it out through smelling him while he was in his disguise.'

As the whole group were still staring at the statue, a guard approached the old man beside them.

"Hey, indoctrinating newcomers of our saviors again, old man?"

"Hah, you already know the answer."

"You can go now, old man. I'll take over from here."

After the old man left, the guard stood in front of the group with an unparalleled amount of pride in his eyes.

"You know, one of our saviors, Aryl, patted my shoulder and told me that I did good work!"

"Is that so?" Arthur smiled politely.

"Yes, everything's been going great ever since! Though..." The guard's face turned sad. "...Sadly, we haven't been able to find the girl."

"...?"

"Oh, I forgot you're newcomers for a moment. Let me tell you a story. Right before the battle, a mysterious black-haired girl appeared atop the rampart. With her blood-red eyes, long raven hair, petite figure, and a heavenly pretty face, she inspired everyone; from the farmers to the guards. Although she looked like a child, she claimed that she was eighteen."

"...How exactly did she inspire you?"

"I'm glad you asked, newcomer. She encouraged us with the promise of—"

Suddenly, the guard hung his mouth open and immediately stopped speaking. Blinking several times in disbelief, he pointed toward Lucy.

"Y-You there, c-can you remove your hood?"

Of course, Lucy nodded playfully and removed it.

As soon as she did so, the guard kneeled down on the ground and began praying.

"Oh, Goddess Lyra! We've finally found salvation!"

Then, he took out a small horn from his pocket and blew it.

"Uhhh...what are you doing?" Arthur asked warily.

As if answering his question, a crowd of men rushed toward their location.

-"Jake, you bastard! Have you really found her?!" One of the men shouted 

"Yes! She's here! Look for yourself!"

The crowd of men arrived before Arthur's group in no time and, as soon as they saw Lucy's face, they all kneeled down and started praying while crying.

""Goddess Lyra has blessed us!""

Then, almost in unison, they stood up and said,

""Lady Lucy, it's time you fulfilled your promise!""

"What are you talking about? What promise?" Arthur frowned.

But by this point, the men didn't care about Arthur anymore. With a collective nod, they all dashed for Lucy.

Arthur widened his eyes in surprise and used [Divine wall] to block the men's path. However, the wall was rather hastily made and weak. Since he didn't want to hurt them, the only thing Arthur could do was—

"Lucy, run! I'll hold them back!"

Lucy nodded and ran away without any hesitation.

"The girl! She's getting away! Quickly, break this damn wall!"

In no time, the wall broke into a million pieces. Arthur tried to block them all, but he only got stomped on instead.

Watching the men chasing after Lucy, Krista chuckled and shouted, "wait up!" before joining them for whatever reason.

Eleanor alternated her gaze between Arthur, who was knocked out on the ground, and the men, before sighing.

'Theodore, you little shit, causing troubles even though you aren't here.'

With another sigh, she grabbed Sylvia's arm and headed to the nearest inn.

"What about him?" Sylvia asked. Though, it was more out of curiosity than genuine worry.

"...He can take care of himself."

"Alright."

.

.

.

.

After handing Sylvia her key, Eleanor parted ways with her. Entering her room, she immediately opened her Space pouch and took out [Despair]'s heart.

 'I've been putting this off for too long...'

She sat at a small table and placed the heart on top of it. Then, she took out some Mana ink and drew intricate ritual circles around it. After an hour or so, she was finally done with drawing.

Wiping the sweat off her forehead, she crackled her knuckles and placed both of her hands on the heart.

'Come on, I got this. Surely, I can't get that rusty after not doing it for only 2 Regressions...'

She was wrong.

The whole process was drawn out to five hours; a lot longer than she thought.

Just before she could finish her ritual—

"Your highness!"

—A familiar voice called out to her.

Distracted, she lost control of her Mana flow for but a moment. However, that was all it took for the Mana she'd been pouring into the heart to explode in her face.

Luckily for her, she reinforced her body with Mana in time. Even more fortunately, the heart didn't burst into pieces.

Taking out a handkerchief and wiping the soot off her face, she turned around and scowled,

"You'd better have a good reason to interrupt me, Kasumi."

"W-Well, it's just that...Theodore requested something of you."

"...Go on."

"Y-Yes, he wanted you to send him a Necromancer of at least the <C> rank."

"Just that? Send him Tyler."

"A-As you wish, your highness."

As Kasumi left the room, Eleanor concentrated all her repressed rage into her fist and struck the bed, breaking it in half.

"FUCK! JUST WHEN I WAS SO CLOSE!"

After calming down, she put the heart back in her pouch and sighed.

"I'll continue it tomorrow. But..." She glanced at her broken bed. "...where will I sleep tonight?"

Arthur came to her mind as the first option. However, she was sure that he was still running around the town, looking for Lucy/

As such, there was only one person left to ask.

"...I'll sleep with Syl, then."