November 4^th, year 787 of the Imperial calendar

Two girls were running in an old passage way leading to the interiors of an abandoned castle, they were Krista Nightshade and Alicia.

They could feel the heat of the flames as they entered the castle. Smoke filled the air, forcing them to cover their nose. The base was full of shouts and screams as bandits were rushing to put out the fires.

They walked sneakily through the long corridors, occasionally running into bandits along the way. However, they were quickly dealt with by Krista, who hid their corpses in her [S - Shallows of the abyss] when she killed them. Thanks to that, they got to the cells holding Alicia's parents without much trouble.

"DAD!" Alicia ran towards the familiar figure of her father.

The one Alicia called dad was a man in his late twenties. He had a lean but muscular build, with pink hair just like hers. However, his eyes were green. Perhaps Alicia's blue eyes came from her mother. He was tied against a pillar, with wounds so severe that blood seeped through the crude bandaging that wrapped around his body, indicating that he was under heavy torture.

"Alicia? What are you doing here! Didn't you escape?"

"I did! But I found people who would help me rescue you and mom!" Alicia said as she untied her father.

Alicia's father scanned the room as she said that, before stopping his gaze on a 16-year-old blonde girl, Krista. His eyes widened in surprise as he couldn't belive a kid half his age agreed to his daughter's absurd request to infiltrate a castle full of bandits and rescue him.

He knew how formidable the bandits were. And even if they were successful, there was no telling whether the governor would take any actions against them.

"I'm truly sorry for the inconvenience!" Alicia's father said.

"My name is James. You probably don't know this but the bandits are very dangerous. Please take my daughter and get out of here immediately!" He continued.

"I'm Krista. Sir, I'm well aware that this is a dangerous situation. That's why you need to get out of here with us"

"That's right dad! Come on, let's get mom and get out of here"

"..."

"Dad?"

"Look, Alicia..." James said.

"Your mom, she's..." He continued in a sorrow tone and hesitated, pondering whether or not he should burden his child with the sad news.

Alicia, however, was not dense. She knew what her father was trying to say, and she was in absolute despair because of it. Tears were rolling down her cheeks, and she wanted to just bury herself into her father's chest and cry her mother's name out loud.

But, she was no idiot. She knew that she could not bring her mother back even if she wanted to, and she was also aware that the situation was dire. Bandits could come flooding into the room at any moments. Thus, she swallowed her sadness and mustered up a smile, before speaking up with a shaky voice.

"L- let's get o- out of here, d- dad"

James was surprised to find that his daughter could be so mature. However, he was heart-broken as he didn't want her maturity to come from this kind of situation. Whatever words he had for Alicia, he decided to keep it to himself until they were out of danger. Thus, James nodded and urged Krista to lead the way.

The three dashed out of the room, running towards the old hidden passageways. However, Alicia was doing worse than before. Be it mental exhaustion or whatever, her steps were unsteady, and she almost tripped many times. Seeing this, Krista decided to carry Alicia on her back so that they wouldn't be slowed down.

They ran through the long hallways, anxiously. Krista was carrying Alicia on her back, so her fighting power was greatly reduced. Each turns were filled with anxiety, as a bandit could suddenly appear right before their eyes. Fortunately for them, they didn't encounter any bandits on their way back to the passageway. 

Thus, they escaped the castle safely and went towards Theodore's location.

---

***

'This guy... he's toying with me'

That's what I thought when I saw Josh the bandits' leader leisurely resting his axe on his shoulders and yawning.

Our fight, it lasted for more than 20 minutes. However, he could have ended it in 1.

I used everything at my disposal. My [C - Magic eyes of fear], hardened blood made from the skill [F - Mana blood], [Lightning spear], [Railgun], and even [V - World splitter]. However, they were all useless against his mana-reinforced skin. All they did was to give him a few bruises.

As a result, I was standing 10m away from him, with blood gushing out of wounds all over my body, unable to even feel defeated as I had that skill still active.

'Should I just escape?' I thought. After all, I did have a chance of escaping if I used my space magic [Alternate dimension]. However, I quickly shook that thought off my head.

I did not have enough mana to get far enough from him. Furthermore, I wouldn't want Krista to battle this monster alone. Maybe she could win against him but she wouldn't stand a chance with the bandits reinforcements coming in at any moments.

Our plans were already fucked. All I could hope for now was that Krista wouldn't stick closely to the plan and ran away with Alicia and her parents in another direction. However, my prayers were not answered.

"BROTHER!" Krista shouted upon seeing my bloodied body.

"Get away, you ca—"

However, she charged straight towards Josh without even letting me finish my sentence, completely forgetting the fact that she was supposed to be an assassin.

[Void curtain], she casted, blinding Josh. However, the bandits' leader just stood still as he figured that Krista wouldn't be able to damage him. And he was right.

Krista casted several [Void skewer], and even unleashed a flurry of stabs with her V graded dagger art. However, they all failed to even leave a scratch on Josh. Not even giving Krista time to be surprised, Josh swung his axe at her despite being blinded, almost as if he wasn't even phased by being blinded.

Krista reacted by holding the daggers in front of her, blocking the swing. She got pushed a couple of meters back, her hands numbing from blocking the powerful swing.

"Cover me" I coldly said as me and Krista started to attack the bandits' leader in tandem with each other. Every time Krista landed a hit, she pulled back and supported me from behind as I took her place to assault Josh, and vice versa. This seemed to have worked as we managed to break the wooden handle of his axe.

Josh, angry at the loss of his beloved axe, deactivated his body reinforcement and got into a stance for the first time in the whole fight.

'He's blinded by anger' I thought, as the body reinforcement was the only thing that was keeping us from defeating him, or so I believed

His figure blurred before appearing besides Krista. She raised her daggers to block his punch but she were too late as the punch connected to the side of her ribs, knocking her into a nearby boulder. 

I was instantly alarmed and got into a defensive stance as I strained my eyes to observe his movements. This seemed to have helped as immediately after his figure blurred again, I brought the sword to my right, blocking his punch. Despite that, I was still pushed a couple of meters back. My hands went numb from the sheer force of the strike but the numbness quickly disappeared thanks to the skill [F - Emotionless].

That's when I became aware of my surroundings again, noticing Alicia along with a lean man watching us fighting not far away from where I was.

The bandits' leader, also noticing the presence of Alicia and her supposed father, casually spoke.

"Oh, James, your daughter actually returned by herself, how nice. Still, she still has to be punished, just like her bitch of a mother" He licked his lips as he slowly walked closer to us.

"Y- you! Shut up!" The man, who I presume was named James, spoke up.

"Don't say such mean words, my buddy James. I just wanted to see your daughter beg for mercy as I ravage her, just like her mother did. You should have seen the look of despair she had when I told her that I've already caught the little brat besides you"

Alicia, who had been saying nothing until now, had her face contorted with rage as she lets out a roar and charged straight at Josh.

"DIE!" She roared. 

In response, Josh just snickered and just stood still.

"DIE! DIE! DIE!..." Alicia continued screaming as she was kicking and biting Josh's arm. She was lost in rage, even forgetting to use her illusion magic that she supposedly had.

However, Alicia came tumbling down to the ground just from a casual wave of Josh's hand. 

Ptu—!

Still in rage, she spitted at Josh's face. This seemed to have angered the bandits' leader, as he tried to strike her with his enormous fists, forgetting that he was supposed to keep her alive to sell her off.

I could not just let that happen. I dashed forwards as soon as I saw Josh's arm move, attempting to parry his punch with my sword. I succeeded, and tried to activate my [III - Roteare style] sword art. However, the force behind the punch was immense. My sword snapped in half under the huge pressure, fragments of the now broken sword flew towards me, wounding my body.

He then brought his fist down again, aiming at Alicia. This time, it was certain death for her. Not even I can cover this much distance in time. I really wanted to close my eyes as I didn't want to see a child being murdered in front of me. However, the effects from [F - Emotionless] kept me from acting on my impulses.

Splash—!

Asides from the cries of bandits being burned alive in the distance, the sound blood, lots of blood gushing down to the ground could be heard in the Kaiera mountain range.

As the cloud of dust slowly settled, I strained my eyes, expecting to see the lump of flesh that was a little girl until mere moments ago. However, what enter my sight was that same girl, alive and breathing, a couple of meters away from where she was seconds prior. And the headless corpse of a man, James, who I assumed had just pushed her daughter out of the way at the last second. Just like that, James was dead. No emotional speeches, no nothing. He couldn't even say his last words to his daughter.

Even though I haven't even conversed with James, I was sure he was a good man. After all, he readily sacrificed his life for his daughter. However, I wasn't sure if Alicia even properly registered that her father had just died to protect her, since her face, which I had expected to be full of tears, were cold and lifeless. She slowly stood up and laughed creepily.

"Eh he, hehe, HEHE, HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA"

She lets out fits of laughter that were closer to being shrieks as she was glaring at Josh, whose fist was still embedded in the ground after the powerful punch, with a gaze full of hatred.

[Hellscape], she chanted ominously as she suddenly stopped laughing. Rays of light around her refracted for a split second before shooting towards the bandits' leader.

Josh, who was the target of the spell, widened his eyes and stared into empty air, before falling down to the ground with foams in his mouth.

Alicia, who I presumed have just used all of her remaining mana, passed out right after.

I wasn't sure what just happened, but one thing I knew for sure was that this was my chance. I went up to Josh and stabbed the broken blade of my sword in his throat, instantly killing the notorious bandits' leader and avenging Alicia's father, James.

I then put James' corpse in my [Alternate storage], before carrying Krista and Alicia into a cave a little further down the mountains. I gave myself and Krista some basic first aids, before deactivating [F - Emotionless] and fainting due to excessive pain.

Thus, concluded our disastrous raid on the bandits' base.

---

***

I slowly woke up a few hours later, only to find Krista already awake, consoling Alicia who were sobbing uncontrollably. 

Now that I thought about it, what happened to Alicia a few hours earlier was disturbingly similar to Krista's original fate in the novel. Thus, I somewhat knew what was on Alicia's mind right now. She was probably blaming herself for the death of her father.

Alicia, however, couldn't be comforted the same way Krista was when she was consoled by the protagonist in the novel. One thing for sure though, she would slowly get over it with time.

Thanks to drinking a high-grade recovery potion, Krista's ribs were healed in just a few hours. After that, we decided to go back to the city, with Krista volunteering to carry the brooding Alicia all the way back. Alicia, who spent all her energy crying the whole morning, didn't have the strength to reject Krista giving her a piggyback ride.

Thankfully, on the way back, we didn't encounter any more bandits. And since getting in Leiast city didn't requiring any sorts of identifications, we were able to enter the city without any troubles. Well, no troubles except for the lustful gazes some people had on Krista and Alicia since they weren't wearing cloaks like they did when they first entered the city. 

We booked 2 rooms at an inn, me with a room all to myself and Krista staying in the same room with Alicia.

Alicia didn't speak much after that day. But she would occasionally have dinner with us, while Krista was desperately trying to make Alicia smile again. 

Although I wanted to remind Alicia of our deal with her, I knew that I'd better off not do so. After all, I was not so heartless as to bring such a thing up to an emotionally unstable girl.

After a whole week of brooding, Alicia seemed to have sorted out her emotions, as she came into my room on an afternoon to have a talk with me.

knock—! knock—!

"Enter."

The door creaked open, as Alicia slowly entered my room.

"What are you here for?" I asked.

Alicia was flustered at my blunt question, and I facepalmed myself inwardly for the same reason. Social interactions were never my forte.

"Sorry, please ignore that" I tried to salvage the situation.

Alicia seemed to have understood my intention as she calmed down and sat down on my bed. She stared at me for a few seconds. Her clear blue eyes were calm, the look of madness from just a few days ago was nowhere to be seen. 

"I just wanted to apologize for getting you two into all this mess. I grossly underestimated the bandits" She lowered her head.

"It's fine, we accepted your request for our own self-interest after all. Rather than that, are you really okay now? You could always talk to me and Krista if you want to get something off your chest you know?"

"Mhm! I'm fine now, thanks for asking."

"So are you just here to say that? I'm sure you have other motives for being here"

"Well" She fidgeted her eyes.

"I wanted to hide from Krista, she's seriously annoying with all those pranks she pulled to try and cheer me up" She whispered in a low voice.

I laughed heartily.

"So other people do also find her annoying"

"Eh, you too?" Alicia asked.

"Yeah, let me tell you, when I was staying at Krista's house, she..."

I then told her about my experience with Krista. Truly, it felt refreshing to find a kindred spirit. Alicia seemed to have enjoyed the conversation too as she laughed while I badmouthed Krista.

After talking for a good hour, I had to move to the topic that I had been avoiding.

"So, Alicia, what do you want to do with your father's body?"

She froze on the spot, hung her head down a little and then mustered up a sad smile.

"I'd want to make him a grave at our house"

"So, when do you want to do it?"

"Eh? You guys want to accompany me? But I couldn't possibly burden you mor—"

"Don't worry about it" I interjected.

"That's the least we could do right now for failing your request" I continued.

Alicia then gave me a grateful look.

"Tomorrow morning, I want to depart as soon as possible"

I nodded and went out of the room with her. We found Krista and I started telling her about our plans. As expected, she agreed to it readily. Though I didn't expect her to hug Alicia like she's a small animal as she did so.

---

***

Morning arrived and we immediately followed Alicia after having a light breakfast. 

Her house... it was also on the Kaiera range. However, it was still relatively close to the city as it only took 40 minutes of walking to get there. To call it a house was a bit of a stretch, as it was basically a wooden cabin with bare essentials in it.

We started working immediately, digging two graves in the clearing behind the cabin.

Once we were done, I took out James' body from my [Alternate storage], and buried him under the grave.

I then carved out boulders to make tombstones, and Krista went and collect some flowers.

"Father, I'm sorry for always making you protecting me, down to the last second" Alicia sobbed.

"Mother, I'm sorry for always having been a troublesome child. Had I not gone out that day..."

Me and Krista retreated, leaving Alicia alone at the graves to sort out her emotions.

An hour later, she came to us, her eyes swollen from crying, but her expression was definitely much brighter than before.

"Thanks again for you help" Alicia bowed.

"Now, let me fulfill my end of the deal" she continued.

"But we failed your request!" Krista interjected.

"No, you risked your lives and even got my father out of that god forsaken place. I won't take no for an answer!" Alicia retorted.

Krista begrudgingly accepted her words, while me? I did not really care. I could just always search for it myself if Alicia was not willing to guide us to the Hall of Divinity.

"Follow me" Alicia said.

Thus, we made our way to the most sacred place on the continent.