I have a big problem right now.

Yup, I have a really big problem right now. 

WHERE THE HECK AM I?

I asked around about how to get back to Frostillia and many people said to travel along the long road and I'll know when I arrive.

Well, I did as I was told and after 5 days of traveling on the road...

I somehow got stuck in a forest?!

My navigation skill is telling me that this is the Forest of Nightmares and even though I've never heard of that name before, I'm sure that it'll lead to anything but good.

"GRRRRR"

...

It's not what I think it is, right?

I slowly turn around and I see a huge wolf behind me. It's at least 3 times bigger than the wolves I hunted during my missions, and those were already 10 times bigger than the ones on earth!

"H-hi, mister wolf! I umm didn't mean to invade on our territory and I'm a bit lost.. so yeah?"

Suddenly, the huge wolf starts running towards me and I thought 'oh crap, he gonna eat me!'

So I ran.

Or at least I tried to, before it jumped on top of me and started to.. lick my face?

"woof!" 

It barked and looked at me with its huge and adorable eyes. They were literally sparkling and the image of the previously ferocious predator completely dissipated. 

I guess that means it doesn't want to eat me? I calmed down and studied the huge creature in front of me. It was grey and it had super soft fur.

It also has a familiar wind like symbol on its forehead.. OH MY GOD! I remember where I saw this symbol before! This huge dog (Author: Good Job! A wolf degraded into a dog x'D) in front of me was actually a legendary Fenrir! 

Out of nowhere, it lightly bit my finger and drank some of my blood. 

Wait.. does that mean it does want to eat me after all? Mister Fenir, I'm not tasty!

Less than a few seconds later, a huge magic circle appeared on top of us and I heard a mechanical sound saying [Contract Complete]

......? 

W-w-WHHAAAAATTT?

N-no way! I seriously just established a contract with THE legendary Fenir? I have got to let you know beasts also have their own hierarchy:

Common - eg. Horned Bunny
Uncommon - eg. Wolf
Rare - eg. Siren
Unique - eg. Nine-Tailed Fox
Mythical - eg. Qilin
Legendary - eg. Fenir
Otherworldy - eg. King Dragon

And a Fenir is already ranked in the Legendary area!

After the contract was complete, Fen (yes, I named it Fen) licked me one last time and went into the symbol on my hand. Unsurprisingly, it was the same symbol that was on Fen's head.

Nadina! You have to focus on getting out of this forest, you even promised Fen that you'll play with him after you do so! Alright, time to find my way back!

----------

Urghhh! I totally get why this is called the Forest of Nightmares now. 

I've wandered around for 2 days and I still can't get out! 

I'm already really tired from getting chased by a horde of bulls, battling it out with a winged tiger and almost drowning because of a siren!

I beat! I have so many wounds covering my body and I can't lift a muscle.

Why don't you just use your light magic to heal yourself, you ask? Oh, well.. I WOULD'VE IF I COULD!!

Flashback to 2 days ago:

I guess today's my lucky day? I managed to get a Fenir to create a contract with me! Now that I think about it.. didn't I write a specific rule when it came to contracts?

Shit.. I remember. After creating a contract with a beast that is of the Mythical Status or higher, magic, including summoning your familiar, is strictly forbidden from being used, or the user will suffer a huge and possibly fatal backlash!

And so, I got stuck in this damned situation!

What a smart human being you are Nadina! *Sarcastically*

Oh wait, I'm not even a human! T^T

Hmm? I seem to be heading towards a light? Oh my.. Is that the end of the forest? THANK YOU LORD GOD FOR THIS WONDERFUL TURN OF EVENTS!

I sped towards the end as fast as I could and I finally saw the familiar city again. 

"I-I'm really back!" I stuttered

Finally.. after many days, weeks, months and years of suffering. I'm finally home.

The once rosy and cute little girl who wore a beautiful dress turned skinny and pale and she wore a tattered dress. But one thing remained the same and that was her beautiful, bright crystal eyes.

I ignored the weird stares I was getting when I walked around the town and I forced my weak body to get to the closest place I trust the most, the adventurer's guild.

After what felt like forever, I finally arrived in from of the familiar guild hall. Tears threatened to spill out once again and I mustered up the remainder of my strength to open the doors.

I walked in and saw all the familiar faces of my friends. In my heart, I felt relieved that not much has changed because of my disappearance.

I glanced towards the counter and was Mariana talking to 3 other people. For some reason they seem really familiar, but since I can't see their faces, I quickly dismissed that idea.

I feel so weak.. I don't think I can hold on anymore..

With everything I had, I yelled "Mariana, please help me! I don't think I can..."

And I blacked out.

----------

3rd Person POV

"Mariana, please help me! I don't think I can..." was the last thing the little girl with a sorry figure could shout out before she collapsed.

The receptionist, Mariana, stopped speaking with the 3 clients and looked towards the direction of the voice she knew all too well and had a look of horror on her face as she ran towards the fainted child.

The 3 people all froze and slowly turned around. Once they saw the figure covered with bloody wounds and ripped clothing laying there on the floor they all had tears pouring out of their eyes.

"NADINA!" They (Mari & 3 ppl) all said at the same time

Before Mariana could reach Nadina, Spade did so first. 

"Naddy, my dear naddy, I finally found you." He cried "What happened, why are you covered in wounds? I will murder the bastard who did this to you."

Finally Mariana and Nadina's parents arrived at where she was. 

"Oh, my poor baby, I can finally hold my baby again. Who would be so cruel as to do all this?" Her mother said while sobbing

Her father was raging and he gritted his teeth as he exclaimed "It doesn't matter who, or what status they hold, I will kill them. Even if it turns out to be a god."

"I'm so glad you found your daughter again, but her injuries are very severe. Please let me take her to our guild master for healing"

"Thank you, we will compensate you in whichever ways you desire"

"No need, she's a very important person to us as well"

Nadina's family was confused, but they didn't ponder any further. After all, everyone has their secrets.

They walked up to the second floor and brought them to the guild master's room.

"OLD MAN LEX, NADINA'S IN BIG TROUBLE!"

"Nadina? She's back? What happe-- Oh god! Bring her in, NOW"

The guild master used ice and froze all her wounds to prevent them from getting worse.

"Mariana, you have the healing attribute. Heal her"

"Of course, she's like my little sister. I would never let my little sister die, my heart hurts just from seeing her like this"

Because Nadina's wounds were so severe, it took Mariana a full hour to heal all her wounds. You've got to know, it only takes Mari a second to heal a knife wound.

"Who on earth did this to her? This is simply.. terrible!"

"W-what's wrong with our baby? Are there is she going to die? Is she okay? No, my baby can't die!"

"Don't worry madam, she's fine and I've healed all her wounds.. But I'm really curious about how she got all of them. 

Her flow of magic is being blocked by some sort of invisible barrier that even I cannot comprehend, however I can sense that the barrier has gotten so weak that it can break any second, so that's very good news. 

The oldest scars are gotten from getting beaten and whipped. She's extremely malnourished, as if she hasn't had a full meal in the past 3 years. 

The most recent ones were from many different beasts and that's not even the worst part... 

The scary thing is that over half of her wounds were from a Unique level beast! She probably barely escaped with her life!"

Nadina's mother, who had already been on the verge of tears burst out crying again. Over the past 3 years, her mother rarely ate or slept because of how much she was worried over her daughter's disappearance.

If it hadn't been for the fact that she was a fairy, she would have died already. 

The guild master, Lexis, spotted a ring on Nadina's finger and took it off while inserting his consciousness.

[Remove All], he said as the transported all the things from inside the ring to the desk in front of them.

Suddenly a huge pile of beast corpses appeared! There were the dead bodies of Wolves ranging to a Winged Tiger.

Everyone gasped at this scene. The guild master was very impressed with how strong their young genius has grown, but he was also mad at him for behaving so recklessly. Strength could be gained, but everyone only has one life.

Mariana was shocked out of her wits at the corpse of a Unique level beast and she inwardly praised her self-proclaimed little sister for all her hard work.

Nadina's family was shocked by the strength she had, but they were more worried. They kept on thinking 'What if she had died? If she wasn't so strong, we would've lost our angel forever!' and the thought of that caused a burst of pain in their hearts.

Suddenly, as if remembering something Lexis yelled out "Could she have been in the Forest of Nightmares for the past few days?!"

Forest of Nightmares. That was a word that anyone would know as long as you asked them. It's ranked 3rd in the top 10 most dangerous places in Sairale.

Coincidentally, it was right outside of the capital of Frostillia, bordering between Frostillia and Pafizika.

"Does that mean.. my sister was about to get sold to Pafizika, but somehow escaped and during her journey to try to get home, she accidentally wandered into the Forest of Nightmares? After all, a few people would try to walk along the road, but end up in that forest."

"That's very likely, it probably explains where and why she was missing for the past 3 years. It also shows how hard she worked and how much she endured just to get back to you. You truly have a wonderful daughter, promise to always treasure her."

"That goes without saying!"

For the rest of the day, they worked together to catch the slave traders and publicly executed them the next day. 

When they finished the execution, Lexis decided to tell Nadina's family about her secret identity, Aki and they revealed many other shocking facts that came with it.

----------

Nadina's POV

Mmmm.. The sun is shining in my face and I'm on such a fluffy bed...

Wait, hold up. What??

Fluffy bed?

I looked around and realized that I was back in my bedroom.

No way, how'd I get back home?

Suddenly, the door was opened and a face that I haven't seen for the past 3 years appeared.

"M-mama!" I bawled. I was truly, very happy to see my mom again.

"My darling baby! Oh my poor little angel, I'm so sorry we let you suffer so much. Mommy will never do it again. I'm so glad you're finally home. Haha, look how big you grew!"

"Mommy, it's not your fault I got kidnapped. It's those stupid slave traders' fault! I never want to leave your side ever again!"

We laughed and cried in each other's arms and after a long and emotional period, I finally got out of bed.

When I got to the living room to eat breakfast, I saw my dad and brother sitting there. Both dad and brother seem to have gotten colder and thinner over the years. I felt a throb in my heart and secretly cursed Nico for setting that "no magic" punishment.

When they saw me, their faces lit up instantly and ran over to envelop me in a tight hug. We then started at each other, as if to silently communicate our thoughts and after a while, we all said:

"I'm back!/Welcome back Naddy"

We laughed and ate breakfast, just like the good old days. We were catching up and I told them about my kidnapping case, leaving some things like how I became friends with the entire capital. 

Everything is going great until dad said "Oh yeah! Is there something you have to tell me.. hmm? Aki?"

I froze when I heard that name. Why? That was my other identity for when I'm an SSS (she leveled up after all) ranked adventurer!

"Wha-How.. Eh.. I can explain.. Haha.. Umm.."

"Little lady, we're going to be having a very big discussion about this"

Ahh.. how nice it would be to just stay in my unconscious state instead~
╥﹏╥

----------

It's been 2 weeks since I came back and I no longer look malnourished. After all, I managed to eat the amount a common family consumes in 3 months when I first saw food laying there on the table. News about how I was found traveled to every corner of Sariale and many people were quite shocked.

Ever since my disappearance, there was a rumor that I was probably dead, if not, then I already lost my virginity. But the public test that I performed showed everyone I was perfectly fine, so they were all shocked.

After a while, the rustling and bustling calmed down and we returned to the peaceful days we've always had. 

I also went to the guild to update my information because I'm now an SSS ranked lvl 140 (although Mariana helped me camouflage it so that it's only S class). 

I surprised everyone with my appearance and we all threw a huge welcome back party. I became acknowledged as the youngest S class adventurer and the name "Aki" became the newest piece of hot news traveling around the world.

That's good news because the means I'm building my influence and I can soon break free from the chains of having the fate of a "villainess". WooHoo, no more acting like a self-centered brat for me!

Come to think of it, why does it feel like I'm forgetting something?

Meh. Food is more important.

-- Meanwhile, a certain dog... I mean, wolf inside the spiritual space --

Fen: Woof, when is owner going to let me out and play together? QAQ