"Alfia? Was it truly necessary for you to accompany me?"
"After hearing those words from Hestia, I found myself concerned for Bell's well-being."
"I suppose I couldn't ignore it either, given that Eina personally requested my help."
"...It seems there is always an Elf by your side."
Alfia's eyes narrowed into a sharp glare.
"Haha...! Then shall we make haste to the Dungeon?"
Sensing the stinging pressure of her gaze, Akumo immediately accelerated his pace toward the Dungeon. Despite being draped in a perception-blocking cloak, she radiated a powerful, irrepressible aura that no fabric could fully suppress.
THWACK—!!
"...That sound?"
CRACK—!!
"It doesn't sound like a battle..."
THUD—!!
'A one-sided assault.'
Akumo's ears, honed by eons of combat, caught the faint echoes of violence echoing from a distance. He turned to the woman beside him to confirm his suspicion.
"Alfi... No, Lupia. What do you hear?"
"...That Pallum girl. It seems she is caught in a rather malicious situation."
"Just as Ryu described..."
'A Pallum girl possessing transformation magic.'
"...Let us intervene."
"If that is your choice."
As Akumo moved toward the source of the noise, the sounds grew distinct. Walking through the cavernous passage, he eventually spotted Lilliluka Arde being assaulted by adventurers near the stairs leading to the upper floors.
"Y-you bastard! What the hell are you doing?!"
"A Killer Ant lets out a death throe that summons its kin before it dies."
"You scum!!!!"
As expected, the scene was occupied by cowards who threatened lives to covet the wealth of others. Their eyes were clouded by greed and malice.
Akumo and Alfia approached Lili with masks of absolute indifference.
"What the?! Who the hell are you people?!"
"...Step aside."
"...Heh! I see! Are you two also victims of Arde's little tricks?!"
The adventurer, his face twisted in a vile grin, thought he had found allies. He tried to divert their attention toward Lili. Simultaneously, the group who appeared to be members of the Soma Familia surrounded them, maintaining a calm but threatening posture as if such extortion was a daily routine.
"Hey now, gentlemen. Do you not see this? This is the carcass of a Killer Ant."
"Heh, a man and a woman party... and the lady's quite a beauty, isn't she?"
"Look, we aren't heartless. We'll let you get a few hits in on Arde, so why don't we just let this slide quietly?"
"Or, if you let us have some fun with the woman beside you..."
Akumo let the filth spewing from the Soma Familia members' mouths pass through him like a dull wind. He gazed down at Lili with a detached clarity—his eyes devoid of anger, yet lacking in pity or sorrow.
'Why... why do you look at me with those eyes...'
'What... what did I do so wrong...!'
'...In the end, you're all the same... every last adventurer!!'
Lili trembled, expecting Akumo to launch a fist or a boot at her just like the others. But then, she felt a shift in the atmosphere.
The ugly voices of the Soma Familia members were suddenly silenced.
THUD—!
Collapse—
"W-with a single strike...! You bastards—"
CRACK—!!
"Shut your mouths, trash."
Alfia had no intention of leaving those who spat defilement at her and Akumo alive. With a surgical blur of motion, she moved. Her hands flashed once more, and their hands were severed before they could even scream.
"Lupia, that is enough."
"Hmph. I should take their legs as well, shouldn't I?"
SLICE—!
"I have already seen to it."
—GAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!
Their agonizing screams tore through the cave. Lili watched the scene in a daze before looking up at Akumo as he approached her.
"Lilliluka Arde. Correct?"
"...Yes."
"Do you loathe adventurers?"
"..."
'Of course... obviously...!'
Lili's response erupted like a desperate cry, filled with the resentment she held for the profession that had taken her parents and the monsters who had tormented her ever since.
"I hate them!!! Lili... really hates adventurers!!!!"
"I hate the Dungeon for taking my parents!! And I hate the adventurers who shout about 'romance' without knowing anything... I hate them so much...!!"
"And more than anything..."
'I hate Lili, who is doing the exact same disgusting things as them...'
"Lili is..."
Before Akumo could respond to her agonizing confession, Alfia stepped forward.
"And yet, you still long for a hero, don't you?"
".....!!"
"And yet, you likely still wish you could be a hero yourself."
"What do you... what do you know about it!!"
"Because I was once exactly like you."
"Pardon...?"
Alfia began to speak of the despair and the journey she had endured, her voice flat but heavy with the weight of her sins.
"I despaired and raged at a life that robbed my sister of her health and gnawed away at my own longevity."
"....."
"I sought a reason for that life. Sometimes I acted out on whims, and at other times, I tried to play the hero."
"But despair arrived all the same... My comrades were slaughtered, and I could no longer stand tall before my sister..."
"I waited only for death, and in that time, I even committed hideous crimes."
"Yet even then, I desired a hero. I hoped for a spark of light that would save me from that abyss of hopelessness."
Alfia reached out and took Akumo's arm, her face tightening with a cocktail of guilt and recollection as she looked at him.
"Miraculously... a hope appeared before me. But in my foolishness, I tried to crush that hope once..."
"I would have preferred death. I wanted to offer him my life as an apology."
A sense of déjà vu washed over Lili. The story told by this nameless woman was painfully familiar.
Lili had betrayed the boy who had been foolishly kind to her, again and again. She had stolen his money and tried to flee without even a proper apology, only to be captured in her most pathetic state.
"...You're right... huff...!"
"You're right!! It's true!! Lili also wants to be recognized! Lili wants to be happy! Lili doesn't... she doesn't want to live this trashy life anymore..."
To Lili's tear-streaked answer, Alfia gave a piece of advice more sincere than any she had offered in a lifetime.
"If that is so, then do not give up."
"Look toward the future. Become a Pioneer. Do it for the sake of another, or do it for yourself."
"The path will not be easy. Walk it nonetheless. Walk to pioneer a road you can believe in, a road where you can finally stand proud."
shadeWith those words, Alfia sensed the faint approach of someone running and turned her back to the girl. Akumo followed her lead, his presence withdrawing from the scene naturally.
Lili stared blankly at their retreating figures. She looked within herself, wondering how she should live from now on... and what to do with the trash laying incapacitated beside her.
"It may not be too late yet."
'....!!'
Akumo's parting words pierced through Lili's mind just as someone rushed toward her from the opposite tunnel, the sounds of combat signaling their arrival.
"LILI!!!!"
"Master... Bell...."
The boy with white hair appeared. He looked exhausted, having likely cut through a swarm of Killer Ants in the tunnels, but he did not care as he dashed forward to save his Supporter.
"..."
'A Hero...'
That day, the Pallum girl Lilliluka Arde, who had been submerged in despair, learned the mindset of a Pioneer from those who stood at the pinnacle.
And she decided never again to let go of the light that had returned to her side.
Akumo and Alfia made their way out of the Dungeon.
Akumo turned over Alfia's words in his mind. He wondered if she still carried that guilt, or if she still harbored a lingering self-loathing. His heart was heavy with worry for her.
But those worries were dispelled when she placed a gentle hand on his cheek.
"Do not fret."
"...Alfia."
"It was merely advice for a girl who reminded me of myself."
"...."
"Even now, I am living my life for someone else... and for myself."
'Because of my light, who has appeared before me time and time again.'
"Come to think of it, isn't this situation quite familiar?"
"What is?"
"Both you and Bell... you both share that foolish habit of running off to save girls in trouble..."
Alfia looked at Akumo and smiled. She chuckled as if she found something genuinely amusing, noting how similar the temperaments of Akumo and Bell truly were.
"Hahahaha!"
"Alfia... someone might hear you...!"
Her laughter cleared the weight from Akumo's heart, though he couldn't help but feel a bit flustered. His voice, half-worried and half-relieved, filled the tunnel as they walked toward the surface together.