It was late at night.
Everyone’s favorite vice-captain, Anna-veil, was pacing back and forth on the first floor of the inn, as anxious as an ant on a hot pan.
Her makeup was flawless, her golden-red curls shone brilliantly, and she had changed into new clothes, looking every bit like a girl in love preparing for her first date.
But her date was missing.
Not only was her date missing, but even her rival was gone.
Even Laxis and Wenren Ji Xue were nowhere to be found.
Where did they go? A silver party?
“Anna-veil, stop pacing, you’re making me dizzy…” Naji mumbled.
“But I’m worried! It’s already the time Torina and I agreed on, and she’s not here!”
“So what exactly did you plan with the captain?”
“You… you don’t need to know!”
“How can we help you find her if we don’t know?”
At this moment, Patty and Lanifi, who had been sent out to look for them, returned, and Anna-veil hurriedly went to inquire, but they had found nothing.
“Where on earth did they go～～～～!”
Just as Anna-veil was scratching her head in anxiety, the people she was looking for suddenly returned.
Torina, Laxis, and Wenren Ji Xue.
“You’re finally back! Seriously, we had an agreement, but you have no sense of time!? What on earth… uh…”
Anna-veil stopped mid-sentence, and the other teammates also sensed something was off.
Only Laxis was relatively clean, while Torina was covered in mud, barefoot, with dark circles under her eyes, and Ji Xue, who was being carried by Laxis, was unconscious.
“…What did you guys do?”
“What do you think?” Torina’s tone was indifferent and lacked energy.
“Um, the lord…”
“I killed him.”
“What!? Wait, then why are only the three of you back? Where’s Milora?”
“Kicked her out.”
“…………Huh?”
The teammates were stunned.
They had been protecting her, and now suddenly kicked her out, like a whirlwind romance followed by a lightning-fast divorce… Everyone was puzzled, but no one dared to ask, not even Anna-veil, who should have been happy, could smile, because Torina looked really upset.
“Laxis and Naji, check Ji Xue’s injuries, and if everything’s fine, go back to your rooms and sleep.”
“““““………””””
“What are you standing around for? Go do what you need to do, staying up late is bad for your skin.”
Torina’s tone grew heavier, and everyone reluctantly returned to their rooms. Anna-veil wanted to say something to her, but Torina mumbled, “I’m tired, going to rest,” and left.
——————
The humid air was uncomfortable.
The chirping of insects in the grass was particularly disturbing.
The moon occasionally peeked out from behind the flowing clouds.
On this not-so-quiet night, Milora wandered outside the town, feeling lost.
She felt as if a part of her heart had been hollowed out.
And the system hadn’t stopped talking since earlier:
[That vicious woman! That cruel schemer! She actually destroyed the key just like that!]
“……”
[See, this is what happens when you don’t listen to me! I told you to attack her from behind, but you hesitated, and now look!]
“………”
[Without the key, you can’t enter the Cedron Mage Tower with your current strength… No choice, we’ll have to adjust our strategy.]
“…………”
[Cedron Mage Tower is the best place for you to start, but it’s not the only worthwhile relic.
Let me go through the database.]
“……………”
[Remember today’s regret, learn from it, and don’t make the same mistake again! Today’s grudge will become your motivation in the future, and one day when you master your skills, you must come back and humiliate and destroy them!]
“…What exactly are you?”
[…………Huh?]
Milora suddenly asked a question out of the blue.
The system was puzzled as to why she was asking such a redundant question.
[How many times have I told you? I am the perfect strategic support system from an ancient civilization, here to help you with everything and assist you in becoming the strongest.]
“Are you really what you claim to be? Could you just be a dangerous creature hiding in the ring… or something?”
[Ridiculous,] the system scoffed.
[How can such a lowly thing compare to me? Do you have any reason to doubt my authority?]
“……Indeed, what you are doesn’t matter.”
[Right? So——]
“What matters is… you keep trying to gain my trust in various ways, teaching me unsuitable sword techniques, painting a picture of relics that may not even exist, and every time I interact with others, you stubbornly oppose it, constantly telling me to be ruthless and cruel… even faking voices to deceive me, and wanting to sacrifice Ji Xue…”
[Are you still influenced by Deville’s nonsense? Absurd! I have no reason to lie to you, but this setback also has its benefits, allowing you to shed your naivety.]
“…………….”
Milora remained silent.
She stood quietly, staring at the ring on her little finger, the system’s incessant chatter and the night breeze mixed with insect chirps turning into annoying white noise.
After a long time, she finally spoke, as if talking to herself—
“If I had known… why did I believe everything you said so blindly back then?”
Saying this, she pinched the ring, trying to take it off.
[Wait, what are you doing? Are you crazy!?]
“………”
Milora didn’t answer.
She bit her lip, using all her strength to pull the ring, even trying to destroy it—
[Don’t do anything foolish, Milora Sistema! Don’t let emotions override reason! I’m your friend, the only one you can trust! And how could you possibly destroy an ancient civilization’s creation? Wake up!!]
The ring clung tightly to her little finger, as if it had taken root, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t take it off.
Milora’s expression changed instantly, as if she was contemplating something, hesitating over something, but all of this happened in just a few seconds.
Then, she took out the broken short sword from the boss battle, squinting at the sharp edge of the broken blade.
[Milora…? Wait, you’re going to——]
Crack!!
———————
———————
———————
Torina tossed and turned in bed all night.
Her heart felt empty, and after the anger dissipated, all that was left was disappointment and frustration.
In the end, she had kicked out Milora, just like in the original story, severing ties with the Protagonist bound to the system.
In the not-too-distant future, she would surely come back stronger and destroy them, right? The original plot was unavoidable.
But it didn’t matter anymore.
It was just a matter of acting according to the worst-case scenario.
After all, Torina had read the original story and knew where the Protagonist had been and what cheats they had obtained, so… if she acted first, taking or destroying the cheats in advance, wouldn’t she be able to counter the bad ending to some extent? Even if it meant becoming enemies with Milora.
Closing her eyes, she could still clearly see the slender figure with silver-white hair.
Those few days of being close to her, Torina was genuinely happy, not just because she thought she could change the plot, but because the happiness was more pure.
(…Forget it, sleep, sleep) As the sky in the east turned pale, she finally drifted off to sleep.
…………
She had a dream.
A nostalgic dream about her past life.
In the dream, she was very tired.
Though she didn’t know why she was tired.
After an unknown amount of time, the morning sunlight pierced through her eyelids, stimulating her retinas, waking her groggily, with a lingering feeling of having cried.
The side effects of overusing her corporate slave gauge during yesterday’s boss battle had appeared, her limbs felt like they were filled with lead, and her head throbbed with pain.
In her low spirits, she struggled to turn over, wanting to continue sleeping—only to find something soft, fragrant, and fluffy in her arms.
“……………………?”
Opening her eyes, she saw a silver-white fluffball nestled against her chest.
Ah, it’s not a furball, it’s a girl’s little head.
“Hmm… hmm? Eh eh?” Upon closer inspection, Milora Sistema was lying in the same bed with her, looking up with a slightly flushed face.
And she wasn’t wearing any clothes.
Completely naked.
“Yikes!?” Torina was instantly jolted awake! She sprang up from the bed, scooting back to put some distance between them, while Milora just said in a voice trying to remain calm, “…Good morning.”
“Ah, good morning… No, wait! Why are you here? I kicked you out of the team!!!”
“I am… I… Mmm~~~” She stammered a few times, then suddenly sat up from the bed, took a deep breath—and then performed a very standard dogeza.
“I’m sorry! I did something stupid! I endangered my teammates! And almost got myself killed! I’m very, very, very sorry!!!!!!”
“Ah…?” Torina blinked dumbly, trying to use her sluggish brain to analyze the situation.
Did this girl sneak back in? Is she apologizing? No, wait, didn’t she kick her out? The Protagonist who got kicked out should be finding cheats to power up and come back for revenge—that’s the normal development, right? Why is she coming back to apologize on her own? Or is this also part of the system’s plan? To make her endure humiliation and apologize, then strike when the time is right?
No, no, no, before that, a fifteen-year-old girl doing a full-naked dogeza is way too extreme! This isn’t some doujinshi by Asanagi!
“Why aren’t you wearing clothes??”
“You, you told Marian and Lilia before! ‘If you want to show sincerity, do a full-naked dogeza,’ I remember!”
“You want… to show sincerity?”
“Yes!”
“But, but your ‘friend’ wouldn’t possibly allow…”
“…Not friends anymore.”
“Eh?”
“I thought a lot last night, pondered a lot, and then realized… that guy… is a very dangerous existence, continuing to associate with it might really lead to eternal damnation.”
“Eh eh eh eh eh??”
So… Milora, this Protagonist, threw away the system given to her by the author? Kicked it? Dumped it? Impossible, right? Even if this former Protagonist could really sever ties with the system—would the system let her go? The system resides in the ring, it would never let Milora easily take off the ring, and they don’t have the ability to destroy a ring made by ancient civilizations!
At this moment, Torina noticed.
Milora’s left hand was wrapped in bandages.
The little finger on her left hand was gone.
The whole finger was gone.
To get rid of the system, she had cut off one of her own fingers.
——————————
——————————
【Milora! Milora! Milora ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!】
Meanwhile, in the darkness, the system was letting out an unprecedented roar.
The severed finger with the ring was buried by Milora in the ground.
Her thought process was simple: since she couldn’t destroy the ring, she would let it remain forever silent in the darkness, preventing it from harming others.
So she simply treated the severed area, then endured the pain to dig a pit over two meters deep, threw the ring along with the finger into it, filled it up, and packed the soil down.
【Why!? Why!!! You fool! You short-sighted idiots, you bastards!!!!!!!】
