On a flatland thick with every kind of plant, a little girl lifted a heap of greens toward a silver-haired big sis, like offering spring.

“Aer, think this is enough?”

She petted the girl’s golden head, indulgent and warm, like smoothing a small sun.

“Enough, enough. What if they can’t finish later?”

Lian glanced down at the leaves with a hint of regret, like coins slipping through fingers.

“Eh— but it’s only a tiny bit…”

Aer could feel black lines scribble across her forehead, like storm clouds.

“A tiny bit… huh?”

If a camera pulled back, you’d see them standing atop a twenty-meter mound of plants, a green hill. All around was stripped bare, like a scorched-earth sweep had passed. Nothing but soil. It might take centuries for life to knit back.

Aer winced for the plants, but she packed the pile anyway. How carry it? Lian’s Script holds an infinite space. And no, she definitely hadn’t forgotten it existed. Definitely.

Ahem. Once they finished, dusk had already pooled like ink. Aer checked the time and blinked.

“Lian, we’ve got less than an hour. We gotta move. Fight on an empty stomach and we’ll lose!”

At that, Lian seized Aer’s hand. Her face went grave—the kind of gravity only foodlessness can summon.

“Hold tight!”

After long days together, Aer understood at once. Her grip tightened like a knot.

“Teleport!”

They vanished from the grass and popped into the sky two hundred meters away, wind rushing. Before gravity could claim them, magic flared again.

“Teleport!”

They kept blinking midair, leap by leap. Nineteen jumps carried them over Alicia’s group. Then they let gravity tug them down like stones.

Boom!

The ground shuddered. Dust billowed like smoke. Alicia looked up, hand settling on the Demonblade’s hilt. One wrong twitch, and the blade would spring and take a skullcap clean off.

“Who’s there!”

Hurk—

The answer was a retching cry.

A monster? Why attack now?

You couldn’t blame Alicia; plenty of beasts roar with that gagging sound.

Hurk—

The retch came again. Alicia’s eyes sharpened like drawn steel.

Whatever it is, cut first, ask later!!

“Moser Style, Third Form: Pigeon Eradication! (coo-coo-coo!)”

Her blade dropped from above. Steel sliced the air, shrieking, wind-pressure clearing the dust like a wave. A strike like that kills. No doubt.

“Hundred Percent Bare-Handed Catch!”

A loli voice rang from the haze. The Demonblade halted, as if pressed by an unseen force.

The wind cleared the dust. A little girl knelt there, face green as willow leaves. Her small palms pinned the blade on both sides. Those frail hands stopped the Demonblade.

Seeing she’d swung at Lian, Alicia yanked the blade back, tense. She glanced at the loli—and the silver-haired big sis collapsed nearby.

“Uh… that was an accident…”

Lian waved it off and pushed herself up, color still bad, like waves in her stomach.

“Relax. Not blaming you. It’s on us.”

“So… what happened to you two?”

Alicia’s question stirred the memory. Nausea swelled again like a tide.

Hurk—

Even with an empty belly, the loli gagged so hard she coughed up air.

When the waves receded, Lian found her voice.

“It’s nothing… We just teleported nineteen times. So I’m woozy.”

“Nineteen?! Isn’t three enough to knock you out? How did you hit nineteen?”

“Heh… We tanked it. A real tough guy doesn’t flinch at stuff like this!”

Alicia stared, helpless, at the tiny warrior pretending fine while swaying. Sympathy pooled in her chest, soft as dusk.

“Alright. Wake your Aer big sis. Eat something and you’ll bounce back. Where’s your stuff?”

At the word ‘food,’ Lian’s eyes lit like lanterns. She rallied, pulled a bit from the Script, and dragged the still-dazed Aer toward dinner.

Alicia watched Lian’s retreating silhouette. Then she looked at the “tiny bit” of vegetables—man-wide, waist-high. She regretted not making Lian unload over there.

They hauled the haul to the cooksite, panting. Alicia and Remi trimmed the ingredients and tossed them into a big pot for a carefree boil. When it was ready, they set it before two girls with starry eyes, sat down, and ate together, warm as a hearth.

While dinner simmered, somewhere unseen, a blond man slouched in a chair, straw-light hair like winter wheat. Two more, much like him, sat nearby.

The one in the middle glanced at the others and spoke, voice edged with sourness.

“So… she dragged me here, forced-summoned, just to make me act in her play? She set a whole grand scheme so I’d have no choice? What kind of joke is that?! I left my daughter behind. Did you see her face, flooded with tears? I almost killed myself just to stay there.”

Another blond wore the same helpless look. His tale was no better.

“Eh… We can’t beat her. This is the only way, like it or not.”

“But…”

He tried to argue on, but the third man cut in.

“Stop bickering. She said we finish and then we go back. She even said we can try to kill her. We can take our shot, vent that hate.”

That won words of grim agreement. The room fell quiet, deep as a well.

After a while, the middle man leaned back, eyes drifting to the ceiling, muttering like rain.

“When can I go back and see my little girl…”

The words were barely a breath. No one heard them but him.