Torina arrived fashionably late after changing clothes.

She'd already switched into her monster-hunting outfit for going out: a black corseted dress embroidered with intricate runes. The lace-trimmed skirt had an uneven high-low cut, absurdly short in the front and nearly dragging on the ground in the back. Over it was a silver gauze shawl that occasionally flashed with arcs of electricity, letting out faint crackling noises. Her arms were covered in sultry long gloves, with only her index and middle fingers exposed. On her legs were matching semi-transparent black thigh-highs embroidered with runes. On her feet were pointed high-heeled boots that looked easy to twist an ankle in, but were actually as stable as tank treads under rune enhancement.

If you thought this outfit couldn't possibly be for dungeon runs, you'd be wrong. House Dewell's rune technology was just that absurd. Cloth infused with ancient rune magic had defensive power completely at odds with its appearance. The elemental-woven gauze shawl and gloves could transmit magic with high efficiency. Even that ridiculously short front skirt had extremely strong anti-exposure functions.

Seeing the captain arrive, the party members all greeted her. The most enthusiastic, of course, were the shameless bootlicker duo, Marian and Lilia.

"Good morning, Senior Torina!" "You look beautiful today too!" "Are you leading the team into battle?" "That's great, your report after we return to school is definitely getting another brilliant entry!" "Do you need me to knead your shoulders or massage your legs?"

"No need..."

Torina was a little distracted.

This was the first time since returning to Garden Town that she'd met all the party members at once.

After awakening the memories of her past life, the way she saw these people had completely changed.

Every single one of them was a potential time bomb. To make the protagonist's massacre a little less easy, the author had forcefully slapped a ton of extra settings and cheat-like buffs onto the party members who were supposed to get slaughtered later. On top of that, their names had originally been lazily recycled from protagonists in the author's older books. So this whole group was actually packed with hidden talents.

By now, she could already match the party members to characters from the original story.

Mylora, the original protagonist. No explanation needed.

Annawiel corresponded to Ankwell, the vice-captain in the original. In the future, she'd be possessed by a demonic dragon and massacre innocent civilians.

Patti corresponded to Pat, the elven noble pretty boy from the original. She looked harmless, but was actually a bloodthirsty assassin with countless kills to her name.

Marian and Lilia corresponded to Maloan and Leia. They were the classic bully lackeys who threw their weight around, but both of them actually had empowered bloodlines backing them.

Naji corresponded to Nak, the delinquent male priest from the original. Here, she was a gyaru girl priest, and in the future she'd become a terrifying Judgment Angel.

Ranifi corresponded to Lemophi, the shield knight from the original. She was a social Darwinist who worshiped strength above all else, and later she'd awaken an ancient demon-spirit bloodline.

Lindas corresponded to Lintas, the metal sorcerer from the original. A guy with a rare class but a lazy personality, who would later become an ultra-high-difficulty living labyrinth after a failed experiment.

So the question was: if they were all just minor villains meant to be slaughtered by the protagonist, why did every single one of them have cheats?

Obviously because of the genius slash idiot author's arrangement.

First, by the point when the original protagonist came back for revenge, the party members' original strength was already too outdated for the power scale. Fights against them would've been boring. They were so weak they couldn't even provide the satisfaction of being crushed.

Second, if it was one slash per victim and the whole thing wrapped up in a few paragraphs, how was the author supposed to pad the word count?

So right before the massacre arc began, the genius slash idiot author suddenly pulled a deus ex machina. Every teammate had a hidden cheat. Every one of them had some incredible trump card. They just hadn't awakened it yet, or hadn't revealed it before. Absolutely unreal.

And the original captain had no cheat at all. Why? Because the captain was the first one to get slaughtered. She got abused to death in what was basically the opening skirmish. The author only realized something was off after writing that part, then went back and patched everyone else. So everyone here had a cheat, and only she, Torina, had none!!

(Seriously, what kind of discrimination is this... Forget it. Don't think about that yet. Let's see who else is here...)

The next member, Wenren Jixue, corresponded to—hm?

Wait.

Wenren Jixue...?

Ever since coming back, Torina had been so preoccupied with Mylora that she hadn't paid attention to anyone else. Only now did she realize something was off.

(Wenren is a compound surname from the Eastern Kingdom, and Jixue is obviously an Eastern name too, but... there weren't any Easterners in the original adventurer party. The Eastern Kingdom wasn't even supposed to become a setting until the middle and later parts of the story!)

Jixue seemed pretty close with Mylora, so she should correspond to the protagonist's "one and only friend from a commoner background." But in the original, that best-buddy character was named Waleto. That had absolutely nothing to do with the name Wenren Jixue, and Torina didn't remember anyone with a similar name either.

(I don't think the original had anyone called Wenren Jixue at all. But if she's from the Eastern Kingdom, she should've appeared much later in the story. Not only did she show up early... she even took the original best-friend slot? What is going on?)

Could she be remembering it wrong?

As Torina thought that, she looked toward the last person, the pink-haired sacred-word mage, Lachesis—

And then she finally noticed an even more horrifying fact.

(Wait, the numbers are off, aren't they!? Including the protagonist, the original adventurer party only had ten people, but this...)

Torina, Mylora, Annawiel, Patti, Marian, Lilia, Naji, Ranifi, Lindas, Jixue, Lachesis.

Eleven people in total.

There was one extra person.

Who was the extra one?

Jixue?

Or... Lachesis?

There didn't seem to be any character in the original with a name even remotely similar to "Lachesis" either. Just like Jixue, she was someone who didn't exist in the original. But at least Jixue had taken over an original character slot. Lachesis really had no corresponding role at all.

"Captain? Why are you staring at me like that? You're gonna make me shy," Lachesis said with a smiling face. She looked completely normal.

"...It's nothing. Ahem, let's talk business."

She'd think about those troublesome matters later.

Right now, the urgent issue was dealing with Mylora's withdrawal crisis.

"Today, I want to announce something important first. There has always been a lot of friction within our team, and you should all know what I'm referring to."

The moment she said that, everyone looked at Mylora.

Aside from Jixue, whose gaze was full of worry, everyone else either looked indifferent or openly pleased.

Everyone knew that the captain had never thought highly of Mylora.

Everyone knew that the captain's two classmates and lackeys hated Mylora.

Everyone knew that the vice-captain was always losing her temper at Mylora.

Everyone knew that anyone could order Mylora around.

Everyone knew that Mylora was gloomy and got along badly with everyone.

Everyone knew that Mylora was mediocre in strength, just a minor member in charge of scouting or odd jobs.

Kicking someone like her out would absolutely cause no loss.

"For the sake of the team's development, I think it's necessary to ask certain members to leave the party."

"Mm."

Everyone waited for Torina to continue. It was as if they'd already known the outcome.

"So then, Marian and Lilia, you two can go pack your things. I've already left your withdrawal notices in your rooms ❤"

"Mm... ... ... ... ... ... huh?"

Last night, Torina spent the whole night thinking about how to change her fate of being slaughtered.

In her past life, she'd read a few transmigration-into-a-book stories too. If you transmigrated into a villain, there were basically only two ways to avoid getting slaughtered by the protagonist:

1. Strike first and blow the protagonist up before they finish developing

2. Win the protagonist over, turn them into one of your own in time, or even make them your high-level hired muscle

Both methods had their logic. And Torina was a civilized person. In her past life, she had also been a law-abiding good citizen. Totally for real. So naturally, she'd prioritize the second option.

But the original version of this book was a brainless wish-fulfillment novel.

Whether it was the opening plot or the characters' early-stage logic, there were tons of awkward contradictions created just for the sake of conflict. A huge number of details were missing, and the plot progression was painfully forced.

To put it simply—

The characters' personalities were all weirdly twisted, especially the original protagonist. If she chose the peaceful recruitment route, who knew what bizarre story branch that might trigger.

In that case...

(For now, I'll try winning the protagonist over first. If I can make her one of my people, the benefits will be huge. If it really doesn't work out, then I'll fall out with her later.)