Torina happily scored a bargain and strutted back to the arena. Now all she had to do was wait for Mylora to come out with the Stellar Rune.

The whole day passed in waiting. Torina kept the divine beast egg tucked on her the entire time. She was clearly a girl, yet she had two eggs on her. Truly god-tier.

Finally, in the afternoon, as dusk drew near, the time limit for the labyrinth's first opening was up.

“All challengers, shout ‘Withdraw’ to the sky to leave the labyrinth! Anyone who fails to do so in time will lose their qualification for the second and third explorations!”

Molly made the announcement. At once, clouds of smoke burst around the labyrinth's outer edge, and the challengers appeared one after another.

Most of them looked dejected. A few were all smiles. Patti gave a regretful shrug, showing she'd gained nothing. As for Mylora—

“Ah! Mylora! Over here, over here!”

Torina waved at her cheerfully—

Then she saw Mylora trudging over, all wilted and dispirited.

Torina’s heart skipped a beat.

“Mylora…? Why do you look like that? Where’s the Stellar Rune?”

“Sorry… I… couldn’t find it…”

“Huh???”

———————

Let’s rewind a bit—

Inside the labyrinth, Mylora had run into a problem.

She had reached the northwest side of the labyrinth. After a long search through the thick fog, she finally found the place Torina had described: an abandoned little observatory, with several frozen dead trees around it.

But there was no sign of any Stellar Rune.

It was just a desolate patch of land covered in white frost.

Mylora first tried sensing the rune using the method Torina had taught her, but failed. Then she used her scout skills to conduct a full sweep of the area, and still found nothing.

So where was the Stellar Rune she was supposed to find?

———————

At dinner, they exchanged information while eating. After hearing Mylora’s explanation, Torina was completely thrown off.

“There wasn’t one???”

“Right, there wasn’t. I searched the surrounding area too. There really was nothing.”

“How could that be…”

“Could it be that I just don’t have the aptitude? Maybe I can’t even do something as basic as sensing a rune…?” Mylora said, a little apologetically.

“It probably isn’t your fault, so don’t overthink it, but… mm…”

Torina was full of question marks.

In the original story, after the protagonist entered the labyrinth, the system pinpointed the location. He found the target very quickly. The moment he arrived, he saw the silver-glimmering source of the Stellar Rune. There was no way he could’ve missed it.

But now, with Torina’s hint, Mylora had reached the correct place even without a system. So where had the rune gone?

“Captain, could it be that you remembered wrong? Are there any other possible locations?” Patti cut in.

“This… I… uh…”

How was she supposed to know???

The original story had only ever mentioned one clear location: “the observatory ruins on the northwest side.” If even that place didn’t work...

Torina couldn’t think of any other noteworthy location at all.

And if Torina couldn’t get the Stellar Rune, then winning the later Battle Festival was basically a lost cause! One wrong step led to another, and the consequences would only keep snowballing!

(Argh, seriously, why is there already a problem at step one? Where the hell did the Stellar Rune go?)

Just then—

“…I’m back.”

Annawiel appeared. She looked a little tired.

“Yo, Annawiel. Aren’t you having dinner with your family?” Patti greeted her warmly.

“I should at least have one meal with you all…”

“You went into the labyrinth too? Did you get anything?”

“G-get anything? Ah… well… not really. The fire rune seemed pretty compatible with me, but I didn’t take it.”

“Looks like it wasn’t good enough for you.”

“O-of course. This young lady is strong enough even without a rune.”

There was something subtly unconvincing about the way Annawiel said that. Her gaze drifted a little too. She immediately sat down and started eating heartily to cover up the unease in her heart.

During the meal, Torina kept thinking hard, trying to recall details from the original story.

Mylora was also deep in thought, wondering whether she had missed something in the labyrinth.

And after dinner, Annawiel left with a simple, “My family wants me to stay with them tonight.”

Only after walking outside and getting far enough away did she let out a slight sigh of relief. Then that annoying little voice rang out in her mind:

“Hehe, looks like they didn’t find the strongest Stellar Rune. Well, of course they didn’t. We already beat them to it!”

“…Yeah.”

Annawiel opened her hand. A faint silver glow surfaced in her left palm, gathering into an ancient, mysterious rune.

It was the very Stellar Rune Torina had wanted Mylora to obtain.

“How is it? Thanks to my guidance, you were able to gain power without lifting a finger.”

“But… it doesn’t feel rewarding at all…”

Annawiel felt no sense of accomplishment whatsoever. Instead, she had the nasty feeling that she had taken something she shouldn’t have. She did want to drive off her fiancé candidates, crush Mylora, and marry Torina, but this still felt... weird.

“A sense of accomplishment is just something humans use to deceive themselves. Only the result of ‘victory’ matters! Right now, you’ve only formed an initial connection with the Stellar Rune. You must use the second and third labyrinth openings to further familiarize yourself with this power!”

“I know that already. You don’t need to tell me.”

————————

That night, Torina couldn’t fall asleep until well past midnight.

She stared blankly at the two eggs resting on the knitted pad by her bedside. Her mind kept circling around one thought: what if Mylora couldn’t win?

What should she do?

What else could she do? Beg her big sister, obviously.

Otherwise what? Was she supposed to carve a bloody path out and escape? No way.

Ever since awakening her past life, this former villainess had turned over a new leaf. Throwing her weight around, bullying people, killing and fighting all the time—that was awful. She was a civilized person from Earth’s civilized society.

But... what if begging her sister didn’t work either?

Fuck it. Worst case, she’d just kill her way out after all. “Reason” only works on people willing to listen. If no consensus could be reached, then screw it—just tear everything apart.

While hardening her resolve like that, she cut her finger with her sword and dripped blood onto the two eggs. Using blood as a medium, she poured magic into them to nourish them. In the original story, Odin’s ravens had the power to cross space. Maybe these two dumb birds would hatch soon.

Knock knock.

“…Hm? Who’s knocking?” She immediately stuffed the eggs into her backpack.

“It’s me…”

The door opened. It was Mylora, holding a pillow.

She was wearing the white silk nightgown Torina had given her. The thin fabric easily traced the lines of her body. A little shy, she used the pillow to cover her chest, but in doing so exposed her long, slender legs instead. It even felt like a pleasant fragrance was drifting through the air.

“Mylora? It’s so late. What is it?”

“Did I… make you angry?”

Mylora lowered her head and edged over to Torina’s side like a kitty that had gotten into trouble.

“Huh? No, not at all. I’m not angry, and this isn’t your fault.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really.”

“But…”

“If you really want to make it up to me, then let me hug you.”

“Eek!?”

Torina pulled her onto the bed and wrapped her up like a giant body pillow. She felt the cool, smooth touch of her skin, and Mylora’s slightly curly silver hair tickled her face.

So comfy~~~

This feels so nice~~~

Is this the power of the Phoenix Overlord? Just hugging her feels so healing~~~