That was a very, very long time ago.

So long ago that Daina had almost stopped thinking about it.

And yet, amid the unbearable sounds coming from the bathroom, she couldn't help but remember.

When she first opened her eyes, deep in the dark underground,

the woman Daina should have called "Mother" said:

"From this day on, you are the new Queen of Dark Elves."

"...Live on strong, my daughter, Demosi."

Then she left.

Without hesitation.

She didn't even turn back to look at the tiny baby reaching out, trying to hold her mother back.

All she left behind was the authority of the Queen of Dark Elves.

No, back then, Daina wasn't called Daina yet.

She was Demosi, the new Queen of Dark Elves.

She had only just been born, but because of the authority bestowed upon her,

her mind was flooded with the knowledge she was supposed to possess, and her body was forced to grow in an instant into that of a four- or five-year-old child.

And for a very long time after that, she couldn't continue growing.

Lost and confused, she left the underground, following in her mother's footsteps, wandering the world alone.

She couldn't find her.

She had been abandoned.

She walked without direction. Yet every intelligent race that saw her raised weapons against her.

Kill.

Kill!

Kill...

Maybe it would've been better to hide underground.

Like a rat hiding in the gutter.

But there was nothing in the dark. Nothing except those annoying voices.

They howled and urged Demosi on, telling her to kill, to plunder, to take revenge.

Demosi couldn't resist those voices. She was too young.

This authority was never meant to be hers.

Or at least, it wasn't something she should've obtained at her current age. It eroded her every waking moment.

Even when she deliberately avoided the surface races,

the killing still wouldn't stop.

Again and again, Demosi numbly summoned warriors from that land of the dead to fight for her,

again and again killing those living beings who swung weapons and magic staves at her.

—If she didn't kill her enemies, they would kill her.

How much time had passed?

One year? Two? Three? Four, five?

Or even longer?

Demosi didn't know.

She only knew that every living thing she encountered was her enemy.

The moment they met was the beginning of the next battle.

"...I hate this world."

More and more people began chasing her.

Even though Demosi slaughtered every pursuer each time, her trail was always found again.

Unless she hid in the darkness.

But she didn't want that. There was nothing in the darkness.

More and more humans in white robes found her, but they died, and Demosi lived.

And they were getting stronger.

"...I hate this world."

As she passed through a place blooming with flowers, Demosi once again killed every white-robed person who raised a weapon at her.

She collapsed into the flowers and looked up at the sun. The light was so harsh that tears wouldn't stop streaming down her face.

"I hate this world."

Her body was exhausted, and the voices in her head were unbearably loud.

At that moment, a very light set of footsteps approached.

But Demosi didn't want to care. She just lay there, in that sea of flowers, letting the owner of those footsteps come closer.

She could tell that compared to the white-robed priests who hunted her, this person was fragile enough to be called weak.

He was no match for her at all.

Demosi could casually summon a single warrior and kill him with ease.

A warrior's body condensed within the shadows of the flowers. With a single command from Demosi, that approaching human would become a corpse just like the white-robed priests.

"..."

The approaching human finally saw her clearly. He fell silent. After a long while, he said, "Can I leave?"

The voice was very young. A human child.

Probably a human child around her age...

A human child.

Last time, it had also been human children.

They had seen Demosi in the mountains and forests. Then after they left, the white-robed priests tracked her down.

"I won't make the same mistake again."

Demosi answered stiffly, "No... you can't."

She wanted to rest for a while.

She was too tired. For now, she didn't want to begin the next battle.

"Alright."

The human child already understood his fate.

Instead, he relaxed. "Why are you crying? Out of all the Dark Elves I've seen, you're the strongest. Even the priests of the Luminous Temple can't hurt you."

"So many priests ganged up on you, and you didn't even get hurt. That's amazing."

He was actually praising her.

Demosi thought, since this was rest time anyway, letting this human child live a little longer didn't matter.

So she continued, still awkwardly, "You've seen... many... Dark Elves?"

The human child said, "Not really that many. They all looked like kids, not much older than you. They were locked in cages, with special chains piercing through their bodies to bind them. The slave traders selling them said that way, they couldn't use magic."

Just those few words were enough for Demosi to imagine the miserable state those Dark Elves were in.

As the Queen of Dark Elves, they were all her people.

An uncontrollable surge of rage and killing intent rose in her heart.

"Kill! Charge into the human cities!"

"Kill them all, kill them all!"

"Revenge, revenge!"

The voices in her head screamed madly for slaughter, for revenge, for the extermination of every surface race.

Demosi summoned countless shadow warriors. They surrounded the human child, their blades already resting at his neck.

"Are you... trying... to anger me... on purpose?"

He didn't have to tell her any of that.

Maybe if he hadn't, this human child could've died more easily.

Demosi couldn't understand why he had done it.

"No. I just don't like lying."

The human child's voice trembled. He couldn't hide his fear of death, but he still continued.

"You're different from the other Dark Elves I've seen."

"There's nothing left in their eyes except hatred for humans, and they don't have the power to take revenge. Dark Elves like that can never survive."

Once they became prisoners, if they couldn't act obedient, then after endless torment, death was the only road left for them.

But the Dark Elf before him was different.

"You're strong enough. And you're not as cold as the other Dark Elves. If you were as cold as they are, you would've killed me the moment you found me, right?"

The human child even gave her advice.

"If you stop setting foot on the surface, and stay underground until you're stronger, then even a Grand Archbishop of Light couldn't do anything to you, right? Why not hide? Once you have power, whatever you want to do will be easy."

The way this human child said those things was too natural.

As if the one he was talking to wasn't some damned Dark Elf at all, but just an ordinary passerby.

Or even... something else.

Like... a friend?

Why would he say such things to a Dark Elf? What benefit would it bring him if she became stronger?

Wasn't he afraid that once she gained power, she'd take revenge on humanity?

Had he forgotten that one of her warriors still had a blade at his throat?

Shouldn't the surface races only ever want to kill Dark Elves on sight?

"..."

The rest seemed to help. Demosi regained a little strength.

She sat up and looked at the human child.

He had long black hair, and eyes as blue as the sky.

Standing in the sunlight, he gave off a brightness as blinding as the sun itself did to Demosi.

"If I... let you go, where... will you go?" Demosi asked the human child.

He answered as if it were obvious. "Go home, of course! I'm hungry. I want to eat."

Demosi looked at him for a long time before finally saying, "You can go."

She ordered the warriors to lower their weapons and make way.

But when that human child truly left, Demosi silently slipped along the shadows of the flowers and hid inside his shadow all the way.

"Cunning human."

"Let me see whether what you said is true."

If that human child dared go to the Luminous Temple and reveal her whereabouts,

or tell anyone about her,

then Demosi would begin slaughter of her own accord.

She would kill every living surface race she saw.

Until death took her.

In that sea of flowers, the newborn Queen of Dark Elves stepped out from the tender violet shadows of childhood and walked toward the path of survival.

...

Daina sank into soft memories.

Only like this could she resist those sounds coming from the bathroom.

If she kept listening to them, she wouldn't be able to stop herself... from wanting to kill that Forest Fey.

"At any cost."

Even if Maur might like that fairy.

Even if it might bring huge trouble.

But Daina still retained the last trace of reason. She endured it, relying on memories of the past to ease the jealousy, resentment, and killing intent that were about to spill over from her heart...

But that restraint was quickly shattered by a single sentence from the Forest Fey.

"...Would you be willing to leave the Royal Capital with me, even leave the Somaria Empire?"

"Just you and me."

In that instant, all of Daina's endurance was pierced through.

Even those beautiful memories from the past cracked apart.

Only the very first memory remained.

The dark underground. She helplessly reached out toward her departing mother.

And in the end, she caught nothing.

"Aban... doned."

No.

No!

Daina didn't even dare listen to Maur's answer.

In the bathroom, the shadows behind Evelyn began to twist.

But in the next moment, Maur said:

"Don't move."

Whether it was those shadows twisting in the dark, as if struggling to crawl out,

or the vines breaking through the soil and already wrapping around Maur's calves,

all of them stopped moving at the sound of Maur's irritated voice.

"I'm not going with you, Evelyn."

Though he was verbally rejecting the Forest Fey, Maur's attention remained fixed on the faintly visible, twisting shadows behind Evelyn.

Without question, Maur was very familiar with the creatures inside those shadows.

...They were Daina's summons. Things Daina hadn't summoned in a very long time.

Maur had only learned later that every time she summoned them, Daina suffered unbearable pain.

"Call them back."

Maur spoke ambiguously.

To Evelyn, it sounded like he was telling her to withdraw the vines.

But in truth, he was telling Daina to dismiss her summons.

Whether things were as he suspected or not, Daina and Evelyn fighting was not a good outcome.

Evelyn silently watched her student, whose attitude was firm. Her vines still coiled around Maur's calves, waiting for her command.

With a single order from Evelyn, those vines would forcibly bind Maur and carry him away.

Because of Maur's intervention, the shadow warriors Daina had summoned only remained hidden in the warped shadows, silent and motionless.

But a high-level caster's instinct for danger still made Evelyn sense that something was wrong.

In an instant, she cast a high-tier magic shield on herself, and even put one on Maur as well.

More vines grew out, protecting both Maur and Evelyn.

"There's an enemy," Evelyn said with certainty.

She had already cast a detection spell, but Daina's reaction was just as fast. A moment before it took effect, she had already dismissed the shadow warriors.

The shadows behind Evelyn returned to calm.

But Evelyn still didn't lower her guard.

That cold, chilling killing intent gave her a feeling that was both familiar and strange.

It felt a lot like Dominica's magic.

But even more like a necromancer's.

And necromancers were what Evelyn hated most.

Evelyn's gaze shifted toward the maid's figure, blocked by the bathroom door.

A necromancer... with extraordinary talent?

Afraid Evelyn might discover Daina, Maur had no choice but to interrupt her thoughts.

"There is no enemy." Maur decided to dump the blame on Athena. "...I'm Athena's fiancé. That just now was a summon she gave me. I almost called it out."

Evelyn frowned. "An undead-type summon?"

Maur forced himself to answer, "...More or less."

Athena really had given Maur summons before. One of them was a spirit-realm messenger, which could barely be counted as related to the undead.

Evelyn stared fixedly at Maur.

Only then did Maur realize it was useless to lie in front of this Forest Fey.

She had magic that could see through lies.

Maur: "..."

He'd been caught lying on the spot.

But Evelyn withdrew her defensive magic. She even pulled back the vines wrapped around Maur's calf.

"Undead summons are prone to turning on their master. I'll get you a better one," she said, her tone carrying a faint note of rivalry.

She actually didn't pursue the matter of his lie. She let it pass just like that.

"Until the Initiate Festival ends, I'll be staying at Divine Grace Academy. If you change your mind, you can come to my Mage Tower anytime. No matter who tries to stop us, I'll take you away."

Evelyn decided to give her beloved student a little more time to think.

If, by the time she left, he still couldn't make up his mind—

Then she would help him make that decision.

"Tomorrow morning, I'll bring the potion you need."

The fey teacher still remembered her promise to her student.

She gave Maur one more deep look, then turned and flew out through the window she'd come in from.

Once he was sure the terrifying Forest Fey had really left, Maur finally let out a sigh of relief.

He casually rinsed himself off with clean water, put on the clothes by the bathtub, and hurried toward the bathroom door.

Daina had already sat up.

Her head was lowered, and she looked utterly listless.

"Hey, Daina!" Maur sounded awkward and uneasy.

He had no idea when Daina had woken up, or whether she'd heard what he and Evelyn...

Her face looked far too pale.

Maur instinctively crouched down, wanting to check on his personal maid. "Are you oka—"

But before he could finish, the usually obedient maid suddenly lifted her head and slammed Maur to the floor.

The Dark Elf's hands clamped tightly around Maur's wrists, pinning both his arms to either side of his head so he couldn't move.

Her body sat on his stomach. Then she bent down and fiercely sealed his lips with hers.

Maur: "!???"

Wh-what just happened?

Wait, Daina! What are you doing, Daina!?