The instant Lonis pushed the door open, she froze.

It wasn’t just that the entire street was covered in ice and snow—she’d finally remembered where she’d seen this world before.

In her dream, when she became the Hero!

When she turned in quests at the guild, when the townspeople looked up to her with awe, when she stayed at the inn—she’d lived in a place just like this.

The streets weren’t laid out exactly the same, but every building looked just as it did in her memories.

It was just that everything was covered in ice and snow now, so Lonis hadn’t recognized it right away.

And…

Even the hall where she’d received her honors was still here.

It stood majestically above the entire city. Lonis still remembered how busy it had been back then. The common folk had come, along with noble ladies—and even the archbishop and the king.

Everyone had joined in congratulating her, while white lilies stretched from the city gates all the way to the palace, hundreds of meters of them. What a sight it had been.

But now… what in the world had happened here?

All of this… what was it…

Lonis was frozen in place, while black smoke began rising from beneath Elucia’s feet once more.

By the time the silver-haired girl came to her senses, Elucia, in her girl form, had folded her arms and was looking at Lonis with what seemed to be a smile:

“Hmph. So you finally noticed? You’re not quite as stupid as you look…”

“Elucia?”

“Come on. Don’t you want to find out for yourself?”

“I…”

“You can stay here and turn into an ice sculpture if you want. I’m going on ahead.”

“W-Wait!”

The unfamiliar surroundings felt strangely familiar, filling Lonis with an instinctive fear. She didn’t dare stay alone in such an open place, so she hurried after Elucia.

……

Elucia had a clear destination: the hall perched high above.

Its grand entrance stood more than ten meters tall. Up close, you had to crane your neck to see its ornate eaves.

But perhaps it had been abandoned for too long.

The enormous doors were frozen solid and wouldn’t budge. Even Elucia could only let out a long sigh, a trace of helplessness flickering in her eyes:

“Miss Hero, I’d love to take you on a trip down memory lane and help you complete the investiture ceremony you never got to finish, but unfortunately, it looks like there’s no way in.”

“Ugh…”

“What a shame. If I tormented you in a place like this, I’m sure I could make you submit even more completely… Falling from the honor you once held here and becoming a girl—you’d probably enjoy the shame of it, wouldn’t you?”

“Who would enjoy that, you… y-you sadist!”

Lonis had wanted to call Elucia something even worse, but Elucia’s presence was far too intimidating… Wearing her cute little dress, Lonis could only tremble faintly and turn her head away, pretending to be angry.

“Oh… You don’t like it?”

“W-What…”

“Just imagine how the nobles and royals from back then would react if they saw you now. Would they still worship you and admire you? Still revere you as the invincible Hero?”

“Huh?”

“No. They’d only think about how to take you down and squeeze out the last bit of value you have… The former Hero, turned into such a clueless, cute girl. I wonder how many people would want to lock you away in some dark room and keep you prisoner.”

“N-No, that’s not true. I did so many things, so…”

“That’ll only make certain people even more jealous, you know? Like the nobles who wanted to marry the princess, or those gloomy old men. They’d torment you without mercy until you were nothing but a public plaything.”

“!!!”

After hearing Elucia say all that, a chill ran right down Lonis’s back.

Come to think of it, he’d been admired because he had unmatched strength.

But what if that strength disappeared?

Now that she’d become a girl who couldn’t even hurt a fly, there were probably plenty of people who’d want to take advantage of her, weren’t there?

“Ugh…”

At the thought, Lonis suddenly felt a little dejected, and her eyes seemed to glisten with tears.

And Elucia?

Seeing that she’d bullied Lonis enough for now, she changed tack:

“All right. You’re not completely useless. At least, if you still had your strength, you’d make a decent Hero.”

“But this is all just happening in a virtual world, isn’t it?”

“Exactly. So there’s no need to worry about virtual things. For now, just be a good slave maid for me.”

As she spoke, Elucia tugged on the collar around Lonis’s neck.

“Ugh…”

“I’ve said what I needed to say. Now follow behind me, and don’t ask questions.”

……

……

……

As Lonis followed Elucia, her gloomy mood began to lift.

At least…

She was still alive, wasn’t she?

Sure, becoming a girl was embarrassing. And being treated like a slave left her with no dignity at all.

But compared to the people who’d died in those coffins, compared to the bodies sealed beneath the earth, she’d been much luckier, hadn’t she?

Lonis had never been one to dwell on sadness. After a brief bout of self-encouragement—her own little “power of positive thinking”—she calmed down and noticed something she hadn’t thought about before:

If she’d visited this city back when she was the Hero,

then the world in that virtual realm must be closely connected to the Snowrealm Royal Capital she was in now.

Maybe…

the nobles, common folk, and king she’d once met had all really existed!

And since Elucia knew both this city and the events of Lonis’s past life, maybe she was closely connected to both places, too.

And on top of that…

……

As Lonis was thinking, a voice came from up ahead:

“Lonis, if you’re going to walk this slowly on your own two legs, you can crawl instead.”

“Huh?!”

“Or are you walking this slowly on purpose because you want me to punish you?”

Only then did Lonis realize that she’d fallen some distance behind Elucia because she’d gotten lost in thought.

She hurried to catch up and apologized. “Ah, I’m sorry!”

“If saying ‘sorry’ were enough, we wouldn’t need prisons.”

“Huh?”

“Hmph. I’ll assume you got distracted because you’re revisiting an old place. I may have to deal with some annoying little trouble in a moment, so don’t try anything clever while I’m busy.”

“O-Okay… huh?”

“From here on, hold your own collar. Hmph. Even if I were leading a dog, it’d walk faster than you.”

Elucia flicked her hand, tossing the other end of the collar’s chain into Lonis’s hands.

Then she drew the pitch-black longsword from her waist and took out a leather strap, tying her long hair back into a ponytail.

There was no denying it: Elucia already looked incredibly cool in her girl form, with a decisiveness that was almost boyish.

With her hair now tied up, she had the fierce air of a female general. It was as if even an army of thousands could appear before her without making her flinch.

(So cool!)

(No, wait. I’m a Hero. I like soft, sweet girls. Little Elucia’s more my type, I guess—though her chest is way too small. Someone like her now isn’t my type at all, right?)

Lonis shook her head, quickly suppressing the urge to fall to her knees.

Elucia walked solemnly toward a black stone building and furrowed her brow.

“Just as I thought. That guy’s still here. He actually dared to come back?”

“Dared to come back…”

“Stay behind me. Keep five meters away.”

Elucia pushed open the stone building’s door,

and a flight of stairs leading downward came into view.

……

……