"I'm telling you, I didn't see anything."

"So you do want to see it after all?"

"Seriously, Lynn… at least say sorry for pushing me off the roof."

"Stop flirting already!"

Beatrix landed behind Lynn and Arezu, wielding her warhammer and the baseball bat she had snatched from Lynn, followed by the remaining adventurers.

"Don't hesitate! Cut down the Visages!"

Setting aside her complaint about what she saw as flirting between Lynn and Arezu, Beatrix shouted her command for the group to break through the swarm of Visages.

Among the twelve of them fighting to slowly cross the hundred-meter-wide ice bridge and reach the other group at the far end, only Lynn and Arezu refused to cut down their opponents.

While hundreds, even thousands, of mirror shards fell onto the icy floor from the defeated Visages breaking and shattering with each strike of their allies, Lynn and Arezu knocked their opponents down to the floor or off the ice bridge one by one with each swing of their baseball bats.

Their group slowly but steadily pushed through the swarm, clearing the Visages rushing from all directions, until they neared the group they planned to save—and recognized who they were.

"If it isn't Ms. Haughty and her Minions."

"Lynn… Arezu?…"

In front of them was an acquaintance: the heroine candidate Gwen, together with her six party members—the Minions—and the four mage students they were escorting for the Annual Caravan, along with a few soldiers, a knight, and a valkyrie.

Though none of them had grievous injuries, all were exhausted beyond their limit, especially Gwen, who was being supported by one of the mage students, the girl named Alicia.

"Looks like I owe you two again for saving us," Gwen said, feeling relieved, as did everyone else in her group upon seeing their rescuers.

"You better be grateful and pay us then."

"You owe us nothing and don't have to pay anything."

Ignoring Lynn's audacity, Arezu approached Gwen to carry her on his back so it would be easier for Alicia to run across the ice bridge.

However, even before he could reach Gwen, Lynn pulled him back by grabbing onto his coat.

And Alicia, too, stepped backward, guiding Gwen away from Arezu.

—"Huh?"—

Arezu looked at Lynn, confused, just as Gwen wondered what Alicia was doing.

Only Beatrix understood why Lynn was pouting, looking away from Arezu—just as Alicia glared daggers at him.

"For goodness sake! Let's move already before we get swarmed by the Visages!" she said, restraining her irritation as she commanded the group to retreat.

Their group, now doubled in size, ran back toward the Crafters Guild, eliminating the Visages that blocked their path, leapt at them from both sides, or chased from behind. And when they finally crossed the hundred-meter-long ice bridge—

"Open up the barricade!"

—Lynn, Arezu, and Beatrix's group had to stand their ground and defend the entrance until Gwen's group got inside and sealed the barricaded window once again.

After the barricade was repaired, Lynn, Arezu, and Beatrix, along with the remaining adventurers, climbed up to the rooftop using ropes prepared by the crafters.

They barely made it inside before the Visages swarmed the entire building outside, clinging to walls, crawling onto the roof, and bashing at every door and window in an attempt to get in.

"How many did we lose?" Arezu asked, looking at his companions the moment they re-entered the Crafters Guild the same way they had exited through the roof.

Although they had successfully saved everyone from Gwen's group, three adventurers had been caught and dragged away by the Visages—one during the retreat to the guild, another while defending the entrance, and one more while climbing to the roof.

"They volunteered for the task, so don't blame yourself or anyone else," Beatrix said upon seeing the guilt on everyone, even Lynn and Arezu.

Back at headquarters on the fifth floor, Lynn, Arezu, and Beatrix met up with Gwen and the others.

"So what exactly happened to your group, Ms. Haughty?"

Gwen explained everything while resting under a blanket laid out on the floor.

Her party, together with the four mage students they were escorting, had just passed through the northern gate and entered the town when the clocktower bell rang at six in the evening.

The instant the chime ended, the guards and soldiers stationed at the gate, along with all the locals loitering in the street, attacked everyone from the Annual Caravan.

Adventurers, soldiers, merchants, crafters, priests, mage students, and instructors—everyone from the Annual Caravan—was trapped between the closed northern gate and the countless Visages of locals from the residential area.

"So you're saying the northern gate…" Lynn interrupted, realizing what Gwen meant.

"...wasn't the Dungeon Gate that would lead outside the town."

Gwen continued her story.

They managed to hold their ground against the Visages for a few hours, but when more arrived—numbering over a thousand from the residential area—they were overwhelmed and forced to escape group by group.

Gwen's group escaped by avoiding the streets, running from rooftop to rooftop as she exhausted herself by overusing her divine gift—Resonance—to defeat the Visages blocking their path, until they reached the area where Lynn had created ice bridges and followed the path toward the Crafters Guild.

"Did you meet any students or instructors on your way here?" Arezu asked, though he already realized the answer.

Seeing the anxious looks from Arezu, Lynn, and the mage students, Gwen hesitated at first. Yet even if she lied, nothing would change.

"I'm sorry… we didn't meet anyone else other than them," Gwen answered, glancing at the group of knight, valkyrie, and soldiers.

The mage students—Leo, Cliff, Senna, and Casey—collapsed to their knees after hearing her words, thinking about the grim fate that might have befallen the elite group of five mage students and one instructor who had gone to check the northern gate, along with the instructors who had held back the Visages of the local mages to buy them time.

While the students mourned for their friends and teachers, Lynn continued questioning—not Gwen this time, but the knight leading the other group.

"So your group didn't come from the northern gate?"

"We were supposed to head to the cavalry camp outside the northern gate, as Commander Brandon instructed," the knight answered, "but we couldn't even get past the residential area—"

"Wait, are you saying that the commander is here?!"

Like Lynn, everyone was surprised to learn that the cavalry's commander was also inside the town.

What the knight said next was even more shocking.

"The commander, along with Ms. Sylvie's adventurer party, went to conquer the Crystal Mirror Dungeon."

Knowing that the commander was already taking action to solve their dire situation brought hope and relief to everyone.

Everyone—except Arezu.

"I guess we aren't out of luck yet, right—"

Lynn's teasing remark, hinting at her desire to go to the Crystal Mirror Dungeon to follow the commander and Liz's party, was cut short upon seeing the look of fear on Arezu's face.

"Lynn…"

"What is it, Mr. Arezu?"

"Please stay here with Beatrix… I'm going to the Crystal Mirror Dungeon."

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