When Rita first won the Snowfield Pact from the Diamond Miner game, it only had about a hundred and fifty days left on its timer. Who could have predicted that a single Divine Game event would pull her out of the world for five whole months?

She had already braced herself for heartbreak before taking it out. But when she saw that the snow inside the Snowfield Pact had completely melted away, the ache in her chest still hit hard.

She'd always been like this with games—too sentimental about rare items to actually use them, saving them until she eventually quit the game altogether.

Rita picked up the glass, intending to place it in the most visible spot on her shelf as a reminder not to repeat the same mistake. But as she moved it, she noticed something else inside.

Aside from the twig, there was another object.

She turned the glass upside down and lifted it again. Out rolled the twig—and a small, diamond-shaped crystal glowing a vivid blue.

"What's this?" she asked.

B8017913 glanced at it, let out a sharp "Huh?" and instantly shut off its handheld console. The little robot picked up the crystal and examined it closely before exclaiming, "Oh no. Y128's not gonna let this slide. It actually smuggled itself in!"

Before Rita could ask, it launched into a detailed explanation.

"When we get scrapped, the gods destroy the divine imprints carved into our chips. That makes it impossible for us to link with other vessels for long periods.

"When we do connect to another vessel, the sheer power released by our chips corrodes it. Back during the war, Eclipse Vanguard had to deliver me a new mech every three days for that exact reason.

"But this crystal acts as an energy filter. With it, I can maintain a stable link with a vessel indefinitely. No more walking around as a bare chip."

Rita frowned. "So Y128 was planning to escape Divine Game? It even prepped a new body?"

"Exactly. It was ready to bolt."

"How rare is this crystal?"

The robot's voice turned serious. "It only exists in the laboratory of that god."

Rita didn't hesitate. "Then use it now. Before someone shows up demanding we return it."

That was her exact thought as well. B8017913 immediately swallowed the crystal. The moment it did, its body stiffened, lights flickered, and it went completely dark—collapsing straight into a floating cube. Its Plush Collar fell onto the table.

A faint tag appeared above the cube: [Decoding in progress… 2 days remaining].

Rita pulled open her platinum robe and slipped the cube into a small hidden pocket inside her battle uniform.

Nivalis set down her console and looked at her curiously. "You don't seem afraid of it betraying you anymore."

Rita's tone was calm. "I branded it with the BlueStar Mark. It's a right exclusive to the Judgment—usable only on pets bound by my contract. If it ever attempts betrayal, BlueStar will forcibly log it out and lock it into sleep mode. That was part of the contract. It saw that clause itself. I didn't hide anything."

Nivalis opened her mouth to say something, but Rita cut her off. "I'm choosing to start trusting it. That's all I can do."

She rose, brushed her hand over the little dragon's head, and said softly, "You traveled such a long, hard road to find your way back. If it could reach this far so easily, wouldn't that make your journey seem unfair?"

When she'd signed her contract with Nivalis, she hadn't set any control measures—but that was because she hadn't yet possessed the ability, not because she didn't want to.

What she didn't tell Nivalis was that if B8017913 had chosen not to renew their contract and preferred to remain as a free partner, she would have agreed. Setting it free meant she genuinely wanted it to be free.

But if she had returned from the game today and found the robot gone, she would have hunted it down and destroyed it—because she couldn't shake the fear that its loyalty to BlueStar had all been an act.

Those thoughts were tangled and dark, and she didn't want to share them.

After one last pat on the dragon's head, she left. There were too many things waiting for her attention.

The dragon, still in its miniature form for gaming convenience, sat on the alchemy table in a daze.

It was a strangely nostalgic moment—almost like the day it had sworn the No-Regret Oath with Rita.

But now, it was just an observer, watching Rita conceal her coldness beneath quiet gentleness.

It had nothing to do with old wounds or lingering pain. That cautious distance had long become part of her nature—something that time alone could never heal.

If something could be easily healed by time, it wouldn't be called a scar.

A notification popped up on Nivalis's game screen: her daily event pack was ready to claim.

She stared at it for a long while, then suddenly pulled out her cat-shaped token and returned to Dragon Isle. She flew straight through the clouds until she reached Lidian.

Landing before him, her eyes sparkled with barely contained excitement, her words tumbling over themselves as she tried to explain everything that had happened.

She ended her retelling by repeating Rita's final line. Then, spreading her claws wide in dramatic emphasis, she declared, "It's not cheap at all, you get it, Lidian? What I've gained—this isn't something you earn just by spending a bit of time with her! It's super, super, super precious!"

Lidian blinked. "You're sure she completely trusts you?"

"Well… maybe not completely, but there's at least a little! And that's fine! It's a good start. Beautiful things are worth waiting for."

Before long, two familiar figures landed nearby—Holy Cup and North Year, both of whom had heard her shouting long before they saw her.

Seeing Nivalis looking so giddy, Holy Cup frowned. "BS-Rita again? What did she give you this time to make you so happy?"

Nivalis pressed a claw to her chest with exaggerated seriousness. "Love!"

Holy Cup stared in silence.

North Year sighed. "You nearly died out there. Maybe spend less time with Lidian from now on."

"...Right," Holy Cup agreed quietly. When your child's this far gone, it's best to just go along with it.

Lidian gawked at the two older dragons in disbelief. "Are you kidding me?! Does no one care about justice anymore?!"

...

Outside the alchemy workshop, Rita summoned Cat's Ideal with a wave of her hand.

The afternoon had been enough for her to sort through her thoughts.

Gripping the ship's wheel, she focused. The endless map spread out once again in her mind.

Right after leaving the Card Swap game, she had already tried returning to Arisentna during her dazed recovery—but she couldn't find the place anywhere.

Was it fake? Impossible.

Otherwise, Lightchaser and Ash Cinders couldn't have descended to BlueStar. Otherwise, the River of Time wouldn't have a dock marked with Arisentna's name. Otherwise, the gods wouldn't have left that cryptic evaluation about the postman and the letter.

All of it proved Arisentna was real.

So why couldn't she reach it?

She quieted her mind and looked at the glowing sections of the map—places she had already visited.

Threading across them were lines like flowing rivers, constantly shifting—those had to be the currents of the River of Time.

There were many illuminated worlds: Lania Kaia, Diamond, Chaos, Marmang…

Even the maps for Diamond Miner and Chaotic Restaurant had turned out to be real worlds. The amusement park, however, was missing—perhaps because it had been a temporary realm created by the gods.

As she compared the worlds she'd been to with the glowing points, she eliminated them one by one until only one remained.

The Lonely Isle.

Rita had never heard of that world before—but precisely because of that, it might just be Arisentna.

She tried to teleport there using Absolute Freedom—only to fail.

Beside her, the lantern flickered playfully, almost as if it were mocking the ship's wheel.

Cat's Ideal's voice echoed in her mind.

"This world is shielded by a divine barrier. It cannot be sensed or linked to by any other world or artifact."

"If I were even one level weaker, I wouldn't be able to detect it at all."

"The only way to reach it is through the River of Time's dock—that's the sole legitimate entry point. And that dock was only recently reopened."

"In short," it added, almost cheerfully, "we can't smuggle our way in."

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.