"You beast! How dare you invade the lands of our great Empire?! I shall bestow Divine Punishment upon you!"

"Aah! No! The Duchess is here! Everybody, run!"

A bunch of kids were running through the streets of a small mortal city.

Some of them wielded weapons made of thin paper while others wore large brown coats, as if they had covered themselves in fur.

The children seemed to reenact a scene coming straight out of a fairytale.

The terms Duchess, Female Knight, Great General, and King of Beasts were frequently mentioned.

A few adults sitting in a nearby tavern chuckled when they saw the kids playing not far away.

But after observing them for a couple of seconds, they shifted their attention back to the old man sitting at the center of the room.

"At that time, everyone believed that this siege was like any other. But just when everyone was relaxed, a monster hundreds of meters tall appeared out of nowhere."

"Possessing three eyes, six hands, and twelve legs, it charged at the city at full speed.", the old man said, his voice solemn and spreading throughout the room.

"Fortunately, the two great heroes stepped forward just in time. The female Knight and the Duchess cooperated, and, at the cost of suffering fatal injuries, they succeeded in slaying the beast."

"But in the meanwhile, the beasts did not wait. Horde after horde of beasts continued assaulting the city's walls, charging like crazed animals that had not eaten for days."

Saying this, the storyteller's voice trembled and his body shook, as if he could recall that terrifying scene.

"Blood gathered together and transformed into rivers, corpses were piled on top of each other like mountains, while the stone walls of the city crumbled into pieces as a result of the aftermath."

His low voice captivated the entire audience, who eagerly waited to hear the rest of the story.

Some of them—the more emotional—clenched their fists, worried about the characters' safety.

"Gods had not given up on the city just yet, though. Just in time, a bright light flashed in the sky, and an Angel descended into the world."

"Taking the form of a valiant female general, she led the soldiers to fight back. Through the use of her Divine Powers, she single-handedly dominated the battlefield and changed the course of the war!"

The old man's story had reached its peak.

His voice had grown higher and more solemn than ever, making the audience hold its breath and wait for his following words.

But suddenly, a discordant voice broke through the tavern's silence and spread throughout.

"Old man, if an Angel had really descended from the Divine Realm, how come the Royal Family has not announced anything? Wouldn't they have spread the news?", an audience member questioned.

Their words earned some people's approval.

"That's right! Besides, how could a creature be hundreds of meters tall? Even Jack, living in the next village, who is rumored to possess the bloodline of Giants, is only two meters tall!"

"Moreover, how could you possibly know all these, old man? Could it be that you were there?"

The last part immediately jolted the audience awake.

They had previously been captivated with the storyteller's narration and the grand scene he had created, completely ignoring this simple but valid question.

How could this old man, a mere mortal living hundreds of kilometers away from Hope City, possibly obtain such information?

Seated at the center of the room, the storyteller immediately noticed the doubt in everyone's eyes.

His face turned red, and he banged on the table with his hand, looking furious.

"Indeed! I wasn't there when all this happened! But my cousin's sister-in-law's uncle's son was! This story was what he personally told me!"

The old man's words convinced no one. Yet, no one was truly angry.

Hearing his words, laughter spread in the room. Many people raised their drinks and toasted to the storyteller.

The ones who laughed the hardest also threw a couple of silver coins in his direction, as if to reward his storytelling skills.

Seeing this, the storyteller no longer argued.

A happy smile crept up on his face as he carefully put the coins away.

'My years of making up stories have finally paid off!', he thought secretly as he made his way out of the tavern.

While passing through the tables, his gaze subconsciously landed on one of them.

Two beautiful women were seated there, and, from the very start, had remained silent while hearing his story.

In fact, the two women looked completely out of place in the tavern. They both carried a particular aura that the old man had only sensed from the city's Lord.

But the storyteller soon shook his head and stopped paying attention to them. He quickly ran out of the tavern.

He had to rush and spend the coins he had earned as soon as possible. Otherwise, they would be confiscated once his wife found out.

What the storyteller didn't know, however, was that the two women had sensed his gaze.

It was just that they didn't notice any malice and simply chose to ignore it.

"How does it feel to be the hero in people's stories? Is it exciting?", the purple-haired woman seated on one side asked as she leaned forward with her left hand supporting her cheek.

In response, the crimson-haired woman chuckled.

She didn't respond but continued sipping her drink as if nothing had happened.

Such words would, of course, not make Liora lose her composure.

She merely glanced at Duchess Lobelia sitting in front of her and chose to remain silent.

That's right.

The two women sitting in this ordinary tavern, many kilometers away from Hope City, were Liora and Duchess Lobelia.

No one, including the storyteller and the audience members around them, would have guessed that two of the main characters in the story were actually sitting next to them.

A few days had passed since the battle occurred in Hope City.

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