"Hah... hah... hah..."
A beautiful young girl with shoulder-length silver hair raced through the Silent Forest. Although she wore ordinary mercenary clothes, they did nothing to conceal her natural beauty.
She had been running for who knew how long. Eventually, exhaustion caught up with her, and she finally stopped.
Leaning against a large tree, she rested to recover her strength.
"Captain... Princess..."
The girl wrapped her arms around her knees and curled up beneath the tree.
Helpless and alone, she began to cry.
"If only I were stronger... If I had more strength, I could have protected the Princess. If I were strong enough, everyone wouldn't have had to throw their lives away. If I had just been a little more useful, Captain wouldn't have..."
The Silent Forest remained completely still.
Only the girl's quiet sobs and guilt-filled, choked words disturbed the silence.
Who knew how much time passed...
Eventually, the girl stopped crying.
She wiped the tears from her beautiful face and forced herself back onto her feet.
"No! This isn't the time to cry. I still don't know what happened to the Princess. Even if I'm the only one left, I'll rescue her. Just like the oath I made back then... I absolutely... absolutely will save the Princess!!!"
The confusion and helplessness in her eyes disappeared.
All that remained was determination.
"Captain... everyone... please watch over Luna. I... I'll definitely rescue Her Highness!"
With determination burning in her eyes, Luna began running once again.
==============================================
Elsewhere in the forest, a young man and a young woman were walking side by side.
After a while, the girl's cheeks suddenly turned slightly red.
"Um... Toma-kun, I'm hungry..."
Toma froze for a moment before staring at her in disbelief.
"Huh? Didn't you just eat?"
Tohka's face grew even redder.
Embarrassment was one thing, but after feeling how little Spirit Power remained inside her body, she still lowered her head and muttered quietly.
"That little bit of bread wasn't enough... And I'm hungry, so I'm hungry..."
Hearing her complain, Toma helplessly spread one hand.
A paper bag instantly appeared in his palm, stuffed full of bread.
Before he could even say anything, Tohka snatched it away.
Toma's mouth twitched.
In the end, he decided not to say anything.
He honestly couldn't understand what was so delicious about this bread.
He had eaten it himself.
It was completely ordinary.
Yet watching Tohka wolf down the bread with such a blissful expression...
Toma wisely kept that thought to himself.
Whatever.
It was only some food.
As long as Tohka was happy, that was enough...
Toma comforted himself with that thought.
Although Tohka had been complaining about being hungry more and more frequently lately, he remembered that Tohka had always been a huge glutton in the original series.
Besides, his relationship with Tohka had been growing closer and closer.
So Toma didn't think too deeply about it.
Maybe she had simply become comfortable enough around him that she no longer felt the need to hold back?
With that thought, Toma temporarily pushed the matter out of his mind.
...
Since Tohka needed to eat, the two chose a large tree and casually sat beneath it to rest.
Several days had already passed since Toma left his original world.
Yet even now, everything still felt like a dream.
Even with a beautiful girl who should only have existed in fiction sitting beside him, there was still something strangely unreal about all of this.
Toma slowly raised his head.
Staring at the thick branches and dense leaves overhead, he became lost in thought and quietly murmured,
"If this really is a dream... then please, never let me wake up."
"It's not a dream~"
Tohka's voice sounded beside his ear.
Toma turned toward her.
A pair of dreamlike purple eyes entered his vision.
Pure.
Beautiful.
As he stared into Tohka's eyes, the restless emotions inside his heart gradually settled.
"Thank you..."
"Hm?"
Tohka looked at him in confusion, clearly having no idea what he was thanking her for.
But before she could think about it any further, her eating suddenly stopped.
Her expression changed.
She stared toward the forest in the distance with a guarded look, focusing intently on something.
Her sudden reaction immediately caught Toma's attention.
"Tohka, what's wrong?"
"There's someone over there. They're moving toward us."
Tohka pointed toward a patch of forest on their right.
"You're sure it's a person and not a monster?"
Toma looked doubtful.
After all, the two of them had wandered around this forest for several days without seeing even a single person.
"It's a person, not a monster. They feel different."
"F-Feel...?"
What kind of strangely vague answer was that?!
If she had said she saw them or heard them or something, he could have accepted it!
Toma stared at her with a speechless expression, clearly dissatisfied with that answer.
==============================================
Elsewhere in the forest, a group of mercenaries were moving quickly through the trees.
"Boss! We found traces of that girl!"
One of the mercenaries hurried over to report to Derken.
"You found her?" Derken's lips curled into a mocking smile. "A rookie is still a rookie. She doesn't even know how to hide her tracks. Looks like that one million is as good as ours."
"Boss, then... does that mean I...?"
The mercenary looked at his leader eagerly.
"You did well. Once we catch that girl, you can have the second turn."
Derken immediately understood what the man was thinking.
He casually waved his hand and made the promise without hesitation.
As far as Derken was concerned, women were certainly important.
But women could never compare to money and status.
Once you had enough money and status, what kind of woman couldn't you get?
With that thought in mind, Derken excitedly turned toward the rest of his mercenaries.
"All right, boys! Time to work! Whoever catches that girl first gets the first turn! Take this seriously and don't let her escape!"
"OOOOOH!!!"
The mercenaries' excited cheers echoed throughout the forest.