Lilith stood there silently, her thumb gently brushing against the glowing metal of the ring. Wait... how did Elera even know that this ring establishes a live connection?
A cold flash of insight hit her. Elera wasn't just a sharp-witted Academy instructor; she was far more perceptive—and dangerous—than she let on. And that raised an even more unsettling question: what on earth did Elera actually want with Haruto?
There was no time to unravel Elera's hidden motives right now. The safety of the absolute idiot currently roaming the deep tiers was the only priority that mattered.
Lilith's expression hardened with absolute authority. She turned her back on the guards and swept past Elera without another word, marching straight back to the bustling upper sector of the bazaar.
The moment she reached the central command post of the Adventurer's Guild, she slammed her hand down onto the master registry desk, the heavy thud silencing half the room.
"Hear me!" Lilith's voice rang out, sharp and commanding enough to freeze every mercenary, scavenger, and broker in their tracks.
She pulled out her royal seal, the brilliant crest flashing with unmistakable authority. "I am issuing an official decree to every guild operative, bounty hunter, and mercenary present! A massive bounty is now active for anyone who enters the lower tiers."
Murmurs erupted across the hall as Lilith raised her voice further, her eyes sweeping over the crowd.
"Bring me Haruto. Find him in the depths and lead him back to the surface. The reward for his safe return is 10,000,000 credits!"
Gasps echoed through the bazaar. Ten million credits was a life-changing fortune, enough to buy an entire fleet of airships or retire in luxury.
Before the greed could blind them into reckless chaos, Lilith added a strict, unyielding condition, her gaze narrowing dangerously at the murmuring crowd:
"However, understand this clearly—the reward is only valid if he is brought back alive. If a single scratch is found on him due to your negligence, you forfeit the bounty permanently.
Two days slipped by in a tense, suffocating blur. Inside the grand chambers of the palace, Lilith sat in silence, her eyes locked on the faint, steady pulse of the ring on her finger.
The heavy, narcotic haze of the Drape Fruit finally began to fade across the estate. One by one, Ivory, Bellona, and Lustra stirred from their deep slumber, groaning as they sat up and rubbed their heavy eyes. Confusion instantly shadowed their faces as they looked around, trying to figure out how they had been moved from the quiet rooms of Alesta all the way back to the heart of the palace.
Before they could even demand answers, Lilith laid the entire situation out for them, her voice clipped and cold.
The reaction was immediate panic.
"What do you mean he's gone into the Layers alone?!" Ivory snapped, her voice rising in sheer disbelief as she bolted upright, her anger flaring hot and fast.
"Has he completely lost his mind?!"
Bellona and Lustra exchanged pale, panicked glances. This wasn't just another one of his usual, erratic disappearances or a minor stunt at the Academy. Haruto had never ventured this far away, nor had he ever plunged headfirst into a restricted hazard zone without a safety net. The sheer scale of the danger finally hit them, turning their initial grogginess into icy dread.
Yet, despite the panic rippling through the room, Serephine remained fast asleep, her breathing slow and undisturbed, trapped beneath the lingering weight of the fruit's heavy magic.
Time dragged on with agonizing slowness. Ten full days bled into the calendar, the tension in the palace stretching thinner with every passing hour. The 10,000,000-credit bounty echoing through the underground markets had brought back plenty of rumors and false leads, but none of them had produced Haruto.
Then, a frantic messenger arrived from the outer gates with breaking news from the mansion: Toya and Aeterna had finally woken up.
Without wasting a single second, Toya, Aeterna, and Rutherford packed into a transport carriage and sped straight toward the palace, bursting through the grand gates to join Lilith and the others, their faces grim and ready for whatever chaotic deployment awaited them.
The heavy oak doors of the grand strategy room clicked shut, sealing Lilith, Ivory, Bellona, Lustra, Toya, Aeterna, and Rutherford inside. The air was thick with tension, every face marked by exhaustion and deep worry.
Lilith stood at the head of the long mahogany table, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. Her sharp gaze swept across the group before landing squarely on Toya.
"Look," Lilith began, her voice cutting through the heavy silence. "I know most of your backgrounds and quirks by now. But Toya... you're still hiding something. Back when we were all forced to share our deepest secrets, you somehow managed to dodge your turn. Is there something you've been keeping from us? Something that might explain what Haruto is walking into?"
Toya froze, his fingers twitching nervously over the edge of the table. He glanced around the room, swallowing hard as every eye turned to fixate on him. Realizing there was no escape, he let out a defeated sigh.
"Alright, fine," Toya muttered, raising a hand in surrender.
"There is one massive secret. But you have to promise not to lose your mind." He took a deep breath before dropping the bomb. "I'm not a Level 5 operative... I'm actually Level 60."
Toya quickly continued, holding up his hands to calm the shock. "Ever since I join Haruto, my level skyrocketed and unlocked rapid-progression tiers I never even knew existed."
Lilith stared at him for a long moment, a slow, appreciative realization dawning on her features. A faint, genuine smile touched her lips. "Toya... thank you for trusting us enough to finally tell the truth."
Then, her eyes flicked past him, her expression suddenly twisting into deep confusion. "Wait... why is Aeterna acting so bizarrely?"
Toya whipped his head around to look at Aeterna.
Despite usually carrying herself with composed maturity, Aeterna was currently sitting completely slumped in her chair, kicking her legs back and forth against the wooden rungs like a bored toddler. She was pouting, pulling strange faces, and occasionally making nonsensical humming noises, behaving with an absolute, baffling childishness that didn't fit her at all.
Toya stared at her, completely bewildered. Why is she acting like a complete kid right now? Did something go wrong with her awakening?
Unable to take it any longer, Toya leaned across the table, gently reaching out to touch her shoulder. "Hey... Aeterna? Look at me. What is going on with you? What happened?"
Aeterna blinked, tilting her head with innocent curiosity as she realized every pair of eyes in the room was locked onto her. She pointed a small finger at her own chest, her voice sweet and entirely unguarded. "Um... are you guys asking me?"
"Who else would we be asking?" Ivory said, her voice tight with disbelief.
Aeterna blinked again, looking around the grand strategy room with wide, blank eyes. "Oh... um, who are you people, anyway?"
A heavy, suffocating silence dropped over the room. The group stared at her as if she had grown a second head.
"Aeterna, stop joking around," Lilith said, stepping forward, her patience wearing thin. "This isn't the time for games."
"No, I'm really not joking!" Aeterna protested, sounding genuinely confused as she shrank back into her chair. "I honestly don't know! Right when I opened my eyes just now... I can't remember anything before this. Am I... am I some kind of princess?"
Everyone froze.
Eterna... the realization hit Lilith like a physical blow. Her mind raced back to the properties of the Drape Fruit. She knew a full glass could put someone under for days, and a whole bottle caused extreme resistance, but she had overlooked the secondary consequence: severe mental stress and neurological feedback.
While Lilith assumed the psychological fallout would just make someone act childishly or regress momentarily, she didn't know a crucial piece of the puzzle—Aeterna wasn't just a normal human girl who could handle a hangover.
Ivory, Bellona, and Lustra exchanged looks of absolute dread. They were the ones who truly knew what Aeterna was beneath her human guise. She wasn't just a companion; she was the ancient, primordial Queen of the Weapon Spirits, a being of immense, catastrophic power whose mind was never meant to be fractured by mortal toxins.
And now, trapped beneath the mental stress of the Drape Fruit, her core identity had shattered, wiping her memories clean and reverting her consciousness to a blank, fragile slate.
Rutherford blinked, looking nervously between Aeterna and the rest of the room. "Queen... are you actually serious?" he stammered, taking a cautious step back.
Aeterna tilted her head, a playful, innocent grin spreading across her face as she looked right at him. "Hahaha! And who on earth are you supposed to be? Since I woke up, you're all calling me a Queen."
"No, nothing like that..." Rutherford muttered, sweating under her completely blank gaze.
Lilith pinched the bridge of her nose, letting out a long, exhausted sigh as the pieces clicked together.
"Listen to me. I think her memories are completely gone. The Drape Fruit didn't just stress her mind—it shattered her core recollection."
Ivory's expression hardened into pure fury as she slammed her hand onto the table. "And who the hell gave a little girl a fruit juice like that?!"
Lilith dropped her gaze to the floor, guilt flashing across her face as she remembered the bottles handed out in Alesta.
Before anyone could point fingers, Toya stepped forward, his expression dead serious as he cut through the rising panic. "It doesn't matter right now. Eterna's memories can come back with time, but Haruto is still missing down in the Layers. Arguing over how this happened won't bring him back—we have to go down there and bring him home."
Lilith's eyes flashed with a cold, resolute fire as she slammed her palm onto the war table. "Yes. But that's exactly why I've formed a new plan. Listen closely: we aren't waiting for permission or playing by the Academy's rules anymore. Tonight, we all descend into the Layers together, completely off the books."
Aeterna tilted her head, her amnesiac eyes sparkling with sudden, innocent excitement as she clapped her hands together. "Ooh! Whoever you guys are, that sounds super fun! Count me in!"
Toya hesitated, crossing his arms with a nervous frown. "Are you completely sure this is a good idea? Going down there as a full group without clearance—"
"Toya," Lilith interrupted, her tone brooking zero argument. "Look at who we are. Even if the upper tiers are swarming with hazards, not even Layer 50 could seriously scratch us."
Toya paused, realizing she was entirely right. He looked around the room, mentally running the numbers: Lilith was a formal reincarnation sitting at an astronomical Level 99, Ivory, Bellona, and Lustra were ancient goddesses wielding power scaling at Level 99, and Aeterna—even with her memory wiped—was still the primordial Queen of the Weapon Spirits. Compared to the threats of the lower tiers, their group was essentially an unmitigated disaster waiting to happen to whatever dared cross them.
"True," Toya muttered, a confident grin slowly replacing his doubt. "With this lineup, the Layers won't know what hit them."
Then, Toya's expression fell slightly as he glanced toward the guest chambers down the hall. "Wait... what about Serephine? She still hasn't woken up from the fruit."
"We don't have time to wait for her," Lilith said firmly, turning toward the grand exit. "We leave tonight. By the time Serephine wakes up, she's strong enough to catch up on her own. Pack your gear—we're heading into the abyss."
Toya frowned, his fingers drumming anxiously on the table. "Wait... do we even have a single trace of where Haruto actually went down there?"
Lilith let out a dry, exasperated breath, shaking her head. "Not a single word. Who knows what kind of stupid trouble that idiot managed to walk into this time."
Ivory crossed her arms, her expression stern. "Well, whining won't bring him back. We have to go down there and drag him out ourselves."
At that, a sudden, playful smirk touched Lilith's lips. The heavy, suffocating tension in the room instantly cracked as she chuckled softly. "Look at you, Ivory—all fired up and dead serious. A little lighthearted teasing never hurt anyone, you know."
Ivory blinked, taken aback by the sudden shift in tone. "Are you really joking around right now—"
Before Ivory could finish, Lilith's eyes gleamed with mischief as she pointed a finger straight at Ivory's hand. "Oh-ho-ho... wait a minute. Ivory, why is that specific ring pulsing on your finger? Did Haruto slip that onto you before he disappeared?"
Ivory's face flushed bright red up to her ears. She yanked her hand behind her back, stammering defensively, "H-Hey! Shut up! He... he basically forced me to wear it!"
Lustra let out a soft, knowing chuckle, leaning back in her chair with a teasing grin. "Oh, please. 'Forced' you? Sure he did."
Bellona joined in with a quiet, snorting laugh, shaking her head. "Yeah, right. We all know how much you 'resisted', Ivory."
Aeterna tilted her head, looking completely lost as she pointed around the room. "Wait... who is everyone looking for again?"
Lilith sighed, walking over and gently placing a hand on Aeterna's shoulder. "We're looking for your papa, Aeterna."
Aeterna's eyes went wide with pure, childlike confusion. "My... papa? I have a papa? Then who are all of you guys?"
Lilith offered a warm, reassuring smile. "I'm going to be your papa's wife, so you can just call me Mommy."
"Mommy?!" Aeterna gasped, her jaw dropping before a huge, excited grin spread across her face. "Ohh! Wow! So Mommy's mission is to go rescue Papa!" She pumped her tiny fists in the air with absolute enthusiasm, her eyes sparkling. "Operation: Papa is officially on!"