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**Rumble, rumble…**

The carriage rolled steadily along the road, its wheels producing a lonely, monotonous rhythm. It was drawn by only two sturdy horses, whose hooves struck the ground in a measured cadence.

The coachman wore a simple blue-gray outfit and lazily flicked the reins from time to time.

Inside the carriage, a man and a woman sat opposite each other in silence, each lowering their head as an oppressive atmosphere filled the cramped space.

After what felt like an eternity, it was the man who finally broke the silence.

“Nana, you really didn’t have to come with me… I’m only heading to the Imperial City to take care of some official business.” His voice was filled with helpless resignation.

Brushing her blonde hair over one shoulder, the girl lifted her head and met the eyes of the man across from her. “Brother, I’m not a child anymore.” Elna gritted her teeth. “If I hadn’t insisted on coming, who knows what might happen to you in the Imperial City?”

“Listen to yourself. You’re making the Imperial City sound like some terrifying monster. It’s not even under threat from the Dark Faction. What could possibly happen to me?” Aegis chuckled.

“Maybe that was true before, but not anymore. The day before yesterday… you got into a conflict with that person from the Imperial City, didn’t you?”

“You found out?”

“…Forget me. The entire residence already knows about it.” Elna let out a sigh.

“What!? But I never told anyone!”

“You two made such a huge commotion. How could anyone not notice? You should be grateful Mentor Sheen wasn’t around, or you’d have been interrogated nonstop.”

“I see…” Aegis scratched his ear awkwardly. As the mighty general of Wynwater City, being lectured by his own younger sister was hardly dignified. Fortunately, there was no one else here to witness it.

No… there was still one.

The thought suddenly crossed his mind, and he immediately yanked open the carriage curtain. The coachman, who had been secretly leaning close to eavesdrop, lost his balance and tumbled into the carriage.

“Martin, instead of driving the carriage properly, what exactly are you doing over here?”

“G-General… I… I was wrong! I swear I’ll never do it again!”

“Ahem. Do you think your salary is too generous? You are not to tell anyone about this. Understood!?”

“…”

“That’s enough, Brother. Don’t scare him.” Elna spoke softly.

Aegis lowered his voice. “For Nana’s sake, I’ll let you off this time. Things you shouldn’t hear, don’t listen to them. Got it?”

“Y-Yes!” The coachman nodded frantically.

“Good. Get back outside, and don’t pull anything like that ag…”

The carriage suddenly lurched violently.

“Martin, hurry and see what’s going on!”

“Y-Yes… ugh…” Before he could even turn around, the coachman clutched his chest and collapsed onto the carriage floor. Blood poured from the wound, staining the seat a sinister crimson.

An arrow had pierced straight through his chest, striking his heart with deadly precision.

Not only the coachman, but even the two horses let out terrified neighs, as though they had encountered something horrifying. They bolted into a frantic sprint, causing the carriage to rock violently from side to side.

Elna stared at the corpse before her in utter disbelief. They had actually been ambushed on the road to the Imperial City!?

In the end, the two horses seemed to trip over something and crashed heavily to the ground. The carriage was incapable of enduring such violent momentum, and before it even stopped, the sound of splintering wood echoed through the air.

The carriage slammed uncontrollably into a massive tree and shattered into pieces.

A few moments later. A man with tawny-brown hair slowly approached the wreckage with a sword in hand.

“Miroi, they’re already dead. Who are you still being so cautious of? I’ve never seen you act this cowardly before.” Behind him, an archer carrying a green longbow laughed.

“Cut the crap! Keep your eyes open. I don’t believe that guy would die so easily,” Miroi replied impatiently.

“Yeah, yeah. But seriously… even if he somehow survived, there’s no way he’d escape my arrows.”

“…” Miroi said nothing, his gaze fixed intently on the shattered planks of the carriage.

Suddenly, a cold gust swept past him, sending an involuntary shiver through his body. Tiny snowflakes drifted before his eyes. Snow…?

For some reason, his body suddenly stiffened. Instinctively, he loosened his limbs. A flash of silver burst from within the shattered wooden wreckage. In that instant, time itself seemed to stand still.

***

After throwing Quinn off the arena, Starry naturally received the victory experience and reached Level 33 with 78% EXP. Even though defeating an opponent only granted 30% of a normal kill, the enormous level gap against a Level 45 opponent still yielded an impressive reward.

Even after being thrown off the platform, the middle-aged man continued shouting endlessly, but Starry ignored him from beginning to end. According to the rules, he could no longer challenge Starry again.

Half of the allotted time had already passed, yet she had only defeated two opponents. Had she not suddenly realized the arena’s true restriction during that moment of inspiration, the Undead would have surely wasted all of her remaining time.

Still, it also served as a wake-up call for everyone else. At the very least, using the same trick to knock people off the arena again would be much more difficult.

Even so, as long as she defeated one more opponent, then had Windblossom and her main body take turns intentionally losing, she would be able to secure the title of Small Arena Champion.

“Who’s next…” Starry swept her gaze across the crowd below, searching for her next challenger.

However, after looking around, she found that no one showed any intention of stepping onto the arena. What’s going on?

Zane patted the muscular black-skinned minotaur standing beside him and asked curiously, “Hey, big guy, why isn’t anyone going up? Don’t tell me they’re all too scared to fight her now?”

The minotaur looked somewhat surprised. It was rare for a Wind Wolf to strike up a conversation with him. Still, he answered readily, “Once someone has already issued a challenge, nobody else is allowed to enter the arena.”

“Huh? But isn’t there only one person on the stage?”

“…I only see that rabbit too, but the timer doesn’t lie.” The minotaur pointed toward the countdown floating above Starry’s head.

Just as he had said, the timer continued counting down. The countdown only began once a challenge had officially started. It existed to prevent the arena from sitting idle for too long without any challengers.

“Could the countdown be bugged?”

“Impossible!” the minotaur exclaimed excitedly. “This arena was personally blessed by that great one. There’s absolutely no way it could be wrong!”

‘A blessing…? Is he referring to Azure’s Blessing? Wait… If the timer’s not wrong…’ A horrifying possibility suddenly crossed Zane’s mind. The challenger had entered the arena while invisible!? “Holy crap!”

“What’re you yelling for? You nearly scared me to death!” the minotaur barked, glaring at him with his large eyes.

“N-Nothing…”

…

Starry stood motionless, the Autumn Moon Sword held firmly in her hand. Every so often, she could feel a faint breeze brushing past her. There was no mistake. Someone had already entered the arena and was hiding somewhere nearby.

When facing an enemy skilled in concealment without any detection or stealth-revealing abilities, there were generally two approaches. The first was to continuously bombard the area with AoE attacks until the enemy was forced to reveal themselves. The second was to determine their location by observing subtle changes in the surrounding environment.

The arena floor was perfectly level. Even after dozens of battles, it remained completely undamaged, a testament to its remarkable durability. Unfortunately, that also meant it was nearly impossible to spot footprints.

In that case… Starry suddenly dashed forward several steps, her sword spinning in a blur. Blade Dance!

A damage number floated up behind her, and a hidden figure briefly materialized before vanishing back into invisibility the very next instant.