The sun was already brushing the horizon, staining the sky in warm golds and burning oranges. The river mirrored the spectacle in rippling fragments while a cool breeze drifted out of the nearby woods. In the distance, the castle rose like a silent shadow, its ancient towers carving austere lines into the sky. The whole scene was as beautiful as it was solemn, like a secret waiting to be uncovered.

Luke sat at the very edge of the bank, his boots pressed into the damp soil. His gaze stayed locked on the current, hiding a flicker of unease. A few meters behind him, Allison stood poised, one hand resting lightly on the hilt of her katana. Her eyes swept the area with the kind of vigilance that didn’t break.

“Are you sure I have to keep sitting here?” Luke muttered without turning around. “You know, some giant river-octopus could pop up out of nowhere and drag me under, like Jack said.”

Allison didn’t answer right away. The dying light caught her face, sharpening her features and deepening her focus. Finally, she said, “You’re staying put until I’m sure the potion’s worn off.”

Luke let out a theatrical sigh, lifting his hands in defeat. “That was hours ago. I swear you’re keeping me here just to punish me.”

“You earned it,” she replied matter-of-factly, eyes still on the horizon.

He gave up arguing. It was enough that she’d promised not to tell anyone about the libido potion—as long as he kept quiet about her drinking it too. Half-dragon or not, Allison had absurd natural resistances. The potion should have lasted twelve hours but barely held an hour in her system.

At least I know I created a potion that can even affect a half-dragon, but… the effect isn’t exactly something that would win a battle… I think. I mean, it depends on the type of battle. And why am I even thinking about this kind of thing?

A thick silence settled between them. The breeze stirred the leaves at the water’s edge, the current whispered by, and the castle behind them loomed like a watcher.

Allison broke the silence at last, her voice softer now, carrying a weight it usually didn’t. “I’m not exactly welcome in my family.”

Luke glanced up. The words hung there, heavy. He’d heard bits and pieces before but never with this kind of gravity. Her stance had shifted; she was no longer the vigilant warrior but someone bearing old scars.

“I’ve told you pieces of it,” she went on, “but I never told you why.”

Luke leaned back a little, trying to see her face. “Why wouldn’t your family like you? All my life I’ve never stopped loving my mother. I couldn’t imagine hating my own family.”

Allison stayed quiet. Her eyes remained fixed on the distant castle. When she finally spoke, it was a murmur. “Because I wasn’t supposed to be born.”

A chill crawled up Luke’s spine at the way she said it, the words sounding like a confession held for years. Allison drew a breath and continued.

“My father had an affair with a woman who worked for our family,” she said, voice barely above a whisper. “Not at the castle in the New World, but in the modern world… your society.”

The words were spoken with weight, and Luke’s attention caught on the word castle. She really did come from a society completely different from his.

“She was a servant. She got pregnant… and then I was born.” Allison’s eyes stayed on the river, as if speaking more to herself than to him. “She was my mother.”

Luke turned fully toward her now. The sun had sunk deeper, the orange glow casting a shadowed edge across Allison’s expression, making the truth she’d spoken feel even heavier.

“The name Rhiannon carries an old lineage, bound to traditions and its own unyielding laws. My father was a nobleman, married, and my existence as his illegitimate daughter was a stain no one could scrub away. My mother died giving birth to me. That left just me… and a problem the family couldn’t ignore.”

She tore a handful of grass from the ground and let it slip from her fingers.

“My father’s wife wanted me dead. But they told her Rhiannon blood can’t be spilled so easily. It didn’t matter how much she hated me, there were rules. Cold, merciless rules.”

Luke stayed quiet, absorbing it all. He’d never imagined Allison’s childhood had been carved from stone like this.

“I was just a kid,” she went on. “I couldn’t understand why nobody liked me, why I was punished for calling my father’s wife ‘mother,’ why I lived locked away in a tower. It was a prison high above the castle. I only left for public events, and even then I had to stay silent, unmoving, like I didn’t exist.”

Luke glanced toward the distant castle, trying and failing to picture himself in her place.

“I never truly knew my mother,” Allison whispered. “She was just a tragic story to me. But one day, through the single window in that tower, I saw something slicing through the sky—a winged creature. A dragon.”

Her eyes flicked open again, and for a heartbeat something like light glimmered there, a spark of the past breaking through.

“That dragon was an ancient member of my bloodline. A real Rhiannon dragon from another universe. Everyone revered her. Everyone feared her. My grandfather had children with her… not out of love, but through an arranged marriage decreed by our divine order. She was Rank A, almost a god herself, and yet she bound herself to a human for the sake of a contract.”

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Allison picked up a stone and tossed it into the river, watching the ripples widen and fold in on themselves.

“She found out how I was being treated. And she came for me. Appeared as a stunning woman and took me away. We went so far I couldn’t tell you where, maybe another universe, maybe just some forgotten corner.”

She said softly, eyes still on the water. “There was a cabin in a forest, just us. For a while I believed she was my real mother. I called her that… and she never corrected me. She cared for me. Fed me. Washed my clothes. Told me stories before I slept.”

Her voice shook, but there was warmth in it now, the first flicker of tenderness in the whole confession.

“But one day she took me somewhere different,” Allison said, her gaze hardening again. “Told me to stay silent. I saw a woman as beautiful as her but… I could feel it wasn’t the same. It was the goddess my family served.”

Luke didn’t dare interrupt.

“That day branded me,” she continued. “Because I also met another god. A huge black panther the size of a dragon, who turned into a man dressed in dark clothes, black hair, feline eyes. You know who it was.”

“Lakarion,” Luke said at once. “The God of Assassination.”

Allison nodded, her stare fixed on nothing, as if she were still standing in that place.

“At the time, I didn’t understand a word they were saying. Only later did I realize he didn’t want my adoptive mother ascending to Divine Rank. She was Rank A, but if she reached Rank S… there would be war.”

Luke frowned. “Why?”

“Because of her bloodline’s unique skill,” Allison answered. “He couldn’t let her reach the divine level.”

Allison fell silent. “After some arguments, they couldn’t reach an agreement. Lakarion wanted guarantees, and my adoptive mother wouldn’t accept them. The goddess who was mediating the situation decided to pause the meeting for another day.”

She clenched her fist. “Before leaving, Lakarion looked at me for a moment and then turned his back. I still remember that moment, that look. Those feline eyes.”

Allison’s gaze grew distant. “Do you think he would walk out of there without getting what he wanted? No. Above all, he was an assassin. He never had any intention of making a deal. He only used the meeting as an excuse to confront my adoptive mother face to face.”

Allison closed her eyes for a heartbeat. It was clear she was reliving it all. The river breeze brushed her hair, but she seemed far away, lost somewhere in the past.

“Sometime after the meeting, Lakarion appeared at the cabin,” she began softly. “My mother was outside. I was the only one indoors. He came in slow, like a guest, spoke to me kindly, told me to stay close. I… stayed. Maybe out of fear. Maybe naïve. I don’t know.”

For a moment, Allison fell silent, lost in thought, sifting through old memories, before she spoke again.

“For hours it was just the two of us. I sensed something was wrong but couldn’t move. Then the door opened. My mother walked in smiling… and the smile vanished the moment she saw him. She understood instantly.”

Allison stared at her own fist clenched on her knee, knuckles pale.

“She could have run. She could have transformed. She could have fought. But she didn’t. She stayed… because of me. She knew if she moved, I would be the first to die.”

Allison’s voice had grown low, her face taking on a growing neutrality, drifting further away, as if she were somewhere else. “He killed her right in front of me. No rush. No hatred. Just… because it had to be done. She didn’t fight back. She accepted death, as long as he promised not to hurt me. And he did. He kept his word. Then he gave me a calm smile, waved, and closed the door, left me there with her body.”

The air between them grew heavier.

“That was the day I understood what gods really are,” Allison said, eyes fixed on the distant castle. “My adoptive mother was betrayed by the very goddess she served. Offered up as a bargaining chip to avoid a war. That’s when I learned we’re just pieces on a board we never chose.”

She lifted her face, voice steady again. “Before she died, my mother gave me her bloodline skill. Told me I would be safe. And then she died in my arms.”

Silence swallowed them. Only the river kept moving, indifferent.

“After that,” Allison continued, “they took me back to my family. Locked me again in the same room, the same cold walls. As if nothing had happened. And if I go back to Earth… I know it will be the same fate. That’s why I ran to the tutorial.”

She turned to Luke, her eyes bright with a new kind of resolve. “But don’t think I’ve given up. When I go back, I’ll do everything in my power to finish my revenge.”

Luke watched her, unable to speak. The pieces of her past had finally clicked into place, revealing a picture darker and larger than he had ever imagined.

***

They walked side by side along the narrow trail leading back to the cave. The sky had sunk into a deep blue, scattered with shy stars, and the air cooled quickly as night crept in. Neither spoke. Luke sensed that any word would shatter the weight of what he had just heard, so he let the silence stand.

Each step gave him space to process her story. He finally understood the gravity behind asking someone like Erza Grimhart for help. He understood why Allison always seemed wrapped in an invisible armor. New questions bubbled up, but he kept them locked away.

One thing he was certain of: Allison’s adoptive mother possessed a skill so powerful that even the God of Murder wanted her dead. That alone was proof it wasn’t just a few ice tricks. It could be as dangerous and powerful as Luke’s own bloodline skill.

The cave mouth appeared ahead, a jagged hole in the rock. Torchlight from within threw restless shadows across the stone, and the atmosphere inside felt different, thicker, tense, waiting.

As Luke and Allison stepped through the entrance, every head in the chamber turned toward them. Evangeline spoke first. “Where were you? We’ve been waiting for hours.”

Allison caught the sharp edge in her voice. “What happened?”

Evangeline folded her arms, face tight. “Something hit the group stationed at the gate. Jerry told me they’re dead.”

Luke stayed still, but his attention sharpened.

“I sent Jerry with a message to the gate camp to let them know we were close,” Evangeline went on. “He came back saying everyone was dead. It wasn’t undead or those roaming statues. This was something else.”

One name surfaced instantly in Luke’s mind. “It has to be Bartholomew.”

Mason gave a grim nod. “That’s what we’re thinking.”

“We need to get back now, before we find out the hard way what’s happening. We can’t stay here another minute,” Allison said, her voice snapping back into command mode.

Luke felt the shift. The soldier in her had surfaced again, burying old memories and focusing only on survival.

A betrayal by Bartholomew? A strike by someone who wanted to trap them in the tutorial? No one knew. All that mattered was reaching the second fortress before it was too late.

He adjusted his gear, ready to move, then a notification flashed in front of his eyes, glowing bright.

[Your Rank Skill is now available!]

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep