Gardenia’s Heart

The thin air was heavy with dust.

Every step on the rocky ground, no matter how light, was enough to send echoes bouncing off the walls.

The proximity to the lake made it common for small drops of water to seep through the walls, creating layers of mold with an unpleasant odor.

When there was no light, the only way to see the surroundings was by feeling the sharp stone walls.

The girl didn’t like that place.

When freedom had been granted to her as a result of her struggle—even though she had no memory of the time spent here due to the magic suppressing her recollections—the suffering she endured in that place was burned deep enough into her soul to make her never want to return.

Yet, by her own will, the silver-haired girl was stepping into that place once again.

(Are you really okay with this, Lily?)

In a gentle tone, Nia’s voice resonated in her mind. The tentacle brushing against her cheek showed just how worried the shapeshifter was about her wife.

“It’s you I should be asking that question. Is your body okay?” Lily asked, placing a soft kiss on the tentacle as her fingers moved away from the frozen rock wall, emitting a faint purple glow.

(It hurts. But pain will never stop me from being by your side, Lily.) The confident voice replied promptly.

Walking toward the edge of the passage that allowed her to see the vastness of the Caligo Mines, Lily almost had to turn her face away to hide how flushed she was.

“Alright, shall we?” Lily smiled. With all preparations ready, there was no time left to waste.

Jumping down toward the mine’s ground, Lily took in the sight before her.

The work in the mine had come to a halt. There were no sounds of pickaxes or carts moving. As if a grand stage had been set for her return, all the workers were staring at her from the passages, their vacant eyes waiting for orders.

A dozen guards clad in gleaming armor stood at the center of the open space, forming a semicircle around two figures who stood out.

“She really came. I thought she’d never have the courage to return here after suffering such a humiliating defeat at my hands last time.”

Dressed in a combat suit, the young woman spoke with indifference. Her back leaned against the wall, and her left hand cleaned her star-dusted blade with a dry cloth.

Beside her, wearing the same type of combat uniform, a young man with a sword at his waist watched the silver-haired girl with an amused expression.

“Since she came, you lost the bet, Yumie. That means I get to fight this time. You’re not hogging all the fun like before.” His voice carried a tone of entertainment, as if the situation were thoroughly enjoyable to him.

Touching the hilt of his sword, the man glanced at his companion’s indifferent face, as if silently telling him, “Do as you please.”

Seeing her reaction, he couldn’t help but laugh. Curling the corner of his lips, he began to walk toward his newly arrived opponent. However, stepping between the line of guards, a man positioned himself in front of him.

“Please, sir Heston, allow me to handle this.” Bowing his head to the young man, a red-haired man with a ponytail spoke in a respectful tone.

Heston raised an eyebrow in displeasure, resting his hand on his hip and tilting his chin upward with irritation.

“John, do you know why the Lord put you in charge of the teams? It was because you were competent at what you did. You didn’t ask more questions than necessary and had a good eye for finding new labor. That’s the only reason you weren’t killed when you allowed intruders into this place during a selection day when the Lord was here personally. We lost contact with two teams. Failure after failure. How many more chances do you think you deserve?”

Heston’s words felt distant, like the hollow echoes of someone looking at a man teetering on the brink of death.

“I swear I won’t fail again! I’ll start correcting my mistakes one by one, starting with this one!” John shouted louder, pouring every ounce of desperation into his plea, nearly dropping to his knees if that’s what it would take.

“You have one chance.” Heston nodded, crossing his arms as he narrowed his eyes. “The Lord’s only order was to take her alive. That means she can take as many wounds as necessary to make that happen. However, if you kill her, you’re dead.”

“Thank you, sir!”

Without daring to meet the young man’s gaze, John turned on his heel and began running. Raw, unfiltered rage coursed through his veins, so intense that the veins on his temple bulged visibly.

It all started with a silver-haired woman.

His men had died during an attack on an isolated village because they went out searching for a silver-haired woman. His reputation was tarnished, and the mine’s location had been exposed because a silver-haired woman tricked one of his men.

Different places, different circumstances, but always the same silver-haired woman. His anger boiled. He could feel his very core seething with fury.

John didn’t care if he couldn’t kill her. He would make her suffer for all the humiliation she had caused him.

Clenching his fists, they ignited with a bluish flame.

The figure before him was tall for a woman. Even with the cloak doubling as a long coat, he estimated her height to be at least 1.74 meters. His plan was clear: first, he’d strike her stomach to destabilize her center of gravity. Then, he’d quickly move in to knock her down, pin her from behind, disarm her, and break her arms and legs one by one.

Hand-to-hand combat was his specialty; he wouldn’t fail this time. He wouldn’t lose again.

He ran as fast as his legs would carry him, closing the distance between them in seconds. With his mana-energized mind and heightened agility, everything seemed to move in slow motion. But as he looked under her hood, his body froze.

A single blue eye gazed back at him from beneath a long fringe. A beauty so overwhelming it could enchant anyone who beheld it.

But that wasn’t what paralyzed him.

He knew that face.

It had been only once, but he’d never forget.

“You... I’ve seen you before... in that village—”

In that fleeting moment of distraction, John didn’t even realize he had spoken his final words.

“I’ll pass on the discount. Thanks for nothing.”

Without even meeting his gaze, the girl spoke coldly. A black sword in her right hand moved faster than his mana-enhanced reflexes, severing his head from his body.

With a dull thud, John’s lifeless body fell to the gray cave floor, staining it red.

A sharp whistle escaped Heston’s lips as he watched the girl walk past the corpse without so much as a glance back.

“Hey, Yumie, did you see that?” Heston called out, placing both hands behind his head, his expression brimming with excitement from the attack.

But unlike his gleeful demeanor, the young woman beside him furrowed her brows in disbelief.

She hadn’t seen it.

Yumie hadn’t taken her eyes off the fight for even a second, yet she hadn’t seen it.

“Are you going to say something, or just keep glaring at me like that? Anyway, my turn now.”

Before she could utter a word, Yumie watched as Heston advanced, his black blade drawn and poised for battle.

Stardust clashed with stardust in an explosive collision.

No further moves were made as if both opponents were studying each other’s reactions.

”Where is Alice?” Lily asked, using both swords to push Heston’s blade back.

”You have me standing right here, and you’re worried about someone else?” Heston replied, laughing as he leaped backward.

As the man moved away to prepare his next attack, Lily’s eyes scanned the mine.

Alice was nowhere to be seen. That meant she was being held in a separate location. They wouldn’t simply hand her over without a fight. If Lily wanted to rescue her, she’d have to get through all of them.

Even if she ignored the two mages in front of her and the controlled workers, there were still numerous guards and bandits surrounding her.

With Nia weakened by the ivory herbs spread throughout the underground, had coming alone been a mistake?

”No.” Shaking her head, Lily pushed away the doubt that had begun to creep into her mind.

Bringing others here would have been unnecessary. The steady pulse in her chest reassured her—she and Nia were more than enough.

”Focus only on maintaining my body’s functions, Nia. That way, you’ll stay safer. I’ll handle the rest.”

Adjusting her stance, Lily surged forward.

Like a dance of blades, devoid of magic, the two combatants clashed repeatedly, each attempting to find an opening in the other’s defenses.

Lily knew that even if she could draw upon Nia’s dark mana to create spells, she wouldn’t be able to do so quickly or powerfully enough to make a difference.

“!?” A surprised gasp escaped Heston’s lips as a torrent of pain coursed through him.

Capitalizing on her speed, Lily anticipated her opponent’s next move—a feint, revealed by the subtle positioning of his feet. Instead of retreating, she charged forward, seizing the split-second opening and striking the center of his chest. The blow sent him flying.

(I-It’s a bit tricky, but I’m getting the hang of it.) Nia’s tired yet confident voice echoed in Lily’s mind. Though now wasn’t the time for such feelings, Lily’s heart swelled with love at her wife’s progress.

Rather than focusing on spells, they only needed to double down on what they excelled at and refine it further.

Much like Cleomel’s combat techniques, Nia was actively concentrating on how her dark mana interacted with every part of Lily’s body. Just as she could read Lily’s intentions to cast spells precisely when needed, Nia could use her dark mana to manipulate Lily’s tendons, muscles, and even her blood flow faster than any neural signal.

Even though Lily couldn’t imbue mana into the sword in her left hand due to its enchantment being tied to Nia’s mana signature, it didn’t matter. With Nia inside her body, the shapeshifter could channel her dark mana into the blade directly, allowing Lily to wield it seamlessly.

All of this combined meant Lily could move her body in ways no ordinary human ever could.

“They’re not going to make this easy, are they?” Lily murmured, her heterochromatic eyes watching as Heston approached once more. His battle suit was slightly bloodied at the chest, and fury burned in his gaze.

Driven by the thrill of battle, Heston charged. Words were no longer necessary. Lily responded in kind, her swords meeting his with unyielding resolve.

How many blows they exchanged from that moment onward was something neither of them could count. Every clash of their star-dusted weapons sent tremors through the surroundings. The rocky ground beneath them began to crack, and the air itself seemed to heat from the vibration of their strikes.

In a world moving at such speed, everything felt slow, yet amidst the whirlwind of blows, the silver-haired girl had never felt calmer.

Lily no longer had the intrusive voices clouding her thoughts and disrupting her attacks. With only the steady pulse of her heart and her beloved’s voice in her mind, nothing could stand in her way.

Likewise, with complete trust in Lily’s ability to protect them, Nia didn’t need to divide her attention among multiple tasks. She could focus entirely on their shared goal.

The same couldn’t be said for their opponent.

Heston had known, from the moment she killed John, that she was faster than him. But now, he couldn’t believe he was losing in a battle of endurance. Every time an opponent would have retreated to catch their breath, she pressed forward, relentlessly driving him back. He had never witnessed such resilience—not a single bead of sweat marred her face after everything. It was as if she wasn’t human.

Panic began to creep into him. With each passing second, as the fight dragged on, his strikes grew more erratic. More wounds accumulated on his body with every mistake he made in his exhaustion.

Forced to retreat to avoid a strike he couldn’t block, Heston panted heavily, his breaths ragged, his face drenched in sweat and fear.

“What’s wrong? Didn’t you want to handle this on your own?” Yumie teased, leaning casually against the wall beside him.

At first, she only meant to mock her partner, who was failing to handle a single adversary she had already defeated once. But the moment she saw Heston’s utterly terrified expression—a face she had never seen before—she knew something was wrong.

“T-Take her down! All of you, attack!” Heston roared with all his might.

Like an army answering a call to arms, the guards charged at Lily, swords in hand, while the workers began preparing spells.

But Lily simply walked forward, her steps unhurried. She spoke only two words.

“Nia, now.”

And in that instant, the entire cavern trembled.

At first, muffled explosions echoed like distant thunder. Then, shaking the ground with terrifying speed, the impacts reverberated through the walls, sending waves of dust cascading through every tunnel.

“What’s that sound?” Yumie exclaimed, panic creeping into her voice for the first time, her legs trembling as the rocks beneath her feet shifted.

If Lily followed what she’d learned in Selene’s lessons, she could unleash a massive horde of monsters to neutralize the effects of the ivory herbs. But she couldn’t do that. The mines weren’t just occupied by Velmont’s followers—there were kidnapped innocents trapped here too. A chaotic battle would put their lives at risk, and Lily couldn’t allow that.

Thin cracks began forming in the walls, as fine as spiderwebs but so numerous they were impossible to count. The sound of breaking stone intensified by the second, the vibrations no longer just tremors but the forewarning of something approaching.

Finally, with a deafening crack, every tunnel section erupted with a thunderous roar as an enormous torrent of water surged into the mines with uncontrollable fury.

There had been another method she could use.

“You’re insane! Are you seriously going to flood the entire mine?!” Yumie screamed, her voice filled with unprecedented fear. In mere moments, the Caligo Mines began to collapse, transforming into a flooded labyrinth.

“Well done~” Lily sang, her eyes gleaming with delight as she watched the terror-stricken faces of her adversaries.

Nia had been able to map out the entire mine effortlessly. It hadn’t taken long for her brilliant mind to identify all the key points that, when damaged, would trigger a catastrophic flood. It was simply a matter of planting ice crystals as detonators and waiting for the perfect moment to set them off.

“Forget about capturing her alive—kill her!” Yumie yelled, raising her weapon and preparing to strike.

Tightening her grip on her swords, Lily leaped.

Two fireballs and a lightning bolt came from above, while two blades waited for her at the spot where she would land.

Spinning midair, she and Nia infused their swords with all the mana they could muster. Before she even touched the ground, the spells clashed against the blades and were reduced to nothing. As her feet hit the floor, a single movement was enough to weave through the guards’ attacks and slice cleanly through their armor.

There was no time to stop.

Moving quickly to avoid the next wave of attacks, Lily dashed toward the controlled workers.

Sliding over a cart along the tracks, she swiftly analyzed everyone’s positions. Removing the stigmas one by one would take far too long. Even if it hurt them, she had no choice. Silently apologizing, she struck several workers in the stomach, sending them flying deeper into the mine, away from the water for the time being.

“P-Please, don’t kill me!” A desperate plea echoed, coming from a voice she recognized.

Landing in the midst of a group of bandits, her left hand plunged her sword into the ground, creating a crater. Lily’s gaze locked onto a white-haired man crawling backward on the floor, clutching a small dagger.

“Gloria, remember me? I’m only doing this because I had no choice! Please, don’t kill me-!”

Before the portly shopkeeper could finish his plea, a tentacle lashed out, severing his head from his body.

“Nia, weren’t you supposed to conserve your energy?”

Watching the tentacle sway as though it had been waiting for this moment for a long time, Lily asked with a puzzled expression.

(I told you that day, if he ever tried anything against you, I’d make sure it was his last moment.) Even tired, Nia spoke confidently.

Laughing at how endearing her wife was, Lily resumed her dash, not sparing another second on the dead man.

Two sword strikes came her way.

Using both hands, she blocked the attacks from the two young men in combat suits.

“For the Lord’s sake, we need to take her down here, Heston!” Yumie shouted, her usual composure shattered by anger and panic.

She had misjudged her opponent’s strength once, falling into a trap as a result. She could never have imagined someone would employ such a reckless strategy. Relying on the guards or field teams would be a mistake. If this woman were to be killed, Yumie knew it had to be by her own hands.

Inside the mine, now flooding up to their ankles, four stardust blades clashed.

Spinning her sword, Yumie blocked Lily’s right blade. Stretching out her left hand, she unleashed a lightning bolt larger than a tree trunk at point-blank range toward Lily’s head.

“!?” Yumie let out a startled gasp, forced to retreat. Her left arm throbbed with such intense pain that she thought it might be broken.

Even she couldn’t believe what had just happened. At the last possible moment, her opponent used her speed to knock Yumie’s elbow aside with a precise kick, dodging the attack entirely.

“Yumie, are you okay!?”

Heston ran to her side, his earlier playful tone now replaced by genuine concern.

“Nothing I can’t handle. I just need one opening—create it for me.”

Breaking an intermediate healing potion on the ground, Yumie stood up. She wiped the blood from her lips, her determination unwavering.

With a nod of agreement, Heston charged forward alongside her. The rising water at their ankles made it clear there was no more time to waste.

Heston was exhausted, but his years of training did not betray him.

He knew he couldn’t win in terms of speed or endurance, so he relied on his experience. Summoning the last of his strength, the young man prepared for another attack. Lowering his center of gravity, he crouched and charged forward with remarkable agility.

When he was only a few meters from his target, his feet became enveloped in mana. With a powerful kick, he sent a dense wall of water and rocks hurtling toward the silver-haired girl.

Leaping to close the remaining distance in the single second she would be focused on avoiding the debris blocking her vision, he prepared to immobilize both her arms with a strike from his sword.

However, the moment his blade clashed with hers, Heston coughed up a thick stream of blood.

“Y-Yumie…?”

His trembling eyes looked at the sword that had pierced through the chest of the silver-haired girl before him—the same blade that had also gone straight through his own body.

Too weak to even look behind him, Heston didn’t scream in pain as his body was flung to the side when his partner’s blade was pulled from him.

“Thank you for your years of service. I’ll tell the master you died honorably.”

Without sparing a glance at her fallen partner, Yumie strode toward the silver-haired girl on the ground.

A genuine smile of excitement spread across her face, so wide that her cheeks ached from how much her lips curved. Her surprise attack had succeeded.

Her soldiers were dead, leaving only her—but she had won.

“Your vile woman! Did you really think you could win this alone!?”

Pointing her sword at the woman with a gaping wound in her chest, Yumie declared her victory with unrestrained glee.

Yet, as though the hole in the center of her chest meant nothing, the silver-haired girl bleeding on the ground merely tilted her head.

“Seriously? Are you really that dumb? Didn’t you know? Marriage means not having to carry the burden alone!”

Yumie, confused, followed Lily’s confident gaze, scanning her surroundings.

No reinforcements had come. The situation should have been the same as it was before she declared her victory. So why did it feel like something had changed in the ruined cave?

It only took her a few seconds to notice. It wasn’t something significant unless you were specifically paying attention to it. It wasn’t logical to focus on such a detail during a life-or-death battle. But for that girl, it marked her victory.

With the water surging forward like an overwhelming force of nature, every single mana herb on the walls, from the first to the last, had been destroyed.

Yumie’s face contorted in panic as four tentacles wrapped around her neck, and a massive black ice crystal pierced through her chest.

Without even enough time to scream, all she could do was writhe in agony as she took her final breath.