Hayato exhaled long and hard, streching his body. The battlefield had gone quiet again.
"…Right," he muttered. "We can't just leave these bodies here without looting them."
He crouched beside the first corpse, flipping it over. "Let's see… wallet, pouch, shiny looking stuff... yep, mine now."
Elfan, standing nearby with that serene, reverent face, watched every movement with glimmering admiration.
"Even after dealing with tiny ants… Master humbles himself, checking the spoils personally. Truly, he divine."
Hayato fished out a handful of coins and grinned. "Oh ho, this one was loaded. Must've been the squad leader."
He moved on to another body. "Wow, even his boots are my size."
Elfan clasped his hands reverently. "To walk in the path of those who have erred… truly symbolic."
Hayato stopped mid loot, looked at him, and sighed. "...I swear, you should really stop observing everything I do."
As Hayato continued rummaging, a faint groan escaped behind them.The girl's finger twitched.
"What… happened?"
Her voice trembled.
"I remember laughter first…"
The faintest smile flickered across her broken lips."The grand marble halls of Velaria… sunlight touching the balcony where nobles stood. I was there, bowing, smiling, pretending to be the perfect daughter."
Her eyes clouded as memories surfaced."Father said my mana was a blessing from the gods. Tutors praised me. The people called me the Shining Heir. But my heart… it was never there."
She could see it again...The open courtyard below her tower, where adventurers trained. The clang of swords. The smell of sweat, dust and freedom.
"Every time I looked down from that window, I envied them. I didn't want silk. I wanted scars."
Her voice deepened with sorrow."I remembered the night, I told him…"
Her memory played before her eyes:
"Father… I don't want to lead the city. I want to see the world, to be out there, not locked here."
The king's golden eyes softened in her mind, his voice echoing faintly:"And abandon your birthright? You are meant to protect Velaria, not flee from it."
She remembered the heat rising in her chest."But what is protection if I've never seen what I'm protecting?" she argued. "How can I lead people whose pain I've never felt?"
A pause.Her father's silence.Her uncle's blank stare beside the throne.And behind them... her brother's clenched jaw.
"I should have seen it then," she whispered. "The jealousy. The signs."
Castle servants' whispers rang in her head.'The princess thinks she's better than us.''Born gifted, and still not satisfied.''She'll bring ruin.'
She smiled bitterly. "I smiled through it all, like my mother did before she died giving birth to me. I smiled until it hurt."
Then her tone cracked. "Until the day my brother..."
"Father's health is declining," he'd said softly that day beneath the silver banners."You should prepare to take the throne."
"I told him no," she murmured. "That I was leaving. That I wanted to see the world."
Her voice shook. "He nodded… I thought he saw my vision. Then said, "At least take my blessing.'"
A tear slid down her cheek. "I didn't notice the black sigil he carved into my travel bag. I didn't hear the curse humming inside it."
Her tone turned bitter. "As I left, I heard him whisper… 'This should make sure you never come back for the throne again.'"
Her breathing quickened."Then… I was free. Or I thought I was."
Her trembling hands mimed motions she could no longer feel."I gathered four adventurers—brave, kind, loyal. We cooked by the fire, shared stories, laughed until dawn. I'd never been happier."
Then her voice dimmed. "The next morning, we entered the abandoned dungeon. We said it was just exploration, a simple look. We never knew why it was abandoned."
Her tone darkened. "Beasts began attacking us halfway through. Wolves, corrupted stags… things with too many eyes. We fought, rested, bled. Turning back wasn't an option, it would've taken days to reach another city. The dungeon was the only shelter monsters avoided."
She gave a hollow laugh. "We thought that meant we were safe."
Inside the dungeon's first gate, it was quiet, too quiet.
Second gate, still nothing.
Third gate, the air thickened, cold and metallic, pressing against our lungs.
"We tried to turn back," she whispered, "but the sigil in my bag lit up. We were dragged—teleported into a whole different location. The air burned. My friends screamed. Their veins turned black. I coughed blood. Then, as I looked up…"
Her tone snapped. "There was a dragon... The dragon. A creature that had lived too long to remember mercy. And beside it… an elfan, though I thought it was an elf."
Her eyes flickered faintly toward the Elfan.
The elfan looked her way, his voice both calm and commanding.'What are those? They appear to be human,' he thought aloud.
She shivered as his presence passed over her, heavy, suffocating, divine.
"Y-you are not an elf," she managed. "What exactly are you?"
He stopped, turning his head slightly."Oh I see. You are still alive. Well I'm something you humans call an Elfan. I came for one thing only, the relic that bound that beast. I did not anticipate humans would be here."
Her body trembled harder. "I kept healing myself, again and again. Every spell tore me apart. My skin burned, my bones screamed. But I couldn't stop. I wanted to live."
Tears glistened in her eyes. "I turned to my comrades… and they were already gone. Burned. Twisted. I reached out, and my hands slipped through ashes."
She swallowed hard."I said… I'm sorry… I can't save you all…"
Then... "BOOM!"
The memory jolted her voice. "The blast… the falling pillar, it crushed me. My ribs shattered. My lungs collapsed. But I was still alive. Too alive. My healing dragged me back into pain."
"I looked up," she whispered. "The dragon was roaring. The elf was fighting it, light flashing, wings of mana breaking the sky."
Her words slowed. "And through the smoke… I saw another human figure and a medium-sized dragon."
Her voice faded to a dying whisper. "I-I screamed h-help… that's how I met… that's ho-w…"
Her memory fragmented into white noise.
She opened her eyes again, now glowing with a pale, unnatural light. Her breath came shallow, cold.
Hayato turned, quietly observing.
The Elfan spoke softly."Master," he said. "She lives… but not as before."
Hayato frowned confusely. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"She has crossed the threshold. What walks now is not exactly human."
The girl sat up slowly, clutching her head. "W-what… happened?" Her voice trembled.
Elfan approached, kneeling gracefully beside her. "When I accelerated the flow of time upon your wounds, the magic item that caused them… reacted. It was not a mere injury, it was a curse layered with temporal decay."
She blinked blankly. "I… don't understand."
Elfan's tone was clinical, but reverent. "To heal you, I had to move your body's time forward… centuries ahead. Your mind, your instincts, every hidden potential within your race, advanced beyond human current comprehension. You are now the sum of all humanity could have been."
Hayato raised a brow. "So basically, she's a millennium old?"
"In essence," Elfan replied, ignoring the sarcasm, "she is an undead. Her soul detached and returned unwillingly, no longer bound to life… or death."
She looked down at her hands—no longer warm, faint glowing cracks beneath her skin. Her memory still blury.
"I… don't remember…"
Hayato, curious, leaned forward. "remember what?"
The girl lowered her gaze, then suddenly knelt before Elfan. "You saved me. Please, allow me to serve you as gratitude for my new life."
Elfan's eyes snapped open. His calm expression broke into fury."Do not kneel before me!" he thundered. "There is but one being worthy of your servitude."
He turned sharply, gesturing toward Hayato. "Kneel to him. The true being who commands even my existence."
Hayato froze, mid pocketing a silver ring. "Wait, what?"
The girl blinked, dazed, staring at Hayato crouched over a looted corpse. "This… is my savior?"
Elfan nodded with absolute conviction. "The only one."
She bowed deeply. "Then I..." she paused, realizing she hadn't even introduced herself.
"Oh right," Hayato said, "you don't have a name, huh?"
"You… want to name me?" she asked softly.
The Elfan's voice sharpened. "How dare you request a name! Even I have no na..."
"From now on," Hayato interrupted casually, "your name's Lyra."
The Elfan froze mid-sentence.
"Lyra…" she repeated quietly, tasting the sound. "Does it mean something?"
Hayato smiled faintly, eyes tired. "U-uh… umm... yeah. But I'm too tired to explain."
Lyra bowed her head again. "Thank you, my lord. I will serve you all my life."
The Elfan watched, jealousy flickering in his expression, then knelt. "My lord… please name me as well."
Hayato sighed, shoving gold coins into his bag. "Elfan."
"…Huh?"
"You're an Elfan, right? Now your name's Elfan."
Elfan blinked slowly. "He named me without thinking… we're heading to human territory. calling me Elfan will definitely draw suspicion"
Elfan exhaled reverently. "Thank you, Master, for granting me a name."
Hayato just sighed, pocketing another coin. "Yeah, sure."