Interlude 1: Alicia
Alicia Ehnleit was taking a walk.
“Freedom is...wonderful!” she breathed.
Sure, she was still under watch, but it had been a while since she had been permitted to go out into the world and walk around as she pleased. This kingdom is full of kind people, she thought as she strolled through the Royal Capital of Lemlaesta.
It had been over a year since the Demon Lord had been defeated. Alicia had been spending her days under the supervision of the Kingdom of Valschein, forbidden to leave her room in the corner of the Royal Palace. She was provided with food and a place to sleep, but she was about to lose her mind staying cooped up in that room.
Every once in a while, the Knight’s Order would allow her to leave the confines of the palace, but only to force her to level grind in a dungeon. Alicia wasn’t sure why she had to keep training when the Demon Lord was already gone. There was only one other reason she could think of as to why the kingdom would pour significant time and resources into strengthening a light magic user.
“No matter how strong I get, I’d never be able to fight her...” she lamented.
The person to whom she was referring was, of course, Yumiella Dolkness. Alicia was able to use light magic, and while that was Yumiella’s weakness, Alicia still didn’t want to even think about going up against Yumiella.
“First of all, she’s the reason I’m imprisoned here...” the light mage grumbled. After a moment, she amended, “I mean, I guess it’s actually my fault.”
When Alicia was alone, she often thought about how things would’ve been if she could go back in time and start over.
If I’d hidden the fact that I could use light magic, I might’ve never attended the Royal Academy. If I’d just become friends with Yumiella... No, I would’ve just died while level grinding. At the Demon Lord’s castle, if I just hadn’t stabbed Yumiella in the back...
“I wonder where things went wrong.”
The fact that she could use light magic, the fact that she’d been forced to attend the Royal Academy despite being a commoner, and the fact that she’d antagonized Yumiella until the very end had unfortunately come to its inevitable conclusion, and that had ultimately led to this outcome of Alicia living out her days in confinement.
Naturally, Alicia didn’t have any positive feelings towards Yumiella.
“She’s creepy, and she almost killed me in that dungeon. She also took down the Demon Lord, who I was supposed to defeat...” Alicia seethed. “I really hate her.”
Alicia recalled the girl’s completely expressionless face, a flat affect that made both her thoughts and emotions unreadable. It made the light mage shiver just imagining it. She didn’t like Yumiella, but now that some time had passed, she was able to think things through with a clearer head. It allowed other perspectives to cross her mind.
“You know... She was weird, but she might not have actually been a bad person. All that stuff that happened in the dungeon didn’t seem to be out of ill intentions or anything either.”
Alicia had almost always held negative opinions of the black-haired girl, but what really sealed her dislike for Yumiella was when they’d gone dungeon crawling together. As Alicia had fought desperately, Yumiella had done nothing but stand behind her and watch as if she found the whole thing satisfying—and to Alicia, that had made Yumiella seem even more wicked than the Demon Lord.
However, she was beginning to realize that this had been Yumiella’s way of showing kindness. The truth was, Alicia’s level had spiked on that day. Ever since she’d realized that, Alicia’s regrets had only grown stronger. Now she no longer harbored any resentment—
“Man, can Yumiella just become level 13 or something? Then I could just beat her up.”
Okay, maybe she still harbored some resentment. She still hated Yumiella. No matter what kindness the dark mage had meant, Alicia had still almost died in that dungeon, and Yumiella was the reason why she was being forced to level grind during her imprisonment. The truth of the matter was, though, that Alicia was terrified of actually fighting her. That was why she had fled here, to Lemlaesta. And that was only the beginning; she ultimately planned to flee even farther away.
“It’s fine,” Alicia assured herself. “I’m just going to flee the continent.”
Alicia had gone dungeon crawling while being both supervised and guarded by the Knight’s Order. During one of her breaks, she happened to be alone, and she had encountered a man who had appeared to be an adventurer.
“I’d like your cooperation in an experiment to test a magical instrument, for the sake of world peace,” he’d offered. “I’ll pay you whatever you’d like.”
The man had admittedly seemed pretty shady, but she’d named her price: she wanted to get on a ship to travel to a different continent. He’d agreed right away. All she had to do was operate a magical instrument that required light magic to activate, and she would be able to flee far away. Not only that, she’d also be able to contribute to world peace.
There was no better deal than this. If she didn’t run away, her imprisonment would only continue, and she might have to fight Yumiella one day. Alicia jumped at the opportunity and fled from the Kingdom of Valschein.
Now, Alicia was walking through this unfamiliar town, feeling completely free, when a scream rang out, breaking her happy reverie.
“Bag-snatcher!” cried a voice.
Alicia turned to see a man running towards her. He was hiding his face with the hood of his cloak. Pursuing the muscular thief was a young woman, and she was the one who was screaming.
The handful of surrounding passersby stepped out of the man’s way, likely worried he might have a weapon on him. The culprit was making his way right towards Alicia.
“Get out of the way, woman!” he bellowed.
“I’ve been told to not stand out too much...” Alicia reminded herself.
Despite the fact that the man running towards her was much larger than her dainty self, Alicia didn’t budge. The man reached out to push her away, but Alicia just let out a sigh, grabbed his arm with graceful ease, and forcefully threw him, sending him flying. It was a move of brute force, possible only because of their stark difference in level; Alicia’s stats were so much higher that the action required no martial arts skill of any sort.
“Ough!” the man moaned.
“Just give me what you took and leave at once, please,” she enjoined him.
The man was still on the ground, stunned by the fact that a girl with such a small frame had thrown him so effortlessly. Alicia ignored him and picked up the bag that he’d evidently stolen.
“Here you go. Is this what he took?” she asked, handing the nearby victim her belongings.
The woman stood there, staring blankly for a moment before stammering, “Yes, thank you...”
Alicia didn’t think she had stood out too much, but she nevertheless quickly fled the scene.
Alicia was strong. She was strong enough to rank high even among the members of the Knight’s Order of Valschein. If she went out of control, the only person who could likely suppress her was the commander of the Knight’s Order himself. Despite being one of the strongest people in the kingdom, Alicia didn’t think very highly of herself, because she knew that despite her incredible power, she was still no match for Yumiella.
Alicia slowed, figuring she had left the site of the incident far enough behind, and she found herself in a market on one of the main streets. She took a moment to collect her thoughts about what had just happened.
“Wait... Am I strong?” she mumbled to herself.
She’d assumed that her skills had gotten rusty after being confined for so long, but she had been continuously entering dungeons during the course of her imprisonment—she just hadn’t gotten an opportunity to test out that strength. Now she knew: she’d definitely gotten stronger.
I might be stronger than anyone in the Knight’s Order, even stronger than their commander. I might even be stronger than Yumiella...
Just as that thought crossed her mind, a woman’s angry voice caught her attention.
“If you don’t listen, Yumiella is going to come get you.”
“Eek! Yumiella?!” Alicia squealed, reacting at almost superhuman speed and ducking behind a nearby sign. A moment later, she heard the voice of a child.
“No! I don’t want Yumiella!”
“Oh, it’s just a whining kid and his mom,” Alicia mumbled to herself. Relief washed over her.
She was slightly embarrassed by the fact that she’d had such an extreme reaction because of something a mother said to scare her child, and so she forced herself to leave her hiding place and continue to stroll through the market as if nothing had happened.
Because she was focused on the boy, who was burying his face in his mother’s skirt as he cried, she didn’t notice that she walked past a woman in a white hat.
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