It was midday, and a carriage rattled along the rocky mountain path, the clattering of hooves and wheels a stark contrast to the serene beauty surrounding them. The road slithered beside a river, its crystalline waters rushing down from the snow-capped peaks far in the distance, the mountains, the grand natural barrier that separated the Land of Men from the Dwarven Continent. The river, born from these towering giants, wound its way through the Duchy of Vermont in the southern part of the Eldoria Kingdom, eventually spilling into the Parting Sea, which flowed towards the distant lands of the Elves.

  For nearly an entire afternoon, the carriage followed this river, the path twisting and turning as the road and watercourse wove together like old companions. The mountains loomed ever closer, their jagged peaks scraping the sky, casting long shadows over the valley below. The air was cool, the scent of pine and damp earth filling the carriage as it bounced along the uneven ground. It was a remote place, untouched by the hand of man, where the only sounds were the rush of the river and the occasional call of a distant bird.

  As the river and the road diverged, the carriage came to a halt. It seemed as though they had arrived at their destination, though there was no village or landmark in sight, just the untamed wilderness. The carriage door swung open, and with a vigorous leap, a teenager emerged, a basket in hand. He was followed closely by a young woman dressed in black, her eyes scanning the area with satisfaction. They exchanged a smile and a nod.

  Without hesitation, they turned back to the carriage and began dragging out a large metallic box. "Miss Arianna, young sir, let me take care of this," Roque, the coachman, offered, moving forward with the intent to help. But Arianna shook her head, knowing that this was a task beyond the coachman's ability. The box, from the loud thud it produced when being pulled out, was easily over 100 kilograms. It was only their combined strength that made the task manageable, Roque would have snapped his back trying. They still needed a ride home after all this, so it was best he stayed out of it.

  "You stay here. We will be back in about an hour. Let the horses rest in the meantime," Arianna instructed, her gaze shifting to the horizon to gauge the time. The young coachman nodded, quickly setting himself to his tasks as Arianna and the teenager, each holding an end of the heavy box, walked in the direction of the sun, back toward the river from which the road had veered.

  After a fifteen-minute walk, they arrived at the reason why the road had parted from the river. Before them stood a towering waterfall, the river's grand finale before it plunged into the abyss below. The waterfall was a spectacular sight, with the sun slowly making its descent into Eldoria's northern horizon, casting golden light over the mist that rose from where the water met the rocks. The sound was deafening, yet somehow calming, a constant roar that spoke of nature's relentless power.

  "This is a nice spot, don’t you think, Damian?" Arianna remarked, looking at the teenager standing beside her.

  He nodded, a slight smile on his lips. "I like it."

  "Alright then, it’ll be here that we’re doing this," she announced, as Damian set the metal box on the ground and opened it. Inside, crammed into the confines of the box, was a limbless man with a gagged mouth. His eyes were closed, but they shot open the moment the lid was lifted, squinting against the sudden burst of sunlight. Arianna leaned in with a mocking smile. "Rise and shine, sunshine. We've arrived at our destination."

  With a swift push, Damian tipped the box, forcing the man to spill out like a worm from its can. He mumbled something incomprehensible, his voice muffled by the gag, writhing on the ground as he tried to form words.

  "Got something to say?" Arianna asked, exchanging a glance with the teenager Damian, who calmly closed the metallic box and nodded. Without further delay, she removed the gag. As soon as she did, the man’s voice broke free in a desperate plea. "Please, mercy! I have a daughter, a son, a wife. Please, let me—"

  "If that’s what you wanted to say, don’t waste your breath," Arianna cut him off, her tone cold and final. "There’s no way I’m just letting you go, especially after dragging you all the way out here."

  The man trembled in fear, the reality of his situation slowly dawning on him, again. His eyes darted around frantically, taking in the wilderness, the waterfall, and the vast emptiness around them. Realization hit him like a blow to the gut, and he turned back to look at Arianna and Damian, the terror in his eyes all the confirmation they needed.

  "Look at this, seems like he guessed what we're here to do, right brother?" Arianna mused, her voice laced with bitter amusement.

  "It seems," Dungeon Master 09 confirmed, casually sitting on the metal box, pulling out an apple from the basket and taking a bite.

  The man, wriggling like a worm, turned his desperate gaze to Dungeon Master 09. "I'm... I'm sorry for what happened back then. I'm truly sorry! I shouldn’t have done that. If I could undo it, I would. I swear to you, I’ve been haunted by it every night for the past five yea—"

  "Isn’t it a little too late for that?" Arianna interrupted, her voice devoid of sympathy. "Just accept it, buddy. You messed up, big time. Frankly, I don’t know what possessed you to do it, beating up a kid and leaving him for the current to finish off? And for what? Because his parents made you jobless? If I didn’t have any moral compass, it wouldn’t have been you alone in that box, but your wife and children too. But as you can see, I’m a very reasonable person."

  The man was speechless at her words, his face a mask of shock and despair. When he finally found his voice, it came out in a venomous hiss. "Reasonable? How is this reasonable?! You sick bitch! You chopped off my legs, my arms, you’re a fucking psycho, the two of you are!"

  "We healed you though," Damian commented casually, as if discussing the weather. It’s thanks to us that you’re still alive and didn’t bleed out."

  "Don’t you dare talk to me like you did me a service, you son of a bit—"

  Before he could finish, Arianna’s foot shot out, landing a brutal kick to his face, cutting off his words in a sickening crunch.

  Damian remained seated on the metal box, his expression calm as he leaned back slightly, taking in the scene. "I'd recommend you watch your tone," he said in a measured voice, his gaze fixed on the man lying on the ground. "We're reasonable, but that doesn't mean we're all tolerant. That’s especially true for my friend over there."

  Arianna, without hesitation, pressed her foot against the man’s face, pinning him to the ground. Her eyes were cold, as dark as the abyss that awaited him. "The young man’s right. I have my limits," she said, her voice sharp and unwavering. "And it seems there’s a misunderstanding here. You think we made you limbless just for some petty thing like revenge?"

  The man tried to speak, but only a pained groan escaped his lips.

  "We don't believe in that," Arianna chimed in, his tone casual but firm. "Revenge just keeps the cycle going, eternal retaliation, one blow after another. We believe in something simpler, something more transactional, fairer. You do us rough, we do you rough. Simple concept, right?"

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  "How is that not vengeance? How does that make any sense?" the man spat back, his voice trembling. "I didn’t chop off his limbs, did I?! How is this fair?!"

  Arianna leaned in closer, the pressure of her boot increasing on his face. "First, it's not vengeance because if it were, your whole bloodline would be paying the price, not just you. Second, you're right, you didn't chop off his limbs. But when you threw him off that bridge, left him to die, he was a child, small and frail like you are now. In fact," her voice dropped to a chilling whisper, "he was even frailer. Makes me think that perhaps I should butcher you up a bit more, to properly balance things out."

  The man lay there, speechless, his body curling into itself in a futile attempt to escape the inevitable. Tears welled up in his eyes as he started to bawl, the realization of his fate crushing him completely. Arianna and Damian exchanged a glance, and with a nod, he rose from his seat.

  "Let's wrap this up," he announced, his voice carrying a finality that made the man start wriggling in panic.

  Damian grabbed the man by the back of the neck, dragging him toward the edge of the waterfall. The man’s desperate pleas filled the air, his writhing body like a fish caught on a hook. But Damian was unfazed, his grip firm as he brought the man to the edge.

  And then, just as the man had done to him four years ago, Dungeon Master 09 tossed him into the abyss. The man’s scream was swallowed by the roar of the waterfall, his body disappearing into the churning waters below.

  As he watched, Damian was about to move away when he heard the metallic scrape of the box being dragged to the edge. He turned to see Arianna pulling it closer to the ravine.

  "Don’t worry, he’s dead," she said, her voice carrying a note of finality. She then took a seat on the box, motioning for him to sit beside her.

  He did, settling beside her as she reached into the basket and handed him a sandwich. "Sorry I couldn’t help you deal with him earlier," she said, her voice softer now.

  "Nothing to apologize for. I understand," he replied, taking a bite of the sandwich.

  Arianna sighed, a deep, weary sound that seemed to carry the weight of years. "Those bastards from the faith just wouldn’t leave me in peace," she said, almost as if venting to herself. "Four years I had to live under close scrutiny. Four fucking years. If I’d known it would put me in a situation like this, I would never have accepted Dungeon Master 07’s suggestion. But I did, and now look at me."

  Damian glanced at Arianna, taking in her appearance. She was nothing like the young Dungeon Master he remembered. Back then, she had preferred bold and unconventional clothes: strapless tops and wide-legged pants that made her stand out. Now she wore something entirely different. Her dress was black, elegant, and severe, with long flowing sleeves and a faint shimmer of silver at the shoulders. Her hair fell straight down her back, dark and smooth, matching the quiet intensity in her eyes. They did not look like the eyes of a killer, even though he knew that was exactly what she was.

  At first, he thought she looked like someone in mourning. He quickly realized that wasn’t quite right. There was something about her presence, calm, cold, and certain, that felt heavier than grief. The black dress and the stillness in her eyes made her seem distant, almost unreal. Like death itself. Yet even so, her presence steadied him, just as it always had.

  "I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear a dress before," he said, trying to bring a touch of normalcy to the moment.

  "I didn’t like them," Arianna admitted, glancing down at herself. "Always found them too bothersome to wear. But strangely, dresses like this one… I don’t know. I wouldn’t wear it on an adventure, but in the city? I could live with this. It suits me, I think. Or maybe it’s just Stockholm syndrome after being forced to dress like this."

  He chuckled. "Is the long hair also because of that?"

  Back when they traveled together, Arianna always kept her hair at chin length. But now, her hair was so long that he wouldn’t be surprised if she hadn’t cut it at all in the four years they’d been separated after Dungeon Master 07’s death.

  "Oh, this?" Arianna said, absentmindedly wrapping a strand of hair around her finger before letting it unwind. "I never really cared about my hair. I just kept it short so it wouldn’t get in my way. But these past four years, I was never in a position where it did get in my way, so I just let it grow. Honestly, it’s not half bad. With long hair, I can do this when I’m bored." She wrapped her hair around her finger again, the movement almost unconscious.

  He knew her well. Arianna was a free spirit, and after what happened to Dungeon Master 07, she’d found herself stuck in a situation that clipped her wings. No doubt that being under the scrutiny of not just one, but all three faiths at once, had put her in a distressingly suffocating situation.

  The way she toyed with her hair, the way that particular set of strands looked frillier than the rest, it wasn’t hard to guess that she had been bored a lot. Arianna was a free spirit, always had been. But the wake of Dungeon Master 07’s death had forced her into a situation that even she couldn’t escape.

  From what she had told him, they, by Dungeon Master 07’s initial plan, were supposed to stay together for some time, but an unforeseen event in Dungeon Master 07’s plan had forced her to do things her own way instead. The solution she found was to part ways with, regrouping only when it was safe to do so. Under the protection of a newly officialized Divine Emissary, she spent the last four years battling for her right to be an adventurer. But it wasn’t particularly about being an adventurer. It was more about the advantage that came with being one, the freedom to not belong to either the Seraphims or the emperor.

  "So, you’re really free now, huh?" he mused.

  "I am," she said, raising both hands in a V for victory. "But… Well, I’m still under surveillance, so there are some things I won’t be able to do."

  At that moment, their eyes both fell to the box they were seated on top of.

  "Is this alright?" He asked with a frown. For he felt what they just did definitely fell under the category of what she couldn’t afford to do anymore.

  "Don’t worry, I might be observed, but not under such close scrutiny. We’re fine. Relax," she said, nudging his side.

  "I see."

  As the sun began to sink into the horizon, the duo tried to make up for lost time. He told her about what he had been up to on his own. Since there were no restrictions on him after what happened four years ago, he had two options in front of him.

  He took the safer one, the one that led him back to his family. That’s what he did, playing the coward, when something else he could have done was to level up on his own. But fearing yet another stupid death, he chose this path, returning to his family and making it look like his runaway attempt had been an abduction. It wasn’t hard to do, his parents already believed that. All he needed to do was play along.

  But he hadn’t just sat around doing nothing. He made it his goal to inherit the family business, and to make it worth more than it had ever been. As an only child, he was bound to take it over anyway, but he wanted to do it on his own terms. He’d come to accept his fear. Unlike Dungeon Masters like Arianna or Vittorio, he no longer wanted to throw himself into danger. He’d died enough foolish deaths in his past lives and had no desire to repeat them. Instead of chasing risk, he chose to be useful in another way, following Dungeon Master 07’s old advice: to take charge of the Leo and Liana postal company and make it thrive, or at the very least to maintain it so that can keep fulfilling its main purpose of being their new path of Convergence.

  Dungeon Master 07 had quickly seen through him, past his cowardice, and he couldn’t even feel offended by it, for he had seen it too, especially when comparing himself to the likes of Dungeon Master 07 and Dungeon Master 08. He wasn't like them. And that's alright, he told himself.

  After an hour or so of catching up, the duo made their way toward the carriage. As they did, Arianna asked, "So, Damian, what do you think about joining the adventurer’s guild and going on an adventure? A journey like we used to do."

  He smiled at her and shook his head. "I would love to, but I think I wasn’t born for that lifestyle, at least not in this incarnation."

  She smiled back, patting his shoulder, simply saying. "I see."

  A moment of silence went by until she added, "Can I ask you a favor? Could you make it so that someone out there manages to invent glasses?"

  He looked at her, frowning, wondering what she might need glasses for. He knew she had once explained to him how her innate skill [Eagle Eyes] immediately countered her vision impairment. "Glasses? For eyes?"

  "Yes, for vision. Oh! It’s not for me. It’s for any of us who might happen to have a problem with their vision like I did, well "do". I was lucky to immediately unlock [Eagle Eyes]. I don’t think the other Dungeon Masters will be that fortunate so... I guess I could do it myself, but—"

  "Leave it to me," he said, taking over. "I’ll have this ready for them."

  As the carriage came into view, Damian asked, half in a daze, "I wonder what Dungeon Master 07 is up to now?"

  "Him? Well, I can answer that one. Most likely, as of now, he’s most likely a baby somewhere plotting his next ascent. Did I tell you his goal for his next incarnation is to become an archangel?"

  "That’s a big target."

  Arianna nodded. "But I have no doubt that he'll pull it out."

  "Yeah. Me too."

  As they reached the carriage, Roque, the carriage driver, asked, "Where are we headed next, Miss?"

  "We’re headed to Miriandelle. You drop me there, then you take this young man to his family."