Elton has disappeared from the continental map

Livia felt a chill down her back and a phantom pain in her shoulder and calf.

So close, just a little bit more and she would have been shot…

“Huh?”

Alice flicked her hand away, “Lao Li, since when did you become so timid? You’re actually afraid of mere goblins now? Trash like that, this Duchess can defeat them with her eyes closed—”

Alice’s trailing words suddenly got stuck in her throat.

She saw Livia trembling—not the sly tremble of mischief when she successfully played a prank, but like a chick drenched in a downpour, spasming from her hair tips to her fingertips.

The serious expression on the white-haired loli’s face was so grave that she had never seen it before.

Even on the day of the college entrance examination, her best friend was smiling nonchalantly and saying, “It doesn’t matter. If I don’t do well, I’ll just suck your score by twenty points. I’ll suck, suck, suck~”

But now.

What kind of expression was that…

“I’m sorry, I understand now.”

Alice said solemnly, gripping her rapier tightly, “What should we do next?”

“Let’s just get out of here.”

Livia fitted the iron rods together and quickly rushed out of the room with Alice.

Fighting sounds came from downstairs.

When they rushed down, they saw the silver-haired elder sister forcing back two goblins with her nearly shattered sword.

The pink-haired girl stood further back, holding a broom, her pink curly hair shimmering like honey in the firelight.

“Let’s, let’s go quickly, don’t stay here, we’ll be surrounded by goblins!”

“You guys go first.”

Ilya said faintly without looking back, “The east gate hasn’t been breached yet, or you can go to the south gate.”

“Let’s go together! It’s useless to stay here, they’re not something one person can handle! Besides, your sword is about to break, and you, you don’t even have a proper magic staff!”

“The theory is sound, but, I found a magic stone.”

Ilya suddenly raised her hand faintly.

In her slender, long fingers, she held a sparkling red gem.

“It can provide magic power to my sword, and it will explode upon impact.”

“Magic stone…”

Livia suddenly felt a sense of familiarity.

Wasn’t that the one embedded in the water pipe in the room earlier?

It turned out to be a magic stone.

Wait—

Goblin cave.

Baskets and baskets of magic stones…

“Yes, yes~ We’re actually quite strong, you know?”

The pink-haired girl giggled charmingly. After chanting, an ice ball shot out from the end of the broom, blasting away the three or two goblins guarding the entrance. “You guys go first, and we’ll find you after we’re done~”

“Hey, what are you kidding me!”

Alice rushed forward to pull her, but Livia stopped her.

“Trust them, we need to stay alive!”

Before running out the door, Livia noticed that the longsword in the silver-haired elder sister’s hand was flashing with pale silver patterns, and the gem on it was shining brightly, emitting an unstable light, as if it would shatter at any moment.

Outside the inn, the street had already turned into purgatory.

The blacksmith’s half-body hung from the windowsill, his intestines dripping onto the sign.

The tavern owner rolled in a pool of blood, her body deformed by the fleeing crowd trampling on her. Livia’s boots felt sticky, unsure if it was blood or brain matter.

An arrow grazed her ear, and she heard Alice curse behind her.

“Damn it, why aren’t those residents fighting back? Is this even goblin anymore?”

A ferocious fire dragon rose from the west side of the town, thick smoke carrying embers soaring into the night sky, turning the moon blood-red.

Amidst the continuous howls, Livia clearly heard the crisp sound of bones breaking—that was the sound of goblins’ stone axes splitting open skulls.

“Let’s go east!”

Livia thrust her spear into the body of a blocking goblin, her pure white hair stained with blood. “Alice, don’t space out!”

“Yes…!”

The streets were filled with figures darting about chaotically. The two mingled among them, running towards the east without stopping for a moment.

In the inn.

Ilya’s sword blade was already chipped, her silver hair matted with blood on her face. Flora was also clutching her abdomen, her face unnaturally calm as she leaned against the wooden counter.

“Haha… you know, I never thought I’d die like this someday.”

“That’s strange.”

Ilya pursed her lips, holding the remaining sword hilt in her hand, and was gradually forced back towards Flora.

Why did the goblins invade from two directions simultaneously?

They were organized, burning the granary, killing residents to create fear, and even using bows and arrows…

It was as if they were being commanded, controlled.

Numerous strange occurrences flooded Ilya’s mind, impacting her thoughts.

“I thought I’d die by the hands of my own kind~ Haha, but dying by the hands of monsters, that’s fine too, right?”

She heard Flora’s voice, trailing off in a sigh of resignation, “Flora, you can’t give up yet. Judging by the time, it’s almost that time. Soon… this anomaly will be discovered.”

“Sigh, my magic is depleted, and your sword is broken. We’ve reached our limit~”

Flora let out a snort and spat out blood. Her pink eyes lost their usual radiance, and she quietly gazed at the arrow embedded in her body, “Fate… did not favor us. We are out… of the grand historical stage…”

“It’s just a pity… before dying, I never found pure love, love that I could completely dominate… Hehe, but thinking that Ya’er also didn’t find it, I feel somewhat at ease.”

“Who cares about that? I will never have feelings for anyone again in this lifetime.”

Ilya dropped the sword hilt and instead grabbed the ordinary broom in Flora’s hand, aiming it at the slowly gathering goblins.

“Really… right, cough, even though I was saved, meticulously cared for, my scratches healed, and I don’t even feel anything…”

“No.”

“I was so good to you, wasn’t I… No reward… Mischievous… Cute, cough, anyway, I’ve never met… such a pure child before…”

“I really want… to spend a little more time together.”

“Will she be my first friend…?”

As the two burned their last embers of life, their minds were filled with thoughts of.

Those two cute and lively little girls.

What happened to them?

Did they manage to escape safely?

After all, they were their saviors. If they could survive… that would be great…

Survive, and bear witness for them to the end of this country, this world.

Unfortunately.

They would never know the outcome of their heartfelt wishes in this lifetime.

Thus, the peerless genius magician and the genius swordswoman left no trace in history.

They perished.

—’Toot toot toot!’

A sharp whistle sounded.

“Ambush over here!”

Alice used the whistle to attract the attention of all the goblins. She was hit by several arrows and stumbled into Livia’s arms, her golden hair matted into streaks of dark red by blood.

“Run… quickly…”

Her lips moved, and the blood-stained sword sheath slid from her waist.

More goblins emerged from the shadows, pushing forward over the corpses of their comrades, their green eyes gleaming like hungry wolves in the firelight.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, you’ll be alright. You have to hold on!”

Livia dragged Alice towards the depths of the alley.

The body in her arms grew colder and colder, blood soaking through the fabric of her chest.

Alice’s hand suddenly gripped her wrist with frightening strength.

“Live on…” The golden girl’s pupils began to scatter, “Eat all the sweets in the royal capital for me…”

Before she could finish, her hand fell heavily.

The rapier ‘dinged’ as it dropped into the pool of blood, kicked far away by the fleeing crowd.

“Hey, no way, you’ll be fine, you’ll definitely be fine—!”

She ran forward mechanically, holding Alice’s feather-light body. Her boots stepped on Ami’s corpse—the woman who had given her potatoes earlier lay on her back, a half-burnt wooden stake sticking out of her chest.

Sandra’s golden earring was stuck in a crack in the stone, turning black from the blood.

Goblin roars came from behind.

Livia dared not look back. Alice’s blood flowed down her arm, the warm, sticky sensation reminding her of the overturned honey jar she had fought with her best friend over.

The east gate was within sight.

The heads of the gate guards hung from the flagpole, their eyeballs even pecked clean by crows.

Livia stepped through the viscous blood, rushing outwards.

Moonlight illuminated the wilderness.

“Alice! We’re out, we’ve escaped! It’s all over, a beautiful future awaits us! Wake up quickly, let’s go!”

Livia shouted loudly to her best friend, “Didn’t you say you’d take me to eat all the desserts in the royal capital?!”

“…Really.”

Good.

It’s good that you’re okay.

Alice’s eyelashes fluttered, her golden hair matted to her pale cheeks by blood.

Her lips moved, but only bubbles of blood emerged, her hands gradually growing cold, the blood on the copper whistle already solidified.

Like a butterfly with broken wings, she fell.

The world suddenly fell silent, leaving only Livia’s deafening heartbeat.

Her knees slammed heavily onto the ground, sharp stones digging into her flesh, but she felt no pain.

She only felt her stomach begin to convulse violently, and she finally collapsed in utter despair.

“Why… why did so many goblins invade?”

Her voice was fragmented, “Why tonight of all nights? Why was there no reinforcement? Why… I couldn’t save you…”

“Liar.”

She finally burst into tears, her tears mixing with the blood and dirt smearing her face, “You said you’d be my friend forever, you said…”

Her crying was drowned out by the screams from within the city.

But Livia could no longer hear. Her world was filled only with Alice’s body, which was gradually stiffening, and the blood-stained copper whistle.

“Take me with you… I don’t want to be alone anymore.”

Finally, like a sigh of resignation.

Livia, curled up beside Alice, whimpering like a baby, stood up and, carrying her best friend on her back, walked step by step back into Elton town, the very place she had desperately wanted to escape from.

“Goblins… you beasts!”

She launched a suicidal charge towards the goblin horde…

****

Dawn had yet to arrive, and the first crow’s caw broke through the horizon’s fish-belly white.

The arriving guards stood in silent formation.

In their dead eyes.

Elton.

Had already disappeared from the continent’s map.