The Hero Who Became a Monster Girl Will Never Fall to Evil

“Seems she’s doing pretty well—ate as much as I eat in an entire day all by herself...”

Liufir laughed softly. “Miss Vieya eats so much, an ordinary family could never afford to keep her fed.”

“That’s good.”

Menesis didn’t ask further and turned toward Captain Luna and the Hero Rania sitting across the table. “Captain Luna, Lady Hero, let’s continue our earlier discussion.”

Rania nodded, but suddenly looked as if something had come to mind. She turned toward Liufir, who was about to leave. “That booklet—is it still with her?”

“Booklet?”

Liufir blinked. “You mean the Demon King’s diary...? Miss Vieya’s been holding it in her hands the whole time.”

“......”

Rania paused, then stood up, glancing between Luna and Menesis. “I’d better check it myself—at least confirm whether it’s safe. There might be a lingering curse from that Demon King left inside.”

“Um... Miss Vieya just fell asleep,” Liufir whispered. “Maybe... let’s talk about it tomorrow morning instead? Everyone’s exhausted today, we should rest early...” Her voice grew smaller and smaller, like a shy child running out of energy—or one guilty for lying.

“...I see.”

Rania didn’t press. After a short hesitation, she sat back down.

Her beautiful violet eyes stared blankly at the Holy Sword leaning in the corner, motionless—like a doll without a soul.

Liufir couldn’t understand the emotion in her gaze. She only wished her a soft “good night” and left the room.

Seeing that, Luna and Menesis also gave up on working through the night and turned to leave.

At dawn—

The faint morning light touched the barren branches, and the crows perched on them began cawing incessantly.

Vieya slept soundly, as if no one could possibly wake her.

“Miss Vieya... Miss Vieya...”

The white-haired girl slept curled up on the ground like a child. Squatting beside her, Liufir called softly,

“It’s time to get up, the sun’s shining on your butt already!”

“Still not getting up...? So lazy...”

Troubled, Liufir extended a finger and poked her shoulder—once, then twice when she didn’t stir.

“The early bird gets eaten by the worm... wait, that doesn’t sound right...”

Then her eyes were drawn to the slime girl’s delicate, flawless face. A terrifying thought flashed through her head—She’s so cute... what would happen if I pinched her hard?

Smack!

Liufir’s hand was suddenly caught. Vieya yawned, rubbed her eyes, and asked sleepily,

“What are you doing? Planning to hit me?” 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

“N-no!”

Liufir waved her hands in panic, eyes darting everywhere. “You just wouldn’t wake up, so I thought maybe... pinching you would work...”

“Don’t do that again, okay?”

Vieya stood, stretched lazily, and looked out the window. Today, Luna and the others would probably start re-inspecting the town.

All the places they’d been before, of course, would be checked again—Luna was too responsible to overlook anything, especially after last night’s time reset.

And during that night, Vieya had come up with a possibility—could Flaviel’s sudden disappearance be related to this so-called time reset?

If what the diary said was true, then Flaviel had already become part of this timeline three years ago.

As for the clever little trump card she still had left—Vieya didn’t want to use it unless she had no other choice.

If everything fell apart, at least she wanted to keep one thing as a memento.

“How are you feeling today, Vieya?” Rania’s voice came from the doorway. “They’re about to ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) set out.”

“I’m fine. Yesterday was just an accident, nothing worth worrying about.”

Vieya drew her gaze back from the window and looked at the violet-haired girl. “But you—your mentor was the Chief Hero, right? Now that you’re in Mount Aisa, isn’t there something else you want to do?”

“...Something I want to do, maybe,” Rania said quietly. “But my teacher’s weapon has already chosen a new master. Whatever thoughts I had don’t mean much anymore.” She closed her eyes. “My teacher once said—Holy Swords of that level never take a new master unless their original wielder’s soul has completely perished.”

“There’s such a thing?” Vieya exclaimed. “So you’re saying that unless I die, I can’t get rid of that sword?”

“......”

Rania frowned, clearly unwilling to discuss it further. She redirected the conversation. “Vieya, I came to ask if I could borrow that diary.”

“Borrow it? Sure.”

Vieya pulled the booklet from her pocket and handed it over. “It was never mine to begin with. Once you’re done, return it to Yuancherin and the others.”

Receiving the Demon King’s diary still warm from the white-haired girl’s hands, Rania froze—she hadn’t expected the other to hand it over so easily.

But when she came back to herself, Vieya was already gone, heading out with Liufir to meet up with Luna’s team.

This time, with everyone gathered, the adventuring party’s morale was high.

“Sis Luna, where’re we checking first? Sister Menesis already got the quest item—how about we just find a way out of here? I never wanna come back to this creepy place!”

Kare looked miserable. Two meals a day was bad enough, but sleeping on edge all the time, barely getting two hours before being dragged for watch duty—who could endure that?!

“Let’s start with the town entrance,” Luna said. “If we can get out, we leave right away. If not, we’ll come back and look for other clues.”

“Oh yeah!”

Kare grinned ear to ear, raising his hand for high-fives. No one joined in, but his excitement still spread to everyone around.

“Hey, our lovely Miss Cleric, how’d you sleep last night?” Yuancherin still carried her huge backpack, her tea-colored hair tied in a lively high ponytail that bounced with every step. “Little Sister Liufir kept running over to your spot—hope she didn’t keep you awake.”

“I slept fine...”

Vieya glanced at the oversized pack behind her and asked curiously, “What do you even keep in there? Pots and pans?”

Yuancherin: “...”

“So not pots and pans? I honestly thought you were the team’s junk carrier.” Vieya looked genuinely surprised.

“My dear Miss Cleric, has anyone ever told you that your words can be quite hurtful?” Yuancherin sighed. “They’re potions—poison, healing, stealth, all kinds. Oh, and our adventuring party’s internal communicator is in there too.”

“That’s pretty nice. Are you an alchemist?”

“I studied a little before. Just enough to make a living. But if you ever want to buy potions from me, I can give you a discount.”

Vieya nodded lightly.

Mount Aisa’s town was quite large. It took them nearly half an hour of walking before they reached its entrance.

There, the guard post that Arc had smashed before now stood perfectly intact.

Arc stepped forward. This time he didn’t act recklessly—he simply raised a knuckle and tapped on the weathered glass.

“Anyone there?”

No response for a long while. Arc frowned, growing impatient, but still tapped again.

“Strange. No one this time?”

Confused, the group stepped closer to the grimy window and peered inside.

Thump!—a shriveled old face suddenly pressed right up against the glass, bloodshot eyes bulging like copper bells. The ever-curious Kare let out a shriek.

“You’re not from here!”

The old man inside the guard post shouted in a sharp, accusing voice, his tone almost hissing, “Why are you in this town?! Get out—get out now! You’re not welcome here!”

“It’s the same old man we met when we came in,” Arc muttered, face darkening. “He’s alive again.” After a pause, he added,

“No—not just him. They’ve all come back. And... they don’t remember anything.”