The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

To be honest, I wasn’t in good shape.

The space was narrow, with few places to hide, unlike the battlefield. The sheer number of enemies crammed into the tight corridors made it feel overwhelming. Even in war, where thousands of enemies might gather, I wasn’t fighting the entire battlefield. There were trenches wide enough for small squads to maneuver. Here, the second-floor hallway offered no such leeway.

Naturally, I was far more exposed to enemy attacks.

The opponents weren’t ordinary soldiers either—they were trained knights. While they might have lacked real experience in killing humans, they were still formidable enough to make fighting them alone an arduous task.

If I hadn’t been able to reset time, I wouldn’t have been standing here now. I wouldn’t have won, either.

...Games are games. No matter how many enemies you face, it’s only possible for a four-person party to emerge victorious because that’s how games work.

After all, the enemies we faced in the game included gryphons, the Empire’s strongest swordsman, and even the Emperor himself.

While magic-made ice stairs had helped us ascend earlier, I used the ordinary staircase to descend. There was no point in forcing Mia to drain her mana further after such a fierce battle.

That ice staircase, too, was only possible because this wasn’t a game. In the original game, spells could only be used as battle commands, not as tools to manipulate the environment.

“Sylvia!”

Alice’s shout jolted me.

Stumbling down the stairs with an injured leg, blood continued to drip down my forehead, obscuring my vision. One hand was occupied dragging the Cardinal, while the other held a pistol aimed at our surrendered enemies. I had no way to wipe the blood away.

Thud. Thud.

With every step I took, the Cardinal’s body bumped against the stairs. I didn’t have the strength to carry him with care.

...Hmm.

By the time I reached the bottom, I realized that I was probably in the worst condition among the ten of us.

Thud.

I dropped the Cardinal onto the floor, eliciting a groan of pain. His limbs were a mangled mess, but he didn’t appear to be bleeding out, likely thanks to the heat from the Maramaros rounds cauterizing the wounds.

As I wiped the blood from my face with my now-free hand, Alice hurried over and grabbed my empty arm, draping it over her shoulder to support me.

“You’re okay—”

Alice began to ask instinctively but stopped mid-sentence. Judging by appearances alone, I was far from okay. Even without a mirror, I could imagine how I looked.

During the battle, adrenaline had dulled my senses, but as the tension eased, the pain and exhaustion hit all at once.

I had been able to calmly reset time even after losing an arm mid-battle, likely because I’d experienced worse under Lucas. One thing I’d learned from being repeatedly cut by his sword was that “a deep wound hurts less at first.” And that the pain grows unbearable with time.

“I’m fine,” I insisted, though I couldn’t relax entirely now that the fighting was over.

“We need to restrain the surrendered knights—”

“Got it.”

Charlotte, standing a short distance away, responded promptly.

“As Princess of Belvur, I order you all to kneel and place your hands behind your heads,” she declared, stepping confidently toward the knights.

Charlotte’s body bore numerous wounds, the most notable being a deep gash on her shoulder. It looked more like a gryphon’s claw mark than a typical beast’s wound. The spacing between the gashes was far too wide for it to have been caused by anything smaller.

“You’ve conducted unauthorized military activity beneath Belvur’s territory, violating the treaty between the Kingdom and the Holy Nation. We will address these violations thoroughly.”

Charlotte’s commanding tone prompted the rest of the group to act.

We hadn’t brought restraints with us, not expecting to subdue enemies without killing them. Yet the knights had cuffs strapped to their waists.

They hadn’t planned to kill us outright. Even if they wanted leverage, killing the Princess of Belvur would have been disastrous for the Holy Nation. It seemed they had prepared for negotiations or hoped to use us as bargaining chips.

Now, those same restraints were being used to bind them.

As the knights were forced to the ground, their gazes shifted toward me.

Some had removed their helmets, and their eyes revealed unmistakable fear.

Even while leaning heavily on Alice and struggling to stand, I must have looked like a harbinger of destruction to them. After all, I had taken down so many of their comrades singlehandedly.

“Sis.”

Claire approached, gently placing a hand on my right arm—the one holding the pistol.

“It’s over now. You can let go.”

It wasn’t over.

We still had information to extract. The story had deviated too far from the original, and the future was uncertain—

But I didn’t get to finish my thought.

Claire’s soft hand eased mine away from the pistol grip. She calmly holstered the weapon for me and lowered my arm with gentle care.

“Let’s go. Sit down for a while, at least.”

Her voice was soothing, almost like a lullaby.

“....”

I didn’t respond.

But at that moment, the tension drained from my body.

My knees buckled, and I almost collapsed, but Alice caught me just in time. Claire, on my other side, tightened her grip to help support me.

“Take a break. We’ll handle the rest,” Alice reassured me.

I decided to follow her advice.

Sigh.

I felt like I could breathe again.

The device controlling the gryphon had been destroyed, but it wasn’t the only thing released from control. Beyond the massive doors lay countless other beasts we hadn’t dealt with, now freed from the device’s influence.

I doubted they’d be in great condition, given the gryphon’s state, but caution was still necessary.

Leo and Claire stood beside the slightly ajar doors, ready to keep them open. They had positioned themselves carefully inside the room to prevent the doors from slamming shut, as they had when we first entered.

Even through the small gap, the recovery device worked flawlessly. I didn’t know the exact mechanics—it hadn’t been detailed in the lorebook—but as long as it considered the space "the same location," it seemed to function.

“At least there won’t be any scars,” Charlotte commented, inspecting her now-unblemished shoulder. The skin beneath her torn clothing was flawless, showing no trace of the gryphon’s earlier attack.

“...”

Sophia remained silent. Though she had tried to heal me earlier with divine magic, the bleeding on my forehead had barely stopped. Her powers seemed limited, likely capped at a certain level.

In the original game, divine magic used a separate resource from mana. But considering the discrepancies between the original and this world, I wasn’t sure if MP was an exact analog for mana here. After all, the concept of a "gauge" for a person’s condition was something unique to games.

Alice, meanwhile, stood fearlessly before the gryphon.

The creature, its head bowed and eyes closed, looked utterly defeated. Alice’s expression as she stared at it was complex, layered with emotions I couldn’t quite decipher.

Reaching into my pocket, I retrieved the broken artifact I’d taken before descending to the first floor.

Its center was shattered, and the glow it once emitted was gone.

But the gryphon recognized it.

Its eyes snapped open, gleaming sharply as they fixed on me.

...Oh.

Was this the wrong timing?