Raised in Dungeon

'I should deliver a message to Tobias and Sewel! But because of the isolation room, I cannot connect with Tobias. I should do something with Nishizaka's blessing,' thought Alicia..

Trying to buy time, Alicia had bombarded Nishizaka with a flurry of questions, hoping to catch her off guard. Meanwhile, she had secretly signaled Harald and Maximilian to take action against the guests. As Alicia continued to stall for time, she couldn't help but wonder if they could act fast enough to prevent any casualties outside. She must get out from here and save the people outside who are controlled by the Dolls.

However, Nishizaka's patience gradually wore thin as she grew increasingly irritated with Alicia's constant questioning. It reached a boiling point when she finally snapped and asked Alicia a direct question.

"Oi... that's enough, right? Now tell me everything you know! Where is Higashiro now, and what is his condition? Then how did you find out about it?!" Her words were cold and piercing. Her question contained a threat that she would kill Alicia if she didn't answer her question. Nishizaka did that because there was a right to remain silent in that no-lie room.

Alicia could no longer run away from Nishizaka's question. So she answered...

"I don't know, I'm sorry."

"Hah?!"

Harald and Maximilian immediately came forward to catch Nishizaka. The god's blessing is connected to mana; if Nishizaka dies here, then the effect of her blessing will also disappear.

Swithian immediately blocked Harald and Maximilian with his spear.

Nishizaka looked around, and it turned out that all the nobles were already on the far side of them. Then each side was protected by a 12 Milite captain.

'SHE TRICKED ME!' thought Nishizaka, who felt like a fool for not noticing the others slowly forming a line away from her. Swithian might have noticed, but he kept quiet because it wasn't part of the orders given by Ivaylo.

But how? How did Alicia deceive her? Nishizaka looked at Alicia, whose body was still intact. This meant that she also didn't lie and say that she really "didn't know,"

At that moment, Nishizaka immediately thinks back to all of Alicia's words from the beginning. And Nishizaka immediately realized how stupid she was. No, rather Nishizaka realized how easily Alicia tricked her.

'What matters is that I didn't lie. I'm just hiding the truth,' Alicia thought.

Alicia's first sentence is: I've heard about Higashiro Yamanaka and the person who most likely knows about him.

That made Nishizaka narrow his question to "Is it true? Do you really know something about him?"

Of course, Alicia knew something about Higashiro because she had heard about him from Nishizaka. What Alicia knew about Higashiro was all the information provided by Nishizaka. Then what Alicia meant when she said, "I know the person who most likely knows about him," was that person was Nishizaka.

Nishizaka, she assumed that Alicia knew something about Higashiro that she didn't know. Fueled by this false assumption, she felt obliged to leak every bit of information about the Noctem Dolls to Alicia. However, to her surprise, Alicia didn't give her any information about Higashiro in return.

Because she believes that Alicia's words hold any truth, she realizes, with a heavy heart and a sense of disappointment, that seeing her friend again is nothing more than a pipe dream. The hope that had been sparked inside of her by Alicia's words was now extinguished, leaving behind a feeling of being let down and hurt.

Nishizaka couldn't help but feel betrayed. She had trusted Alicia and believed her; she thought there was a chance she could reunite with her friend. But now, it was painfully obvious that Alicia had lied to her. The realization hit her hard, and she felt a lump in her throat.

As she sighed, trying to push back the wave of emotions, Nishizaka couldn't help but think about how stupid she had been. How naive to have believed that something could come out of the blue and bring her and her friend back together again.

'Since she manages to trick me like that, it means she already knows how my blessing works. And she figured it out just from her observation of the noble who first broke the rules... How cunning and terrible woman. I think I understand why leader told me to be wary of her," Nishizaka thought.

"Modore (Come Back), Hisanna," as Nishizaka said it, the surrounding dust grains approached Nishizaka's hand, and the dust continued to gather and turned into her katana as before.

Nishizaka directly pierced Swith's abdomen, and her katana also hit Maximilian's because Maximilian stood before Swith.

'Damn, I didn't expect her to stab her friend from behind!' Maximilian thought. With this, he could go one-on-one against Harald.

Harald pushed aside the bodies of the two people beside him. Then he approached Nishizaka.

Nishizaka immediately slashed at Harald, and Harald protected his head with both hands. As a result, the sword wounded both of Harald's hands. Of course, Harald did it on purpose. So without any shocked reaction, Harald lunged toward Nishizaka and splashed his blood on her.

"Blood?! What is this for?!" Suspicious of what Harald would do with the blood splash, Nishizaka took off her robe and threw it forward, resulting in Harald's blood splash onto the robe

-SWING

The sound of a sword darting was heard from the robe that Nishizaka threw. From that robe, a sword came out that was aimed at her face.

'Why did it suddenly appear from there?!'

-CRACK

Cannot dodge, Harald's sword reaches Nishizaka's mask. As a result, the mask broke, clattering to the floor. Blood streamed from her face and splattered onto the mat. She clutched her bleeding features in agony, gasping in pain. The spectators looked on in horror as Nishizaka's true face was finally revealed to them. On her left eye was a deep black stitch mark - the unmistakable signature of a member of the Noctem Dolls.

Nishizaka looked at Harald, who thrust his sword into his own palm.

'That person's god's blessing is also space related. If it weren't for this mask, I would have died,' Nishizaka thought.

As Nishizaka stood amid the chaos, various types of amnis shots were fired at her from all directions. These shots were delivered by dungeon explorers employed by the kingdom. Nishizaka fearlessly deflected all the shots with her sword and moved elegantly to avoid them all at once. Meanwhile, Harald launched furious attacks on Nishizaka from all angles. None of the amnis shots hit Harald; all of them were expertly aimed at Nishizaka.

But Nishizaka was not alone in this battle. With her was Swithian, who had sustained a horrific wound that caused a great deal of blood to gush out of her body. Even with that wound, Swithian didn't die; to kill a doll controlled by Ivaylo, one must at least separate its body and head.

Nishizaka picked up the sword lying on the floor and attempted to hurl it at the nobles. However, the Milite captains could swiftly swat it away, and Nishizaka realized that taking a hostage at such a time might not be possible.

"Give me a moment," Nishizaka said to Swithian. Swithian nodded, taking Harald's and the amnis' attacks at the same time.

Nishizaka sat down and began to pray.

"Kami no mikago: Kisei no kakinaosu"

Nishizaka's body glowed, and just like before, the light on Nishizaka's body expanded and covered the entire room.

"I've rewritten the rules of this room. From now on, you are all forbidden to attack me!-"

-WUUUSH

A fireball shot out from Nishizaka's right. The fire came from the amnis that Margareth activated.

"MARGARETH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" shouted Harald. Margareth had just broken the rules made by Nishizaka to not attack her, and it made him think that Margareth would explode.

"ukh!" but she didn't explode; Margareth was now holding her head which was in a lot of pain.

"The higher the risk to the user, the higher the impact. The lower the risk, the lower the impact! her god's blessing is only dangerous when the rule is risk her own life!" Alicia said.

"TCH! That woman really pissed me off!" muttered Nishizaka, holding her left shoulder that had gotten burned by Margareth's amnis.

"When the rules she made have no risk to her, the consequences will be weak! And the consequence of breaking the rules this time is a mild headache!" Alicia explained.

Everyone went back to attacking Nishizaka, and as Alicia said, their heads hurt every time they attacked Nishizaka.

But that didn't mean it wasn't a nuisance. Having a sudden headache while attacking people disrupted their accuracy.

With that bad accuracy, they cannot risk shooting an amnis. So the dungeon explorers also came forward with their weapons. Nishizaka's movements were very agile, assisted by Swithian who could sacrifice his body at any time, making them difficult to attack. Instead, Nishizaka repeatedly managed to split the head of the dungeon explorer who approached her so fast and easily.

Nishizaka's big problem is Harald.

Harald repeatedly threw his blood at Nishizaka; Nishizaka had to take cover from other people's bodies and clothes to avoid the blood. There was so much blood on the floor that he didn't know which way Harald's sword could come out. Again and again the sword appeared from under her feet, and Nishizaka had to be wary of all her steps now. Until finally she could not move properly. If not for the head-spinning effect of Nishizaka's god's blessing that lousy Harald's accuracy, she would have died in a second

Swithian's presence was so disturbing that Harald decided to defeat Swith first. While Nishizaka was still busy fighting the dungeon explorers, Harald used the opportunity to splash his blood on Swithian's chest; He put his sword in his hand, then he muttered.

"Abare: Celare," Harald's sword thorns instantly bloomed inside Swithian's body. As a result, Swithian's body was destroyed, leaving only his head, hands, and feet.

'Forgive me, Sir Swith,' Harald muttered.

Behind Harald, Francis watched the whole fight with shock, fear, sadness, and anger.

He saw the person responsible for his brother's death before him. From their fight, Francis could tell that he was no match for them.

But when he saw Leofric's corpse lying on the ground, it made the blood inside him boil, and he wanted to avenge his brother immediately.

'I will help brother Harald! Two are better than one! When that woman is off guard, I will definitely kill her!' Francis thought.

Francis looked around, Sabine was treating Maximilian's wound which seemed to be quite severe, along with other dungeon explorers. As for Alicia, she was on the 2nd floor, don't know what she was doing, but she was standing in front of the door with a very serious face.

For Francis, that moment was his chance. There would be no one to stop him if he came forward now.

He slowly picked up the sword of one of the dungeon explorers beside him. Then waited for an opportunity to attack Nishizaka.

Nishizaka, who already realized that the situation was getting dangerous because the Swith doll was already no use, had to find a way to reorganize the situation. And she found it when he looked at Prince Francis.

As soon as the Swithian body was destroyed, Nishizaka ran straight to his target. To get the situation under her control, all she needed now was a hostage.

When Nishizaka looked at Francis, Francis immediately shivered in fear. But he forced himself to raise the sword. His courage and desire to avenge Leofric's death allowed him to overcome his fear.

Without anyone to guard her, Nishizaka ran towards Francis.

"FRANCIS!" shouted Harald, who also tried to chase after him. Harald's shout made everyone look toward Francis, who was now raising his sword.

"YOUR HIGHNESS! DON'T!" screamed Sabine.

Francis raised his sword and shouted, "HYAA-" His head hurt tremendously as he did so. Francis vomited from his pain. That pain was the consequence of breaking the rules of the room by not attacking Nishizaka.

Francis could only stay still and close his eyes.

Then suddenly

-THRUST

"!!!"

Sabine used her god's blessing.

Her god's blessing was a cover move, which allowed her to move in front of the person she marked. For the past ten years, she had marked Francis with her mana.

Nishizaka had never intended to use her sword. However, when Sabine appeared out of nowhere to protect Francis, Nishizaka spontaneously plunged her katana into Sabine's stomach. It was a gut-wrenching sight for Francis. His eyes fluttered open to see the sharp blade of Nishizaka's katana inches away from his face. He felt a sudden jolt of fear, causing him to recoil slightly. As the pounding headache subsided, the sight before him became clearer. He saw Sabine's motionless back. Sabine stands before him with a sword piercing her body, making the blood flow to the sword's tip.