The Author's POV

"Emma Courtney Roshfield..."

The temperature of the room chilled considerably, as Oliver sat up straight.

Propping his elbow on his desk and covering the tip of his mouth with his finger, he coldly asked.

"Repeat the words that you've just said."

"I want to enter 'The fallen pit' dungeon."

Emma repeated with a resolute look on her face.

Despite being subjected to her father's enormous presence, not once did she leave her sight away from him.

Her decision was made and no one could change her mind.

Being her father, Olivier naturally knew just how stubborn his daughter was.

Therefore, he didn't try to change her mind. He simply wanted to understand why she would make such a request.

"Tell me why."

Leaning back on his chair, he crossed his arms.

"Tell me exactly why you want to enter that dungeon."

Staring at her father, Emma bit her lips as her eyes flashed with sadness.

Oliver did not miss this as he brought his body forward.

"...I want to become strong."

Emma earnestly replied with her back straight.

"I'm far too weak to be of help."

Oliver frowned at her words

"You're already <C+> rank at the age of twenty, and that is without having any resources. Now that I'm back you don't need to worry about any resources. I think you are worrying too much. You still have so much time to develop."

"That's not what I mean."

Emma cut her father off.

"Dad, I understand that you are trying to help me. However, I need this for myself."

The fact that Ren and Kevin had to give up on their rewards for her, made Emma realize just how much of a burden she was.

Had she not gotten injured, Ren would've most likely picked up the first place reward.

However, because of her situation, he had purposely given up on the tournament for Kevin to win it and give her the elven tear.

She obviously did not buy the whole 'I'm bored' excused that Ren used. Even if he was bored, why would he give up on such clear rewards?

Emma wasn't stupid, and honestly, she was both extremely thankful and sad about the situation.

Thankful for the fact that they would go to such lengths for her, and depressed by the idea that she was the reason why the two of them had to give up on their tournament rewards.

Right then, her father once again spoke.

"...Can I really not change your mind? You know just how dangerous that dungeon is?"

"I know."

Emma nodded her head, clenching her hands tightly.

"If I didn't know, I wouldn't have suggested it."

The fallen pit dungeon.

It was a <B> ranked dungeon owned by the Roshfield household.

It was one of the few dungeons that the Roshfield household closed from the eyes of the public.

The reason for this wasn't because it was dangerous. Although it was dangerous, in terms of danger, it was like any regular <B> ranked dungeon out there.

It wasn't anything worth worrying about.

However, there was a particular feature about it that made it off-limit to the public and members of the Roshfield household.

And that was the fact that once someone got in, they would only be able to come out once they managed to reduce the dungeon energy by half.

There was no time limit, and only once the dungeon energy was cut by half, through killing the monsters inside, would the dungeon once again open up.

No one knew why the dungeon was like that, however, that last factor alone was the reason why most people tended to avoid that dungeon.

In order for someone to kill half of the monsters inside of the dungeon, it would take them at least months at their fastest, and not only that, they needed to survive in that harsh environment for that period of time.

That dungeon was not a place anyone could just go in as they pleased.

"Are you sure Emma?"

Oliver stood up.

Walking out from behind his desk, he stopped in front of Emma, and both of their eyes met.

"..."

Neither one of the two spoke during the time.

This proceeded for the next minute before Oliver eventually closed his eyes.

"Alright...."

He then let out a long sigh.

"This is probably going to be irresponsible of me, but alright, I will do as you say, however, only for one condition..."

Opening his eyes once again, Oliver sternly said.

"You are not going to go inside of that dungeon before you reach <B-> rank and I personally train you for a while."

"I understand."

Emma nodded her head.

That was what she was planning from the very start. She wasn't going to be reckless again.

Only when she felt that she had an adequate shot at surviving did she plan on actually entering.

In the meantime, she was planning on using her free time to train.

Now that her father was back and so were the resources, she was planning on taking advantage of them.

'Want to see more chapters?' Please visit [ .C O M] Although she disliked the fact that she had to rely on her father to grow stronger, she wasn't stupid enough to reject them.

Since it was available to her, she would naturally take advantage of them.

"Good."

Oliver nodded his head in satisfaction.

Extending his hands and embracing Emma, he softly muttered next to her ears.

"Emma, although I had been missing for the past few years, I'm going to try my best to make it up to you and support your decisions."

Emma's body shook at his words.

Leaning her head against her father's chest, she nodded her head.

"Mhm."

***

Sunday night.

—Are you already there?

Amanda's voice rang from the speaker of the phone.

"Yup."

I nodded my head.

Glancing at Nola who was currently swinging my arm around and singing in excitement, I added.

"Nola and I are currently near the entrance of the stadium, we will wait there."

—...Okay.

She then proceeded to hang up.

Putting my phone away, I looked up toward the stadium in the distance.

Although it was late into the night, the temperature in Ashton city was quite warm.

That being said, even though it was warm, I was currently wearing a black hoodie.

Given what happened in the tournament, it was fair to say that I was quite recognizable at the moment.

Well, not if I used the mask.

If I didn't use the mask, no one would recognize me.

"It's quite loud."

I muttered as I stared at my surroundings.

Despite the concert still not having started, the surroundings were extremely noisy as a sea of people headed for the stadium in the distance.

Seeing just how crowded it was, I squeezed Nola's hand tightly.

"Nola, make sure you hold on tight, okay?"

"Um."

Nola replied with a soft hum.

Then, raising my hand, she started swinging it. I shook my head when I saw this.

'How nice must it be to be without worries.'

Following the people from behind and stopping in front of the stadium, I tensed my arm to stop Nola from swinging it.

"Alright, let's wait over here."

"Why?"

Nola questioned.

"Don't you want to wait for Amanda?"

"Yes!"

Nola's face brightened.

"I want sister!"

'How cute.'

I thought when I caught sight of her face.

Fortunately, we didn't have to wait for long for Amanda as I soon spotted her coming in our direction.

Actually, it wasn't really that hard to spot her.

The moment she appeared, she instantly attracted the attention of most of the people present.

With her hair tied behind her back and wearing a thin black shirt coupled with a small black skirt, Amanda looked really beautiful.

Imprinted on her shirt was the name of the idol group, Kimbol.

"Waahh, is she an idol?"

"So beautiful?"

"I think I've seen her before."

Wherever she walked, be it boy or girl they would stop and stare at her for a brief moment and comment on her looks.

'...Why isn't she covering her face?'

Knowing that this would happen, I told her to bring a hoodie or a mask but seemed like she didn't care too much about attracting too much attention.

Guess she was too used to it?

Ignoring the stares, Amanda's footsteps came to a pause.

Raising her head, she looked around the place. She was probably trying to look at us.

Letting Amanda know where we were was Nola who screamed out loud.

"Sister!"

Even though it was quite crowded and Nolas voice was quickly drowned out by the noises, Amanda was able to somehow hear Nola's words as her head snapped in our direction.

Her eyes lit up and she headed our way.

"Nola."

"Hehe."

Rather than greeting me first, the moment she arrived she bent down and gave Nola a hug causing her to giggle in happiness.

"Have you two hugged enough?"

The hug persisted for quite a bit, and it was only after I complained that they separated from each other.

Standing up, Amanda looked at me.

"You jealous?"

"Why would I be?"

I rolled my eyes, and once again took Nola's hand.

"Alright, let's get go—"

"Wait."

Amanda suddenly cut me off.

Raising her head, she looked around.

"What about the others?"

"Others?"

"Yes, didn't you tell me that Kevin and the others were also coming?"

"Ah."

Raising my hand, I smacked my forehead.

"About that, how should I put it..."

Scratching the bottom of my chin, I turned my head away from Amanda and mumbled in a soft voice. Hoping that she wouldn't be able to hear it.

"It was a lie."

"...A lie?"

Unfortunately, somehow, Amanda was able to hear my mumble.

I suddenly felt a mall tug coming from my shoulder as Amanda turned my body.

"What lies?"

She asked with her brows furrowed.

Seeing the slight annoyance in her face, the edges of my lips curled upward.

"I lied about the fact that others were coming."

"Huh??"

Amanda let go of my shoulder.

"You were the one who said that Han Yufei was more handsome than me."

"???"

Amanda's head tilted to the extreme.

Her brows which were already knit, furrowed even tighter as her face became slightly colder.

Squeezing Nola's hand, I dragged her to the entrance of the building.

"Well, let's get going, the show is about to start."

"You..."

Dragging Nola from behind, I moved away from Amanda who seemed to be speechless at the situation.

She had that coming.

To be honest, apart from the fact that I wanted to get back at her for what she did, I had another reason for doing what I did.

Primarily, I wanted to see what sort of reaction Amanda would make.

Ever since what happened back in Issanor, Amanda had become a lot more attentive to me, and although I wasn't the brightest when it came to the romance department, the idea that Amanda could possibly like me sprung inside of my mind.

Of course, this was only a farfetched assumption.

After all, she could've just been grateful for what I did.

Still, I wanted to test if she actually liked me or not, and thus, lied to her about the others coming.

And although brief, I did see Amanda look at me with annoyance back then.

Did that prove to me that she liked me? ...I still wasn't one hundred percent sure, but I now knew for sure that it could be a very real possibility.

"Tickets please."

Handing the tickets for the concert to the guard waiting at the entrance, I looked back.

There I saw Amanda headed our way with an angry look on her face.

'She's definitely angry.'

Although her expression was the same as usual; expressionless, the aura she was giving out clearly indicated to me that she was angry.

Our eyes soon met, and a smirk emerged on my lips.

"I'll see you inside."

I mouthed with my mouth before heading inside with Nola who was clueless about what exactly happened.