The morning of their 15th day in the dungeon, Sylphia's army finished their training.

"Companies! March!" the girl's tiny voice reverberated against the steep mountainside. On her orders, three companies, totalling 180 siths paraded down the village center. Each one raised his chin with pride as his kin showered him with applause. Their knightly visage, clad in new generation Mythril armor and arms, inspired awe from onlookers who chased them along their journey to the bottom of the village.

First to pass the gates was Company A. This formation was armed exclusively with pikes, far longer than the spears they once used. It and its sister company, named Company B, marched forth, weapons pointed to the sky, like a row of shining needles cascading down the slopes.

Behind them, a much smaller formation of just 20 marched alongside Sylphia herself. Unlike the others, these siths were armed not only with pikes, but with various weapons. During their training, Sylphia kept a lookout for the those who both excelled in combat and cooperated well together. She then plucked them out of their units and brought them together into a single fighting force - the unit she called the Assault Company. She allowed the members of this company to use whatever weapons they have mastery over, so long as they are able to cooperate perfectly with each other. Due to its exclusivity, the Assault Company quickly gained distinction among the sith, and being a member of it was considered a great honor.

But even among the Assault Company, one sith in particular, stood out, and held the utmost respect from everyone in the village.

Their Captain - the very sith who dared defy Sylphia weeks ago, led the Assault Company in decorated armor, wielding a large cleaver which he raised with pride. Sylphia noticed him early on, and despite his initial stubbornness, he was one of the first to master fighting as a unit, and even taught it to others when Sylphia wasn't around. It came naturally, then, that Sylphia assigned him to lead the most elite unit in her army.

"All Companies, halt! Stand in attention!"

At her command, the Siths stopped at the flatlands outside the village where their army was first created, and where they spent most of their time training. They faced a steep hillside, atop of which their esteemed Goddess of War looked down upon them, along with a gallery of spectators.

Sylphia stood in before them with pride. The two weeks' worth of work she put in to training them, had culminated to this single moment. Through their entire parade, a warm feeling of accomplishment had been welling up from inside her. But she kept it sealed in for the last minute.

For now, she stepped forward and took in a deep breath.

"Soldiers!" she said with the loudest voice she can muster without cracking, "From the beginning, it was my intention to mold you into that very thing. First of all, you learned how to obey. For the soldier is himself a tool, just as his weapon. Next, you learned how to fight. A soldier is never alone, and a soldier shall never fight alone! Always and forever, you will have your brothers, comrades-in-arms... and your Gods, by your shoulder. Remember this! Finally, you learned how to serve. Because the solider is not merely a tool for war. You will, from now on, respond to whatever need that your village requires of you. And as a soldier, you will accomplish it dutifully, quickly and without fail."

She snickered. "All this, you have learned in the short span of two weeks. I am impressed! Congratulations!"

"Awoo!" With a synchronous bark that much resembled a war cry, the sith cheered. In full regalia, each soldier raised his weapon of solid Mythril.

She then went on in detail, congratulating individual siths for their contributions and reaffirming the command of each company's Captain with her blessing.

And finally, she concluded, "With your training complete, the next step can finally begin. All company captains will join me in the temple afterwards. Dismissed!"

The dogmen raised their stubby arms forward and gave a salute.

And in return, she did the same.

They can't reach their foreheads with those short paws of theirs, after all. Hehe.

Sylphia returned immediately to the temple.

There, what little space available was set aside for a table, upon which rested a large map made of dried mushroom skin. Scattered on top of the map were a myriad of Letty's tools - books, writing implements, and others she used in creating the map.

She's really been hard at work... what a diligent girl.

Even then, the aforementioned girl stood beside the table and made adjustments to the map. With a worn out feather style, she drew and drew lines over the map. Each time she made a mistake, she would grasp her magic book and cast magic to extract the ink back out of the map and try again.

In the meantime, Sylphia just stood by the entrance and observed Letty for a while, admiring her dedication as she did so.

Soon, a satisfied look appeared on Letty's face, accompanied by a small nod.

Ah, how cute. She smiled to herself once more before walking in. "Letty, are we ready?"

"Ah, Sylphie. Mm." Letty nodded, "We're ready. Oh, and I thought you might want to hear this..."

"Huh?"

"Some scouts came into the temple earlier when you were out."

"Scouts?" She cocked her head. Ah, that's right, a bunch of siths usually roam around the land they still hold to spot any kobold attacks. Thankfully, the kobolds don't attack sith land very often.

"Okay, then what?"

"They have found Rika and the others."

Sylphia's heart skipped a beat. "So they're safe!?"

"Y-yes... but..."

Her heart dropped. "B-but what...!?"

"It's strange... the report said Rika and the others were... training? With the Kobolds...?"

She tilted her head to one side. "Huh...?"

Letty rubbed her forehead. "I'm sorry, that's all they reported... There aren't any other details, apart from the fact that they're safe."

Training? Like morning exercises? Hmph. What a bunch of carefree people. Here we are raising an army to save them, and they're spending their days happily keeping in shape? Sylphia glanced at her body. I haven't eaten well for ages, much less get any exercise... She sighed. Being too skinny isn't very cute, either! Oh well, at least we could still bathe regularly, thanks to the river flowing nearby.

Despite her initial reaction, Sylphia still felt a well of relief inside her. "Well, what's important is we still have someone to rescue." She winked. "Right?"

"Mm!" Letty happily nodded.

With renewed vigor from the good news, Sylphia joined Letty by the table-side and whipped out Sebastian.

"So here's the plan," explained the little girl, "there are a few minor farming settlements scattered in the cavern, and all but one belong to the Kobolds." Using Sebastian, she pointed to the various locations around the map. "The goal, then, is simple - we burn all their farms."

"Eh!?" Sebastian twitched inside her hand.

"Wait, burn?" Letty anxiously said, "D-don't you mean... capture?"

"No, no." She waved her hand dismissively. "We don't have enough men to capture and hold all this land. Only the Kobolds do. So, we steal anything we can carry, we burn the rest, and then-" She dragged her fan to the one farm the Siths controlled. "-we make them retaliate and boom!" She slapped her fist into the palm of her hand. "We destroy their forces, chase them all the way back to their village!"

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"Wait, wait, wait..." Sebastian said, "if you burn all of those farms, the kobolds will starve!"

"Well, sort of yes, and sort of no."

"What do you mean!? Of course it's a yes!"

"No, I mean it won't be a problem-" she smiled, as if what she was saying was the most natural thing in the world, "-because afterwards, we'll raze the whole village to the ground!"

Sebastian's mouth fell wide open.

Letty placed her hand on her chest and said, with a faint voice, "And... all this is necessary...?"

"Mm." Sylphia nodded. "Of course it is."

She swallowed her breath. "I-Including destroying their village?"

"Yeah."

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, since I don't know much about this... but why it necessary to raze the kobold village?"

"Why, of course, it's so they can never get back up again."

"Eh?"

What a pain. Sylphia sighed. "Well, we're going into some post-war things here already, but... basically, I'm planning to permanently reduce the population of the kobolds. Because they reproduce so fast, if left alone, they could easily rebuild their numbers, raise an army of their own and take revenge on the Sith, right?"

"Eh? Uhm, I guess..."

"So we nip this never-ending cycle of revenge in the bud. We raze the kobold village and spread their population among the siths as slaves..." She then placed her palm on her cheeks and continued rambling, "It should be simple to teach the Sith to then control their slave population in case of widespread revolt... oh well, we can figure that out when the time-"

Letty hit the table, ripping a part of the map.

"Hey," Sylphia's shoulders dropped, "what's gotten into you? You ruined the map you spent all week making..."

"What... are you talking about?" Letty held tightly onto her skirt. "Slaves? Population control? Razing an entire village!? Can't you hear what you're saying!?" Her eyes flared with anger, such as Sylphia had never seen before.

"What?" Sylphia raised an eyebrow. "Of course I c-" She sighed. "I don't understand what you're trying to say."

"Don't you!?" The furious scribe furled her brows as she tried to hold back her tears. "How could you not!?"

Geez, what's gotten into you all of a sudden? Tsk. Give me a break.

"Let me guess," Sylphia replied, giving her a condescending look, "after spending so much time with the sith, you've come to see the monsters as people." With a flick of her wrist, she closed her fan, making a clacking sound as if to emphasize her point. "And so, you don't like the idea of killing them, anymore."

Letty flinched. "N-no... that's not..." She averted her gaze. "well..."

"Listen - no matter how you look at it, these things are just monsters. Maybe they can speak and all that," She twirled her finger in the air. "but in the end, these are just monsters. Right?"

"B-but...!"

"And don't forget-" she jabbed her finger into Letty's chest. "you were the one who made the quest to clear this dungeon."

She froze.

"What did you think it meant to clear a dungeon before? That adventurers just kicked the monsters out and everyone lived happily ever after?" She shrugged. "You must have consigned countless other dungeons to death before, haven't you? So what's the point of regretting it now?" She smirked. "Is it because you can see the fruits of your actions directly?"

The black haze filled the temple.

"S-stop..." Letty whimpered. She gripped her trembling hands and hung her head so far down as to hide her face.

But rather than backing down, Sylphia heated up instead. "Why don't you take responsibility for once? Look your victims in the eye and see your actions through to the bitter end." She then banged the table, herself. "Instead of acting like a spoiled brat!"

Letty's tears dripped down her chin. "Stop it!" All of a sudden, the book on the table blew open and its pages flipped one after another. A thick blue smoke then rose from it and wrapped around her body. Then, almost as quickly as the blue smoke coalesced, so did it collapse in its entirety. And in its wake, it created a barrier of light that expanded in all directions.

While the barrier passed through solid objects like the table and Sylphia's body, it pushed away all of the black haze, creating a field free of magic from within.

At that very moment, Sylphia came back to her senses. Her heart pounded hard, her forehead dripped with sweat, and before her, a disgruntled Letty held her hands over her eyes as tears dripped down her chin.

Ah... wait, what did I just say?

As the barrier of light dissipated, the black haze flowed once more into the empty space. She didn't notice it at first, but, unlike other times, her black haze not only seeped into Letty's skin, but into her own, as well. W-wha-!? What's happening!? My magic...!? It's affecting me too!? What skill is this!? In her panic, slapped herself twice across the cheek. Stop it! Stop! Stop this magic!

The black haze finally dissipated.

As the dust settled, she soon felt a cold chill washing over her shoulder. Her face contorted and her mouth fell agape as if she had seen a ghost.

Oh God, what just happened!? What did I say to her!?

"Hey." Finally, Sebastian spoke up. "That's too much, isn't it? Even for you."

Wait, no! I didn't want to say that! Well, I mean it's what I felt inside, but... not that way!

"Y-yeah... t-that's... y-you're right." In a mix of anxiety and confusion, Sylphia's voice trembled violently, along with her body.

Geez, say something! Anything! Right the fuck now!

"L-Letty..." She tried to reach out in desperation.

But just as she was about to touch her, Letty leapt away and stormed out the exit. And in her haste, she did not even notice her hat fall to the ground behind her.

"L-Letty, wait!"

But no matter what she said, Letty just continued running, and she soon disappeared out of the temple.

And in her absence, a heavy silence filled the void.

One the books Letty used as a paperweight fell over the table and spread itself open on the ground.

Sylphia heaved a sigh. She picked the book up and closed it before placing it back on the table. The cover read, 'Cartography, by Maxwell Adams'. She snickered in spite of herself, Why does she even carry a book like this around?

"You're merciless," said Sebastian.

She had no retort. All she could do was hang her head in shame.

"Did you really mean what you just said?"

She fidgeted in silence for a moment, unsure as she was about what had happened. "I... don't know... But I wish I hadn't said it."

He sighed. "You're wrong."

She clicked her tongue. "I know that already!"

"Huh? Wait, no - er... I mean, yeah you are wrong in that way too, but also - I think you misunderstood her feelings."

"Huh?" She looked at him with contempt. "The hell are you talking about?"

"You can't be serious, right? Do you really believe she cares so much about some monsters all of a sudden?"

Her shoulders fell. "T-Then why did she react like that?"

He sighed. "Talk to her." His voice took on a soothing tone. "If need be, I'll step in this time. Just talk to her."

"But the final brief with the captains is..."

"Come on," His face turned sour. "is your damn schedule really more important than her? And even then, do you really think you can command your troops in that state!?"

She scowled at him. "Man, you're annoying." Sylphia rolled her fingers into a fist and gripped them tightly. But she soon released her breath, along with the tension built up in her body. "But you're right."

"Then go."

"Mm." She placed him back in her pocket. "Thanks, Sebastian."

Finally, she picked up Letty's hat and ran after her as fast as she could. On her way out, she met the company captains, who had just arrived, and instructed them to wait at the temple.