As Ariadne walked up the stairs, she ‌could see inside the structure. A sense of nostalgia rushed down her chest as the details on the temple floor pulled her into the building. Edmund was right by her side but ‌ sighed because he needed to do something.

He remembered the hero entering this same temple and running towards the sword, now right there as if it had never been pulled. It was the same as in his memory: half it on the flood with nothing special around it.

The cameraman was recording all the details of the building but was stopped by Sorth, who put her right arm on his chest as they were going to enter the temple.

‘To the side, let’s have space between us and the fight, but not be too far from it.’ She pointed to the right side.

He nodded, and the two were almost at an angle, following each other inside the vast, open temple. The sounds of the battle were audible, but inside, there were no signs of destruction, unlike the destruction the two saw and recorded outside, with even buildings destroyed.

Ariadne was in front of the sword, with Edmund by her side. He was leaning against his sword, waiting for her to pull it. They were in the middle of the temple, with images as she looked to the side.

‘When you pull the sword, the portal will open, and a golem of the previous hero will come up in some place right there,’ Edmund pointed up front.

‘I know…’ She put her hand on top of the pommel of the sword of the hero.

For a moment, Ariadne was lost in her memories, a whirlwind of emotions and experiences. Her life, once simpler, now seemed like a distant dream. Despite the pain of her condition and the looming threat of death, she cherished the time she had with her father in the capital just before he returned from the trip where he narrowly escaped an ambush.

They had a year and a half of happiness; perhaps he wanted to be with her, knowing their time was limited. Then Velvent attacked ‌, overwhelming their forces. She was kept in the dark about the military meetings at the castle, but one day. They were at the gates. From her room, she could see the Velvent army breaching the capital gates in the distance, her hands trembling in fear.

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She stayed in her room hugging Eliza; there was no escape; it looked like the attack came as a surprise, and all she could do was wait in her room for her time to die, but it didn’t happen. Instead, a young A-Dam with white hair, blue eyes, and a massive sword in his hand barged into her room. Her maid stood between the two of us, but he tried to explain that he was only there to stop Ariadne from taking her own life.

He stood there looking at her with no malice, smiling occasionally, trying to initiate a conversation, but she was too afraid to talk to him. Velvent soldiers held strange pieces of wood, and right after, King Rufus Volter showed up in his majestic armor, with no blood on him or his sword pulled.

The king told her that her father was dead; they were enemies, sure, but diplomacy brought them closer over time. The only thing was that his hand was too good this time for him not to use it. She would be treated commonly and be under his care. Before he left the room, he told her that most of the nobles had fled the capital; only her father stayed to defend with the royal guard. This revelation made her blood boil in rage, but she could do nothing. Days passed, and she was called to the throne room, where she once sat next to her father, being looked at with disgust by the other Lavan nobles; now, she was on her knees in front of the king of Velvent.

With a shock, the king declared that she was to be the slave of the white-haired young man who had entered her room days before. After a swift ceremony, the young man was now her master, and on the same day, he would put a nail in her arm out of nowhere; after the initial pain, all that she felt before subdued. Everything was happening so fast that she didn’t understand what was happening; he didn’t explain.

To her surprise, life didn’t change much from before. Her master, a young man named Edmund, the fourth prince of Velvent, didn’t behave or wear clothes fitting for his title. One thing he insisted that she do was train using the enormous sword he carried around sometimes. Despite the master-slave relationship, there was a strange sense of equality and mutual respect between them.

Months passed, and Ariadne was growing accustomed to her new life. Edmund didn’t mistreat her and was kind and polite; it didn’t feel like she was a slave at all. He even said she was special and that the world depended on her, all flattery to her ears, things nobody had ever said to her. The two even had tea parties, talking and laughing about the silliest things.

He was moving her heart, and she felt for him as well when he talked about his time alone developing his devices at a young age and how she might as well call him a peasant because his father didn’t treat him like a son at all even after the things he did for the kingdom and how Ariadne’s father refused to take him as a slave in exchange for peace in a border dispute.

One day, Edmund told her they were going to a place in the mountains; he always talked about the demon lord and its army, powerful entities that threatened the peace of their world, and how they were going to fight it, the dungeons, and everything; she thought it was interesting, but nothing that could be traced back to reality; the method of transportation they used for her wasn't comfortable as it was inside of a metal box; she didn’t see where they were going, only getting out to eat and other things.

When they reached their destination, she finally saw where she was and the number of people running around the camp; she didn’t understand what was happening. Edmund told her that now was the time to use what she had received from him. He recognized how little it was, but it was enough, and he would do most of the work. He comforted her with a kind smile and a pat on the head.

Ariadne was still confused until she saw the dungeon's entrance. Guided by soldiers and Edmund by her side, she entered. They put her on light body armor, but Edmund just used his regular clothes; he said that was useless. Everything happened so fast that she didn’t understand what was going on.