Alice Gain's Great Adventure

The steady drizzle finally stopped, and the thick clouds were swept away by the moonlight.

As gentle moonlight poured down, amid the rumbling sounds of demolition, Alice Gain woke from her coma.

Alice Gain was fifteen years old, Roya Gain's second daughter. Unlike her composed eldest brother, her domineering second brother, and her third sister, who had taken on the family's responsibilities at an early age, she was the youngest in the family and was doted on by everyone. Even now, she was still immersed in old-fashioned stories about knights and princesses, which made her a little rebellious and willful.

That was of course no big deal. The Gayn Family had always been small, with only one heir in each generation, but this generation had suddenly produced two sons and two daughters, as if their ancestors' graves had started smoking. And since the three older siblings were all quite outstanding, Alice could afford to be a little willful.

In fact, in the Gayn Family, which placed great value on family bonds, Alice's slightly rebellious, willful nature didn't make her family dislike her. On the contrary, it made her seem livelier and more adorable to them, and only increased how much they doted on her.

But it was precisely because they had indulged Alice too much that she had ended up in the crisis she now faced.

I'm so dizzy.

The rumbling sounds had thoroughly woken Alice. She tried to rub her eyes, only to find that she was bound from head to toe with rope. Forget rubbing her eyes—even moving a little was difficult.

?

Alice's eyes flew open. Her lively, almond-shaped eyes, like a startled fawn's, cleared from their daze as she recalled what had happened.

She'd slipped away halfway through the banquet because she couldn't stand its disgusting atmosphere, run into a robber on the street who'd thrown on a hood to pull an impromptu shift, and then been knocked unconscious. And after that...

Was this a kidnapping?

Once she understood her predicament, Alice's heart began racing, and she came fully awake.

Thump, thump, thump!

As the ground kept shaking, Alice strained to turn her head and saw that she was in a place she'd never seen before: dark, dilapidated, and dusty, with a tattered sack beneath her.

What's going on? Where are the robbers? Did they turn on each other?

Alice looked around, but she didn't see any robbers holding a meeting. Instead, the ground was shaking harder and harder, and cracks were even beginning to appear.

She had no intention of sitting around waiting to die. The moment she realized this might not be a trap, the naturally bold Alice began rubbing her hands together with all her might, struggling to slip free of the ropes.

Alice had her reasons for trying to escape on her own instead of waiting for a ransom to be paid. Though a little rebellious, she was still a genuine young lady from a wealthy family, and she understood one simple truth.

Never entrust your life to vicious robbers!

There was another important point: Alice was well aware of how striking her looks were, thanks to the features her parents had given her, and how well she'd maintained her figure through good training. Even though she rarely attended banquets, she was often the center of attention in their social circles.

Even if most robbers still had something resembling professional ethics at this point in time, Alice absolutely didn't want to entrust her life to their sense of professional ethics.

So, while wriggling toward the door with her body like a snake, Alice tried to free herself from the ropes.

Alice was lucky. The residents of this rundown neighborhood had fled as soon as Liu Tian and Mantis began fighting, so no one had come across her helpless body and made a video out of her.

But she was also unlucky. The robbers who'd thrown on a hood to pull an impromptu shift had been remarkably skilled at their work. Alice couldn't get free of the ropes no matter what she tried. The harder she struggled, the tighter they became, and the constant friction had even worn her wrists raw and bloody.

I can't give up.

Since she couldn't get free, Alice stopped struggling and focused on inching toward the door. Once she got outside, she hoped to find something she could use to cut the ropes.

The robbers' skillful knots had kept Alice from freeing herself, but fortunately, since they'd acted on a whim, they hadn't used particularly good hemp rope. With no further mishaps, given enough time, she could find a way to wear through it.

If nothing went wrong...

Boom!

The whole building lurched violently. Then came the rumble of a collapse somewhere nearby. Alice looked up and saw more and more cracks spreading around her. Rocks kept falling now and then, striking her tender body and making her wince.

I can't hesitate any longer.

Fueled by a powerful desire to survive, Alice somehow managed to move even faster, though she'd thought she had already reached her limit. Not only that, she instinctively figured out how to tear at the ropes against the floor as she crawled.

Bit by bit, amid the swaying of the long-neglected building and the occasional impact of small chunks of stone, Alice quickly made her way from the corner by the wall to the doorway.

The door had long since been smashed to pieces in the battle between Liu Tian and Mantis, but a few fragments still remained.

"They even tied my thighs so tightly..."

Alice caught her breath and used the wreckage to struggle to her feet. She accidentally cut herself on a sharp fragment, leaving a few tiny wounds.

At last, she had her chance. She furiously sawed at the ropes against the sharp edge while looking toward the source of the noise.

"T-That's way too much, isn't it?"

It was a scene Alice had only ever seen in novels. Two people were fighting, and the whole building trembled. A figure in the dust could cross more than ten meters in a mere second, and none of the obstacles in the way could slow them down in the slightest.

The figures fought from the first floor to the sixth, then from the sixth back down to the first. Everywhere they went, it was as if a demolition machine had rolled through, leaving nothing but ruins. The constant rumbling was because the entire building shook with their battle.

It was obvious that if the two of them kept fighting like this, the whole building would soon be reduced to rubble.

The spectacle was so outrageous that Alice couldn't help opening her small, cherry-red mouth in shock. Of course, she didn't forget to cut the ropes. Ignoring the possibility of hurting herself, she put even more strength into it.

Boom!

With another crash, a third of the other half of the building collapsed. Alice finally managed to break free and hurried to untie the knots around her feet.

Not knowing that Liu Tian had already killed every last robber, Alice was preoccupied with the thought that they might come back at any moment. She didn't care whether the people approaching were there to rescue her or not. She took off running out of the building on her long legs.

Besides, with that kind of commotion, casually getting close to the battlefield would be asking to die, wouldn't it?

Alice was a little rebellious, not brainless.

But Alice's good luck ended there. Maybe it was because the building had been neglected for years, or maybe it was because of Liu Tian and Mantis's fight, but the whole structure finally split apart.

Countless cracks opened beneath her feet. A chunk of reinforced concrete grew larger and larger in Alice's eyes as it fell toward her.

Death? Am I going to die?

With that thought filling her mind, Alice somehow found a burst of strength from who knew where. She leapt from one falling slab of flooring to another and narrowly dodged the huge boulder.

But if a building was collapsing, there was no way to simply escape it, was there?

She'd dodged one chunk, but there were countless more. She'd be buried under them unless she got out of the building—and with the floor falling away completely, Alice had nothing left to stand on. She could no longer escape...

"Thank me. This is the second time I've saved your life."

A cool voice came from beside her. Alice felt herself fall into a strong, solid embrace. As she looked at Liu Tian's resolute face, her heart began beating faster and faster for some reason...