In the Mountain of the Dead, within a valley forest blanketed in autumn yellow.
Six men and women wearing Tier 2 battle armor, each marked with a pitch-black skull, surrounded a blonde woman with two silver-gray horns growing from her forehead.
"Presia, you crossed the line. Even if you're from a domain city, you'll be staying here today. We'll wait for your teacher to come ransom you!"
At the head of them stood a Mountain Tribe man nearly six meters tall, wearing a silvery-white metal skull helmet. He blocked the only road out of the valley, carrying a giant hammer as large as himself. Like an adult looking down at a child, he calmly gazed at the blonde, horned woman, his tone beyond dispute.
"I crossed the line?" The blonde, horned woman, also clad in Tier 2 battle armor, spoke with a spark of anger in her beautiful eyes. "It's your Smiling Skull that's gone too far! Trading between two domains would have been one thing, but now you're even bringing those rats back and forth between them. Did you really think we couldn't see it?"
If she had not been wounded by Smiling Skull's higher-ups while infiltrating and investigating them, neither this Mountain Tribe man nor the entire Smiling Skull squad would have been able to stop her.
"We Smiling Skull aren't subordinates of your domain city. It's merely a fair trade. They can pay, and what we do in the Mountain of the Dead isn't for your domain city to dictate." The Mountain Tribe man was unconcerned. "Come back with me now, and you'll suffer less. Keep stubbornly resisting, and don't blame us if our hands lack restraint."
"Our hands lack restraint?" The blonde, horned woman immediately laughed. "Then you, my defeated opponent, can feel free to try."