The sunset's lingering glow gilded Milishion, the holy white city, in warm gold.
When Alice and Sylphy appeared once more on the path back to the city, they looked entirely different from when they had set out.
Both were covered in the foul-smelling green blood of goblins and sludge from the mine.
They looked travel-worn, their faces filled with exhaustion they could not hide.
Yet beneath that fatigue, their eyes were unusually bright.
They shone with something called confidence and a sense of achievement.
Alice carried an enormous, bulging sack over her shoulder, reeking of blood and stuffed with goblin ears she had cut off herself as trophies.
The sack was so large that even her frame, tall for her age, looked rather small beside it.
But as she carried it, she could not stop the corners of her mouth from curling upward, her fiery red eyes brimming with pride.
"Damn it! These things are heavy and stink!"
Complaining, she adjusted the sack on her shoulder and said to Sylphy beside her,
"But... Sylphy, we... we really did it! Just the two of us!"
"Yes!"
Sylphy nodded firmly. She was carefully supporting a young girl they had rescued from the goblin nest, whose expression was still somewhat numb.
There were smudges on Sylphy's face too, but her clear crimson eyes shone with a gentle, resolute light.
"We did it, Alice. We saved them."
Behind them followed two more rescued girls, both still shaken.
In a patch of shadow beyond their sight, Cui Ciyou quietly watched it all, a gratified smile appearing on his face.
Well done, he praised them silently.
From the moment they entered the mine, his mental power perception had served as invisible eyes, letting him "watch" the entire battle.
*Alice's swordsmanship has become more refined, her attacks