As Haruto moved forward, his heart heavy with the urge to intervene and offer some kind of comfort to the boy, he felt his hand pass right through the air. The golden marble and the crying Princess were like a holographic projection.
"Haruto, stop!"Ivory cried out, her voice tight with urgency.
"You can't touch them! This world isn't real—it's a data recording. They can't see us, they can't hear us. We are just ghosts in his past. We are wasting precious seconds!"
Haruto gritted his teeth, his hand clenching into a fist in the empty air.
"I know... but seeing him just give up on himself..."
But the memory wasn't finished. The young Princess, wiping her tears with her silk sleeve, suddenly reached down and picked up a small, wild flower that had survived the scuffle. She stepped toward Toya, her eyes shining with a sudden, fierce light.
"Are you my friend, Toya?" she asked softly.
Toya kept his head bowed, his voice hollow. "No. I am a servant. I am Level 3 trash."
The Princess grabbed his hand, forcing the flower into his palm.
"Then fine. Will you become my friend? Do you want to stay by my side?"
Toya's stoic mask finally cracked. A single tear hit the marble floor as he looked up at her.
"Yes... more than anything."
"Then promise me," the Princess said, her voice turning solemn.
"Become strong. In this world, only strong people have value. Become so powerful that no one—not the guards, not the King, not the Gods—can ever tell you who you can or cannot be. If you become the strongest, then you can be my friend forever."
The scene froze for a heartbeat. In that moment, Haruto and the Goddesses finally understood everything.
"So that's it,"Haruto whispered, the realization hitting him like a physical weight.
(Haruto's inner thoughts): "That's why he's a power-maniac. He isn't chasing levels for glory or money... he's chasing a promise. He doesn't look at any girl at the Academy because his heart is still stuck in this garden."
Lustra sniffled, clutching her chest.
"He's been carrying that promise alone all these years... no wonder his mind is burning."
Asobi nodded grimly.
"The desperation we saw in the real world? It's not greed. It's love. But love that heavy becomes a curse if you aren't strong enough to carry it."
Suddenly, the royal garden began to shatter like a mirror. The white light returned, more blinding and violent than before. The peaceful palace was replaced by a roaring, chaotic wind.
"Everyone, brace yourselves!" Ivory shouted over the noise.
As the white light faded, Haruto's eyes widened. "This transition feels... heavier. Darker." he warned, his voice echoing in the shifting void.
Suddenly, the world didn't just change; it died. Everything turned pitch black. The group stood in a cold, damp silence until a raspy, broken voice drifted through the darkness.
"It's been four days... How much longer are you going to keep me here?"
The heavy grinding of a stone door echoed. A massive, hulking man stepped into the room, a torch in his hand. One by one, he lit the wall sconces, revealing a chamber of horrors. In the center of the room, Toya—now roughly 16 years old—was suspended from the ceiling by rusted chains. He was shirtless, his body a map of jagged cuts, dried blood, and fresh bruises.
Haruto and the Goddesses gasped. This wasn't a palace or a school; it was a torture dungeon.
Bellona's eyes blazed with a terrifying golden light.
"This... this isn't training. This is execution," she hissed, her blade trembling in her hand.
The giant torturer walked toward a table in the corner. It was covered in needles, serrated knives, and whips—all stained with layers of old blood. He turned back to Toya, his massive, scarred face inches from the boy's.
"You're right. Four days. Tell me, boy... how should I beat today?"
Toya, despite being broken and beaten, didn't flinch. He spat directly into the man's face.
"Stay back. You smell like rot."
The man slowly wiped the spit from his cheek and licked it, a sickening grin spreading across his face.
"Do you know what that smell is? It's the blood of the dead. I drink the life of those I break. And yours..." He grabbed Toya's throat, squeezing until the boy's face turned blue.
"Your blood is rare. A pure White Aura. I wonder if it tastes as holy as it looks."
He laughed, the sound vibrating in the damp room.
"The King gave the order this morning. Today is the day you die. You've become too much of a nuisance."
Toya let out a dry, hacking laugh. "Good. That's exactly what I want."
The torturer paused, almost impressed.
"You've got guts, kid. I'll give you that. Imagine... a Level 5 nobody, proposing to the Princess in front of the entire Royal Court? You truly are a madman." He picked up a jagged knife, then tossed it aside with a clatter. "No. A knife is too quick. I'm going to pour acid down your throat. I want to watch your insides burn while you're still screaming."
The man turned and stomped out, slamming the heavy iron door shut and leaving Toya alone in the flickering torchlight.
The atmosphere in the dungeon was suffocating, and for the first time, Haruto's entire team felt a genuine chill of fear. The sight of the torture instruments and the broken boy hanging from the ceiling was almost too much to bear.
Lustra covered her mouth, her eyes welling with tears.
"This is too much... How did he survive this? No human could endure this kind of hatred!"
Ivory turned around, her silver eyes glowing with a sharp, analytical light.
"Stay calm, everyone! Don't let the memory overwhelm you. Remember—Toya is alive in the real world. He is with us right now. That means, somehow, he survives this nightmare. We just need to watch and see the moment his will to live sparks the Core."
Haruto, who had been tense and pale, suddenly let out a low, dark chuckle. A spark of his usual "Admin" wit returned to his eyes as he looked at the chains.
"You know what? I was worried for a second, but I looked at his face. He's not crying. If I know Toya, he's got a 'glitch' in his system that's about to break this whole room."
Ivory hissed at him, "Don't joke! I just use my stealth skill on that torturer who is a Level 68 Executioner. Even the current Toya is only Level 60. Back then, he was a Level 5! He stands no chance in a physical fight!"
Lustra smacked Haruto's arm lightly, fuming.
"Shut up, Haruto! Have some respect for what he's going through!"
Asobi floated closer to the hanging boy, her mist swirling sadly.
"He's endured more than any of us realized. He's been through hell before we even met him."
Suddenly, in the flickering torchlight, Toya lifted his head. His voice was cracked and dry, but it carried a strange, haunting strength that silenced the entire room.
"For years," Toya whispered to the empty, dark room,
"I was a ghost. Every day I lived, I was already dead because I was too afraid to speak. I was a servant in my own life."
He looked at the iron door where the man had just left, a bloody, defiant smirk forming on his lips.
"But not anymore. Now that I've told her... now that I've confessed my love to the Princess in front of everyone... I don't care about the acid. I don't care about the King. Even if I die right now, I'll live forever in her heart. For the first time, my life actually feels... perfect."
As he said the word "perfect," a faint, white aura began to pulse from his chest, pushing back the shadows of the dungeon.
The atmosphere in the dark dungeon shifted instantly. The heavy stone door groaned open, and Toya's eyes flickered with the expectation of pain. "So, you're back," he muttered, bracing for the acid.
But the figure that stepped into the torchlight wasn't the hulking executioner. It was a small, slender silhouette wrapped in a heavy, dark cloak.
Toya's breath hitched. "Princess? What are you doing here?"
She didn't speak at first. She pressed a single finger to her lips, silencing him, then pulled out a heavy ring of iron keys. She looked up at him—her eyes red from crying—and whispered, "Look at the state of you... you idiot."
In the observer group, Ivory let out a long, relieved breath. "I told you," she whispered to Haruto, her silver eyes shimmering.
"The memory is shifting. This is how he survived. He didn't fight his way out—he was saved by the very person he gave his life for."
"Quiet," the Princess urged, her hands trembling as she fumbled with the rusted locks on Toya's chains. "You have to leave. Now."
Toya looked down at her, his voice cracking. "You shouldn't be here. If they catch you..."
"Then they catch me," she snapped, finally clicking the shackles open. Toya collapsed to the cold floor, his legs barely able to support his weight.
"You were so brave in the throne room, acting like a hero in front of everyone. Why did you have to say it there? You could have whispered it to me in the garden like a normal person."
Toya gripped his bruised ribs, coughing.
"It... it wouldn't have been enough. But Princess, I can't leave. My parents are in the labor camps. My home was burned to the ground. My friends... they won't even look at me. I have nowhere to go."
The Princess reached into her cloak and pulled out a heavy gold pouch, pressing it into his bloody hands.
"Then leave this city," she commanded, her voice turning firm.
"City volcan is built on the edge of a Mana volcano. The training here is brutal, meant to force people to level up fast or die. That's why you feel weak here at Level 5. But out there? In the world beyond these walls? Someone with your heart and your Level 5 strength will be a hero. Take this gold. Start a new life. Go somewhere where being 'strong' isn't the only way to be human."
Toya looked at the gold, then back at her. He reached out, his fingers brushing the hem of her cloak. "Then come with me. If we leave now, we can—"
"No," she interrupted, stepping back into the shadows.
"I am Royal. My life is a cage, but it is my cage to keep. You... you are finally free."
The dungeon walls began to vibrate with the raw intensity of Toya's resolve. He looked at the Princess, his eyes bloodshot but burning with a new fire.
"I won't go," Toya choked out, clutching the gold. "If I leave, they'll marry you off to some High-Tier noble! I'll never see you again!"
The Princess knelt in front of him, her face silhouetted by the flickering torches. "Don't you worry about that," she whispered, her voice like steel.
"Remember the promise? You have to become strong. I won't marry anyone. After what you did in the throne room, my reputation is ruined anyway—no noble will want a Princess who was confessed to by a 'servant.' You have ten years, Toya. Go out there and become so powerful that no one can challenge you. Do it for me."
Toya didn't say another word. He stood up, his broken body suddenly encased in a blinding White Aura. It wasn't just mana; it was pure, unadulterated willpower.
"Then wait for me!" Toya roared, and in a flash of white light, he sprinted out of the dungeon at a speed that defied his Level 5 status.
"I'll come back as the strongest man in this world!"
In the observer group, the silence was heavy. Lustra and Asobi were openly wiping tears from their eyes. Even Bellona stood with her sword lowered, her fierce expression softened by a look of deep respect.
"That boy..." Bellona muttered, a hint of pride in her voice.
"He really did it. He chose the hardest path possible for a girl he barely knew would wait."
Haruto felt a surge of genuine respect. He looked at the vanishing streak of white light. He realized that five years had already passed since that moment—Toya was now nearly 20, yet he hadn't reached the "Strongest" rank yet. He was running out of time both in the real world and in his promise.
"Haruto"Ivory shouted, her voice breaking the trance.
The world turned a blinding, sterile white once more.