Chapter 121: Back to the Forest Ruins Yet Again

Sunshine poured brilliantly across the landscape, birds sang joyfully amid blooming flowers, and the morning light breathed vibrant life into the White Dove Woodland.

Inside the Radiant Monastery nestled within, the atmosphere buzzed with equal energy—trainee soldiers marched across the plaza, knights shouted hearty commands on the training grounds, and clerics prayed in silent devotion within the chapel.

From the clock tower rising at the heart of the buildings came a deep, solemn toll, cutting through the misty dawn and stirring the choir’s beautiful voices to life, scattering holy light into every corner of the monastery.

Such a peaceful, sacred scene.

If not witnessed with one’s own eyes, no one would believe that in some hidden corner of this monastery—famous for its fanatical pursuit of holy light—traces of a dark gathering had once existed.

In the two days since, one of the witnesses had continued living an extraordinarily comfortable life within the monastery, utterly unbothered.

Embracing the mindset of “They’re just a bunch of lolicon, worst case I’ll just run”, today once again began with being stuffed full of snacks by passersby on the roadside.

“Your Highness Sophirina, these are raspberries I picked fresh this morning.”

“Here’s some coconut crisps my grandmother sent—super delicious, Your Highness.”

“Lady Sophirina, try these lotus paste buns I brought from the market, plus some honey candy.”

“Lady Sophirina…”

In peaceful times with abundant resources, a cute loli could grow up healthy even in a foreign land purely through the feeding frenzy of others—this could probably be considered a great advancement of human civilization.

Hill withdrew her thoughts and glanced at the cluster of girls behind them, still excitedly chattering from the feeding session and occasionally looking back.

“From their behavior, it’s really impossible to tell.”

“Because lolicon are creatures skilled at disguise…” I paused, thinking of the few around us who didn’t bother hiding their true nature at all. “Well… there are always mutations. Part of it is also because Hill has interacted with too few specimens and lacks complete data.”

“Don’t be fooled by their innocent act; deep down they’re all thinking…

Lady Sophirina is just too cute! I want her to act spoiled in my arms, pat her ears and tail—cat-eared loli is the best!

Lady Sophirina smells so nice, her tiny face and tiny body are perfect, especially that innocent look—I can’t take it anymore, kyaa!

Lady Sophirina’s smile is so healing… I want to hug her and bury my face in her chest, feel those modest yet heart-racing curves… mmph, I want those cute little feet to step on my face, full-on hshs!”

“Things like that.” I nodded, summarizing neatly.

Hill looked deep in thought. “Your Highness.”

“Hm?”

“Don’t you feel embarrassed saying these things?”

“What’s there to be embarrassed about? These aren’t my thoughts—I’m just voicing theirs.” My cheeks instantly flushed.

Seeing Hill look away, I puffed out my cheeks, reached for a candy in my arms—then remembered and put it back.

Hill glanced over again, curiosity evident. “You’ve been like this for two days, Your Highness. Is something worrying you?”

“Of course! I was fine not knowing before, but now that I know they’re a bunch of lolicon, how could I possibly eat so carelessly?” I pouted. “Who knows if they spiked it with something.”

“Aren’t traditional lolicon supposed to love lolis from the bottom of their hearts? Why would they do that?” Hill asked, citing knowledge from her textbooks.

I shook my head and assumed a lecturing tone. “You don’t understand, Hill. There are always those who twist that love into perversion, using these methods to satisfy their basest desires. Examples are everywhere, and the motives are real.”

“Because once the loli is unconscious, they can do all sorts of lewd things. Some have even kinkier fetishes—like dressing them in maid outfits, Lolita dresses, or black/white stockings. This is just one variant.”

I touched the fluffy cat ears on my head, thinking this look probably saves the perverts some effort. “Along with the violation, the victim often loses all reason and ends up as a broken doll—terrifying.”

“So lolis absolutely must protect themselves outside.” I raised a finger solemnly.

Hill fell silent for a moment. “Your Highness, where did you learn all this?”

“Uh…” The serious expression on my face froze. I’d only meant to explain a little, but got carried away and blurted out stuff straight from doujinshi and ero-games.

Looking at Hill’s unchanged yet somehow stern face—like a parent who just found their kid’s secret stash under the bed—sent chills down my spine.

But it didn’t matter. In manga, protagonists always resolved awkwardness with “A friend left it at my place.”

Mastering the art, my mind raced and I immediately pinned it on the most plausible scapegoat.

“W-well… Alice told me.”

“…I see.” Hill’s expression said everything made sense now as she sighed silently. “Your Highness, please don’t learn everything from Lady Alice.”

“Okay.”

Seeing Hill’s reaction, I finally relaxed, heart settling back in place.

As expected, Alice was perfect for taking the fall.

Though she was annoying, letting her take the blame for free felt a little wrong.

Thinking this, the kind-hearted me mentally erased one mark next to Alice’s name in my little notebook—but then remembered the interest on all the previous debts hadn’t been calculated, so I added it back.

After perfectly settling the account, the certain someone who put away the notebook suddenly felt magnanimous enough to hug even more snacks.

Yet once back in the room, Hill thought for a moment and spotted another issue. “If that’s the case, and Your Highness knows these snacks might be tampered with, why keep them?”

I was busy stuffing every snack into my private storage chest. Hearing her, I shook my head. “Hill, you’re thinking too one-sidedly. Nothing is purely disadvantageous—like these snacks.”

“As long as I bring them all back to the Demon King’s Castle to eat, even if they’re spiked, they still won’t…

…be able to lay a hand on me. Heh heh.”

Is this the powerful dialectical thinking that erupts from a foodie in a crisis?

Watching the inexplicably smug pink-haired loli, Hill was momentarily at a loss for words.

Soma Town, Black Prison Forest entrance.

Two days had passed since clearing Hard mode, which also marked the day I’d agreed with Little Aunt and the others to tackle Nightmare difficulty.

In that time, the dungeon leaderboard had seen drastic changes—from the initial 75% completion barrier that even major guilds couldn’t break, to the later frenzy of 100% speedruns.

In the end, Stormwind crushed everyone with absolute strength, setting a fastest-clear record that would be untouchable for a long time and firmly claiming first place. But behind that domineering record lay considerable cost.

According to Sister Doran, they’d secretly bled a fortune in materials to supply the other side with potions.

Yes—the root cause was naturally the Redstone Potion.

But the biggest trigger was the Irresponsible Guide Team’s updated Black Prison Forest strategy thread on the forums, revealing the special method of using fire mages for true speedrunning.

After that, fire mages—once treated as dead weight—suddenly became the hottest commodity in every team.

Thanks to the guide, teams now had a blueprint: even without Redstone Potions, stacking enough fire resistance to keep the fire mage alive allowed for pseudo-“explosion” DPS.

Though inferior to the guide’s method, it still boosted clear speeds considerably, letting stronger teams touch the final 25% threshold.

They could reach the hidden path depths before Fog Lamps ran out, so Redstone Potions became insanely hot on the market.

Some guilds and free alchemists had obtained the recipe, yet unanimously hoarded it, keeping Redstone Potions a seller’s market with sky-high prices.

But there was a limit to how high prices could climb.

For most teams, Redstone Potions were only a means to achieve 100% Hard clear. After that, having them or not only affected reward tiers.

This time, I was going to show everyone that while Redstone Potions were indeed for 100% Hard clears, the benefits of 100% Hard completion went far beyond just better rewards.

“Your Highness, why did you insist I come along this time?”

Hill—switched to a standard priest template—followed behind me through the bustling crowd. Despite being a demon, her high bloodline only mildly repelled the holy energy.

“Isn’t it because I’d miss Hill if you were lonely~?”

I stuck out my tongue. “Okay, okay, no joking—because Nightmare first-clear teams always lack healers. Besides Hill, I can’t think of anyone else I trust.”

Of course, most people would still follow the guide’s method to ensure team survival.

“And someone has to cover for my lies, right?”

“Lying isn’t a good habit, Your Highness.” Hill fell silent for a moment.

A demon, yet surprisingly obsessed with moral education—in some ways, people might believe she followed the light.

“This is a necessary evil~ Please, Hill, just this once.” I grinned and hugged her tight. “You just have to act normal—it fits the image of an elite player perfectly.”

“Anything else I should keep in mind, Your Highness?” Hill sighed almost imperceptibly.

Despite her words, Hill was actually very soft-hearted—especially toward her beloved Demon King.

I smiled and explained the guide thread, stressing she only needed to play the role of a nonexistent member of the strategy team, dropping occasional tips to avoid suspicion.

As I briefed her, I led Hill toward the meetup point—only for a petite figure to suddenly leap into my arms halfway there.

“Morning, Ao Tong~!”

The figure burrowed into my embrace, nuzzling affectionately with her cheek. “Hehe, Ao Tong is adorable in-game too~”

“I’m starting to regret letting you come.”

The pouncing gremlin was none other than a certain twin-tailed loli. I wasn’t surprised at all by Evin’s arrival.

After moving in these past two days, she’d visited every morning—once even dragging Loris along.

Today was the same; I’d brushed her off with “going to play the game,” but she’d heard about the dungeon from Little Aunt, threw a tantrum to join, and I had no choice but to let her.

“Hm, so your class is thief?” I looked down at her outfit, genuinely surprised.

“Hehe, of course! My thief is super amazing.” Evin puffed up her little nose proudly. “Once I level up, I’ll steal Ao Tong’s panties without breaking a sweat!”

Bonk.

“This isn’t an ero-game; that mechanic doesn’t exist.” I rolled my eyes and withdrew my hand. As expected, even in-game, this girl’s personality was as punchable as ever.

Evin rubbed her head and pouted, then sent me a friend request.

I was about to accept when I noticed the name: Witch Yilin.

It sounded normal enough, but it immediately reminded me of the first player I’d killed as Lilina. Their info had been hidden, but the system panel revealed the name upon death.

“Evin, you participated in Bloodthirsty Frenzy, right?”

“Yeah, why? That boss was pretty cute, but in my heart Ao Tong is forever number one!”

That pretty much confirmed it. Same class, same name—even if the body proportions differed greatly, Epoch had plenty of appearanc-altering items.

Talk about coincidence. No wonder she’d been so fixated on the blue-and-white stripes the first time we met.

“What’s wrong?” Evin tilted her head at my weird stare.

“Nothing.” No way was I letting her know I was the boss who’d seen her panties and killed her—that would be mortifying.

Evin blinked, shrugged it off, then finally noticed Hill standing beside me.

Before she could voice her confusion, someone else spoke first.

“Little Tong, who’s this beside you?”

I looked up and realized we’d reached the gathering spot without noticing. Seaside Yoyo and the others waited nearby; the one who spoke was Autumn Waters.

Evin had come with Little Aunt Seaside Yoyo, so everyone already knew her identity—and the lolicon squad had thoroughly “spoiled” her.

But for the young woman who’d suddenly appeared beside me, their curiosity was unabashed, some even eyeing her warily.

After my explanation, they finally understood—and looked shocked.

“You’re a member of the strategy team?”

“Wow, so all the tricks Little Tong knew came from you guys?”

“Level 11 priest, full silver set, all monastery-standard gear… how many Black Prison Forest runs did that take…”

“You’re here today to test the new strategies you developed?”

To convince them, I’d prepared thoroughly. Just looking at her gear and level, Hill was undeniably peak priest configuration for the current stage.

Faced with everyone’s questions, Hill replied with a few curt words or simply stayed silent, perfectly embodying a cold elite player.

Waking up this early to read novels—guess you don’t have a girlfriend to spend Valentine’s with either, huh~

It’s fine, me neither (sob)

Anyway, Nana just called me.

(Quick note: Abyss and Nightmare difficulties have additional new story and new bosses. I’ll skip parts that overlap with previous difficulties, so this isn’t “reheating leftovers.”)