The sun was rising when Pro thought he finally got far enough from the destroyed lab. He knew this place was one of the nearest cult outposts they had within this desert.

He didn't know what happened to the others, but so long as he was alive, he thinks he can still reverse this situation.

'I still have the research notes stuck to my mind! So long as I can write them again and send them to the other sectors, I can easily get all the funding and resources to do my research!' He thought.

That's what he needed, to further their knowledge for the mysteries of this world and acquire powers from it. He knew he was not that smart when it came to fighting, though he had his ambitions to be peerless against anyone. So he was very focused on researching things that give more power.

"I'm sure I just have to get past this slope and I will see the outpost standing there... huh??" He froze after seeing what was in front of him.

What should have been a small encampment of tents was now a smoldering wreck. The burnt corpses and everything else hinted that it happened recently.

"How did this... happen...?" He gasped, his knees becoming weak as he fell to the sand on all fours.

"Hehe..."

Then he flinched, before quickly raising his head. His body froze once more when he saw a pair of feral purple eyes gazing straight into his own.

"No...!"

"I found you!~" The dog therianthrope grinned before raising her hand.

The only sound that could be heard was a simple swinging sound, and the noise of flesh rended by something sharp.

What we did three days ago are amazing!~

It wasn't really the best, but ending a battle with a bang is always the proper way!

So what am I doing now?

Well, after defeating that weird intelligent monster, I decided to stay in Alpha's castle (I think they call this Alexandria?) and try to enjoy life while contemplating what to do next.

I definitely need to get back to my parents. It will be extremely bad if I am gone for too long of a time. I'm already pushing it, but if I tried to hide more, this might turn into a full blown Arisa Retrieval Arc and some protagonist might just decide to come and find me.

And that would turn me into a named character.

I have to destroy any possibility of that ever happening, though I don't know how.

I can't just go back casually to my parents and hope that they smile and take me in without asking what happened. I am stumped. I don't know what to do!

Currently I'm in one of their luxurious suites. It's not as luxurious as the one I stayed with last time. I don't know what happened but Alpha seems to have decided to take out the large palace in the middle of this city and replace it with some sort of building. It's still under construction so I am staying in one of the mansions existing in this city.

Hmm…. Alpha huh…

She said she wanted to follow my goals, and she sounded genuine about it. If she will go so far for that, then I think I have to take her on my usual hunts. I'll have to do that after I am done finding a solution to "getting back to my family without raising any suspicions" issue.

"Hmm…. those cakes really taste good, huh…" I am sitting alone by a table draped in white sheets, having tea on my own besides a large window that shows the beautiful garden of this mansion.

There are two women standing beside the door. Both of them are wearing the slime suit we usually used, so they might be the extras they hired to humor me.

Alpha already stated that she wanted to come along with me, but I don't know about the others. Are they also as serious about it as her?

Maybe I should ask them?

After taking a sip of my tea I feel someone entering the room. The one who enters is the one I was just thinking a while ago, Alpha.

"Lady Shadow, all the preparations are complete." She says to me with that deferential bow.

As expected of Alpha. She is really good at acting like my second in command. Even the way she just addresses me and her posture is already perfect. I can't complain about it.

I nod at her silently, before standing up. It is sad to part with these sweets, but now that she is acting like that, I also have to switch to my Shadow persona. It will look weird for a shadowbroker if I stay eating after hearing her words.

"Let us go…" I don't know where we are going, but I'm sure Alpha must have planned something?

What kind of setting are we going for now I wonder? There are a lot of things in this place we can use to act out our fantasies!

There are also a lot of acceptable targets around the region. We just have to find them and improvise along the way!

I can't wait!

Alpha, you traitor!

""Arisa!""

I'm currently being hugged very tightly by my father and my mother. And if it wasn't obvious enough…. Yes! I am in front of my house!

Why did you take me back to my home Alpha!? Is this what you meant from the preparations!?

I've been fooled!

Maybe she actually didn't mean what she said at that time! Maybe she just tried to put my guard down so she can take me back to my family!

Look! She is even being handed a chest! It likely contains gold! Definitely!

Alpha…. so you've used me for your own gains! How terrifying!

I don't have any choice but to play along. Acting like I am also very happy to meet my family once more while promising myself to never trust any of them again!

You disappointed me, Alpha!

After taking their lady back to her family, Alpha was leaving the territory with the carriage that bore the mark of the Mitsugoshi Co.

It was easy to get inside the territory and not rouse the suspicion of the mother of their lady. She had to be genuine and upright when talking to her.

Everyone in the Mitsugoshi Co. is also a member of the Shadow Garden. Everyone knows and worships their lady as if she was their goddess. So sending an agent to announce sending their daughter back to them was simple.

As for the alibi, they said that she was found in the Forest of Darkness, the official name of the forest that emerged on the Muyu Region on the Oriana Kingdom's side. It was not a lie because she was literally there.

The story of abducted children being saved by a mysterious woman and creating that forest for their protection has been spread first before they took their lady back. This was to give an alibi that their lady was one of the abducted persons.

After that, they used the panic around the nobility of Midgar Kingdom as a way to give their "Service" to them for finding the "Sickly Daughter of Frelldyll". Other business empires were also doing that, as a way to impress the other families who were actually worried for Arisa, or were worried themselves.

It all ended well, because their Lady's family didn't suspect anything. They might be thinking that Mitsugoshi was just one of the many companies out there who were also going along with the trend in the kingdom. Arisa was very popular.

"I hope she is satisfied with this…" Alpha muttered under her breath.

She believed this to be Arisa's will. She kept hearing her muttering how she wanted to get back to her family. Alpha thought that she might have been missing her family that much.

The carriage left the Frelldyll Estate, unaware of their lady's true feelings.

In a room full of glass flasks, all kinds of devices and other research tools, the long haired brunette was working on something, her sleepy eyes somewhat focused.

The objects around here were some of the things they got from the Forest of Darkness. There were the fruits, the logs from the trees, the plants, the dirt, the creatures that died within, and even the water from the pond that formed within.

The last thing was the blood sample from her Lady, along with the metals that are used for suppressing magic.

Her eyes lit up as she continued tinkering something, before finally raising it up with awe in her voice.

"Amazing…."

Within her hand was a small human model. It was entirely made of everything she got from this room, resulting in a magical construct, and a special one at that.

"Those crystals…. they are the secret to answer Lady Arisa's problem!" Eta muttered in awe as she looked at the human model.

A human model that had anti-magic all over its body, and was still staying operational and sentient enough to have a mind of its own.

"... I still need more data…. I'll just submit my report to our lady next time…"

Whenever that next time would be was unknown. It was only up to her as she looked at the moving human model, her eyes mesmerized by it.

A/N

Sorry for the delay, here is the only chapter I can upload for today.

Unrelated to this chapter, I streamed Touhou on Twitch and failed miserably at my own self-imposed challenge...

I tried to marathon the Windows Era Touhou at Normal Difficulty and was surprised that it's difficulty spike is steep. I didn't continue after getting to Touhou 12. It's harder than the whole Lunatic Mode of Touhou 6.

It is why it takes me awhile before I put my attention back to this story and publish this. The Beta is already done taking care of the chapter awhile ago, I'm just a bit busy trying to a Touhou Gauntlet.

I definitely underestimated the Normal Difficulty. I thought I can do it after successfully doing a 1cc run on Hard Difficulty on Touhou 6.

Anyway, I'm rambling. It's not even related to this story...

So what happened in this chapter is actually what I planned first before I even made that Forest of Darkness Arc. I only planned for Arisa to wake up, take some time to rest on Alexandria, and then go back to her house with the reasons stated on this chapter.

But again, that felt so rushed. So I decided to sidestep for a bit and write whatever. It's at that time when I wrote about Chibirisa that I managed to create a very rough draft about this arc.

I hope I managed to make this arc a bit interesting.

Hope you have fun here, and see you later!~

If you want to support me, you can go to my kofi account. Just replace the (dot) with a dot when writing it.

Ko-fi(dot)com/levelgap

See you later~