The Twilight manor seemed to be bustling as it always does. Members talking, arguing, eating, training, and other expected activities. Even the higher ups were having a normal day. Finn was doing paperwork, Gareth was sharpening his axe, Riveria was mentoring Lefiya, Bete was taking a nap, and both Tiona and Tione were in another argument. The only person who seemed to be breaking the norm was Aiz. While she would normally be training, she was currently lost in her thoughts. All she could think about was the rabbit, Bell Cranel. Ever since he joined the familia, she thought it would help her learn why he is growing so fast. She would observe his actions and take note of what activities he normally does. She thought that if she tried mimicking what he does, she would improve. But now, she has hit a dead end.

"It doesn't make sense" she thought to herself. There wasn't anything unique about what he does. Bell was doing things that all adventurers do. Go to the dungeon, prep his gear, take time to relax. She already does these things on a normal basis. She has tried everything she could to learn, but her status growth hasn't changed one bit. Perhaps it was something unique to Bell alone. Pure talent, A skill, luck? Whatever the reason, Aiz wasn't able to do it. While in thought, a knock came from her door. She stood up and walked over to open it. It turned out to be Lefiya.

"Oh, Lefiya. Is something wrong?" Aiz asked.

"No, everything's alright. I just came to check in on you. What were you doing?" Lefiya asked. She hoped to be able to spend some time with Aiz.

"...Thinking" She responded after a few seconds. She couldn't stop thinking about him. All this wondering about the boy was to much. She needed a distraction.

"I was actually about to head out" Aiz said.

"Oh, may I join you?" Lefiya asked excitedly. Aiz shook her head.

"I want to go alone. Need to think about things" she responded. Lefiya had a disappointed look on her face. She accepted it and walked away. Aiz then quickly got her armor and weapon and made her way to the dungeon.

On her way there, adventurers everywhere stared at her in awe. She was practically used to it. She was the Sword Princess after all. It would be strange for someone not to be amazed. Though, she didn't want all of the attention. All she wanted was to get stronger, not popular. It just distracted her from her goal. Needless to say, she ignored it and continued on. When she entered the dungeon, a comforting feeling washed over her. This was probably one of her favorite places to be. The dimly lit cave had a soothing sense of tranquility. The only thing on your mind is fighting monsters, which makes it a strangely effective way to relax. She quickly made her way through each floor with extreme ease. All monsters that crossed her path were disposed of with a single swipe of her Desperate. The monsters at these levels were too weak. She needed to go deeper to find better monsters to fight. By then, she was half way through Floor 8. It should only take a few more minutes to reach the next floor. After a few steps, she smelled something. It was very familiar in the way that it just has to do something with the Dungeon. Something that was constantly around anytime she went in here. She finally came across the word that she was looking for.

Blood

She took a few steps to try and locate where it came from. Once confirmed, she rushed in the direction of the smell to investigate. She went through multiple twists and turns on the way. Upon finally finding the source, she was slightly disturbed. The room she came upon was more or less utterly destroyed with bodies littered on the ground. One of them was decapitated while the rest had fatal slash wounds. They all looked as though they were brutally slaughtered like helpless animals. Closely examining the walls, they seemed to be scorched from some powerful fire magic. It looked as though it were hit by Lefiya's magic. While her eyes wandered the room, something caught her attention. Lying against a dented wall was a person. They looked to be unconscious and badly injured. Blood poured freely from a slash wound from the shoulder to their side and their leg was bent at a nasty angle. What shocked her the most was how this person had white hair. She immediately rushed over to Bell and gave a closer inspection. He had multiple small injuries in his back, suggesting he was thrown into the wall. His armor had a huge dent in it which made it look like it was made of aluminum. Aiz tried shaking him awake, but he still remained unconscious.

"Please don't die" she prayed. A newfound fear was creeping up as she worried whether he would be able to survive. Such wounds lasting some time, judging by the pool of blood around him, would've killed any level 2 adventurer. She just hoped that logic didn't apply here. She picked him up slowly to not upset the wound. He still felt the same as before when she carried him to after the fight on Floor 9. Similarly, she adjusted him so that he was on her back. Before she left, she stared at the room and the bodies.

"What could of happened here?" She asked herself. What fight would leave six adventurers dead in a horrific way and Bell in a grave condition. Right afterwards, she ran off as fast she can to get Bell help.

Back at the manor…

"Hey Lefiya? Do you know where Aiz went?" Tiona asked. She, Tione, and Lefiya had decided to sit out in the courtyard to relax.

"She said she wanted to go to the dungeon to think" Lefiya replied. Tione had a confused look.

"Really? She usually goes to train, get valis, or spend time" she said with a voice of disbelief.

"Well, she did look like she was thinking about something when I talked to her" Lefiya said while remembering the conversation. While Tione and Lefiya continue to ponder on what Aiz was thinking about, Tiona noticed Aiz dash by into the manor. She seemed to be carrying something on her back.

"Was that Aiz?" She asked out loud. The other two noticed and looked at her.

"I think I just saw her just run in" Tiona explained.

"We should ask her if something is wrong" Tione suggested. Lefiya looked shocked.

"Don't you think it's rude to poke around in Aiz's personal issues?" She asked incredulously. The two girls brushed it off and started walking in, with Lefiya trying to catch up.

When Aiz got to the manor, she ran to the infirmary and laid him down in one of the beds. First, she removed his armor beforehand to make the treatment easier. Next, she set off to find Riveria. She quickly found her reading a book in the library. Riveria noticed her coming in.

"Oh Aiz, do you need something?" She asked while setting the book down.

"Can you come with me? It's urgent" Aiz asked. Riveria knew that it was serious by the tone of her voice. She followed Aiz to the infirmary quickly. When she entered, she almost gasped when she spotted Bell.

"What happened to him?!" She asked in shock.

"I found him like that on Floor 8" Aiz briefly explained. She then took the time to quickly explain all that she knew. Riveria listened intently and was surprised by the detail about the adventurers.

"Wait, six adventurers were found dead in the same room?" She asked to verify. Aiz simply nodded. The situation confused her as well.

"We will discuss this later. First, we have to treat his injuries" Riveria said. The two then began the treatment. They took off Bell's shirt and cleaned him of all blood that came from the wound. Riveria then used healing magic to close it up. Finally, they bandaged him up. It took a good half hour to do it all. Yet, he still hasn't woken up.

"It's a good thing you found him when you did. Any longer and he may have not survived" Riveria said with a sigh of relief. Aiz also felt immense relief knowing that he will live. Though, she also felt two different emotions upon hearing that. One was fear of how close he was to dying and that worried her greatly. The second was anger for the culprit responsible for nearly killing her friend. Man or monster, she will take revenge on them. Her thoughts were interrupted by Riveria.

"We should have a word with Finn about this. His wounds suggest that the assailant used a longsword. This proves it was most likely an adventurer" Riveria explained. It did seem perfectly logical to Aiz. The problem was why they let Bell live and killed the others. She decided to keep it to herself and followed Riveria as she left the room. They immediately went to Finn's office, where they found the captain at his desk. He was doing paperwork and he stopped when he noticed them.

"Hello Riveria and Aiz. Is there something you guys need to talk about?" He asked.

"Yes, one of our members have been seriously injured" Riveria said. Finn took a more serious tone.

"Which member was it?" He asked.

"Our newest member, Bell Cranel" she explained. Finn quickly glanced at Aiz and understood why she was there also. She has been protective about the boy, an example being when she ran off upon hearing about the Minotaur.

"This is peculiar. Do you know how?" He asked. He needed to know everything to figure it out.

"It was most likely an adventurer, judging from the wound that looked to be caused by a longsword" Riveria explained. Aiz remained silent and had a vengeful expression. Finn breathed a prayer for the grave mistake the person has made.

"Anything else?" He asked. This time, Aiz answered instead.

"Six other adventurers were found dead in the same area" she explained. Now the situation got serious. They seemed to be dealing with a dangerous person who isn't afraid to murder multiple people at once. Finn decided to get more info from a direct source.

"I would like to ask Bell about what he witnessed" he said. He is the only living witness. The three then made their way back to the infirmary. Finn asked a few more questions on the way. Other than that, the trip was silent. When they got there, they were surprised to see Bell was already awake. He turned to them as they entered.

"Oh, hi" he said. Aiz immediately rushed over next to him. She got very close to Bell, which of course made him nervous.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"Y-yes, I'm f-fine" he quickly responded. The close proximity was very embarrassing for him and made his face red. Aiz was confused by the way he was acting. Before she could ask, Finn stepped up to him.

"Can you tell us what happened?" He asked. Bell nodded and tried to remember.

"I was returning from Floor 11 after grinding for magic stones. I was on Floor 8 when a group of adventurers tried to ambush me" he said.

"Was it a group of six?" Aiz asked.

"Yeah, they blocked the passages to the upper levels" Bell replied. That explained why the bodies were there. Now, who killed them and injured Bell.

"Were they the ones that gave you those injuries?" Riveria asked.

"No, it wasn't them. It was a woman" he replied back. His answer confused them.

"A woman?" Finn asked.

"Yeah, she showed up from the passage behind me. She quickly killed the group and attacked me" Bell explained. Now they knew what caused the incident.

"What did she look like?" Finn asked. Bell paused as though he was searching for the description.

"She had red hair, green eyes, a red and yellow outfit, and a longsword" He explained as best as he could. Riveria and Finn took note of what he said, but Aiz reacted differently. Something about that description seemed awfully familiar. She just couldn't remember where she has seen it.

"Did she tell you her name?" Aiz asked at last. Bell paused again before answering.

"I think she said her name was…Revis?" He said with uncertainty. Aiz's eyes widened in shock by what he said. She never imagined it would be her. Riveria noticed her expression and questioned her.

"Aiz, do you know that name?" She asked.

"Yes. The red haired tamer" Aiz replied. Both Riveria and Finn were shocked by it. They clealy remembered how dangerous she was on Floor 18. While the three of them had grim expressions, Bell looked at all of them on confusion.

"Um, do you guys know that person?" He asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. The lady you are talking about was responsible for the death of a level 4 adventurer, releasing monsters on Floor 18, and is able to fight Aiz on equal footing" Finn explained. Bell's stomach dropped upon hearing that. That lady was able to not only murder a level 4 adventurer, but is able to fight against Aiz as well?!

"It's a miracle that you're still alive" Riveria said.

"Well, it was more like she let me live" Bell explained. Now, his statement puzzled everyone. Bell answered their question before they could ask.

"She said that I reminded her of someone named 'Aria'" he said. The room suddenly had an awkward silence to it. Aiz had a sad look in her eyes and Riveria looked at Aiz with a sympathetic expression.

"Riveria, I think we should go now" Finn said which broke the silence. Riveria glanced at him and nodded.

"Okay, hope you recover soon" she said to Bell. The two then promptly left the room, leaving him and Aiz alone. The awkwardness increased greatly as Bell tried to look anywhere but at Aiz. Suddenly, Aiz made a move to grab his hand with both of hers. Bell quickly whipped his head to face hers. He saw that she had a… worried expression?

"Bell, please be more careful" she said with her voice also showing signs of worry. He didn't know what to say. Aiz almost nevers shows her emotions, only a blank expression. He then realized that she probably lets them show to familia members. It would make sense, someone who was like family who almost died. She didn't want to lose anyone.

"It's okay, I'll try to be more careful" he said in an attempt to calm her. It seemed to work as she formed a small smile. Bell also smiled by how innocent she looks when she finally smiles. The two shared the happy moment in peace.

Until the door flew opened to reveal the Hyrute sisters and Lefiya. Upon seeing Aiz holding Bell's hand, she flipped.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MISS AIZZZZ?!"