They say the brighter the light, the darker the shadow.

While on the surface it seemed like an island with an intensely strong solar energy, truly the image of a summer sea, if one looked just a little beneath the surface, all sorts of evil spirits were coiled in the shadows.

And the master of these evil spirits commanded them thus, “Scare away all those who visit this island. Through the rumors they spread, make it so that no one approaches this island.”

The evil spirits were faithful to their master’s instructions.

Sailors who carelessly landed on the island, seeing only its outward appearance, experienced various hidden horrors throughout the island and fled crying and wailing, and those rumors quickly spread far and wide.

Sailors, already sensitive to superstitions, avoided this place, calling it cursed. Thus, peace and tranquility came to the island.

Occasionally, not-quite-human creatures would suddenly emerge from the sea and pick fights, but the stupid and dull fish-people, despite their large numbers, were no match for the evil spirits.

Their master wasn’t the type to name each individual defense mechanism, so the evil spirits used their own characteristics as names to distinguish each other.

Among them, the defeat of “Haunted Mansion” quickly spread to the other evil spirits.

[It seems Haunted Mansion has been defeated.]

[Huhuhu… It was just the weakest among us.]

[Then, who will step up next?]

[I’ll do it.]

“Inescapable Dream” said to its companions.

[They seem to be quite strong in reality, but they’re still just humans. In powerless dreams, I’ll engrave nightmares that will never be erased!]

After this confident declaration, “Inescapable Dream” stealthily approached the carriage where the targets were.

In fact, since its body didn’t have a physical form, it might not have been a big problem to approach openly, but it was being cautious just in case, since the opponent had defeated Haunted Mansion.

It soon found its prey.

Despite the sun still blazing, a girl with golden hair was taking a leisurely nap in the shade.

A book was placed beside her, and it seemed she had fallen asleep while reading.

“Inescapable Dream” quietly unfolded a future prediction in its mind.

Pattern A: Show the girl a terrible nightmare, and when the frightened girl told her companions about it, they’d ignore her, saying it was just a dream, and eventually when they all fell asleep at night, they too suffered in the same nightmare.

This was the pattern “Inescapable Dream” had often used until now, but this time, since the opponent seemed to have various abilities in reality, it was better not to give them a chance to deal with its ability.

Then, what should be aimed for was Pattern B.

It seemed good to torment the girl to her limit in the nightmare, then make her completely unable to remember its contents when she woke up.

If they didn’t know a threat existed, they couldn’t deal with it either.

By gradually gnawing away at their mental strength like that, and then striking all at once at a crucial moment, they wouldn’t be able to hold out any longer.

With a malicious smile, “Inescapable Dream” crept into the girl’s dream and—

The next moment, a huge boulder swept past above its head with a terrifying force.

[…Huh?]

A dumbfounded sound escaped from “Inescapable Dream’s” mouth.

Its gaze quickly scanned the surrounding environment.

A vast wilderness. A ruined city.

And, two shadows fiercely confronting each other in the middle of that city.

“Is this all you’ve got!? Heaven’s dog!!”

With each step the giant took, the surrounding area shook as if hit by an earthquake, sand and dust scattered, and already weakened buildings collapsed with a rumble.

The giant’s voice was so enormous that it was like thunder falling from the sky.

Truly a disaster.

Truly the incarnation of violence itself.

And facing this overwhelming existence was just one girl—utterly tiny compared to the giant.

Golden hair, violet eyes.

The girl, armed with armor typical of adventurers and a two-handed sword, was swinging her sword and rushing at the giant without hesitation.

Of course, the result wasn’t satisfactory.

Every time the giant’s club hit the ground, every time his foot stomped the earth, the girl’s body bounced around like a ball.

The difference in power was obvious to anyone watching.

But despite that, the girl didn’t stop her challenge.

As if clearing an everyday challenge, she remained focused on the battle with a calm yet concentrated gaze.

《Severe damage confirmed. According to basic settings, will not return to the corridor until 50 respawns are finished.》

《Remaining count is 21.》

Sometimes she met a miserable end, but each time, a mysterious voice echoed through the air and the girl’s body state returned to its original condition.

And every time the girl revived like that, the giant also continued the fight without hesitation.

The problem was that due to the grand scale of the fight, its effects reached even where “Inescapable Dream” was.

Desperately avoiding the ground that flew towards it like an avalanche, kicked by the giant’s toe as if a child playing with sand, “Inescapable Dream” used its ability in a panic.

[B-but it’s still just a dream! This place is under my control!]

It used its ability to try to change this maddening mythical battlefield into a horrific stage to its liking.

Get rid of that scary giant, change the girl from a strong warrior to a powerless child, then create a dream where she was chased by monsters—that should easily instill fear.

But no matter how much it used its ability, nothing changed.

The presence and caliber contained in the giant’s body was so immense that just by being there, it swept away all sorts of interference around it.

This was true even though it was just a reenactment, far from the real thing.

“Inescapable Dream” tried to at least escape, but even that didn’t go as intended.

A nightmare that had lost its control ability was just one of the dream characters.

Above its despairing head, the shadow of a club fragment, partially shaved off by the girl’s sword, loomed.

Crack!

***

“Yawn… Ah!”

Adelaide, who was rubbing her eyes with a small yawn, noticed your gaze and made a startled expression.

As you alternately looked at her and the game book beside her, she somehow broke into a cold sweat and lowered her head.

“I’m sorry.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks why Adel is apologizing!]

“W-well, everyone went out of their way to make time for me to rest like this, but I ended up doing something like training again…”

You pondered for a moment at her words, then answered.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says it’s not uncommon for people to be glued to their phones or game consoles even when they come to the beach!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ answers that he tends to respect various preferences, so there’s no need to feel sorry about such things!]

“Oh, um, is that the issue?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says there’s nothing better than the dopamine from leveling up!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says if Adel needs a Player 2, he’d be more than willing!]

Adelaide blinked her eyes at your words for a moment, then smiled brightly.

“Thank you for saying that, but it’s okay. Moving my body is important too.”

Saying that, Adelaide completely got up from the makeshift bed and stood on the ground with both feet.

Perhaps it was because you had such a conversation with Dorothea recently?

Your gaze was strangely drawn to Adelaide’s swimsuit.

Whether it was the average swimsuit in this world or because it was a Tower of Protection special, the swimsuits the party received from the tower had quite modern designs.

While what Dorothea was wearing was close to a black bikini, Adelaide’s was closer to a tube top style.

Prioritizing mobility while still being appropriately girlish. It matched Adelaide’s image quite well.

As you were staring at her appearance like that, Adelaide blushed as if embarrassed.

“I-is it too unsightly to look at? I’m also quite muscular.”

At her appearance, seemingly trying to cover her body with her arms and legs, you tilted your head.

As rumors spread that Adelaide had dismantled the Tower of Control with her bare hands—though she didn’t actually dismantle it, just made holes in the floor—there seemed to be people who thought of her as some tremendously muscular giant, but in your eyes, that wasn’t the case at all.

While she did have muscles here and there, it was to a pleasantly appropriate degree, and if anything, she was closer to a sleek leopard than a gorilla.

Also, perhaps thanks to Dorothea and Sophia’s care with special ointment and holy magic respectively, there were no visible scars despite her rough use of her body.

You put your hand on Adelaide’s shoulder.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ gazes seriously at his pupil!]

“S-Sir Knight?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ advises that deception should be used against enemies, not for indiscriminate area attacks!]

“Huh.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says he won’t stop her if Adel wants to live with the tension of possibly being stabbed in the back 24 hours a day by drawing aggro from an unspecified number of people!]

“That’s not it! It’s not like that!”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says it’s even worse if Adel is doing it without realizing!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says Adel should apologize to people who can’t have that blessed physique even if they want it!]

“N-no, that’s not what I meant…! Sir Knight!”

Adelaide, who had been flustered and confused, seemed to finally realize she was being teased and made a sulky expression.

After a brief squabble.

You and Adelaide sat down on the ground side by side.

“Actually, I sometimes wonder even now. If it’s okay for me to be doing this here.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if Adel can’t rest comfortably until she finishes her revenge!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that revenge isn’t about practicality, but feeling satisfied is the top priority!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ suggests that if rational and planned revenge doesn’t seem like it will make Adel feel better, she could just throw it all away and go for a frontal assault to overthrow everything!]

“…”

Adelaide moved her lips a few times, then shook her head.

“It’s not like that. To be honest, my anger itself was quite relieved when I brought down the Tower of Control. Of course, I intend to make them pay for their remaining sins, but if you ask if I’m burning with thoughts of revenge day and night… it’s not like that. My family died but… am I being too cold-hearted?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ denies his pupil’s words, saying that truly cold-hearted people don’t do demolition work with the tower head’s head!]

At your words, Adelaide relaxed her shoulders and slumped her body.

With a thud, her head touched your shoulder.

“My goal was to succeed the Friedel domain. But if we overthrow the Lennart Ducal family, no matter the result, the relationship between our family and the main house won’t be the same as before. Maybe the succession test itself might become ambiguous.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says he doesn’t think Adel would be pushed aside even if she took the test properly!]

It wasn’t just empty words.

In terms of power, there was already nothing to say, and economically, Adelaide had already secured a commitment for massive support from the Tower of Control.

Their wealth, having been the ruling class since the time the Magic State was a kingdom, was truly at an enormous level, to the point where one might think they could create a new count’s domain from scratch, no joke.

Even if Giselle received quite generous support from the ducal family, it wouldn’t compare to the wealth Adelaide would bring.

With fame and legitimacy on top of this, Adelaide’s appointment as the lord of Friedel was as good as half decided.

“That’s right. I think so too. But…” Adelaide swallowed her next words. “…No, it’s nothing.”

You looked down at your pupil’s head.

Originally, there was nothing more annoying than stopping in the middle of a sentence.

While the 3-question exchange with Dorothea was postponed to continue later because the flow was interrupted by some—low quality—haunted house, this pupil cut off her own words, so there was no external factor to blame.

So you put your hand on Adelaide’s side and lifted her up.

“Huh? Huh?”

And with a clank, clank, clank, you started advancing towards the sea.

Adelaide’s lips, which had been dazed at first, trembled, “S-Sir Knight? Um? What?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that come to think of it, if you’ve come to the sea, water play is the standard, right!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that while cutting off words mid-sentence is annoying, as a teacher who can understand his pupil’s complex and delicate maiden heart, he’ll specially let it slide with just some rough water play!]

“Wait, how can you talk about ‘delicate maiden heart’ and ‘rough water play’’ in the same breath?! That doesn’t make any sense!”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says sometimes there are things that need to be conveyed through actions rather than words!]

“That’s not what that saying is used for—“

Splash!

Adelaide’s words didn’t continue to the end.

Having flown far into the sea and fallen in, she surfaced after a few seconds and quietly opened her mouth.

Her eyes weren’t clearly visible due to her hair flowing down wet, but a cool smile appeared on her lips.

“…Sir Knight, what are the rules of this game?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says the one who throws the other into the sea ten times first wins!]

Before you could finish speaking, Adelaide lunged at you with a splash of water.

It was a terrifying physical ability and speed despite not wearing the belt.

However, you, not yet willing to concede victory to your pupil, tried to avoid her attacks as best you could and counterattack by sending her flying.

Beneath the beautiful beach, a joyful communication between teacher and pupil continued.

***

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