"I wonder how everything is going..."

Mera sat in her room, feeling a sense of restless agitation.

Her room belonged to an Egretta family mansion located in the central city area. Although the city center did not belong to any single family, all ten families had established outposts here.

Of course, Mera could have stayed in the guest mansion within the Egretta family’s territory to enjoy full amenities, but because she wanted to see Kain sooner, she chose to stay here.

While she always believed in Kain’s abilities, believing did not mean she didn’t have the right to worry.

From his demeanor and the words he had spoken, she could imagine how chaotic and difficult the game he was participating in must be. After all... it was ten different factions plotting against each other! Even a game with three factions was something Mera had struggled to handle; she couldn’t even begin to guess how a ten-faction game would unfold.

"The game should be nearing its end by now, shouldn’t it?"

Mera thought to herself. As she spoke, she idly looked out the window to survey the situation. Suddenly, her pupils contracted; she stood up almost instantly and rushed out of the room.

Below, Myra was walking with heavy, steady steps toward the perimeter of the Egretta mansion. Her appearance had put the surrounding guards on high alert, and they entered a combat stance.

"Hey, you there! Who are you? This place belongs to the Egretta family."

Seeing this, Myra stopped, seemingly about to say something. However, before she could speak, Mera came flying down like the wind.

"She is my acquaintance!"

The guards knew that Mera was currently a prestigious guest of Lady Jamie, so they all took a step back. Mera anxiously approached to check her sister’s body for any wounds, while Myra stood frozen in place.

"Are you hurt anywhere? Did that Faith person do anything to you? How did you manage to get here..."

Mera poured out a barrage of questions, but Myra remained silent. Finding it strange, Mera frowned and looked up, only to see her sister’s eyes were bloodshot and brimming with tears.

"Myra..."

Mera’s eyes widened, her shock mixed with an immediate surge of emotion.

For as long as she could remember, Myra had never displayed such intense yet fragile emotion. Her sister, in her perception, had always been a calm and steady person, always wearing a gentle, well-meaning smile that nonetheless carried a hint of distance.

That was the "eldest sister" Myra. In this family, Mera could be childish or impulsive because she was the youngest. But her eldest sister—Myra—had never been that way.

This was why Mera was so stunned, followed by a sudden, blazing anger. Her [Wind Magic] seemed to be triggered, causing the surrounding air to circulate more violently.

A single thought could cause the world to fluctuate even without using magic; though Mera was far from reaching this level, she had begun to veer toward it.

"That Faith guy did something to you, didn’t he? Just tell me the truth, I will—"

"Mera..."

Only then did Myra open her mouth. She took a step forward and pulled her younger sister into a tight embrace, leaving Mera stunned for the second time.

Clearly, this was the first time Myra had shown affection like this to Mera. It left Mera momentarily unsure of how to react.

"I’m sorry... I’m sorry..."

Myra murmured incessantly, her tears falling uncontrollably. She had imagined the scene of reuniting with Mera and Kain countless times, rehearsing every word she would say—that she would apologize to them sincerely and clearly.

But when she actually saw Mera rushing toward her, Myra had frozen in place. A powerful surge of emotion welled up from deep within her heart, uncontrolled, like aged wine bursting through a faulty cork.

In the end, it all dissolved into muffled sobs and broken apologies.

Mera could only pat her sister’s back to comfort her on one hand, while on the other, she subtly used [Wind Magic] to surround them both, shielding them from outside eyes. She then brought Myra back to her guest room.

As soon as they reached the room, Myra fell asleep on Mera’s shoulder, leaving Mera with no choice but to temporarily lay her sister on the bed and wait for her to wake up.

To be honest, Mera herself was extremely confused. She didn’t understand why Myra—whom she thought was being imprisoned by Faith—had suddenly appeared here. And there was no one else accompanying her. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

However, the current Mera was no longer the girl of the past. Faced with such an incomprehensible puzzle, her first thought was not to sit still and wait for Kain to provide the answer, but to begin her own deduction.

First was the reconsideration of the premise: "Myra was kidnapped and held hostage by Faith."

Looking at this premise, Mera realized she had a somewhat biased view of "kidnapping" and "being a hostage." She had imagined that this would involve Myra being injured or harmed because she would try to escape. However, a preliminary check of Myra’s body revealed absolutely no wounds.

Therefore, Faith had only placed Myra under a form of house arrest, perhaps even tricking her so that she didn’t even realize she was a hostage. That was why she hadn’t resisted or tried to find a way to escape.

This was further supported by Myra’s appearance here.

Not many people knew that Kain and Mera were guests here. If Myra were a prisoner held in isolation, unable to know any outside information, how could she have accurately found this place?

Mera did not believe that Myra could have asked every family one by one; after all, if she were a prisoner who had escaped, she wouldn’t be familiar with the roads in the complex Adia city center. Not to mention this was an Egretta family mansion in the central district; unless she was guided, Myra might not have even known this place existed.

This led to the second question: Why was Myra here?

"Existence is logical."

This was Kain’s motto, and he sometimes told Mera that if she wanted to learn more, she shouldn’t just look at life through the lens of passive certainty; she should try to find a way to explain the reason and the nature of the phenomenon.

Then, she could understand everything.

Mera thought deeply.

Initially, according to that letter, the deal would be fulfilled once the resource distribution game ended.

However, the game was not yet over, and it was still unknown whether Kain could defeat Faith, yet Myra had already been released. This could only mean that victory was not important at all. As soon as the game began, Myra’s role had lost its value in Faith’s eyes.

Mera then remembered something Kain had once said—that there might have been a time when families planted fake representatives in each other’s factions to sabotage the game from within to achieve victory. This had almost disappeared, but what if... the traitor of the Sword Family here was Faith himself?

Only that could explain why Faith was so "merciful" toward Myra. And this thought truly caused Mera to recoil in shock.