It was a filthy prison.
The floor was cold and damp.
A vile stench lingered stubbornly in the air, refusing to dissipate.
It was the kind of place where the squeaking of rats echoed vividly, and the skittering of insects crawling across the stone floor made your skin crawl.
“…Ah.”
She lay sprawled across the bare floor—no straw, no bedding.
Anna Margret let out a soft, nearly inaudible m0an.
Her body was covered in scars, and her arms and legs were as thin and brittle as dried branches.
“…Ah.”
Even her shallow breathing barely qualified as a m0an.
Now that the t0rture had ended, even that seemed too much for her.
“Reina Rogelia…”
But still, she whispered the name of the girl to whom she had given everything, as if clinging to a pride that refused to break—no matter what.
“My lady…”
She looked like she could collapse at any moment.
Yet the fire in Anna Margret’s eyes as she spoke that name remained just as vivid as ever.
The prison walls were etched with countless markings.
They were dates—each one scratched in to count the passing days.
“Has it really been over three years?”
Anna had left the Duchy of Rogelia on August 28th, 824 of the Imperial Era.
And if her tally was correct, it was now March 3rd, 828.
“You must’ve entered Arcana today.”
Leaning her back against the wall, she murmured to herself and smiled faintly.
It had become a habit, one she developed about a year into her imprisonment.
Back when she had first betrayed the organization.
Anna had borrowed soldiers and led an attack on their stronghold to eliminate any lingering threats, but their traces had already vanished completely.
Even so, they had discovered she had taken refuge with the Duchess of Rogelia.
From then on, the assassins came—day after day.
Some days, a formidable enemy.
Other days, waves of faceless underlings.
At first, it was manageable.
Anna was strong enough to fight them off alone.
But then, everything began to change.
The turning point came with the death of an Avatar informant hiding in Heros’ market.
The killer had been Ike—Reina’s childhood friend.
There was so much Anna wanted to ask.
How much did he know about the organization called Avatar?
How had he even discovered the informant in Heros, someone Anna herself had no knowledge of?
Despite her questions, Anna had chosen to believe Ike was on her side. She tried to redirect the situation—to buy time and steer events onto a different path.
But the enemies that came after that were on another level.
Not overwhelming, but not ones to take lightly either.
Eventually, Anna had no choice but to leave the Duchy of Rogelia, fearing an unforeseen catastrophe.
Upon returning to Avatar, she was immediately imprisoned.
T0rtured.
Over and over again.
She wondered—had information about Avatar really leaked to the Duke of Rogelia?
And if so, just how much had he learned about them?
In pursuit of answers, the organization subjected her to unspeakable cruelty.
“I can’t say anything. No matter what.”
The truth was, Anna had always been just a puppet for Avatar. She had never known much about the organization to begin with. To her, they had simply been a group of assassins.
There was nothing of value she could’ve told them.
And more importantly, she would never betray Reina—not even if it meant her own death.
And so, more than three years had passed.
T0rtured daily in a cell where food came only once every three days.
Anna was still there, wasting away.
“…Lady Reina…”
She whispered her name again.
***
[Ike’s POV]
Anna was probably in Reinen.
I was almost certain.
Still, I couldn’t say it with complete confidence—Anna never appeared in the original story.
But after piecing things together, it seemed almost inevitable.
In the original narrative, the incident unfolded during the first semester of the following year.
It began with a blood-curdling scream echoing through Arcana in the middle of the night, snapping Sophia awake.
Surrounded by cries from every direction, she didn’t know where to run first.
She chose the closest room and threw open the door—
Only to be met with a horrific scene.
Bl0od splattered everywhere.
Someone lay on the bed, a dagger buried deep in his chest, wailing in agony.
Sophia rushed forward and tried to heal him with her magic.
But it was useless—he was already on the brink of death.
He died with his eyes closed.
Sophia left the room, trembling.
From that point on, Sophia joined forces with the Crown Prince, Helen, and several professors to defeat the assassins.
“Should we just let it end like this? Just because one traitor’s gone? I should have dragged her back no matter what.”
Those had been the final words of the assassin leader in the original tale.
The “traitor” he spoke of likely referred to Anna.
Which could only mean one thing—Anna had returned to Avatar.
And that meant she was in Reinen, the assassins’ stronghold.
“Why did Anna have to be part of Avatar?”
Originally, I wasn’t supposed to intervene in this arc.
It was a crucial turning point in the story—the first death, the first full exposure to the organization known as Avatar.
I had thought the best approach was to let the event unfold as it had.
After all, removing this arc entirely would twist the narrative in unpredictable ways.
But once I realized that Anna could be saved—once I realized she might still be alive in Reinen—I couldn’t sit still.
Anna was no different from family to Reina.
So, I chose to think positively.
If this arc vanished entirely, then Reina’s early struggles in Arcana would also disappear.
Her foundation wouldn’t be shaken.
In this timeline, Reina wasn’t even at Arcana.
She had returned home because Duke Richard’s health had taken a sharp turn for the worse.
And that… was reason enough for everyone to accept.