INS Chapter 1

In this continent, there was a unique place where demons rampaged, called a dungeon.

There were several types of dungeons, such as underground dungeons, where the ground had caved in and the soil had piled high creating mountains, in which demons burrowed and emerged from.

All of them were pitch black, as if covered in ink. And they were all ferocious wild animals, and naturally, humanity’s worst enemy.

In the westernmost forest of Lindale, a battle between humans and demons was raging inside a dungeon.

“Three new B-rank and six new C-rank demons are approaching from the direction of the singularity!”

“Knights squadron 4, prepare at second line! Knights squadron 2, fall back to the third line! Mages squadron 4, prepare to fire—now!”

We were planning to attract most of the demons at the plains and burn them with the fire attribute.

But particularly strong demons didn’t fall with magic alone.

The Knights ambushed at the same time as the mages and swung their swords to take their lives.

After five years of this hellish battle, the grounds that used to be lush green and peaceful—was now covered with black and red blood of both.

Small fireworks were placed throughout the places where demons and humans both mingled.

“Four relief rounds confirmed. Rescue teams, collect the wounded and get them to the healers.”

“No! All of them haven’t come back yet since they left with the earlier relief bombs. The Commander is also out on the front lines.”

“We’re fighting a demon! Are there any free healers—?”

The Commander looked down from the watchtower and grimaced in his bitterness.

The Knights that retreated now were exhausted. The defeat of the S-rank demon that was born not to long ago had drained everyone’s strength.

Even if they were rested, they would not be able to carry people for rescue.

If we sent out the backup group right now, we would not be prepared enough to withstand the next wave of the demons.

And as soon as the Commander was in doubt on what to do—a clear voice rang throughout.

“I’ll go. Please show me the

location through our magic communicators.”

“Saint, await for orders—”

With the Commander’s voice of restraint behind her, the only woman in her while military uniform ran off towards the battlefield.

The one they called Saint was St. Stella Hayes, the country’s foremost healer.

Her flaxen hair, loosely braided in a bun, fluttered in the breeze, and her youthful grass-green eyes held a strong will.

She was about to turn twenty.

She used physical enhancement on her legs and ran towards the injured Knight, swiftly avoiding a demon’s attack.

“Saint!”

“Sorry to keep you waiting. Kaifuku hīru.”

Stella placed her hand on the wounded man’s stomach and chanted a spell, from which a gentle light was created.

A few seconds later, the light subsided and the wound was gone.

“Thank God. Now we can go on.”

“Knights. We have one more wave to endure. If we can get through this, the demon outbreak will calm down.”

As she walked away, Stella used water magic to clean the blood of the Knight’s swords.

The swords regained it’s shine and reduced it’s dullness.

Stella repeated so, unafraid of the demons.

Stella, in a special white uniform amidst the dark blue Knight’s uniform was like a ray of hope for humanity.

Stella retreated from the front line just as the waves of the demon’s settled down.

She headed for the camp behind the front line.

She entered the largest tent, which served as the Headquarters.

“Are you okay? Thank God.”

“Thank you, Lyle-sama.”

The soothing voice of Lyle, the second prince of the country and the Commander-In-Chief of the demon strike’s team, soothed Stella’s fatigue.

His fiery red hair and contrasting yet complimenting icy blue eyes, and his overly neat appearance still mad Stella’s heart beat faster just by a glance.

“I was worried about you. You did a great job.”

Lyle’s hand rested on Stella’s head as he stroked. No emotions could be traced from his expression, but that didn’t matter to her.

It was true that he was worried about her, and that he appreciated her hard work. But more than that, Stella liked him.

“Thank you so much.”

“If we continue fighting at this rate, we’ll have our dungeon breakthrough in less than a few months.”

There were three main types of dungeon breakthroughs.

The first was to enter the dungeon through the dark tunnels while defeating the demons along the way and destroying the miasma emitting core inside.

The second was to crush the dungeon and the core at the same time. It required a great deal of magic that could be casted by multiple mages.

The third was to wait until the miasma ran out itself, and fight off all them ourselves. The demons would stop appearing and the dungeon would be a hollowed out mountain or cave.

The dungeon created in the Kingdom of Lindale was too big to fight to the core immediately and to destroy it, but the dungeon was also too big to destroy by magic itself.

For this reason, we chose to use the third method.

“Just hold on a little longer.”

“Yeah, a few more months and we can finally… get engaged.”

As the Saint—Stella imagined the future she wished in her heart.

The two of them had promised to get engaged once they had passed the dungeon’s breakthrough.

Stella was a former orphan was taken in by Baron Hayes as his adopted daughter. Even under the protection of the Baron, Stella was still ranked the lowest.

That meant Stella had to leave her achievements as a Saint to get engaged to Lyle—the Prince who was ranked highest.

So this engagement was a verbal agreement between them.

“You went to the front lines during the break. But anyways, you should rest now. We don’t want anything to happen to the Saints.”

“Yes, Lyle-sama.”

I really wanted him to hug me, and call me by my name and not title.

However Lyle, who endured a heavy responsibility as Commander-In-Chief, could not be selfish.

If this dungeon collapsed, there would be tremendous danger for the people.

Besides, we’ll have plenty of opportunities after this campaign was over.

I could spoil Lyle confidently—dreams like these were Stella’s support.

I was brought to the dungeon when I was fourteen. Five years had passed since then.

Stella only smiled at Lyle and returned to her tent.

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