“I apologize again for my words.”

“It's all right. We were all a bit stressed.”

“Here are your drinks, enjoy.”

“Thank you.”

After we left the dungeon, it disappeared, and Reena invited us to a nearby beach bar. We were shown to a private table on the roof terrace without saying a word; the guild probably holds meetings here from time to time.

“The drinks are definitely on me. I feel like the biggest idiot,” Johann explains again before we take our first sip.

“I would have been a bit scared, too. Don't worry about it.” Miko is the one who takes absolutely no offense at his behavior. At the same time, I have trouble looking at his pitiful face. After Miko had taken out a dragon with the spell we created together, he stood there with one hand on a knife he was carrying. At no time did we show any hostility towards him or Reena, and yet he felt he had to defend himself.

Ahhh, I'm pissed off. The fact that Miko still looks relatively pale and weak doesn't make it any better. She's so sick that she's only ordered a Coke. What a lousy start to our first real vacation day.

“What's on your mind?” Miko asks me. Unfortunately, she notices immediately when something bothers me.

“I just imagined our vacation differently.”

"I'm really sorry. It's all my fault," Reena says, getting up from her chair and bowing deeply to us. When you get right down to it, we're the ones who went to the dungeon site and accepted the request for help without a second thought. You really can't blame her that much.

“Tell me, how can I make it up to you? Do you want to join our guild? I'll arrange a nice apartment for you to live in."

"No thanks," Miko says before Reena has finished her sentence.

“Of course not,” she replies with a loud laugh.

"Tell me about the world you came from. That's all I need from you.” Of course... the reason why Miko was so keen on going to this dungeon. To connect with Reena and find out more about this other world.

“Where should I start?”

“How come you're here? Why did you leave your world?” Miko literally stares at Reena. I also turn my eyes to her and see her face contort a little. Surely, this is a question she has often been asked, and judging by her expression, it is not one she is keen to answer.

“Since I don't know how much you know about this world, I'll explain a little more. You should know that, unlike the High Elves, we Dark Elves do not live in such isolation and discretion. Many of us are born and grow up in human cities, and there are also many of us with a human parent. Our bloodline is neither particularly pure nor of great relevance. Although we are quite desirable as potential spouses due to the fact that even half-elves can live incredibly long lives. For my part, I rarely get involved with humans because it's just sad to see them getting older and older while you stand still in time. But even I was not prepared to protect myself when it came to love. But I wasn't prepared to defend myself against romance either. So, I ended up starting a family with a human man. For a long time, it looked as if we wouldn't be blessed with a child, but in the end, it finally happened, and I became pregnant. My daughter was born healthy, and before I knew it, she grew into an indescribable, beautiful woman and left us to live her own life. Our paths would cross a few times over the next few centuries. While I went back to my life of leisure without many ties after my husband's death, she fell deeper and deeper into a depression caused by her long life, which led her to end it by her own hand.”

While I almost regret that Miko asked her this question, she continues to look at Reena attentively. Johann's gaze is fixed on the table as if he doesn't dare look at his guild leader while she reviews her past.

“I'm sorry to tell you this story, but it's important to understand why I'm here now. I met a mage who would open my eyes. He explained to me that our world would eventually end and that all the mana in the atmosphere was going to tear our dimension apart to make space for itself. The mages who shared this belief learned to use the mana around them instead of their own, but even that would only slow down the process. These mages began to work on a plan for what to do in the event of the world's demise and found a way to solve two problems at once. They began to create new worlds from the mana surrounding them, creating places to which people could flee if necessary."

Wait... what?

“But creating these small worlds was anything but easy, plus the problem was that they had the same problem as the real world within a very short time. The mana multiplied and tore the worlds apart due to the limited space. I lost myself in my studies and tried to find solutions together with my partners to convince other members of our plans to support us. Many did not believe that our world could end and spoke of panic-mongering and madness. But the signs were everywhere. The climate, the monsters, and the vegetation all changed drastically over time. Humans could hardly realize this in their short lives, but before us, elves and demons, a clear picture emerged. We realized that mana is formed and emitted by every living being. So, we started the first attempts to imprison monsters in the mana worlds. To make them able to live there, we created the environments and ecosystems around them, including other monsters built from mana."

"Of course, the real monsters also produced mana within the microworlds, which is why they self-destructed more quickly. But in return, we gave our world more time. We were well aware of what we were missing in order to maintain these worlds in the long term. A way to reuse the mana in their atmosphere. At best, we wanted to use the mana generated to create more worlds, but that was too much effort. So, we started by making sure that the worlds we created could survive longer by creating a kind of draining system for them. A way to move the mana elsewhere. And that's how the gates to your world were created. Teleportation magic was already thousands of years old, and the existence of other worlds similar to ours had long been confirmed. However, the amount of mana and the proper execution of teleportation between worlds was impossible for single individuals. But together, we managed to create a magic circle that created a new world, including a gateway to drain excess mana over here. Since the population of your world produced close to no mana, there were no dangers to humans. Still, the mana in the atmosphere caused the humans to slowly but surely grow systems to absorb the mana around them, resulting in the first mages of your world. You could say that we are both the inventors of the dungeons and the creators of the mages of your world.”

She takes a deep breath as if a weight has fallen from her shoulders. I listened to her, but I didn't really process what she had just said. The story sounds insane, but what reason would she have to come up with something like that? Johann grabs his glass and takes a sip of his drink. No wonder he was staring at the table so gloomily when he knew what Reena was going to say.

“Exciting. And when did you come here, and why?”

“Almost fifty years ago. Because I had to flee.”

“Your machinations certainly didn't only have good effects on your world, did they?”

“There were mainly difficulties because groups who didn't understand us tried to prevent us from doing our work by force.”

“You're still working with your people, aren't you?”

“What makes you say that?”

“The regularity with which dungeons appear on this island. It didn't make sense until just now, but from your story, it almost seems like you're opening the gates to them.”

“That's a benefit for everyone, isn't it? The inhabitants feel safe, I give a lot of mages a job, and I save my world. All at the same time.” Reena smiles happily, and Miko starts to laugh.

“Kayla, relax. Everything's fine.” Miko says and puts a hand on mine.

Huh? What does she mean? I look at our hands and only then realize how much I'm clawing into the arm of the chair. My whole body is on edge.

“I'm probably just as impressed and confused as you are. Who could have expected us to meet someone like this? Okay, I'm sorry, but I have to confess that I knew Reena lived on this island.”

I reflexively snatch my hand from underneath Miko's and look at her in shock. What's going on here? I don't understand anything anymore.

“When we were clearing out the office, I found a notebook from Lilith containing information and data about people she considers important. Reena was one of them, and the comment that she comes from the other world was enough for me to decide to book our vacation here. But the fact that we met and worked with her on the very first day was a coincidence, I swear to you.”

No matter how reasonable her explanation may be, I am hurt. What reason was there to hide this from me? Does she think I would have refused if she had told me she wanted to do research on our vacation? Miko is an idiot, I know that, but that still annoys the hell out of me.

“You are from Lilith's guild? But after seeing you in action, that makes sense. Wait, are you the little one from back then? I haven't seen you since you were a little kid. Time really does go by too fast for you humans. I helped Lilith find her way around here back then. What's she doing now?”

“She's gone back home.”

“Oh. I see.”

“Anyway, I'm sorry, but we have to go now,” Miko announces without me having had a sip of my cocktail. She can probably guess what my mood is like right now. Johann looks surprised, but Reena just nods in understanding.

“If you want to talk, you know where to find me.”

“Thank you very much.”