"Professor Alice Draken?"
The name slipped out before I could stop myself.
Professor Alice Draken paused mid-step and looked back at me, her sharp eyes narrowing slightly, as if weighing my presence in a single glance.
"A search party has already been formed for Professor Lena," she said calmly. "There's no need for Rin to push himself like this."
Maybe she was right.
I wasn't even completely sure this was the same incident I was thinking of.
But the problem was time.
Several hours had already passed since the notification announcing the start of the main quest. If this really was that episode, then every minute mattered. In the original story, things escalated fast—far faster than people expected.
And if this incident was unfolding the same way…
Then the worst possible outcome was already drawing closer.
