The Outlander with the Emerald Eyes.

A growing murmur arose from the main entrance of the clan, charging the atmosphere with intense curiosity. "Did someone arrive?" asked Asimil.

Sacres narrowed his eyes, fixing his gaze toward the clan's entrance. "A new girl, it seems…" he murmured.

Asimil turned his head. And he saw her. She was surrounded by multiple adventurers of all kinds; she had become the center of attention. Her reddish hair, her intense emerald eyes, her porcelain skin, and her wide, confident smile made her seem like she was from another universe. She was disconcerting. Attractive. Dangerous.

She wore a cream-colored jacket and skirt, as if she came from a more modern world, not from a battle. She was magnetic and dangerous.

"Who is she?" asked Asimil, unable to look away from that woman.

Sacres took a moment to respond. His gray eyes shone with intensity towards that girl. He was using one of his abilities, the Eye of Clairvoyance. Sacres's gray eyes clouded for an instant with a bluish glow, as if he were looking right through the girl. The muscles around his mouth tensed slightly. "Hm," murmured Sacres, and his cautious tone left Asimil confused. "Huh?"

Asimil returned his gaze to that girl. However, a wave of sensations compelled him to stand up and walk past the crowd where she was.

It was then that their eyes met.

And the world stopped at that precise moment for the two of them. Her emerald eyes locked onto his, and for a fraction of a second, Asimil felt vertigo—a vertigo that was not just emotional. A sharp pang, identical to the one he felt upon waking from his dreams, pierced his side. For a second, he didn't see the red-haired girl, but the glint of metal under a streetlamp's light, and cold eyes that were not green, but an empty gray. The fleeting image of a ruby ring flashed in his mind and vanished. It was an instant, but in it, he felt the weight of a broken promise. He could see a micro-expression on her face, an almost imperceptible hesitation, as if she weren't seeing a novice, but a ghost that unsettled her. Then the coldness returned like a steel door slamming shut, and she dismissed him with a neutral assessment, turning back to her conversation.

"Huh, seems this girl is way too cold," Asimil thought, looking at the girl from a distance with a sour expression.

It was then that Gromm, the orc warrior, deliberately bumped into her. "Oops, sorry, little princess!"

What happened next, no one could have expected.

That girl's smile disappeared. Her gaze turned icy. "Next time, watch where you're going, you stupid orc," she said in a voice as sharp as steel. "Or learn to control your feet. Clumsiness is no excuse for rudeness."

The orc was left speechless. A murmur of surprise rippled through the group.

"What's wrong with this girl?" murmured Asimil as he returned to Sacres.

"Maybe she's just blunt," whispered Sacres, though his tone suggested he didn't entirely believe it. "Or…" he added, lowering his voice so only Asimil could hear, "perhaps she's hiding something. Maybe she doesn't want to be touched. Or perhaps... you remind her of an old flame."

A shiver ran down Asimil's spine. Sacres was right. That girl—whom someone had called Noelia behind her back—was an enigma wrapped in a threat. And for the first time, Asimil knew, with a certainty that came from a place deeper than memory, that his real journey had just begun.