Chapter 11: Operation: Save The Princess [3]
Kraken Town wasn’t just a random town — it was a rot that festered quietly beneath the empire’s surface, a place so drenched in corruption that even the game warned players to tread carefully.
When playing as a heroine in Fall of Ares, this town was a nightmare made of cobbled streets, back-alley ambushes, rigged taverns, and slums where "missing" meant "forgotten."
It was here that a particular heroine’s backstory unfolded — one that left even Azel shaken the first time he unlocked it.
Her name?
Ira Valein.
Dubbed the [Emotionless Heroine] by the fandom, Ira was a cold beauty who, by the time she entered the game’s main plotline, could barely remember how to smile.
Sold into slavery at a young age, she clawed her way to freedom by gathering coin from mercenary jobs, stuffing down every ounce of humanity until there was nothing left but efficiency and precision.
She had no family. No warmth. No hesitation.
She only enrolled in the Imperial Academy because she hoped becoming strong would help her... feel something again.
And when the calamity that was destined to take her away came, she sacrificed herself not out of love or loyalty — but because the pain inside had become too much to bear.
Azel wanted to save her.