Reverse Villainess

No Time.

The dwarves, who had been trembling in fear, began to explain their intentions.

"We were part of a group called Ursus Underground," one of them said. "Basically, we were a group created from dwarves who couldn't adapt to the puzzle rule and tried to get by doing other things."

Lumi nodded in understanding. As a dwarf who couldn't handle puzzles, she seemed to resonate with their situation.

"Sometimes we did dirty things, like stealing and stuff--"

"But not this time!" the other dwarf interrupted. "We were asked by our newest member to look out for you guys! We didn't plan to do anything bad! It's the opposite, if something bad happened to you, we would help you!"

"Really?" Rita said, clearly not believing him. "Sounds like an excuse to me."

Ruby nodded in agreement. "We can't trust them. Let's just end them quickly so we can continue our journey."

"No! Please! We're really not lying!" the trembling dwarf pleaded.

Lumi felt bad for them, but the others were not so easily convinced. Aurora eyed the dwarves suspiciously, while Rita began to unsheathe her sword.

The dwarves became even more scared, but Lumi spoke up. 

"Wait," she said. "Let's hear them out. They might be telling the truth."

"Fine," Aurora said. "So who was this new member you were talking about?"

"He was a human called Ace," the dwarf said. "He was the one who suggested making a shortcut too." 

Ace? Aurora thought. She had never heard that name before, whether in the game or someone she met directly in this world.

"Yes, that was our newest project!" the other dwarf said excitedly. "Shortcut project! Now you can go to any layers quickly, as long as you trade something! It's a hundred times better than using the normal way like this!"

"Shortcut?" Aurora said. "Do you know anything about that, Lumi?"

"No, I don't think so," Lumi said, thinking about it.

"It's because that was a new project!" the dwarf said. "We just finished digging a few days ago! Of course, words had not yet gone around!"

"Okay, that sounds interesting, but more importantly, tell us more about that human," Aurora said. "He specifically asked you to watch over us?"

"Yes," the dwarf with a longer beard said. "He asked us to find a group of human girls. One with long blue hair, accompanied by a tall knight girl and a small girl with twintails. He didn't say anything about the dwarf girl that followed you, but I believe he was talking about you."