In the 7th research center of a certain pharmaceutical company, situated within a certain country of Earth, there was a researcher. The head researcher, in fact – even if these days, most of her hours were taken up by secretarial work for the Deputy Director, Brian. One of her colleagues had just shared with her an image they thought was interesting.

“Can’t be… but, what if…” Audrey muttered. The scene was burned into her mind.

Yggdrasia. A whole new world presented as fiction, as nothing more than a virtual reality game.

So-called ‘players’ were sent to this world as harvesters of a new form of energy, called ‘mana’. To lay the foundations, the corporation had begun interfering with the new world’s human countries since a decade ago. Temples were built in all of them as mana collectors and as revival points for players.

Yggdrasia’s humankind believed these were Temples of the God of Knowledge. In truth, these buildings served as bases for the corporation’s staff members and digistructed equipment, for on-site analysis of local peculiarities such as mana and materials, and for surveillance.

One hundred thousand AI-driven, stealth-focused remote-controlled drones were used as scouts and spotters. They flew around the whole world to survey terrains and climates. In seldom cases, a particularly perceptive monster or some other cause might still be able to heavily damage them. All the same, overall performance was good, and Earth received a massive amount of information.

Once the drones’ AI detected an unusual event, their programming required them to hurry toward the scene and record what they could. The drones at Trestan Kingdom, a country in the north-western corner of the central continent, had detected one such event at the auction hall and had recorded a part of it.

Right in front of the Deputy Director’s room was Audrey’s own desk. Using a audiovisual-only VR set, she replayed the copy of the recorded data that was sitting in her mobile device.

In front of her eyes, she saw a small girl fighting against a large group of grown adults inside the auction hall.

The video was filled with a strange white noise, almost like mist or smoke, and the girl’s movements were abnormally fast. Audrey couldn’t see what she looked like. Luckily, when the girl was sent flying by a wind spell, her side profile appeared on the screen for a split second.

And immediately after that, the screen whited out as if the drone was swallowed in mist, and it malfunctioned. The recording data ended there. Audrey’s colleague had lamented about the white noise. They thought the fight would have made for a great trailer video, if only the recording wasn’t so blurry.

“…”

But Audrey thought the girl looked familiar. Almost like a feeling of déjà-vu.

She had white skin, white hair… and scarlet eyes. Normally characteristics of an albino, yet with the addition of her long ears, she looked just like a rabbit beastman girl.

More than anything, however, glimpsing the side of her face reminded Audrey of a certain girl.

“…number 13…”

The final alpha tester. An albino girl born with a special power, who was called a ‘demon’ by her own mother. Her consciousness was already gone, and her comatose body was being kept in the collection facility.

Audrey remembered very clearly the photo attached to the documents detailing the girl’s personal information. It’s hard to forget that stare.

They just looked similar, that’s all.

Most people would brush off the matter with that. Yet for some reason, Audrey could not separate the rabbit girl from No. 13. Still, the woman decided to bury her unease, despite the protests coming from her intuition.

***

After I escaped the auction hall, I quickly blended into the crowd. I…

*bouncy-bounce*

We didn’t stay there for long. The two of us climbed on top of a building and started jumping roofs. An express train was about to leave right at that moment, so I clung to the train’s roof. We were out of the capital city.

I spent a whole day on top of the train. Once we reached the next town, I got on another train – officially, this time, with ticket bought – before the news about me could catch up, and left the country border.

I only needed to give the ticketing office my money and show them a peek of my adventurer’s card, and they let me on. They didn’t check on me too closely.

I was curious, so until the train arrived, I chatted with the middle-aged woman selling tickets. She seemed like the gossipy type. Apparently, adventurer’s cards remembered the holder’s magic. If someone else was holding them – for example, a bandit – then the card would show a black mark. It would be unusable.

So basically, you would be checked quite meticulously when you entered a large town, but inside, you just showed your card and the guards would let you go anywhere. So sloppy.

By the way, I already threw away that conspicuous red hoodie along the way. Obviously.

The train I was on was going to the east of Trestan Kingdom. Its destination was a small country called Anneuf.

Saying ‘neighboring country’ might give the wrong impression. In contrast to countries of Earth, which were densely packed together and covered all the land people could live on, countries here only formed around the extremely-convenient World Saplings. So there was quite a distance. It would take a whole three days of non-stop running for the express train to arrive.

Actually, this was pretty much the same speed as a linear motor train, wasn’t it? The scenery was just blazing by. Yet even when I opened the window, all I felt was a nice breeze. I wondered if the whole train was covered with a forcefield. They did have a lot of magic to waste, after all.

Well, scenery-watching like this wasn’t much different from looking through an airplane’s window, anyway…

Trains that crossed country borders like this one had eight cars, three of them for passengers. Twelve rooms in total. Currently there were only seven groups of passengers, so I had a whole room to myself.

From the window, I watched the white-capped mountain range passing by. I could finally take a breather. I took out some food I bought from the dining hall to feed Blobsy, while checking on the results of my evolution.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral Neige] [Greater Demon (Low-Rank)]
・The demon of tempestuous mist that ravages the northern seas. A canny spiritual lifeform.

[Magic Points: 1950/1950] 415↑
[Total Combat Power: 2145/2145] 457↑
[Unique Skill: <Reroll> <Cyber-Manipulation> <Absorption>] 
[Racial Skill: Fear]
[Simple Identification] [Humanoid Form (National Treasure)] [Specialist Packer]

…alright, where do I even start?

First off, my class finally reached [Greater Demon]. My combat power might not look like it grew all that dramatically, but I felt like my attacks had gotten quite a bit heavier due to the higher density – or perhaps I should say ‘thicker mist’ – that I now had. In other words, a flat power increase.

Next, ‘neige’? If I remembered my French right, that meant ‘snow’, right? My newly-acquired unique skill probably had something to do with it.

That yellow magic stone carried within it No. 17’s power.

The unique skill [Absorption]… If I remembered correctly, the avatars’ ability to absorb mana from killed enemies was derived from this power. And as the source, No. 17’s power was a lot more versatile.

In my case, the lifeforce absorption I could do through my mist now went much more smoothly. Not only that, I could now absorb the heat in my surroundings in order to create cold air.

My combat versatility would be getting a huge boost just from this change alone.

Next… my [Humanoid Form]. Once again, this skill was using the weirdest words to describe improvement… this was better, right? What the hell did it mean by (National Treasure)…? What sort of evaluation was this?

As always, my insides were mist. On the surface, however, I looked one-hundred percent human. Absolutely no difference.

I grew in height, too, perhaps due to my higher density. Upon first gaining a body, I looked about 10 years old, at about 135 centimeters. My next growth put me at 140, and now I was around 145.

But it wasn’t just the height. A few parts of me, such as my cheeks, got a bit of a touch-up, and I was looking more feminine. Did the increase to (National Treasure) have something to do with it? I looked like a perfectly normal 12 years old kid.

But the ears. The thrice-damned ears. And the puff of tail, too. No wonder I kept getting mistaken for a rabbit beastman.

And surprises after surprises, Tiz turned out to be an emperor somewhere. I even got a weird declaration from him. Was it just because I was a rare rabbit race? Well, not like I knew how serious he was, anyway.

Now that I thought about it, there was a very real possibility people would put out a hit for the ‘killer rabbit’ after that rampage. I wasn’t sure how developed this world’s information network was, but maybe I should leave before border control noticed me.

In this respect, I was really lucky to have gotten the Elven Treasure when I did.

It looked like a pretty silver necklace. Supposedly, this was a magitool. According to the explanation on the auction listing, it helped the wearer gain control over the presence they emitted.

No wonder it was an Elven Treasure. The race was full of hunters, after all.

Upon seeing what it did, I thought perhaps it could hide me from [Identification] too.

If my hypothesis was right, [Identification] didn’t simply pull information about the target out of nowhere. The names I saw when I used the skill changed all the time, after all, so it must be relying on the user’s observational and detection skills to output the numbers.

In which case, if I could hide my presence well enough, would it be enough to fool anyone trying to [Identify] me, too? At the very least, they wouldn’t think I was a demon even if they were suspicious of me.

Maybe this was the treasure that those elven kids said was stolen from them. Still, it wasn’t like I could give it back to them now, anyway.

So, plans for the future. I’d need to start gathering information about the final magic stone, the one belonging to No. 08, once I could get inside Anneuf safely.

Twenty days of borrowed time left…

If it was on another continent, I’d be so dead. Still, the three of them agreed to meet up with each other. They had to be on this continent.

Let’s see, the fastest way would be… yeah, it’d be making contact with beta players.

I could tell them the truth, but I didn’t think they’d believe me. No. 01’s story was only barely believable to me due to his – and my own – desperation. Also, if those corporate people found out I was No. 13, they might decide to get rid of my body on Earth.

So I’d need to hide what I knew. I’d need to make contact with the beta players as a native… or in their eyes, as an NPC.

…to be honest, even I thought my plans were really haphazard. Well, not like this was a new thing to me, anyway.

Even if I acquired the information, if my target was far away, I’d be needing more travel expenses. Gotta earn money, too… what a pain. I only had one large gold and three small golds left from the money I took from those traffickers.

I only had a coat, which I was wearing over my blouse and skirt, and a robe left as my spare clothes. I wanted some more clothing, too.

…so many things to do.

Two days later, the train arrived at a port town that was the gateway to the country of Anneuf. I escaped as mist before border control came to inspect the train and disappeared into the town.

Author’s Note: The path she took this chapter. The numbers are the order in which the saplings were discovered.

*I used the same system of combat power as in my other work. If anyone’s curious, please check this chapter out.

Translator’s Note: First, larger size of map.

Second, the chapter the author mentioned above is one of Akuma Koujo’s. As of the date in which I translated this (March 16, 2019), Akuma Koujo’s translation had only gotten to, according to the raw numbering as displayed in the URL, chapter 65, while the chapter mentioned above is chapter 155. So I’m sorry people, you’ll just have to wait for the other group to catch up. If you’re curious, you can compare the magic points of characters over there to this novel to get an idea of how strong they are relative to each other.

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

“…A demihuman?”

“Is that… a beastman?”

Within the dark auction hall, all eyes were on the stage. The flames revealed a single girl of white, standing alone.

With the thief revealed to be the girl who had been with them until now, Tiz almost leaped from his seat. He glared at the girl.

“…Shedy!”

But was that girl truly her?

The first time he met her, he thought she was a ten-year old kid. The second time, she looked closer to eleven. Perhaps his first estimation was wrong, he thought. Nothing more.

It was true that kids possessing high magic, as they often did among the nobility, tended to grow up faster. Yet Shedy, standing on the stage, looked as if she had gained another year of age and height within as many days. The little girl was already turning into a young lady. She was showing the first hints of a deadly beauty.

However, it wasn’t the most eye-catching thing about her. The audience was all staring at the pair of long, snow-white ears softly dangling from her head.

There were canine species with drooping ears, true, but the longest among them was only around 10 centimeters. No one had heard of, nor seen, such a species of beastman to have ears so long as to reach her chin. To have ears of a rabbit.

“…so, that girl was a rabbit beastman!!” Salia’s shout echoed within the silent hall. Her words couldn’t be clearer.

“…rabbit?” “A rabbit…” “Rabbit…!!!”

Mutters sounded out one by one. As they began to comprehend the words, the attendees ceased seeing her with fear and terror. Desire flooded their eyes.

“Get me that bunny!! That critter is MINE!!”

In one of the second floor booth seats, a chubby middle-aged noble leaned over the railing and screamed.

Tiz knew that face. He was the brother to the king of this Trestan Kingdom. Yet his position did nothing to deter the other attendees, full of the rich and the nobilities of other countries. Prompted by his shout and blinded by greed, they stood up, one after another, and gave orders to their own subordinates.

“Catch that rabbit girl!”

“No, auction her! I’ll pay one hundred large golds!”

“My trading firm will secure her! Get the bodyguards in here!”

“Don’t fuck with me! That rabbit belongs to Trestan Kingdom!”

“This is an auction, who the hell cares about that?! Grab her already!!”

A rabbit beastman. A race hitherto unseen, unheard of. And the girl was a beauty too, at that. She would fetch an absurd price.

Dozens of bodyguards were tripping over each other to fulfill their given orders. They flooded toward the stage. Seeing them, the auction host spat out orders to the surviving guardsmen.

“We’re taking her for our auction! Capture her, but don’t you dare harm a hair on her head! I’ll pay every one of you a large gold coin once she’s in my hands!”

Shedy just blankly stared and blinked. Her scarlet eyes swept through the hall, stopping at the approaching wave of guardsmen and escorts, and narrowed in disgust.

“Alright, just stay calm-aghk!”

A lithe swordsman was the first one to get up on the stage. Just as his bare hands were about to grab the girl, his movements inexplicably slowed down. The girl dashed in. Her dagger tore through his throat.

Then she bounced off. Several bodyguards reached for her, but the moment they came into contact with the mist overflowing from within her coat, their faces rapidly turned blue and their movements dulled. Daggers and claws ripped them apart.

Was that white mist some sort of ice magic?

The bodyguards realized this was no simple target. Some changed into magic, some broke apart a nearby chair to make impromptu bludgeons.

“This might hurt a bit, little bunny!”

One of the bodyguards quickly changed gears and grabbed a spear from the floor. He spun it, clearing off the mist, then used the pommel to jab at her.

“Agh!!”

Yet despite his seemingly-skillful spear handling, the man mysteriously slipped on a patch of frozen blood, losing his balance. The girl grabbed his face. His entire body rapidly turned pale as if the heat was being sucked out of him. In a blink of an eye, white ice covered him whole, and as the final slivers of life left him, the frozen statue shattered.

Witnessing the ruthless execution right in front of them and feeling the heat-sapping mist upon their skin, the bodyguards all went pale. They gulped.

On the second floor seating, Tiz was taking in the sight with blazing eyes. He asked the butler beside him, who was staring at the girl while looking just as pale as the bodyguards.

“Gramps… gramps! What the hell is going on?! How much is Shedy’s combat power?!”

Considering that they were employed by this auction hall, the guards must have their combat skill at level 3. Or as said among the adventurers, they were Rank 3.

And the attendees here were all either people with deep pockets or were powerful nobility. Their bodyguards must be at least Rank 4, like Salia. Perhaps there were even Rank 5s – fighters as skilled as master knights – among them.

Salia was a magic knight, possessing high magic. Her combat power was close to 400.

There should be plenty of other bodyguards here who were around her level. Even if they weren’t allow use of their favorite weapons in their capture, and even if they were hindering each other, there should be at least dozens of people above 300 power. It’s impossible for them to be having so many casualties to a little girl with only 200 combat power.

“I-I… I can not [Identify] her!”

“What?!”

“…her magic points, her hit points, her total combat power, they’re all hidden to my eyes!”

That reminded Tiz of something. When they were at the adventurer’s guild for her identification, the crystal displayed Shedy’s magic as 120, combat power as nearly 200, but no hit points.

Only [Total Combat Power] and [Magic Points] were important in combat, so people paid less attention to [Hit Points]. Even the guild staff thought it was just an error and ignored it. In hindsight, perhaps it was a sign Shedy was hiding her power.

“You’ve done it this time… Shedy!”

A gust of wind visited the stage, blowing away the cloying mist.

“Stop right there, villain!”

Rage colored Salia’s face so red she was giving off steam. The knight pointed the dagger in her hand at Shedy.

Noticing the woman, Shedy subtly frowned. She silently turned to face the knight.

“What are you going to do with that dingy knife?”

“You dare say that after you’ve tricked me so, knave?!”

Salia was glowing crimson now. She slammed the bandit dagger Shedy gave her on the ground.

“Nothing short of death would redeem the deception you’ve inflicted on us! Your life ends here by my hand!”

“Really…”

To Salia’s furious declaration, Shedy only responded with a chilly glance. The girl leisurely readied a dagger in her left hand, while her right was hidden inside her coat.

“Come!”

Salia was confident. If Shedy was using a water-type mist spell, then she would have the advantage with wind-type spells. Exactly the type of magic she specialized in.

‘So full of yourself with that mist, aren’t you? Let’s see how you like it when my wind blast you away, mist and all!’ Salia smirked.

And just like the knight woman expected, Shedy charged in while releasing mist from somewhere around her hidden right arm. Salia shot her arms forward.

“[Wind Bomb]!”

A burst of air exploded from Salia’s hands. Just as she predicted-no. Exceeding her predictions, Shedy blasted off as if she was weightless. The girl smiled and waved. She flew off above the heads of the surrounding bodyguards.

“Noooooo! Don’t run away, lowlife!!”

Shedy left Salia’s screams behind and leisurely landed back on the ground. Before the bodyguards could regain their senses, she dashed off into the crowd of attendees.

The ladies were shrieking and running from her. The merchants were reaching out with greedy eyes. Shedy simply responded with a large cloud of mist, using it to slip through the crowd and dash for the exit.

On the way, her eyes met with Tiz’s, who was still standing on the second floor. He bore his fangs in a savage grin and declared.

“Remember this, girl! I am Tischlar, the Twelfth Emperor of the Empire of Touze, and you. Will. Be. Mine! Just wait for it!”

“…”

Shedy gave no reply.

The girl escaped to the front doors and disappeared into the town. The king’s soldiers were sent out on searches, but they were unsuccessful. She was no longer in the capital.

This was the beginning of a flood of extravagant bounties set by the wealthy, and by the nobles of Trestan and of other countries. Yet even among them, the bounty set by the hands of the Emperor of Touze himself was head and shoulders above. All within the central continent were aware of the lavish reward.

Wanted

A young white-colored rabbit beastman girl, who commands a magical mist.

Whosoever will apprehend and deliver the girl shall be handsomely rewarded.

The girl must not be harmed.

The Emperor of Touze swears upon his name: whosoever accomplishes this matter, shall be given Five Thousand Large Gold Coins as recompense.

Incidentally, many had expected this event to further aggravate the marginalization of beastmen, yet it was not so. On the contrary, demand for young, pale-colored or lop-eared canine beastman girls surged. They were sold for extremely high prices and granted a life of luxury by their buyers.

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

Twenty-one days of borrowed time left.

I didn’t see anyone else on my way to the underground Magic Routing Control room that was supplying power to the hall.

I was prepared to eliminate anyone who saw me, but that didn’t mean I would happily carry out an indiscriminate mass murder. Still… all the same, I felt like human countries really just weren’t for me.

…I wondered if this distaste came from the discrimination of appearance that I’d been experiencing since forever. It was likely.

Nothing would change with just the words of one person. Every humans, down to their children, only ever saw demihumans as their livestock, as useful beasts. There was no scorn nor disdain to be had here. They were just animals, after all, not people.

The kindness the humans showed to demihumans slaves was no different from the care a cowboy showed to his horse.

To the humans here, killing ‘cattles’ was nothing to feel guilty about.

I had always wondered why things were this way. The reason for it all lay here.

“…the Magic Routing Control room.”

Mana overflowing from the World Tree’s Saplings that were sustaining the world was gathered and sent everywhere. Including this place.

Magic powered the trains and lit up the nights. A resource so vast no one even bothered to turn off the lights. It was just as vital to human convenience as electricity to modern Earth.

No. 01… Hans… he had left the following words in his will.

The human race, individually weak yet with high reproductive ability, had managed to conquer the whole world by leeching on the Saplings.

Doubtlessly, the other races with power had seen their weakness, and so they had allowed the humans to cling to the Saplings in pity.

Yet the humans had discovered a way to utilize the mana. With their newfound power, they had driven all the other races away from the Saplings and took them as slaves.

And with the knowledge coming from another world – from modern Earth – their power had only grown.

This building was constructed with the premise that its magical lights would never be off. So I expected that once the auction hall plunged into darkness after losing its magic power supply, everyone inside would be bewildered.

Just candles alone wouldn’t be enough light for the people here to fight in. It should be the moment right before No. 17’s magic stone would be brought on stage. About fifteen minutes after the afternoon auction began.

After taking out the lights, I would head right toward the stage, kill only the people blocking my way, grab the stone, then make my getaway.

…this was the most harebrained scheme ever, even if I say so myself. However, I didn’t have the time for careful planning, my clock was counting down, my lack of experience would just create a plan full of holes anyway, and most importantly, I’d never even done this sort of strategic thinking before.

I was playing this thing by ear. I couldn’t afford any delays; it would just put me on the back foot.

Alright, let’s roll.

I dispersed my arm to unlock the control room. With my claws and weapons, I began to turn everything inside into junk.

***

“Just what is that fool of a girl doing in the washroom?” Tiz muttered in incredulity.

The afternoon auction had begun for a while, yet Shedy still wasn’t back. Tiz took a sip of spirits.

“Shall I search for her?”

“Nah, just leave her. She’ll come back sooner or later.”

Tiz looked to be fond of the girl, yet he still showed no concern.

He thought the impudent attitude was novel. She might still be a kid, but cute enough to have great prospects later on. Rarely was there someone as white as her, and combined with her red pupils, she looked just like a rabbit. That delighted him.

Yet in the end, to him, it was nothing more than a rarely-seen coloring. Discovering her was no different from discovering a surprisingly nice knife in a bazaar.

Tiz’s attachment to her was only the possessiveness of a man who didn’t want his thing to run away.

People in positions of power like Tiz weren’t ones to have a partner out of love in the first place.

Appearance and ancestry decided the woman standing beside him, while bloodlines decided the woman who would carry his children. These women might be important people, but he wouldn’t obsess over them.

Tiz only had two fixations: the magical blade he acquired as a child, and the position he achieved by defeating his father. An exotic-looking girl with an impudent attitude and a bit of beauty wasn’t enough to earn his infatuation.

“Hmm?”

Just as the first item of the afternoon auction, a piece of jewelry, found its owner and the Yellow Magic Stone was being brought on stage, the light shining on the stage suddenly vanished.

“What happened?”

“Just a bit of theatrics… right?”

The auction originally began in a dark hall with only candle lights in the first place, so the attendees weren’t thinking too much. Just a bit of chatter, at most. They were yet to aware that this was an incident.

***

The moment I destroyed the equipment, shutting off the light, I thought I heard a voice.

But this wasn’t the time for hallucinations. I turned myself quasi-mist and rushed through the dark corridors at top speed.

Blobsy bounced at me as we regrouped, cheerfully diving into my satchel. Once she was secure, I dashed upstairs. There, I saw some staff members panicking from the sudden blackout.

The main doors and windows were letting in more light near the hall entrance, and naturally people gathered there. The staff members were frantically trying to stop the attendees’ bodyguards from coming in, saying it was dangerous.

I promptly returned to the dark hallway leading further in. Those two guards standing watch were leaving the doors ajar, peeking inside to check on the situation.

Their eyes weren’t used to the dark yet. I returned to [Humanoid Form] again, kicked the ground for a boost, and slipped through between the guards.

[Former Mercenary?] [Race: Human ♂] [Guardsman]
[Magic Point (MP): 84/85] [Hit Points (HP): 150/150]
[Total Combat Power: 306]

“Something just came in!”

“It’s a person!”

Right at that moment, someone inside summoned a magical light, covering the room in a faint glow. See? My plan was so full of holes.

“Stop them!” The guard shouted. One of the staff charged at me with just his fists. I stepped on his head and flew over.

“What the hell are you doing!?”

Another man right next to my side swung a crowbar. I blocked it with the dagger in my right hand, while the claws on my left hand sliced at him, crowbar and all. Whoa, my claws actually cut metal…

But I didn’t even have the time to be surprising myself. I parried the spear stabbing toward me from the front with my dagger, and tore apart the guard’s throat with my claws.

“Hahh!” A spear lunged at me from behind.

[Reroll]

I just barely dodged it and instantly responded with a kick. It broke his neck.

Damn it, why the hell is this turning into a messy melee!?

Luckily, my opponents were still unused to the dark. Dodging their attacks wasn’t all that difficult, and I managed to win.

I knew it, detailed plans just weren’t my thing. Some of the staff members were running away. I should head to the stage before this mess got any bigger. But then, a voice called at me from the darkness.

“W-Wait!”

Eh? Was there still someone left? I turned toward the voice, holding up my dagger. There, I saw two kids being bound inside a cage.

They looked about the same age as the body I currently had. A boy and a girl. They looked like each other, both having light-blond hair and very fair features.

They were only wearing what amounted to sheets with holes cut in for heads, so thin the fabric looked nearly transparent. Their hands were bound in cuffs. Desperate blue eyes looked at me.

“…elves?”

“Yes! Please, let us out of here!” “We hadn’t done anything to humans!”

“Hold on, tell me what’s going on first…”

I didn’t have time, so I told them to just give me the cliff notes. Apparently, they used to live in a relatively large elven settlement. The settlement had been enjoying a comparatively peaceful relationship with this country by selling traditional handicrafts.

However, at some point, the king of this country began to demand a few slaves each year. The settlement could not comply, and diplomatic ties were cut. One day, they were suddenly attacked by soldiers. The men were killed, the treasures taken, the women and children captured.

“They said they were ‘pacifying a revolution’.”

“Eh? But your village wasn’t even a part of this country, right?”

“…yes.”

You sure they didn’t just want pets to play with?

“Do you have anywhere to run to?”

“A few of us managed to scatter and ran off. If we could just escape to the forest depths…” “…we might be able to find our friends again one day… Ah, sorry. You’re a human, you don’t really need to hear this…”

“No.”

I let my ears slipped out a bit from my hood. Their eyes widened.

“Y-You’re…”

“Don’t mind me. The most I can do is letting you go… move away.”

My claws sliced apart the lock and their handcuffs. I also handed them some spare robes and daggers, plus a few silver coins.

“U-Umm…”

“This is it. I can’t help you any further here.”

I turned to leave. The girl called after me, her voice choked in tears.

“One day… one day, we’ll repay you! We swear!”

The boy still kept silent, his head bowed low. He didn’t move even after I’d left their sight.

“…”

I knew it. I couldn’t bring myself to abandon someone I’d talked to… And I still had my own urgent problems to deal with, at that. In front of my eyes or not, I should leave the slaves alone next time.

Alright… let’s sow some more chaos on my way to the magic stone.

“Who’s there?”

A staff member asked, seeing me dashing out of the dark and into the faint magical light. Looked like they were still unaware of what had happened. Wait, was that the Elven Treasure that was supposed to come out next after the magic stone?

Seeing that I still wasn’t stopping, the guardsmen immediately crowded around the treasure. They stabbed their spears toward me without a single warning… Security was honestly annoyingly strict.

My combat power was good. My offensive versatility, less so. I was at a disadvantage every time I fought against multiple opponents. Still, high combat power meant higher speed and lower damage received from attacks.

With my wish of a combat-capable human form granted, the reflexes and instantaneous power I had when shapeshifted had risen by leaps and bounds. I could even see my opponents’ attacks happening, as if in slow motion.

I dodged the spears, letting them graze against my shoulder, and leaped right into the face of one of them. My dagger tore his throat apart.

“Whoa!?”

“We have a professional here! Be careful!”

The guardsmen swung their weapons without hesitation, even against someone who only looked like a kid. A few of them scratched me. I continued parrying with my dagger and slicing throats with my claws.

I was still keeping my inhuman nature hidden, and so they were also only using unenchanted, mortal-killing weapons. They still hurt, of course, but the damage was negligible. And I didn’t have vital organs like humans in the first place.

Snap. My final bandit dagger broke. I’d been handling them… well, not exactly carefully. One of them took the chance to pierce my stomach with a spear from behind me.

“Here’s our chance! Finish ‘em off!”

Two guardsmen dropped their spears and unsheathed their swords. The dagger slipped from my fingers. Seeing me impaled, the two men approached without as much care as they should have. I drove two new daggers into their throats.

“Wha-” The guard impaling me cried out. I dispersed my left hand into a tendril, then solidified just the claws to tear off his throat.

Seeing the guards all dead in bare moments, the other staff members screamed. Too late.

I pull the spear out of my stomach, then picked up the Elven Treasure sitting on top of a fancy-looking service cart.

If only this was the magic stone I was looking for, I could have escaped right there and then. I took too much time with those elven kids…

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral] [Lesser Demon (High-Rank)]
・The demon of bewitching mist that dances upon the northern seas. A canny spiritual lifeform.

[Magic Points: 1095/1310] 210↑
[Total Combat Power: 1226/1441] 231↑
[Unique Skill: <Reroll> <Cyber-Manipulation> ] 
[Racial Skill: Fear]
[Simple Identification] [Humanoid Form (Master)] [Specialist Packer]

I had a bit of hope, seeing how the guardsmen were quite strong, but it looked like another evolution was out of the question so soon after ranking up.

Maybe the next evolution would happen at around 1500 or 2000 magic. I’d just have to make do with what I had. My magic dropped, but my base combat power rose, so all in all, my current power hadn’t changed. It’d be fine, probably.

As I hurried to the stage, I saw a shining yellow stone within the darkness, being surrounded by a few guardsmen.

That’s it… The stone I assimilated from No. 01 was telling me it was what I’d been looking for. No. 17’s magic stone.

“Thief! There’s a thief!”

I heard around ten pairs of feet running up behind me. Hearing the warning, the guardsmen on-stage pointed their spears at me. A commotion was starting up among the attendees, who had been left in the dark until now.

…I wondered if those kids made it out.

‘I’m not coming to save you again if you get caught, alright!? I have my own problems here.’

A few guardsmen on the stage charged at me. At the same time, I leaped out from the wings, parrying the spears with a dagger while stabbing the closest guard in the face with another.

“AaaAAAAaAhh!?”

“They’re fast! Don’t use spears, use your swords-” one of them shouted, his hands getting ready to switch weapons. His throat got a [Reroll]ed thrown dagger. “-aghk!”

“Eat this! [Sword Slash]!”

One of the men chasing me slashed at my back. Seemed like the attack was magical, as it hurt quite a bit. I pretended to stagger, slicing at the man’s legs with my claws as I was falling down, then stabbing a dagger into his neck the moment I hit the ground.

“[Ice Arrow]!”

Ooof… Icicle spikes stabbed into my back. Looked like one of them knew magic.

Two men took the chance to attack. I rolled away from their blades, then dispersed both my arms into clawed tendrils of mist, shredding their throats.

“Magic?!”

The darkness continued to be my ally. They thought my attacks were just spells.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral] [Lesser Demon (High-Rank)]
[Magic Points: 1080/1385] 75↑
[Total Combat Power: 1218/1523] 82↑

The guards stopped their attacks for a moment, cautious of magic. I took the chance to immediately dash toward the stone that was about to be carried off by a staff member. I kicked them away. The stone was flung into the air… and I swallowed it whole without a moment’s hesitation.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral] [Lesser Demon (High-Rank)]
[Magic Points: 1080/1535] 150↑
[Total Combat Power: 1218/1688] 165↑
[Evolution Available]

***

The moment one of Tiz’s targets, the Yellow Magic Stone, was brought on the stage, the lighting shut off. As they waited in candlelight for the repairs to be done, a sudden commotion started up on the stage. Seeing his fun being spoiled, Tiz growled.

“What’s going on?!”

“Sir, I’ll go check right away…”

Salia reflexively responded, then upon further thinking, began to vacillate between whether she should prioritize Tiz’s safety or investigate the current incident. Her thoughts were interrupted by someone jumping on stage.

“I see, a thief!” Tiz stood up, his mouth in a savage grin. Then, noticing the lack of weapons on his hips, he scowled.

“Boy, no need to endanger yourself. This is not your country.”

“You don’t need to tell me, gramps.”

But Tiz’s displeasure soon disappeared. Lit by faint magical lights, the sight of the thief running amok on-stage had piqued his fancy.

The shadow was small, almost like they were just a child. Their opponents were ten-plus grown men. A few attacks hit the thief, yet they still fought without the slightest hesitation, dodging only the fatal blows. Tiz thought the sight was beautiful.

He wanted the thief… Still, even if he had no idea what they were after, they surely wouldn’t come out of this safe and sound after breaking into this auction.

Then the kid leaped toward the yellow magic stone, still faintly shining inside the darkness. Tiz thought he saw the thief swallow it. The noisy attendees, agitated by the battle, immediately quieted down as they felt the thief’s presence changing. Almost as if the thief had just transformed into something else.

The next moment, the stage was abruptly awash with a faint mist. The temperature inside the hall dropped sharply. Seeing that the people in contact with the mist were collapsing one after another, Tiz swung his arm at the stage.

“[Fire Lance]!”

A blast of fiery heat washed away the mist on-stage. The wind took off the hood of the thief. Lit by the flames, Tiz saw her face and her drooping, rabbit-like ears.

“…Shedy!”

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

“Yep, I knew it. Red looks good on you. Your white skin and hair really make those blood-red eyes pop out.” Seeing me in a complete ensemble, Tiz nodded in satisfaction.

“…thanks.” I replied tersely.

Twenty-two days of borrowed time left.

When we arrived at the station in Trestan’s capital last evening, we were greeted by over a dozen of Tiz’s subordinates and knights.

If the whole group had gone, they would’ve had to rent out the entire train. Looked like whoever handled the whole thing knew how much was too much. Which meant it must have been the butler, not Tiz.

The day after, which was today, the clothing arrived at the high-class inn we were staying at. No one had even come to measure my sizes, yet they all fit perfectly.

I was wearing a high-quality-looking white peasant blouse, with a black, knee-length pleated skirt and black leather ankle boots.

And covering all of them was a snug hooded coat in a calming dark-red shade. No matter how you slice it, I was pretty much Red Riding Hood here.

How had things come to this? I recalled the events of yesterday, when I was still on the train.

*

Tiz had gotten bored being cooped up in a train for a whole day, which meant I was in his guest room for his entertainment. Salia was still standing guard in front of the door. On papers, I was his ‘servant’, but I didn’t care to change my attitude, and Tiz hadn’t said anything about it either. Which was the last straw that pushed Salia over the edge. She snapped at me.

“How long do you plan on hiding in that rag? Show some respect. It’s sweltering just seeing you still inside that coat even indoor.”

I wholeheartedly agreed. But it wasn’t like I was wearing this because I liked it. If Tiz found out about my ears here, he’d probably burst into laughter and then promptly proceed to enslave me as his toy.

Normally if that happened, I’d just have to evaporate all the train’s passengers, but Tiz here had nearly 800 combat power. Even silly Salia had around 400. The other knights had around 200 power too, so fighting them head-on would be quite messy. I supposed the crux would lie in how fast I could deal with Salia first…

I looked at her in my deliberations. She jolted in a bit of fright.

“W-What’s that look for?! I only spoke the tru-”

“Stop it, Salia. You too, Shedy. If it actually comes to blows, I’m not going to stop you two, but you should know she’s a magic knight. Despite what you may think, she’s quite capable.” Tiz interrupted in an attempt to mediate.

“Is that so…”

So she was more magical than martial? I supposed her weapon did have some powerful enchantment. She might prove to be a lot more troublesome to me than I first thought.

I showed no signs of wanting to make amends, and the same went for her. Then Tiz started speaking, looking like he just thought of a new game.

“That reminded me, you have quite high magic too, Shedy. And judging from your combat power, you use that magic for spellcasting, right? I didn’t think a little girl traveling alone would be weak. Perhaps there’s a secret hidden in that coat?”

He threw a sharp gaze at the part of my head I’d been hiding.

I sighed and began my prepared excuse. I pointed to his arms.

“Hmm? What do you mean by that?”

“My skin’s too white, I’m weak to light. Even this much light indoor’s already enough to hurt my eyes.”

The lack of pigment made me quite sensitive to all sorts of light. Unlike before, it was only a trivial problem now, but the lighting in this train – were they magical too? – was about the same brightness as modern Earth’s.

“I see.”

After a few moments thinking, Tiz nodded and promptly rang the bell near his hand.

“Gramps, make sure there’s a hooded coat when you prepare her clothes. A blood-red one would be good.”

*

Was he messing with me…?

He was some sort of big-shot noble, right? Would this be within his means?

Right now, I was helping out with the preparations for tomorrow’s auction. I was managing his luggage, which was one of the responsibilities of his servants. Even if I was just one on paper.

“Shedy, can you hide weapons?”

“Weapons?”

“Yeah. The official rules said you’re not allowed weapons in. However, there’ll be incognito nobles from other countries like me at the auction, plus people from the underworld too. And you can ban weapons, but you can’t ban magic. There’ll be quite a few attendees secretly armed.”

“…as long as it’s not too big. By the way, which country’s noble are you?”

“Hah, curious? I’ll tell you if you become my servant for real.”

“Not really… just thought you’re quite young to be the… what was it… the current head, right?”

“Mmm, well… I supposed. And I’m already twenty-seven, I’m not that young anymore. It’s not an uncommon age for a family head.”

“…I really thought you were younger.”

“Is that so? …right, I see. So there’s this thing I heard, that apparently high magic tends to make you age slower. This probably happens less often in commoner families, though. Also, kids grow up quickly, so maybe that’s why I thought you suddenly looked older.”

“Umm, yeah, must be…”

Tiz began comparing the sidearms the knights brought over. Midway through, he seemed to have gotten bored. He picked a few daggers with small magic stones inserted.

“Let’s just get whatever. Pack these, Shedy.”

…I was running out of bandit daggers, so maybe it was about time for a resupply. Well, with my Rank-up, it’s not like I needed weapons anymore anyway.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral] [Lesser Demon (High-Rank)]
・The demon of bewitching mist that dances upon the northern seas. A canny spiritual lifeform.

[Magic Points: 1100/1100] 
[Total Combat Power: 1210/1210] 
[Unique Skill: <Reroll> <Cyber-Manipulation> ] 
[Racial Skill: Fear]
[Simple Identification] [Humanoid Form (Master)] [Specialist Packer]

My power hadn’t changed a bit. I hadn’t had a single fight after entering the town, after all.

And even after booking rooms in the capital’s inn, I was pretty much on light house arrest. The only exceptions were whenever Tiz got bored and called for me.

His group rented out the whole top and near-top floors, while I was given a room in the floor below those two. My room wasn’t as opulent as theirs, but it was still pretty much heaven compared to the slum that was the orphanage’s room packed with bunk beds.

I always had an accompanying knight to, as they said, ‘watch over’ me. On Salia’s or the butler’s orders, perhaps. Their trust did not come with Tiz’s approval, it seemed.

Sure, I could disperse into mist and escape from the third-floor windows. However, I thought doing what could be done at the moment was better than simply hunting thugs at night, which would just cause a commotion and make the security even tighter than it already was.

“…and there.”

Sharp, around three-centimeters claws grew from my fingertips. Their red coloring might be due to me imagining them coming from my body. This discovery came as a result of my experimentation with my mist form, and one of the things I tried was to see if the arms I created while dispersed could have sharp tips or not.

I believed these claws came to be because I had wanted a way to fight in human form when I was Ranking-up.

I said ‘house arrest’, but I had my hands full with important things like power experimentation and playing with Blobsy, so I didn’t mind. However, whenever I came out for food or because Tiz was bored, Salia was always there to glare at me with killing intent. Irritating.

…was she jealous?

The next day, the day of the auction. Tiz’s group was going to leave in the morning. With me, obviously. Tiz would still have his bodyguards until we get inside, where he would be allowed only three other accompanying people.

Those three were the bodyguard Salia, the butler, and finally, me. Salia was expressing her disagreement about my inclusion even until now, which earned her another scolding from Tiz. Then she’d glare at me again. So annoying.

The auction was held in a public hall. It looked sort of like a concert hall. I could see the royal castle from here.

“Don’t get yourself lost, Shedy.”

“Yeah.”

We headed right for one of the second-floor personal booths. Tiz sure was made of money. Right after we sat down, he started talking with the butler about their bidding plans.

“The yellow magic stone can’t be the main show.”

“Indeed. In the end, it is but an unusual magic stone. Likely, it would not be all that expensive. I believe we should focus on getting the Quarancinq-made elixir instead.”

“And we don’t need the artistic stuff. Let’s see, what’s good among the magitools… hmm? Shedy, you wanna see too?”

Tiz noticed me reaching on tiptoes to see the list of items being auctioned. He gave me a spare list.

So the yellow magic stone would be… the second one in the afternoon. The third one seemed to be a magitool with an interesting effect. I was a bit curious. Salia looked curious too, since she was sneaking peeks from behind me.

“…hey, you. Take it over here, it’s brighter.”

The hall’s lighting were off, perhaps to create atmosphere. The tables all had stylish-looking candles instead.

“…why not just turn on the light? They should have kept them on until the auction started. Are they skimping on magic?”

“Hah, what a bumpkin. This is a royal capital with a Sapling, there’s no reason to be stingy. Especially this place. The hall has a direct magic pipeline from the castle, it’d never have a blackout.”

“…I see.”

So the Sapling was in the castle, then… If I remembered correctly, 99 countries formed around the 99 Saplings, right? Perhaps the humans had a method to extract and distribute the magic from the Sapling everywhere throughout the country. It’d explain the abundance of magical energy that I saw.

“But that’s enough of that. Get us our weapons. Being unarmed makes me jittery.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

We’d handed over our weapons at the reception. Salia was fidgeting. Instead of the new weapons, I gave her one of the dingy daggers I took from the bandits. She scowled, but still took it reluctantly.

At that moment, a spotlight shone on the stage. An announcement rang out to signify the beginning of the auction.

“The magic sword from the Labyrinth of Segal had gone to number 56 with a bid of 10 large gold coins and 1 silver coin.”

That last silver was really petty.

There were a lot of people in the hall, but only around a hundred was participating. Morning bids were generally rather calm. The auction would only turn into a true arena for the rich in the afternoon, after lunch break was over.

People in normal seats either ate in the dining room or outside. However, apparently booth seats like ours can order food at the dining room to be brought to the table.

I couldn’t really eat, but my [Packer] level was high enough to store water. I could pretend to chew, then store the food instead.

The stored food would be set aside for Blobsy later on.

After finishing the meal, I left my seat.

“Shedy, where are you going?”

“…the restroom.”

Tiz dismissively waved me off.

Both Salia and the butler weren’t showing any signs they’d follow me. They weren’t that obsessive, it seemed. I was finally free to act.

I walked out the bright hallway, skipped past the restroom, and went to the back of the hall’s ground floor. There, I saw stairs leading to the basement, and another hallway going deeper.

Which was the right path? I checked out the path leading deeper first, which led me to a metal door with two spear-wielding guards standing in front.

They stared at me, then knocked the butt ends of their spears on the ground.

“No one allowed after this point!”

“We won’t hold back if you approach any further, guest or not!”

I see. Indeed, security was strict. Seeing a kid didn’t loosen their vigilance in the least. I acted fearful and turned back. It seemed the basement was the right choice, instead.

If I forced my way through back there, it’d just raise a huge fuss. So I should do something about the strict security first.

The light dimmed as I went downstairs. I saw three shadows deep inside. They were playing cards, perhaps slacking off.

“There, a straight. That’s my win.”

“Aww hell, you gotta be kidding.”

“Hold on, are you cheating?”

“Like hell I am. Come on, gimme the five silvers.”

“Come on, man, it’s right before payday here. I’m broke as fuck.”

“Then how about this? You know we have a few chicks in the slave pen, right? Bring ‘em.”

“Whoa, you sure?”

“No one would know. Worst case scenario, if they get noisy, we can just off them. It’s just going to be an apology letter at most.”

“Alright, then I’ll-gah!” “Urgh-” “-argg!”

I snuck close in the cover of darkness and choked the men out in just a few moments, draining their life.

I saw words on the wall reading “Magic Routing Control”. Blobsy was left behind to clean up the corpses, while I ran in deeper.

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

I thought I didn’t need to sleep any more. I wondered if it was because I was shapeshifting or because I was Ranking Up, but I saw dreams of those days again, after such a long time.

Really, I thought it was time I got over them already…

…………

“Hey, Shedy. Wake up!”

…bwha? My consciousness awakened in a hurry. Information of the outside world flooded into my head.

“…why are you here?”

“That’s my line.”

I still had my hood on. My ears should still be hidden for the time being.

I stayed seated, knees still hugged, and looked up. Within the clattering freight car, I saw Tiz standing there as if he owned the whole world, looking down at me. The pompous man was wearing clothes much fancier than what he had on when we first parted.

Standing behind and to his left was a silver-haired old man in butler clothing. He was holding a lantern, his eyes gazing sharply at me.

Behind and to Tiz’s right was a woman in knight uniform with black hair in a ponytail, looking in her twenties. A sword radiating faint magical light was in her hand. She held it in an alert stance, her eyes glaring with obvious hostility.

“So it seems she’s truly your acquaintance, boy. Who is this girl?”

“Stop it with the ‘boy’ already, gramps. She helped me out when I was trying to get in town. So, Shedy, why are you here? Talk.”

It wasn’t an interrogation, so much as it was just Tiz having fun in trying to drive me into a corner, especially as he was drawing near.

“Umm…” I started thinking about how to answer.

Then all of a sudden, the knight barged in between us. “Sir, don’t come any closer!” She turned to me, “Speak! You must be an assassin hired by some other noble, aren’t you?! If you won’t confess, perhaps some torture will-”

“Salia, cease at once! I’m talking to Shedy here. Stay out!”

Tiz’s roar was enough to drown out even the train’s clattering for a moment. The knight started and shrank back, flustered. Her face went pale. She bit her lips in discontent and glared daggers at me.

Seeing her response, Tiz scowled. He sighed, his hands scratching his head, and he turned to the butler.

“Gramps, I’ll take her to the guest room. Handle the formalities for me.”

“…understood.”

The butler simply bowed, his eyebrows raising a fraction as the only sign of his thoughts. He handed the lantern over to one of the attending knights behind him and readily left the cargo room.

“Sir, you mustn’t! We can’t trust her!”

“Salia, shut up. Shedy, come on.”

“…”

I had thought he was a noble. Apparently he was a much bigger shot than I imagined.

I didn’t know how he managed to discover my presence on the train so easily. I couldn’t continue to stay in this room anyway, so I quietly stood up and followed him.

As we got out of the freight car, I realized it was morning already.

It felt like it’d been a long time since I’d seen the light. As I squinted my eyes, the annoying knight woman behind me moved just a step closer. She was grinding her teeth and glaring at me, her sword still unsheathed. She whispered.

“Don’t think you’ve won, little bitch…”

“…”

[Reroll]

“Eeek!”

She lost her balance in the shaking train, but managed to put her hand on the wall and stabilized herself before she could fall… huh, so she rode that out. Well, whatever. Doing this was a waste of magic in the first place.

The knight woman… Salia, right? Her face turned scarlet from the near-miss. She finally seemed to have realized the danger of leaving her sword out and sheathed it, her foot stamping at the mark that the tip of the blade left on the train floor, trying to hide it. Let’s tattle to the conductor later.

The freight car was at the tail end of the train, and apparently Tiz’s group was riding the car right in front of it. I saw knights and maids attending as pairs, bowing to Tiz as he walked through the corridor. Looked like he was exactly the ‘other country’s noble’ that I heard about.

One car was for 24 people. Each person’s ticket fare was 5 small golds. So renting out a whole car would cost 12 large gold coins…

Spending 24 large gold coins for a round trip ticket to go hunting just because he was bored. What deep pockets Tiz had. Other than the guest room, I even saw doors leading to what looked like the toilet and the shower. This sort of train ride was a first for me.

Tiz kept on going and entered the guest room, right around the middle of the car. I followed behind him. Salia went in last, then stood in front of the door. The room was approximately 14 square meters. The butler back then was already there, preparing tea.

“Shedy, sit in front of me.”

“Yeah.”

My casual reply earned me another scathing wave of bloodlust from Salia.

Tiz sat on the single sofa chair in the corner of the room. I moved to sit on the three-seater sofa opposite him. Just as I did, the butler started pouring tea for the two of us.

“Come on, talk.”

“First off, how did you know I was there?”

“I did! God had granted me the ability of Presence Detection to prevent danger from coming upon my lord!” Salia cut in, still not yet learning her lesson.

So that meant she was a Child of God, too? That was how she found me? Okay, I understood that part, but then why did Tiz come? Don’t you normally call the train conductor if you think you’ve found something suspicious?

Turned out Children of God were surprisingly common. Or maybe their abilities were exactly what brought them to serving nobles.

But enough of my musings. Tiz’s face was already starting to look veiny from her repeated interruptions.

The butler attempted to cool things down. “Ahem. Lady Salia, our young lord is still speaking.”

“M-My apologies…”

“I wanted to see the auction in the capital.” Things weren’t going anywhere, so I admitted my motive. Tiz looked triumphant for a moment, which immediately changed into disbelief as he leaned back on the sofa.

“What, so you wanted to see the auction so much you snuck on the train to get my help?”

“Eh? Why?”

“I told you I’m going to the auction too, didn’t I?”

“I didn’t know you were on this train, Tiz.”

“Cease your lies! You’re obviously here to cheat money out of my lord by using his generous compassion! Filthy plebeian, what other trickery-”

“I have money.”

I tapped a large gold coin on the table to shut up Salia’s yapping, attracting everyone’s sight. “I was going to buy a ticket, but then I found out some noble had already rented out the whole car.”

I stared at Tiz in protest. He simply looked amused, and his cocky attitude rose another notch.

“That’s not a problem, then. Gramps, sell one of the car’s seats to Shedy here. That makes you an official passenger now. Be grateful.”

“…”

Problem solved, but I wondered why I didn’t feel even a bit of gratitude…

“Boy, that’s fine and all… but why are you helping her? It’s true your return was a fortunate happening. However, had you not repay her already?”

Salia vigorously nodded at the butler’s words. I was wondering that myself. Why was he trying to get involved with me so much?

Under the same gazes from three different people, Tiz put on a toothy, savage grin.

“Because she’ll be my girl. Why else?”

“…eh-”

“WHAAAAAAAAT?!”

Damn it Salia, my ears. I was dumbfounded, the harpy behind me was shrieking, and the butler just rubbed his forehead in exasperation. He fixed his glare on Tiz.

“Boy, the girl’s still a kid, what in the world are you thinking… I admit, she has quite fair features, but there is no lack of beautiful women for you to choose from. What about the young lady of Count Soel?”

“The girl I got set up a meeting with? Hah, the woman just kept demanding luxuries. I only scared her a little bit and already she was running away in tears, saying I’m ‘terrible’ or something.”

That was terrible. For both of them. In many ways.

“While Shedy here doesn’t even blink an eye! Very impudent, or perhaps I should say she’s got guts. I like that. Gotta be less cold though, girl!”

Screw you, I don’t need your opinion.

“And besides, her age isn’t a problem, just give her three or four more years… hmm? Shedy, did you grow?”

“You’re just imagining.”

He wasn’t actually imagining it. My Rank-up changed a few things about me.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral] [Lesser Demon (High-Rank)]
・The demon of bewitching mist that dances upon the northern seas. A canny spiritual lifeform.

[Magic Points: 1065/1100] 165↑
[Total Combat Power: 1175/1210] 182↑
[Unique Skill: <Reroll> <Cyber-Manipulation> ] 
[Racial Skill: Fear]
[Simple Identification] [Humanoid Form (Master)] [Specialist Packer]

(Low-Rank) was now (High-Rank). I gained quite a bit of magic and combat power.

With [Packer] going from ‘Expert’ to ‘Specialist’, my storage capacity took a leap. My intuition told me that I was no longer limited to solid objects like before; I could store fluids now.

And with [Humanoid Form] getting from ‘Adept’ to ‘Master’, the texture and feel of my skin was now no longer distinguishable from a real human’s, even when examined up close. My skin and hair looked so smooth and glossy I felt like I just went into a beauty salon.

Next, and perhaps the most mysterious part: my body of a ten-year-old had grown another 5 centimeters, and I was no longer just a smooth, flat cylinder. I had gained just a tiny bit of a curve.

It felt like I had finally managed to return to my real age of eleven, I supposed?

“Really? Well, whatever. Your looks won’t be a problem after another two or three years anyway. Look, gramps. Even among the ladies of nobility, you almost never see skin this white.”

That’s because I was albinic.

“Honestly it made me wonder if she had blue blood underneath instead.”

I couldn’t even deny that. I was a demon, after all.

“I thought that if we can meet again a few years later, coincidentally or not, I’ll be whisking her off. I never expected our reunion to be this early. Fate must be telling me to make her mine.”

No, I hadn’t heard anything from this ‘fate’ whatever person.

Salia froze in disbelief. The butler started up his forehead-rubbing again. This time, he turned to me.

“Lady Shedy. May I hear your thoughts?”

So I noticed the butler had started to use ‘lady’ instead of just calling me ‘girl’ now. Is he giving up already? Just how indulgent was Tiz normally?

“No thanks. I’m grateful you didn’t tell on my smuggling, but I’ll go my own way once we get to the capital.”

My clear-cut refusal got Salia beaming, the butler faintly sighing, and Tiz smirking. He leaned forward.

“The auction’s two days later. Shedy, do you have the entry qualifications?”

…qualifications?

“Trestan Kingdom’s auction is a very prominent event, on the same level as the Trading Confederation of Deulx. Extremely stringent security. They don’t let anyone they don’t trust inside. Normal attendees would have to have lived within Trestan for at least half a year and paid 10 large golds as deposit just to get in. Do you meet even one of those conditions? You wanted to see the auction so much you snuck on the train, right? My servants would be able to get in just fine, just so you know.”

“…”

So dirty. Adults were so dirty.

“Oh, don’t worry, that’s not me hitting on you. You’re a Packer, aren’t you? You’ll just be my baggage carrier. How about it?”

If I had more leeway until the auction, I could try to steal the stone. But apparently, the security was extremely strict. And unfortunately, I didn’t have the necessary intel to sneak past the surveillance. There was one thing for certain, however: No. 17’s magic stone would be revealed upon the auction day.

Twenty-three days of borrowed time left. I wouldn’t give up.

“…understood.”

“Alright, that’s a deal. Gramps, handle her clothes! Make sure she’s fit to walk beside me!”

…I was regretting this already.

Author’s Note: And there’s the “be mine” declaration lol

By the way, Tiz has a few girls that might be generously called ‘his lovers’. He’s not a pedo. His strike zone’s just wide, from 15 all the way to 35.

Children of God are around one-in-a-thousand. The chance of encountering one of them is about the same as seeing someone on TV in your town. Just as it’s easier to see them near the capital, so can they often be found in the company of nobles.

Salia’s [Presence Detection] consumes a lot of magic, so she can only use it once morning comes.

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

“Hey, young lady. You want on that train, right? I know a way.”

I turned to the voice. It was a lanky man, around thirty years old. His clothes would make him look like a perfectly normal citizen, if you ignored the shady eyes and shifty mannerisms. Honestly, he was terribly suspicious.

“…what?”

“Come now, no need to be so cautious. And don’t raise your voice. It’s obvious the ticket price’s giving you trouble, right? Then I’ve got just the thing…”

The man moved closer and whispered in a barely audible voice.

“Tell me, how much can you pay?”

“…eight silvers,” I replied honestly.

The man scowled, looking obviously disappointed. “Hmmm… not quite enough, but it’s leaving tonight anyway. Fine, then. Come with me. Coincidentally, we have a free spot tonight. No guarantees of comfort, though.”

I just nodded. The man merrily walked off, and I followed.

He might as well be having bright neon signs above his head saying ‘illegal dealings here’. Normally you’d think maybe he was the type of smuggler who snuck people into the cargo room, but upon closer consideration, something felt not quite right.

The capital was far away, but it only took five days by coach. The train might be able to get there in a single day without delays and without risking bandits, but I didn’t think there was that much demand for this sort of passenger smuggling. The only people with that sort of need were probably wanted fugitives or refugees.

It was shady as all hell. But in my case, I had a good reason for following him.

We left the dazzling train station behind, following the rails. I saw less and less people. Houses began to be replaced by shelters made from dirt and mud. Perhaps the noise and vibration of the train had driven down the land price here.

We entered a large storehouse by the railway. There were some ten-plus humans checking on some sort of wooden crates, plus a few beastman slaves carrying a large crate.

The man shouted toward the back of the room. “Chairman! One last ‘passenger’ here!”

“Hey, good job!” A deep voice answered. It belonged to a wide-set man full of muscle, looking to be around fifty. He totally looked like a boss of a bandit gang under disguise.

The boss examined me from head to toe. He smirked, “Hell, didn’t expect this from you! You got us a fine one!”

“Heheh!” The lanky man creepily chuckled.

“Slaves! Get the cargo outside to the station! Girl, you go this way.”

“…”

At this point, I didn’t think there was going to be a twist revealing these men to actually be good people. I still quietly followed the so-called chairman. We stopped in front of a large crate.

“You’ll stay in here.”

Another man to the side of the crate opened the lid. I saw only little girls inside, both human and beastman. There were around ten of them packed closely together. All pretty, and looking like they were carefully chosen.

Some were sobbing. Some with blank faces, already resigning themselves to their fates. Some were cowering in fear…

“Hey… they didn’t look like passengers to me.” I muttered.

The chairman puffed out a chortle, which then turned into full-blown guffawing. “Is that so? Sorry to disappoint you, then. They’re actually getting pretty good treatment here. They’re still presents for the nobles in the capital, after all.”

Then he gave an order, his hands busy taking out a cigar, “You two, collect our newest passenger’s fare and get her in!”

“Got it.” The lanky man and another man sniggered. Their hands reached toward me.

…well, this was pretty much within expectations.

“Alright, give us all you-urk!” “Wha-aghk!”

I turned both my arms into mist, filling up their lungs and absorbed their life.

As I thought, my combat power was still too low to drain them dry in an instant. I’d only recovered ten percent of my magic.

“Come on, what’s taking you two so long…”

Their groaning prompted the chairman to turn around, and he was greeted with the sight of his men rapidly turning into standing mummies. The cigar, just lit, dropped out of his wide-open mouth.

“Wha…”

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral] [Lesser Demon (Low-Rank)]
[Magic Points: 206/776] 16↑
[Total Combat Power: 282/853] 17↑

I knew this already, but humans were really so much more efficient. I totally understood the feelings of those monsters that attacked humans as soon as they saw them, now.

And it wasn’t like I’d go on a human-murdering spree, anyway. Finding these kind of garbage-of-society people to kill was a rare occasion for me.

I kept my arms misty, throwing a smile full of gratitude to the chairman. His face twitched. He shouted.

“All you lot, come here! This damn brat’s a freak!!”

Answering the call, around five of his underlings ran inside from the entrance. Perhaps the rest were getting weapons?

“What’s wrong, chairman?!” “This is the brat?!”

Were they just underestimating me because I was a kid, or were they that loyal to their boss? The men came with only their bare hands or at most, small knives as weapons.

Their power were around 100. I supposed they were men used to violence at least, and I didn’t even have 300 in power at the moment. Still, they had no effective weapons. I would never lose.

“What the fuck is this shi-aargk…”

I choked one of them within bindings of mist. He collapsed like a dry, rotten tree branch. Fear of the unknown pushed the other four back a few steps.

Bang! Together with a ringing explosion, I felt something pierce through my stomach.

“H-Hahahah… you’re dead, freak!”

The chairman was aiming a curved tube in his hand at me. It looked like a pistol from older days.

“Here’s our chance! Everyone, get her!” He commanded. The men suppressed their fear, looked at each other, then nodded. They approached.

I turned my right arm tangible again, then took out one of the remaining daggers I had to slice the neck of the leading man. He went down in gurgles. The other three men were advancing without much care, so I quasi-mistified into a larger, adult-sized form and drained them dry in an instant.

“A monster…?”

Apparently the chairman had been under the impression that turning my arms into mist was just a special ability, much like those of the Children of God. Until now, he still thought I was a ‘human’.

Had I been one, his shot back then would have been truly fatal. Even with my body of mist, it still hurt quite a bit due to the high density I had in my humanoid form. I only just recovered my magic again, and already he made me waste a part of it.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral] [Lesser Demon (Low-Rank)]
[Magic Points: 226/816] 40↑
[Total Combat Power: 307/897] 44↑

“Chairman!”

I felt over ten people approaching from the entrance in my radar. Reinforcements with weapons, perhaps.

Well then… time to get serious.

I returned to complete mist, pouring myself out of my clothes and swelling up into a menacing cloud. In a corner of my vision, I saw the chairman’s legs giving out. He [Fear]ed me.

*

There was one thing I realized from the battles I’d had until now: I gained more magic from absorbing people who were thinking about bad things. And I could recover more magic from people who [Fear]ed the sight of me.

Which was why I fought in my true appearance, except… I forgot about the kids.

What a blunder. Poor kids, some of them even pissed themselves in terror. I really shouldn’t be leaving witnesses alive, but, well…

“Don’t tell anyone, alright? Or else…”

…I’ll eat you.

They seemed to have understood the three words I left unsaid when they saw my smile. All of them frantically nodded with tearful eyes. Blobsy snacked on all the corpses anyway, so I didn’t think anyone would believe the kids right away if they still decided to talk.

They could find their ways back home by themselves, right? I did feel pity for the demihuman kids, but I wasn’t obliged to save everyone, nor did I have the leeway.

So anyway, I visited the human traffickers’ office room to borrow a bit of money. I found 3 large gold coins and 5 small golds. This was plenty enough for an express train ticket.

I came back to the station, my mood buoyant. Waiting for me there was a shocking discovery.

“Wait, you’re sold out?”

Tickets to the capital were sold out. Who the hell would splurge that much on a ticket?!

According to the young man manning the ticketing office, the train had five cars. The first one was the locomotive, so there were four cars available.

One of those was for freight, another one for dining. People could ride on the remaining two, but these cars weren’t the type that had rows upon rows of seats like I imagined. Instead, they had private rooms with a capacity of six, and each car had four such rooms. There were only eight rooms in total.

The only people who’d pay so much for a ride were the nobles or the affluent, so generally these rooms weren’t shared. Paying for a whole room meant paying for six, but they had money. They didn’t care.

“This time around, there was some big-shot from another country. They rented out a whole car. So actually we were already out of tickets since yesterday… By the way, if you don’t have an inn room yet, how about coming to my place?”

“No thanks.”

And here I was, thinking he was surprisingly friendly…

It looked like the people here didn’t care as much about age as people on Earth, only looks and physique. In town, I even saw a man over thirty linking arms with a teenager.

Well, even with that difference, my body was still only that of a kid’s anyway.

That aside, what to do about the train ride…

Fine then, I guess I was smuggling myself aboard. In the end, I went back to my original plan. But now that I knew there was space for trafficking kids in the freight car, I had my way in.

If I remembered correctly, a day in this world was around the same as Earth. I saw a brand-new clock tower in the center of the town. I wondered if it was a sign of Earth culture leaking through.

The train would leave at nine o’clock tonight. People were getting aboard after having their dinner in town. I blended into the darkness and entered through the freight car’s window, just before the train set off.

As I was, I could just cling on top of the train, but there was a reason why I wanted to secure a relatively safe space.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral] [Lesser Demon (Low-Rank)]
・The demon of bewitching mist that dances upon the northern seas. A canny spiritual lifeform.

[Magic Points: 565/935] 119↑
[Total Combat Power: 658/1028] 131↑
[Unique Skill: <Reroll> <Cyber-Manipulation> ] 
[Racial Skill: Fear]
[Simple Identification] [Humanoid Form (Adept)] [Expert Packer]
[Class Rank-up Available]

I didn’t know if it was because my magic broke 900, or because my combat power broke 1000. All I knew was that I could rank-up again.

It said ‘class’, so my race wasn’t changing, right? I didn’t think there’d be a problem. Still, this was my first rank-up ever since I escaped the System.

Whenever I evolved, the process always finished before I could understand what was going on. All the same, I believed it was better to keep a clear image of what I wanted to be in my mind.

Alright… I wanted to be stronger while keeping my body of mist… if possible, I wanted to be strong enough for my human form to be combat-viable, too.

I kept repeating those words in my head, like a mantra, in an attempt to carve them deep into my mind. I sat with knees hugged in a corner of the cargo room. And before I knew it, my consciousness sank into slumber.

……………

………

……

…

“Hey, Shedy. Wake up!”

…bwah?

Author’s Note: The red line’s Shedy’s journey in this world. Might be difficult to see, though. From this view, it really looks like she hasn’t moved much.

Translator’s Note: Larger version here. I was hard-translating the text in anyway, so I took the occasion to fix the author’s typo too.

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

Twenty-four days of borrowed time left.

Now I could move as fast as a predatory carnivore if I flew in my quasi-mist humanoid form, even over long distance. It still took me more than a whole day to reach the town with a stagecoach ride to the capital.

Now the problem was, could I enter the town without any trouble? There was the usual barrier around the town. I could only get in through the main road and gate.

From what I could see of it from afar, it looked quite developed. There was a train line running through it.

Then the train must go to the capital too, right? That’s how it goes, normally. I wonder why the villagers said a ‘stagecoach’ instead? I’d probably understand once I got in. The thing is, this was a decently large town. The gate guards here were a lot more thorough, even checking everyone’s faces.

Just my face would be fine. It’d be a much bigger problem if they told me to remove my hood. They might even bring out the pitchforks right on the spot.

…would simply flying by myself actually be faster than a carriage ride? As I continued walking in contemplation, I noticed a man holding a blood-soaked lump of flesh by the roadside.

He looked… creepy. Scratch that, he looked outright dangerous.

The lump of flesh dripping blood in his left hand was a head, horned and savage-looking. He was calling at all the horse carriages and travelers passing by. With how menacing he looked, it was no surprise all of them either took a detour or sped up to avoid him.

[Dangerous Man] [Race: Human ♂] [Adventurer?]
[Magic Points (MP): 142/150] [Hit Points (HP): 200/200]
[Total Combat Power: 787]

Strong! Pretty much equal to me. So there were humans this powerful…

Who was he? He looked like trouble, so I pulled up my hood and tried my best to pass by him without attracting his attention. It didn’t work.

“Hey you, the little girl… Yes, I’m talking to you, stop ignoring me.”

“…what is it?”

He looked in his mid-twenties. Short flaming-red hair, scarlet eyes. Handsome face, if you ignore the cocky smile full of teeth. Generally just an all-around good-looking man.

His clothes seemed to be quite expensive originally, but the hardened blood splatters had already turned it black. Honestly, he stank.

“Wat iz it?”

“You already said that! And why are you pinching your nose this time?! How terribly rude.”

“Okay. Again, what?”

Annoyed, but also realizing the conversation was going nowhere, the man held the head to me.

“Buy this. It’s an ogre head. One silver’s fine.”

“…wha?”

He was telling me to buy the ogre head? Why? I tilted my head, fingers still pinching my nose. His mood got even worse.

“Come on, girl, that’s an ogre! O-G-R-E! Just bring it to the adventurer’s guild! You can get one whole small gold coin for selling the horn plus the bounty reward!”

“Hy don’t yu go dere yourselph?”

“Stop pinching your nose already… Sure I want to, but unluckily, my companion was keeping all my identification and money. I can only meet up with them inside the town. You see the problem.”

So basically, people entering the town needed to have either an identification card or the money to pay the fee. He didn’t have either, so he was trying to get a silver coin by selling the ogre head to passers-by.

He was probably from a well-off family. Quite irresponsible, though.

“Why did you split up with them?”

“We came from Touze Empire for the auction. I thought I had some spare time so I went hunting a little bit, then I saw this ogre. Pretty much just jumped off the horse and hunted it down on a spur-of-the-moment thing. Didn’t think it’d lead me on a merry chase for that long. Whoops!” He laughed boisterously.

I really sympathized with whoever was with him…

“So the entrance fee is one silver coin?”

“What, you didn’t know? The silver’s the fee to make a temporary identity card. If you make an official one later on, you can get that silver refunded.”

“Hmm…”

“So girl, buy the head for me.”

“Let’s see… How about I lend you a silver, and you help me get inside the town?”

A lone kid would be suspicious, but perhaps not as much if I was with an adult. The man ruminated for a bit, then immediately nodded.

“Not sure what you’re thinking, but fine. If anything happens, it’d be this country’s problem, not mine. Alright, little girl, I accept.”

“Then we have a deal. Here, two silvers, pay the fee for both of us. Also, Blobsy.”

*boing*

“Oh? Hohoh? Isn’t that a Jelly Slime? You sure have a rare pet there.”

Apparently she was a rarely seen monster. The man stared with great interest.

Blobsy jumped out from my satchel. According to my will, she clung to the man’s clothes and cleaned off the dirt and blood splatters.

“Oh man, that’s hella convenient. I heard people said you wouldn’t ever have any trash in your mansion if you could have one of these. Better hide it well, little girl.”

“Shedy.”

“Mm?”

“I’m not ‘girl’, nor am I ‘you’. My name’s Shedy.”

I didn’t really need to tell him this, but honestly getting called ‘you’ and ‘girl’ all the time was getting a little annoying.

“I see. Right then, Shedy, I shall deign to allow you to call me Tiz.”

“…”

I felt like this was going to be so much trouble later on.

“…also, lend me that ogre head. I’ll store it until we get in.”

“Oooh, are you a Packer then? You’re a surprisingly convenient girl, Shedy.”

“Packer?”

According to him, once in a blue moon there would be someone born with a mysterious power, like increased physical strength or water breathing, for example.

These people were considering to be divinely blessed. The Children of God. Among them existed people with the power to store more items than normal into the bags or satchels that they used, and they were called Packers.

“I see. Packers do tend to be misunderstood. I’m a Child of God too, I understand how it feel to be the target of envy.”

Apparently, shop owners who didn’t know how it worked were often afraid that the power would make it easier for Packers to shoplift, when in fact they could only expand their bag capacity. They couldn’t make the items disappear into thin air.

I could, though. I was storing the items inside my body, after all.

“By the way, my power is the Blessing of Fire. The fire I create would be stronger, and I would be unharmed by any and all flames.”

“Is that so…”

So there were special people like us secret alpha testers in the new world, too.

Not long after, I and the good-for-nothing adult named Tiz got past the town gates.

The gate guards took a few glances at me, but once the decently-dressed noble-looking Tiz said “She’s with me,” they let us through without further questions.

Appearances really are important.

“By the way, you said there’s an auction? What are you going to buy?”

“Yeah, there is. I heard the adventurers brought a yellow magic stone that looked like a precious jewel. If I set it in a magic sword, maybe I can get a special power out of it.”

“I see…”

Looked like coming here was the right decision.

“Well then, thank you, Tiz. Here, your ogre head.”

“Wait up. Don’t take it out here, it’s going to get me filthy again. Besides, I’m not in the habit of receiving free favors from women and children. Come with me, I’ll repay you that money.”

“…where are we going?”

“The adventurer’s guild, obviously.”

…what?

Tiz pretty much just grabbed me by the arm and dragged me all the way to the building. This was the first time in my life visiting a town in another world, and I didn’t even have the time for sightseeing. The streets I saw when I was being dragged looked a lot like old-time Western Europe.

The adventurer’s guild was a three-stories building made of stone, rustic both outside and inside.

I wondered if I was the first ever monster to enter the guild hall…

“Shedy, take out the ogre head.”

“…got it.”

I pretended to take the head out from my satchel. Tiz started up some sort of negotiation with the receptionist lady. I moved to a corner, trying to stay unnoticed.

It was morning. There were a few groups of adventurers looking at requests, chatting, or talking with the guild staff.

To deal with the increase of the monster population, the world’s powers had agreed to the founding of ‘an organization to represent personal mercenaries’. In other words, the adventurer’s guild. Before, bands of mercenaries would have to negotiate directly with nobles or merchants for work, a function which the guild had now taken over.

…to say the truth, this guild hall was problematic.

Adventurers were monster specialists. They were decently powerful. A quick glance didn’t show me any probable beta players. However, there were some people over 300 combat power among the capable-looking ones.

Now, the problem wasn’t that they had high combat power. The problem was that even the people who looked rather strong only had around 300 combat power.

Within this world existed a method to discern the opponent’s magic and combat power. [Identification]

And my magic and power were far above the adventurers.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral] [Lesser Demon (Low-Rank)]
・The demon of bewitching mist that dances upon the northern seas. A canny spiritual lifeform.

[Magic Points: 760/760] 5↑
[Total Combat Power: 836/836] 6↑
[Unique Skill: <Reroll> <Cyber-Manipulation> ] 
[Racial Skill: Fear]
[Simple Identification] [Humanoid Form (Adept)] [Expert Packer]

I was careless. I thought there were plenty of people as strong as Tiz. In hindsight, maybe he was extra-powerful due to his special power. And even he only had 150 magic. The amount of magic I had wasn’t just anomalous, it was outright abnormal in comparison.

That was why I’d been hiding out in a corner, trying not to draw attention to myself…

“Shedy, come here!”

And then Tiz shouted my name. Damn it, what the hell was he doing?!

A few adventurers turned around. He might just shout me out again if I ignored him, so I quietly headed toward the counter he was at.

“You’re slow.”

“…what do you want?” I replied sullenly.

He looked at me as if I was an idiot and said, sounding like it was the most obvious thing in the world, “To register you, what else?”

“…what?”

Bewildering. I honestly didn’t understand what he was saying.

Tiz just grinned, “I just re-registered too. Apparently you don’t need an identity card, you just need to have enough combat power to do it. You do it too. Just place your hand on this crystal.”

Seriously, what sort of crap is he forcing on me here?! Damn you…

The large crystal was still showing Tiz’s magic and combat power in shining numbers. As I unwittingly moved away, Tiz grabbed and forcefully put my hand on the crystal.

“I don’t need to register.”

“Just do it already. It’s going to be really troublesome for you if you don’t have an identity card.”

Crap, no no nononono…

[Reroll] [Reroll] [Reroll] [Reroll] [Reroll] [Reroll] [Reroll] [Reroll] [Reroll] [Reroll] [Reroll] [Reroll] [Reroll] [Reroll] [Reroll] [Reroll] ―

[Magic Points: 120]
[Total Combat Power: 196]

“Wow, you’re quite strong.”

“…thank you.”

Thank god the crystal only displayed my current numbers…

I frantically used my unique skill to reduce my magic. Some adventurers spilled their drinks, some tripped, some had the back of the chairs they were leaning on suddenly broke, some staff members spilled ink on their documents. Screams broke out all around me.

I acquired an adventurer’s registration card without further trouble. Tiz handed me half of the ogre’s reward and material sale. I got five silver coins. He paid the registration fee for me too. I wasn’t going to bother saying thanks.

“…bye.”

“Thanks for the help, Shedy. Come again in a few years once you’ve grown into a beauty. I’ll make you mine!” He guffawed with gusto.

Who the hell would date you? And you didn’t even say who or where you were.

…how exhausting. In many ways, at that.

Looked like there weren’t many who could use [Identification]. A 10-uses crystal already costed three silvers, when you have to do it nearly a hundred times to learn the skill.

And I heard that even when you learned the skill, if you belonged to the human race which had weak sensory organs, you’d still consume quite a bit of magic. Normal adventurers had to be economical with their skill, also using the crystal once in a while. No one would waste their magic and money in haphazard identifications. Perhaps the 1-point mana cost was only due to me being a monster.

I really needed a way to hide my monster status better…

After a while, I finally found my destination: the stagecoach. I talked to the bored-looking middle-aged driver.

“Excuse me, how much for a ride to the capital?”

“The capital, eh? It’ll be 5 silvers, and we leave in three days. If the weather’s nice, maybe we’ll arrive in five days.”

“I see. Thanks…”

I buried my shock to say my courtesies, then left.

I could handle the price one way or another, but three days plus another five… too much of a waste of time.

I began to really consider just flying there. However, this was a five-days journey on a horse carriage. I could all too easily get lost.

So I checked out the train. Lucky for me, there was one train heading to the capital that started running tonight, and it would take only a day. That’s really fast.

But the ticket was 5 small golds.

Let’s see… currency followed powers of 10, so ten times a silver? 5,000 dollars? You gotta be kidding me.

I only had around 10 silvers on hand. Even if I headed out right now to find and ‘confiscate’ some bandits’ treasury, it’d take more than a day.

…alright, smuggling it is.

As I began looking for ways to sneak myself onboard, I heard a man’s voice from behind me, speaking almost in a whisper.

“Hey, young lady. You want on that train, right? I know a way.”

Author’s Note: Quick explanation of identification, skills, and Children of God

Among normal citizens, almost no one could use identification as a skill. Only some merchants could. And learning the skill wasn’t without drawbacks; the human race with their low perception would have to consume 10 magic for each use. Even adventurers would only use the skill in critical situations.

Most people with a need to identify still buy and use crystals, instead.

The reason for the low number of people who could use the skill wasn’t just due to the cost, it was also due to the fact that there weren’t that many crystals on the market in the first place.

The Temples, in order to keep the price of the crystals stable for the adventurers’ benefit, were limiting the amount of available crystals. Thus, demand was always high.

Skills were generally acquired after training. Humanity in Yggdrasia weren’t even aware that Skills have different levels.

Then how were Ranks decided? With each rise in level of the combat skill, a person could learn and use one more Combat Art. This number of learnable Arts decided Ranks. Players learned Arts automatically.

In self-identification, the only people who could see the general skills they possessed were players.

The special abilities of the Children of God were different from Skills. It was said that the abilities came to be due to the influence of mana. Only one in a thousand was born with these abilities.

Perhaps the secret alpha testers’ special abilities also came from the mana leaking from Yggdrasia into Earth.

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

Dealing with the stallkeeper was easier than I thought. The mental aspect of it, not the physical method.

I expected hesitation, even for me. They weren’t NPCs in a game, they were real living people. In the end, I didn’t really feel anything.

Had the past month twist me so much? Or had I fully adopt the mindset of a monster? At any rate, all life, to me, was separated into three neat boxes: allies, enemies, and the uninvolved. I could not see the world in any other way.

Well, it’s too late for contemplation now. I’d already killed bandits and merchants, after all.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral] [Lesser Demon (Low-Rank)]
・The demon of bewitching mist that dances upon the northern seas. A canny spiritual lifeform.

[Magic Points: 752/755] 5↑
[Total Combat Power: 830/830] 5↑
[Unique Skill: <Reroll> <Cyber-Manipulation> ] 
[Racial Skill: Fear]
[Simple Identification] [Humanoid Form (Adept)] [Expert Packer]

I had Blobsy dispose of the corpse before people could discover him and raise a fuss. I exited the thicket and went back to the road, looking as innocent as an angel.

If I took him to be the standard for non-combatant citizens, I was quite sure I could massacre a hundred of them without any problems. But there was no guarantee all humans were similarly terrible. And I didn’t even have the spare time to be going around killing anyway.

Twenty-six days of borrowed time left.

I needed to find the two other magic stones and reach the World Tree by then.

So anyway, I didn’t expect my ears to be exposed so easily.

It’s true that I still hadn’t gotten used to having a human body yet, but was I really that eye-catching? Back on Earth, I used to get curious looks all the time for being albinic. However, people in this world had more than just black, blond, or brown hair – there were silver, deep-blue, scarlet, and many other colors too. I didn’t think I would stand out here.

The form I was currently taking was the image of myself that I had. Except I didn’t look emaciated and full of bruises. I was looking completely healthy for my age, so there’s even less of a reason for people to take notice.

I wondered why I was different from my memory of how I used to look like. Perhaps I had subconsciously ‘optimized’ myself?

And the results of the optimization included rabbit ears…? And I didn’t just have the ears. I only realized when changing in the second-hand clothing store that I also had a rabbit’s tail, around the size of a human fist, above my butt.

Why. Why were the ears and tail necessary???

Well, what’s done is done. I’d just have to hide the ears with my coat’s hood.

I still had around 10 silvers and a few small silvers taken from the bandits. I’d really prefer to have some more funds, though… that shopkeeper woman and the guards really put a dent to my wallet.

They’ll get what’s coming to them sooner or later.

It was getting late, but I had no intention to rent a room in a village that treated every outsiders as bags of coins. Even if the innkeeper looked like a nice person, if they saw my rabbit ears, they might still decide to barge into my room at midnight with a stick.

So I hid myself in one of the thickets dotting the village. Once night came, I stealthily moved towards the fields.

Here, unlike Earth’s polluted night sky, the stars alone were plenty bright enough to light my way. Well, it wasn’t like I actually needed the light to be able to see.

I transformed into a quasi-misty human shape to not leave behind any footsteps, and floated towards a small shack adjacent to the fields. There were around 10 people inside, judging from the magical signals.

The shack – it was closer to a storage room, really – wasn’t locked. The door looked like it would break from a single swing of a handaxe anyway. I peeked through the gap and saw only men. Demihumans, from early teens all the way until around fifty-years old.

There was no floor, only hardened dirt. I saw what looked like straw-beds in the back. Everyone looked hygienic enough, but they were only wearing some shabby work clothes. They were sitting around a small fire set in the center of the storage room, tiredly waiting for the pot of vegetables to finish cooking.

Besides the walls and roofs, this was no different from camping in the wilds.

Six canine beastmen, three felines, one elf. All of them were below 100 in power, though that still probably made them stronger than the human villagers.

I opened the door and stepped inside. Around half of them instantly noticed. They looked up.

“…who are you? What does a kid like you want with us?” A beastman sitting by the fireside asked, looking tired but cautious. He looked closer to a wolf than a dog. “We may be slaves, but we’re not toys for you kids to play with even into the night…”

“That’s not why I’m here.”

I took off my hood. The group of beastman gasped as they saw my drooping ears.

“You’re a canine-type… no. A rabbit? I’ve never heard of that beastman race before.”

The wolf beastman looked over to the elven man, who frowned and shook his head.

“Neither have I. Although… I had heard that during my grandfather’s time, there lived more than just the current canine and feline beastman races. However, these other races had all been hunted down to be pets for the humans. They were supposed to have already gone extinct a few hundred years ago.”

“There were survivors…?”

They looked at me with skeptical eyes. I shook my head.

“I don’t know what I am. All I knew was that all my fellows had died. I’d been hiding myself on my journey until now.”

“I see… You must’ve had a rough time too, girl.”

“Don’t mind me. I just have a few things I wanted to ask.”

I told them the humans stole something from me, and that I was on a journey to get it back. Then I asked them about the barrier around this village and about the bigger cities.

“I think the barrier came from the magitool to repel monsters that was in the mayor’s house… As for the cities, you better not go, young lady. With looks like that, plus how rare your race is, you’re going to get enslaved right off the bat. Those damn bastards think that anything not human were their livestock.”

“Why didn’t you run?”

A feline beastman, who’ve been quietly listening until now, scowled in self-derision. He spat out words like they were poison.

“Don’t you see these collars, girlie? As long as they were still on our necks, they would choke us once we get too far from the mayor’s magitool. The women were taken somewhere else… even my daughter caught the mayor’s eyes. I didn’t know where he took her. We’re fated to work here until our deaths…”

“Are you giving up?”

“Watch your mouth, girl! What do you know?!”

I moved to his back in a flash, before the outraged feline could stand up. My dagger touched his neck.

“You…”

The feline beastman was shocked still. As the wolf beastman glared daggers at me, I threw the dagger I was holding to his feet.

“…what do you want?”

“For you. If you’re tired of living, why not kill yourself? Faster that way.”

All their breathing hitched. I could see anger simmering in their eyes.

Unconcerned, I dropped a few more daggers at their feet, then turned my back on them and walked toward the door.

“Wait, girl!”

“I’m going to a human city. Maybe after I break a few of the mayor’s toys. Those are for you. Whether you use them to die or to live, that’s up to you.”

Even after I left the storage room, none of them were moving. None of them so much as said a word.

I headed toward the large mansion that seemed to be the mayor’s house, where I had detected a rather strong magical signal during the morning. There were no guards. Perhaps these people had absolute trust on the monster repellant magitool. However, as I infiltrated under the cover of darkness, I did encounter a few floating ‘fireflies’. I crushed them all, just in case.

According to No. 01’s information, these firefly-looking things were the corporation’s observation drones. The drones’ design emphasized stealth, so even wild birds could break them. Me destroying them here wouldn’t be a problem. I would have liked to get some intel from the drones, but as of the moment, my power wasn’t enough to do it.

I walked directly to the front doors. I dispersed my right arm, moving the mist through the cracks, then re-solidify to unlock the bolt from the inside.

The mayor’s mansion was incredibly bright, despite the fact that this world was supposed to be similar to Earth’s medieval ages. There were magical lights all over the place. I saw a few other magitools that looked like modern electrical appliances, too.

There were no fireplaces, yet the place still felt somewhat warm. Were there air conditioners, too?

The lights were on, yet no one was around. A closer look revealed a note on a table. According to it, the mayor’s wife had gone drinking in the shopping district and wouldn’t be back until morning.

This village was being pretty extravagant in using mana, I see…

The magical signal I detected was under me. I scoured the mansion to find a path down. As I descended the stairs, I heard the whimpering of a girl, together with a man’s chuckles.

“Heheheh, come now, we’re only getting started.”

“No…”

A middle-aged man was whipping a young beastman girl with what looked to be a riding crop, his other hand holding a bottle of alcohol. The girl was curling up, sobbing in pain.

Deeper into the room, I saw an altar emanating magic. As I approached, the drunken man – the mayor, most likely – realized my presence.

“What, just a little beastman girl? Come clos-urgk!”

Oh, right, my hood was still down.

I repeated my mist-hand-into-lungs trick again, making sure to drain him dry to his soul. He writhed, his face deathly pale, his hands scrabbling to tear out his throat. Finally, the mummy collapsed.

Seeing his death, the girl squeaked. I ignored her and took a nearby handaxe to smash apart all the magitools on the altar.

The room felt so much cleaner now.

The mansion’s lights were off. I wonder why? I wasn’t paying attention when they started getting shut down.

“E-Excuse me…”

The girl hesitantly called after me. She still seemed to be seeing well enough in the dark room. I paid no attention to her, moving up the stairs to exit the mansion.

The faint magical pressure that I could feel everywhere in the village was flickering. It probably wouldn’t take more than a few days before monsters started attacking this place.

Not like I had the time to worry about those beastmen, anyway.

On a closer look, the house lights dotting the village were all gone, too. Screams sounded out here and there. Maybe there was a fuse-box analogue among the tools on the altar?

I wasn’t sure whether the altar had the magitool monitoring the slave collars or not, and I had no intention of verifying that, either. With the village in chaos, I disappeared into the darkness, seeking the neighboring town that had the stagecoach to the capital.

*boing*

‘Ah, sorry, Blobsy. No snacks for you this time.’

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It had been three days since that battle. Three days since the secret alpha testers were all gone.

I lost to the beta players, back then. My consciousness was on the verge of being extinguished, but at the very last moment, I managed to escape the clutches of the System and evolved.

I lived.

I didn’t know how I was able to evolve. Perhaps the blue magic stone from No. 01 had something to do with it.

At first, I thought that meant he could have evolved, too, but he didn’t. Maybe the ‘no further evolutions implemented’ mentioned in the text I identified didn’t mean that there was a software lock to prevent evolution. Maybe the developers simply wasn’t yet able to recreate those higher-ranking monsters.

Maybe the corporation still hadn’t completed analyzing the powerful monsters in this world.

Then why was I the only one who could evolve? The clues lay inside No. 01’s knowledge. It didn’t tell me everything, but it was enough to make a guess.

It must be because I was a Demon.

Within the blue magic stone was a part of No. 01’s knowledge and memories. Perhaps he didn’t want his insanity to take these important things away from him, so he had engraved them all inside this stone.

According to his knowledge, there still existed some unidentified monster species. The developers could have just removed the choices altogether, but they wanted diversity. So they decided to let the player’s consciousness determine their evolutions.

In the end, it seemed like this was the reason why all the other alpha testers who picked these unidentified monsters had had their minds broken upon the first evolution. The form they took was too grotesque, too horrifying to bear.

That was too close… Perhaps in a way, my choice of an amorphous monster was the correct one.

In other words, I think I had just managed to, by my own will, unconsciously determined the self I wanted to evolve into.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral] [Lesser Demon (Low-Rank)]
・The demon of bewitching mist that dances upon the northern seas. A canny spiritual lifeform.

[Magic Points: 750/750] 92↑
[Total Combat Power: 825/825] 326↑
[Unique Skill: <Reroll> <Cyber-Manipulation>] 
[Racial Skill: Fear]
[Simple Identification] [Humanoid Form (Adept)] [Expert Packer]

As a result, I was able to evolve and survive. Now I had a whole slew of new things to comment on.

First off, ‘Mistral¹’? “Oh no, it’s the white mist,” people kept saying, then I would deny them in my thoughts “No I’m not, I’m made out of gases, not mist,” and now look at what happened. I can’t believe their words actually affected me this much…

Then my class. I was still at “Lesser”? And “Low-Rank”? Where were all the good adjectives? Who even decided these rankings…? Anyway, it seemed like I still had a long journey ahead.

I gained more magic, and this time my combat power went up correctly. What a relief… If my combat power stayed still forever no matter what I did, I’d be super nervous going into fights with multiple enemies.

Despite killing tons of beta players that time, my magic didn’t grow all that much. No surprise there. When I died, I was still under the shackles of the System, so half of my magic was taken.

And now, I had no further revives. Oh boy…

The unique skill [Cyber-Manipulation] used to be No. 01’s ability. It was how I escaped the System’s monitoring.

It wasn’t my own skill, so it was quite weak – or rather, I hadn’t been able to fully utilize it yet. But mid-way through the process, my consciousness was cut off, and so did their monitoring. For the time being, they should still be believing I was truly gone.

Now, [Humanoid Form (Adept)] and [Expert Packer].

Let’s start with this weird Packer thing. To be honest, I think ‘Skilled’ had already turned into ‘Expert’ since the last fight, since I noticed that even when dispersed, I still couldn’t see the items I was carrying. Where could they be? How curious!

And now, the most important topic of the day. Humanoid Form.

As (Normal) turned into (Adept), I got a boost to my magic and density. I didn’t need to carefully craft my body, I just needed to remember what I used to look like for a near-perfect mimicry.

But the damn rabbit ears were still there.

They were the same white as my hair. The spindly ears drooped from the top of my head all the way down below my chin.

“Maybe the hood could hide them…”

Blobsy responded to my voice with a bounce.

In the beginning, I couldn’t speak. Once my transformation became near-perfect in fidelity, enough so that my mouth could hold air, I started practicing. Then it turned out that if I just let my body’s instinct guide me, speech would come rather easily.

Still, my human form was only on the outside. Inside of me continued to be thick mist. It took some practice for me to be able to move like a real human. I spent a whole month moving as an inhuman mass, after all. My walking gait was still wobbly.

Contact with humans was going to be inevitable. I didn’t want my mannerism to reveal who I am, so during the brief moments of no time, I took the chance to walk around the mountains and generally just practicing being human.

I looked about the same as I used to, so getting used to it probably wouldn’t take long.

By manipulating cyberspace and cutting off my consciousness, I had managed to escape the System. Perhaps No. 01 didn’t do the same because of the low chance of success. He didn’t want to fail and bring trouble to his friends. Yet despite my success, I still wasn’t completely free.

I’d been using mana to maintain the monster avatar, and ever since the beginning my brain had already been acting in place of a part of the System to process my actions. There was no problem with me, except for a critical one: my consciousness was here, yet my real body… my soul was still on Earth.

In No. 01’s plan, as long as he was under life support, he could still use [Cyber-Manipulation] to maintain the fragile link to his real body. But then, despite his mind already nearing the limits, he risked another use of his ability. He found out that the bodies of the comatose testers would be destroyed after one month.

I had thirty days left to live and to find a solution.

No. 01 said that if I could gather the magic stones from his friends, No. 08 and No. 17, then get to the source of this world’s life, the World Tree, perhaps there’d be a way. Fleeting hope, but hope nonetheless.

My clock was counting down… no. Let’s stop with the pessimistic thoughts. I could have died in that battle. I should count myself lucky to get a thirty-days extension instead.

It’d be tough going to travel the whole world in just thirty days. Luckily, the humans had high-speed transportations. Maybe I could get on a magitech train.

So the point of all of this roundabout explanation was that: I needed an appearance that could get me inside the humans’ cities.

Luckily, No. 17 had died relatively close to me. I could follow to the north of the mountain range where I used to be to reach them. There was a high chance the beta party that killed them and took their magic stone was staying in a nearby country.

Within the information No. 01 left behind was a map, complete with the countries’ locations.

Closest to No. 17 was a small country. But if No. 01’s magic stone looked like a gem, then maybe No. 17’s looked similar, too. Perhaps the beta party would take it to the large country further south to the small country to sell it.

Judging from the location of the mountain range, I should be getting close to that large country by now.

Another half a day of walking through the grassland, and I finally found a small road. Following it, I found a farming village, looking similar to the one I once saw before.

Well, I said ‘village’, but there were easily a few hundred people living there. And I saw around the same number of beastman slaves working the fields.

…now, the question was, would I be pushed back by the village’s barrier? I only saw a fence to defend against wolves, so my guess was that the barrier was specifically for monsters…

Unwittingly, my steps turned timid. I came closer and closer. Yet it seemed like there was no such barrier on the road. I wasn’t sure why.

Instead, there were two soldiers standing guard in front of the village entrance. They were wearing simple, matching armors with some sort of crest. I fixed my hood, making sure my ears weren’t visible.

My cloak was squeaky clean thanks to Blobsy, but it was still an oversized piece of garment. The hem was all ragged and full of tears.

“Hey, you kid over there! Stop!” One of the soldiers called.

“…”

“Ain’t seen that sort of look before. Not a village kid? Where’d you come from?”

“…over there,” I pointed to the grassy field.

The soldier looked even more incredulous. “Suspicious. Show me your face!”

“Nah, man, no need for that. Look, if you can pay the fee, we’ll let you in, alright? Just one silver.”

Surprise flashed on the other guard’s face, then quickly turned into a leering smirk. I was probably getting ripped off here.

“Yes.”

I paid without any complaints. For a moment, the guard looked puzzled; apparently he just wanted to make a bit of trouble for me. He hesitantly looked to the other guard.

“Oh, sorry, it’s actually one silver for each of us. Should have been clearer, really.”

“…yes.”

I gave the other guard another coin. They looked pleased with themselves, then waved me through like they were chasing away cats.

“Aight, come in quick. Don’t make trouble.”

“And kid, it’s another two coins when you’re leaving. Get it ready.”

“…”

I never thought they’d be asking for bribes this shamelessly.

That was a huge expense, even if it was necessary. Well, not like I actually knew how much a silver was worth anyway.

Honestly, if I was standing guard, I wouldn’t have let a shady kid hiding her face in a hood who just walked from the grassy field inside the village. In a way, them being shitty people worked out well for me.

Fixing up my appearance was my current top priority. I only came here to find information about the big cities, among other info, and to find children’s clothes, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered with this sort of village that looked like it had zero interesting things going on.

I glanced to the side of the road, looking at the fields being worked only by beastman slaves. I walked on, towards an area with a few buildings packed closely together.

The atmosphere felt like the sort of shopping district you usually see in the countryside. A few people sent me looks full of suspicions. I saw a place with sheets of fabric and old clothes hanging outside and entered. Inside, the plump shopkeeper saw me and grimaced.

“This ain’t a playground, kid.”

“I want clothes,” I said, setting a few silver coins on the counter. The woman’s attitude turned a whole 180°, and she instantly put on a smile.

“My, my, children’s clothes, right? I have a few good pieces over there, honey.”

There weren’t much in variety. I picked up a few dresses and sashes.

“Do you have shoes? Leather, if possible. And a coat with a hood, too.”

“Here ya go. Boots still new, see? And this coat here, I got it from a merchant from the capital. Really popular with the girls, I hear!”

“Do you have satchels?”

“Aight, cloth or leather?”

“Leather.”

Honestly it was just my bias speaking when I picked leather. The material really gave off that ‘rugged traveler’ feel.

I also picked up some underwear and socks, then changed in the back. This coat fit me so much better. I could hide my ears while still showing my face, so I looked a lot less shady now.

I left the changing room. The shopkeeper woman took a look at my face. She seemed somewhat surprised.

“My! Honey, you look adorable! Have you finished shopping?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright. I’ll just take those coins you left on the counter, then. I’m taking a loss here, so you better be grateful, okay?”

“…”

There were a few large silver coins together with small ones. Were the large ones really so low in value? These were just secondhand clothes. I thought all the stuff I bought wouldn’t even reached 150 dollars…

I returned to the shopping district. With decent clothing, there were a lot less suspicious gazes now, but a few of them were staring at my face, perhaps due to seeing an unfamiliar kid.

There was a street stall selling skewers of meat, with chairs to the side for customers. I started a conversation with the owner, almost as a way to run from the uncomfortable stares.

“Excuse me. How much for one of those?”

“Welcome! Small skewers are one copper each, large ones are three.”

“I want as much as I can buy with this, then.”

“Thank you for your business! One small silver it is, then. And an extra small skewer for such a cute young lady.”

I handed over the coin. The man was all smiles as he gave me three large skewers and two small ones.

So that’s 10 coppers, not counting the extra. A small silver was about 10 dollars, right? If the currency followed powers of 10, then a normal silver was 100 dollars?

…and that woman took five of those.

I thought people in the countryside were supposed to be caring and good-natured…

The owner of the stall seemed like a decent guy, so I asked him a few things, like where the large cities were. Supposedly, I could ride a horse carriage to a neighboring town half a day’s ride away, then get a stagecoach to the capital.

He told me where the town was. I gave my thanks and left the shopping district. Blobsy, still hiding inside my satchel, happily chomped on the skewers.

But then I detected a human magical signal tailing me. When I escaped into a nearby copse of tree, their walk turned into a jog and they caught up.

“Girlie, wait up.”

They turned out to be the kind man running the street stall.

“…mister stallkeeper? Did you need something?”

“Yeah, I mean, I noticed, you know? I saw them peeking out earlier.”

He smiled wryly, scratching his head. And then he took out a wooden pestle, probably taken from his stall, and smacked it against his empty palm in an intimidating gesture.

“Girl, you’re one of those beastmen, right? Must be a canine type, then, by the looks of your drooping ears? Come now, you stinky demihumans aren’t supposed to be coming into human lands, didn’t you know that? I’ll sell you to a nice place, so behave yourself and come with me, okay?”

“…”

What the hell do you mean, ‘okay’? I thought the attitude was limited to the slave hunters only, but even normal human citizens were like this? And the man didn’t even seem to be thinking he was doing something wrong. He reached out his hand to me, with the same kind of nonchalance as a hunter would have when they shot a rabbit just because they saw an easy prey.

I sighed, exasperated. This was so far beyond my expectations. Weren’t they supposed to be real, living people, not NPCs programmed with cruelty?

Answering the man’s beckoning, I also reached out my right hand…

“Gakkh!?”

And returned it to mist, which then proceeded to invade his mouth, filling his lungs and stopping his breathing. I drained him dry from the inside.

‘Hey, Blobsy. Some more snack for you.’

*boing*

Author’s Note: The human race doesn’t see this as a crime. Perhaps to them, demihumans were nothing but livestock.

Shedy can’t afford to be discovered, so she’s hesitating less and less.

1. Wiki link for the physical wind is here. However, there is also a local myth surrounding this wind, which can be read about here and here.

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