The party was going well. There was a lot of…partying going on. I didn’t know what to do. Elena and I stood there watching people dance, wondering what we should do.


    “Are parties usually like this?” Elena asked.


    “I wouldn’t know. This is my first too.” I replied, getting an annoyed look from Elena.


    “What do you even do here?” she asked, looking at the people dancing with a puzzled expression on her face.


    “There’s a lot of dancing.”


    That earned me an angry look from her. I suppose she did not appreciate me pointing out the obvious. But it was harder to just join in then most people thought. How did one even start dancing? I didn’t know any dances.


    “I saw them do this dance, the one where two people have arms around each other, and they slowly move around…” she stopped speaking.


    The music beat loudly against our ears. If it had a proper rhythm, I couldn’t tell what it was. There was a beat. A pretty catchy one that lasted for a couple of minutes. Then it went and started again.


    The same song had been on repeat. A catchy fast beat that pounded against my ears. If I had still been back on Earth, this would have been too loud for me. As it was, it was just a bit annoying.


    There really were a lot of unexpected benefits to being a higher rank.


    “Join?” Connor asked, coming up to us. Seeing the giant slurp his words in a drunken manner was surprising. Seeing him still moving with precision was terrifying. There was none of the imbalance common to drunk people in him. I had a feeling that if it came down to it, he could still put up a fight.


    “Drink,” he said, holding out two glasses towards us. Elena looked at it like he had offered her poison.


    “I don’t think I will take it.” I replied, shaking my head.


    “Why not? The drink good. Have.” Connor held out the drink to me again. Not, I could see, to Elena. The former maid had quietly been stepping away from him until then. Now she just stood in place staring at us.


    “I’m a bit too young to drink.” I told him. “Just fifteen.”


    Connor scoffed. “Fifteen. Why that stand in way? Drink.”


    Oh gosh, this guy got pushy when he was drunk.


    “I don’t want it.” I didn’t drink, as a rule. Father wouldn’t let me in my previous life. Mother would have probably killed me if she found out. And in this life, well, I just didn’t feel like it. I had seen what the thing did to too many of my fellows.


    “Why not?”


    I sighed. Connor clearly didn’t think fifteen was too young to drink. I had to think of another excuse.


    “Rank 3.” the giant said. “Rank 3 drink much before get drunk. Drink.”


    “And what if I do get drunk?” I asked. “The magic I cast is based on emotion. What if I get drunk and start feeling panicky. The last time I did that I caused an explosion. Or maybe I will try to kill someone. What if I mistake you for a monster? I could easily conjure bolts of darkness and kill you before I even realized what I was doing.”


    Connor stared at me. Then he turned around and walked away. Even I was worried by my own words. Could I cast magic drunk? A thing like that was dangerous. But I couldn’t think of a reason why I couldn’t. The Trashy Novel hadn’t said anything against it.


    I was not going to be drinking for the rest of my life. Doing so just sounded too dangerous.


    Connor came back. This time he was empty-handed.


    “Do you know him?” Elena asked.


    “Yes, he’s my new Blade magic instructor.” I told her. The former maid ran her eyes up and down his body. Connor hadn’t dressed up, but he still looked good. Wearing knee-length shorts and a very tight-fitting shirt would do that, especially when that shirt stuck to his body.


    A very large body.


    I wondered why he wasn’t dancing yet. There were already plenty that looked like they wanted to dance with him.


    Connor came up to me, put his hands on both of my shoulders and stared into my eyes. I looked at him warily.


    “Dancing.” he stated enthusiastically.


    “No.”


    “Why not? Dancing not make drunk. Not danger.”


    “I don’t want to.”


    “But it good. Is fun, see.” The giant pointed to the people dancing as if they proved his point. I wasn’t so sure.


    “I don’t know how to dance.”


    Connor looked at me like I had gone mad. “Do sword form. That dance.”


    Now it was my turn to stare at him. “The sword forms are not a dance.”


    “Yes. Are.”


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    “No, they really aren’t.”


    “Yes. Are.” he repeated.


    I glared at him. “Connor, I am not dancing. I don’t know how to.”


    “Sword form.” he declared again, like it was going to change anything.


    “If you think they are that good, why don’t you dance yourself?” Elena asked.


    “Yes, why don’t you?” I supported her.


    Connor turned around to look at the dance floor.


    “There not space. I big.” he said, looking very serious.


    Alice heard him. “Make space for Connor!”


    I grinned. “Well, it looks like there is space now.”


    Now the giant looked nervous. Doing what he had been forcing others to do was apparently not one of his strong suits. But he did walk into the middle of the crowd. And started doing his sword forms.


    The same forms that he had been teaching me. The forceful swings that really needed a sword to pull off. I probably couldn’t have done it without one. Connor managed, even though he looked ridiculous doing so.


    The first person to laugh was Elena. A giggle came out of her, which turned into a loud laughter. The crowd joined in. And suddenly more people were doing sword forms. Even Elena did it.


    I wondered if I should too. That… I didn’t know if it was fun. I watched as Elena tripped and fell on top of Connor. Alice rushed in there to lift Connor up. Elena was still on top of him. The second Alice lifted him up, she fell onto the ground, only to rise up a second later, her head crashing into Alice’s chest.


    I should probably deal with that.


    Walking up to them was enough. Alice looked like she wanted to throw some more punches, but she stopped when she spotted me. The look on her face told me what I needed to know.


    I was Rank 3. Elena was my friend. I was invited—no, I was paying for this party, and Connor had looked very enthusiastic about wanting me to dance. But they were still afraid of me. That kinda killed my willingness to participate.


    So I headed to a corner of the training ground and looked at the swords. Connor had said that I should get my own. I should ask him where I could get one. A cheap one, probably. This party was probably going to be expensive.


    Why had I thrown it anyway?


    “Hmm.” Miss Emily said from beside me. Even she looked drunk. There didn’t seem to be a person in the room that wasn’t drunk. Well, except me and Elena.


    “Hmm.” she said again.


    I raised an eyebrow at her. “Is there something I can help you with, Miss Emily?”


    “I was just wondering.” she began. There was no slurring to her words, though she still seemed a little out of it. Perhaps she hadn’t drunk as much as I thought.


    “What were you wondering?” I asked. I kind of wanted to know. The woman was a mystery to me. Why did she help so many people? A free healing service, taking care of other people’s problems, finding me a house. There was so much.


    “If you know, how much they want to thank you.”


    “What?” I had to question that. That hadn’t been my expression.


    “Oh they aren’t about to swear loyalty or something. That’s what half the lords would have asked for doing what they did. But they are grateful.”


    “For killing the fish?”


    “Yes, that.” she said. “Even I’m grateful. There ain’t much food here. The mines pay, but they employ few. So few.”


    The woman looked at them with a sad look in her eyes. “Can’t even afford a party like this, most of them. Can’t buy alcohol even if they could. The shops in the awakened quarter won’t sell.”


    I frowned. “How did they get it now? There are several barrels of it.”


    “Cause it was you who was buying. And you’re famous. A new Rank 3! The hunter of poisonous fish!”


    “Oh.” That made…sense. I hadn’t realized I had become so famous. In just one day.


    “There ain’t a lot of people here. Just ten thousand. Or less.” she continued. “ Nine thousand of them aren’t awakened. And most of them are starving. That’s why they’re grateful.”


    “I think they’re more afraid, honestly.”


    Miss Emily scoffed. “Course they are. You’re a Rank 3. They’re unawakened. They see ya kill that fish with one shot. Of course, they’re afraid. The fish troubled them, Aphra. Connor and Alice have the power to kill it, but not before the poison killed them. Now you go and killed something they were afraid of so easily. Makes them wonder if you are a worse monster.”


    I froze at those words, my mind catching up to the implications. “Are you telling me that one of them was planning to sacrifice themselves? To brave the poison and hope they could kill the fish before the poison killed them?”


    “Yes.” Miss Emily replied, her face taking on a level of seriousness. “The situation isn''t uncommon, happens every other month. Had you not been there, they would’ve had to step up. The city guards acts slow, and often after such things. I’d say they really wanna keep us weak. If there are awakened around here, someday we might be a threat.”


    “There’s enough fishies out there to get even one of these to a better rank. But if the fishies kill them…well it keeps the trouble low, doesn’t it?”


    The two of us were silent for a few minutes. I took the time to understand what she had said. Of course, such things were to be expected. This was the condition across the world. The nobility kept spells rare for a reason. The same reason why the British Empire didn’t allow their colonized citizens to have arms.


    A weak commoner was an obedient commoner. The nobility liked that.


    “Do they know?” I asked.


    “Of course. The lot of them ain’t stupid. But what can they do about it?”


    Of course. Even if they wanted to fight back, they did not have the power to do so.


    “This party, was it a part of their plan to win me over? To make me protect them, or whatever it is you have been implying I should do?” I asked.


    “Not theirs.” Miss Emily answered, holding up a transparent glass. I noticed it because I had not actually seen any glassware around here.


    “But sometimes, things just come together to work in convenient ways. I am sure you know what I am talking about.” she said, still holding the glass up. Even as I watched, the water changed color.


    The light passed through glass, giving it a multicolored aura that seemed to glow for a second. Then it passed away. I looked around, but it did not seem that anyone other than me had noticed it.


    “A gift.” Miss Emily said. “Drink this water when your own emotions fail you, but you need their strength anyway. The water shall provide you with the emotions of your followers. But only those that follow you with an open heart.”


    The smile on her face slowly grew larger, looking more than a little threatening. This was the smile of someone that knew they had done something bad, and were enjoying it.


    As I watched, a bright yellow strip entered the glass, turning the water just slightly yellow. Elena. The information just came to my mind. This emotion had come come from her. I looked up at the smiling woman before me.


    “Why?”


    “Because I can. And because it suits my needs.” she replied. “The people here are hard, young prince. But times have been harder. Perhaps this way, you will want to do something about it. Just consider it an old woman’s wish.”


    I took the glass. The thing felt no different from a normal piece of glass to my touch. And yet to my mana sense, it was so different that I had not the words to describe it. I could feel the magic inside, waiting to be used.


    This artifact would be very useful. Oh, it might see a bit less use once I started using spells, but I doubted its usefulness would truly fade. The ability to cast magic using so many strong emotions would be a great helpful even in making new spells. That was after all one of the greatest barriers.


    The usefulness of the artifact did not worry me.


    The price of it did.