《Millstones of Destiny [Hiatus]》 Prologue (old) Quiet rustling filled big lecture hall. That and one clear voice. History professor was well known faultfinder so most student diligently moved their pens over copy books. The rest were at least pretending. One female student however acted differently. She was sitting on the back row while wearing particularly boring expression. Her table was blank, not even one little note could be spotted. Strangely lecturer ignored her thoroughly. He knew it¡¯s pointless to find faults in her. After the bell ringed professor hurried away and students started to gather together. Only one female student was separate from the rest. Not isolated through. Just alone. Solitariness was synonymous to her life history after all. After a while the girl in her late teens or maybe early twenties was steady running to her apartments. And truthfully right now sports trainer from her university wouldn¡¯t be able to find faults in her form too. The girl was running and her headphones carried melodic rock music to her ears. Her steps followed after the bas beats. One step after another. She closed her eyes. Street was well known. Too much known. She was so tired. Slowly but surely even music, good music, couldn¡¯t touch her. ¡°One moment, young lady.¡± Wha-a...? The girl nearly stumbled. And so she stopped at her tracks and opened eyes. A man stood just before her. His long hair was grey and blue eyes clear. This man had his hands behind his back and was smiling at her. The girl frowned. She never noticed this stranger ahead and she was sure to check before blinding herself. But since she already stopped she could as well¡­ ¡°Yes, sir?¡± Somehow polite tone deemed necessary and so the girl frowned the second time, this one on herself through. Hm? Is this robe? I can¡¯t see. She felt bugged. It was strange. Unnatural. And sure thing unnaturalness proceeded to the whole new levels in the instant. I can¡¯t see his face features. The girl quickly made two steps back. ¡°Who are you?¡± ¨C she started and yet immediately ¨C ¡°W-what¡­ is this...?¡±Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. She noticed. Her headphones were silent. The world was silent. Silent and motionless. Few cars which were around stopped. Humans inside them too. So as birds in the sky and bended trees and raised dust. Then the man¡¯s smile got a little bigger. And so he said: ¡°Aren¡¯t you fast, young lady. Just as expected, should I add? Yes, surely, just the way you ought to be.¡± The girl measured the man with her eyes. She felt annoyed all of the sudden. Sure her face was pale, the whole world¡­ thing was a mess but she still managed to feel annoyance. This one girl surely¡­ Her hands were trembling just a little though. She was scared. Who wouldn¡¯t? But this girl¡¯s tremble wasn¡¯t from mere fear. Yes. Something changed. Finally, she found it. No, she was granted? But finally. How long It had been? She was so tired. Truthfully myriad people would envy her. She had loving parents. Her family wasn¡¯t rich but not poor either. She was admitted to prestige universe with scholarship. She even looked above average, just enough to be popular with some cosmetic efforts. And she was brilliant. Too brilliant for her own good. Nothing her peers found challenging was as such for her. Like never. From kindergarten to school and from school to university. She never tried hard. With all her talents she had no goal, no dream. Even her future profession was picked on a whim. Nothing was interesting to her enough. She stopped watching films when they ceased to amaze her and stopped reading books when they ceased to surprise her. She was so tired from dragging and dragging through these endless days. And so right here, right now, she trembled. ¡°¡­not an ordinal one at all.¡± ¨C The man smirked in a strangely kind way. ¡°Your longing would anger others, young lady,¡± ¨C he began, steady at length. ¨C ¡°Think about all people in need. Don¡¯t you have everything while they have nothing? Surely you heard it more than once. Just wording was not as such. And you don¡¯t even blame them. You are the strange one after all. So you adapted. You learned patience. Surely people have it. Something they live for. Family, work, science, art. It¡¯s not that hard to find out. One could complain but small things are not enough to grow so tired of life, young lady. But still¡­ your thoughts never slipped. There never was a choice for you to just¡­ end it.¡± The man with features impossible to see through stopped. The girl remained silent. Her fluttering stopped too. Her eyes were calm and deep. So the man nod once. ¡°You was born in a wrong time, young lady. What you should have become is non-existent in your world¡¯s days and ages. I know it because I know you. I watched over you and many more people like you for a long time. You are a pioneer, young lady. No, the better word would be pathfinder. What man would fear you want to pursue. Where danger thrive, you want to step. What no one could achieve, you must. You thirst for purpose, young lady. For something far beyond one small human could ever hope to reach. Your world can¡¯t give you it, young lady. But my world surely can. My world is full of wonders to discover and full of threats to defeat. Its maps have enough white spots for you to paint. So now, young lady. Look inside of you. Look closely and then decide. ¡° And so the girl closed her eyes to look inside herself. She never doubted this man before her. Even though common sense said she should have. Common sense could never heal her tiredness. Cure her longings. The girl trusted her common sense, but even more so she trusted her instincts. Really just how a pathfinder should. And her instincts right now cried. ¡°Will there be¡­ an adventure?¡± ¨C The girl asked the only question she wanted to know the answer of before any. And the man with features impossible to recognize answered her, straight and simple. ¡°Sure thing.¡± Chapter 1 (old) Darkness embraced her. Beyond one¡¯s world, one¡¯s space and universe you will find this. Outside. Void but full. Cold and warm. Silent yet full of noise. It takes time for your senses to accept it and retreat in awe. And so awestruck she waited, full of patience. Soon Watcher asked her: ¡°Are you ready?¡± Yes, she answered. In this moment, her body vanished, leaving only naked soul behind. She casted it aside. ¡°You will start anew. You still sure you want to leave it entirely to me?¡± People born in uncertainty. I¡¯m disturbing this rule far enough. Pick what you see fit me the best. Are you not the one who had been watching over me for so long? ¡°¡­I left it to one little part of myself through. But so be it. You will be ready soon.¡± In a short while, or maybe long, the girl opened sleepy eyes and slowly stretched herself. Thick blanket slipped down and she flinched from sudden coldness. The girl briefly looked around and then stared at her own very small hands. Just as Watcher said. The girl proceeded with palpation of her brand new body. Am I a human? I feel like a human. Four, maybe five years old? Soon she touched top of her head and right after promptly contacted teeth with her tongue. Then she stopped and sighed. Not quite human after all. The girl looked around once more and didn¡¯t notice mirrors in this overall simply settled room. Just a few pieces of wood furniture. In a moment after she heard rash steps behind the door before it was slammed open. Tall man walked inside. He appeared to be at his forties and he didn¡¯t look quite human too. He frowned at young child who very well could be borrowed his own bed and asked her something. The girl smiled hesitatingly and silently swore. Yes, Watcher assured me I will be taken care by ¡®someone¡¯. But, the language! And I¡¯m in need of a name too!The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Her new life started just like that...
[Ke¨¢rra ¨® D¨¢laigh] ¡°Come again¡­?¡± Few minutes before. Reyna, beautiful blonde elf-receptionist of the Guild, was bored that day. She absentmindedly watched after the fly¡¯s passage when door flapped and didn¡¯t even react at first. Her habit then kicked in to make her jump, turn around and give mechanical smile to... no one in particular? ¡°Hello.¡± Reyna blinked and looked down without putting her smile off. Young girl was standing before her with a curios look in her big green eyes. Aww¡­ what a cutie¡­ half-bred of human and wolf kin? No, little foxxy! The girl was slender and thin, less than five feet tall. She was indeed young, no more than twelve human years. She had a small pointed nose, a narrow chin and a light skin tone. On top of her head pair of foxy ears were constantly on move, probing your usual Guild¡¯s noise. The girl¡¯s hair was bright red and about to middle of spine long, gathered into a ponytail. Only the very tips of her ears were white, which only added to her overall cuteness. ¡°Good afternoon, you can address me as Reyna, do you need some help?¡± ¡°I want to register,¡± the girl seriously nodded. Well that much was to be expected. ¡°¡­as an adventurer.¡± ¡°Then please touch this sphere and show me your personal Record.¡± Reyna pointed at a big crystal sphere on her table. ¡®Record¡¯ chant was the most basic one which even kids could do. In this way elf preferred to explain the Guild rules to hot-headed youngsters and children with heads full of pink. The girl touched the sphere with obvious confidence. In a moment, dull light filled the sphere and the words appeared inside. [Name: Ke¨¢rra ¨® D¨¢laigh] [Age: 15] [Race: Beast-kin | Kitsune] Only three lines. It seemed this particular child with impossible-to-pronounce name knew how to make ¡®Record¡¯ show only the bare minimum of itself. However, Reyna didn¡¯t have time to revere it since she was busy staring right at the third line. Kitsune? They still exist? As a Guild¡¯s receptionist Reyna knew enough about monsters, dungeons and sentient races to be good at her job. Even about extinct races she knew her fair share. So, while somewhat stunned, she still looked at the girl and started to count. ¡°One tail¡­ two tails?!¡± Yes, the girl proudly waved with not one, but two bright red-colored and foot-long foxy tails around her. Just a moment ago she hided them under her gray cape and now Reyna¡¯s yell even helped her to invoke small-scaled commotion. ¡°My name is Ke¨¢rra ¨® D¨¢laigh and I want register as an adventurer!¡± Little kitsune repeated herself load and clear with her eyes full of sparks. Someone clapped and Reyna¡¯s head span. ¡°¡­em, come again, miss Kera? Cirra? I¡¯m sorry¡­ I''m so bad with northern names¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s Kyra Daly,¡± sighed kitsune at an overhelmed elf. Chapter 2 (old) After Reyra successfully overcame her embarrassment she immediately took Kyra upstairs. Guild¡¯s branch in Ozryn was fairly small, just two floors, and the most remarkable visitor of it was going to meet the head. This head was quite a few times younger than elf under his command, but unlike her he was a former C-ranked adventurer. Right now he was sitting at the gigantic table and behind mounts of papers. There was another ¡®Record¡¯ crystal sphere just like one at the reception here too. Before this branch''s head questionable glance Reyna exhaled and tried to explain why registring Kyra would be a such great idea. ¡°She is a kitsune, Lambert! With two tails!¡± She pointed at the suspect with ¡®you get it, right?¡¯ look on her face. Black haired middle-aged man was unimpressed. ¡°What, some rare kind of half-breed between human and fox-kin?¡± Elf rolled her eyes. Well, Kyra certainly didn¡¯t look like genuine beast-kin female should. Too little hair on her hands and pretty much anywhere else. No whiskers either. Reyna herself knew a little bit about long forgone races only because she had been visiting capital¡¯s library regularly for about a century before transferring to this small town. ¡°As far as I know, last time kitsune appeared in our world over a thousand years ago, before the Second Calamity War¡±, she explained solemnly. Much to her satisfaction Lambert livened up a little. But only a little. ¡°And why one just popped up now?¡± Reyra opened her mouth, then closed, and opened yet again. ¡°¡­¡¯Record¡¯ is impossible to fabricate,¡± she finally mumbled. ¡°My master said I¡¯m kind of variation,¡± Kyra helpfully added. ¡°Like dragomen appear from time to time in lizard-kin clans.¡± This was indeed how her master told her to explain the whole kitsune existence problem. Kind of wise, especially with additional advices ¡°don¡¯t show off your tales¡± and ¡°hide from noble bastards¡±. ¡°Works for me.¡± Lambert was surprisingly easy. ¡°So. To become an adventurer before eighteen or sixteen for best-kin¡­ does kitsune still counts for best-kin?¡± Reyna nodded. Kyra nodded twice too. ¡°Really? Hm. Lassie, ¡®record¡¯ indeed showed you are fifteen, but you look like fifteen-old elf. Sorry here. I kind of know you are not a kid¡­¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°I can explain,¡± Kyra smiled. ¡°One of my racial traits is called [Ageless looks]. I can change my physical appearance to any from about eight years and up to my real one. My attributes and weight remain unchanged.¡± Both Reyna and Lambert were dumbfounded after such revelations. ¡°How envious¡­¡± ¡°But why early teens?¡± Lambert asked curiously but after hearing day-dreaming elf he got himself together. ¡°Never mind. It¡¯s your choice. Thanks anyway, such information helps us to avoid dangerous misunderstandings.¡± ¡°That is why I shared it.¡± This fox-kin, no, kitsune lass was more and more to Lambert¡¯s liking. ¡°And it won¡¯t be spread by us,¡± so the man nodded. ¡°Where did we stop? Yes, the entering in our brotherhood. And sisterhood, same thing. First, you need the recommendation from adventurer of C-rank or higher. I can examine your abilities personally, so it¡¯s not a problem. Secondly, you have to experience a Growth beforehand.¡± Lambert made extremely serious accent on this second part. ¡°Reyna, did you check at what [Stage] is she?¡± Elf smiled a bit haughtily. ¡°I didn¡¯t have to. She is two-tailed.¡± Both Lambert and Kyra blinked, the former with a tired sigh and the later with an apparent amazement. ¡°Kitsune have no tails at birth. They start to appear only after Growth, one at a time,¡± and so elf¡¯s solemn voice returned once again. ¡°Wha-a-a¡­? Lassie, you lived through two Growths before maturing?!¡± Lambert was awestruck just to Reyna¡¯s planning. Instead of answering with words alone, Kyra simply walked to the ¡®Record¡¯ sphere and touched it. [Evolution stage: 2] ¡°Well that is something¡­¡± Lambert murmured. He was looking at the words with ¡®I don¡¯t believe it¡¯ eyes. Then they changed to show mix of complex feelings before he closed them. ¡°Little Kyra is a genius.¡± Meanwhile elf was enthusiastic. ¡°Shut up, Reyna.¡± It could not be helped. Like most people Reyna never experienced Growth for herself. You needed not just mindlessly massacre bunch of monster beasts or demons with your own hands just to acquire necessary life energy. This was indeed necessary but spending a little fortune on life crystals instead could do the thing. To open your evolution path is to exceed your limits, which means you must meet and overcome the life crisis of some sort. And to do so long before one¡¯s body and mind matures¡­ and not once but twice¡­ Lambert shuddered. That was beyond the concept of ¡®hard¡¯. ¡°I¡¯m not broken, sir.¡± It seemed Kyra read him while they both were ignoring pouting elf. ¡°Right.¡± Lambert indeed saw such kids and this lass certainly was not one of them. Whatever exactly she gone through Lambert hadn¡¯t right to inquire. ¡°Now recommendation part. That would take some time. Let¡¯s start with a mock battle, perhaps.¡± Kyra ears twitched as she bounced a little and reached the bag on her belt. ¡°Er, I think I do have the recommendation.¡± ¡°Oh, the letter huh?¡± ¡°Master said to show it in any of Guild¡¯s branches so it should be the recommendation, right?¡± Why does it sounded like she doubted it herself? That was what both Reyna and Lambert wanted to ask but refused to. Instead they both focused on the letter or to be exact on its seal. After brief examination Lambert directly placed it on the ¡®Record¡¯ crystal. [Name: ¨¢lhan ¨® D¨¢laigh | Sword of the North] ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Gods! Your master is Alan the Shadowsinger! Lambert, you saw it?¡± ¡°Yes, yes, I saw it. But the Shadowsinger¡­ your background is surely not ordinary one, miss.¡± ¡°And she inherited his last name! You know, I only saw him once in the capital!¡± ¡°Well I don¡¯t think we need to proceed with examination. But you can¡¯t jump over rookie position too, miss. I will explain the Guild major rules and then¡­¡± ¡°I told you she is genius! Why you had to shut me? Kyra, are you his daughter? You should be!..¡± Kyra was shaken. Not by overly cheerful Reyna or suddenly polite Lambert. The reason was entirely different. ¡°Is master kinda amazing person?¡± So she muttered to herself. Chapter 3 (old) Two hours later. Lambert ended with finding some extreme shortcomings for overly gifted kitsune. Basically Kyra was left with only one last step to do. And now she was checking harness of her horse. ¡°Leave from the east gates. On the first fork chose the left road, and after that always turn to the right. You should reach lamberjacks village before the sunset. Golden Helms operates from there, at least that was the plan. You have a map, act on her own judgment. You will do it a lot after all so start early. What else? When you got there...¡± Lambert meticulously repeated everything. Not a small number of hunters and even adventures died because of Guild¡¯s negligence and he had a reason to be extra prudent. ¡°Here we are,¡± branch¡¯s head noticed hurried elf. ¡°You sealed it? Splendid. Give it to her.¡± Reyna dutifully handed fresh new letter to Kyra. ¡°And you give it to Golden Helms.¡± Kyra nodded and soared to the saddle. She took a death breath, gazed once at the Guild. She tried to look as earnest as she could, bit corners of her mouth wavered. No, it was impossible after all. ¡°Yes! Go, Perchy!¡± She was smiling. She was shining. Perchy was galloping. ¡°What a lively kid,¡± sighed Lambert after a minute. ¡°Yes she is.¡± Reyna affectionately took the man¡¯s hand. ¡°M-m-m. But why does she hide her age after all? It shouldn¡¯t be only to mess around.¡± ¡°What? Seriously, Lambert? You don¡¯t get it?¡± Elf stepped aside to critically look at her partner. He felt something and immediately started to fake innocence. ¡°You really!¡± Reyna snorted. ¡°It¡¯s a girl thing, dear. Just leave it at that.¡±
Kyra reached the right village before the sunset, just as Lambert said and without any surprises. The village was called Rocksteam and woodmen here were procuring valuable aspen trees from the near plateau. They rafted wood to Ozryn, which was basically the transit point between populous province of the south and wild forests and mountains of the west, where a few settlements appeared in the last decade. Wilderness was both rich and dangerous, hence the local Guild¡¯s branch, let it be so long small, still managed to bring in quite a number of hunters and adventurers. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The village was ringed with a piling wall. Kyra stopped before the gateway and proudly waved to sentry with her adventurer sign. The sign was round, shined nicely and comfortably lied in the palm of her hand. It was yet to be officially sealed by Lambert¡¯s ¡®record¡¯, but for a time being would suffice. The sentry swore ¨C something about the damn Guild and poor children, definitely ¨C and let her in with a return hand wave. Then Kyra dismounted her steed and asked around while bearing curious gazes. At least they weren¡¯t that curios since she hid her tales and ears under the cape. Newly-fledged adventurer was lucky ¨C Golden Helmets just returned from a three-day patrol and she was pointed to their general direction. ¡°I swear I¡¯m starting to miss goblins. Most they can do is to try cut your bowels open, which is a fair play in my book. You meet goblin face-to-face. Goblin won¡¯t wait in the bush to gnaw out your ass. Goblin see you ¨C he run out and try to stub you. Nice and easy. These yipping bastards, I¡¯m sick of them¡­¡± Yep, this is the place. Kyra resolutely knocked the door. ¡°Oy, will you shut it? We have guests.¡± Door was opened wide with a squeak. ¡°Well-well isn¡¯t this new?¡± It certainly is. You are my first dwarf! After some awkward coughing and self-explanations¡­ ¡°The letter says so, Dhulgrir. She is ours now.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t remember you can read elven scribbles, Robe.¡± ¡°It¡¯s in Imperial.¡± ¡°And not a code?¡± ¡°Just read the damn letter yourself!¡± ¡°I won¡¯t take in my hands anything from prick-eared witch. It¡¯s poisoned. Or cursed.¡± ¡°I¡¯m perfectly fine, you know?¡± ¡°She wants us to think so. It would affect only dwarfs.¡± Finally, women couldn¡¯t take it as she rolled her eyes and backed. Dwarf nodded. ¡°I won.¡± He said and turned to Kyra who was trying hard to hold her jaw still. ¡°I¡¯m Dhugrir Heavyheart. I¡¯m the chief here. Since we cannot defy Guild¡¯s order without sufficient reasons, I reluctantly welcome you to our party.¡± I really can¡¯t see how serious is he. His face like a stone. ¡°This is no joke. Do you think lots of us adventurers will happily nurse some useless rookie ballast who knows nothing about the real world?¡± So he is serious, well that much I expected. But what¡¯s with his beard? It¡¯s smaller than I thought. Against canons. ¡°The letter says she is a disciple of the Shadowsinger,¡± the woman from before gleefully cut in. ¡°Okay, so maybe not so useless,¡± Dhugrir continued without battling an eye. ¡°But still a rookie.¡± Why master is so celebritish? Now you disturb my first adventure. What next? Some hoodlums will try to mess with me but will shit themselves right after? Leave my hoodlums alone! ¡°From now on you are Foxxy.¡± Wait, what? This is not a nickname I want to have. Even ¡®Shadowsinger¡¯ is better! ¡°It¡¯s Kyra.¡± ¡°Too long for a name. Why do you people take so unsuitable names?¡± ¡°Then what about Dhulgrir?!¡± ¡°Great name.¡± There was so much wrong going on here Kyra didn¡¯t know where to retort. ¡°¡¯Dhulgrir¡¯ means ¡®dwarf¡¯, so he has an issue with names.¡± ¡°Not at all.¡± I see¡­ wait, he is calling you ¡®Robe¡¯ because you wear one?! ¡°This noisy woman is Robe. The one sleeping over there is Giant. Rogue will return soon enough.¡± He is! ¡°Nice to meet you, Foxxy.¡± Oh come on. ¡°Now the cornerstone of our work. Usually you would have one fifth of loot or any other kind of income we get as a five-man party. But that¡¯s for real full-pledged members. You are a rookie and rookies pay half of it back as an educational fee. So your share will be one tenth. If you agree, we make a contract and seal it with our ¡®records¡¯.¡± ¡°And if I don¡¯t follow the rules, I can retire right now?¡± ¡°You need to be smart to have a future in our line of work. Exactly. We adventurers have rules for reasons. You pay your fee; we teach you do things right.¡± Kyra nodded firmly. ¡°I agree.¡± Robe clapped her hands. ¡°Good. But we start tomorrow, right now all I want is to mimic this one,¡± she gazed at the sleeping man. Dhugrir grumbled approvingly. ¡°I¡¯m good with that. Spent most of the day in the saddle.¡± ¡°M. Sorry, before I pass out I just need to know. What¡¯s the deal with the two tails?¡± Chapter 4 (old) Small group was slowly passing through thick mountain forest. In this group, there was one dwarf, three humans and one little kitsune. Rogue, or Ralf if you ignore over simplistic naming sense of certain someone, was going in the front. Five yards behind Kyra, almost next to her Dhugrir and then Laura. Finally, Torsten the Giant was closing formation. Masculine part of Golden Helms was armored to the teeth; Robe was carrying the stuff. ¡°With [Enchanted Hearing] you are a perfect scout material so watch Rogue.¡± Kyra silently agreed with their chief¡¯s casual words. She was fairly good in the snowy mountains, but here she could only barely avoid making noises. ¡®Recorded¡¯ skills meant nothing without actual experience after all, especially so vague ones as [Stealth Mastery]. Right now even dwarf was better than her (just a little!), although enchanted green cloak contributed in this greatly. Magic is a cheat. They all have these cloaks. Why my master never got me a mage to explain how is it works? I need to ask Robe.
¡°Found something.¡± After long walk group was inspired by long-awaited change, before gathering around Ralf to jointly stare at ¡®something¡¯. ¡°Rogue, I think I asked you to find a little puppy for our Foxxy to stretch herself. ¡®Little¡¯ here means small.¡± Robust grey-haired man only scratched his head. ¡°Twenty feet long. D-rank, maybe on the threshold of C when it was alive,¡± appraised Laura. The wolf was enormous and fortunately very dead. It¡¯s hard to live with such mutilated body. Besides his size he was pretty much the same as any other wolf, which was common for D-rank magic beasts. ¡°I heard you, Robe.¡± Meanwhile their scout put on thick gloves and was going through dead wolf. Kyra, remembering she should watch him, took a stand right behind. Not-so-small puppy was missing hind leg and both his head and chest were open wide, still bleeding a little. Lugh thrusted his hands inside gaping holes to check something and nodded to party. ¡°No brain, no heart. No tongue either.¡± Kyra completely missed the last one. Laura cursed, Torsten just kept thoughtful look. ¡°When you find bloody corpse, first thing you do ¨C demon check. They love to eat some hearts and brains every time they possible can. Such habbits uncommon in other people.¡± Dhugrir explained to kitsune. ¡°What about tongue?¡± ¡°You noticed? Good. Tongue means we have gourmet here. Which means the real demon, not just demonic beast. Well, no guarantee here, but chances high enough for a bid. Okay, let¡¯s listen to our thinkman. Giant?¡± Torsten didn¡¯t react at all.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. ¡°Oy, Giant!¡± ¡°M? Oh, yes. Poor bastard died fast. He is fresh, right?¡± ¡°Very fresh,¡± confirmed Rogue. ¡°Found some miasma.¡± ¡°I see. So it was fast. Foxxy didn¡¯t hear a thing so I say it was about between quarter to half of an hour ago. There are no broken trees around too. My guess is our wolfy was restless to breakthrough when he stumbled on a demon. Then he mindlessly pounced, spilled some miasma and took a hit to the spine.¡± Hear a thing? Oh yes, there was that, fool. Kyra felt guilty. She tried so hard to adapt her [Stealth Mastery] to the point of forgetting to differ the forest voices. Rogue probably found this place because of birds¡¯ behavior in the first place. Oh well, she can always acknowledge that if there is a real need¡­ ¡°And demon?¡± asked Laura while Kyra was busy with her little introspection. ¡°Got bitten hard enough to leave the rest of the body here. Have no idea what exactly we deal with, if you asked that.¡± ¡°Another lesson.¡± Dhugrir interfered. ¡°Hey, Foxxy! Yes, that black thing is miasma, bastards bleed with it, listen here. Demons hardly travel alone. Strong ones have minions to punch around and weak ones gather in packs.¡± ¡°This one is strong.¡± Nodded Torsten. ¡°He took one leg for some snack and soon we will have a bunch of minions coming for the rest.¡± ¡°We are leaving. Rogue, stay here for a while to watch this place and meet us at the camp place later.¡± Their dwarf chief made his orders.
Party retreated fast and without an issue under accompaniment of Laura¡¯s swearing. Kyra already had some insights into Golden Helm inner working. Dhugrir was a good leader. He made use of everybody¡¯s strong sides and never delayed his decisions in a tight moment. Giant was a little bit slow but with a good head on his shoulders plus a great deal of intuition. He dealt some mistakes with his guesses, of course, but never missed entirely of the mark. And he was the one really gigantic man, nearly eight feet, and most likely had some innate skills like [Increased Strength] to tap with the usual human potential attributes. Laura was bad-mouthing around constantly, but never touched her teammates in her curses so she wasn¡¯t a bother really, even kind of funny. And her constant flickering with Dhugrir could always clear the air. What about her obvious nature of mage, well, Kyra only knew she was an Elementalist of wind. Rogue was kind of gloomy person who never really talked about anything without a good reason. He was always on point, cold and professionally type. As to their fighting style, kitsune was going to discover it soon. ¡°We found our puppies! Foxxy, they all yours.¡± Or not. Kyra moved forward slowly and drew her short sword in the silent acknowledgment. Four wolves which were just following party¡¯s scent growled at her and began to circle their little prey. These ones are crazy before their evolution too. Spring is surely fun in the lowlands. It wasn¡¯t the first time Kyra saw predators act against their nature. These four beast were twice as big as they should be and their eyes were filled with blood. They ere not yet ranked magical beast, but close. Through red haze young kitsune wasn¡¯t seen as a threat to them at all. Only sacrifice full of life they should thrive on to advance. If not her, then any other prey would suffice. Head wolf pounced on Kyra and she dodged, light like feather. She came close enough to other wolf, the smallest one in the pack, for it to try and bite her. With short whistle thin blade pierced through open jaws and blood scattered as the sward¡¯s edge dimly shined from the wolf¡¯s nape. Kyra almost felt hot breath on her neck as she turned around with inhumane speed. Enveloped with green luster sword cleaved both already dead wolf and shortly alive one in the middle of its leap. One step to clear the way for beheaded body, second step to evade the head itself and red stream of it. With her hand still high, Kyra jumped into low back somersault and lightly swung once to cut across the backbone of the beast which just tried to seize her leg and then she left it alone to grasp few final breaths. No person sane would continue to fight such a battle and even predator would flee in terror. But the last wolf did not know fear. It salivated greedily without care for its own life. It pounced on deadly kitsune just like the first one to gnaw out her throat but could only bite once empty air as its head was separated from the body. Note (name changing and everything) So even though I caught my old writing style eventually, I don¡¯t really like where I was going. I didn¡¯t have solid purpose or plot planning. Like a started on a whim and hoped for the best. Not the best reasons to start and keep going, actually. So here I am saying sorry to my few followers. Well, what I did have is a few new ideas which surprisingly were mergeable with a few old ones so I spend some time to do exactly that: merge them.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. With Millstones of Destiny, things are different now, even tags were massively changed. While I have strength to write, this novel has designation where it should move, why and how. I have designs of conflicts, heroine motivations, everything. Well, no exactly everything, no way this one is professional work, but blueprint of sorts I do have. So, thanks for reading my rumblings and (hopefully?) my novel. I¡¯m letting old first chapters stay for future references, maybe I will use them for a short story or something. Three chapters today, maybe four. Chapter 1: White Room "First of all, I am in need of the new name. Let it be Kyra. Yes." The girl briefly nodded to herself and looked over the screen before her. ¡°Surname, third name, forth name¡­ so uselessly detailed.¡± She commented as she left every entry after her new name empty. ¡°Race. This one is a little tricky.¡± Self-named Kyra closed her eyes while crossing her hands on her chest. Should I just stay with a ¡®human¡¯ occupation? Or should I change it to ¡®elf¡¯? Leaving jokes aside, how am I supposed to fill it? She opened one eye and took a look at a computer imitation before her. When Kyra appeared in this room it was already here. Projection of the screen in the air with zero thickness and nothing else. The room itself was enormous, empty and silent. And there was light from nowhere but everywhere. Very classic. Naturally Kyra firstly tried to reach the wall of the room only to discover she can¡¯t really move from the screen, only a few meters at most. That much was expected. So she did the second logical step: she took off her shoe and threw it with her full power. Shoe didn¡¯t reach the wall but still traveled its fair distance. After that Kyra threw her other shoe in the opposite direction with the same result. The third step was still perfectly reasonable: Kyra walked to the firstly thrown shoe of hers. The floor was no warm no cold. Kyra reached her shoe and then looked at the second with the eyes full of expectations. The distance changed. And the screen was still nearby. It followed her without any signs, not the way around. Kyra smiled to her little discovery. And then she started walking in the straight line. Few hours later Kyra still could not reach the wall. Her shoes long ago turned into the black points and disappeared in the distance. Still Kyra conjectured that the floor perfectly flat and/or there is no horizon here. The girl sighed at last, stopped and gazed over her faithful screen. She was tired no more than she should have been. So oxygen concentration and gravity force were roughly the same as on Earth. So, still not her new world. Transfer point of some sort with a friendly environment. Kyra walked to the screen and finally read the text on it. [Greetings, young lady. I prepared a little gift for you, it will arrive soon after you read my message. This white room you were transferred to is a temporary point between our two worlds I created.] Kyra nodded. Just as expected. The fact that her spending a few hours of time and reading this message amounted to about the same result didn¡¯t discourage her at all. [This device will help you orient yourself before final transferring. Use your voice to access settings. Let me leave two simple final words for you. Good luck.] ¡°Settings.¡± Kyra ordered immediately. Screen dimed and in a second showed her long, well, inquiry form. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. [Name: {empty}] Full of lines just like this. ¡°So, my race. Iron idiot, show me the race list.¡± The screen dimmed as a new message overrode the form for a few seconds. [¡¯Iron idiot¡¯ was not found. Command cannot be executed.] Kyra snorted. ¡°Identify yourself, Multivac.¡± [Command was accepted. Identification process has been started.] And¡­ nothing happened. Kyra kicked the floor. ¡°EDI? Bender? Ultron? GLaDOS?¡± Still nothing happened. ¡°Let us try this. Command: Settings. No? Of course no. I will sleep here a little, you know, I just traveled a few miles and tired myself down. Just don¡¯t roast your schemes before you conquer Earth for me.¡± Kyra didn¡¯t joke here but she just had no time to really take a nap. ¡°Hello!¡± A wild voice appeared! ¡°Hello.¡± Kyra answered without battling an eyelid! She expected something the moment she read the message after all. ¡°Hello, hello, hello! Let the magnificent me to introduce himself! Herself? Itself? Myself? Hey, what gender should I use?¡± ¡°Female.¡± Kyra reacted immediately. ¡°Oh! So you recognize my beauty!¡± The voice was indeed sounding nice to one¡¯s ear. Nice but strange: very neutral, very androgynous and no distinctive characteristics besides it. ¡°I would never let some male voice occupy my head. And if I have to speak with some item he planted in me I would regrettably prefer it to be female.¡± Still Kyra denied the mystic voice. ¡°Oh¡­ Wait, you just called me an item! How dare y¡­¡± ¡®She¡¯ sounded like angry but not angry in the same time. ¡°And what are you? Identify yourself.¡± Unfortunately, this particular trick did not work twice. ¡°I¡¯m me! Little Genius Helper!¡± ¡°That is you? Your name?¡± ¡°Uhm! Unlike you humans, my name has perfect sense! Has purpose! I created it myself!¡± Kyra was speechless. Personally she preferred to be silent about purposes and pretty much everything else about herself. And there is no way she would call this Little Genius Helper as such. ¡°From now on, you are Sara.¡± ¡°HEY.¡± ¡°Hush, Sara. If you want a better name, I will give you one after some thinking.¡± ¡°Well¡­ That is okay I suppose.¡± Sara was surprisingly easy. Was she designed this way? Or so Kyra thought. ¡°So who are you? Not your name, but what are you?¡± She finally reached the point. ¡°Embryo. Program. Drawing. All and more.¡± Sara almost song this. Taking a pause, Kyra pondered. ¡°He has no power over souls. This is why I¡¯m here in the first place, to choose myself and everything. So you are not a soul. You will become one?¡± ¡°Yesh!¡± Where did she pick that up? ¡°He gifted me all kinds of knowledge about your world and his world and asked me to provide help and guidance! Are you not lucky!¡± ¡°And what of it will be of use for you?¡± Asked Kyra while already partly anticipating the answer. ¡°I¡¯m attached to your soul and so will become one faster. Then I can decide how I wish to be born. So I¡¯m like your baby!¡± Headache was coming. Only in her nightmares Kyra would became a mother at her age. Before this day. And Sara was really like a baby, ready to spill everything she knew to her mommy without care. Please don¡¯t make her cry at nights! The girl was horrified at the sudden thought. ¡°And I can work with this thing over there.¡± ¡°The screen?¡± ¡°Yep.¡± ¡°Ooh.¡± Kyra was a little absent-minded and had to focus with slapping her own cheek. ¡°So want to know what is it? You want, yes? Yes?¡± In reality, Kyra had to take a serious thought about it. Honestly speaking, she wasn¡¯t so uselessly curious girl she would spend hours on this giant white room walking around and trying to break its secrets. After all, it will hardly be of any use. So normally she would waste one hour at most. Kyra was just really, really excited this time. ¡°By the way, why is it in the self-diagnostic mode?¡± ¡°And it has one? Well, I asked it to identify itself.¡± ¡°You what? You stupid! Are you stupid?¡± I should use it to, answering the question before asking it. ¡°Now control panel will diagnose everything and it will take days! But no worry! Sara can repair it! And now she is calling herself Sara. Who is naming their daughter Sara anyway? Isn¡¯t this a child abuse? But Kyra wasn¡¯t going to be sorry here. After a minute of youthful humming the screen blinked as familiar inquiry form reappeared. ¡°Here we are! So do you want to know what is this?¡± ¡°Control panel. After I chose all settings of transmigration it will make it happen with methods I have no ability and no time to understand so we leave the brackets behind.¡± ¡°Huh? How do you know?¡± Kyra rolled her eyes and ignored her idiot child. ¡°Whatever. I need to choose a race. What a pain.¡± Chapter 2: Newself Choosing one''s race was a relatively responsible task. Usually people would pick something like half-vampire plus half-god plus half-elf plus half-demon to scare the world with their awesomeness. But Kyra had a prepared set of requirements. ¡°First of all, filter out all short-living races like humans.¡± ¡°Thousand years at least then?¡± ¡°Ten. Next, filter out vampires, gods and any other entities who need specific food or sources of power to exist.¡± ¡°Done.¡± ¡°Now leave only races with top potential to growth. And by growth I mean personal strength.¡± ¡°It seems most of them are, since all have the longest lifespan.¡± ¡°Good. Next, choose ones with human-like appearance starting from their childhood. I¡¯m twenty something years old now, pretty much an infant.¡± If one thinks that picking race for Kyra in the different world was an easy task, then he would be wrong. ¡®World¡¯ here could easily use capitals for each letter. It did not stand out for a big round stone in the middle of space, but for the whole new Universe. Number of sentient races was beyond enormous to study in detail every one so the only choice girls had was to filter them out with formal reasons. Thanks control panel for bearing with them! ¡°You don¡¯t want to check out non-human forms of life?¡± ¡°I really want, but not that personally, save me from it. I was born with two legs and two hands so let me keep them.¡± ¡°Okay¡­ we still have surprisingly big pull.¡± Actually Kyra had no idea about this so-called pull of races. Or what and how Sara was pulling off with the control panel. Kyra actually not much cared from the moment she discovered she had not only existing now races to choose hers from, but from the beginning of all times. Whatever Sara was doing she was making the screen blink so Kyra only had to instruct her properly in the beginning. ¡°Kick out every race with dominant instincts before mind of any nature and average intelligence lower than humans.¡± ¡°You mean...?¡± ¡°Modern humans of Earth, of course. It¡¯s kind of a gamble, but I¡¯d like to keep this fine head of mine.¡± What Kyra meant she had no idea how averages of human intelligence in two worlds correlated with each other so she basically prayed for the best. ¡°Hum. What else, what else?¡± ¡°Pick out five percent with the lowest reproduction rate. Our gem would be hand-picked from them.¡± Both Kyra and Sara where genially exited. Zubazillion number of sentient being was finally transformed to a few dozens. ¡°Still three thousand five hundred forty-nine entries.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s an old world, you know! And big! Even your purely materialistic universe has billions of them to show off!¡± ¡°I know, okay? The bigger, the better. Do three lists: life expectancy, power level, reproduction rate, sort them with the same rules. Fold numbers of each race, then create new list and place them by ascending sums.¡± ¡°And here we are.¡± ¡°Theoretically, the first place would take local God ¨C immortality, omnipotence, zero offspring.¡± Kyra murmured to herself while closing her eyes. ¡°Hey, Sara. Take out unique beings from here. Thanks.¡± This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. The screen blinked the last time and showed a long register. Name, plus very short text presentation for each entry. Kyra immediately touched one randomly just to see steel-like human being(?) with some additives. [Android MK. Z4-0 ¡°Avatar¡±: The last piece of art of ancient Geugrunt (Third Empire), created in limited series just before the end of Last War of the Fall. Was never active...] ¡°Wow-wow, spoilers. That is just too different setting to my liking. Sara, I want genuine magic or something and not magic-like-technology for myself, please.¡± Kyra decisively dismissed all-powerful machine and waited a moment before the register was reorganized and then the girl touched the screen the second time. ¡°Hm.¡± She eyed the ceiling. ¡°Sara, is this thing have a low reproduction rate? I honestly can¡¯t believe it.¡± ¡°It is. Actually a very low one. To ensure appearance of descendants Cluhtumu engages in orgies with multiple suitable partners.¡± ¡°¡­of course it is, it¡¯s the damn tentacle monster, I¡­ it¡­ they EXIST? Billion and zigzillion races from the times immemorial, they do. I mean, there exist all-powerful tentacle monster in this world? Seriously? What kind of web novel you think we are in?!¡± Kyra could not help herself as she was throwing the tantrum in full power. Would she imagine THAT as her next incarnation? She refused to describe it even inside her mind, so ghastly that thing was! ¡­well, people longing for such certainly existed, but Kyra wanted not to have anything in common with this kind of perverts. ¡°I don¡¯t quite get you, but last Cluhtumu disappeared a long time ago.¡± ¡°They better do. Exterminate...!¡± ¡°Feel better?¡± ¡°Yea.¡± With a sigh, Kyra returned to the register after all abominations were successfully purged from it. With a heavy hand, she picked yet another record. ¡°Oh, some dragon.¡± And another. ¡°Phoenix.¡± And again. ¡°¡¯Hell Calamity Serpent? Finally, we have some choices for a young wise girl. But why all of these beasty guys have a humanish appearance?¡± ¡°It depends on their parents. If a mother had a human form at the birth moment or even was a human herself, then a child would have human form at first.¡± ¡°I see.¡± ¡°You can just read it yourself, you know, they do have that much of description.¡± ¡°Nah, later.¡± Kyra fondly scrolled the list down. No one made for her any time restrictions so she could do it slowly and steadily¡­ and so few hours later she finally hit the last entry. Her mouth was dry and her stomach growled but her eyes were pure and bright as ever. Few dozen candidates in her mind required another hour and a half to view closely. At last she rejected them one after another. Mostly with nonsensical reasons, truthfully. Who would ignore dragons because they are too generic but let phoenixes be? Kyra would! [Nine-Tailed Fox] Or this one. [According to a legend, a wild fox once fell into the Well of Creation during the Primordial Chaos Era. Many beings tried to find secrets of the Well but found only their demise. The simple fox did not die however but was enlightened with a baptism of pristine energies. Later the fox managed to establish his heritage. Descendants inherited his wisdom and during their era slowly reached the peak of their destiny. Nine-Tailed Foxes existed only shortly, no more than nine generations, shocking the world with their strange prowess. The same legend says Nine-Tailed Foxes never cared about rankings, authority and power after reaching their peak. They were not exactly spiritual beings or Divine Beasts but creations of pure magic. So they were bound to disappear and so they did in the edges of our worlds. Only young children can notice sometime young foxes inside their dreams. Nine-Tailed Foxes are sleeping in everyone¡¯s dreams.] ¡°Vaguely to say the least.¡± Commented Kyra thoughtfully while scanning long list of details and descriptions. But the line ¡®not exactly spiritual beings and Divine Beasts but creations of pure magic¡¯ was particularly to her liking. There was many of beings and beasts in the list, but only one creation. Did fairies were too small or too weak for it? In reality, most of ¡®magic creations¡¯ were unique or ended up pathetically weak. Magic was not synonym to ¡®strength¡¯. Magic beings existed to fulfill very specific purposes at the time the world was yet to establish itself fully after all. Obviously, Kyra was yet to know any of that. ¡°And she is cute! Which means I will be cute too!¡± ¡°Is it so important?¡± Asked Sara a little sleepily. ¡°Are you not free spirited young modern woman?¡± It seems Sara is slowly learning sarcasm. Or is she? ¡°Of course am I. Treat it as a lesson. If you have a choice to be born knowingly, choose only for yourself. Like me. I want to live forever. I wish not train desperately to exceed limitations of humankind. I desire not to be ruled by my instincts. And some chemical reactions in my brain should not tell me who is the best mate for me. I will traverse this world, lone and proud. Oh well, I do have an impossible mission already prepared behind the corner. There is a reason a have this chance after all. It¡¯s better this way too. Still, no one knows the future. Well, I don¡¯t know for sure. There can be a ship and a crew, ready to follow me loyally so not alone? But still proud. Always be proud, Moyra. Do you like your new name?¡± Kyra checked her appearance last time with one gaze. Fortunately, this 3D editor was easy to use. She did not have to change much. Just here and there. And a nose, perhaps? And this little angle of eyes. This much is enough. She never liked mirrors after all. ¡°I¡¯m ready.¡± And the white room fell into the darkness. Chapter 3: Her Awkward Beginning Darkness embraced her. Beyond one¡¯s world, one¡¯s space and universe you will find this. Outside. Void but full. Cold and warm. Silent yet full of noise. It takes time for your senses to accept it and retreat in awe. And so awestruck she waited, full of patience. They both did. They waited the soon there will be the light¡­ It ended surprisingly smoothly. Like phew and she is already here. Savory scent made her stomach ache as her eyes were adapting to the dim light. Blink, blink. Kyra looked around and frowned. Medieval Asian-like style. That was her summarizing of the terrace furniture. Then she looked at the bulged eyes of the people around her. ¡°Hi?¡± She smiled and waved her hand. No, no apparent reaction. Middle-aged man and woman, surely married couple plus their teenage son. One-pieced blue robes-like dress instead of proper clothes and neatly groomed black hair for everybody. Narrow eyes. Very Asian-like. The woman finally opened her mouth and squealed, pointing her trembling finger at Kyra. Fortunately, her gibberish had no resemblance with Chinese, or Korean or Japanese. It was full off ear-tearing sounds though. ¡°What, first time you see an infant?¡± She was really small, less than five feet. Ten to twelve years by the look, probably. ¡°There is your son here, lady. Or is it senior?¡± ¡°I think it is senior,¡± intervened Moyra inside her head. Well, would you not scream if a stark-naked child appeared from a thin air before your family right in the middle of the dinner? And yelp is counted too. Under the cover of a woman¡¯s hysteria, which heavily distracted male attention, Kyra made quick check on herself. Very smooth white skin tone. Two hands, five fingers each. Two legs, five fingers each. Barely if not at all bulged chest and yes! no weird attachments on the lower part! That was massive relief! Meanwhile, father of the family decided to act. With a face full of menace and drool on his chin he bravely cried something out and came on her. ¡°Hey! Careful! Isn¡¯t it a knife? Knife! Damn troglodyte!¡± ¡°Troglodyte¡­?¡± Ignoring Moyra¡¯s whispering, Kyra dodged incoming attack with a hurried jump backwards. ¡°Ouch!¡± Her spine met the wall which was just a second ago ten feet behind her in a very painful way and the wood panel screeched with resentment. Kyra made a face, but in a moment smiled victoriously and measured stupefied man with an arrogant gaze. ¡°This is what means to have top specs! Bring it on turtle!¡± That is too childish, she frowned at a sudden thought but immediately her eyes lit up as she looked at the dinner table. Demonstrating her fast thinking and decisiveness, she charged straight to it and snatched two big meat buns from the plate right under the dumbfounded family noses!Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°Thanks for the meal!¡± And she jumped through the window, followed by angry shouts. The garden, leave it behind. The wall? Jump it too! Wind whistled to her and she screamed back to it. ¡°Three meters high! You saw it, Moyra? Three meters, just like this!¡± Kyra was happy. She just disrupted somebody¡¯s measured life, showed off her newborn suit, nearly got herself killed and boldly stole food from poor peasants, at least if her eyes didn¡¯t fool her and this was indeed a rice field on the other side of the road. ¡°This is the best day of my life!¡± She couldn¡¯t help but laugh as her heart was breaking out of her chest and her blood sang to her ears. Cold evening tried to cool her down, but she ignored it. Pebbles was hurting her feet, but she ignored it too. Kyra never felt herself so alive. Nor could she remember such a day. ¡°Ha-ah.¡± With a long sigh she greedily bit into the warm bun in her right hand. It was incredibly meaty and spicy. ¡°You know I was granted with a knowledge of your past world? That includes your life. You not even once broke the law. No stealing, mad driving, nothing. Why¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯m not some adrenalin addict, Moyra. So no ¡®why¡¯. Whatever problems you have, don¡¯t create problems for your family. I could endure, so I did.¡± ¡°No, I thought you despise thieves.¡± ¡°Oh. No-no, I despise stealing food when you full and stealing money when you rich. Well, as long as you can run away¡­¡± Kyra listened to chorus of screams inside the village and hurriedly ate up her buns. ¡°It seems we have some full-blown witch-hunt on my head.¡± ¡°They are screaming ¡®red naked demon¡¯, you know.¡± Moyra was always ready to help. ¡°Oh, you understand them? Good to know. And really, demon.¡± Kyra did not have too much time to spare before to make sure so with thanks to reminding she tilted her head to see few really bright fire-like strands. ¡°Closest word to the meaning.¡± ¡°Fine-fine. Hey, I¡¯m here!¡± Kyra jumped in place. Just for fun, really, since the growing crowd had spotted her long time ago. There were some torches, too. The crowd growled and moved on her, the girl run of. The cat and mouse play began. At first it was easy to hunt Kyra in the evening. Build up a chain of angry villagers and go for a pitiful prey. Half an hour later however the last light of day extinguished while the girl successfully smeared her beautiful white skin in mud. Ten minutes later she simply disappeared. Villagers had to argue a little and then they decided to look for the demon¡¯s lair. The demon though had no such. Using her inhuman speed, Kyra circumvented the crowd and simply returned to their village. ¡°Isn¡¯t this a burglary now?¡± ¡°Small details, small details. They don¡¯t have locks either.¡± Answered Kyra while jumping over the wall. ¡°You are totally for a revenge here!¡± ¡°Their small epopee will not even stay in my memory. Have something more important to do. I can look calm on the surface, but by insides are bright red from embarrassment.¡± As she growled through clenched teeth Kyra delved into the closet but then stopped. ¡°Only adult clothes and not much to choose from. And this building is small, not like that one.¡± Most probably the man whose family she accidentally traumatized was the head of this village or something, Kyra theorized. He organized this whole demon-hunt quite fast too. But his son was bigger than her so she decided against revisiting their manor for now. In her next house Kyra spooked a kid with his mother and finally found some clothes. It was still the same mix between kimono and hanfu, grey robe with narrow sleeves. For her aching feet she found thatched sandals. Sandals! At least they had thick socks here. With continuing of her village robbery Kyra acquired long cloak with a cape, rucksack and small stuff for it like a flint, few knifes and other useful little things. She also got her hands on some long-lasted food and money. Local money was presented as small oval iron coins of different sizes with a holes in their centers. Exactly iron, not silver, gold nor some other nonsensical to use for actual money noble metal. There was a lot of symbols on these coins too. By the way, most of them came from the main manor of the village. ¡°Well, that would be it.¡± Kyra mumbled, satisfying her lingering hunger with a last meat bun from the village head''s plate. Little torch fires in the distance already grew up big and close. The girl jumped from the roof and disappeared into the night.