Chapter Thirty-Two: Sparring, Stealing, & Crafting

    When I woke up, I had a choice to make. It was important-- one that had the power to destroy my current life. I walked out of my bedroom in shorts and a shirt, not bothering to cover my mismatched arms or legs.

    Kokan’s eyes went wide for a moment, then he nodded. “You chose to trust me, I assume?”

    “Can’t really take this back now, can I?” I sat down beside Irisa. She wore something casual and relaxing, the same as her father. “Let’s hope I don’t regret this.”

    “My wife has given her word. You’ll always be welcome here, and you’ll always have a bed to sleep in.”

    “Thanks, dad,” Irisa said, smiling at her father.

    “You’re welcome, sweetheart. I have not been around a chimera before, so I’m not sure how to say this... I know you needed to fight to obtain some semblance of a conscious mind, so I don’t know how much you know about the world. If you have a question, please ask me. My mind is my greatest weapon.”

    Ichiha stood by the stove as she whisked some eggs and fried some bacon, sharing her daughter''s smile. I didn’t pry into the situation more than needed, but she was on cloud nine. Their problems were fixed, so their only task was to be a family. That wasn’t enough, though. I saw it in Irisa’s yellow eyes. She probably felt great embarrassment for stoutly believing in her father’s guilt than innocence, betraying his trust. For years, he lived with Irisa’s hatred. Likewise, I doubt Irisa spared more than a handful of gentle thoughts during that time.

    She did speak almost fondly of him when we went shopping that one time. Maybe the part that wanted to believe his innocence crawled to the forefront of her mind. Perhaps it was that wayward thought that led to this reunion.

    That didn’t change the fact that Irisa lost years with her father, which sprung from her own misconceptions about how he acted. A touching reunion wasn’t an elixir to fix their relationship.

    I nodded to Kokan and explained the ‘continent’ where I became sentient. His eyes grew wide at the ‘Continental Wars’ and ‘Divine Armaments’ capable of nuclear devastation and controlling hunks of metal with explosives strapped to devices that could fly without anyone at the helm. Even someone as scholarly as Kokan never thought a place so advanced and powerful could exist. The gears in his mind began to spin, and he asked me if I was telling the truth.

    Irisa scolded him for not believing me before apologizing, but Tilde said it was all the truth. She had my back and playfully argued with Kokan while I stood up, even going as far as to draw out the rough shape of a plane on a piece of paper. Breakfast was nearly finished, so I went to fetch the hungover Lionfolk. She was still in bed, hunched under the covers and groaning when I left. Tilde went hard on her this morning, laughing so much that she didn’t think alcohol could bring down the Dark Lord of Tyranny.

    “Good morning,” I said, slowly opening the door and peeking my head through.

    Sekh was finishing putting on her tunic. She seemed a little unsteady, so I walked in, wiped the hair from her eyes, and kissed her. The sweet taste of alcohol remained on her lips.

    “Morning, Master. Umm... Was I any trouble? Last night?”

    “Not at all. You were pretty affectionate, always grabbing and wanting to hold me. It was cute, really cute. You were like, ‘Master, I wuv you!!! Maaaasterrrrr!’ Then after I slipped into bed, you clung to me like a pillow. Oh, you talked in your sleep and referred to me as ‘my liege.’”

    Sekh stared at me, not knowing whether to be horrified or embarrassed. Luckily, she chose the latter and nervously touched the tips of her fingers together. “I... I wuv you, Master...” she whispered, abashedly looking towards the ground as her light gray cheeks turned red.

    “Haha! I wuv you too.”

    After hugging her, she asked me if I preferred ‘Master’ or ‘my liege.’

    “You can just call me Mila, you know,” I said, brushing my hand against her cheek. “’My liege’ makes me sound like I’m royalty, but I’m not. And ‘Master’ reminds me of a slave owner, and you know my feelings about that. I guess it’s your choice. Anyways, how are you feeling?”

    “Much better now. Is that breakfast? I’m not hungry—”

    “You’re eating. Doesn’t matter if you’re hungry or not. It’ll reduce the alcohol absorption rate.”

    “But—”

    “Trust me, Sekh. You’ll feel better faster.” Sekh gave me a nod, then joined the rest of the family at the table.

    Family? I won’t ever be their family. And I can’t stay here forever because I have people to kill. The question is when should we leave? Tomorrow? No, that’s too soon. We don’t have the supplies. Wait, Kokan’s an instructor. He says his mind is his greatest asset, but his weapon skills aren’t anything to scoff at. If I can learn how to fight from him, I’ll feel much better about my odds. Even if I’m primarily a ranged fighter, I can’t exactly use Reina’s gun right out in the open if I can help it. I’ll have to wait for the Barclay’s shop to open up.

    Hold on, that gives me an idea. Since Irisa and her parents hate the Barclays, I can steal from them without feeling bad, not that I ever felt upset in the first place. If I need any crafting supplies like thread or mushrooms and raw materials, their shop is the place to be. I gotta save money, after all. And the Barclays deserve everything rotten that happens to them.

    Still, I need to be self-sustaining by the time we leave Ria.

    I walked back to the kitchen to see a moment that wasn’t even offered to me in my previous life. A mother, a father, and a daughter. Where was the yelling? The shouting? The fighting? The chipped teeth and rotten food? The sight of a young boy being yanked out of his chair by a father and having his wrist broken?

    “My liege?” Sekh turned and spoke up, having made her choice on what to call me. She walked over and grabbed my hand. “Breakfast is done, so let’s make a plate.” I looked past her to see a family with smiles, not frowns. A family wanted me to eat with them. Wanted me to share my story with them. Wanted me to be me and no one else. Wanted me to be happy, not cower and squalor in fear, fright, and disease.

    Can this...

    After breakfast, I stared at Kokan, struggling to open my mouth as his daughter poked and prodded at my furred forearm while I practiced my transfigurations. Tilde rubbed her cheeks against its softness. Sekh was nursing her hangover, and Ichiha was getting her a cup of water with sugar and salt to regain the minerals she lost.

    “I need a favor,” I suddenly blurted out.

    “Hm?” He raised an eyebrow and told me to ask away.

    I knew Rome wasn’t built in a day, but at least Romulus and Remus didn’t get their shit kicked in thirty fucking times. Complaining wouldn’t solve a damn thing, so I didn’t utter a single word of protest. Like a persistent child, I forced myself to stand each time I was knocked to the ground with a different shattered bone, only stopping when my hunger grew too strong to ignore. Tapping out, I hobbled over to Sekh and greedily devoured some snacks Ichiha had prepared for us in between tending to the store. Sekh and I chatted while watching the matches between father and daughter. Tilde had gone inside to rest her extremely sore body. I’d have to apologize to her later because she felt all the pain I did. Honestly, it was selfish of me to have her take this burden, but I was thankful she did.

    Irisa had the initial boost of being in the second stage of evolution, her actual bonuses as an oni, and her experiences forging dense metal into usable items. She managed to see the attacks I couldn’t, dodged under those I couldn’t react to, and jabbed her practice sword to his chest before his strike to her legs knocked her to the ground.

    “Again!” she shouted, standing up and running right for him.

    “Again!!”

    “Again!!!”

    “Again!!!!”

    “Again!!!!!”

    Over and over and over again, Irisa pushed herself off the ground and charged headfirst into the fight. Tiredness slowed her reaction time, causing the length between each attempt to widen and grow. Her arms slowed to a crawl; her breath hastened each time the grass and dirt were flattened by her body. By the end, she was down for the count. A dirt-stained sword rolled out of her open palm, and she made no attempt to grab it.

    “That’s enough,” Kokan said, barely out of breath after hours of sparring. He helped his daughter up, grimacing when she yelped with pain. He offered an apology, but Irisa looked proud and happy at the training welts and wounds that littered her body.

    “Who knew our first new memory would be you giving it to me rough? Thanks, dad.” Irisa walked away, not realizing how her sentence could be taken. Her father choked down a cough. “Ah, I mean—” She turned around, her cheeks redder than crimson.

    “I know what you mean, sweetheart. Come on, let’s take a break.”

    After walking inside, Ichiha instructed us to wash for lunch, which was just a simple dish of fish stew with plenty of cabbage and potatoes. When Sekh and I entered the bath, she took the time to carefully wash my whole body, starting from my back. She repeatedly asked if I was hurting when she ran the washcloth over a spot where Kokan had hit me, but I always shook my head because Sekh’s touch was simply angelic. Suddenly, she pressed her chest against my back and rubbed my stomach. I smiled and put my hands over hers. We still had a lot to do, so this cute scene couldn’t turn sexual.

    Not right now, at least. Later? That was a different story. If Sekh was in the mood, I wanted to love her throughout the entire night. But that was then, and this was now. Even as I knew that, I couldn’t help but hold Sekh and tenderly kiss her lips.

    “Mila, where are you going?” Irisa asked after lunch. I ate in my shorts and shirt, but I changed into my ‘adventuring’ clothes, which just meant the outfits I received when I signed that contract. I could only go outside when I had those on.

    “I want to learn how to sew, so I’m going to get some needles and thread. And probably some other things too. If I can find another gun and some ammo, I’ll snatch that too,” I replied.

    “Snatch? You’re going to steal it? But—” Ichiha and Kokan looked at me, but I nodded, which caused their eyes to go wide.

    “From the Barclay’s store. That’s where I got my first gun. You three should hate them, so I don’t see the problem,”

    “But what if you get caught?” Irisa argued. I noticed her parents’ expressions had only slightly softened. I turned my head towards Irisa’s plate and shot a web from my cheek that was difficult to see. It vanished when it made contact, leaving behind just a few breadcrumbs that fell to the table. Her mouth went wide with surprise, but I did the same thing to her cup. Only this time, the string was so ultra-thin my [Eyes of the Huntress] barely perceived it. Thanks to [String Shot] being Lv. 10, I could alter the thickness. It was weak and fragile, but I needed the string to act as a proxy between me and what I wanted to steal. I couldn’t care less if this thin version was unsuitable for battle because it wasn''t meant for that.

    “I won’t. It’s easier to steal when you can do what I can. If Tilde wasn’t so sore, she’d distract them for me like she did the first time,” I said, turning to a fairy that was exaggeratingly groaning in pain. “Don’t worry, I’ll find something for you. Do you want a new dress?” I asked. She just threw me a thumbs up, then demanded it better be cute.

    When I asked if they had any problems with me stealing from their enemy, nothing came to their mind. If they had any reservations against it, I wasn’t going to be mad, but I would definitely be a little upset. Luckily, I had nothing to worry about, so I left guilt-free and headed towards the Barclay’s store.

    As always, it was packed to the brim, which worked in my favor. I needed to grab some sewing needles, thread, a few more crimson amita, a gun, some bullets, and probably some soap and cloths for bathing. Thanks to my map and its search feature, I found everything, sans the guns and ammo, and highlighted them with a waypoint so I could snatch them instantly. When it came to apparel, I could search an area for clothes, then use the built-in filters to narrow the search results down. Tilde was about 10 inches tall, so I just had to input that, which led me to a white dress with black swirls to bring attention to the chest. Tilde was lewd and enormously horny, so the fairy would appreciate the attention it’d attract.

    Ten minutes later, Sekh and I were strolling out of the store with everything except the gun and ammo. Part of my success was attributed to Erin and her eternally exhausted violet tail. She and the other four employees were overworked like abused animals, running from floor to floor, nearly tripping down the stairs because it appeared as if they were being judged against some unknown metric. With how big this place was, it needed more than a handful of workers. A quick search for Karen Barclay—Erin''s mother—showed her relaxing in a rather large bathtub. She looked like her daughter in every way, except she had violet eyes while her daughter had yellow eyes.

    But the map said she was right in this very building, then I realized this was big enough to hold a home as well. There was a door on each floor with a large lock, so it was presumed that the actual ‘house’ portion of this large building was also six floors.

    I suppose I wanted to kill Karen. Not just for her SP—she didn’t have much, even though she was Lv. 29—but for her money. She probably had a bunch in a safe, which I confirmed upon scanning for one. [Map] was so powerful it showed me what was inside it. Regardless, I couldn’t do anything now, so I left with my ill-gotten gains.

    After returning home, Tilde was so excited to wear her new dress that she stripped right there at the kitchen table in front of the onis without a shred of shame to her name. When asked, Tilde just said a body was a body, and she didn’t see the big deal. In fact, she said she spent a few centuries being a nudist simply because she could, and no one could stop her.

    I took a seat beside Irisa and pulled out my mortar and pestle, then began to make some potions. Kokan began to lecture me about the different kinds and what I could add to increase or decrease their effectiveness. Or even how to add new properties. A skill called [Herbalist] granted you that information, but I could not learn it. I didn’t have any bottles, but Ichiha was happy to sell them at a discount.

    With potions, albeit very weak but also lifesaving, I turned my attention to sewing and spent an hour or so practicing with the red and blue thread I’d gotten. Like with blacksmithing, I was very much an amateur, so I focused on getting more familiar with the motions. I didn’t have any design in mind. By the time I was done, Ichiha was getting dinner started, and I figured there was no time like the present to learn how to cook. I shadowed her as she prepared a simple fish dish using leftovers from when she made the stew. With experienced hands, she gutted and descaled the carp and readied it for the frying pan.

    Before long, it was time to sit down and enjoy the delicious meal. The crispy fish skin was downright delectable, and when combined with a sauce Ichiha learned from her mother, the added flavor was unbelievable.

    “Your primary issue is the inability to perceive my strikes. From your point of view, they must seem instantaneous, but I assure you they are not. You have [Eyes of the Huntress], but it is untrained. Given enough time, even lightning will seem like a snail. It is powerful enough to be a Divine Armament, yet it isn’t. Perhaps you will evolve it into its true form,” Kokan said.

    “Evolution, huh?” I asked, enjoying the fish’s juice filling my mouth when I bit it. It was so delicious.

    “That is correct. You told me you have [Web Bomb] and [String Shot] at level ten, yes?” I nodded, and Kokan continued. “With enough use, your skills can combine and evolve. Those two will develop into [Web Manipulation]. From there, it gives birth to [Silk Manipulation], and then [Thread Manipulation], which allows you to channel your thoughts into thread, controlling it as if it was a part of your body.

    When will they evolve?” I asked.

    “I do not know. All I can say is keep using them.”