Chương 31: Lines of Escape

The silence of the clearing was broken only by the slow dripping of blood that stained the torn garments of the girl fallen among the rustic roots. A young man advanced slowly through the woods and froze his steps a few meters from the wounded Neko. She breathed with difficulty, contorting in pain upon the damp earth. Kuro knelt by her side. The yellow gleam of her eyes widened in pure terror as she tried to pull away, but her body refused to obey.

"W-Who are you...?" she asked, her voice trembling.

"I am an adventurer. What happened to you?"

"I was attacked by Black Wolves..." she murmured, flattening her cat ears. Kuro stared at the blood leaking from the gashes and leaned in a bit closer, moving straight to the point.

"Look, I can heal you, but you will owe me a debt. You have two options now. The first is to lie there and bleed to death. The second is for me to save your life, you accept this debt, and you obey me. I am only going to ask you to help another woman—her name is Mireya. But I want you to remember one thing very well: I am the one who will protect you and care for you from now on. In exchange, you must be faithful only to me. Well? Which will it be?" The girl's chest rose and fell rapidly.

The panic of dying on that ground froze her instincts. She swallowed hard and nodded her head desperately.

"I... I accept! I accept the second option! Please, save me, master!..."

"Excellent." I said that to test her loyalty, but the truth is I would never leave her thrown there. I may be focused on my plans, but I am not so evil as to let a girl die like that in the middle of nowhere. The girl extended a trembling hand and pointed to her own rustic pouch, saying he could take her former master's utensils from inside. Kuro pulled the accessory open and found an empty cup, a metal spoon, and a few vials. He quickly located two basic healing herbs growing nearby.

I gathered the leaves, threw them into the cup, added water from my canteen, and began to mash everything using the spoon. I poured the squeezed liquid into one of the empty vials. He merely pointed his hands at the vial. The mana now running free through his veins shot straight toward the glass, manipulating the runic properties at a molecular level. The dull green liquid bubbled under the heat of his magic, transforming instantly into a brilliant, dense Medium Healing Potion.

He brought the vial to the girl's trembling lips. The potion's glow acted fast, closing the larger cuts. They sat near a large tree and waited about thirty minutes in the forest for the effect to do its part. While Akari rested propped against the roots, Kuro took advantage of that free time to pull the confidential documents Mia had covertly handed him from his cloak. He opened the sheets and examined the records she had diverted. Liora's report was direct: it stated she had no living relatives.

Selene's detailed her origin in a traditional noble family of that world. Her biological mother had died, but since polygamy was permitted by law for the nobility of that society, her father maintained several other stepmothers simultaneously in charge of the household, with whom he had fathered a half-sister. The most alarming data, however, lay in the next file: the original Mireya of that world had passed away exactly one month ago, now appearing without any active family record.

Finally, his eyes locked onto an extremely secret file Mia had managed to grab. The name written there was Kaelia Voss. The Voss clan held a monumental secret: Kaelia was Queen Liria's older sister and acted directly as the supreme commander of the royal army. The report made it clear that absolutely no one in the kingdom knew of her true blood lineage to the monarch. Kuro closed the papers with care, stowing them back into his cloak while processing the scale of that information provided by the receptionist.

After the thirty minutes had passed, the potion concluded its basic healing cycle. The purple-haired Neko managed to stand up slowly; she could already walk on her own, although she still felt uncomfortable stabs of pain as she moved, as the regeneration was not yet one hundred percent complete. She adjusted her little ears, astonished by the improvement.

"Y-You... you saved me! You are such a good person... You are my hero!"

"I am not a good person," Kuro replied dryly, shattering her illusion.

"And I don't intend to be a hero. I only saved you because I found you cute and useful. If it were anything else, I would have left you. To me, the only people who matter are the women in my party. Why are you calling me master?"

"You didn't like it?" she asked awkwardly.

"It's not that I don't like being called that. In fact, I actually do. But I don't see the sense in it."

"I just felt like it," she answered, trying to hide her embarrassment.

"And you look like a good leader."

"Understood."

"Are you an adventurer? Nice to meet you, my name is Akari, I'm 14 years old... I am good at cleaning and cooking. I was an assistant to a demi-human alchemist like me, an elf... But we were attacked on the road by Black Wolves and a purple-eyed Shadow. The creature was an absolute monster... A single one of them is worth ten demons and requires thirty humans to die. The Shadow killed the wolves, the warrior escorting us, and my elven master. Only I managed to escape...

But I no longer have any memory of my past before that. I have no one."

"Can I join your party, master?"

"I am sixteen," Kuro answered. A fourteen-year-old Neko... She was beautiful, knew how to handle domestic chores, and would be the perfect support to assist Mireya in the laboratory and Selene in the field. Furthermore, I wouldn't need to pay her a fixed salary; providing food, a home, and buying some ordinary clothes would suffice. Mireya would end up acting like a mother to her anyway. Yet, all of this felt far too convenient...

How could a girl who didn't know how to fight escape alive from such an overpowered Shadow and conveniently lose her memories? I did not trust her. I would treat her like a younger sister for now to keep her under close surveillance. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"All right. My party has an alchemist, and you will be useful to her. I am also an alchemist, but my level in alchemy is still low, so I operate as a warrior." He held her hand, helping her walk to the horse while respecting her slow steps due to the residual pain. Riding back into the city, they went straight to a clothing and weapons shop.

In the changing room, Akari stepped out every few minutes to show off different options of dresses and practical outfits, waiting for approval until they chose a rustic brown coat over a dark skirt, matching her purple hair perfectly. Kuro also took the opportunity to buy a dagger ideally sized for her frame and handed it directly to her so she would at least have a way to defend herself. In total, he spent exactly twenty silver coins to cover the cost of her new garments, the weapon, and a good provision of food.

With her properly dressed and equipped, they headed to the Adventurers' Guild to eat something before going to the inn. Upon pushing open the guild's wooden doors, the movement inside was calm. They sat at a distant table, and while Akari began to eat, Kuro averted his eyes toward the reception counter. Mia's spot was empty, occupied only by another employee. Intrigued, Kuro stood up and walked to the reception, leaning his hands on the polished wood.

"Excuse me. Did Mia not come to work today? Is she okay?" The other receptionist acted with total indifference, barely looking at the youth as she continued organizing her papers mechanically.

"Mia was found dead this morning," she replied with disdain and boredom, without interrupting her task. That chilling coldness did not surprise me; the world was driven by self-interest, and I would act the exact same way if the situation didn't affect me. But the revelation of Mia's death locked my thoughts for a second. I stared fixedly at the empty counter, feeling that familiar emptiness settle inside my chest. Even wanting to cry, I couldn't.

It was as if I felt absolutely nothing, and this total apathy was consuming me more and more with each loss. Those confidential papers tucked inside my cloak... She had risked everything for me. The promise of a romantic date I had made the previous day had simply vanished into smoke. She died because of me. In that millisecond, a mental trigger fired, and my mind was dragged right back to my isolated apartment in Tokyo, reopening the trauma of my past in the modern world.

I remembered my father dying early, leaving only my mother and my thirteen-year-old sister, Akane. I remembered how I was a ghost who didn't get along with anyone, living alone and skipping classes. And, above all, I remembered my cousin. She was the only person I got along with, the only one who had real feelings for me... and she was murdered by a gang of five people in a locked warehouse. The murderous hatred of that day resurfaced in vivid flashes of blood and fire.

I saw myself back in that warehouse, driven by blind fury. I advanced against the group wielding a crowbar, eliminating anyone in front of me. When one of them drew a pistol, I disarmed him in a swift movement; I aimed at the feet of one of the bastards and discharged the next shot straight into the head of the other, finalizing the rest. Only the woman who had ordered the attack remained, whom I eliminated with a final shot. To erase the tracks, I poured fuel and torched the entire place.

I left only one girl alive, paralyzed in panic, cornered alongside the murder weapons—the knife, the pistol, and the crowbar covered with her fingerprints. She would be the perfect scapegoat for the police. While the fire consumes everything, I escaped, carrying my wounded cousin in my arms far away from there. But there was no salvation; she took her last breath and died right there, in my arms. I did not regret avenging the only woman I liked to have around.

The same murderous hatred surged through my blood now, pulling me back to the reality of the Guild. He forced his voice to sound completely controlled, even though his teeth were clenched.

"Who did this to her?" The attendant let out a bored sigh, merely wanting to rid herself of the conversation quickly.

"High-ranking people interrogated her last night. They discovered the leak of the confidential maps and hidden records. It was a direct order given by the Guild Leader himself to silence her."

"The Guild Leader..." Kuro murmured.

"Is he strong?"

"Yes. He is considered the strongest person in the entire kingdom." Her tranquility while speaking about the elimination of someone only reinforced how the gears of this system operated. Various assassination plans and bloody strategies flashed through my mind in the blink of an eye. I wanted to kill him. I wanted to kill everyone involved in her death. But reason took control of my emotions, repressing the fury.

I knew, from my own experience on Earth, that embracing two vendettas at the same time would only make me fail. I already had my goals mapped out for this volume, and straying from the path now would ruin everything. I fixed my eyes on the receptionist and discharged my decision.

"I see. Forget I asked about her." He turned his back and walked toward the guild's exit with Akari. Upon crossing the threshold, an elf in white garments and light hair barred his path. She stared deeply into him and let out an enigmatic sentence that echoed through the hall.

"You have been cursed... What awaits you at the end is the abyss." Her gaze was hollow and cutting, locked onto me. I kept my expression firm, without letting the impact of those words show through. I waited for her to walk away and asked the Neko who that woman was. Akari answered in a whisper that her name was Hina, the kingdom's sorceress—a fifty-year-old entity who maintained the appearance of a fifteen-year-old. I simply ignored the warning, and we made our way to the inn.

Upon opening the room door, he presented the youngest to the party, stating she would be the new member to help in Mireya's laboratory. The reaction was instantaneous.

"If you want this Neko to stay here, you are going to have to sleep somewhere else!" Mireya barked on the spot, her ears completely upright.

"We can't all stay in the same bed!" Mireya's upright ears made her discomfort evident regarding the lack of space and the novelty. Selene took a step forward, her cheeks puffed out in pure jealousy.

"I agree with Mireya! Where did you pull this girl from? Are you trying to increase the rivals on purpose or what?!" Selene's territorial tone made her latent fear of losing the main attention clear. Liora remained in absolute silence, merely observing. Liora's analytical posture showed she was only calculating the situation, indifferent to the noise of the other two. Seeing the marked territory, the youth shrugged with total calmness.

"All right, I'll sleep somewhere else," I answered, stepping out and closing the door. I left Akari inside with them. Mireya celebrated loudly, saying she would finally have a peaceful night, but Selene lay down on—bed, feeling a terrible tightness in her chest, wondering if she had done something wrong. Liora didn't think twice; she waited a few minutes, grabbed her gear, and slipped quietly out of the room so as not to leave her leader alone.

Selene still tried to go out and look for the two of them some time later, but found no one in the city's darkness and returned frustrated to sleep in the same bed with Mireya and Akari. He walked into the density of the forest and took shelter inside an isolated cave. A short time later, Liora found him and sat by his side on the dry earth, willing to spend the night keeping vigil with him. They stayed talking under the dim light of the oil lamp.

Now I have many more people in my favor, Kuro analyzed, his strategic framework solidifying in the dark. Selene completely depends on me and my affection. Liora truly considers me her supreme master. Mireya has begun to show her real feelings for me at the inn. Akari will be extremely useful in the laboratory, but I will keep treating her just as a sister because I still do not trust how she escaped alive. And that elf, Hina... Her warning only proves what is happening to my body. I am half human and half Shadow.

This curse they put on me... I don't feel bad about it. I feel great. I was chosen for something grand. Whatever entity did this thinking I would fall into despair completely underestimated my mind. This is not a curse... It is a blessing, and I will find a way to find out about the goddess Ariana. But I am absolutely certain there is a goddess above her.