POV Swap – Kara

Inside a bedroom within guild hall of King’s Prophet, Rin rested on a chair by a small desk and Kara lay atop the bed.

Spreading her arms across the bed, Kara asked, “So… how are things going with Tobias?”

“…” Rin didn’t speak and instead turn her gaze away from her sister.

Not hearing a response Kara glance toward her sister, and without getting up sighed, “What have you done this time?”

“Why do you think I’ve done something?” Rin protested.

Sitting upright on the bed, Kara leaned forward whilst placing her hands between her legs, “Do you want me to believe it was Tobias? He’s head over heels for you. If you asked, he’d probably walk into the pits of Tartarus for you.”

Readjusted herself on the desk chair, Rin mumbled something quietly to herself, “...”

Not hearing what she'd said, Kara inquired, “What?”

“Nothing, it doesn’t matter. I don’t want to talk about it.” Rin stated without looking her sister in the eyes.

Kara shook her head, “Fine! I won’t ask... but you don’t have many friends. Don’t ruin one of the few relationships you have for a stupid reason.”

“I know.” Rin said, gazing toward the wall lost in thought.

“As much as I love you sticking around, I know you wouldn’t willing stay inside the city without good reason.” Kara gazed toward her sister with a curious expression, “You despise cities. Why have you stuck around?”

“I don’t hate cities.” Rin quietly protested.

Kara laughed and rolled her eyes, “Only the people within them.”

“They’re just loud and uncomfortable. It’s worse than before with enhanced senses.” Rin gestured toward her wolf ears as she refuted her sister’s words.

Waving her hands around the room, Kara broadly gestured at the surroundings, “You do realize cities need to have people in them. It is sort of a requirement for a city.”

Attempting to change the topic, Rin moved onward to the first order of business, “Hell Difficulty needs more people.”

Snorting to herself, Kara threw herself back down onto the bed and stated, “So does Hard Difficulty. We work with what we’ve got.”

“This is different… Hell Difficulty only has six people.” Rin shook her head.

Grasping a pillow between her hands, Kara couldn’t help but be surprised, “Only six people in the frontier zone? How is that possible?”

“In total.”

“What?” The sudden correction confused Kara.

Rin blankly stated, “Six is the total number of people in the entirety of Hell Difficulty, not the number of people in the furthest zone.”

The information shook Kara to the core. It showed the absolute horror of Hell Difficulty.

In comparison, the number of people in the entirety of Hard Difficulty added to nearly one hundred thousand… and that’s the number of people remaining after any deaths from the initial zones.

The quantity of people to select Hell Difficulty should’ve been far more than one hundred thousand. After all, there was never a shortage of confident idiots.

…Yet, hundreds of thousands of people had been whittled down to a mere double digit number.

“How’s that possible? How many survived the tutorial?” Kara quickly sat upright and asked, the number was too surprising and terrifying.

A mere six people left in the entirety of Hell Difficulty, it had only been close to two years without considering the time dilation chambers.

“That is the number that survived the tutorial zone.” Rin disparagingly replied. “I don’t how many of them are still alive.”

Kara fell silent.

Only six people survived the tutorial zone? The insanity of Hell Difficulty was too horrible to imagine.

How many of those people were still alive if only six left the tutorial?

A thought occurred to Kara. “Wait, I can understand you surviving in that environment… but Tobias is actually one of those six people? How did he survive those horrible odds?”

Rin shrugged, “Whilst fragile, Tobias has extremely strong instincts, an inherit prophecy power, and a remarkable ability to blend in with the surroundings. My guess is that Tobias managed to survive with those advantages and quite a bit of luck.”

Thinking back on her impression of Tobias, Kara loosened her grip on the pillow in hand and said, “That’s certainly strange… I can normally tell when someone’s undergone such a dangerous experience. They usually have a certain atmosphere about them.”

A helpless expression appeared upon Rin’s face. “That’s just because Tobias is oblivious. It’s near impossible to even protect him because he rushes headfirst into danger on a whim.”

“Regardless, he must be more competent than I gave him credit for.” Kara internal apologized to Tobias for underestimated him.

Rin sighed, “He certainly has the potential to be... At the moment, though? Competent is not a word I’d used to describe him.”

“What words would you use to describe him, then?” Kara leaned forward, a teasing smile on her face.

Rin merely glared at her without answering, before changing the topic. “Hell Difficulty needs more people.”

Pouting as Rin changed the topic without answering, Kara fell backward back onto the bed and inquired, “So? There’s not much we can do about it. There’s no way to change your selected difficulty.”

“There is.” Rin said without hesitation.

Holding her hand upward toward the ceiling, Kara inquired. “Even if it’s possible, you said only six people survived the tutorial initially. How many people would survive if they choose to swap over?”

The answer didn’t need to be spoken aloud. Even without speaking they both already knew… very few people would survive.

“Training them beforehand should increase their survival chance.” Rin stated plainly.

Hesitating, Kara sat upright and stared into her sister’s eyes. “I want to help you… but I-I can’t willingly send people into such a deathtrap.”

Rin briefly didn’t respond, before nodding. “Just spread the word. Someone will take up the offer.”

“You are overestimating people’s willingness for danger.” Kara disagreed with her sister’s assessment, “I can tell my guild members about the possibility, but I doubt anyone of them will join in.”

“People will show up.” Rin affirmatively stated with confidence.

Kara sighed and gave in, “Alright… I’ll set up meeting in a couple days.”

----

[Residential Zone – King’s Prophet guild hall; Year 2, Day 220… two days later]

Fifteen people stood within the guild hall, some were talking amongst themselves whilst others simply examined the surround environment. Everyone here had gathered to discuss the transfer over to Hell Difficulty.

Meanwhile, Kara and Rin were talking amongst themselves in a small side-room with a single one-sided mirror that allowed them to view those in the guildhall.

Kara held out the bounty poster with to her sister’s face atop it. “So… do you want to discuss this wanted poster?”

Turning her head away, Rin unhelpfully replied, “No.”

“Let me rephrase that…” Kara rubbed her temples in annoyance at her sister’s antics, “We need to talk about this wanted poster.”

Glancing toward the fifteen people on the other side of the glass, Rin kept quiet and didn’t speak a word.

She obviously didn’t want to talk about this topic.

“Nine people dead, more injured and in need of medical attention. Theft of property.” Kara read the poster aloud, “100,000 phoenix coins. Dead or alive.”

Rin stayed silent.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Kara bopped her sister on the head. “Are you trying to create enemies? The Demon Slayer’s guild isn’t known for playing nice, even under normal circumstances and none of them even provoked you.”

Rin’s voice was no louder than a mumble and could barely be heard, “A shapeshifter was hiding amongst their guild members.”

“That isn’t an excuse to kill them!” Kara lightly smacked her sister’s head again.

“They were going to escape.”

“Think! Before! Acting!” Kara emphasized each word whilst repeatedly smacking her sister’s head.

Rubbing her head, Rin maintained her silence and accepted her sister’s admonishment.

“Why do you always have to act like this?” Kara sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’ll try to call a meeting to solve this. In the meantime, don’t go murdering anyone else.”

“Your information is already out of date.” Rin quietly added.

Listening to her sister’s statement, Kara’s expression fell. “What do you mean? What have you done?”

“It’s close to forty people now.”

“Please tell me you didn’t, Rin?” Kara pleaded with her.

Even nine people dead was an issue large enough to cause massive problems.

If it was outside the Residential Zone, it would be considered a private affair… but when crimes were committed inside the Residential Zone, they were considered the public affairs of all guilds.

“It was necessary.” Rin blankly replied.

“Necessary? Okay, tell me why it was necessary. Why were there no other possible options?” Kara demanded answers.

“Someone almost killed Tobias. A display of strength was necessary.”

Kara’s eyes lit up and she hurriedly inquired. “The group you attacked had something to do with Tobias’ injury, then?”

Revenge was a motivation that could potentially sweep this entire thing underneath the rug. While it was uncommon, it was at least an acceptable excuse that could calm down the public.

Shaking her head, Rin stared out the window toward the group and admitted those she killed had nothing to do with the attack. “No, those involved in that already escaped.”

Kara’s expression fell upon hearing the truth.

That meant Rin had effectively killed forty people without provocation or reason. Even with her current influence, she couldn’t cover that up.

“I told Tobias to take care of you. Why didn’t he stop your craziness?” Kara covered her face with her palms, and she collapsed onto a nearby chair.

Without speaking, Rin comforted her, “I know what I’m doing. Once they understand attacking me will only end in death, they won’t dare…”

“Moron!” Kara interrupted her by slammed her hand into the chair, “How well did that strategy serve Dad, hmmm? Don’t go quoting a dead person’s idiotic ideologies.”

The room fell silent.

Neither of them spoke, but in the silence Kara immediately felt guilty.

Kara knew how much Rin respected their father.

Their father taught Rin everything she knew… however he’d almost completely ignore Kara.

Rin learned to fight and survive. Fighting with a sword and battling monsters in the forests. She was an insanely talented fighter.

Meanwhile, Kara had inherited none of that talent. She could barely wield a sword better than the average person.

As a result, their father began teaching Rin everything he knew about fighting and Kara was left behind. Without guidance or strong physical skills, Kara learned to negotiate and interact with others to gain what she wanted.

One sister learned everything relating to fighting and surviving, whilst the other learned social interaction and negotiation. Despite being sisters living together they had ended up with vastly differing ideologies and skill-sets.

“Sorry…” Kara softly apologized and covered her eyes. “That wasn’t…”

Rin merely shook her head and dismissed it, “It’s fine. I should probably begin training.”

Without waiting for Kara’s response, Rin left the room to enter into the guild hall where the fifteen volunteers were waiting.

Following her, Kara watched her speak to the guild members that had decided to join her.

When Rin stepped out of the side-room, the guild members immediately became nervous. Rin’s reputation had spread through the Residential Zone because of the wanted posters with her face atop them.

Only when Kara stepped out after her did they temporarily relax.

“You, you, and you can leave.” Rin pointed to three people immediately and told them to leave.

The three people told to leave were immediately agitated, but the men told to leave of them didn’t dare to vocally disagree with her…

One of the people that hadn’t been told to leave protested her action. “Why?”

“Malicious intentions.” Rin stated unhelpfully as the three left without complaints.

Kara watched as the three of them left with doubt in her eyes.

It was unlikely that Rin was wrong about them having malicious intentions, but knowing they had malicious intentions was too vague to understand exactly what they planned to do. Keeping a closer eye on them might be necessary in the future.

“Now, then… Why are you here?” Rin asked the remaining group.

Nobody spoke up.

“You, speak.” Rin pointed to a woman on the far left.

The woman took several moments to come to the understanding that she’d been called upon. Before finally responding, “To change our difficulty setting.”

“Correct, in a way.” Rin nodded before stated, “The only option given to you will be to change over to Hell Difficulty. Do you understand?”

“Yes.” Everyone unanimously agreed. They’d already been informed of that long beforehand.

“Attack me.” Rin demanded.

The twelve remaining people looked at one another with confusion. Clearly, they didn’t understand the logical connection between the two topics.

Kara understood what her sister was planning and explained for her. “She needs to assess your current level before preparing any training to help you survive after the transfer.”

Nodding in agreement, Rin raised a wooden sword that had been prepared beforehand.

Individually the group challenged her. One by one they were knocked onto the floor below.

None of them managed to dodge even one of Rin's moves.

Rin gazed around at the group and sighed, “None of you would survive the first corridor in Hell Difficulty.”

Kara’s eyes narrowed from the comment. Kara didn’t doubt that her sister was telling the truth, but this group of people was not weak.

Despite their group defeat at Rin’s hands, they were relatively powerful for those in Normal Difficulty. The only reason they were willing to transfer over to Hell Difficulty is that nobody had ever returned from the latest frontier zone for Normal Difficulty.

Rankers from Hard Difficulty had gone over to help, only to disappear forever.

Simply put, those people in Normal Difficulty were at a dead end.

Their only choice remaining choice to continue forward was to risk their lives on the frontier of Normal Difficulty, or swap to Hell Difficulty.

Given that they found out Hell Difficulty had an extremely low survival rate, whilst their Normal Difficulty zone had nobody returning… Well, these were the people that decided to take their chances in Hell Difficulty.