The Girl and the Witch

 

Lusha took her time with her travels. She did not want to make the same mistake of drawing too much attention to herself like last time. Doing something as simple as flying had put her in suspicion of the city’s officials. Had she simply walked in, there would probably be much less suspicion about her arrival.  

 

Perhaps even more suspicious was her young appearance… and they did mention her odd method of speaking. She’ll have much to work on in that regard later. To think that the centuries had twisted so much of the speech pattern. They were the ones that spoke weirdly, yet she didn’t say anything about that. The lack of respect in this generation.

 

The perilous journey  was quite the distance away from the small city of Carthage that she had just arrived at earlier. This time, the small village was perhaps over 100 miles away from the original destination. If she really hurried, she could have made such a distance in 1 hour. 

 

But in all under the guise of not drawing too much attention or causing a disruption, she had decided to walk instead. The road to the city of Elheim was a fully paved, stone cobbled path, for at least several dozen meters. A good 35 miles down her trip, the road had straid to a sandy path enshrouded by forests. 

 

Naturally, she had expected to see travellers along the way, but had only encountered one in a carriage that had pulled over to ask her if she was doing alright. It didn’t occur to her how strange she had looked. A girl that looked no older than 17, enshrouded in blood covered clothes miles away from the city. 

 

She had managed to convince the man that she was just an adventurer having returned from finishing her mission. She showed the man her porcelain tag and the adventurer congratulated her on finishing her mission as if she was a young child. The merchant was kind of course, offering her a great bounty of food at no charge. Even jested that at some point he might have need for an adventurer’s help and have her help him at some point. She simply laughed it off, and accepted the food. 

 

Though in truth, she didn’t need to, eating was always a luxury that felt good to sustain. Since she couldn’t die from hunger, she had grown used to going hungry for as long as necessary. However, just like all pains, it is still much better when it is alleviated. She also felt much more energized because of it.

 

It was odd, the food in this century… it tasted really good! Perhaps after this mission was complete, she’ll treat herself to several banquets. Perhaps this world had something to offer to her besides her death….. Nah.

 

It seemed the forest was well-maintained because there were no dangerous animals or beasts within this forest. It consisted mainly of deer and tiny birds, squirrels and foxes. 

Because she had chosen to walk instead of travel by air, the entire trip there had taken a total of 6 days. She arrived at the city of Elheim, but instead of entering she casted a transparency technique on her. Technically, this was also manipulation art, changing the properties of something or someone. Manipulation art [Eradication of Presence]. Just like that, she took on a form that was completely invisible. She passed its walled security and entered the city unperturbed. 

Though she could tell that security was very much tighter as of the moment. It was almost as if they were ready and on the lookout. Due to the events that had occurred, there were guards on every corner. It also seemed that the city had imposed a mandatory curfew starting at 9. As of the moment it was 10pm.

She must make haste to the meeting area.

 

__________________________________________

The room’s atmosphere was tense. In the dimly lit round cabin at the far western corner of the city, everyone felt the intensity of this impending doom looming over them. The creature that had devastated the city would surely eventually reach this place. At least, that’s what the rest of the city thought.

 

Over in this dimly lit room, was a different heavy atmosphere. There were only four men staying in the room with their arms folded. They all looked like very capable men, easily rivaling a seasoned veteran in experience. One could not doubt that they could easily hack them down if pestered the men.

There was one girl among the group. She looked about 8 years old in age, easily standing out apart from the rest of the men there in size and stature. She  remained huddled in the far corner of the room. A small hood covered her face and masked her features. 

“Ah come on. This annoying Nuon’s taking ages to arrive here. Do we even need that bastard anyways?” One of the men asked, easily annoyed by how long they had to wait. Nuon was expected to arrive at the mission point 2 days ago. 

“Calm down, Silverstar. He probably got caught up with the demon incident that occured in the city of Godon. And yes, we do need him. Now especially with the demon resurfacing. Could you imagine if the monster bumps into us during our transport? I don’t think Zaria here could take it.”

 

He said, casting a glance at the poor girl in the corner. She continued to keep her head down in her knees, refusing to look at any of them or acknowledge their existence. By now, word had gotten out of all the events that had occurred in the city, the details were still obscure. But many had presumed there were exceptions to the “Everyone Died” reports. Many believed Nuon to be that exception. 

“Giren’s right. Without Nuon here, we’ll definitely fall susceptible to the other’s attacks. We had barely escaped the last one when they surprised us. What makes you think they won’t come more equipped now?”

Silverstar cursed and laid back against the wall. “There’s also rumors of some people after her within these very walls. So remain on guard as well.”

 

The door creaked open and everyone stopped and looked up. A sense of alert filled the faces of everyone in the room. Even the girl held her breath as she looked up to see who it was. The room was completely silent as everyone placed their hands on their blade and began shouting.

 

“Who’s there?! Reveal yourself. Come through the door slowly.”

By now the door was fully creaked open, and they found that no one was standing before them. A couple tense seconds passed as they waited for someone to appear before them. This seems to be an ambush for sure. Any one missed moment could mean life and death to all of them.

 

Then, as if completely appearing from thin air, a young girl stood in front of them all. The shock that ran through their bodies almost caused them to have a heart-attack. Magicians. They were truly fearsome creatures.

 

The young girl had long red hair, a normal black robe and a cloak over the robes. “Yoh.” She waved to everyone. Just as practiced, she was learning the new ways of speaking. She gave a smile though quickly became confused. The blades of everyone remained at ready. 

 

Though seeing that she was just a young girl did alleviate a bit of their stress, they were definitely ready just in case she was much stronger than they had surmised. The girl was still shaking. She had such a frightened look in her eyes as she laid eyes on Lusha. They were the eyes of fear… she had only ever seen such fear upon those who had seen her full potential and ability. 

“Hey, hey calm down girl. I’m here to help.”

“Who sent you?! One of the men charged her, short stout blade in hand. He flashed a vertical strike towards her head, covering her line of sight before dipping below her field of vision and raising a dagger up from underneath. This was also meant to be a lethal strike. 

 

Her head lopped clean off her body, before the blade jutted into her neck, causing spurts of blood to decorate the room. 

… at least, that’s what should have occurred. Instead, the blade collided with her head and rang out as if it had just clashed with a wall. The small dagger that was to nest itself into the soft tissue of her thyroid clashed and sent the dagger flying out of his hand. This was not how it should have been at all.

“Please, don’t waste your talents. Beings such as you could not dare harm me in a million years.” This was courtesy of her passive ability [Absolute Domain]

“W-who are you?” The mercenary asked, immediately bouncing back before the girl could decide to end his life. 

 

“I’m here to take over the mission for Nuon.” Their swords dropped fairly easily at the mention of that. First there was an eerie silence, then a collective “HUUUUUH????”

“Bloody fuck. So here we’ve got this dumb bitch taking over Nuon’s contract, when we might of well have gone on with the mission ourselves. What’s a little girl supposed to do to help.”

 

Had they not realized what she just did? They can’t be serious. A look of disgust appeared on her face. She was going to be traveling with these brigands? 

 

“Little girl, I can appreciate your talent in combat, but however, we had specifically expected a much stronger adventurer to be aiding us. What happened to Nuon?”

 

“Nuon’s dead.” 

 

Their silence in the room was instant. Lusha contemplated telling them that she was the one who killed Nuon, but ultimately decided against it. The problems could become insurmountable if they had placed her as the one to have caused all the problems in the city of Carthage. 

They facepalmed and sighed. “Well. I hope you are quite refined in your fighting capability. We’re going to need it. As part of your mission, you’ll be traveling with us. We have to make sure we protect her entirely along the way.”

“What’s our destination?”

“We’ll be travelling to the kingdom of East Goumei.”

 

Ah...I see, they were worried about assaults from one of the demonoids. This would explain why the payout is so high. Though why put it at simply a Porcelain ranked Mission?

 

“Very well then. I-” 

 

“AAUUUAAAAAAAAGHH!!!!!” She was cut off by the voice of the young girl in front of her. The scream was so loud it even made her own hair raise up. She slammed her fists into the ground crying uncontrollably. 

Everyone didn’t know what the hell was going on.  Silverstar walked up to the girl and tapped his feet. “Hey. Get up.” Her hands remained on her head as she was hyperventilating. She didn’t seem to be paying attention or hearing the words of those around her. 

Not able to keep her screams up any longer, she vomited. “Hey. What in the world are you doing?” Silverstar groaned. Not on my boots. He sighed resisting the urge to punt her. “Hey, silver… it’s important we keep her in top condition.”

“I know I know.” He knelt down over besides her and with a quick chop at the back of the head, knocked her unconscious.

Unruly… were they not supposed to protect her? Though again, what is going on with her? Her eyes seemed to be trained on me the whole time. In any case, the group seems to be an unusual one. This entire mission reeks of something foul. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

Regardless, she’ll take it how she always does: Take it in strides and let the future play out.