It was finally time to move out.

Kira had apologized to Shino, while feeling a mixture of deep embarrassment but at the very same time a little part of her wanted to just snatch the medal again and repeat the thing all over again, the biggest thing stopping her was Shino had caught on to what had happened and was not likely to fall for it twice.

Yin had packed a backpack of sorts where the broken pendant Kira had noticed earlier was hanging from like a charm, she had supposedly stocked up on a lot of things from the kitchen and been given even more stuff for the journey by the shrines inhabitants.

Realizing that the Shrine was still shrouded in Inaris new barrier did Kira decide to attempt a little farewell, and utilized her dreamweaving to put on a small fireworks show for the inhabitants who all stared at the results with amazement, it was still evening so it wasn't as clear as it could have been but Kira felt satisfied regardless.

Nox couldn't help but comment privately.

"leave it to you to immediately find a good use for an ability as obscure as that"

Aether had been completely oblivious to Nox however and was breaking into the conversation.

"That was so pretty, but of course would my pretty little sister be the one to present everyone something this pretty before she leaves"

Yin had remained silent just staring longingly at the fireworks with amazement in her eyes, she was still taking everything in, and it was her first time leaving the safety of Inaris shrine since that day she doesn't want to remind herself of.

"So Shino told me there is a small city to the west run by humans, I figure why not stop by there and take in the local culture?"

Aether and Nox nodded their agreement

but Yins face immediately paled.

"Lady Kira, might I humbly suggest any other city than that one, I know we will be disguised as humans but the human ruling that city is..."

Kira couldn't help but notice Yins body language, this wasn't just something she had heard her fear was way too strong for that.

it was still odd to Kira as she could both feel Yins fear come off her as waves and smell it,

but even without this was this an expression she had seen a bit too often at her former work, and an expression someone as young as Yin should never be seen with.

Kira was struggling with herself at that moment, part of her wanted to ask Inari if she knew anything that would have happened in that city, and the other part wanted to respect Yin enough to let her explain it herself.

Kira took a while but decided to do what she felt would be best if not a bit more roundabout.

"Shino also mentioned a much smaller settlement to the north, why Don't we head there first before we decide if we want to continue to the city"

Yin visibly relaxed upon hearing that and it very much confirmed that there was something specific with that particular city as the settlement to the north was also run by humans.

Kira started weaving the illusion making both her and Yin appear human and Aether and Nox quickly followed along, traveling along with the road Darkness quickly fell, the reason they decided to go by night was to not attract attention by the normal traders moving to and from the shrine in the day time, it might seem like a silly thing but rumors could quickly get out of hand.

walking quietly along the road Yin asked them to stop.

"I sense people up ahead, likely humans based on their weak presence"

Aether immediately ran over to Yin and almost tackle hugged her.

"Nox isn't she the most adorable thing ever!

if Kira hadn't claimed her I totally would have stolen her"

Yin immediately looked flustered.

"if you knew then why are you still walking!"

Yin blurted out.

"It's in the middle of the night there is no way that is not likely bandits I know they can't touch lady Kira but I thought the purpose of us moving out now was to not be noticed."

Nox smiled.

"Sorry about Aethers behavior Yin, she isn't used to be around mortals and you very much just let us know what your exact range was for sensing other living beings was, and the fact you further warned us when we were already this close was something she found very precious.

that said keep up the work, you always want to keep honing your skills and your range is very impressive for your age!"

Yin looked down embarrassed, she only now remembered that Nox and Aether were Kiras siblings and likely could have detected the humans much sooner than she could, but before she felt too embarrassed she rethought what Nox had said and instead decided to feel pride, she had been praised and told she was much ahead of the others and to keep getting better.

She still felt weird that she couldn't sense Kira at all she could feel both the Twins but the feeling was very weak, but Kira was simply gone, it was at that moment she realized why Shino had never been able to find the right Kira, during her prank, the answer is you can't. Regardless of how good your senses are you won't find her because even while casting magic you could only feel the magic in proportion with the spell itself but never her.

Still, Yin didn't have an ounce of trust of humans, she tolerated those in the shrine because something seemed to compel them to act differently from the humans outside but she didn't doubt they would be the same if it hadn't been because they likely held a healthy fear of Inaris wrath in case they were to do anything within Inaris domain.

Suddenly Kira who had been casually walking in front of Yin vanished, Aether and Nox however kept walking at a relaxed speed along the road, and oddly even though they were right past where she had sensed the humans they didn't make any moves, after moving a set moment from the destination Kira walked out from a nearby tree just like she had been there all along.

"We know you're around seeing you didn't make any hostile moves towards us but simply kept observing I am making a polite guess that meaningless robbery isn't your purpose for sleeping under the moon, so close to a village capable of offering shelter"

4 male humans looking exhausted and weary came out from not too far away.

"Excuse us miss, you don't seem to be from around here and none of you are wearing the sigil of being an official representative from the city, could we politely beg of you to forget you have seen us?"

an older man with graying hair stepped out behind the middle-aged individual who had spoken.

"Forget it, Gerald, the entire city is searching especially your own oldest child is likely still begging every traveler who is stopping by the village, they all know we wouldn't get lost in a hunting trip"

the younger middle-aged man looked down at the earth with a frown.

"They can't know, it's for their own good!"

Kira was slowly piecing together the situation.

"You're hiding out here like thieves, but you don't intend to Rob anyone besides a certain target for the village's good?

Is someone perhaps blackmailing the village and you want to make it seem like a robbery-murder?"

Kira said while frowning

she wasn't too keen on letting the old men commit such a crime regardless of how bad the person blackmailing them was, based on The fact they had mentioned the city official sigil, it was very likely due to pressure from the nearby city nobles to give up their land, given it was near a mountain range, could mineral deposits possibly be the cause?

"We don't want to kill anyone, but we need to ensure our village won't starve and more importantly protect our daughters!"

Yin immediately flinched hearing the last part, it was very likely that most wouldn't have noticed but it was obvious if you paid attention.

"Since we are not from around here would you mind giving us the story, I won't promise we will do as you asked but given a good enough reason we might be swayed"

How Kira spoke at the moment would have made anyone think she was in her natural element, but if Yin could have seen Kiras tail right now would she have realized Kira was hiding quite an amount of agitation and anger.

The older man stepped forward.

and beckoned the rest of Kiras group to come over and sit down.

"Seeing it can't be helped we didn't want young kids like you to have this bad memory, but maybe you can share our plight in a nearby city out of this dukedom and plead for their aid on our behalf, it will be too late for us old folks but at the very least maybe help for a better future.

The village as it stands is barely making by, we were demanded extreme taxes and seeing we couldn't afford it they started demanding our food storages and our daughters as compensation, it has been 10 years since the old Duke died and the new son of Voldom took over."

Upon hearing the name Yin had burst up, to a standing position

"Lady Kira please leave these humans alone, I don't think that village is a good idea either in my humble opinion would I most sincerely urge Lady Kira to not get herself involved in a matter that is beneath her"

Yin deeply wished for revenge on Voldum but she didn't know if Kira was ready, even the Ascended had said they couldn't handle the Kingdoms army, Kira was Inaris daughter but Yin had also understood that Kira had only obtained her physical vessel recently and given she only recently learned to manipulate foxfire, she had seen her against Shino but the Ascended could have done the same and when even a group of Ascended said they couldn't handle it made Yin convinced that Kira would need more time, as much as she wanted to free her mother if she was alive would Yin never be able to forgive herself if she caused Kira problems because she pushed her desires too early.

Yin suddenly felt very disgusted with her current appearance she knew she was enduring it for Kiras sake but it was too much right after remembering the human-pig Voldum

Yins tears were flowing, she couldn't keep it in anymore, she had tried to stay strong but it was too much.

"Lady Kira, this disgusting appearance reminds me too much of him, please undo the spell, forgive me for failing you!"

Kira went over and grabbed Yin in her embrace.
staring at the elderly men Kira lifted her voice.

"I'm sorry for interrupting your explanation but it seems Yin had thought you unaffiliated with this Voldum individual, I don't know what happened in her past but this individual seems to be the core reason for her disgust with humans.

I will ask you to kindly accept what you see"

dispelling her magic on the clearly traumatized Yin and seeing Yin embrace her own tail made Kiras heartache.

"Voldum killed my dad, and took my mom, they said there was nothing they could do even though they were ascended"
Yin cried out looking at Kira with desperation, Kira was about to reach out for Yin once again and to get the proper explanation of what she meant by that, but before she could act she got interrupted by the reaction of the oldest member of the group of humans.

gasping he almost shouted

"You're not dead?"

Kiras eyes grew extremely cold.

"You recognize her, why should she have been dead!?"

The old man grew fearful the little girl in front of him might seem like any other noble girl, but the air was starting to crackle around her, and every hair on his arm was getting affected by the electrically charged air.

The older Black haired girl put a hand on the girls shoulder and whispered something in her ear and the air calmed down again.

feeling a bit better he figured it was better, to tell the truth of this story first before even thinking of his own plight, it is not like they were short on time.

The elderly man coughed nervously and started.

"10 Years ago there used to be 2 other villages nearby, 1 village was an expansion of our own village and most of our family relatives lived there, the village was closer to the trading routes and they mostly took any rare minerals we mined and processed them into gems and made other things.

Another Village was also quite close but they were secluded so we didn't interact too much, that village was full of Fox spirit beasts who called themselves Kitsune, our forefathers have been interacting with this village for as long as our history is remembered.

while we didn't interact much they were well respected and would occasionally send a representative out to our village to sell their goods and buy ours, particularly gems with the ability to store mana was often reserved and sold directly to the spirit beast village rather than anyone else due to old traditions.

At the time the current Duke came into power after his dads' death, he visited the village and killed everyone, as far as we knew our sister village then publicly announced they were removing themselves from the dukedom due to the new Duke breaking the treaty Co-signed by them many generations ago, shortly after that they also vanished, we thought the Duke had simply decided to silence them

not long after that they came to our village and as I was explaining earlier, as we couldn't pay the demanded taxes would he instead come every 5 years and take our daughters as payment, he just arrived last week and picked out those who had come of age, along with demanding to take our entire food storage for winter.

we believed him when he said that they wouldn't be abused, but only one survived to tell us the truth and now we refuse to let the same happen again.

our plan was to let the carriage arrive and then attack the carriage, free our daughters, secretly deliver the food back to the village and send our daughters off to the other dukedom behind the mountain range, maybe if we are lucky the dwarves could help, we knew the Duke would retaliate until they found the culprit so we planned on staging another fake attempt on another noble or merchant and fail on purpose and be taken in, as long we make it seem like we went for high profile targets we hoped we would simply be executed as common robbers without them looking further into it."

pausing a bit the man looked at Yin with pleading eyes

"Little one, I understand why you might not trust humans but I beg of you if you're alive do you know if there is any chance my relatives in the other village is alive"

Yin looked at the man with shock, she had never quite understood why the humans had come to the shrine, but to learn they had only needed Inaris protection because they themselves had tried to stand up against the dukes' action against her village she had never known.

Kira was however the one to answer,

"if the situation is as I suspect can I inform you, that at least what I suspect to be a majority of the inhabitants of the village are safe, I cannot tell you where they are but know that someone that the Duke will have a hard time crossing is protecting them"

Kiras' appearance was shimmering slightly and the air was once again charging.

all the humans were looking at the young noble lady with an innate sense of fear.

"Now my good man, please do this traveler a favor by answering one single question

At what age, is the girls in your village old enough to be taken by the Duke"

"That would be 11 years of age"

the oldest stammered out.

a few things happened very fast, Nox had teleported and grabbed Yin and all the humans and pulled them away, while Aether created a barrier made of light around them.

And Kiras human appearance disappeared while electrical currents were rippling over her skin,  showing her full appearance, the ground around her was dancing small black orbs surrounded by azure fire, the orb itself had the same liquid galaxy look to them that her eyes had taken and were weaved in and out of her silver locks of hair with the purple tips.

the Humans looked at Kira in awe and quickly fell into a stance of prayer, they had just seen a goddess, there wasn't a single doubt in any of their minds.

After a tiny bit, the flames disappeared along with the orbs and the electricity crackling around Kira also slowly reduced

"My deepest apologies, it seems I have yet to learn to handle my temperament better"

Aether shrugged dropping her barrier.

"My dearest little sister, how did you not anticipate the answer, you might be young but you shouldn't be that uneducated in human history"

It was a rare moment of Aether completely dropping the sunshine smile Kira had seen her wearing permanently since meeting her if you disregard her throwing her smaller tantrums earlier, this was sadness.

Nox expression was more neutral.

"You probably should work on some control, if we hadn't been here Yin would have been hurt simply by being within your vicinity"

Kira now noticed the devastation around her and she could only nod with guilt tugging at her heart, she could have hurt Yin.

Nox went over to the praying humans, now what exactly do we do with these guys.

Kira looked at the humans "I'm guessing you're praying to me, but I'm not a mind reader, stand up instead of doing that silly thing, and tell me what you are praying for me to do out loud"

the older man's eyes were the first one who slowly seemed to return to reason and he quickly poked the other humans out of their reverence.

"My deepest apologies, but we didn't expect a goddess had answered our prayers and personally come to us, admittedly we don't know who you are, but we are more than willing to change our faith based on the fact that the goddess we did pray to left our prayers unanswered and you did not"

Kira was extremely close to telling the males to stop the bullshit, but remembering Noxes word from earlier she decided to simply endure it.

"I will ask all of you to never tell, anyone how my human disguise looks, if you promise that in return will I take care of this Voldum, I have more than good enough reason to ensure he gets removed from power"

Kira looked over to Yin saying that last sentence who was currently staring back at her with eyes showing mixtures of hope and fear, even without the whole servitude property bullshit would Kira still had been more than willing to erase the Duke from existence, it did hit Kira that Inari likely had a reason she hadn't done it herself.

opening the connection to Both Chaos and Inari and increasing her frequency to ensure she had enough time, she wasn't moving so it was within the limits she had promised to adhere to.

"Mom Inari, and Mom ... Chaos I have a question"

Kira felt rather awkward calling both mom as it seemed confusing, she was very quickly getting a new appreciation for how on earth same-sex couples back on earth made it work in regards to their kid.

The answer took a bit to arrive but Inari finally answered.

"What is it dear?"

not waiting for Chaos to answer Kira dove straight into the question that plagued her.

"I'm about to likely do something that will cause a big commotion, am I allowed to do this, or is there a reason you never yourself dealt with Voldum after the attack in the Kitsune village and you took the Kitsune and the humans from a nearby village into the Shrine instead of dealing with the Duke yourself?

Inari gave an audible sigh before she started explaining.

"My dear, first No you can do whatever you want in the mortal realm, just try to keep a bit of a low profile, remember to operate within reasonable mortal limits so you don't take attention.

secondly, all of us who created the realm promised to not interfere directly with races, we can still send representatives and grant boons like power, but while not disallowed would direct interference be frowned upon and could result in political quarrels so we all try to stay out of it, and an unfortunate fact is even the Ascended Kitsune would likely not be enough to handle a potential full-scale all-out war which would simply result in needless death, instead, I hid the kitsune and the humans away in my shrine.

You, my dear, are however not bound by that contract neither is Aether or Nox, so I trust you to best act on your own judgment, all I ask is you do it in a way that doesn't draw too much attention to yourself."

Yep, that just effectively threw a wrench in Kiras plan of just storming the city and throwing the Duke to the dogs, but that's when a thought struck her, since when had she ever been so impulsive?