She woke up about an hour sooner than sunrise for her pre-training training. She found the normal morning training insufficient, but that was only her opinion, and even if no one else wanted to join her she would still do it nonetheless. It was a simple routine of a thirty minute run and some body weight exercises to failure. After which she took a walk to the pond about ten minutes away where she washed up in the river that flowed out of it, making sure to go downstream so that no one’s drinking water could be even accidentally contaminated. After this she went back to her family home with about ten minutes of rest before the morning training.

Training was as boring as any other day, except today she sparred with an instructor instead of Alice. Nadi welcomed the challenge though as she couldn’t improve any of her technique otherwise since she overwhelmed everyone else with brute strength. Except Alice. Who despite not doing any kind of training other than magical, still managed to overpower her. This thought always put Nadi on edge. Either that was the strength of a pale giant, even as a ‘child’ , or it was purely a level difference.And ven if it was just a level difference, Nadi would still worry. Increasing one’s level was a ridiculously difficult task.

Every living creature unlocked the system and got its first level at about ten years old. Before which, leveling was all but impossible; even if Nadi were to kill a creature ten entire levels above her, she still wouldn’t level up. Others had proven it with their efforts. She had also heard that at lower stages, levels were almost entirely useless, but at higher stages a single level could be enough to decide a battle. While Nadi had no system yet, she was entirely confident her base stats were above Alice, so for Alice to overpower her, she would have needed a minimum level of about five. That number was probably lower than her actual level too, she seemed to be a mage so majority of her levels would be put towards magic, making her defeat more and more unbelievable.

But it had happened. Nadi had been beaten by a frail bodied mage, with stats balanced towards magic, that wasn’t allowed to use magic. Not because they were the better fighter. Not because she had gotten overconfident. But because they had an unnatural amount of levels behind them. Even if Alice was a mage who for some reason prioritised physical strength, her proficiency in magic was still too good for her to not have way more levels than should be possible at her age. Even the most biased case for Alice sounded unlikely. With how many logical hoops she had to drunkenly stumble through, it was almost definitely not a level difference.

Instead of training to be a hunter/ town guard as she normally did, Nadi left for the village chief’s house to ask Karandi some questions. Nadi approached the door to Karandi’s house and heard the him and Kani talking. She brought her hand closer to the door to knock but let it linger for long enough to hear a bit of their muffled conversation.

”-extinct at this rate. This is necessary no matter how you look at it. In fact, having Alice here will only make your job easier.”

”I know it’s something we have to do but I still feel like I’m not ready.”

”Ha! You’ll never be ready! In fact I’m not ready and I already have the job! Just remember your training and never forget, caution-“

“For cautions sake. I understand.”

Nadi knocked on the door before she could eavesdrop on anymore of the conversation. Whatever they were talking about sounded too important for her to worry about. A piercing presence shot down at her, pressing at her from all sides. It only lasted an instant each time but that fraction of a second was enough to make her wish she hadn’t come here, every, single, time.

”Enter.”

Nadi gave a slight bow. “Chief. Hi Kani.”

“I keep telling you there’s no need for formalities. Just greet me like a normal person, would you.” The village chief waved her off.

”Hey Nadi. What brings you-”

”If you’re here to socialise you should wait until Kani’s day off. We’ve been quite busy for a time now.”

”I would, but someone keeps forgetting they get days off.”

”Yeah okay. I’ll come see you when I have free time.”

”I don’t think you’ll ever have free time the way things are looking. I don’t think you’ve even seen the sun in the past week.”

”We’ll that’s not really my fault. There’s just nothing much to do outsi-“

”Nadi, could you please explain what you came for.”

”I didn’t think someone so obsessed with manners could be so rude. Cutting people off-“

This time Kano wasn’t cut off by words, but by Karandi’s mana sense. Though since it wasn’t focused on her, Nadi could enjoy enjoy the show this time.

Kani tried to force open his mouth to finish his sentence, many times he almost get it open, only to suddenly close it again. This repeated for a bit before Kanu went into a meditative position. Nadi wished she could do that. It would be the perfect way to get Kani to behave.

“So, I assume you aren’t here for that rude brat over there?”, Karandi asked with a smile on his face.

”No. I’m here to ask about Alyith.”

”It’s … Alish…” Kani said between breaths, seeming less pained than when he had begun.

”I know I’m saying it wrong, but I feel like you said it worse than me.”

”You … definitely… said… it…-”

”Chief, could you stop doing… that to him so he can actually speak in full sentences.”

”Not like he speaks in full sentences already.” The pressure vanished entirely just as quickly as it arrived, while Karandi joked, “You hear that Kani, if everyone was as polite as Nadi the world would be all the better for it.”

”Don’t act like you’re not the one who told her to be less polite!”

“So Nadi, why the interest in Alice?”

”Hey chief, how do you even say her name like that.”

Karandi remained silent.

Although Kani had been derailing the conversation for a while now, she also wondered how he could say her name with near perfect accuracy.

“Eh. Not like she’s been getting our names right either.” Kani dismissed the question.

”So, I wanted to ask why Alice was accepted into the village.”

”Oh. And here I thought you were finally making friends. Is there any reason why we shouldn’t have accepted her?”

”I understand temporarily housing her. But she’s basically been adopted into the village now!”

”I still don’t see the problem.”

”Was there any kind of investigation? Or do we just accept any strange looking strangers who come by!”

”You look quite strange yourself.” Kani interjected, he received glares from everyone else in the room.

”If you’re worried about safety I can assure you it’s fine. Alice wouldn’t do anything to hurt us.”

”How do you know that? Its not like anyone knew her before she came here.”

”Listen Nadi, Alice has nothing to do with them. Even if she’s a reminder of the past that’s not her fault.”

Tears threatened to flow from Nadi’s eyes but she expertly suppressed them. However, she failed to hide the warble in her voice.

”I know that. But if you knew what she was, how could you just let her in?”

”What she is has nothing to do with who she is. You should know best the kind of person she is.”

”…I know that. But, what if she tries something.”

“Nadi, why are you so scared of Alice? Even if she’s different she’s still just a child.”

“I’m not scared of her! And how could you call her a child.

”Then there’s no problem here then.”

“Of course. Guess I had no reason to come here in the first place.”