"Lucia take your slave and figure out how she can be of use."

"Yes, boss."

Her robotic tone when talking to him differed so much from the one I had seen during our contract. In a dimensional space where only the two of us could see each other, it made me wonder if that had been her true self, the one she hid below this lifeless facade. She went to her room, grabbing some clothes for my naked self.

"Dress and then follow me Kitsune."

My body didn't move instantly despite her words. It seemed that didn't count as an order, but to avoid getting her in trouble and not having to deal with this creepy group of men, I did as told. Once the door on my back closed, I took a deep breath, feeling relieved from the earlier tension.

"Spirits are very special beings, they often come with their own will, to bring a certain change into this world, one that they tell to no one," she glanced at me, smiling briefly. "I heard about it in the tavern from a drunken scholar."

I opened my mouth, but words didn't come out. It seemed that this time around, I lacked the ability to talk, possibly from how low my wisdom and intelligence were. Certainly one of the two would have a direct effect on it, or maybe it was a consequence of asking for a different ability.

We walked for quite a bit, avoiding the narrow paths and lecherous eyes of those who looked extremely poor and dangerous. The dirty and smelly battered roads spoke for themselves, not even a hint of stone or a decent pavement. The houses were anything but a home, with holed walls, broken ceilings, and some even devoid of doors and windows. Cheap ragged fabrics covered the gaps on some of them, keeping the cold wind and rain outside. But clearly not enough for it to not rain inside. Kids to old men laid on the floor stretching their hands for dry bread and water. Worse was their lips which had no normal appearance: a mix of dehydrated and swollen, looking almost purple. The elderly were thin like sticks, with dirty white beards as if they drank and ate mud, and teeth either gone or rotten black, decayed and ugly.

Not once throughout my whole life, had I seen such mistreatment and misery. It made my heart tingle and a sad look to replace my expressionless self.

The further away we moved the more the scene changed, and the better looking the surrounding figures became. But not by much, the difference was something like super miserable to just miserable. 

"I live in the deepest part of the slums with those men you saw. The boss adopted half of them," she pointed to herself. "Including me."

Her tone sounded amiable and a tad nice, but it felt like it was rather forced. I doubted she could speak freely in this place where there were more ears than furniture.

But nonetheless, it was quite entertaining to have someone friendly instead of a spoiled noble brat.

'I may have grown to hate her more than I thought... and to think of her,' I sighed while leaning my head a bit, feeling a turmoil in my stomach and an annoyance take over my heart. 

Quickly, I got to understand how fear reigned supreme through these streets. Sure their eyes glanced at us from top to bottom but none dared to approach two defenseless girls. The influence of the boss from the brotherhood must have dictated far more than what I expected from a lowly group of goons. 

Despite my willingness to know more about her life, I kept walking, hoping for Lucia to tell me about it.

"Here grab my hand."

We walked practically side by side, it was in such a cute way that it looked like we were going on a date. Had it not been in such a place full of trash and crap I would've believed it.

"Soon we'll reach it," Lucia giggled childishly as if she was up to something like a prank.

'She sure is having fun,' not that I minded any of it. Her life looked awful, far from what a child could cope with. It wouldn't even surprise me if she was nuts. But there was a big chance, that in this zone, kids grew in a different manner.

"Almost at the blue and the green!" She pointed with a stretching arm and a trembling finger, with a dirty and broken nail at the very end.

Through a dark and narrow path, we went through finding a white at the end, and an unexpected beautiful scenery beyond.

A long river whose currents caused whirls to suck any who may approach them.

"You can drink from it but you're not allowed to swim," her twinkling, shivering eyes met mines. "You'll drown."

I gave her a quick nod causing my fluffy ears to twitch and her fingers to touch it causing me to feel a strange new sensation that perked all my senses.

"Oh sorry. I was just very curious," her two fingers faltered, followed by her feeble touch to fade.

'That felt strange,' I wasn't yet sure if it was a good or a bad thing as it didn't last long, but it was enough to steal a reaction from me.

I wasn't sure if this girl knew kindness, her personality felt like someone who knew what love was. However, her expression remained cold as if truly curiosity was the only thing that perked the vividness in her eyes. 

'Wish I could talk,' while before I wanted to hide it from others, now there was a little bug in me that squirmed at the willingness of a possible conversation.

How complicated could it be to acquire enough intelligence for it?