“You can train your skill there,” she pointed at a tall and thick tree as I had never seen before. It looked ancient, far more than the decaying houses of the slums. But from touching the trunk, I could feel its stiffness and vividness. The leaves were green and healthy, there were no fruits on the branches. Instead, I found a couple of bird nests hidden up there. A few contained eggs and others, little birds squeaking for food.

“Lea, you have my permission to access your own information from here on. I’ll have to head back, I’ll come to fetch you in a bit. If you get hungry just steal something.”

She turned her back on me and left through one of the stinking paths.

‘Steal?’ I looked around, finding nothing that could be stolen, or even considered worthy.

‘Does she really expect me to steal?’ I sighed rather displeased, taking a look at my information, and embracing the recent changes with my very eyes.

My name ‘Lea’ was visible in the magical letters, leaving everything to look the same. Aside from that peculiarity, there was also the possibility of using my class.

‘Back then... If Farnese had given me a name...’ I wondered if anything would have changed. Feeling tired of thinking about the past as it vexed my mind, I did what I could to relax my body, closing my eyes to contemplate.

Despite the difficulty of focusing, I embraced my mind, noticing a line of green. In reality, after talking with the flames, I realized my physical aspect hadn’t changed from my cute silvery self. However, here it was slightly different.

‘Meditate... meditate...’ but the line of green made it tough for me to focus.

I made a high-pitched sound, annoyed by the disturbance. ‘Can’t you just go away!? What are you even doing there? Why is there even a stripe in the middle of literally nothing?’

But then realization fell down on me, ‘right. Isn’t it strange for something to be there in the first place? Inside my mind of all possibilities, a place that should be... my own.’

With a deeper concentration and a hint of an unknown possibility, I took a deep breath and once again closed my eyes. Undoubtedly, there was some sort of gimmick that could be exploited. As if my mind had gained hands, I started with an attempt to stretch the greenery to the sides, coveting it to take the darkness away. I could feel the fatigue quickly accumulating in my body. Whatever I was doing seemed to have a direct consequence for me. After trying many times to extend the line, I halted, panting rather aggressively.

‘It moves but quickly goes back to the way it was. How obnoxiously minded that fellow is. Just like an elastic or a rubber,’ I complained in my mind, devoid of solutions to this puzzle. Yet, after having died twice, I was far from surrendering. In fact, with each death, the will to live a steady, lengthy life only grew stronger. Mysteriously so.

With some effort, I gained the motivation to get up. The growling in my stomach has started. I wanted to practice my skill more, but at this pace my body would end up collapsing, possibly causing me to faint.

Carefully, my body moved towards a different path than the one we had come from, allowing me to end up eavesdropping on a peculiar place. At first glance, there was a brown line that extended for quite a long way on the horizon. After approaching it, I understood it was a fence, tall enough to keep small things on the other side.

It was then that still from afar; I noticed all kinds of animals or what I thought they were. But I became utterly shocked, to the point of landing on my knees, despaired. What I thought was a breed of black and white toned cows, were women with what appeared to have animal characteristics. 

‘Cow girls?’ They didn’t walk on their four unless they had to lean down to eat. There were also other similar types of races. Bird girls with yellow feathers, goat and sheep ladies with small horns and fluffy-looking fur. 

My eyes shivered the more races I saw, understanding these must all be descendents of previous spirits. 

‘Just who is behind this atrocity?’ 

And just as my fist clenched in fury, I saw a well-dressed man in expensive attire. Golden and white coats, symbols imprinted on them which I didn’t know of their meaning. But alas, my body went even lower, completely laying down on the floor to avoid being caught by them. 

This scene began giving me goosebumps, as well as reminding me of the deadliest sneeze I had ever made. I, who was very close to the fence, inhaled the scent of these girls’ food. My hand approached one of the containers, retrieving some of it. They were vegetables shaped in squares, likely cut in this form on purpose. It didn’t seem to be the leftovers from those fancy men, but still making them eat from such a place made it obvious. 

Because of my growing hunger, I munched on some till my stomach was full, taking on a handful of them with me. With some haste, I crawled my way out of there, hoping to not be found.

Once I returned near the tree, I understood that stealing from others was something I could actually do. There was no remorse, not towards that at least. An inch of madness remained within me at the actions of those men, treating the ladies like animals as if they were not human.

I was a spirit but my many wonders kept roaming my mind, ‘are they spirits, humans, or what?’

It made me really curious if they had a designation of their own. If they were being mistreated in such a poor manner, then certainly they weren’t as important as me. ‘The men from yesterday valued me highly...’

I knew for a fact that Farnese knew of my importance and found my blessing to be of great value and use. If they were to turn me into a part of the ranch, causing me to breed with men to make more beauties. Then, they could easily become super rich enough to overthrow any upcoming difficulties.

‘I need to be more careful,’ my skin itched, causing my furry parts to tremble in unison at the unknown dangers.