Once again with my back on the tree, I used my skill, having placed the rest of the vegetables under the large and fresh shadow beneath the long branches.

The thoughts of what I saw haunted me. I couldn't help but picture myself in such an awful situation, eating like an animal and being done as a whore. But perhaps I was overthinking part of the situation. I shook my head to the sides negating these ideas. 

'I should help them in some way... but how?' Despite my willingness to fight against those evil deeds, I dreaded that the same could happen to me. And if it did, I doubted my mind would remain sane.

'I need to know more,' figured more information was a must, but managing myself and growing my skill or class also seemed necessary. The expectations were rather many, Lucia wanted me to do my best with meditation. And to match her wishes, I gave my best to the point of exhaustion.

"Lea? Lea?" What felt like feeble whispers reached out for my ears, waking me up from the depths of my demise and tired self.

"Hey, Lea? Are you alright?"

As my eyes opened, I got to find her twinkling twin emeralds staring at me. She seemed quite worried as if her knowledge about spirits wasn't as high as I once thought. But who am I kidding? She's just a child, one raided by a band of thugs. Not some noble girl with knowledge up her feet. And I was even below both.

'I'm alright, a tad tired,' the complaint as usual didn't leave my mind, but I knew one day it would very likely happen. Till that fateful moment, I kept communicating with her, hoping for it to come any second earlier.

"You seem to have gotten some food, more than I could find. Where did you get it?" 

I pointed at the narrow street to the side where the abomination farm took place.

Her reaction took a turn for the worse as she seemed fearful about my answer.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" 

Her tone sounded as dreadful as a ghost haunting during the night.

"I..." her pause gave way for my hand to reach out for the top of her head. 

Out of kindness, I patted it, hoping to give her some comfort. 

She wailed more than she spoke, causing me to smile faintly and nervously as there was nothing else I could do to ease her worries. Took her a while to calm down, but her words approached me as if she let go of them to reduce the pain they caused her, "they are half-humans half-spirits. They're considered abominations because spirits are sacred, and humanity is a lower specie."

Her face leaned forward almost touching my own, her gaze burning as much as her red hair, "but nobility thinks they're above spirits."

Softly, I placed my index fingers on each side of her face, pulling her cheeks towards her ears so she could find herself smiling.

"Thank you, Lea," she giggled a bit, keeping some of her seriousness. Lucia truly didn't act like a child, perhaps she was older than what I initially thought. But to my demise, that was not something I could inquire about.

'I wish to speak,' once again there was no perfect conclusion, missing the ability I lost, even if Farnese hadn't liked it. Yet communicating had been something natural for me to have in my past life, making me miss it dearly.

Astronomical dusk showed us that it was about time to get moving for the hideout, the patrols, and the men with torches, they'd likely be coming once more in search of goods. Especially so if they knew about me, the best collectible of them all, a 'shiny' spirit, a funny reference from my first life.

As we were about to cross the narrow path between two broken houses, the smell of something burning hit my nostrils. The redness spread causing the sky to be dyed by the flames.

Without saying a word, Lucia desperately ran towards it, ignoring the upcoming harm on her body. Unlike her, I wasn't so crazy, so my eyes glanced over at the sides, looking for a safer pathway.

The time it took to go around was enough for my body to tense up with a scream. 

'Lucia!?' My mind reverberated with the shout that propagated within. It made me gain some bravery, enough to take a risky jump over a wall of fire. My legs shivered from the build-up tension. My back hurt more than I thought possible, yet I could not comprehend the reason why. Not until I turned my face around and saw my tail on fire. 

The ground was opened, the smell of blood and death entangled with the one from smoke, her fiery hair danced with the flames, causing me to take slow steps towards her. And with every inch that I approached the entrance to the hideout, everything became worse. The goriness of the unsightly view right in front of our eyes caused me to place my hands in front of my mouth to avoid puking. 

'How could they?' was this revenge for the guards the thieves killed last night? Still, this seemed far too much, everyone laid there without moving. Their gazes were white as if staring into the light of the afterlife, unwilling to speak of what got them murdered.

I could see Lucia's hands taking the shape of two fists, causing her whole body to stiffen up. The madness that echoed within her was visible to me, causing me to pity this tragedy. The men that had saved us were gone and with them, our chance of surviving decreased.

But it was not until I saw her suddenly fall into the pit, causing my eyes to take a glimpse at an arrow that had pierced her back, that my body started becoming transparent.

Once more to my demise, magical words appeared before my teary eyes as my mouth opened to scream for no voice to follow.

Upon the first law of this realm, a spirit cannot be in this world without a master.