There has been a series of disappearances happening in one of the poorer areas of Silvercrest. What was once a rare occurrence suddenly turned into a daily reality. Townsfolk were getting more and more restless as there were rumors of more and more women disappearing.

The knights were too busy to focus their efforts on a few missing peasants. Unable to rely on getting help, some decided to take things into their own hands, and they started to look for the perpetrators.

And as luck would have it, one of them found a trail of oddly familiar beads dropped from a necklace. He instantly recognized them, and he decided to find more. Eventually, it led him to an abandoned road. But when he tried to follow it, he encountered a group of bandits. After barely escaping from them, he tried to alert the knights. But his pleas were getting ignored, knights would not help based on his words alone.

“Even if it were true, why should we do anything. Should we care about bandits on an unused road? We already have move work than hands.”

Thankfully, by a pure chance, William’s son Leon got a word of this incident. On his own authority, he mobilized a group of knights to take action. With the help of volunteers composed of relatives of missing women and some concerned citizens, they went to look for the missing women.

The knights went ahead of the group, however as they got there, the bandits were nowhere to be seen. They searched the surroundings and further down the road they found an empty carriage next to an abandoned mine…

---

 

I don’t remember seeing her before, I thought that I had seen all the others. I certainly would have remembered someone with such a unique hair. Maybe she was imprisoned in a different area?

We were led out of the cave, where were more humans waiting for us. Looks like many of them are related, they immediately ran towards each other to reunite. Only me and the purple haired girl stayed alone, although is it just me or is she staring at my tail right now? Must be my imagination…

I shift my attention towards the knights who escorted us back outside. They haven’t singled me out, only a few of them came with us, the rest of them stayed behind to search through the cave. Are they really not suspicious of me? If we found a human back home, we would be concerned, but they aren’t treating me any different from the rest.

“…”

I just wasn’t expecting to be ignored.

“… It was him who found the trail you left behind, and we were able to follow you because of it.” “Everyone helped tremendously.” “Some even brought along their carts with plenty of food just to help.” “I was worried that I will never see you again.” “You must be hungry, I baked plenty of bread.”

Everyone talked joyously over each other, making it hard to listen to anyone. Meanwhile, as they talked, they started handing out food and water to everyone.

One of the humans called out to me. “You look hungry, take one as well.” He handed me one of the so-called breads.

“Thanks…”

What is it exactly? I have never seen anything like it.

“…”

I guess I will try it… hum… It’s soft… …

Back home, we mostly only hunted for meat and when we had a bad hunt, we resorted to eating certain plants. The most common one looked like a root and tasted a root with dirt, but without it, many of us would have starved to death. We would rarely eat something other than meat or plants like that one.

Father told me that a long time ago our tribe resided further south, but we got chased out by humans. He told me stories about green plains, warm days and trees that had food growing out of them. There were some bushes that grew berries on them, but they were very small and low in number. But apparently trees, bushes and plants grow fruit much bigger and numerous in the south, to the point that forests are filled with food.

They brought here so much food, just how much of it do they really have? Maybe food here is really as plentiful as father said. I looked down at the bread in my hands… But how could something this big grow out of a tree? That just doesn’t make any sense.

Some of the knights started coming out of the cave. Looks like they finished searching through it. They split and they started speaking with other survivors.

The young knight with a bright blue hair came towards me. “Hi, I am Leon. I will just ask you some questions, so I can write up a report. We have to question everyone in situations like these.”

I see, so he is here to question me.

“…”

“Firstly, I will need your name?”

“…”

“…”

“Riko.”

“Age?”

“Fifteen.”

He continued asking questions, he asked in detail about how I got here and where I was from. I decided to answer truthfully, for the most part. In the meanwhile, the other knights spoke with everyone else.

After I answered all of his questions, he got lost in his thoughts for a moment before saying.

“This is a bit more complicated than I expected…”

“What is?”

“We had some conflicts with some of the tribes from that area. From what you told me, it has nothing to do with yours one… But still… Some people might make such assumptions…”

“…”

“Well anyway, looks like we will be leaving soon, you should get ready.”

“…”

So, we are going to the human city, I wonder what it will look like. I heard so much about it, but… even then, it’s hard to imagine.

---

 

We are sitting in the carts drawn by horses. Not that I have ever seen a horse before, but it seems much less threatening than frosthoof. Not only that, its fur is so thin. When it gets colder, will it not freeze to death?

We are traveling down a path surrounded by green trees. There were only a few knights walking alongside us, the rest of them stayed behind.

I glanced at the other cart in front of us. The purple haired girl sits at the back, her eyes are peeking out from behind the frame of the cart, and her gaze seemingly never left me.

She keeps looking at me, what is her deal? Does she think that I can’t see her?

“…”

“…”

“…”

At this point, it is starting to be kind of creepy.

I turned around and looked towards the forest instead. We traveled for hours, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shake off the feeling of being watched.

---

 

“It’s so big, is this Silvercrest?”

High, imposing walls stretched imposingly long in both directions.

How did they build this? How much effort would it take to make something like this?

We entered the city. I expected it to be different after what I heard, but I was still shocked at how different it actually was. It just looks completely foreign compared to how we lived. We had to travel constantly, so we couldn’t stay too long in a one place, and our way of life reflected that. We had to move all of our belongings with us, there was no point in making something that we couldn‘t travel with.

Having a permanent home, wasn’t possible for us.

 

After a while, we stopped, and everyone started to disembark the carriages. Well, everyone except for the purple haired girl.

“Isn’t she going with them?”

“No. Apparently, she doesn’t have any family members left, so she will be sent to an orphanage. They will take care of her there. You don’t need to worry about her. She will be with other kids of her age.” Leon responded.

“I see, and what about me?”

“I am not quite certain… It’s a bit of a unique situation considering where you’re from… if you were from Crownland’s territory it would be much easier… I am not one who can handle things like this… I can put in a good word for you in my report.”

“It would be easier if I was from here? Are there others of my kind here?”

“Well, not in this city… But in some other parts of the country there are.”

One of the other knights came toward us. “Leon, we will finish this, you already played a hero enough for the day. Now, you still have your own responsibilities to take care of. You shouldn't try to run off from them.”

“Alright…”

“…”

“Well, looks like I have to go. You can call for me if you encounter any problems, just ask one of the knights to contact me. Although, I plan to leave Silvercrest in a couple of days, so I won’t be able to help you then. Well, by then your situation should be resolved, hopefully.”

“Hopefully…”

“Well then, I will be on my way. May we see again.” He waved me off as he left, and I gave him a wave in return.

“…”

“…”

“…”

He was pretty nice.

“…”

Maybe humans aren’t that bad after all. I guess it all depends on a person. No matter the race, there will be good and bad on both sides. That much is clear to me now.

But what should I do now? I lost all of my family members throughout my life, and now even my tribe is gone. My tribe is gone, and I am lost in a foreign land. Even if I wanted to save them… I don’t know where to even start. It just seems beyond my capability to do so.

“…”

I am alone and… … lost.

 

Sometime after Leon left, I was approached by a pair of knights. “The Lord wants to see you. We received orders to bring you to him.”

“The Lord? … … Who’s that?”

The knights looked at each other, seemingly confused by my question.

“Wait, should I know him?”

---

 

We traveled through the city until we reached a house that was incomparably larger than all the others. It was surrounded by a wall and next to it were many trees and bushes with unusual shapes. It looked very imposing, it’s astounding that they can build something this big.

After I stopped to look around, we went inside to meet with that person. I wonder what he wants from me.

 

“Lord William. She’s here.”

Sitting there is a man with a bright blue hair.

I walked towards him, and the knights who brought me here remained standing by the door.

“Are you the lord?”

“That would be me.” He answered with a smile.

“Why did you call for me?”

“I heard that you should have a decent cultivation and that you were a warrior in your tribe…”

He stood up and in his hand was a sword, he placed it on the wooden board within my arm’s reach.

“Let’s see how much you are worth.”

“…”

“Take the sword.”

“Why do I…?”

“I said… Take. The. Sword.” He picked up a sword of his own and swung it at me.

In a panic, I picked up the sword and I barely blocked his strike in time. He’s fast!

My hands went stiff from the impact.

“I see that you have some potential.” He swung his sword again and again, each time slightly faster than before. “Not bad, not bad at all.” His attacks kept pushing me back as I tried to block them. It didn’t take long before my back hit the wall.

One of his attacks hit my side, it’s not that deep, but I am loosing blood, and I am in the corner. I have to do something now!

Seeing an opening, I kicked myself off the wall and swung the sword as hard as I can. Taking him by a surprise, he was unable to use his sword to block my attack. But with his inhuman speed, he dodged to the side as my attack missed by the narrowest of margins. He managed to distance himself from me and we both stopped for a moment.

So close!

I breathe heavily as I try to assess my wound.

“…”

“…”

“I think I’ve seen enough. To be honest, this was a bit surprising, I had slightly underestimated you…”

He shifted to as stance, ready to continue. As he readied his next attack, his sword flickered out of my sight. He flew towards me at an unthinkable speed. I tried to block his blow, but as we clashed, my sword flew out of my hands. Before I knew it, I fell to the ground as he tripped me with his leg.

He stomped on my chest with his foot, I can hear my ribs breaking under the pressure. “But only slightly.” As he lifted his leg, I coughed out a blood and gasped in pain. “Good enough, this should be more than a passable performance. I was worried that this would be a waste of time…”

I tried to lift myself back up, but he struck me on the head with the other end of the sword, my vision flashed in… … Riko’s senses were overwhelmed with pain and confusion… Pain… it hurts… I can’t… She slowly fainted, and her body slumped over to the side, lifelessly.

William slowly put away his sword, and then he turned towards the knights. “You can take it away for now. I will send someone to deal with it.”

“Understood.” “Right away sir.” The two knights from before dragged away Riko’s lifeless body, leaving behind only a trail of blood.