Blinking, I woke up, stretching with a yawn. My back aches from sleeping on the branches. ‘Michelle won’t be mad that I ditched her, right?’

I looked down, spotting beastkin gathered around the base of the tree. What especially irritated me is the presence of the second prince—he has a knack for harassing me during my past life. No matter where I went, he would appear out of nowhere like clockwork.

We locked eyes as his guards slowly noticed that I’m awake. “Oi, I’m not a bird, why are you watching me through binoculars? Pervert.”

Hopping off the tree and landing gracefully on my feet, I glared at him. “Have you no shame?”

“Can I get your name? My father ordered me to pursue you,” he said, continuing to make eye contact. “King Felix formally invites you to her highness lady Yuki’s bestowment ceremony, which begins in two weeks.”

I nodded. “You don’t need to know my name. But for being a creep, I have to punish you.”

‘He looks confident, thinking that I wouldn’t touch a prince. Oh you sweet summer child.’

Scanning the crowd, they looked prepared. He brought only female knights, a countermeasure against my castration techniques. I smirk. “[Azure Dragon Shunpo].” Seemingly teleporting behind him, I hit a combination of pressure points, then returning back before the guards even realized what happened.

“I’m feeling generous today. Don’t stalk me next time, pervert,” I said, smirking. “By the way, my name is Emerson Tylrr, with two R’s.”

At first, he just looked confused, then his face contorted in pain. He tried to speak, but he couldn’t get his words out. ‘He’s right, I couldn’t touch him but I made his life slightly more inconvenient.’ “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” I said, clucking my tongue. “Don’t worry, it will wear off soon, see you at the ceremony!”

His face was a mixture of confusion, disbelief, and anger. I just put a crick in his neck, paralyzed his tongue, and put his calf muscles to sleep. Jumping through the trees, I quickly made my way towards Wesclim, killing monsters on the way. Currently, my level is low, which means a lot of my more powerful mana-based abilities are locked. Although I can freely use my aura based skills due to it being an extension of my will, I will have to hunt monsters to gain experience to increase my mana pool. ‘Such a pain.’

[Azure Dragon Shunpo]

Consumes aura to momentarily condense the space between you and your destination.

The cost of aura is proportional to the distance condensed.

“The line between life and death lies in but a single step” - unknown

I acquired this skill after slaying one of his descendants. Needless to say, it was especially tedious. I cornered him in a cave after over a month of fighting. He also just so happened to be one of the divine dragon generals, greatly angering them. Well, it was their fault for trying to hunt me down in the first place.

Notably, dragons face a lot more restrictions on the usage of this skill due to their size—they cannot phase through solid objects. To effectively utilize this technique, they must first polymorph, significantly reducing their physical abilities.

“Hm, I might as well make some money while I’m at it.”

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‘Fuck I forgot to bring a bag.’ I thought, dragging a pile of monster corpses into the city, leaving behind a trail of blood. The new sentinel looked unsure of what to do. The usual sentinel is sitting on the ground, paling.

“Hal-” the old sentinel cut him off. “Right this way,” he said, laughing nervously.

“Whatever, have you been doing well recently?”

He nodded hurriedly, apologizing for his friend. I continued to make my way into the city, dragging the monster corpses through the streets, earning looks of disapproval and confusion. Soon arriving at the adventurer’s guild, I dropped off the corpses on the lobby floor. “Listen up you sorry excuses of adventurers, dismantle these corpses for me so I can sell them. Not like you can handle a real fight anyways.”

A couple of adventurers stood up from their seats. From the quest board, they turned around, glaring at me. “Clerk, protect my loot,” I said, yawning. “I’m not in the mood to beat up grown men 3 times my age. Come at me in the training grounds if you are butthurt,” I said, starting to walk towards them.

“Fight me, right here right now,” scowled a heavily built man with a battle axe.

Dashing next to him, I rubbed his shiny, bald head. “Aw, is someone angy?” I cooed. He growed, swinging his axe towards me. I hear a bunch of guys in the back betting on him cheering. Ducking out of the way, the axe lodged itself into the wall. I frown. “Don’t use an axe if you are no good with it.”

He roared, charging towards me. ‘He fell for such a simple provocation?’ I started to sigh. “You asked for it. Enhance [Divine Castration Art First Form : Crescent Kick].” Before he realized what was even happening, he flew into the ceiling, leaving a gaping indent and a thin film of dust to settle down. “Huh, he took that better than I thought he would,” I murmured, dusting myself off. “Now hurry up and dismantle the monster corpses,” I demanded, glaring at them, causing them to shrink back.

Mina and Michelle walked out, mouths agape looking at the ceiling. “Is this your crazy twin you were talking about?” she asked.

“I’m not crazy,” I said in indignation. I point at the axe-wielding adventurer now lying on the floor, passed out. “He’s the crazy one for attacking a child.”

The room fell into silence. “You aren’t even an adventurer,” she began, turning to Michelle. “She does look like you though,” Mina muttered. By this point, the adventurers have finished dismantling the monster corpses.

“Would you look at that, there is really no ‘i’ in ‘team’,” I said, smirking. “Okay, please buy the monster materials.”

She sighed. “Fine, but please dismantle them yourself next time. And you should register to become an adventurer, instead of using your strength to beat up random people,” she said, frowning in disapproval. “Guildmaster Enzo?”

“Hm, she has quite the strong aura for her age. I wonder how I would fare against her…” he trailed off. “I challenge you to a duel.” The adventurers in the room gasped, their eyes widening in shock and anticipation.

They escorted me to the training grounds, setting up a perimeter. “Quarter. You will need it,” he said while getting ready. He unsheathed his sword. “If you lose, you’ll have to apologize to everyone here, and work as a proper adventurer.” He pointed at me. “You may start the countdown.”

The spectators snicked, as the second round of betting resumed. I smirked, sheathing my sword. “I won’t need this for the likes of you.” Enzo frowned in confusion. “If I win, I will be the new guildmaster! I will now start the countdown. 3! 2!”

The adventurers leaned forward in anticipation.

“Wait n-!” Before Enzo could get his words out, I seemingly appeared out of thin air, kicking him behind his knees, causing his legs to buckle, then giving him a light push. Crumpling like a sack of potatoes, he tasted dirt. “Out of respect, I will declare myself the victor.”

The crowd booed. “You bitch! I lost all my money!” I glared at him. “Anyone who opposes this decision may raise your hand.” A couple of hands shoot up into the air. “You cheated! You could never be our guildmaster! You have no honor!”

I rolled my eyes. “What good is honor for a dead person? You may keep your hands raised if you still oppose my decision. I will personally sever it for you.” Grumbling, they put their hands down. I looked at Enzo, still on the floor. “I’m a nice girl, you can have your position back. But don’t you dare try to disrespect me ever again.”

He nodded, brushing the dirt off his pants. Everyone disperse. I lost today because I’m not good enough, but take this as a lesson to not let your power get to your head,” he said, looking at me. “What is your name?”

I scowled. “Looks like I found a new test subject for my technique. My name is Eris. Say sorry to your wife for me.” He paled, shrinking back. “Luckily, I’m quite busy today. Promote me to a F-rank adventurer and I may consider forgiving you.”

He locked eyes with me. “Congratulations to Eris for joining us as our newest adventurer! She is F-rank, everyone treat your new sister with respect!”

The crowd stood on in silence. “Well? Start clapping,” I said, starting to slowly clap. The crowd started to reluctantly clap, then erupted into a thunderous applause. “3 cheers for me! Hurray!”

After this debacle, I collected the reward for the dismantled monster corpses and left. “P-please come again soon,” the clerk said, twitching while heavily sweating.

“I’ll be sure to pay a visit soon!” I said, Smiling. I started collecting the money from the bookies. “Gambling is bad, won’t you give a little bit of spending money instead?”

He bit his lip, hesitantly giving me a pouch of coins. “Tsk, so slow, did you forget to eat breakfast today?” I snatched it out of his hands and tossed him a silver coin. “Go get something to eat,” I said, sauntering out of the adventurers guild while whistling.

“There is no chance you two are related,” Mina said to Michelle, both dumbfounded.