In the end I couldn’t do anything. ‘Instantaneous response’ was useless for something that was out of my field of vision.

……then again, that may just be an excuse I cooked up for myself.

I’d been so complacent.

Here I had been handed this unbelievable ability that could allow me to rapidly advance in skillsets that some devote their  whole lives to mastering.

I had been given the potential to, ‘blink and move mountains’, with the level of skill I could achieve.

…….and yet I wasted it on just cooking. Only thinking of the next day.

I was so stupid!

The me from before would’ve been analyzing this ability unceasingly, an ability like ‘Grand Archive’ that could give amazing abilities like ‘Instantaneous Response’ is something that me would have been starry eyed over.

Yeah the me as Thomas would have been prepared for a situation like that months ago.

Heck! That me would have been prepared within a day…….

Huh? What other me is there other than Thomas and the current me?

I can only sigh and stop thinking about it. Currently my mental state is such that even ‘Grand Archive’ is like an analogue 

TV that lost its signal.

I glance out over the holding cell I’m in. Many other children are in here as well, unsurprisingly there are plenty of unwanted children crawling around in the underbelly of a capital city like Snaga. The injustice that these kids are about to face is enough that at one time I would’ve already been on my soapbox ages ago.

……that doesn’t matter now………

My world is gone

My home is gone

My family is gone

…Cecily is GONE!

…..And now, just when I found a new place to take shelter. My own personal harbor in this new world……….it was taken from me.

Now I was cast out into this world for the first time.

I had no one now.

“Big sissss! When are we gonna get out of here!?”

“Hush Miran, I don’t know. I’m sorry I really don’t.”

A girl a bit older than me hushed her tearful brother.

Continue to cry little boy, this will be the only time you have to be tearful. After this, the hell that we will experience will stain your soul so black that you probably won’t cry again.

*CLINK*

A door in the hallway outside opened and a middle aged man came through. He was one I had seen before. I believe he was higher up in the command chain of the guards.

His pant’s size was certainly higher at least. Thankfully he wasn’t the classic ‘pig’ guard that you’d see in prisoner stories. 

He had a sunken face and frizzy, greying hair. His eyes seemed to be lanterns in a coal mine they were inset so deeply in 

his skull.

In a lazy and almost gasping voice he called out.

“Kitlings come to the front.”

When we didn’t respond immediately a hint of annoyance entered his voice.

“Be quick about it.”

The other beast-race children hurriedly ran to the front of cell, they had long known that slow responses earned them nothing more than pain.

…….they had known that long before coming here.

Self-preservation more than anything caused me to heave myself out of the dusty old hay that I had been lying in to walk 

to the front of the cell. I didn’t even try to avoid stepping on the other children earning me several muted curses behind 

my back.

What do I care, this world doesn’t even accept me anyways.

As I stepped into the torchlight from the hallway, the guard leaned forward and squinted at us.

“Damn….your kind all look the same…..let me see, he said that it was a  tiger stripe. Tiger stripe, tiger stripe, tiger stripe……ah! Yinzes!”

He pointed at a girl just a year younger than me, I couldn’t confirm though as ‘Grand Archive’ was still non-functional.

Her tail bristled and stiffly straightened out behind her. Clearly nervous.

“Oh, but yinz have a tail…he said it didn’t have a tail. Oi! Which of yinzes are halfers! Be quick about it!”

The other kitlings stepped back leaving only me and two others. Both were girls, they seemed to be twins. Neither of them had tiger-stripes though, they were kitsune after all.

…well half-kitsune. The one of two beast-races that gained a special name for themselves, the other were the Lupines.

The kitsune had warranted the name because they were the most high-class beast-race used in brothels……apparently their bushy tails were a major turn on for some men…..a tidbit of information from when I had been able to wander the streets of Snaga.

“What!? Yinzes aren’t cats! Go back!”

Seems the guardsman was getting irritated.

His gaze finally swept over to me. Then paused as if he was considering something

“hmm yinz must be the one. Though that’s the weirdest tiger stripe I’ve ever seen.”

He was referring to the coloration of my ears and hair. Unlike a normal human’s hair, mine varied like the pelt of a cat. I was a tiger stripe however, the coloration was abnormal. My hair was a dark red with gold stripes running through it and instead of white sub-coloration I had the darkest black. Truly I thought it was weird the first  time I had seen it but hadn’t thought much of it.

..She…..had…..had it as well……

*CREAK*

Thankfully the cell door creaking open broke me out of a reverie I had no desire to have.

“Get out here.”

I shuffled forward as my shackles scraped the ground. The were heavy and had already rubbed my legs raw……I have a tendency to ‘run’ in my sleep.

“Too slow! Hurry up!”

*THWACK*

“kkhhh!”

“Arrhhnnn? Yinz say something?”

No sooner did I get out before the fat bastard hit me! So he was this type after all or really, maybe, all guards are like this regardless of their inherent personalities.

“Get moving.”

He shoved me towards the door. But without the roughness anticipated…….. he’s an odd one.

He makes a very good distraction……from other….thoughts……………damn.

After getting through the door we ascended a long staircase before he led me down a long hallway with a bright light at the end of it. Our surroundings got brighter as we moved forward and so did the cleanliness of the place.

….lazy shit-stains, don’t they want their precious new money makers to be in good condition? What if we got sick from germs?

My eyes quickly adjusted to the light and I found this to be some kind of break room for the guards. Though based on its 

location it’d be more accurate to view this as the last line of defense for the guards should the prisoners down that long hallway, my cell included, break free.

There was a fire roaring from a hearth to the right of us, I could smell some kind of mulled cider being warmed over it in a large pot.

Off in a corner to the left a few other guards were playing some form of a dice game at a table, naturally money was 

involved.

I could also hear, just barely, the roar of the crowd outside. Hmm, even in this weather a few matches are held?

That also reminded me that it was a bit chilly despite the fire…..medieval insulation at its finest. Also the fact I’m in the 

clothes I had on me when I was thrown in here, a set of linen bed clothes, doesn’t help matters.

Finally there is a non-descript sort of man sitting at the center table, he’s gently swirling his mug of cider as if deep in thought. He’s a little weird though, who keeps their hood up inside a room full of guards!?

That’s like begging to be arrested….or so it would be if they were that kind of guard.

“Sit.”

I had been led over by the deep-eyed fatty to the table with this shady character and forced to sit across from him.

Then the guard moved off as if to give us some privacy…..though I doubt it as he probably just wanted to get back to the game of dice.

…….based on the increase in sound from over there.

I observed the man and tried to get a better look………..

Fuck! This scent, that chin!

“KKHHH!”

“Calm down Kitling, I don’t want any more trouble.”

“Hmmph, those are some selfish words coming out of your mouth after what you did!”

“There’s nothing I could do, there were so many witnesses.”

“That’s rich. So instead you betray your business partner…..damnit you betrayed a friend! And what’s more you 

dishonored someone who has cared for your family before their body had even grown cold!”

Clyde takes a shaky breath and I can see his shoulders visibly slump.

Good ya backstabbing bastard, regret your actions.

“You must understand I had to protect Claura! She has such a bright future!”

“It’s one built on a grave and the ruin of another.”

*BAM*

“Damnit Kitling! Just….just let me finish.”

Now he’s finally looking me in the eyes, regret is all I can see in them.

…….Yeah only now that he’s realized that his money maker is gone for good!

“And now that I know the whole story I understand that there may have been another way, but please Kitling! Don’t hate Claura for this it wasn’t her fault! It was—!”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

“That cow Gertrude’s doing.”

His eyes widened in surprise.

“Random magical discharge? Ha that’s a load of bullshit!”

“How’d you –!?”

“Simple, I’m the one that taught Claura how to do that! Do you think I wouldn’t understand how it works!? If it had been her leg or her arm, I might have believed it. But to directly gore my MOTHER’S stomach and with enough heat to 

instantaneously cauterize it! THAT requires an intent to kill!”

“But –!”

“How does that explain how I figured it out? ……well, these cells are chilly they make it easy to cool off and think 

properly.”

“hhaaa…… I’m so sorry Kitling.”

“Damn straight you should be!”

“KIT! --!”

“WHAT!? Don’t push my luck!? Ha, it doesn’t matter. The guards won’t kill a potential money maker and you don’t have the money to bribe them! FUCK OFF!”

*BAM*

Clyde smashed the table again……oddly enough, I felt repentant about my outburst.

In the end, I guess it’s really only Kitling that hates the world right now. The me from earth has already rationalized and understood the entirety of the situation.

Gertrude is really the only one to blame……….everyone else…..they were just swept along by her scheme.

It’s simple when I think about it, I had long ago understood that small thing that some would pityingly call a human.

She was nothing more than a ignorant, spiteful, and angry creature.

The seed of this scheme of hers was planted the minute I re-awoke to my memories of earth. I am my own undoing in this case.

All the gains I brought to the family and the change in treatment of me and …..my mother. They were things that defied her understanding of the world. She couldn’t accept them and so tried to fight back, but she was met with only the cold shoulders of her husband and daughter. For someone like her, a completely ordinary and weak human, she began to feel inferior not only to her family but her slaves as well.

It led her to trying something as dark as purchasing a ‘black-item’. That was what the necklace had been, an enchanted item that would force the wearer to carry out a specific set of commands.

In my case, it couldn’t overcome a mind that contained The ‘Grand Archive’ but Claura’s had been easy pickings.

With that, Gertrude had got what she wanted……mostly.

“It’s funny…..or should I say…….ironic.”

“Huh?”

Clyde looked up at me, his eyes seemed to shimmer a bit.

….Was this guy crying?

“Even in the middle of all that, I still ended up having to save her.”

I could only shake my head…..I might as well fill him in on the last bit of this story so he knows all of it.

“What do you mean!?”

“That necklace had one last set of instructions in it: COMMIT SUICIDE AFTER COMPLETING PREVIOUS ORDER.”

I could remember it clear as day…..that night.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

“NNNOOOOOOOOOO! Claura! What did you do!”

Claura vacant gaze looked over at me, her eyes still glazed over.

But then tears started to fall.

“Bye Kit…….”

Her hand reached for her own throat, already shimmering with heat.

“FUCK!”

I propelled myself across the little bed and tackled her to the floor. I was enraged, but at the same time ‘Grand Archive’ was already filling me in with what must’ve occurred and all possible routes that happened before and would happen after this event.

“DON’T YOU DARE DIE ON ME DAMNIT!”

She continued to struggle, the entirety of her being focused on one task.

Destroying the murder weapon.

Which was her in this case.

Despite what should be my vastly superior strength as a beast man, she struggled with unknown power!

She was using physical boost!

“ALRIGHT!”

I finally managed to grab the necklace. I didn’t need ‘Grand Archive’ to tell me it was the root of evil. Fantasy books and murder mysteries had long ago honed my mind to identifying these things!

*BOOOM!*

“KITLING!!!!! WHAT ARE YOU D’ING!”

A dead drunk Clyde entered then, all he saw was my mom’s dead body and me on top of a  struggling Claura.

*BAM!*

*CHRICK!*

Clyde back-handed me across the room, luckily the necklace snapped and came with me.

My head smacked against the wall.

“AAAAAGGHHHH!”

I heard the sound of Clyde’s pained roar as he held a limp Claura. Then I lost consciousness.

Later I woke up in my present living quarters. It turns out Gertrude had taken me here while I was still unconscious and 

had sold me.

All before Clyde could realize what was going on.

……she really is the vilest creature I’ve ever met.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“So that’s what happened.”

It seems like Clyde is even more shaken than he had been previously. Though I can’t be entirely certain…. Damn, ‘Grand Archive’ would be useful right about now.

He looks at me again, anguish mixed in with the regret…….I didn’t know he was this emotional.

“I’m so very sorry Kit…….all my family has done is caused you pain. At the very least, this may make Dryfus feel a bit better.”

My body froze, that was the name of the BASTARD that was responsible for my existence in this world.

“What?”

My voice came out much darker than I had intended. Clyde seemed to stiffen for a moment before relaxing.

“Nothing…..don’t worry about it.”

I was about to ask what he meant by that.

….Now I’m more worried!

But before I could he cut me off!

“I truly am sorry, at least this gives me some closure. And…..I don’t know if this’ll give you any, but I gave your mother a proper burial. There’s this clearing see…. Near the forest’s edge just outside the west gate. It’s one of the few places your mother has ever been to other than around the Bakery. She loved that spot….she really did.”

He seemed to be reflecting on some memory from ages ago.

“She’s buried there, with a small marker. Maybe….one day…… you’ll be able to see it.”

“Yinzes time is up!”

The fatty came back over without even pausing to be polite!

“Oh really!? Ha, ok. We were just finishing anyways.”

Clyde just smiles and give a nod before suddenly grasping my hand and whispering in an urgent voice!

“Kit…..now’s not the time to pray to the cooking god. It’s now time to pray to the war god! If it’s you I know you can get through this. It’s not much but this should be enough to act as your key to freedom. This is my last payment.”

I feel something hard being pressed into my hands before he stood up and strode out of the room without looking back.

“Alright up with yinz! Back to your cell!”

The walk back to the cell was quiet except for some muttered breaths from fatty about Clyde being a weird one for 

associating with halfers.

I kept silent and hurried back.

*CLANG*

I was once again locked in a room with a bunch of scared little children.

They avoided me now……..I was different…….and different was dangerous.

Oh well, given what we will be doing to each other later……….it’s better this way.

I look at what clyde had given me, it was a piece of scrap leather wrapped around something. I opened it…….

Inside was a key…..

Not a real key mind you but a key nonetheless. A key to freedom.

Bastard must’ve figured out what my final price was!

I couldn’t help have a wry smirk form on my face.

This wasn’t the time to be depressed, I still had a path to freedom and now one additional objective…. Go see mom’s grave.

I looked down at Clyde’s final payment, it was a single Snagan Crown.

But that’s fine, it could still buy my freedom.

After all I’m in a place now where only money and strength talk.

A place where purses and lives are put on the line and anything could happen.

I place of infinite chance and constant death.

I was in…….

The Arena of Snaga!

.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Next

Thus ends the first arc and volume one. I apologize for it being so short, but that's just how it turned out.

Also sorry for the long delay after that cliff-hanger. That some of you rapidly figured out -_- , then again I did make it pretty obvious. Anyways It's all over now! On to the next volume! YAHOOO. Next we'll get to see our still unnamed hero begin to truly USE his ability 'Grand Archive'.