"How lucky! Perhaps life isn't so bad after all!" One guy stepped forward as he gobbled down a rough looking glass filled with beer, his breath filled the atmosphere with a stinking alcohol smell. He was carrying his sword in his back. It was notably a fancy looking sword.

The three men besides him giggled horribly as the sound of their sinister laugh echoed the entire forest, scaring the birds on tree branches away.

They all had crazy expressions on their eyes, their hair was messy, and there were visible bag eyes under their eyes.

"Perhaps we could turn them into slaves! We could afford more alcohol!" A guy suggested as he laughed like a crazed man.

Kara shuddered the moment she heard the word 'slave', her eyes shuddered in fear as she took a step back subconsciously. However, she shook her head immediately as her eyes stared at the man coldly. Her expression was akin to a princess, calmly judging the group with a serene atmosphere.

Her mouse ears twitched profusely as she awaited the group's movement. They simply walked slowly with a rather casual look on their eyes, no, their eyes were too drunk to even think calmly as they walked unevenly without any real coordination.

As they stumbled their way, all of them drew their weapons without hesitation. Kara gazed at them with a cold stare as panic never arose on her expression, only caution.

"The hell are you looking at?! You little mouse!" One of the men took offense at Kara's glaring as he held his knife tighter, however still moving at a slow pace as they walked.

I instinctively put my hand in front of Kara to protect her. However, Kara's expression remained unchanged. Rather than fear, she felt disgusted at the sight of the men in front of her.

"Perhaps this is the reward of what cursed goddess Lily took from us!" One of them yelled out while laughing intensively, "Curse Goddess Lily!" The guy with a knife followed,

They sure have a lot of grudge towards this Lily person, I thought.

For some reason, hearing that, Kara's entire expression changed. Her eyes were brimming with rage and her hands were tightening into a fist. Her ears twitched as she stared down the men in front of her angrily.

As one of the men felt provoked, he grabbed his axe and ran off leaving his companion behind. The one holding a knife felt the urge to follow as he directed the other two people armed with swords. One of them had a fancy gold tint in it, even though his ragged clothes and messy hair looked quite inadequate paired with his beautiful sword.

I tried to prepare myself to wear my battle suit armor, which would simply mean a magical girl transformation into wearing a fancy dress that wouldn’t do anything. However Kara stopped me. She gave me a reassuring look as she glanced toward me.

"Please leave this to me, Miss Yuzu," she quietly whispered at me while smiling as she said that. Her warmth, gentle smile was quickly erased as she turned her direction into the battered rogues in front of her.

Kara kicked her feet off from the grounds as she sprinted towards the group of men, it all happened so suddenly that I couldn't stop her. She moved at such a terrifying speed and swift motion that the initial shock hesitated me from stopping her.

As for the guy that led the group with an axe, he was flabbergasted at the incoming Kara. He took a step behind to stop and regained his footing as he took a stance to take down the mouse girl coming his way.

"Ha!" He took his axe and swung it horizontally towards Kara. However, Kara took notice of the man's movement and jumped right before he swung his axe.

The beautiful arc Kara left was quite stunning. Her tail suddenly showed up below her skirt, as it hit the axe guy in the head, which knocked him down as he fell flat comically.

The guy with a knife thrust himself forward as she tried to stab Kara's petite figure. She simply responded by taking three steps behind. She glared at the man quietly. Her gaze no longer held any timidness nor hesitation as she quickly rushed off towards the man in front of her.

The man kept his guard up by holding his knife in front of him, expecting Kara to come at him. Nonetheless, Kara suddenly stopped her momentum as she narrowly rotated her small body beautifully, immediately creating a sidestep as she grabbed the man's wrist as her left leg sweeped the man's legs as he fell down instantly, writhing in pain.

The remaining two men were cautious after seeing how easily Kara took down their companions. They looked at each other as they were holding onto their swords. They nodded at each other and started to run towards Kara at the same time.

Unfazed, Kara took a step back as she glanced towards the man with a knife that fell down from Kara's attack earlier. Kara stooped down as she grabbed his knife forcefully while narrowly avoiding the attack of one of the slashes from the swordsmen duo.

Kara created distance between her enemies as they stared at her with contempt. The guy with an axe earlier stood up sluggishly, while the one with the knife could only lay down without any will to stand up, rather, it seemed that he fell unconscious from the alcohol he consumed before, unlike his companions.

Kara took a deep breath as the three of them started to rush towards her at the same time, she readied her knife.

"Take this!" The man with a fancy sword said as he swung down his sword with intense grit, only to be parried by the knife Kara grabbed earlier. The other swordsman took the opportunity as he tried to stab Kara from behind. However, his attempt was stopped by Kara's tail as it slapped away the wrist of the swordsman, misdirecting it into the man with a fancy sword.

The man with the fancy sword barely avoided the stab, and the man with the axe saw the event unfolding as he awaited the perfect timing to strike Kara. Feeling impatient, he immediately tried to struck down Kara with all the force he had

"Lightning mouse!" Kara calmly shouted with a soft yet beautiful tone as she stomped the ground with great force as it shook the surrounding area.

A ton of tiny little mice immediately rose up from the ground as they assaulted all of the men around her mercilessly. All of them tried to evade the mice, however, the speed of the mice was too terrifyingly fast to dodge.

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A few seconds later, all of the men that tried to attack Kara were convulsing on the ground intensely. She tucked away her tail while taking a deep breath, there's a burnt smell of lightning from the residue of Kara's magic.

Almost all of them were knocked unconscious. They all suffered major electrical burn injury as it messed up their facial features. They all could only lie down helplessly, only one man was still conscious from the lightning mice before. His expression was blank, devoid of any emotion.

I could only watch the entire scene with an amazed expression in my eyes. I was observing closely as to prevent anything that would harm Kara, yet, apparently she didn't need my help as she managed to take down every single one of them.

"How many people did you enslave, Mister?" Kara asked nicely towards the barely conscious man with a kind smile on her face, however her eyes were cold.

"No-none..." The man replied with barely any energy, hearing the man's answer, Kara grew agitated.

"Stop lying!" Kara screamed as he grabbed the man's ragged clothes, her expression was furious.

"Kara, stop! He's telling the truth!" I rushed towards her direction. She looked at me with rather shameful eyes on her expression. She let go of the man's clothes as she glanced at me.

I used my power to detect a lie on the man, and I could sense that he was telling the truth. Kara had a complicated expression in her eyes. She was struggling to talk until a cat suddenly entered her field of vision.

"B-but Miss cat lover..." Kara tried to say something, however she was at loss on what to say, so she didn't continue, perhaps she was distracted by the cat that passed her and the conversation earlier that day that she accidentally spewed the word cat.

"Cat lover?" One of the men who had fallen down spoke up as he gained consciousness, it was the person who used a knife from before.

The man with the fancy sword laughed hysterically out of nowhere. He stared at me with a defeated look and contempt on his face.

"So, is this it? You've come for us now? Even our family wasn't enough for you?" He whipped a drunk expression as he stared at me with rather terrifying eyes. That expression contaminated the others as they followed suit.

Their eyes were as dead as fish as they reek of alcohol, their expressions were akin to someone who gave up in life.

Kara looked at the entirety of the group with a pity, yet irritated expression.

"You're all hopeless," Kara muttered with a hint of pity in her tone.

Hearing this, the men's complexion became red with anger. They were completely offended by Kara's tone and words.

"Who the hell do you think you are?! What do you know about losing a family?!" One of them screamed with hiccups as he stuttered his words, with a hint of drunkenness

They all stood up lifelessly as they headed towards the barrel of alcohol they carried around with no shame of their repulsive posture and action.

They kept drinking as they emptied the barrel roughly with a rather disgusting gulping noise as they drank. Kara and I watched the scene unfold in silence. I tried to look around at their belongings. They carried nothing but alcohol and their weapons.

"If you keep going on like this, you all will die." Kara said with a cold expression, which was met by an angry glance from the group

"Who cares about that?! We all here wander around for that reason, to let the goddess of death take us!" One of the guys shouted without any emotions behind his eyes.

"If not for those damn elves and their goddess, we would still be at our home!" The other replied. Kara grew irritated as she walked towards the barrel, "Thunder stomp!" She yelled as she stomped the ground as electricity appeared, destroying the entirety of the barrel.

The electricity also hit the men with great damage, perhaps it made them sobered up a lot more. The men were furious at her action. They looked at Kara with deep hatred in their eyes.

"Stop being so pathetic! What would your wife and children think if they saw you right now?!" Kara questioned harshly.

"Why do you care?! What do you know about-" The man with the fancy sword screamed his anger out, until he finally noticed Kara's mouse ears.

The others took notice as they all looked at her ears silently. Her ears twitched slightly. She looked at their eyes intensely. The drunkenness on their eyes slowly dissipated.

"Now, can the four of you stop whining around and get out of here?" Kara smiled harshly, her expression was rather apathetic, however her tone was cold and demanding.

"B-but where? Our hometown won't even accept us anymore." The person with the fancy sword said. He didn't stutter as much anymore.

"And why is that, I wonder?" Kara asked curiously, which was replied by the silence of the men, before one of them broke the ice as he answered.

"We... We were adventuring to the next village over, and when we went to our hometown... M-most of the houses were raided by a group of elves and cat tribes," The man answered while stuttering, however this time there was not a hint of drunkenness inside his words.

"We were too late, by the time we got there, the elves and cat beastkins were gone, nearly all of the residents died, even our families," another man continued.

"It's... Been months since that incident, we indulged ourselves with alcohol while the residents were rebuilding the village, until the acting chief couldn't take it anymore and expelled us," they explained further.

Kara had a complicated expression on her face. She was at a loss what to do, looking at her. I clapped my hand to gather attention.

"Well, how about this, go apologize to the residents of the village, and talk it out. I'm sure they'll help you, if you help them out!" I said with a smile. I tried to look into their thoughts and fragments of their memories. They were almost at the verge of being criminals, however they never did. They were well liked in the village, but the grief turned them like this.

Kara looked at me with hesitant eyes, she took a moment before saying anything.

"B-but what if they get rejected? Wouldn't the same thing happen like before and they would go rogue?" Kara explained uncomfortably. Her right hand kept on touching her neck reflexively with a sad puppy eyes on her expression, "A-also, they insulted Miss Goddess Lily…" Kara said with a hint of reddened cheek with an embarrassed look on her expression as she avoided eye contact with me.

"Don't worry, that won't happen," I assured Kara. Rather, I won't let it happen. The men were somewhat uncomfortable at my suggestions.

"Didn't you hear us? We're looking for the goddess of death! We don't care about livi-" one man screamed with a dramatic voice until he looked me in the eyes. The others were confused at the sudden stop with the rambling of the man.

The three of them were confused at the sudden petrified look at his companion. They were concerned with the well-being of their comrade, while he could only gaze at me blankly.

The others took notice until finally one of them asked, "Who are you?"

I was never fond of acting, however I found cosplaying to be quite nice, so I gazed at them with a smile as how a goddess would, and glowed a sprinkle of colorful light around them.

"Life is nothing but misery. Therefore, with the power of the divine, I, Yuzu, the goddess of death, curse you of living with the inability of malice until your time ends. Every time you think of harming others, you will be reminded of the scenes of your family dying inside your deepest memories, judging you. The moment you even try to inflict the slightest of pain to others, you will be met with imaginable suffering you couldn't even fathom!" I closed my eyes as I reached out my hand.

I couldn't let them die like that, they tried to hurt Kara. Dying would be a mercy. I would make them suffer for what they did to Kara. The light glowed brighter as the men were standing still as I continued.

"The curse would only end until you accepted yourselves, and grew your souls to be kind with each other, until then, you're not allowed to die." I finished as I opened my eyes with a smile.