The next few days passed in much the same way as the first one. Mornings and afternoons were well spent sleeping on an empty cart, away from the usual hubbub. As the days passed, though, the people’s animation slowly but surely began to decrease, their initial high of having discovered something important enough to warrant an early travel back home inversely proportional to their tiredness. As the days slowly, almost boringly passed by, the out-of-tune choirs and the loud discussions, powered by alcohol, dwindled until the point where only quiet conversations within small groups remained.
During the night, Kary would train until she was unable to get up from the ground, doing repetitive movements with a variety of weapons, sometimes even questioning the reason why she was doing that. Of course, deep down, she knew that she would need to build up strength if she ever wanted to realize her objective of going everywhere on this planet, which was all but proved by the monster that she had encountered on the first day, but the inherent pain, suffering, cramps, and sweat that came in with the process were annoying enough that she couldn’t help but ask herself if there was even any point in doing this.
Still, she continued to diligently train, regardless of who was her instructor for the day, be it the warm, albeit a little rough Tom, the silent and efficient Anna, who insisted on communicating only through gestures as long as the message was conveyed, though she rarely paid attention to see if that was the case, much preferring to simply move on with the usually one-sided conversation, or the annoying, nitpicky brother of hers, who insisted on criticizing every little thing she did, no matter how much effort she put into it. Although she could bear with the first two, as they did try to give pointers and correct her, the girl didn’t think that she would ever get along with Martin, who had proven himself time and time again to be nothing but an annoying prick. He had the strength and the teaching capabilities to be an instructor, but by the gods did Kary pity whoever has him as their full-time teacher.
Even enduring him once every three days was already taking a toll on her, so she couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have him constantly making snarky remarks about your posturing, your movements, the way your feet are planted on the ground, the way your hands hold the handle of the staff. Every time she trained with her, she would find herself both proud of herself and absolutely seething, for she knew that she had some of the best teachers she could ever hope for to teach her the basis of fighting, but it was hard to maintain a straight face throughout the onslaught of sarcastic comments and brutally honest remarks. For all that it was worth, though, he was diligent and efficient in pointing out her flaws, as well as providing genuinely useful advice, though of course everything had to be behind a layer of poison.
Different from him, his sister had a much more manageable personality, though she was just as bad in some areas, more specifically at communicating. For reasons Kary didn’t know and hadn’t asked, the woman forced herself to speak as little as possible, regardless of the context of the necessity of clear, oral instructions. During their first ‘class’ together, where the girl was taught how to properly hold a knife and roughly how to stab with it, she had even thought that Anna had some sort of personal grievance with her, though the reason as to why that would be the case never reached any plausible conclusion, with the girl simply attributing the insistence on the usage of signals was due to the fact that Kary had been taking up the majority of Asteria’s free time.
That, albeit a completely absurd reasoning, was the closest she got to a real answer, considering that she was never going to ask anybody to confirm her suspicions. Her initial plan was to simply observe the interactions between Anna and Asteria, and then draw a sounder conclusion, but, thankfully, she didn’t need to humiliate herself like that quite yet, since, from her stalking of the quiet assassin, it became painfully clear that she simply had a massive problem communicating with other people. Though she could speak normally, as Kary had observed during the day, the woman’s voice was hoarse, dry, devoid of emotion, a mask of neutrality that barred any and all inquiry. That made Kary quite curious about her instructor’s origins; since she was eerily good handling knives with both hands, to the point where Kary felt completely confident that she would have long been dead should the expressionless woman want it to be so.
Still, once again she couldn’t deny that the training she received was top notch. It started slow, with Anna providing the most basic of techniques on how to wield a dagger, but, as the weeks passed, it eventually evolved into both long and short range training while dual-wielding knives. If she were to be honest with herself, she quite enjoyed fighting with knives, with how they were able to be thrown into the distance and to be used in melee, though that required a level of strength that Kary wouldn’t be reaching any time soon. Regardless, she was happy that Asteria had forced her to do this training, although she would never admit it in front of her, since, even if she hated a good chunk of it, the end result was worth the suffering.
That realization, sadly, would only grace Kary with its existence when they were already more than halfway done with the journey, which let the girl with a feeling that she had wasted quite a lot of time. Of course, that wasn’t true in any sense, since she had been following the instructions whether she actually enjoyed it or not. Her family had long since beaten into her that she did not have to like doing something to do said thing, especially when failing to uphold expectations meant both verbal and physical beatings.
As she gazed up into the blue sky, admiring the fluffy and seemingly edible clouds that drifted by them, enjoying the gentle bumps that threatened to put her back to sleep, she thought about those days that seemed to be so distant, and yet at the same time so very near. She remembered Liz, with her cheerful smile, almost too bright to be directly looked at, her perfect rebukes for every situation, her unwavering confidence on herself… it kind of reminded her of the girl she had recently met, though, compared to Liz, Kary could see a sort of hollowness within the smile of the woman who insisted on using the girl as a pillow every day. When questioned about this weird preference, she had simply replied that Kary was comfortable, and that sleeping while hugging her was a great way to recharge her batteries, a remark that was immediately agreed upon by the much calmer and constantly drowsy girl, who Kary discovered was named Mirabel, though she insisted that they called her simply Mia.
Kary quite enjoyed their company, even if their conversations mostly consisted on Kelly sending off barrage after barrage of endless words, hopping from tale to tale like an hyperactive grasshopper. The girl tried to make sense of Kelly’s nonsensical mumblings, but, more often than not, she found herself following Mia into the land of the dreams, leaving Kelly to deliberate alone in the cart, though that didn’t seem to do much in regards to stopping her. It seemed like she was physically unable to store any thought for a period longer than three seconds, transforming everything that sent though her mind words, while at the same time not taking into consideration the damage that could be caused by the weird things she spouted.
Even then, Kary was forced to admit that simply standing there, trying to fight the drowsiness that always managed to overpower her thanks to the constant state of exhaustion she was in was quite enjoyable in and on itself. It reminded her of the days where she would go to school only to pass out and wake up halfway through the classes of the day, not knowing where she was or even what year they were in. She genuinely enjoyed listening to others talking, and meeting here with other people who could appreciate having someone capable of hearing was nothing less than a blessing. From experience, Kary could confidently say that most people with whom she was forced to interact throughout her high school didn’t want anyone to hear them; they simply needed a group of yes-man who would simply play along with the leader’s whims. It was almost a dictatorship, with the difference that the plebe could choose who they would swear themselves to.
It was nice to find genuine and honest people like Liz, but those like her, who went out of their way to be nice to everyone around them, were clearly the exception, the out of the norm. It was refreshing to be surrounded by people who genuine people who didn’t seem to mind her just listening to conversations, enjoying the atmosphere around her, enjoying the conversation while occasionally dropping in her comments. Ever since she was little, she had difficulty talking to people, a problem that only worsened as the time went on, as her mother couldn’t help but make fun of her for her social awkwardness every time the girl accidently showed this side of her to the witch. She grew learning how to hide her true feelings, to hide her expressions, her anxieties and insecurities, creating a mask for herself that made her seem like a cold person, someone who would only shun others away should they try to carelessly approach her.
Little did they know that, on the inside, Kary craved for attention, for the feeling of human touch, for the sensation of being loved, of having someone paying attention to her. It was a feeling that she had barely ever experienced, being too shy to speak about it to anyone, surviving by the sheer goodwill of the few who insisted on talking to her. It was a depressing lifestyle, and one that she had no interest in repeating this time around, for she knew that there would be no happy ending waiting for her. Last time around, she had died alone in a freak accident, membered as a mere statistic, surviving at best through the memory of Liz, and maybe through the relief her mother must have felt when the news reached her.
It was why in this life she was at least trying to open up to more people, though she still held inside much of her personal opinions. It was a wound that would take a long time to heal, and, even then, the girl knew that a scar would always remain, a constant reminder of the life that she had lost, of the miserable little life that she had experienced. Kary frowned as she thought about it, the fact that she would never be free of her mother’s influence, her vile words casting a shadow on her life even after leaving the entire world she resided in behind. Closing her eyes, she tried taking in deep breaths, in and out, telling herself that she would be fine, that everything would be okay, just like she had told herself time and time again. Though these words never had any impact other than prolonging her life a little longer, right now, she might actually believe in them. After all, life seemed to be surprisingly okay.
She had a few people whom she could call friends, and even a woman whom she would consider to be closer to a mother than her biological one. She had trainers, decent ones and weird ones, their quality unquestionable, contrary to their personality. Still, the people around her treated her with surprising kindness, even if not a single one of them knew who she was or what her past was. They simply accepted her, talked to her, insisted to have her participate in theirs choirs, her quiet voice, timid and reserved, drowned by the thunderous voices of men and women reeking of alcohol, though still there all the same. As hard as it was, she genuinely tried to get along with them, although she was always the one to be approached by people, some wondering her weird origins, others simply wanting to share their histories to anyone that would bother listening to them.
Closing her eyes, she smiled a little bit, basking under the warm sun as she thought about what her future could hold. For a few moments, she simply enjoyed herself, the sun, and the shaking of the cart she was lying in, almost drifting back to sleep before she was jolted awake by someone poking her left cheek. Even without opening her eyes, she knew pretty well who it was that dared to interrupt her precious nap time, despite knowing that she desperately needed it. The poking continued, and she tried her very best to ignore it, but it was relentless, eventually going down from her face, reaching her arms and targeting her tummy, making the pale girl explode in a fit of laughter.
“Stop, stop, please! I give up!”
“Aww… okay… Hah… it was fun, though. Your flesh is so soft and nice to poke~ I wanted to keep poking… poke, poke, poke, poke, poke” The small girl still holding her as if she was body pillow continued to poke Kary, pointedly ignoring her pleas to stop. In a monotone voice, she continued muttering the same words on her ear, making the convulsing girl blush like a tomato, completely unused to such close proximity. Every time she felt the hot breath of Mia down her neck her entire body would shiver as if she had been forced to step outside during the worst snowstorm of the century, her skin forming countless little bumps on its surface, making the attacking girl grow even bolder. The hugging grew tighter, and the poking continued to force a shrilling laugh out of the girl that echoed throughout the plains.
The relentless attack continued until Kary thwacked Mia on the head, stopping the young girl’s advances on its tracks, as the smug smile, coupled with a mischievous glint within her eyes, swiftly transitioned into an exaggerated, almost caricatured face of extreme pain. The serious, stone-faced girl, in a moment’s notice transitioned into a teary-eyed, pitiful creature, carefully caressing the place where she had been hit, staring at Kary with big, confused eyes, as if asking ‘why?’ Of course, she knew very well the reason why she had been hit, but Mia found that such a sad, indignant face usually was more than enough to get her out of any trouble. It was her free ‘get out of jail’ card, though she had been using it with such frequency that Kary was now immune to it.
That little show of hers only got her a flick on the forehead, a softer reprimanding method comparing to the violent hit to her head that she had just received, but it still stung more than what she would be willing to admit. Adamant about admitting defeat to Kary, Mia simply turned the other way, finally freeing the pale girl from her grasp, who simply seated for a moment before stretching, releasing a little bit of the tension she had been accumulating on these past few days. Despite the blissful feeling she had whenever she was praised by one of her nightly instructors or when she was able to notice her own improvement, she could feel that such a routine could not go on forever. Tension was rapidly accumulating on her limbs, from her arms to the tip of her toes, and, since her routine consisted of basically sleeping, waking up, eating, stretching, and training, there were no moments she could use to relieve some of that tension.
Her interactions with the two girls who insisted on sleeping around her did help a lot when it came to unwinding every time she was left as a mass of pained and sore muscles on the ground, carrying her and even giving her a bath from time to time, courtesy of Penny’s magical abilities, though that wasn’t a certainty, since technically she was only supposed to spend her mana on matters regarding the entirety of the caravan. Asteria, as the caring person she was behind her cold and detached façade, most often than not would turn the other way for such uses of magic, but she had admonished them that doing such actions out in the open every day could eventually lead to them getting discovered, and that would consequentially cause Penny to be ineligible to receiving the rewards for this mission, which would be quite a big trouble, since she was banking on that to continue her studies of magic.
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After all, from the stories she had been told, the mage lifestyle was often depicted as one exclusive to the rich and powerful who could afford to acquire all those rare items, materials and staffs made by master craftsmen, as the cheap stuff was more prone to… accidents, and accidents regarding magic were much more dangerous that the usual, ran on the mill, physical accidents, as the results were always extreme and never predictable at all. They could range from simply exploding, to catching on fire, transforming the wielder of the problematic object to be turned into an animal, or simply making them into a fuming pile of gray ash. History had shown time and time again that magic shouldn’t be treated carelessly if it was the desire of the fledging mage to remain alive.
Because of that, Penny, who was from a small village that few even knew the name of, was forced to interact with nobles and heirs of the most influential merchants in the kingdom, slowly but surely growing her strength both physically and politically. It was almost comical that one of the few commoners who decided to take on the role of a magician became one of the brightest young talents, surpassing a number of Young Lords and Young Ladies, Masters and Mistresses, the speed with which she learned new things seldom decreasing at all. Some of the more traditional houses hated her guts, since she had this bubbly personality that made her approach everyone with bizarre abilities, her touchy-touchy approach not seating really well for most of them.
Still, that didn’t mean that she was universally disliked either, as her competence as a mage attracted quite the number of eager merchants trying to sell them their wares, as well as some few noble families trying to sell of their younglings in order to bring a decently strong mage with significant room to grow. It was a small price to pay, in their warped vision of the world, to marry off one of your offsprings in order to secure both a powerful fighting force and someone that could give birth to strong children right off the bat. Since Penny thought that such a way of thinking was absolutely disgusting, she refused every single one of their requests, acquiring through it quite the infamy among certain social circles.
Due to the way she was raised up, the girl was well aware of the many possibilities presented by magic beyond being a toy for rich people to play with. Of course, those at the top most probably already knew and used magic for trivial things like taking baths, washing clothe, cleaning, cooking, among other things, but gods forbid such knowledge ever reaches the hands of a filthy peasant! For generations and generations, the folks at the top, especially the nobles from the old empire, kept their lips tightly shut about any uses of magic outside of what was already commonly known. It was considered by many as a weapon of war, a tool with which the nobility could take care of monsters with ease, with the very, very optimistic maybe considering it to be also a tool used for the reconstruction of the places ravaged by rampant monsters.
It was a shrewd move, made in order to make the populace content with the way magic was being used, while at the same time using the church to persecute anyone who might question their ideals. They couldn’t bear to have a random person from the streets, living their day to day lives on precarious building of woods and stone, scraping by with their copper coins, enjoying the same privileges that they had been using with abandon for the last many, many decades. That was the reason Penny had to provide water for Kary’s bathing time in secret, as a commoner utilizing mana so recklessly would be treated kindly for not one of the ones who had the summary permission to utilize their magic in such ways. It was simply a privilege for the rich and powerful, and, although Penny was certainly the latter, she lacked the specific type of power — influence, political power — to use her magic to the best of her own abilities.
Still, Kary was grateful for the gesture. It was hard to find genuine kindness in a world ruled through an iron fist, but there it was, smiling warmly at her as she cleaned herself far away from prying eyes. After her nightly routine was concluded, by that point having almost been able to be called a ‘morning routine’, she went to sleep smothered in between the two other girls, the cheerful and strong Penny and the small, blunt, and mischievous Mia. Despite her initial reluctance to adopting such a routine, she was forced to admit that she didn’t hate it nearly as much as someone seeing it from the outside might’ve thought. After all, despite experiencing extenuating torture every single night, it was undeniable that she was making rapid progression, her abilities when handling swords, axes, knives and staves growing significantly by the day.
After accomplishing so much, Kary began to feel more and more confident of herself, like a balloon filled with hot air, ready to explode and deflate and the smallest amount of pressure from outside of the controlled environment. It was a hollow confidence, backed by nothing but her ability to make progress, which, in and on itself, wasn’t exactly a good way to measure her abilities in absolute values. Though she had her status to rely on, since she had been unable to get anyone around her to disclose anything about theirs, the girl simply had no reference to go with. She knew that she was still far from being as strong as Tom, as dexterous as Martin, as swift as Asteria, or as fluid in her movements as Anna, but still, a small part of her was convinced that, with enough practice, she would be at their level in no time at all. Of course, that was far from being the truth, and she knew it, but there was still a small, unwavering hope that she would manage to surpass her masters in record time.
These small flickers of hope, however, were promptly shattered by Anna on a single night, when, for the first time, monsters decided to attack the resting caravan. That was also the moment when Kary discovered the weapon that she wanted to master, the weapon with which she wanted to carve her own path, even if it meant cutting a path through piles upon piles of flesh and blood. As Asteria had told her, the training she was going through was not just for the girl to become familiarized with different types of weapons, but also to help her decide to which path she wanted to go. Perhaps she would follow the knight’s footsteps, ingressing on the world of knighthood, but Kary had never really felt a knack for it. It wasn’t a bad option, sure, but there was nothing there that resonated with her. She would be bound to a kingdom, unable to move as freely as she liked, forced to take orders and work like a slave. Though others might enjoy the idea that they were making the kingdom safer, Kary had no desire to be part of this system.
On the contrary, she could go and become an adventurer, much like the other three people that were instructing her, going on journeys while slowly increasing her ranks through reliably completing missions and slowly growing stronger herself. Different from the idea of being a knight, adventuring seemed to provide a much bigger degree of freedom, though there was still some form of contractual obligation between her and the guilds, the places where adventurers congregated on the bigger cities, where they would be able to eat, drink, and accept missions if they so pleased. Kary assumed, however, that she would be forced to sign contracts independent of the area that she chose, whether she liked it or not. That was simply how things worked and, unless she was ready to change an entire kingdom (which she was not), she should start conforming with some of the rules in place.
Regardless of that, the fact still remained that it took not even twenty minutes of fighting to make Kary decide that she wanted to master the knife. Maybe it would be different if the person wielding them was different, or if the level of ability showcased was anything less, or even if the weapon used was another one entirely. It was late into the night and, while most of the people on the encampment were fast asleep, Kary was still there, relentlessly practicing the same move over and over again, trying to make as close as possible to the original version shown by Anna. She was so immersed in her own training that she completely failed to notice the dark shadows, smaller than the average person, swiftly moving through the plains, protected by the veil of darkness provided by the new moon. She only stopped to pay attention when she felt something touching her left shoulder, which was usually the sign given to her by Anna that it was enough training for the night.
Still, Kary thought that it was still way too early to stop, since she hadn’t even began sweating yet, the cool wind of night keeping her body sufficiently cold. If she ever stopped to think about it, she would perhaps realize how weird it was that her body, completely lacking in many aspects to the usual human body, was still able to sweat just a profusely as an average human. She wanted to ask her instructor why it was that they were already stopping for the night, but, before she could ask, she simply saw the woman’s finger moving a straight line, a movement so fluid that the girl couldn’t help but want to immediately try to imitate, though she did manage to restrain her own impulses on the last second, afraid of the admonition that would surely come should she choose to ignore Anna’s order.
Instead, she stared expectantly at the woman’s face, patiently awaiting new orders, which came in a very simple manner: Anna pointed to the dark shadow rapidly approaching, then to both of Kary’s eyes, and then pointed her own thumb towards herself. Having spent almost a quarter of her time awake during this journey, the girl could somewhat guess what she was trying to convey. She would do something to those shapes approaching, shapes that that the girl hadn’t realized were there before Anna pointing it out, and that she probably would have remained blissfully ignorant about, if the silent instructor in front of her didn’t want her to witness whatever would happen next.
Picking her two favorite knives from the collection of scabbards scattered all throughout her body, Anna began to move forward, calmly moving towards the many small shapes that seemed undeterred by the threat that approached them. For a single moment, the woman turned her head back, staring deep into Kary’s eyes, before uttering a single, raspy word. “Observe”, she said, a sentence much bigger than anything Kary had ever seen the woman speak. While she knew from other people that the woman was capable of human speech just like anybody else thanks to the gossipers among the caravan, she had yet to learn just how her voice sounded like until this very moment. Before she could properly digest everything that was happening around her, though, her instructor had already begun to move.
She raised her left arm high into the sky, almost as if she wanted to pluck a star from its place in the night. The dagger, reflecting the vary faint light from the celestial bodies above, shined ominously, announcing to all the individuals who had chosen this night in particular to sneak attack the caravan that they would all be dead by the time the sun once more rose in the horizon. The writhing mass of shadows approaching them, however, seemed to be completely oblivious of the fact that their fate had just been sealed, though it is quite unfair to blame their ignorance solely on them, as Kary was anxiously watching, trying to guess what would happen next.
To her surprise, the weapon that Anna was holding but a moment ago disappeared in the blink of an eye, melting into the darkness of the night, away from the eyes of both victim and witnesses. The only proof Kary even had that the knife had, in fact, been thrown, was the fact that Anna’s wrist was slight, albeit noticeably, bent forward. If not for that, maybe the girl would have simply thought that the woman was a magician, performing tricks to impress that crowd. Though when the crowd wanted to kill them and the magic showed by the magician was nothing more than high-level handling of weapons, it was impossible to fault one for thinking that everything was nothing but an elaborate piece of theatric, although that notion would be quickly blown away by the first very real, very pained screech that echoed through the plains, a sound that would be impossible to perfectly emulate without the proper emotions being into place.
Squinting her eyes, Kary saw some objects roughly the size of children’s’ heads falling to the ground one after another, a liquid that seemed to be blood flowing like a perpetual fountain out of the lopped off parts. The girl opened her mouth, both due to her shock and admiration and due to her want to question her silent instructor, but Anna, noticing the movement from afar, simply pressed her index finger on her lips, indicating that, right now, she demanded absolute silence, an order so direct that Kary would never dare to try to break. She closed her mouth, wondering what would come next, before noticing that the form of Anna had all but disappeared from the place it originally was.
Was Kary so lost within her own little world that she had failed to notice such a big chance? No, not really. What really happened was that Anna, as a way to show off her prowess to the little girl who had been growing on her during these past few weeks, decided to engage with melee with the little inconveniences that were goblins. They were surprisingly sturdy for the size, and also bred like rabbits, their populations serving as tasty snacks to many predators immediately above them in the food chain. Right now, though, they were nothing more than training dummies, whose only purpose was to show what Kary could also one day be able to do, should she continue to travel the same professional path as Anna had adventured into, so many years ago.
It was even a good practice for the adventurer, as she was forced to slow down a little so as to not completely overwhelm the watching girl, while at the same time displaying enough strength that she should be left in awe. Thankfully, the careful control of her own strength that she had developed through the years of adventuring did pay off, with her being able to move with the speed of the northern wind and the fluidity of the Great River that crossed the capital at its center, dodging attacks coming from all directions, while at the same time hacking and cutting through the horde of monsters, untouchable.
The experience would make Kary realize just how small she was, how insignificant she still was when compared to the best of the best, the apex of their own fields, the masters of their craft. She was still nothing more than a fledgling with dreams of grandeur, though those were still there, lurking, pushing her forward and forcing her to diligently practice every day. Even during later attacks from more powerful monsters, who were swiftly defeated by the combined force of the adventurers employed by the king, none could ignite in her the same spark caused by Anna’s flawless victory over a few dozen goblins.
Days passed leisurely, her routine unchanged, the biggest difference in general being the atmosphere of the caravan, who grew somber by the day as they slowly but surely approached the capital of the city. They had passed on the vicinity of numerous small villages during their one and a half month of travel, but, if the stories she was told were the least bit accurate, then Kary would be eager to see the capital of the kingdom that had taken her in. During that time, the elders returned to their positions, reigning order to the slight chaos still remaining despite Asteria’s best efforts. For the first time in a long while, Kary was actually enjoying herself, going out of her way to listen to gossips, to laugh with others, to enjoy terrible meals by the warmth of the fire. It was nice.
Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and that little moment of joy wasn’t any different. During another lazy day, in nothing different from any other, the girl laid on the cart she had almost grown to call home, staring at the sky and thinking about unimportant things, before she heard a shout coming all the way from the front, startling awake Mia who, before looking around to see if there was anything important going on, immediately went back to sleep.
“We are nearing the valley! The capital is near, friends!”
Overjoyed cheers were shouted from all across the caravan, the meaning of the words impossible to be any clearer. Their journey was coming to an end, after two months since Kary had come to this world. In one rare exception given to her by her own brain, she got up from the cart, a trick she had learned some time before the end of the first month of travel, and walked towards the front, passing through crying scholars and grinning adventurers, everyone clearly happy to be finally home. On the front of the caravan, Kary had full view of the sprawling valley in front of her, descending like the belly of a giant beast long slain by some powerful hero. Sitting on the belly of the round depression on the ground was a walled city, from where sprawled countless towers into the sky, visible despite the immense distance that still separated the group from the gates. At last, they had arrived.