Hello my few, but beloved readers! I have another chapter for you today! If you see any mistakes or grammar errors please leave a comment.

Enjoy~

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“Today is looking better and better.” I said to myself with a gleeful grin on my face.

“Elicia agrees to go with me to the Harvest Festival, and now I find this gold piece!” I exclaimed softly to myself while holding the gold piece up to my eye.

‘I imagine some merchant is cursing under his breath while thinking of this lost gold piece. I would too for this amount of money. But I found it resting on the ground fair and square, and by law it would be mine since it was abandoned.’ I rationalized to myself while walking past the fields of colorful plants.

After about twenty minutes of me admiring the no small sum of money I found, I walked into the part of the road that led through the orchards. These orchards weren’t normal orchards, like most of the crops grown around this city, these ones grew inedible fruits and nuts used in the alchemy factory.

We barely grow any of our own food because this city is a very important one to the country. The soil conditions in our general area are perfect for various different plants used in alchemy, because of that, we have a large factory dedicated to mass producing potions of various different uses, and with the war we’re in against the neighboring dark elf country, this city gained even more importance.

The type of potions the factory makes are health potions and small enhancement potions, and it’s very crucial having our whole army stocked with life saving potions as well as body enhancement potions.

We are the only nation with a valley perfect for cultivating plants used in alchemy, and because of this we have to fend off invaders all the time.

It’s not like there aren’t similar growing conditions elsewhere, it’s just those areas are always infested with dangerous beast.

The city itself is built on a lone mountain in the middle of the potion-plant fertile valley, and the way the city layout was designed makes defending from any siege an easy task. The main street is straight and constantly going up on an incline until you reach the noble district on top of the mountain.

Each tier also has a full wall with reinforced gates, with a total of 3 tiers, and if any invading army breaches one gate, they would have to do it again 2 more times. Not to mention the constant uphill battle they would have to face.

Laying siege on the other sides of the city is also impossible too. This is because of the way the mountain was carved out, all sides of the mountain are practically 90 degree angles going up hundreds of feet, except the main gate, with a man made moat surrounding the entirety of the mountain.

Because of the city's excellent defenses, it makes a big target for saboteurs, in this case dark elven, and their ideal target would usually be the potion factory, since all you would have to do is get in, put some kind of mixture in the vats and leave.

To combat any sabotage attempts the factory has many skilled guards on patrol at all times along with more magic wards and alarms than the king’s palace, so getting in is nearly impossible.

Dark elves are also not native to any parts of our country and they don’t immigrate like other elves do, so spotting one is easy. The only real way they could get into the city would be through illusion magic, hired thugs, rogues or any sort of renegade willing to do dirty work for some coin.

As I continued to walk through the shaded orchards, almost to Mrs.Enhana’s estate, I heard a scream.

The scream caught me off guard and I immediately stopped in my tracks. A serious look replaced my elated one and I placed the gold bit into my coin purse while trying to hear for more sounds.

Another, more feminine, scream sounded out. But this time I was ready.

It came from within the orchard treeline. Most likely some thugs or bandits robbing a couple who were wondering about the orchard.

After confirming the the direction of the screams, I weighed my options.

‘Should I run and get Mrs.Enhana to deal with this? Her estate is only a few minutes away… No, those two people would most likely be dead or missing by then. I have to do something.’

With a quick decision I began running towards the source of the screams.

After two minutes of sprinting, I arrived at the scene, and what I saw was two rough looking guys with large frames and equally large weapons cornering a young woman.

She didn’t have a look of terror on her face, but an angry one. At first I thought it strange that a girl as young looking as that wasn’t terrified or sobbing, I then spotted the corpse of a young man next to her.

It was bizarre to me that she didn’t have a single tear in her eye, even when faced with two large thuggish men and with what I assume is the corpse of a lover or friend next to her.

But I pushed that thought to the back of my mind, what mattered more was someone was in danger, and I have a perfect chance to sneak attack those large men.

So I stealthily made my way behind a tree about ten feet from them, and it was then that I was able to hear what they were saying.

“Surrender and we won’t hurt ya much.” The large man threatened while bouncing the mace in his hand.

“Fuck you! Like I would let a brute like you touch me!” She spat out with venom at him.

I took note of her strong personality, and I then began tuning out the threats and insults they were throwing at each other to search for a source of water.

Looking around, I frantically searched with my eyes to find any amount of water, I was hoping for a bucket or a barrel, or even a puddle. But after a few seconds of scanning, I found nothing.

“Shit shit, it’s going to take longer to conjure water.” I habitually pushed my glasses up, “At least it will make my spell more powerful.”

After I stopped talking under my breath, I began to chant quietly while tuning out even more.

Meanwhile, the bickering that was happening behind my tree increased in intensity.

“You killed our comrade, you fucking bitch.” The man with the mace.

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The woman with brown hair spat on the corpse and snarled, “Come any closer and you’ll join him.”

“Grrr…” The man with the sword growled, and the both of the them began advancing slowly on the cornered woman.

After I completed the chant, and confirming that I had enough water for the offensive spell I had in mind, a faint sound could be heard a little ways away from me.

“Hehe… Go on little mage, save that poor woman…”

I snapped my head to the left, trying to catch whatever made that noise, but I saw nothing nor heard anything more.

Dismissing it, I peeked over from my tree. What I saw was the two large men closing in on the woman.

“Shit, I don’t have much time.” I cursed softly.

With such little time I closed my eyes, to focus harder, and began chanting the offensive spell.

After a good ten seconds, small ice spears started forming from the conjured water that was floating around me, and after another ten seconds they started glowing faintly.

In total there was thirteen small ice spears, all floating around me before I stopped chanting and opened my eyes.

At this point both of the thugs had stopped advancing and were exchanging words with the woman, weapons still at the ready.

But I couldn’t hear a word they were saying, I could only hear the sound of my heart beating as well as my own thoughts.

‘This is it. This is the day I really become a man. The day I take another person’s life… Two people in fact.’

I stood there looking at the scene as if it was in slow motion. Not a word could be heard. Even if someone was yelling right in my ear, I still wouldn’t hear it.

I was completely absorbed with my own thoughts, I then began to shake.

‘Why can’t I stop shaking? What’s wrong with me? An innocent girl is about to be brutalized and another innocent man is already dead. Why can’t I focus?’

That was the only thing going through my mind, the only sound in my little world.

Those exact thoughts going through my head over and over again.

At that point I was quivering with fear and anxiety while they were almost upon her.

‘This woman is going to lose her life and most likely be violated, but all I can do is stand here watching, not able to even lift a finger? I-I got… t-to…’

On the verge of tears I closed my eyes and yelled out the last part of the incantation.

“EK VRY YS”

As I said the last syllable of my incantation, my eyes snapped open and my arms raised towards the two large men, and when they straightened, all thirteen of my ice spears launched faster than any normal arrow towards their exposed back. I don’t know why this happened, my body just acted on its own.

The man on the left, sword in hand, turned his head and looked behind himself when he heard the yell. The sight he saw startled him greatly, a young man that looked to be about 16 or 17 in age, with a dark blue overcoat, slicked back azure hair, round glasses and what seemed to be a shit load of glowing ice spears.

But before he could even turn around or say anything 5 of those ice spears came flying towards him in different order. The first one to reach him hit his leg, and before he could scream or fall down, three impaled him in the back, piercing all the way to his chest, and finally the last thing he ever saw was the last ice spear speeding towards his head.

Soon after the man on the left was killed, his comrade whipped his whole body around just in time to see eight glowing ice spears speeding towards him.

Six whole ice spears impaled him on his stomach while the last two hit his left shoulder.

“Gahhh! Fuck!” The large man cursed after being hit by the ice spears.

As the thug fell to the ground he dropped his mace and landed on his back.

Laying there on the ground, dazed and confused he began to cough violently, and in between blood filled gurgles he managed to wheeze out, “W-why?” Before he expiring.

I stood there with a blank expression on my face and tears welling in my eyes.

The scene that just happened began playing in my mind, over and over again, with no sound except the disturbing gurgling the last man made.

My hands raised to the front of my eyes, I fell to my knees.

I kept staring at my hands while the fresh memory of those two men dying replayed with that sickening gurgle being the only sound, over and over again.

As I stay there on my knees staring into my hands, the woman that was assaulted by those two big men began speaking.

“Heh, you took care of those two big guys pretty fast. Hey! Can you even hear me?”

The woman began walking towards me, but I didn’t notice.

That’s when she said, “Thanks for taking care of those pest. If you hadn’t arrived then I might have actually been injured.”

She walked up right in front of me, bent over and gave me a small kiss on my head while giggling. “Young boys always look so cute when they get their first kill.”

With that, she disappeared within the treeline.

‘Why do I care so much? Why am I like this? They were just two thugs… They deserved it, so why am I like this?’

I failed to notice anything unfolding around me. The only thing I was seeing was that very vivid and fresh memory and the only thing I was hearing was those questions.

A bit further away the shadow that was trailing me began retreating towards the city.

I don’t know how long I was there for, it must have been a long time because the sun was already setting before I regained my senses. That’s when I felt a hand upon my shoulder.

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Hmm, after re-reading that after the release, it feels clunky to me. But I wont edit it until I wake up, I'm really tired and I wrote this chapter with little sleep. I apologize and I'll make sure to never write chapters tired again, or at least edit them while tired lol.

Sorry for the sub-par quality. Please forgive me!

*I just edited the chapter a bit to make it flow better.*

*Thanks for reading!*