In the middle of the night, gunshots echo from one part of the slums. Such events are not very uncommon so most people who lives here are no longer bothered by it. They would rather not get involved and get caught in the crossfire.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Azalea runs and jumps around the roofs while being chased by a number of armed people. “Hey, hey! Can we not be violent?! Let’s talk this out!”

“Shut up! And drop dead!”

“Idiot! We need her alive!”

“How about I pay you some, so you’d stop going after me?” She offers while still running away and dodging attacks that comes from different directions.

“Oh yeah?? How much?!!”

“Don’t fall for it, you shit for brains!” Then he hits the other at the back of the head.

“Aw-!”

Gunshots keeps raining on the streets. Looking at the surroundings, the ruckus that they make is highly noticeable but nobody seems concerned. The residents simply hide and continue their normal routine.

The night has become livelier compared to the desolate feel during the day. There are people loitering and smoking on the side of the streets. The drunkards are singing their hearts out in some corner. Another group can be heard singing along a loud speaker from inside a slightly run down establishment. A number of prostitutes can also be seen either looking for a customer or is already clinging to one. Not far away, a group of opposing gangs seems to be on an all-out war with each other.

It looks like there is chaos everywhere.

“Okaaayy~!” Azalea turns and faces them for a moment. “So what do you want?”

The leader points at her. “You!” He is carrying a specialized gun.

“Aww~ I’m so touched but you’re not my type.”

“Bitch!” He grinds his teeth then he gives a signal to his men. We’re getting paid with something that you can’t simply get your hands on easily.”

Someone suddenly shoots a net to capture her but she evades it easily.

“Damn bro, no chill!” She once again runs towards the constricted and dark alleys.

“Capture her! Don’t let her get out of our area of authority!”

She runs around, going in circles, twists and turns as if she has no sense of direction. The group of armed men chases after her. Since they are greater in number, they can prepare in advance to predict her path and block her way. Little by little they are securing the area by restricting the paths that their target can pass through.

“Over here!”

“Little shit, stop!”

“Why would I stop?!!” Azalea takes a turn. “You’re chasing me with guns and shit! Are you fucking braindead??!!!”

“Go around! At the back!”

While they are running around the alleys, a man has positioned on the roof waiting for a chance. When he gets a good aim, he shoots Azalea aiming for her leg. Fortunately, Azalea roughly detected his presence so she used her floating luggage as a shield. After all, she does not want to dig up another bullet in her body.

“Hey careful! What if I got hit??!” She yells scolding the gunman.

“Oh, s-sorry…”

“Are you fucking drunk?!! Motherfucker, keep on shooting!”

“Shit-!!” She looks around and she is almost surrounded.

“I told you not to drink when we have a job.”

“I’m not drunk. J-just a few bottles.”

“Tsk-! You count later how many bottles I’ll break into your fucking skull!”

“It seems that everyone’s already in position, huh?” Azalea observes their formation. “How about we calm down now, and have a little chat?”

The leader smirks. “It’s okay if you injure her a bit. According to the information she can heal herself anyway.”

“Crap! That’s super bad news for me.” She quickly prepares a defensive spell.

She is able to activate a magical barrier just in time when they started shooting at her. Even though her defensive spells are underdeveloped, she considers it still somewhat decent. However, some bullets managed to pierce through her barrier. It means that some of them are using magically imbued weapons.

“We still need you alive.” The leader says in a threatening way. “Let’s make things easy for the both of us. Surrender now before you get hurt real bad.”

“Fine.” Azalea raises both hands. Just when her pursuers is feeling a little confident, she smiles menacingly at them. “I’m done playing with you. He, he. Activate: Smoke Screen!”

A magic circle glows around Azalea and then thick smoke explodes around her. At the same time something also flashes from several places that added more smoke around them. Unknown to them, Azalea put up the smoke screen spell around the area while running around in circles. She just needs to activate it when the right time comes. All of a sudden a large area of the slums is covered with thick gray smoke. Not only does it obscure their vision, it also irritates their eyes and makes it hard to breath.

“What?!! When did she-?!!”

“Hey! Stop shooting randomly! You’re going to hit me, dumbass!” Someone shouts.

“I can’t fucking see-”

“Hurry up and get rid of the damned smoke!” The leader commands while coughing.

“The little shit is gone!”

“Boss! All paths are covered with smoke!”

“Fuck-! That bitch!!!”

As the smoke thinned, Azalea also disappeared.

∞×∞

Thirtieth day of Panca’xahr, 4043 AOT

Wave 3, Arbhur City Zone-0, Aesbyl Region

These past few days, Azalea has been traveling to avoid the bounty hunters. Moving around be it day or night has been hard. If she gets found and makes a ruckus in one place, a lot more hunters will suddenly gather close to that area. She was almost surrounded a few times but thanks to her quick thinking she always manages to slip away before falling into their trap.

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Acquiring food and drinks is also hard. She can only buy easy to eat food like biscuits while on the run. Staying in a small eatery to have a meal can gather attention to her, and her photo has been spread around well. If she stays in one place for too long, it quickly gets overrun by mercenaries. Just the other day, she found a wanted poster of herself being blown away by the wind. Because of this getting a decent rest has been almost impossible. If this hide-and-seek continues any longer, she will only exhaust herself.

“I really need to leave.” She tells herself while sneaking around at the back alley of slightly dilapidated housings. “At least… get away from places with people. God damn! How are they not getting tired? They must have trained extremely hard to become this kind of mercenaries. And here I was thinking that I’m pretty resilient.”

Azalea is counting on the natural function of the human body that needs a few hours of sleep every day. If only they would stop and rest then she may have a bit more freedom of movement and leave this Zone-0 faster. Unfortunately, it seems that they have divided themselves into groups, and they take turns so majority of their people are functional and are posted in key areas. Their number is not the only problem here. This slums are their territory, they know it like the back of their hands, so it is clear that they have the advantage of terrain. Furthermore, with the way they are operating, it is clear that they have an outstanding leader.

“I cannot underestimate them.”

After sneaking and crawling around the dirtiest and stinkiest backstreets, and going up walls and roofs; Azalea manages to slip out of Wave 2 and enter Wave 3. Now she just have to get out of Wave 3, Wave 4 and Wave 5 hoping that she will not get into any more trouble while doing so. She was not expecting that passing by in Surus before going to Westar would become this complicated.

“I should efficiently get rid of my luggage.” Azalea’s stomach rumbles as she talks to herself in a malodorous corner filled with random garbage. “Okay, I ran out of food and I stink… This is very unpleasant.”

She goes up the roof to check the situation in the adjacent streets. The roof is a little unstable that it feels like it might crumble if she makes a wrong step. While quietly observing the streets, she almost trips on a sleeping stray cat that hissed at her before scurrying away.

“Holy crap! Okay, except for that cat, it seems safe… What to do next? Should I eat? Or find a way to get rid of this smell?”

The color of the sky is starting to change as the sun is setting. She swiftly and smoothly jumps from roof to roof ensuring that there is little noise as much as possible. Just to be safe, she is looking for a street that is the least crowded and close to an inn. If she could get a room to stay in even for a few hours, that would be a great help.

While jumping around, she lands on a roof with a small bird nest. The disturbed bird suddenly flies in front of her blocking her view and startling her. She loses her footing, slides on the unstable roof and falls down the ground. Her weapon and luggage followed her fall with a clang and a thud. She tries to lessen the impact of her fall by rolling so she ended up in the middle of the street. All her effort to stay low profile has gone down the drain. The eyes of the few people who are passing by instantly turn their gaze at her.

“S-sorry about that. I kinda slipped.” She immediately stands up. “Damn these animals been messing with me today.” She grumbles as she gestures a magic circle lights up for a moment and then her weapon and luggage floats again.

“Are you okay?” A girl who seems to be in her teens approaches her. She is only carrying a bag of eggs, meat and root crops.

“Yeah, don’t worry about that it kinda happens often.” Her stomach grumbles.

“…”

“Hehe.”

“Are you really okay?”

She scratches the back of her head while forcing a laugh. “Oh… it’s just… I’m still looking for food and lodging around here.”

“Around here?” The teenage girl looks at her suspiciously. “This isn’t… really a pleasant place to stop by.”

“Yeah… I can kinda tell…”

She clears her throat. “If you need a place to stay for a while… and get cleaned up. I can lend you my place, but only for one night.”

“Wow thanks.”

“I’m charging you.” She leads the way.

She follows close behind. “Oh… that’s fine too.”

“Our place isn’t big. I have a very young sister there too. We live with our uncle but he rarely comes home… but I’d rather not have you and him meet.”

“Okay, I understand.”

They arrive in front of an old small one-story house. It is made of wood and concrete, much like most of the houses in the neighborhood. The concrete walls have some cracks and the wooden parts are slightly damaged. The interior is simple with wooden chairs and stalls. The living room goes straight to the dining hall with just a wooden divider in between. After the dining hall is the humble kitchen and bathroom side by side. On one side, occupying the other half of the house beside the living room and dining hall are two separate bedrooms.

“Sorry, we only have bread right now.” The teen says while going directly to the kitchen. “I’ll go cook something.”

“No, it’s fine.” Azalea replies shyly.

“If you say so… Then the room farther back is me and my sister’s room. The other one belongs to my uncle.”

“Big sis!” A kid comes out of the room running towards the teen. “Welcome home!”

“How cute.” Azalea smiles at the child who looks like she is around four or five.

“You can take my bed tonight but you have to share it with my sister, as you can see.”

“What’s dinner?” The child asks.

“I’m fine, I’ll take the floor since I’m more comfortable that way. But I’d like to take a bath first.”

“Okay, if that’s what you really want. Put your stuff inside the room then come follow me.”

“Ah thanks.”

“Sis! Sis, dinner!”

“Yes, I’m on it. Go play in the living room for a bit.”

Even though the place looks like an ordinary household, Azalea keeps her wariness. Since Pulse is always active, she can feel what presence may be hiding around if there are any. So far, the house is very safe. She feels no hidden weapon or magical items. All three of them must be ubliss. There is no animosity in the air which allows her to relax a little bit.

After cleaning herself and getting rid of the stink, she is invited to join dinner with the sisters. She goes to the dining table wearing a clean set of casual clothes. She hangsher light armor by the window inside the bedroom. She takes a seat while observing the kinds of food that is prepared on the table. An ordinary meal composed of boiled potatoes and an egg soup with some meat. Now that they are comfortable, it is time for them to get a more in-depth discussion.

“My name-” The teenage girl starts off by formally introducing herself but she gets interrupted mid-sentence.

“It’s okay, I don’t wanna know.”

“…”

“I won’t tell you my name either. There is something that you want to ask from me.”

“Ah-! Well…”

“It’s okay, but I’m not very rich right now.”

“N-no… That… I’ve saved up enough money.” She glances at her sister who is nonchalantly eating the soup. “You look strong… but not like the mercenaries around here.”

“I guess… so…”

“I want you to help us escape.”

“Escape? What? Why?”

“I mean… I want to be more independent. I’ll be taking my sister with me and leave this house for good.”

“If you’re that dedicated then I believe you already have a plan. I can take you on my way out of here. Do you already have a place that you want to go to?”

“For now, I just want to leave Aesbyl Region.”

“I see. I’m on my way out as well. I can take you with me if you want. I’m going to go out the border and into the country of Uar.”

She smiles. “Sure! Any other place would be better than here.”

“I’d like to sell some of my things to get some cash, and I don’t want to keep carrying such heavy baggage. Can you help me sell them?”

“If you can sort them out tonight then I can take them with me tomorrow.”

“Thanks.”

With that they have established an agreement. After the dinner, while older sister helps bath the younger one, Azalea goes inside the room to sort the things she want to sell. She only takes the necessary items with her, like her license, wallet, phone and an old rugged looking journal. Then she takes a few more things that she can fit in her smaller bag. Afterwards, she then cleans up her hunting outfit with magic. She makes sure that it is now free of dirt and bad odor.

The little sister then comes in the room. She looks at the stranger in strange clothing before slowly walking closer to her.

“Are you big sis’ friend?”

“Y-yeah, that’s right.”

“Okay. You’re nice.”

She forces a laugh. “Are you tired? I’ll tuck you in.”

The little girl nods before raising her arms waiting to be picked up. Azalea carries the child and then tucks her in the bed. She stays by the child’s side until she falls asleep. She stares at the innocent child sleeping unbothered while appreciating how peaceful this moment is compared to her situation these past few days.

While staying quietly in one corner of the room, Azalea is disturbed by a loud crashing sound. Her first concern is to secure the sleeping child’s safety. She checks on the little girl and finds out that she is still deeply sleeping, so she moves to the door. She then casts a noise-canceling magic around the sleeping girl. She extends Pulse’s range to get a hold of what is happening outside. She can sense the teenage girl along with a middle-aged man in the dining hall.

“Where is your sister?! What do you mean I can’t take her right now?!” A man yells angrily.

“Uncle, my sister is already sleeping right now. Please.”

“Ungrateful brat!”

Azalea ponders whether she should go out and interfere or not. “Is this old man drunk?... Uncle, huh… It seems that he is the owner of the other room. That’s why it was not offered.” She stays close to the door while listening to their conversation. “I might get her in more trouble if I go out there now. I’ll see how she’ll handle this first.”

“Please keep your voice down. What do you need my sister for?”

The old man laughs menacingly for a moment. “I got a good deal.”

“What do you mean a good deal?”