Tomato earned his gold. Too bad I would have to murder him to shut him up. He fucked my sister last night but if you take out the slavery and the veiled threats of violence you could even consider that consensual sex. I knew people whose sex lives were even more fucked up than that in NYC, so I let it slide. But unless he could run faster than me, he was a dead man walking.
We visited the slave trader, got our records abolished and the collars removed. We were a free family even though we were impoverished. On the way back, Tomato made a point of carrying me.
"Where's the gold," he hissed.
I pretended to kiss his ear so I could whisper, "Later. Can't do that in front of my family."
"You go get my gold while I sit with your family. If you don't bring it, I'll kill them."
Tomato was getting unstable. Unstable meant untrustworthy. A terrible trait in a minion. Apricot's brain was odd. I knew should be somehow disgusted by the idea of murdering someone that was helping me in cold blood but I felt nothing.
We returned to the house.
"Mr, Henderson, whose house is this?"
He grinned, "It is yours if you want. Look, we need to talk. Let's put the baby to sleep on the bed and we can talk over a cup of tea, yes?"
We returned to the house and I felt odd scents. People. There were strange people in the house. But I yawned. "Mommy, sleepy!" I whined.
"See? Let's put sweet Apricot to sleep and talk. We're free now. We need to set some rules if we are going to live in harmony going forward!" He tapped my back when he said "live".
Nope. Still going to murder him.
They put me on the bed and I stayed still, pretending to be asleep. After they left, a presence revealed himself.
"Is this the baby? What does your {Appraisal} says?" A man said.
"Nothing. Just the race. [Human]. She doesn't have a level. Must be some fucked up magic!"
Yup. Nobody can see my Status information. Not even the gods.
I yawned and stirred. They shushed each other. I opened my eyes and saw them. Levels thirty-two and twenty-six. Not bad. "Uncle!" I squealed and reached out with my arms in the classic please pick me up motion.
"She saw us. What now?" Twenty-six, the one without {Appraisal} said.
"It is just a dumb retarded baby. Can't you see in her face? She knows nothing."
I started to cry. Thirty-two hurriedly picked me up and rubbed my back. "Uncle! Good!" I said.
I kissed his stubble. I kissed his cheek, his chin, and I went down, playing and kissing him. He chuckled. That's when I bit his head off. At least I tried.
"Ouch! Don't bite your uncle, baby!" He scolded me. He had a hickey now.
He put me back on the bed and played with his knives. All copper and bronze. I crawled under the sheets. "Hide, hide!" Then I peeked out. "Uncle, hide under the bed. You too, uncle! Hurry up. He's coming."
"Who's coming?" Twenty-six asked.
"The gold man. Santa!"
"His name's Santa, huh?"
"Hurry. He kills people!" I shushed them. They crawled under the bed. If only one of them looked like Joe Pesci.
I shifted to hybrid form and skulked away. I latched to the wall and crawled down. They were looking at the window and the door. Not the headboard. I went into the gap between the nightstand and the bed and walked on the bottom of the bed. I twisted my neck and lowered my fangs slowly...
**CHOMP**
Thirty-two's blood squirted on twenty-six. He looked at me and screamed. I scratched his face and infected him with theriantropy and a nasty bleed debuff. Then I pounced him and scratched, a whirlwind of claws. He was affected by {Stunning Bleed} and I bit his head off. Then I walked out of the bed and cleansed myself before defenestrating myself. I had to get out of my clothes but that wasn't a problem now.
> You killed level 32 rogue. You gained 62,464 Exp (10,240 base x 10,000 perk x 0,0001 curse x 3.05 perk x 2 size bonus).
>
> You killed level 26 rogue. You gained 41,236 Exp (6,760 base x 10,000 perk x 0,0001 curse x 3.05 perk x 2 size bonus).
And with their generous contribution, I advanced a level and gained an assassin perk.
> You gained the Death Contract V (rare) perk. Gain 757% more Experience from targets marked for assassination.
I went around and entered another room. I knew people would come back to investigate the scream. It would be impossible to miss ten liters of blood underneath a bed. I had to get Mr. Tomato and snuff him.
On the ceiling of the corridor, I saw Mom and Mirabelle run past me. I crawled over and went to the kitchen, following Tomato's scent. He was holding a dagger to Cerise's neck. He was staring at the door so I couldn't crawl in. A black cat-girl during the day was too conspicuous. So I went out and around the house to enter the kitchen through a window. It wasn't cold yet, so people usually left windows open for ventilation and cooling.
I approached from behind. I had one chance to pull it off or my sister would be hurt. I waited. I needed a distraction. My mother screaming and wailing in the other room made him remove the dagger from Cerise's neck for a moment. I dropped and bit the top of his head, clawing his scalp with all fours at the same time.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
> Assassination successful. Death Contract fulfilled.
>
> You killed level 19 rogue. You gained 388,349 Exp (8,410 base x 10,000 perk x 0,0001 curse x 3.05 perk x 7,57 contract x 2 size bonus).
Level up!
Assassin thirteen, human twelve, Cartographer, and Apothecary ten.
> There are no more ranks in Exp Boost. Random perk selected.
>
> You gained the Melodius Voice (uncommon) perk. Your voice is never off-tune. Add your Endurance to Charisma for all Charisma effects that depend on speech or song.
The new human perk shop is fairer, but it sucks when it bites you in the butt.
But talking about biting, when one chews off the top of a person's head and then a force parallel with one's mouth cleaves the head in twain, it isn't a pretty sight. It wasn't. Pretty, it is. Tomato's nape and the back of his head stayed where they were supported by the spine while the face slowly fell forward as the brain slipped out of its cavity in four pieces. I jumped and ran outside before Cerise could scream. And scream she did. While I was on the move, I groomed myself. Can't shift with a rogue's brain on me.
I re-entered the house and hid in the bathing room. Then I started to cry, "Mommy! Mommy!"
Two minutes later mom came back. She had blood all over her. "Apricot! Apricot, my treasure! There you are!"
I started to clean her and her clothes. I knew we would have the guard visit us soon and we couldn't look like we wallowed in blood.
"Mommy, let's go away. Bad place, here."
"I got Cerise. We need to run," Mirabelle said. "The guy that bought us is dead."
Cerise had brain fluid and blood all over her. She was sobbing uncontrollably.
The guard's horns blared outside. We were out of time. They barged in, breaking the front door. With weapons pointed at us, they cowed the women.
"What happened here?" A guard said. "Why does she has blood all over her?"
"Sergeant, there's a dead guy here! He's wanted!"
"Did you kill that man in the kitchen?" The sergeant asked Cerise. "He's a known burglar. There's a bounty on his head. If you killed him, you can earn that silver for you!"
"No, sir. It was a black thing."
Damn, did Cerise see me?"
"A monster?"
"No. I didn't see it. It was too fast. I only saw a black shadow falling on us."
"What's your relationship with that man?"
"Uncle wanted us to rob for him!" I said.
"Accomplices?" The sergeant raised an eyebrow.
"No, sir. We are honest people. I swear," My mom whimpered as she shielded me.
"Bad guy, uncle! He touched me down there!" I said to the sergeant.
He looked at us. We were still wearing slave clothes. "Are you slaves? Where are your collars?"
"No. We had them removed earlier today!" Mirabelle said. "That guy in the kitchen, he bought us. But let me tell you, sir. He was up to no good. All he mumbled at night when he abused me was that he wanted his gold."
"Sergeant," the soldier returned. "There are two bodies in one of the bedrooms."
The sergeant looked at us. "{Truth Sense}. Did any of you kill these men?"
"No!" Cerise protested.
"No, sir. We're innocent," Mirabelle said.
"We never hurt anyone, please believe us," Mom besought.
"You are all telling the truth," Sergeant said. I yawned. "I want to play!" I said. "Uncle, play 'stole your nose'?"
"Not now, baby," the sergeant chuckled. "She's yours? Is she retarded?"
"She has a mental deficiency, sir. But I love her," Mom defended me.
"Sergeant, we know those two. They also have bounties," Another soldier reported.
"Look, you seem to need some coin. If you claim the bounties..."
"It wouldn't be fair, sergeant," Mom rebuked. "We just want to be alone."
Maybe I could make a living bounty hunting.
----------------------------------------
Timeskip!
----------------------------------------
The sergeant was a nice guy. I didn't feel the urge to murder him. He took our statements and surprise, the house didn't belong to the late tomato. He gave us half the bounty on the rogues, six silver coins. It was enough to feed us for months. He also showed us a place where we could rent a room from an old matron. We needed to pay a silver coin per month and help with the chores but we have a fully furnished house to live in. With the old matron.
Mirabelle's tummy was growing. Mom picked up the [Stitcher] profession and started to repair clothes to complement our living. Cerise helped where she could and I...
Well, I could only do what a baby could do. I had to go and murder the tax collector someday but I needed to chill and let time erase my tracks. I refrained from any nightly escapades and enjoyed a vacation with my family.
Five years passed. Mirabelle's baby was a girl, and we called her Anjou. Cerise gained her System and we were celebrating.
"What Classes did you get, Cerise?" The matron, Mrs. Cunningham, asked.
"Villager, Farmer, among others... There's one uncommon but I'm not sure."
Damn. I wanted a nice Class for Cerise. "No. Don't pick any of these. They bad. We train, you gain a good Class."
"Well, I bet I would get a better Class than you anyway," Cerise scoffed at me.
Now that things returned to a sense of normalcy, old habits were kicking in. Like bullying the retarded sister.
"There. I picked my Class. It is an uncommon one."
I sighed. It is her life. Mirabelle tapped my shoulder and smiled. "Don't be sad. I bet you'll get a rare class, Apricot."
"And two rare professions too," I boasted. They laughed at me. I didn't mind being the butt monkey.
Mom sighed. We never found our siblings. They were bought by travelers and taken away. Her heart would never become whole again unless we were reunited. That drove me to solve one item of my backlog. The tax collector still had a contract on his head.
----------------------------------------
Five-years-old me had some leeway to go out and play. I usually had to go with Mirabelel and Anjou, my niece. But sometimes Mirabelle was busy and I went outside to play alone. This day, I decided to become a missing child for a day or two so I could murder someone that deserved to die. I was appalled at the thought for a split second but it passed fast. It felt natural.
I shifted in an alley and hid my clothes on a roof. I waited until nightfall to infiltrate the tax collector's house and hide in his exclusive privy. It was a latrine with a hole that dropped his shit down a chute so the servants down there had to deal with splatters. It was so much like his personality that I almost threw up. I waited for a lot of boring hours until he came to do his business. He lifted his tunic, dropped his breeches, sat his fat ass on the toilet, and moaned as the droppings dropped.
He had his eyes closed. I couldn't expect a more compliant client. I crept down to his nape and Levi Ackermaned him. I crawled between his torso and the back wall and pushed the body forward. It fell and blocked the door as I crawled down the chute. Seriously, why do I have to get so much shit do get my things done? Oh, well. Sasageyo, sasageyo...
> Assassination successful. Death Contract fulfilled.
>
> You killed level 44 bourgeois. You gained 446,993 Exp (19,360 base x 10,000 perk x 0,0001 curse x 3.05 perk x 7,57 contract).
I gained a level.
250,000 Exp to the next level. I had to kill the magistrate now or he would become paranoid. I went to his house after digging a hole in the lawn just to get the shit off of my fur. I went to the roofs and walls as I made a beeline for the magistrate's house.
I just jumped from the fence to the wall and climbed to the eaves of the roof and searched his scent. I found him. The magistrate was on the master's bedroom, and by the sounds he was making he was having sex. Depending on what happened I would have to kill the woman. I didn't want to but I couldn't let this opportunity pass. I climbed inside the room and went for the ceiling. The four-poster bed had a cloth over the posts so I dropped to the ground and crawled on the bed from the foot side.
I crawled at the side of the couple. I could tell the woman underneath the disgusting man was young. In her teens or early twenties. I reached them and a stray arm forced me to jump on the magistrate's back. I wasted no time and aimed straight for the back of his neck. {Vorpal Bite} and {Assassinate} triggered at once as my teeth touched his skin at the same time as my four claws.
> Assassination successful. Death Contract fulfilled.
>
> You killed level 47 magistrate. You gained 1,020,050 Exp (22,090 base x 10,000 perk x 0,0001 curse x 3.05 perk x 7,57 contract x 2 Class rank).
I reached Assassin level fifteen, with the other levels following suit. six hundred and sixty-three thousand to the next combined level. I gained a perk but there wasn't a Death Contract IV to purchase. I selected another one.
> You gained the Erase Presence (uncommon) perk. Whenever you use a furtive skill out of combat, that Skill is 50% more efficient. Modified by Luck.
What the fuck is Luck? Why hadn't I ever heard anything about it?
The head rolled off the bed. Blood gushed from the severed neck as the blood pressure pumped the vital fluid out. The woman underneath the magistrate screamed. I recognized the voice. I recognized the scent even covered in blood.
It was my sister Olive. The bleeding bastard was raping my sister.