Sylvia had finally accepted her fate, her tears had also finally dried up and a peace came over her face.

The little Norse elf assassin was standing a few meters from her, she was talking to herself and looked frustrated for some reason.

The Norse elf turned to her and started to skip towards her. She smiled so cutely at Sylvia that it put her at ease though she didn’t understand why.

“Soooo, I’m here to kill you, which you know already.”

Syliva nodded.

“Usually this is the part where you’re like, ‘oh, don’t kill me. I’ll tell you anything in exchange for my life’.” Charlie was mocking past targets of hers, her horrible acting in full display.

“What could I even say at this point?” she responded dejectedly.

Charlie moved her head to the side as if listening to someone speaking to her. She nodded every few seconds then covered her mouth with her hand and spoke to herself.

“This little brat is crazy!” Sylvia thought.

“So, did you sell slaves? Steal money from this company and plotted to pin this on someone else?” Charlie asked.

“Ye…s! But you have to understand this is just how the world is! We are women of Tir, if you want to be accepted you have to do anything and everything to climb the ladder. No one is going to protect or vouch for you! Especially as a common woman with no noble connections,” Sylvia said, her tone of voice progressively getting angrier.

Again, Charlie spoke to herself, this conversation being about two minutes in length. The long pauses Charlie took to speak to herself made Sylvia start to panic again.

“Tell us everything you know about that snow elf. We also want to know if you know of any strong people around Tir that others are talking about,” Charlie said.

“You…would let me go?”

Charlie nodded. “And we will also tell you who wanted you dead.” Her smile had a hint of mischievousness. “Just stop selling people as slaves, got it?”

Sylvia didn’t care anymore about how strange the young elf girl was. Or that she kept saying “we” or “us.” She wanted to live, even if it meant having to leave Tir and start over. At least this time, she had aurums to spend.

Sylvia agreed and started to explain.

The snow elf was named Hughes; he was a member of the Trinity, the three powerful joined rulers of Noin.

“The Trinity were members of a mercenary group that took over Noin. The three made a pact and took over Noin together.”

This was new information to Charlie, it seemed the Trinity considered themselves family, even as close as siblings. They were all strong warriors of renown that took the already established infrastructure of Noin and the slave trade and made it better. They also were working towards boosting their power to conquer one of the other kingdoms, particularly Tir.

“Hughes was here to double check if some town called… Soppio?… had a contact or alliance with Tir going on. He had found out the town was lying and was going to send a small force to deal with them.”

Charlie wondered what lie was so grand that this town incurred the wrath of Noin. As Sylvia continued, she explained that Hughes was also looking for a slave who had been rescued. A small army had somehow managed to infiltrate Noin, and it was likely around the border of Tir and Noin.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Charlie gasped, stopped Sylvia from speaking and spoke to herself again. This information was what she was looking for. The next tidbit were the rumors she knew, strong warriors that arrived for work in Tir.

Jailed heroes who were imprisoned in the dungeon of the Tir castle, the whispers of the star ring child appearing in Stellance.

At the mention of the star ring child, Charlie began to fidget around and talk to herself for the last time. Sylvia had said the final information she knew and waited eagerly.

Charlie placed her hands on her shoulder and then pulled out the knife. It made Syliva cry again. Charlie then gave her a cloth to hold back the blood and a contract with the signature of the noble’s name on it.

“Regis? That bastard! We were supposed to be partners in this. Unbelievable.” Sylvia crumpled the paper and put it into her pocket. She looked up to thank the elf girl but Charlie was nowhere to be found.

///

“So, either we go and look around for this runaway slave or we head to the star ring child. Hmmm.” Freya in her ethereal form sat on the edge of the rooftop her and Charlie sat on. Freya’s ethereal legs dangled in the air.

Charlie sat next to her doing the same. Charlie had come to the conclusion that she needed to cut ties with the guild quickly. Especially now that Freya was here, they needed to find Inari’s retainer.

So, the two decided to let Sylvia go if she had provided adequate information. Which she had.

The two went over all the information and the rumors of people around Tir that Sylvia gave to them. They narrowed it down to these two options.

Find the runaway slave Hughes was after, or go to Stellence and meet with the star ring child.

The more Charlie thought about the information the more she started to think about the town. The one Hughes was going to attack. She didn’t know why he was going to attack Soppio, whether it was justified or not.

It caused her to worry more and more about Soppio.

“Maybe… maybe we should head to Soppio and save them?” Charlie suggested. Freya tilted her head as if asking her to explain. “Well, it’s close by and all I’ve done so far is just kill people. Maybe I should atone by saving that town.”

Charlie did feel remorseful, even though it was a part of her role’s background, that she needed to be an assassin for a guild. It still didn’t sit right with her, she was honestly glad Freya had entered the Fantasia world earlier then they had planned.

She wanted to be a hero, like Makoto or other characters from games and media that she adored.

“Hmm why not, maybe they would reward you for valiantly rushing to their aid.” Freya snickered and then disappeared, her voice was still speaking but this time in Charlie's mind. “Let's quickly grab as much of your belongings and aurums as you can.”

Charlie nodded, she needed to sneak into her guild house quickly before her bosses figured out she had spared her target.

“Man, I’m telling you!… just kill th…em. It would be cool for your backstory!”

Charlie audibly laughed as she heard the static voice ring in her head. At this point she was used to the voice and it quips.

And honestly, she hoped to hear it more. Over time she had been slowly able to hear the voice clearer. It made her think and reflect on her journey so far.

She looked down at the purple bracer and summoned a screen to pop out. She scrolled a bit down to her stats.

Stats

STR:<0/0/0/0/0/0>

INT: <0/0/0/_/_/_>

ATH: <0/_/_/_/_/_>

RES:

This time the E and K were gone from her resolve stat. Her training with Freyr and the other einherjars had paid off, and her life as an assassin so far must have also helped.

She asked Freya what she thought and the two came to the conclusion that slowly but surely Charlie was breaking the lock around his resolve.

She was gaining true confidence.

She scrolled down again to the divine will section, the two divine wills were still locked and had the same descriptions:

Please believe in yourself more and unlock your resolve before the system unlocks this divine will.

Charlie still had a ways to go. But she found solace in knowing she was on the correct path. Although… her doubts about herself was still there.

She pulled the ninja mask around her neck to cover her mouth. It was time to start her true mission.

It was time to find Inari’s retainer, Sanosuke.

///

The sun was starting to set, workers in Soppio were just finishing their shifts and heading home.

It was common in Soppio for work to be finished when the dusk started to fall. Although in a building on the opposite side of the main entrance to the town, near a newly built shrine on top of the town graveyard, ten people of different genders and ages continued to work tirelessly.

Well, it was more practicing, they continued to practice. These men and women worked tirelessly over the five forges that were built to optimize space and quick use in the building.

This was a blacksmiths shop working around the clock to create every kind of weapon, every plate of armor. These ten made high quality pieces and worked together to produce these pieces with haste.

In the back room of the shop, their master and teacher had his own forge, and they worked nonstop because he worked nonstop. Any imperfections in their pieces he would fix effortlessly and flawlessly.

These ten respected the young man that appeared out of nowhere and taught them the art and skill of blacksmithing.

The master blacksmith came out of his workshop. He carried a dozen swords in their leather scabbards and placed them in a container.

He had a headband on his forehead that kept his hair from dropping into his face, he also had a wild ponytail and the start of facial hair forming.

The young man wasn’t even in his twenties yet but he had earned the love and respect of Soppio when he came to their town three years ago.

An older man in his late sixties with a hunched back slowly walked up to his master and presented a helm to him.

“What do you think, Master Sanosuke?”

Sanosuke grabbed the helm and inspected it carefully, he twirled it around to see the back and then placed it on his head.

“The weight and portions are all correct. This one is ready, excellent work, Davi.”

The old man beamed with joy at being praised. It didn’t matter if they had an age gap between them, Sanosuke was their savior.

He was the one to vanquish the monsters in the cavern, the one that came up with the idea to use weapons as a bargaining chip, and he was the one to suggest teaching those that wanted the skill of blacksmithing.

Under his tutelage in just under three years his ten students were all at a high level of skill and knowledge in blacksmithing.

Although they were nothing compared to the otherworldly ability and skill their master had.

Sanosuke grabbed a basket that held ore on the ground and took them into his workshop.

He had grown attached to Soppio and its people and would defend them to his last breath.

Which he was going to need to do very soon. As a howl echoed outside the town, Sanosuke looked outside the window of his shop.

He shuddered as the howl of a fox, one of his loyal foxes rang out.

It was a warning for Sanosuke.