When I heard that a prince was going to stop by our tribe on his way back home I was ecstatic. I had not expected that only a few days later I would be killing that same prince in his sleep.
I had my reasons of course, a good one.
—
My dagger sunk into the rat's body just behind its skull, killing it instantly. On my other hand was a cooking pan that we had stopped using because of a hole in its base, and now I used it to wack another rat away.
I quickly pulled my blade out of the rat, bonking a third rat on the head with the pan and then finishing it off. Killing the last two rats in a similar fashion I checked my blade for damage. Once I was sure that I hadn’t done anything to damage my equipment I pulled back the sleeve of my left forearm.
A rectangular black box seemed to be tattooed onto it. The box was more than three quarters full. Half a dozen rats wouldn’t count for much to fill the Lotto Box, but they still counted for something.
I let the mark fade, I could make it appear anywhere on my body, but it was easiest on the arms because well, it was the easiest part of my body to see for me.
After that I activated one of the cards in my Hand, Cleanse. It made the dirt, blood, and other grime disappear from my body. I could make it go up to five feet around me, but it had taken me almost a year to get that much, and any attempt to push that distance further had been met with minimal results.
I looked up past the towering walls that made up our labyrinthine world to the sky. The sun still wasn’t visible, but the sky had started to turn blue, meaning that it was going to be my shift soon.
I was a watchman, well watchwoman, that would go to a high point along one of the walls where my tribe was at to look out for any incoming monsters. My only other card in my Hand could help me alert if I saw anything so that my tribe could prepare the proper defenses.
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Neither of my cards were combat cards so the elders had put me in a non combative role. I understood it, but it still made me angry. Why couldn’t I get something like a fireball or a weapons master card.
It had taken me more than two years from when I first formed my Lotto Box to fill it completely, which had been my Cleanse card, and it had taken me a year and a half to get the second, Smokey Hands.
Since then I had hunted down rats and birds with a vengeance to get my next card.
Every single kill would fill the box slightly, rats and birds counted for so little that the change was usually imperceptible, but a bigger or more dangerous monster could fill up the box quite a bit.
I walked through the tents of my tribe, now bustling with people compared to how empty it had been when I had left in the morning to hunt rats.
“Oi Lux!” a voice called.
I turned to see my uncle Pitch jogging towards me, a knot of worry tied in the center of my gut. Pitch was normally still resting, he was a night guard for our tribe so he normally passed out after his shift.
The only reason I could think of that he was still awake and looking for me was if something happened to my little sister.
“Is Misu okay?”
“Huh? Oh she’s fine, this isn’t about that.”
Damn, had someone found out that I had been sneaking out of the encampment to try and map the Labyrinth in their area. It was a fun hobby of mine, and one I was sure would be useful when I became a hunter.
“No, you’ve been relieved of duty today actually. Apparently the Seventh Prince of Valdinis is visiting on his way back to his city and has some business with you and some of the others.”
“A Prince! That’s awesome! Wait, what’s Valdinis?”
“It’s literally the closest country.”
“You said there were no such things as countries in the Labyrinth, just cities with alliances.”
“W-well… shut up and head to the center of the encampment,” he muttered, shaking his head with a smile.
I rolled my eyes and ran off a smile tugging at my lips. A real prince, I wonder what kind of cards he had, maybe he would give us some, Pitch did say he was here for business.