[Very well. We can treat this ‘Contract’ of yours as a part of training.]

Despite asking permission to stop training for a few days, Myr wasn’t excited about it. She was a habitual person, and training had become one of her habits.

So, to alleviate this, she decided to go to Lewis’ smithy to order some certain equipment. But upon arriving there, her feet were rooted to the spot as she looked at the building in shock.

A group of three or so men was causing a commotion in front of the smithy. They were breaking the windows, taking weapons away, and worst of all, beating Lewis and his son to a pulp.

Myr quickly ran over to the smithy at full speed. Thanks to her training, she was there in less than three seconds. “GET OFF HIM!”

She leaped into the air and drop-kicked a man. Quickly getting off him, she dashed for the man closest to her and tackled him to the ground. As for the remaining one, who was on top of Adrian, Myr pointed the stinger of her tail at him threateningly. A purple poisonous liquid squirted out of it. “Off. Him. Don’t make me say twice.”

Stricken with shock and fear, the man slowly got off Adrian and ran away, leaving his two comrades behind.

Myr got off the man she’d tackled to the ground and watched as he and his other companion ran away.

[You were too merciful, even for someone in Mainline Merciful.]

“It’s not like I can kill them. That would make things messy,” Myr whispered in a low voice. “But thanks.”

[...Why do you thank me?]

“For making me train. If it were the me from before, I wouldn’t have been able to pull off whatever that was.”

Not waiting for Luna to answer, Myr walked to Lewis and helped him up. “You okay?”

The blacksmith dusted his clothes and nodded. “I’ve seen better days. But thanks.” He grabbed his son’s arm and got him up. Then, he sat down on a nearby chair and heaved a heavy sigh. “You want to know who they were?”

Myr nodded. It was only natural to be curious.

“Thugs. Gang members. Whatever you want to call them. They are scums of this city.”

“...But why did they attack you?”

“I was late to pay them the ‘protection fees.’”

Then, Adrian interjected into the conversation. His attitude became less hostile than before. “Thank you, Myr, for saving us. But you shouldn’t have. Now your mother is in danger…”

To this, Myr merely laughed. “Hah, don’t worry. She’s in a hospital owned by the town’s mayor. As long as I pay her fees on time, they won’t be able to touch her.”

Myr spent the next hour cleaning the smithy up with Lewis and Adrian. When everything was done, she pulled Lewis aside and asked, “I know this isn’t the best time for this, but are you taking orders?”

Lewis smiled. “Let me guess, you want training weights?”

“W-What? How did you know?”

“I’ve seen you train like crazy for the past months. I figured you’d want weights at some point, just like your mother did.” His eyes turned strangely nostalgic. “Anyways, I still keep your mother’s old ones. See if they’re good.”

Myr followed Lewis into some kind of storage room. It was dark and dusty, and she might’ve inhaled some cobwebs. Evidently, the father-son duo hadn’t done some smithing for quite a while.

Lewis arrived at a wooden box and opened it. After fumbling through it for a while, he took out some kind of hollow cylinders. Four of them. They were thin, but judging by the sweat that rolled down Lewis’ face as he carried them over to a nearby table, Myr could guess that they were heavy.

“Aye, these still work good. Try them on.” Lewis pressed on one of the cylinders. With a click, it opened.

…Only now did Myr realize that they were cuffs. Extremely heavy ones.

Regardless, they could work as training weights. She put one on her left arm and felt her shoulder sinking to the floor. Still, if she tensed her muscles a little bit, she could use her arm as normal; minus the excruciating soreness.

“They’re perfect! How much for them?”

“Bah, just take them. They belonged to your mother anyways.”

Myr still gave Lewis 500N as a thank-you gift. She normally liked receiving free stuff but taking from Lewis felt wrong to her. After putting the cuffs on her arms and legs, she sat down on a chair. She could feel the chair legs slowly bending under her weight, so she stood up again.

“So, what are you going to do now, Mr. Ander?”

Lewis scratched his beard and sighed. “We move towns. Can’t live here when that gang has been angered.”

“Oh…” Myr couldn’t deny it. She felt a bit sad that she’d see one less friendly face around here. “...I guess that makes sense. Where are you moving to?”

“Capital of Arkon. Neither street thugs nor religious zealots can find us there.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Arkon… A good choice. It was the only country in this continent to not be ruled by overly enthusiastic zealots. And Myr had heard that they were preparing for war, so it was a good choice for a blacksmith like Lewis to move there.

“I’ll miss you…”

“Hahaha, don’t be. Come visit me if you’re ever there. Who knows what places being a Hunter will bring you to?” Lewis slapped Myr’s back playfully. “But let’s forget about that for a bit. Stay here and drink with us, eh? Let’s call it a farewell party.”

Myr spent the next few hours at the smithy. When it was almost dusk, she had to excuse herself. I can’t believe I forgot about the Hunter license! If she couldn’t finish a Contract before the end of today, her license would be revoked.

Lewis then saw Myr out of his smithy. “I guess this is farewell. I’ll pay a visit to your mother before leaving, so do see her after you finish your business. I’ll leave a gift for you there.”

Smiling, Myr left the smithy behind and headed for the Hunter Association.

.

.

.

.

.

The reception area was on the second floor. The Contract board was on the first floor. The layout was perfect for Myr, who didn’t want to deal with Joseph right now.

But she still had to squeeze through a crowd of Hunters to view the board. Her eyes quickly scanned the Contracts posted there. Cleaning sewers, no, too dirty and time-consuming. Killing Horned Rabbits? No! They’re too cute, and they don’t even come out at night!

Just when she thought that there was no Contract that suited her current needs, her eyes landed on one particular Contract in the corner. Walking up to the Contract, she ripped it off.

Gawblins? Instantly, the image of little green midgets with ugly faces holding crude weapons and wearing loincloths appeared in her head. She’d encountered them before she even met Luna. And they were so easy to defeat that it was basically standard practice for children in the Northwestern regions to kill at least one as a rite of passage.

Myr looked down at her arms. The Contract stated that she had to eradicate a nest of Gawblins, so it was just challenging enough for the current her.

Besides, if she found it to be too hard, she could always take off the weights.

Satisfied with her choice, Myr left the Association and exited the town.

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.

.

.

Despite the advancements in steam machinery, the wilderness was a dangerous place. The roads between settlements were relatively safe, but even there, bloodthirsty creatures could still appear from time to time.

Luckily for Myr, the guards kept this town’s surroundings safe by doing routine cleanups. So aside from a few occasional Gawblin nests, there wasn’t really anything dangerous around.

And yet, there’s a Contract for this. Myr sighed. The pay was a measly 200N, so she could guess that some guards were too lazy that they let the Hunters do their jobs instead.

The Contract says that the nest is in a nearby grove to the Southeast. Why can’t they be more specific? She grumbled.

Just as she arrived at the grove, she heard something that made her heart drop.

“Seems like the Wyvern girl has walked right into our trap.”

A short but lankly man walked out from behind a tree and flourished a dagger in his hand. He licked the dagger and laughed. “You’ll regret ever messing with our gang.”

Myr slowly backed away. He was a Thief, no doubt. It was dark, so fighting someone specialized in stealth and hidden strikes would be disadvantageous.

But just as she took a step backward, the leaves behind her ruffled. Three more men appeared out of the shadow. One fat, one average, and the other slim. Unlike the Thief, they seemed to be just common thugs.

She was seriously outnumbered.

[Myr, focus. Do not panic.]

Myr took a deep breath. Luna’s right. Panicking would do me no good.

[The town is too far away. You have to either hide or fight them.]

She furrowed her brows. Fighting them as is was going to be very difficult. And hiding… it seemed to be a good idea, but she wasn’t sure how good the Thief was.

Why not do both?

Grinning to give herself more confidence, Myr slowly unsheathed her rapier.

“Oh? Do you even know how to swing that sword?” The Thief laughed.

In response, Myr closed her eyes shut. “I don’t need to.”

The rapier flashed a blinding white light that took away the vision of Myr’s enemies. Just as abruptly as the light had arrived, it disappeared.

Myr opened her eyes and quickly dashed deeper into the grove, climbing the trees and using her tail to balance herself. She settled on a tree with bush leaves that could hide her. She watched as her enemies regained their vision and began shouting curses at each other.

“Shit! She got away!”

“She didn’t! I closed off this grove with an artifact! She got to be here!”

After some more discussion, the men split up to look for Myr.

Idiots, Myr thought. This would only make things easier for her.

And she didn’t need to wait for long. Soon, the fat thug was heading her way.

Myr held her breath. Her grip tightened on her rapier. As soon as the fat man passed by her tree, Myr dropped down and sneaked up on him with her footsteps silent as a cat’s.

Putting her free hand over his mouth, the rapier on her other hand pierced his throat from behind.

The man fell down, dead, without letting out even as much as a groan.

Myr wiped the annoying blood off her face. Grabbing the fat man’s limp body, she hid it in the tree. Hopefully, no one would find out about it until too late.

[Myr… Do you want to talk about that?]

Myr stared at Luna in confusion. Realizing what she was talking about, she shook her head. “No. I’ve killed before. You don’t need to worry.”

[Oh… I didn’t expect that.]

Luna stayed silent after that.

Myr didn’t pay any more attention to it. She got her hands full with dealing with these thugs.

And dealt with them she did. After a few tense minutes, she managed to kill two more thugs silently. She heaved a sigh of relief. Only the Thief is l—

Before she could finish her thought, she felt a sharp pain on the back of her neck. Myr fell to the ground with a thud. Despite her fading consciousness, she still mustered enough strength to turn around.

She saw the Thief looming over her. His smile wicked; his breath foul. “You finally let your guard down. Good thing I only brought disposables with me.”

“Wh—”

The Thief kicked Myr’s jaw to shut her up. “Shhh… You belong to Ygrit gang now.”

Myr’s consciousness faded as the Thief carried her on his shoulder.

W-What’s going to happen to me?