Immediately after exiting the room, Myr’s attention was caught by several huge sacks of something lining up against the wall. She sniffed the air. Some sort of grain? That dry and earthly smell was very noticeable, after all.

She ripped a bag open. Rice? Did they import this from the South? It must’ve been very expensive. Still, with her curiosity sated, Myr got away from the bags, but not before taking a few fistfuls of rice with her and putting them in her pocket.

She crept through the corridors of the gang’s hideout. Soon, she heard the distinct sound of snoring coming from one singular direction. Myr sneaked over there and, peeking into a room, she found twenty or so men lying on the floor motionlessly. There were countless bottles and cups strewn on the floor, so she could easily guess what happened.

She grinned. What doya know, everyone’s in here. During her three-day imprisonment, Myr didn’t stay idle. She tried to collect every piece of information she could, which was easy since Jerry “big D” was very talkative.

Before she went on with the killing, Myr took a look around the room. She saw several barrels of wine at the back of it—one of which looked like it was removable. That must be the boss’ room.

With footsteps as silent as a cat’s, Myr approached the men one by one and pierced their throats with her spear.

The men were killed without any resistance or sound. The only noise was the squelching sound of Myr’s feet wading through the puddles of blood that she made.

As soon as Myr killed the last man, she noticed something in her peripheral. She spun around and raised her spear on instinct.

Sparks flew into the air as the shaft of her spear met with a pair of curved daggers. The assailant was, of course, the Thief that’d mocked her days ago.

“You made a bit of a mess here.”

Myr grinned. “You don’t say.” She tried to kick the Thief, but he backflipped and got away.

“Good thing I got up for a piss. Would’ve been dead if not. Curse yourself for your bad luck, Wyvern whore.”

Myr decided to not humor him any further and went on the assault. Even though she wasn’t trained with a spear, it was relatively easy to use. Just thrust, thrust, thrust, and an occasional block.

The Thief tried to overwhelm her with speed. But Myr’s training meant that her speed was equal, if not greater than the Thief’s.

Combined with her superior reach, Myr soon cornered the Thief.

“You bitch!” The Thief growled. He threw a dagger straight at Myr’s face, which she dodged. But his goal was distracting her, not killing. “[Silent Shadow]!”

The Thief melted into the shadows and the surrounding turned silent. Myr tried to hear his steps, but she couldn’t hear anything. She tried to smell his scent, but the stench of blood proved to be too overwhelming.

With no way to detect him, she decided to act erratically. She jumped all over the place, rolled, and even stabbed thin air. Thanks to that, whenever the Thief appeared to attack her, he’d just barely miss.

…This is bad. What she was doing was just stalling for time. She needed a solution. Quick. Then, she remembered the grains of rice in her pockets. Of course! She never imagined the day when her kleptomaniac tendencies would come in handy.

Myr scattered the grains around her and stood still; her ears strained to their limit. Upon hearing a crunching sound behind her, she immediately spun around and thrust her spear.

But her attack only hit thin air. She quickly looked down, noticing that it was a severed hand that caused the sound.

Her mind short-circuited as her thinking accelerated. She’d have to take a gamble—one that she didn’t like taking, but one that was necessary. He must be behind me!

Myr thrust her tail behind her. Feeling that it hit something, she immediately turned around. Again!? She’d just pumped a dead body full of poison; not the Thief.

Then, she heard a whooshing sound above her.

“DIE!”

She was sure that it was the Thief. It was too late to do anything else, so she reflexively covered her head with her hands. She closed her eyes shut and waited for the pain.

But the pain never came.

Instead, the loud clanking noise of metal meeting metal rang out. Myr quickly opened her eyes again and saw sparks flying as the Thief’s dagger ground against her weights.

“Who the fuck would—”

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

But Myr wasn’t going to let him finish his sentence and waste this chance. She got her stinger out of the dead body and jabbed it into the Thief’s leg.

The poison showed an immediate effect. The Thief’s hands trembled and he let go of his knife. Falling to the ground with a thud, he looked at himself in horror as his blood veins bulged and turned purple.

“Haah… Hahaha… I guess this is the end.”

Myr nodded. Picking up her spear again, she slowly approached the weakened Thief.

The Thief, already accepting his fate, coughed. “Do a favor for me, will you? I have a family at 23-214. Please tell them that I l—”

“I don’t care.”

With a thrust, Myr ended his life.

But her mind still played his last words over and over again.

Lalala, not listening! In fact, she lied. She did care. But she didn’t need to know the backstory of someone she was about to kill and then feel bad. Not now. Not ever.

Stabbing the spear into the Thief’s face to make sure that he was really dead, Myr crushed the barrel of wine and discovered a door behind it.

She slowly pushed it open and found an extravagant room lying beyond it. Red carpets, decorative armor; all very expensive. But her eyes were drawn toward the figure sitting in the middle of the room.

It was a middle-aged man with buck teeth. He looked filthy and unworthy of this room. And just as Myr noticed him, he realized her presence as well.

The man chuckled. “Ah, have they trained you properly? Took much faster than I thought.”

Myr’s eyes were fixed on the man’s. Yet they only reflected the beautiful silver rapier in his hands.

A filthy man like him handling Luna like that?

He was evidently wiping Luna’s blade clean just before Myr entered the room, but the cloth he used was covered in dirt and soot.

How dare him!?

This… Everything was wrong. So very wrong.

“She’s mine…” Myr managed a low mumble as her face darkened.

“Huh? What did you say?”

The shadow on Myr’s face disappeared. With bloodshot eyes, she glared at him. “SHE’S MINE! GIVE HER BACK!”

Myr made a mad dash toward the man; spear in front. All she wanted to do was skewer that filthy living shit; to burn him on a stake; to listen to his agonizing screams!

But reality is often disappointing.

A familiar click rang out, followed by a slightly panicked voice.

“[Q-Quick Flash]!”

…

The streak of white light made its way toward Myr. She blocked it with her spear, but only because she’d experienced using that move first-hand.

It broke her spear in half. Splinters of wood embedded themselves in her face. Myr fell to her knees; her eyes watering up. Not because of the pain. Not because of almost dying. But because of what the man used.

W-What?

How did he—

She glared at the man in disbelief. His condescending attitude did nothing but make her even angrier.

“Ohh, looks like you tricked them. Can’t believe they let an assassin into my room. A very bad one, but still an assassin. Looks like Keith will get his pay docked this month.”

But Myr couldn’t care less about his ramblings, as she was already rambling inside her own mind.

Did… Did Luna leave me?

H-How else would he know that move; the move that she hasn’t even taught me?

But… But things were just starting to look up for me!

No, no, NO, NO! I-I can’t! Lewis is gone, and now Luna? I can’t be alone! N-Not again!

She was clutching her own head so hard that she felt as if her hair was going to come off. Yet, despite everything, a desperate and maniac smile crept up on her face.

There’s still hope. I won’t know until Luna says it herself.

I’ll kill him and ask her directly.

Yes. Let’s do that. Yes…

Grabbing the bladed half of the spear, Myr got rid of her weights again. She slowly stood up and pointed the tip of the spear toward the man. “Luna, I’ll get you back!”

Mana surged around her, making her own clothes flutter wildly. Soon, they calmed down and converged right in front of her eyes. It was as if the world stopped for Myr.

“[Quick Flash]!”

The streak of light now seemed excruciatingly slow. Myr merely tilted her head to the right. As soon as the light passed her, time continued for Myr. She could hear the boom of the air rapidly expanding beside her. The dust that was knocked up from the strike hitting the wall behind her blinded her, but as if answering to her will, it parted right in front of her eyes as the next attack commenced.

“[Quick Flash]!”

She walked.

“[Quick Flash]!”

And walked.

“D-Don’t come closer! [Quick Flash]!”

And walked and walked and walked and walked and dodged and walked and—

“[Q-Q-Quick Flash]!”

Before she knew it, she was standing right before the man. Time slowed down once more, and she could see everything. From the moment Luna left her sheath again, Myr knew that she couldn’t fully avoid this attack.

Her eyes shifted toward Luna’s blade. There was one detail that she didn’t notice before now; that was, the silvery-white blade was so close to breaking. Must’ve been rough. I promise I’ll make up to you after this, Luna.

She tried to raise her spear up to break the blade but found that she couldn’t. She could, physically, but couldn’t mentally. Breaking Luna just felt… wrong, even if she knew that she could be restored later by basking in the Moonlight.

So, Myr embraced her fate of being badly injured.

But just as the blade was about to leave a deep scar on her face, it moved by a fraction of an inch; as if Luna herself was trying not to wound her. In fact, Myr could’ve sworn that she saw Luna’s image for a split second there…

That was all it took for Myr’s inevitable injury to turn into her right horn being sliced right off.

Myr’s eyes shook. Time turned normal again. She grabbed the horn mid-air and stabbed the sharp tip into the man’s throat. Watching blood spurting out of his wound, she gently pried Luna from his hands and caressed the blade. “Are you okay?”

Luna’s image soon projected from the sword. She’d… seen better days; her face was cracked just like the blade, and her clothes dirty. But despite her condition, Myr still found her to be beautiful as ever.

[You… You idiot! Why didn’t you break me!? You could’ve died!]

In response to Luna’s outburst, Myr gave her a sheepish smile.

“I guess… I didn’t want to be alone.”