“I could not hear you.” Kan spoke, anger and accusation palpable in his voice.

“Of course not. I have a skill that lets me hide quite effectively.” Vi answered dryly.

“…A class skill?” There was an edge in Kan’s tone, as if the question had underlining ramifications I didn’t know about.

The elf’s mouth tensed for a fraction of a second. “Something like that. I truly am sorry to have barged into your home, Kan Mor, but please. Trust the woman you have helped in the past. You know who I am and kept my secret, let me give you something in return.”

“…I asked you for your guidance the whole afternoon but you didn’t give me anything then, why now?”

Vi grimaced. I saw pain in her eyes. “I had nothing for you then. But I can take care of those two. I feel we have many things in common.”

“I need those two.”

I was looking back and forth between the two very different elves. Was her subrace different? It seemed likely. I was still shocked I had missed her presence entirely. My [Perception] should have been massive, especially considering the bonus we had in our initial statistics.

“For now.” Vi countered calmly. “But they themselves do not wish to remain in this village. And me reaching the Upperseas is of utmost importance.”

“Ok lady, you jump-scared us good. But what’s your game? You think we’ll just let you leave with the knowledge that we’re not from this world?” Gaëlle’s voice was wrothful. “You have no idea what you messed with here.”

Vi stared at her for a few seconds. “I suppose I don’t. But you have no idea either, otherworlder, not sure if I believe that, by the way. I doubt you convinced Kan Mor…and Rik Nut…” She added as a second thought. “…with simple lies though. What is your world like?”

I clenched my palms. “See that table, want your head to look like it?” I showed her the large piece of wood scrunched up on the ground.

The elf gave a long stare at the results of my previous peak of emotion.

“Oh. So that’s what it was.” Vi gulped. “No, I’d rather not mess with a [Berserker] in close quarters.”

“If our knowledge reached this world, you would reconsider my proposition. The crow? That’s from our world.” It wasn’t a lie, and I hoped it would make her feel the gravity of the situation.

It worked; the elf’s face blanched to an even paler white than it already was.

“I…I hadn’t realized it could be this serious, I apologize. I truly do not wish to antagonize you, or not anymore at the very least. I thought you two were linked to Henry, somehow. Things didn’t fit. How he just gave you a skill book, how you weren’t…touched. I thought you backstabbed him to gain power.”

Gaëlle shook her head before speaking with a low voice.

“I suppose it makes sense. But you still haven’t told us why we shouldn’t just get rid of you? Kan has proven himself to us and we have proven ourselves to him. But who even are you?”

“She’s a…” Kan started to respond.

But Vi quickly interrupted him. “Please, I’d like to answer that myself. It would be truly unbecoming of me not to supply you with my full identity after me so brazenly getting to know yours. A Fórst always reciprocates. That’s who I am, Vi Fórst. Heir to the Sea of Dawn.”

Kan gasped audibly. “You didn’t tell me you were a princess.”

Vi grimaced. “There are no Kings or princesses in Dawn…were no Kings or princesses... I’m the daughter of the leader of the Sea of Dawn, the City’s army.”

“A general’s daughter. That’s not just any noble lady.” Kan commented.

Gaëlle was getting impatient.

“Skip the politics, what the hell are you doing here then?”

Vi smiled, but her eyes stayed still. “I survived. I arrived here at night, when my mother send me down to the Overworld while the [Krist Consumers] slowly devoured the millions of souls of Dawn.”

“An orange monster?” Gaëlle asked.

“A threat assessment.” Vi nodded sideways.

“And what’s a Krist, exactly?” It wasn’t the first time I had heard the word.

The elf gave me a smirk. “You really aren’t from around here, are you? Or you are exceptional actors. A Krist is one of the lights that grow out of the Upperseas, the things that bring us daylight, life, and monsters.”

“The crystals?” I pointed up.

“They bring monsters?” Gaëlle looked at Kan for confirmation. “Yes.” he answered simply.

Rik provided a bit more information: “Eating a Krist gives immense experience, it is a direct access to the Blue. It also transforms every living thing that consumes it into a monster.”

That was where I had heard the word, Krist shards, the things that took time to create monsters.

“Wait.” Gaëlle asked. “Krist consumers? They eat your sun? Isn’t that a problem?”

Kan shook his head. “No, Linus of Krists, that’s how we call a row of them, they grow back over time, it…”

“Please, stop talking.” Vi groaned. “It is true Krist grow back, but I do not use the threat of orange in [Krist Consumers] lightly. They are all over level four hundred, and despite being individually weak, their numbers are becoming so large, none of the Krists have time to recover. They nest into a growing Krist, and when their numbers become too big to sustain themselves on it, a colony leaves to reach another. If a City is near their nesting ground or exodus path, it is annihilated.”

“Now, you make it sound like it’s a rule, miss Fórst, but what you talk about has only happened to your City. A terrible event, to be sure, but nothing like the calamity you make it sound to be.” Kan refuted.

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

Vi’s expression became desperate. “You don’t understand. You haven’t seen them! How fast they multiply! I have counted the days, the nights since my arrival here and we have lost five minutes of daylight! The Krists are getting destroyed and maintained in that state permanently. If we let the [Krist Consumers] numbers grow much more, they will become unstoppable, and…”

Kan raised his hand. “I heard your arguments before, but this is not the time. What you talk about is something that could happen in the future. It doesn’t have anything to do with your intrusion in my home, or what we’re going to do with you. I believe that my guests have reasons enough to kill you. And I won’t stop them if they do.”

Vi sighed. “We need each other. You are an honourable man, Kan Mor, but I need to reach Hope to tell of my tale. The Sea of Hope needs to act on the threat now, and not later. I do not wish to fight, and I certainly have no desire to bring even more calamities upon this world. Their secret is safe with me…If my word does not suffice, I shall exchange their secret with mine. Now, if you are not aware.” She was looking straight at me and L. “If what I am about to tell you reaches people in power, I would be sentenced to death or exiled to the Overworld forever.”

“You being a fallen noble does isn’t…” Kan started to refute her.

“I am a level 100 [Assassin].” Vi announced.

Kan immediately pulled out his sword and pushed his son behind him. He took a corner, looking very, very scared.

Gaëlle looked at the tall elf, me, then back to the elf. Vi hadn’t moved, her face filled with shame.

“I suppose that’s a bad class to have?” My sister asked out loud.

It brought laughter to Vi’s lips; it sounded a bit mad. I saw tears in her eyes.

“Get away from her, Misses Templier. It is one of the three forbidden classes, only taken by criminals and deceivers. If she is level 100, she has skills to poison and move unhidden.”

I stared at the [Wood Elf] then back at the laughing girl next to me. She was beautiful, but also sad.

“Was it that bad up there?” I asked her.

Her laughter got stuck in her throat, her eyes falling on me.

What I saw…Maybe it wasn’t only me who had understood the old mother Huna’s grief.

“You hide it well.” I continued.

There was a short silence, before Vi looked at the two wary [Wood Elves]. “Please, I had no choice. You do not understand what it is to live in a City that is forever plunged into darkness. To see the road that saw you grow turn into a dark tunnel filled with death traps. [Krist Consumers] weren’t the worst thing I faced. Sapiens were. I needed the class to protect those that I loved.”

Kan, seeing the passiveness of the level 100 [Assassin] decided to re-sheathe his sword.

“I thought you fled during the attack.” He pointed out. He took the remaining chair and pulled it as far as he could from Vi. Then sat on it.

“Rik.” He turned slightly to his son, but did not look away from Vi one second. “Go see if I am needed on the walls.”

“Of course Ida. Are you going to be alright?” He too was eyeing Vi suspiciously.

“I will be.”

The tall elf looked at the leaving hunter, then answered Kan’s question. “No. The Ascensus’ extracted as many people as they could before dying to the squirming swarm of cetaceans. I was one of the many who couldn’t leave in time.” She breathed deeply. “I got stuck there with my mother for three years. She was Blue-given the Ascensus class, and tried her best to help those that had been stranded, like us. Some of the sapiens thought it was a perfect business opportunity.” She didn’t explain further than that. As if it was enough to understand.

I didn’t think anyone could, not unless they had been there themselves.

“She threw me down the Overworld while…while she made sure no one evil would ever get out.” She stopped. Out of breath.

“Your mother saved your life.” I smiled at her.

She looked at me, not quite knowing what to do with my attempt at consoling her.

“I suppose she did. Though I was the one who needed to protect her.”

“That is never the role of the children. No parent would ever accept that.”

But how much our children tried.

“I…you believe me.” Vi stated, almost in shock.

“I believe your story.” I leaned back on my chair. “But that still doesn’t tell me if we can trust you or not.”

She clenched her teeth. “I will help you however I can. Just bring me back to a City, any City. I’ll find a boat through my own means; you’ll never see me again. I don’t need you to believe my claims about the [Krist Consumers]. Just…I cannot let it happen to another City. I cannot let them devour Blue!”

I looked at my sister. She was pensive.

“Speech off.” I said. “I’m deferring on you on this one. I like her, I’m biased.”

Gaëlle scoffed at me. “Speech off. You and your love for broken girls. At least this one seems to have decent values. And nice tits. And ass. And an elf. Like seriously, you’re the one who complained about the cat girls.”

“Disgusting furry.” I mocked her. “Nothing remotely similar.”

“Ha. Honestly, getting our info from the daughter of a general, a high-levelled [Assassin] to boot… We’re going to get PL’d into OP territory so fast. It’s tempting.”

I blinked once. “We’re going to get what into what now?”

“Power-levelled into OP territory, you remember OP?”

“Yes. I remember.” I sighed. “So you’re saying she’ll let us level up super-fast because she’s strong and she knows a lot?”

“Exactly.”

“What about the fact that she knows we come from another world?”

Vi was looking at us, interest in her eyes. She began talking on her own, and because our skill was off, we couldn’t understand any of it.

“What did you say?” I asked after turning it back on.

She looked up at me, a bit surprised.

“Oh, that your language is interesting. I couldn’t concentrate on it with the translation skill activated, but it sounds a bit like the dialect they speak around Ultima.”

“She’s a nerd! Let’s adopt her.” Gaëlle said just in English. “Speech on. Fine. We’ll take your help. But we will also give a hand with the town defences, just as we promised Kan. Anything we can get right now, we’ll take.”

“You will bring me up to the Upperseas?” She asked, hope piercing her voice.

“If you manage to teach us how to reach it, then yes.” L nodded.

Vi’s smile almost blinded me, and she leaned forward to take Gaëlle’s hands. “Oh, thank you. Thank you! You may have just saved this world!”

I spotted Kan’s hand gripping the pommel of his sword.

That brought a grimace to my face.

“So, what do you want to know?” She continued with enthusiasm. “Blue-powered skills, right? Just describe what you want the skill to do. If your [Hydrology Power] is large enough for what you describe to be possible, it will happen. Then, just associate a specific order with a movement, a special word or song that follows the name of the skill, and as Blue knows all, it’ll remember the association you made. For example: [Shadow].” In place of the elf, there was now a large puff of black smoke unnaturally swirling all over her.

I almost fell off my chair.

“Cancel.” I heard the puff of smoke say. The elf reappeared, the cloud dissipating instantly.

“Some warning next time.” Kan had his sword drawn again.

Vi scratched her head. “Oh, I’m sorry. I got too excited.” She turned back around to Gaëlle. “Now basically, depending on where I look, the skill will act differently. That’s because I taught it how to do that.”

Gaëlle quickly forgot about everything else. “So if I need to boil water, I just say [Move] boil this water?” She pointed at the bottle of alcohol.

Nothing happened.

Her eyebrow rose, but Vi laughed happily. “That’s exactly it. But remember, you can only use skills on impure water.”

“Ah, yeah. I knew that.” L gave an embarrassed grin.

Kan gave us an angry growl, picking his bottle in his hands. “Don’t experiment here. Please. It’s getting late and…”

The back door opened to let Rik in. “They spotted a [Tooth-Bear], we’re needed.” He immediately told his father. “Everything okay?” He asked us.

“We found an arrangement.” I provided him. “Do you want us to come with you?”

Kan rose to his feet. “No. I do not need beginners throwing Mors at my feet. But this is a good time to stop. If you two have any more questions, ask them to my son or me when I have time. The faster you give us your special oil, the faster I’ll have time for you. Vi, now that I know your class level you will come and help. Understood?”

“It’s the least I can do.” She got off the chair, and that’s when I spotted a large knife around her belt. I was pretty sure it hadn’t been there before.

“Now, all of you. Get out of my house. Misses Templier, good night, and Miss Fórst, with me, I want to see how you fight.” Kan commanded; his tone much more confident now that he was talking like the chief of the guards.

And that’s how he kicked us out.

Gaëlle was in a good mood, and so was I.

She was going to make us a real, warm bath.