A rockslide of impressions slammed into Emily's heightened senses, as she stepped out of the slightly overpriced inn, and onto the capital streets. She was used to it, of course, she had to be, but her overstimulated senses always caused her discomfort in large cities. Her sight was the most manageable. Keeping track of every single movement of every single object in her extended vision, while simultaneously calculating optimal escape routes and efficient attack patterns, were now second nature and instinctual. She almost didn't notice she was doing it most of the time.

The smell was also mostly manageable at this point. Sure, her sensitive nose was always under a constant barrage from the rank joys of centralized civilization, but it was possible to ignore most of it. Besides, she knew it could always be worse. The wealthy commoner districts were noticeably cleaner than the large southern slums, and this capital actually had a sewage system and a semi-decent bathing culture. No, the most discomfort, by far, was attributed to her tall overstimulated rabbit ears. They picked up and reacted to every sound. Every voice, every step, shuffle of clothes, breathing, even heartbeats. No noise went unnoticed. Had it not been for her enchanted ear piercings, a plain golden ring through the outer base of each ear, massively reducing the volume of sounds entering her ear canals, she would have had trouble staying in cities. For the longest time she actually used to avoid densely populated areas for that exact reason. Walking through a busy street, used to be complete torture. Sleeping in a city was almost impossible, sounds traveling through walls as if they weren't even there. Not a single quiet moment.

Luckily Emily had a lot of money. Being really good at killing things, and not dying, made making money a breeze. And Emily had been alive for quite a while. So splurging on barrels of expensive alcohol and a few enchanted artifacts every now and then didn’t even put a dent in her finances. The enchanted ear accessories were quite expensive, the money spent being enough to feed a family for almost a decade, but she couldn’t care less. Feeding families wasn't her responsibility, and she could now walk through streets and live in cities without too much discomfort. Win-win in her book.

Sure, having massively reduced hearing, left her a tiny bit more vulnerable to ambushes and sneak attacks, but she wouldn't be able to separate those from all the masking noise in the capital anyways. Besides, she preferred having semi-normal hearing and no brain-melting headaches, rather than the other way around.

She walked with purpose towards her destination. Walking with a purpose, at a brisk pace, would usually ensure that no one approached her. It was annoying when someone approached Emily. She was not interested in buying cheap trinkets, replying to questions about her appearance, “employment”, or answering for her crimes against humanity. And so, walking determined, looking like she had somewhere important to be, would let her move mostly undisturbed.

People would still look though. As her determined stride carried her past storefronts, business buildings, and mostly clean pedestrians, most people would still turn to look at her. It’s not like there weren't other demi-humans in the streets. Different types of beastkin could be seen dotted around the streets as she strode along the paved stone. A well dressed female catkin in a pink dress entering a bakery, a scaled male lizardkin in a butlers tuxedo with a strained posture hurried past her from the opposite direction, a wolfkin child in a smudged shirt ran across the street with a human and an elven child chasing them. Non-humans were mostly a minority in the wealthier areas, but they were represented all the same. However, Emily would still stick out like a sore thumb for several reasons. Her legs were unusual, even for demi-humans with rabbit features. Most rabbitkin would wear shoes. The fully furred Lapine were, to her knowledge, extinct, and as Emily was a halfbreed it made her appearance even more unusual.

But even her tall legs fell short of her nightmare-inducing eyes. The piercing red, almost glowing eyes that had seen so many things she wished she hadn’t. All who met her eyes on the street looked away immediately. They all looked, and pretended they didn't. Emily didn’t care though. Nope. Not anymore. Emily had decided that she didn’t care what people thought of her appearance.

As Emily continued to not care, the streets shifted. She was coming to the end of the busy mercantile street, and superseding it, was a more rowdy area. She was approaching the eastern outer gates, the location of the adventurers guild, and with it most of the capital's mercenaries. A great place to pick up a paid bodyguard, foul tasting beer, a sexually transmittable disease, and a broken nose. She was headed for the royal mage academy located within the northern inner walls, close to the royal castle and most of the capital's nobility. To get to the northern inner gates, she would have to pass the guild building and the many mercenary oriented businesses located here.

She didn’t mind it too much. She was by far the most dangerous creature in the capital, and adventurers were quite inclusive for the most part. Also her favorite brothel wasn’t far from here. “The Roost”. They didn’t care about species or gender, had tasty strong drinks, and the walls were thick and sound isolated. The girls were nice too, despite tiring a bit too quickly. She tended to alternate between sleeping at the inn and “The Roost” depending on her mood.

Walking towards the eastern gates, she passed several shops selling weapons, armor, enchanted equipment, travel gear and most things an adventurer would need to increase their chances of not dying. One shop even specialized in reagents and potions for healing. Likely inefficient and overpriced, but it was probably the most successful shop in the area. Healers were rare and sought after among adventurers and mercenaries. They tended to get picked up quickly by either the religious nutjobs of the different temples, or nobles wishing to sponsor their magical education for selfish purposes.

Passing the gates on her right, and continuing towards the guild building further ahead, she overheard a man in chainmail whisper loudly to two party members walking alongside him:

“Keep walking. Don’t look. That’s the blood-bunny.”

Despite the man’s warnings, one of the party members, a female archer, turned to look her dead in the eyes as the three walked past her. As recognition and realization dawned on her, she immediately looked away. Fear spread across her increasingly pale face. The woman walked off with her party at twice her original speed.

Emily sighed. One time. She had forgotten to wash off the blood from her face and clothes one time. Coming back from subjugation quests, she would always wash off quickly with her water stone before entering the city gates. Once, after clearing out a bandit camp, she tried teleporting directly into the city, appearing just outside the adventurers guild. Not only did she almost give an entire party of seasoned adventurers a heart attack by appearing right in front of them out of nowhere, she had also forgotten to wash off before teleporting. She tried to play it off by turning in the completed quest quickly, so she could take a bath as soon as possible, but the damage was already done. The frightened party outside, and everyone who was present at the guild hall that day, would have nightmares of the small bloody monster for weeks afterwards. Wildfires could learn a thing or two from how fast her rumor spread from there. “The blood-bunny”, a man-eating monster with just enough sentience to qualify for a guild membership. A battle-frenzied predator who undertakes high ranking subjugation quests on her own, to quench her undying hunger for human blood and flesh.

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Stupid rumors. Humans didn't even taste good. At least the adventurers at the eastern gate treated her with caution after that.

A few more fearful people recognized her when she moved past the large glorified mercenary building. Some whispered her nickname amongst themselves. A young man even turned to walk the other way when he recognized her. With another sigh she increased her pace slightly, leaving the rumor mill behind. If she got admitted to the academy, she probably wouldn’t be back to this part of the city for quite a while. If she was lucky, the rumor would have died down by the time she was back. Maybe. Hopefully.

The rest of the lengthy walk to the inner northern gates was thankfully uneventful. She passed mixed areas of residences, with small businesses dotted in between, a guard barrack, several open plazas with food stalls, trees and fountains, and a temple that she avoided by taking a side street. Plenty of people looked her way as she traversed the busy streets, although no one bothered her. A large shady-looking male wolfkin, smelling of soap allergies and bad decisions, was headed in her direction at one of the plazas, but he quickly remembered he had something important to do elsewhere when he got a better look at her. Emily put the large ornate silver knife back into her Spatial Storage. She didn’t use the cursed blade very often, but she found that just taking out and holding the intimidating object prevented twice as many confrontations as it ended.

Before long she was approaching the guards outside the inner northern gates. The guards, the gate, walls, and even the paved stones in the area were as clean as they could be. The duo of guards wore armor, polished full plate glistening in the sunlight. Spear, shield and sword at the ready. They professionally remained entirely still as she approached them, waiting for her to either justify her presence or get lost. When they deemed her close enough, one of them reached out an armored hand, signaling her to stop. A gruff male voice seeped out under the visored helmet.

“Identification and reason for entry?”

“Guild ID acceptable? I’m headed to the royal mage academy for my entry assessment. Hopefully I’ll be joining the academy today.”

Emily’s light voice came out calm and firm. As if she was speaking only facts. With a small movement, her guild issued identification card appeared in her right hand. It carried her single name, a small magically captured portrait of her face, and current ranking among the adventurers. A high ranking signified a strong adventurer, and would also allow an individual to accept the most dangerous, and subsequently the most rewarding quests whenever they became available. She didn’t care much for the rewards, but with a high ranking, nobody would bat an eye if she accepted dangerous quests solo, without a party. For that reason alone, Emily was happy with having attained the second highest ranking within the western kingdom's adventurers guild. The rank of Ruby, second only after Diamond. Being a ruby ranked adventurer also meant that her guild card was colored a deep ruby red, the same color of her eyes, which was neat.

She took half a step, handing her striking red ID card towards the guard who spoke, signaling for him to take it. Which he did. Grasping it expertly within a heavily armored gauntlet, before examining it for more than a few tense seconds. The visored helmets gave away no facial expressions. He eventually handed it back without a word. Then with smooth mirrored movements, both guards simultaneously stepped aside to let her pass. As Emily put away her ID, the guard spoke one last time.

"The academy is straight ahead, then right. Difficult to miss the mage towers."

She couldn't help being impressed with their professionalism as she stepped through the gate. No harassment based on her looks or race, no reaction to her being a mage or high ranking adventurer, and they even let her in without as much as a snide remark. Professional to a point. In her slight stupor, she almost missed the guard whispering to his colleague as he thought she was out of earshot.

"Holy shit! The blood-bunny is real."

Annoyed, Emily decided that she hadn't heard a thing.

Crossing over into the walled off noble districts, the change was dramatic. Not only was every street, building and person scrubbed clean with an almost fanatical loathing of common dirt, but every object she laid her eyes on, practically screamed “NEEDLESSLY EXPENSIVE”. The buildings, be they businesses or houses, were twice as large, made of thrice as expensive building materials, carrying ornate designs and carvings in the white stone. The heavy use of white or light-gray stone in the structures and paved roads, made the noble district almost blindingly bright in the lazy sunlight, especially if one came directly from another part of the capital. There were fewer people in the streets, and fewer still were individuals of demi-human descent. The people she passed were all clean, groomed, clad in accessories and exotic fabrics, and they were all staring intently at her.

Despite being exceedingly wealthy, she never cared much for fancy clothing. She wanted comfort, and comfort alone. For this reason, her custom tailored stretchy cropped dark pants, and heat and cold resistant long sleeved light gray shirt, might have come across to most as looking like regular cheap commoner's garments. And so, looking like a regular commoner, as well as an unusual demi-human breed, compounded the effect that she did not belong.

The staring, more intense than usual, was becoming uncomfortable as Emily began to see the tops of several mage towers in the distance in front of her. She did her best to ignore it. The guards had let her through, so there was no reason she shouldn’t be allowed in the noble area. She knew that there were plenty of commoners enrolled at the academy, even though the majority consisted of the “gifted” nobility. After the academy registration, she would probably be provided with a uniform and student ID. With that, she would totally belong here.

Emily was getting close to the academy now. Some of the people walking in the streets were wearing something she recognized as school-uniforms. Black suit-pants, belt, white long-sleeved shirt, black vest and a bow-tie with the school insignia. Some wore an additional pin on their chest, which seemed to be different from person to person. After a few moments she realized the additional pin had to signify what noble house they belonged to, as she also saw a half-elf male without a pin, a commoner.

She was actually really liking the look of the uniform, and was contemplating how to modify the pants to accommodate her thick ankles and large furry feet, when she saw a female student in a different type of uniform. She had the same shirt, bow-tie and vest, but instead of suit-pants, she wore a short black skirt above her knees, and long black socks. She also noticed several other female students with the same type of uniform. There was a different uniform for males and females? Emily had completely failed to anticipate this. Would Emily have to wear a skirt too? Would that mean that she had to go shopping for undergarments? She was not having happy thoughts.

Her not-happy thoughts were interrupted as a cluster of five armored individuals appeared from a side-street to her right. The second to last street before she would reach the huge academy grounds in front of her.

They wore half-plate armor only covering their torso, shoulders and thighs, with leather-padded pants and shirt underneath. They all had armored gloves with steel bracers, and a sword strapped to their side. None wore helmets, some were talking as they walked. The one walking in front, a young arrogant-looking blonde human male, took one quick look at Emily and his face immediately shifted to reflect immense disgust. He immediately turned to walk towards Emily. The four others ended their discussion to follow after. The blonde half yelled as he got closer, his voice sounding just as arrogant as his pretentious haircut looked.

"Hey you! What's a filthy demi commoner doing here? How did you sneak past the gates?"

Emily sighed, looking past the annoyance, at her destination only a few hundred meters in front of her.

"So close."