Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city…

The wagon wright rubs his chin and furrows his brows as he thinks.

「Hmmm… It sounds interesting. I do furniture on the side, and I happen to have an unsold chair. An old lady that ordered it died before she could pick it up, see.」

「When would it be ready? I really want to get my sister out of her bed and take her for a walk somewhere already!」

Louche nods his head and clenches his fists in excitement.

「I s'pose it'll be ready by tomorrow morning. It shouldn't be too hard. I just need to figure out how to get the wheels on…」

「Thank you! I can't wait! I'll tell my sister!」

「Wait wait wait, are you sure you don't want to buy a wagon instead? Your sister could sit on it all the same.」

「But that would need a horse! The whole point is that a wheelchair doesn't need a horse! I could just push her around on it!」

Louche shakes his head, feverishly gesturing a pushing motion. The bushy-bearded craftsman shrugs.

「I was just makin' a suggestion. You're paying, your choice. Come back tomorrow.」

「Yeah! I will!」

Louche exits the workshop, and runs off towards the slums. The craftsman sighs.

「Ahh… Wheelchair, huh? The silly things people come up with… Whatever.」

He gets up from his stool, and walks into his storage room…

…

Around the same time, in the capital's palace…

「My liege, an urgent report from Kreisfeld arrived by a messenger pigeon.」

A man kneels on the red carpet in front of the throne, keeping his head low as he reports to the monarch on the throne. Dressed in luxurious royal robes, the middle-aged man stares at him from the top of the steps, as he lazily sits in the throne.

「…From Kreisfeld? And? It better be something good for once.」

「Ahem… My liege… The captain of the city guard reported that his men arrested two assassins last night. They were tasked with hunting down the princess…」

The man clears his throat nervously as he reports.

「And? That's the urgent report? That matter should be already settled. It is of no consequence…」

The new king shrugs and holds his hand up in minor disbelief. The man below him gulps.

「Your majesty… They were arrested during an assassination attempt. They tracked down the princess-」

The monarch's eyes widen, and he slams his fist on this throne's armrest. The young man beside his throne jumps up from the sudden noise, and the man below him flinches. He furiously glares at the man kneeling below, breathing heavily and saying nothing.

「Captain…」

He finally calls out to the armored man beside him. The young man's eyes widen, and his lips tighten together.

「Eep! Yes, your majesty!」

「Contact the mercenaries… I want only the absolute best. Money is not an issue. Once you collect five of them, I want them to introduce themselves. Is that clear?」

He commands the young captain of the guard, while still staring at the kneeling man. There is a tranquil fury in his voice. He loudly exhales in frustration, with three of his fingers on his forehead.

「Yes, your majesty! Right away!」

The captain of the guard runs down the steps past the kneeling man, out into the hallway, almost tripping. The man on the throne sighs heavily.

「You…」

「Yes, your majesty?」

「Keep me informed on her movements.」

「…Will I not be executed?」

「You will be, if you fail to do as I say in a timely manner. Get out of my sight.」

The new monarch says, and the man below him nods. He gets up from his knees, bows one last time, and turns to leave.

「…That pesky rat. Why is she still not dead?」

The usurper king mutters under his breath, and gets up from his throne. He walks out of the throne room, through a doorway off to the side…

…

Meanwhile, elsewhere, far from Kreisfeld…

Greaves, Alicia, Will and Lian are seated around a round table in an inn. A traveling bard is playing a pleasing, upbeat tune on his lute in the background, catching an occasional coin into his feathered laying on the floor.

「Lian, are you sure you don't want to join the adventurers' guild?」

「I'm sure, Will. I am simply not interested.」

Lian replies. With her elbow on the table, she smiles a little at Will as she props her head up on her fist. Will gets visibly flustered by her prolonged eye contact, he looks away and adjusts his glasses.

「I'm just saying that in case something happened to us, you would still be able to get the reward…」

「My, thank you for your concern, Will. However, I find your peoples' penchant for trading gold amongst yourselves to be a little silly.」

She smirks and looks away from Will, cutting him a break.

「What do you trade with, then?」

Greaves chimes in, with a hint of a mocking tone in his voice.

「Monster parts.」

Lian turns her gaze to Greaves, and answers him as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

「What?… Forget it. Alicia, let's order some food for the party.」

「Huh? Can't we just wait for the barmaid-」

Alicia tilts her head and glances at Greaves and Lian back and forth. Greaves interrupts her.

「Tsk. Alicia, get a clue. Leave the lovebirds alone for a moment.」

Greaves gets up from his chair with a loud scrape on the wooden floor. Alicia follows him out of compulsion, taking her wand with her.

「Greaves! I'll set you on fire!」

Thud.

Will slams his hand on the table as he shouts at Greaves's back. Lian is chuckling and covering her mouth with her fist.

「I'm sorry, Lian. He's just stupid and can't help it.」

Will apologizes, red-faced and unable to even glance at Lian.

「Don't be. I find your banter amusing. I've heard worse jabs from my clan. It's all just light-hearted fun.」

Lian returns to lazily slumping on the table as Greaves and Alicia talk to the innkeeper.

「But he barely knows you, even if he's joking it's not right to insult someone like this-」

「I have been insulted far worse, Will. And by people who were meant to be my family.」

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

She interrupts Will, her smug amused smirk disappears. The shift in the tone of her voice makes Will concerned enough to look at her directly.

「…Can I ask what happened?」

「Hmmm… Well, you can ask. Doesn't mean I will answer.」

She looks aside at the bard with an exaggerated humm. Her smug smirk returns.

「I see… Sorry, I shouldn't stick my nose-」

Will nods and looks down, but Lian interrupts him again.

「I will answer though, it's fine.」

Lian's words make Will straighten out in his chair and pay undivided attention to her.

「The story will get a little long and boring though, I'm warning you ahead of the time.」

She waves a circle with her hand, smiling as she looks towards nowhere in particular.

「I don't mind. I'd like to know a little more about you.」

「Hmmmm… Very well, then.」

Lian locks eyes with Will, and humms while smirking intensively. She pauses for a considerable moment, then goes on to tell her story.

「I suppose I should start with a little background first. One of my clan members was getting married. Extended family. I'm sure you're familiar with how those things go. My brother and I were very young back then, we were just barely dabbling in training for combat. We were far too young for it, even. But we did it regardless… Anyhow.」

Her dark eyes drift to the innkeeper's table and the rest of Will's party there as she talks.

「What was meant to be an auspicious and joyful day turned tragic. A swarm of large beasts flooded into our clan fortress. None of us were prepared for something like that. We never saw the beasts act like this. Most of my clan died instantly without a chance to fight back, just to their stampede.」

Her almond-shaped eyes return to lock gaze with Will. She blinks slowly, and there is a hint of sad downward curl to them. Will nods gently every few words, letting her know he's listening.

「Our father managed to lead us to safety, but he went back to save the rest of the clan. Long story short, it didn't go as he planned. Not only did we become orphans, but my brother and I also became the last of our clan.」

Lian sits straight up and leans back in her chair, crossing her arms as she looks down at the table.

「It didn't take long for our…Allied, so to say, clan to take notice of the massacre. They took us in, but as most clan interactions, it was not out of kindness of their heart. They knew of my potential. But they never appreciated me for who I was. You could say I am of good stock, Will.」

Her gloved hand squeezes onto her arm, her eyebrows tilt down a little. She sighs, and her expression returns to her usual.

「Well bred, if you were to use their obscene wording. It didn't matter to them how much I trained, how much effort and dedication I put into being the greatest of my clan, to take the burden off my little brother.」

Lian takes a deep breath and sighs again. She looks at Will, his face is now a mix of anger and pity.

「Don't look at me like that. My brother had it worse. Though I can't say with a straight face that it was easy to put up with their derision and mockery. My brother…」

She looks up at the ceiling, sighing again.

「My brother had it really hard. Unlike me, he had no talent for being a warrior. At the age of 14, I already beat their strongest fighter in a spar, humiliating him quite a lot. He made a mistake of thinking I am just a small girl, and paid for it with his reputation of being undefeated. But I am talented. Everything came easy to me. Beating him was a child's play.」

「What were they doing, exactly? Weren't they supposed to be your adoptive family? Why would they mock you when you beat their strongest man?」

Will asks, tilting his head slightly. Lian lets out an amused chuckle.

「Will, it's cute how naive you are.」

Lian smirks, this time her having pity mixed into her expression.

「I don't understand-」

「Exactly, Will. In their eyes, they were blessed with good fortune. They received a woman of good pedigree to marry off to someone and make them a whole litter of powerful warriors down the line.」

Lian sighs again, and returns to slumping on the table. Her expression grows a little tired.

「They were already plotting who to marry me with as early as when I was 16. They didn't care much for my abilities. But that's fine. I expected that sort of treatment, it was inevitable. But what I couldn't stand for was they way they treated my brother.」

「What did they do?」

「The same thing they did to me, but worse. As I said, my little brother had no talent, so any progress in his fighting ability came only through monstrous effort. They thought of him as a waste of space, and couldn't wait to come up with a way and an excuse to get rid of him. What took me a few hours to learn, took my brothers months and months of hard work and dedication…」

Unveiled anger returns to Lian's face. She glare at Will as she keeps telling her story.

「They never appreciated any of it. Slowly but surely, my brother was stealing my burden from me. At a snail's pace, he was getting better. Little by little. Tell me, Will… Would it be impressive if you could learn and cast any spell in just a few minutes?」

Will shifts uncomfortably and breaks eye contact every now and then as Lian glares at him, then asks him a question.

「Well… I think it would be. In a way, at least. Because magic takes a really long time to learn. Just through rarity alone, that would be impressive… That's my opinion, I think.」

Will adjusts his glasses multiple times, trying to answer in the most inoffensive way possible. Lian nods in response.

「You're not wrong, Will. That's talent. It is impressive, because only very few people have true talent for things. Be it war, crafts, mental tasks… But wouldn't it be more impressive if everyone around you was convinced that you will never learn a single spell, ever… And then you learn magic anyway? By nothing else, except your effort and dedication to making it so?」

「Yes. I would be very impressed. There are people like that. People who we think will never be able to cast any magic. We, the mages, call those people 『Spell-less』 usually. But there's a lot of pejorative terms for them, too…」

Will nods, Lian's expression softens a little. Perhaps, after realizing she's glaring daggers at Will.

「Exactly. Now shift your point of view a little, Will. You are a warrior, and everyone around you tells you that you will never be strong. You will be a worthless weakling forever, always inferior to your talented sister. And yet you continue to practice. Be it rain, night, mud, fog, snow, monsoon… You train every day for hours on end, until you can match your talented sister.」

Lian locks eyes with Will again with a fond, happy smile.

「That's why I always looked up to my brother, and that's why I couldn't stand how they treat him. They will never understand the effort he put in just to try and get to my level. Eventually, he ran away. Nobody really cared, it was a problem off their head. My situation was slightly different. I was more akin to a prisoner, rather than an adopted clan member. But, I ran the night I turned 18.」

Her usual smug smirk returns as she looks down again.

「How? If it was a fortress, did you disguise yourself somehow and leave?」

Will asks with a tilted head and furrowed brows.

「Hmpf. Is that what you would do, Will? Not quite. I stole the first spear I could find in an armory and vaulted over the walls with it. Climbing down the vertical cliff was tricky, but I managed to make it to the shore. I threatened fishermen serfs with a boat to get me to your land, and I have been searching for my brother since.」

She spreads her hands and shrugs, then goes back to lazily propping her head up on her fist.

「That's… Quite a story.」

「Lengthy, wasn't it?」

She asks with her signature smug smirk.

「I don't really mind.」

「Ah, I bet the boat trip would interest you. The fish are much bigger around the islands, too. That's another long story.」

She chuckles softly, smirking as she looks at Will with her exotic eyes narrowed.

「Can you just tell me… Were you joking when you said your people kidnap and rape people from around here?」

Will straightens out, but his shoulders slump and paradoxically, his form grows smaller.

「Oh, no. Absolutely not. We need fresh blood. It's not like we do it because we hate you. We quite literally wouldn't survive as a peoples without you-」

Greaves and Alicia return with wooden plates full of food in hand. They slam them down on the table.

「There you go! Had a nice chat, lovebirds? When are you getting married?」

Greaves asks as he nudges the plates towards Will and Lian. Lian turns her head away and chuckles again, while Will starts fuming.

「Greaves! I guess you really want to find out how candles and torches feel like, huh!? Do you!?」

Will shouts at Greaves, gripping onto his staff beside his chair.