Typer’s room: Hello guys. Since you chose it, this is it. All I had is now up and next week I’ll start my post as I write regim (This week is beepy, which I still have to finish…)

Anyway, some of you mentioned this earlier, but I thought that this was a good point for me to have Lia think about all her choices in her long and difficult three years old life. (Sarcasm intended on the long part) This will also be a trampoline for a bit more character development, I think.

Lastly, I would like to once again ask you guys to point out anything you find a bit off from the whole politics thing. It’s not my strong point and I would like some ideas if you guys have any.

As I said before, this is VASTLY a work in progress, and wasn’t made to be posted initially, so there might be some inconsistencies. If so, please do tell me, as I want to make it an enjoyable read ^^

May your reading be enjoyable.

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Closing my eyes the best I could and taking in deep long breaths to calm myself, still feeling shaken by what had happened a few moments ago. Focusing all I could in my sense, I somehow managed to get a grasp of the situation that was unfolding on the other corner of the garden.

A bit surprised at how easy it was to observe the duel between the two spiritualists, I could also somehow manage to get an idea of what was happening between the soldiers and thieves, noticing how far back the soldiers had been pushed. That said, they were quickly recovering ground now that the bandits lost a good part of their numbers.

With the soldiers and thieves having smaller spirit reserves filling their bodies, I couldn’t quite make sure what their movements were compared to the spiritualists, but it was enough for me to have an idea of what was happening in the battle.

That said, now that I had removed myself from the fight, I must admit that it was surprisingly quiet for something so violent. With the only real sound coming over being the clash of metal and the occasional impact sound from the spiritualists, it was easily drowned out by the clamour of the party. There were no sounds of pain nor anything of the like, as all of them held back their cry.

While I could somehow understand why the guards were doing that, probably related to avoiding causing a commotion at the party and damage the clan’s reputation. However, the thieves had already lost the element of surprise, so it was strange that they were still keeping quiet, seeing how they had little to lose.

Wondering about that for a moment, I felt as a thief’s spirit suddenly drained entirely, signaling his death.

My already unsettled stomach churned once again, almost making me double over in a wave of nausea as the scene from earlier played in my mind, but steeling myself I quickly held back the bad feeling and managed to calm myself down as I slowly calmed down, feeling my heartbeat slow down to a more natural pace.

Not a few seconds later I saw, with my own eyes, as the thief’s boss jumped over the corner, focusing his spirit in his legs so that he could move faster, or what little he still had, seeing how Dia had been slowly burning all of his spirit with each of her attacks. That said, taking a look at their physical state, they were almost entirely opposite, with Dia sporting various bruises and what looked like a bad shoulder while the thief didn’t seem all that injured.

Staring at them, I noticed how they didn’t even recognize my presence as their battle dragged to a corner of the garden. The man used some kind of enhancement skill that made him advance at a blinding speed towards Dia as a burst of steam came from his feet. Right as he was about to reach her, he made a roundhouse kick motion, to which the steam followed making a dangerous looking steam spiral in the shape of a serpent

The nearby bushes were almost literally blown away by the attack, leaving holes on the ground where the roots were ripped out from their places. Luckily, Dia managed to avoid the brunt of the attack by leaping backwards at the last second, but she still made a pained expression as the serpent twisted and coiled around her.

I didn’t let my awe last for too long as I watched the scene with my open eyes. Trying to shake off my shock, I took the small toyish cross-bow I still carried with me and tried pulling it back. Surprised at how much my strength seemed to escape me, I barely managed to pull the string back before putting some pebble from the ground.

Trying to take aim at the bandit boss as my hand trembled slightly, however, before I could even pull the trigger, Dia landed a kick on the guy`s chest while focusing half of her chi on each leg. The man managed to jump back and avoid the attack, once again getting to the outside of my vision angle and back to where the soldiers were.

Dia gave me a brief glance that I couldn’t quite understand before jumping after him.

All in all, I think I didn’t see them for more than five seconds here. While part of me regretted that I couldn’t be more useful, another part of me felt glad that they left me. Not knowing how to feel about this, I simply sighed before closing my eyes once again.

While watching over the battle and seeing as the soldier’s started downing one thief after the other, I tried making sense of what was happening here.

Master Bo did say that there were many possible reasons that could lead to this, but I felt that maybe I could find out more now. Possibly, their insistence on keeping quiet had something to do with whatever they came to do here?

While I thought about this, I felt as the last thief seemed to stop in his track. Barely alive, just like two others that I could even hear as they moaned in pain. The rest were all dead. Not even traces of their spirit coming from their bodies.

I breathed deeply to calm myself once again.

Was this… Really something that I would have to get used to? Thinking about that while remembering what the aides said, I couldn’t help but wonder.

Should I really keep doing what I am doing right now if I were to meet other situations like these? I sincerely don’t know whether I would be able to hold myself together if this became a regular situation.

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Heh… This is funny.

I think this is the first time that I really started thinking seriously about this job since I started it. All this time it just felt a bit like a play. A really complex and taxing play, but still just something I was doing for fun.

All that I wanted was to somehow find my mother and ask her why she left us that night. Maybe also take over my father’s work on the smithy, start working on metallurgy. That seemed fun to be honest.

“...Okay, I’ll ask. What are you doing? Is this another one of your tricks?”

I snapped out of my state as the voice called me. Blinking surprised, I noticed that I had blanked out for a moment, with one more bandit dead now. From the looks of it, I was out only for a brief moments, seeing how Dia and the Bandit were still roughly in the same state as before.

Shaking my head and looking around, searching for the owner of the voice, the one who I found out was, surprisingly, the brat of the Sol Household, who stood before me with an annoyed glance.

His expression changed into one of surprise while I stared at him trying to understand what he was doing here.

“You look horrible.” He commented indifferently. “Did you have a fight with that master of yours or something?”

“W...What are you doing here?” I asked while trying to stand up, only to feel as my legs refused to gather strength. “Got tired of being alone in the party?” I asked trying to put up a front, but even I could tell that it was a horrible bluff.

“That was the worst attempt at a bluff ever.” He said coldly while looking down at me. “Either that, or you are an excellent actor.” He frowned before taking his hand to his chin. “...I sincerely don’t know which one is the truth.”

I grinned a bit while feeling my body refusing to answer me. From the looks of it he still hadn’t noticed what was happening right behind the corner. With the soldier’s triumph over the bandits, the louder part of the battle had been finished, and now only the spiritualists were battling, so it was considerably quieter.

“So, what are you doing here, noble wannabe?” I asked while trying to avert his attention. “You still didn’t answer that.”

“That’s none of your business.” He said bluntly, to which I felt annoyed. “I have no reason to answer you.” He said before preparing to walk towards the back of the garden, only to stop as his eyes landed on the place where the bushes had been ripped off the ground. “I don’t recall that.” He said with a frown before turning to me with a suspicious glance.

I gritted my teeth for a moment before stopping to think for a moment. Thinking about it, what reason did I have to keep quiet? It’s not like I need to keep him away from the battle at all, right?

As these thoughts crossed my mind, I felt as the two martial artists once again approached us, with Dia being chased by the man who had his entire body coated with the remaining of his spirit. Literally.

Appearing from the corner as a blur, the two spiritualist froze for a moment as their eyes landed on the two of us. While Dia’s face contorted in a grimace, the bandit’s became surprised, and for a whole half second, the duo stood still.

Then, a grin appeared on the bandit’s face. If it wasn’t for the fact that I felt him channeling his spirit to his legs, I probably wouldn't have managed to react in time. In fact, I didn’t even have the time to think about what I was doing.

Raising my toy-crossbow towards the bandit, I didn’t even take the time to aim before pulling the trigger. Luckily, the projectile flew straight towards him just as he took his first step, hitting right on the face.

He didn’t even react to that while glaring towards the still shocked Yulai. Seeing as he seemingly disappeared into the air, an idea appeared in my mind.

I pushed the brat aside just in time before feeling a sudden force yank me painfully to the side with such a force that I worried that it would break my neck. Gasping in pain as the feeling settled down, I could see that I wasn’t in the same place as earlier. Feeling as a hand grasped me by the neck of my robe, I could feel my breath growing short as I couldn’t inhale properly.

“Wha… How did you...” I heard the bandit saying surprised before looking back at where the brat was, fallen to his butt with a confused expression. “Shi...” He started saying once he noticed how Dia had disappeared from his sight already.

To be fair, I didn’t know what I was doing at the time. It simply felt as if something kicked in and I suddenly couldn’t bother being afraid. At the time, I didn’t really care why he tried to grab Yulai or why he even was trying to However, I didn’t miss the notion that he was in a bad spot right now. Grimacing as he tightened his grasp around my neck and prepared to throw me away, I extended my two hands and grabbed him by the ears.

It felt more like I was trying to grasp steel rather than skin, but I didn’t let that stop me as I reacted in a semi-frenzied way, all my thoughts suddenly changing on how to stop… No, on how to defeat him.

With my mind dyed red, I felt as he tried to throw me away, but grabbing on his ears with all the strength my little arms could muster. He turned to me surprised by my actions, and before he could react, I did the only thing that I could do that would have an effect on him.

I spat on his eyes.

“Y-YOU LITTLE!” I heard him saying in a mix of disgust and anger, but I didn’t care. So what if all my little weapon could do was bounce off harmlessly? All I had to do was hinder him in another way. After all, I’m not the only one here after his head.

Surely enough, right when he let go of me and I fell to the ground, a fist enveloped on a fiery coating reached him from behind. With his eyes covered in my saliva, he lost time trying to clean his vision.

He didn’t even see it coming.