Almost half a year passed since Kessho revealed to Kurai that she was a hybrid. His behavior towards her didn't change in the slightest. He even brought her toys and sweets often, which she hid in a tree in the forest since she couldn't afford to be seen with anything.

Everyone at the castle also started paying her less and less attention. They didn't even care if she returned late at night anymore. This didn't necessarily mean a good thing, simply gesturing towards the king being distracted by some more important matters for the time, which worried him more than her, which could lead to much worse things and not just for her.

Kurai had gotten quite used to her not talking by then and didn't try to hold a conversation when not needed. The two usually just sat there and relaxed, simply enjoying each other's company for the one or two hours they met. He even stopped asking Kessho the reason for her crying, but she knew the question was still in his mind, and he could only contain his curiosity for so long.

"You do know you still haven't told me why you are always crying here, granted I don't think you even can," He mumbled, breaking the silence that has been there for nearly the entire past hour, and waking Kessho up from her half-sleep. She tried to pretend that she was still asleep but Kurai noticed her eyes snap open a moment ago. Pulling her up into a sitting position he stared at her, waiting for any response but he didn't receive any. "Fine, if it's something that happens at the castle then I would find out soon enough."

Kessho tilted her head at the question, one ear up and the other down, her gesture for 'what?'.

"What that means is I am being recruited into the royal guard due to my continued achievements," He informed, with a 'you know what that means' look.

Her expression turned to one of shock and she turned away from him, sitting quietly. She cupped her chin in both her hands and stared into space for a few moments, thinking of whether to tell him or not. In the end she decided to tell him, it was only a matter of time anyways, better that she tells him than him finding out himself. She told him a complete account of her life, from the village to the castle, and also a bit about how important he is to her. Throughout her explanation he stared at her wide-eyed, though not due to the tragic tale.

"You can talk?!" He exclaimed.

"I can, it just puts a lot of strain on my throat," She explained, her voice having gotten slightly more stressed.

"You do have a voice fitting your child-like appearance at least, and also I am sorry to hear all of that," He replied with a look of grief and anger. "There were things about him that made my blood boil. Looting villages, treating people poorly, killing with no regard, exiling an entire community of people. Now I think I know enough to be able to decide."

Kessho wore an expression of confusion, distress, and fear.

"Sorry about that, I lost my cool. I joined the knights half a year ago hoping to help people, but everything I have found out about the king since joining has changed my entire opinion of him," Kurai sighed. "I have a question for you. If it meant you can be free for the rest of your life and free many others as well, how far will you be willing to go?" He looked at her with a hopeful expression after asking.

She thought for a while. Freedom is something she never experienced in her life, she didn't know if she would be happy or not if she was free, but she knew there were many others that wanted it, she has heard many accounts of people revolting for freedom, staking their own lives and entire nations for it. Freedom meant nothing for her, as she didn't even know just what it would be like to be free, but she knew there were many who would give their all for it without a second thought.

"As far as you are willing to," She answered with a reassuring smile.

His expression changed from that of hope to that of shock. He didn't expect that sort of an answer from her, but he didn't mind it either. Getting up he smiled at her. "Seems like we will be going quite far in that case, not yet however. I have been gathering people that have lost everything to the king, our resistance isn't quite big enough yet. I will continue to recruit more people and we will attack once we are ready. Till then, I will gather information about the stronger knights and generals along with information on the king. There are a few neighboring kingdoms that will be willing to help along with the exiled communities. You can rest assured, you only need to hold on for a little longer, then, I assure you I will do everything possible to make your life one of the best possible, as it should have been," Kurai reassured with a smile.

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She wasn't sure about holding on for a little longer. She didn't know how everything was going to happen, but she was willing to help in anyway she could, even if that meant not doing anything at all. Just about no one even cared about what she did at all by now so there wasn't much problem in that for her.

"Well then, I need to leave earlier today as well, I will see you tomorrow, at the castle." He waved to her as he walked away.

Kessho waved back at him with a sigh, looking up at the sky after he disappeared from view. This past half year she learnt a lot more about her capabilities and skills, a great many of which she didn't quite understand, but still, as long as it worked she didn't care much about the details. Most were life threatening, capable of killing within minutes if not seconds, she even started to believe that maybe she was meant to be a weapon, meant to be able to kill anything.

The first of her capabilities she discovered stemmed from her idea about other retractable things. If her ears and tails were retractable, there might be other things too. She first tried claws, since that seemed more useful to her, and she did have them. Her claws sprung up from the back of her palm and attached to the back of her fingers, one claw for each finger. This only happened to her hands however, even though she wished she possessed claws on her legs as well, since her legs were stronger than her weak arms. Her claws also turned out to be much sharper than she could have ever expected, slicing out deep lines into a boulder effortlessly.

The second idea she tried were wings, and there were four of them, two pairs of completely different wings. A pair of pinkish-red phoenix wings on the inside, and a pair of pitch-black wyvern-like wings on the outside. She tested her flying capabilities, and she realised it wasn't something she could do easily, more so when she needed to use both her pairs of wings properly for better flight. She was able to lift herself into the air, but lost balance and crashed right after.

The other thing she discovered was her camouflage ability. Amidst human enemies, camouflaging to match your surroundings could work, but only to some extent. The more useful camouflage, which she possessed, was the ability to change her looks. Her camouflage allowed her to change the color of her skin, hair, and even eyes. This did mean she could blend in with her surroundings like a chameleon or octopus, but she could also pretend to be another person entirely.

The next was her venom, though she possessed it, she never knew she did until recently. She discovered about it when she threw away a half-eaten apple and a rat tried to eat it, being unaware of the venom as well. She watched as the little creature stopped moving after a few seconds of starting to eat the apple and then ejected a pool of blood surrounding itself in the next minute.

She then searched for an ogre using her echolocation and sense of smell, hoping for it to be a better test subject to find out how her venom worked. When she found one, she snuck up on it and stung it right on its neck with her tail, having used her camouflage to get close without being spotted. The ogre grabbed her tail and flung her away, but was too late as she already did what she needed to.

Nothing happened at first and she just started to think the apple was poisonous and her resistance saved her earlier, but after a minute of trying to hit Kessho, none of the attacks landing a hit on her, the ogre collapsed to the ground, not moving a muscle any longer.

She sat right beside it, within its reach, but the ogre just stared into space. She could tell it wasn't dead because when a creature dies their pattern is no longer visible, they look just like the non-living objects. After five minutes of the sting the ogre started to bleed slightly from its eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and every other opening in its body. She distanced herself further as the blood started to pool around the body. After nine and half minutes of the sting the ogre started shaking slightly from pain even through the paralysis. At the ten minute mark from the sting she heard a weird pop-like sound and a large amount of blood rushed out from the ogre's body. She jumped on to a tree, scared from the sudden sound and flood of blood, and somewhat disgusted.

Her venom was lethal to living things, but that wasn't all. After a couple days of experimenting she figured out she could spray her venom from a distance, accurately from over ten meters away. The spray was very useful. If it hit someone's eyes, it would permanently blind them in that eye. It was also capable of melting through flesh, scales, even metal to some extent, but the damage didn't just stop there. If it melted through the flesh and reached into blood vessels there was a chance some of it would be circulated through the body, which would be as good as being injected, just with a very small dose, and take longer for the effects to settle in. Being sprayed on open wounds would have the same results.

Her teeth by themselves were also quite dangerous. There were eight canines, from which the upper four were venomous and longer while the bottom four were more suited for draining blood and broader near the base, similar to a vampire's. Her teeth were sharp, pointed and thin, their purpose to inflict as much damage as possible in as little time as possible, easily cutting off pieces with little effort.

The best way to do this was to slice off whatever she bit on, just what her teeth did. She could easily bite out a piece of flesh from anyone without having to struggle or pull much like most other creatures. This, combined with her small size, quick speed and venom, was a very deadly combo. Her teeth were also very suited for causing heavy bleeding and even bite through tough objects like scales and metal, her bite force comparable to a dragon.

Thinking about other ideas to experiment around with, she made her way back to the castle, skipping her way with the setting sun shining to her side.