Character Information - Who is who?

Because I have created quite a variety of characters, I will now create little cheat sheets before a chapter for the characters who will appear in the chapter, but not for those who haven't. Please open the spoiler if you need some reminders. (Be careful, it can be a spoiler for the chapter!)

Sarah M. Leonandra (Wolf-kin)

* The fourth child of the current Leonandra household

* Specialized in shield arts

* Sister of the MC

* Pinkish eyes (heart-formed pupils)

* Pastel-greenish fur and hair color

Ocilia Leonandra (Spider-kin)

* Disciple of the MC

* Specialized in magic/alchemy-oriented threads

* Purple eyes

* Purplish-black hair color

...

While Alexander was making paper

"Wait, wait, wait!"

A young wolf-kin girl with pastel green hair and fur was running towards a carriage that was about to leave the estate ground. It was the estate's carriage for commoners who wanted to visit Wolfsteeth or other cities for whatever reason. They had multiple ones and could use them freely and only needed to inform the coachmen beforehand when they wanted to use them.

The carriage stopped, and a young spider-kin girl looked out the window, "Ms. Sarah?! What are you doing here?"

Sarah opened the door and hopped into the carriage without saying a word. Ocilia was very confused about what was happening, but as soon as Sarah sat down, she smiled at her, "Hey Lia! I want to join you. You are alright with this, right?"

Before she could answer her, Sarah knocked to the side of the carriage, "Let's go to Wolfsteeth!..." She looked back at her, "...you want to Wolfsteeth too, right?"

The carriage started to roll even without her answering. The coachman wouldn't disagree with the lady's daughter even if Ocilia wanted to drive elsewhere.

Ocilia sat on the opposite side, looked at her confused, and remarked something important, ignoring that she rudely intruded into the carriage without asking, "Ms. Sarah, shouldn't you have some guards?"

Sarah blew a raspberry and handwaved it, "Nah, I am incredibly bored, so I decided to follow you and call me Sarah. Not like I care for such things."

Ocilia sighed, "M... Sarah, I will visit the red light district to see my old friends. I don..."

Sarah interrupted her again with a clap of her hands, "Great! It will be fun!"

Ocilia wanted to send her away as this was annoying, but she couldn't do it openly. Her Mother told her that she should act the most courteously she could toward her master's siblings and that she was lucky to be in the position she was at all.

Day after day, she got told it till she could repeat it in her sleep, but this was a topic for another time. Now she wanted to get away from her master's sister, especially since she would probably follow her, and it would become awkward.

She smiled nervously and tried to somehow explain it, "Sarah, will it not be awkward? You are my master's older sister and..."

She blew a raspberry again, "Don't worry, for this trip, I am only Sarah, a daughter of some butler. It should be fine, right?"

Sarah was incredibly bored. All she did was train, eat, and sleep. None of her siblings had any time for her except Janina, who was too young to roughhouse with, and Alexander, who became, at some point to her, nothing more than a living punching bag.

She wanted to travel around, eat exciting food, and buy exotic clothes. But it would be all in vain since she needed a personal guard, but she disliked all of them since they were too weak in her mind. Even if she chose one, she would need time to know them better, which could continue for up to a year.

However, not only did she dislike them, but most also didn't want to serve her. They could choose the Leonandra child they wanted to serve, and she was very disliked because she looked down on anyone weaker than her and let them know this.

There were obvious exceptions, like her family or highly talented people in other fields: Cooks, administrators, servants, etc. It didn't matter what talent, but if one had any, she highly respected them. Everyone else was unimportant and not worth looking at.

However, she mellowed out through talks and discussions with Alexander, who tried to explain that not everyone had the same resources and innate talent as her. Sometimes people get dealt a bad hand.

She wasn't stupid and understood very well that others didn't have the same means she had, but she didn't care since the moment they became a soldier inside the Leonandra household, they had all the resources they needed.

Sarah sparred and trained for hours every day, and everyone knew her because she challenged them and won very often. Every time she won, the look she gave and the words she spoke were on the outside harmless, but the losers would always feel like dirt under her boots.

She obviously knew this but didn't care. For her, a personal guard needed to be more than some meat shield she could throw in front of her to avoid getting hurt. No, she wanted someone on the level of her Father or at least her Mother.

Not strength-wise, no. Sarah wanted someone with the same will she had. She was always going, never stopping her training and fighting till she couldn't move a single muscle. Her little brother changed her in the sense that she now hated the ones who would give up without giving their all.

She would gladly take a weak personal guard who had the will she had, but there were none. This was also why she was a little jealous of Alexander, who had Maurice, who was training even more than her and became a respectable warrior even though he was very weak in the beginning.

Ocilia was also such a case. She came to her brother, worked her ass off, and took all the chances she got till she became decent. Even though fighting wasn't her expertise, the times Ocilia trained with the brother/sister duo, she didn't stop till she puked out of exhaustion. For this effort, Sarah respected her.

Her thoughts were interrupted as Ocilia leaned forward, "What about security? It is the red-light district we are talking about."

Sarah smirked mischievously, "No problem and..." she showed the sling bag she had and tapped it a couple of times - a metallic sound reverberated, "...these are my new mini arm shields, or whatever Alex called them. We experimented a bit and looked at what the system decided to be a shield..." She grinned at Ocilia, "...this is the outcome, and I quite like it."

Ocilia leaned back and sighed in defeat, "You are very exhausting Sar..." She suddenly opened her eyes wide as she said what she thought and wanted to immediately apologize, but she was interrupted by thunderous laughter.

"Haha! Oh, this is refreshing. I really hate etiquette and all that stuff. I know that I can be tiring, but don't worry..." She sincerely smiled at Ocilia, "...I will be a role model."

Ocilia remembered something, "Say, did you at least leave a note?"

Sarah nodded and punched her chest, "Of course! I am not irresponsible!"

...

Later at the estate

[Dear mom,

I am in Wolfsteeth.

Greetings, Sarah]

An enormous amount of energy suddenly burst out of the lady's office.

...

Wolfsteeth

"Look at this! Isn't this really cute?!"

A very enthusiastic wolf-kin girl was running through the red-light district and looking at every shady business she could find.

"Oh, hello, little girl! You have very keen eyes. Do you know what this is made of?"

In Sarah's hand was an obviously poorly made necklace, "No, but tell me?"

The goat-kin looked at her more friendly with his vertical slitted pupils and smiled as warmly as possible, "It is pure Akanasian gold, and this here..." He pointed at the gem in the middle, "...is the crown jewel..."

Before he could end his blatant sales pitch, Ocilia ran toward her, "Stop it, Jaro! You are obviously selling crap!"

The goat-kin didn't need to look to the side but did it anyways and squinted his eyes at Ocilia, "Lia? You need to know that I am one of the most honest vendors there is!"

Ocilia started to drag Sarah away. Luckily she let herself pull away. Otherwise, the scholastic spider-kin girl couldn't even hope to move her an inch, "Shut up! I know you are trying to scam her. Come, Sarah!"

As Sarah was dragged away, she waved, "Sorry, Jaro! Maybe next time!"

It was afternoon, and the sales had only started in the red-light district. Every vendor started to open up their stall for the evening.

Ocilia knew through the stories and seeing it that they worked together with the sex workers to sell really overpriced trash to drunk or drugged customers. They would then gift it to the sex worker and divide the profit with the vendor afterward.

As she dragged her through the streets of various shops and beast-kin, sometimes someone looked condescendingly at her, 'Master wants to help those scum? He will see it differently after he leaves his golden cage.'

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Since she left together with her family, she already tried to come back regularly, to not lose her touch and not get encased by her master's overly rational and theoretical teachings.

Instead of gratulation and happy wishes, she and her parents got only asked for coins, and when they rejected giving out some of their earnings to help out their so-called friends, all smiles stopped. All they got were disdain, 'Fucking bottom feeders.'

Ocilia didn't kid herself that she was better. She understood that it was almost pure luck and her Mother's perseverance that got her into her position. She wouldn't let others degrade her because she had luck initially. Nonetheless, she worked hard and drained herself out to get to the point she was in now.

As Sarah let her drag through the new and exciting environment, she started to pout, "Ohhh Lia, calm down. Why are you like this?"

Ocilia quickly moved with her to a side street and stopped there. She looked around and then into Sarah's heart-shaped pink eyes, "Listen here, I don't want to come back and get yelled or laughed at by master because you got scammed due to me not looking after you by some shifty vendors."

Sarah looked at her, a little confused, then laughed, "Haha, I knew he wanted to scam me, but it is so interesting and new, right?"

Ocilia squinted at Sarah, who started to look around in this pest-infested sidestreet as she continued, "By the way, don't you want to meet some friends of yours?"

The spider-kin girl stopped her anger and calmed down, sighing, "Yeah, wanna go with me? Not like I want you wandering here into some... establishments."

Sarah nodded and threw her arm over her, "Don't worry, Lia! You are too tight right now! Alex is really putting you through the wringer, hehe."

Ocilia frowned and started walking towards her so-called friends, "Come on, follow me."

As they walked out of the side street, they went deeper into the bad parts of the city. The buildings became more run down as the color of the clay buildings became less colorful and more flaky. Even the form of the buildings became more wavery: A sign of bad construction.

Almost every building was made from a clay mix since it was much cheaper and faster to produce in these parts of the world. Also, since summer got immensely hot, it was quite nice inside and not as hot as outside.

They came to some small, dirty street and walked towards something akin to a bar, which looked like the home of the cockroach emperor. Over the door was a shield, barely visible through the dirt and wear, depicting a rat with a dagger in its mouth.

She opened the salon-like doors and came inside, 'Home, I guess?'

The bar was run down but somewhat clean relative to the outside. Tables, chairs, and the counter had all the wear and tear but also many scratches and stabs from knives.

Nobody was there, 'Are they at the back?'

She walked to the counter, but before she could call for someone, Sarah did it, "Hello?! Costumers here! I want some good wine!"

Ocilia slightly cringed, 'The only wine they have is probably dyed water with rat blood and cheap beer mixed in.'

Suddenly someone came over. A spider-kin man of relatively short height. When he saw Ocilia, he smiled slightly, "Oh hey, what are you doing here, Lia?"

Before she could answer, Sarah leaned forward, "Hey, give me some wine!"

The spider-kin looked at her, baffled. He looked closer and saw the finely made clothes out of silk. He understood that he could make some coin but couldn't trick her too much as his head could roll, "We don't have wine, but I can get you some good ale, my colorful lady."

She smiled, showing her white fangs, "Sure!"

He brought out a cheap glass and poured it in. After a sip, Sarah started coughing and wiping the spit away from her mouth, "Damn, is this paint thinner?!"

The bartender tilted his head in confusion, but before he could ask, Ocilia talked to her, "Stop using master's words. Nobody understands them..." Looking back at the barkeeper, she said, "...I am here, like always, for my friends. Are they here?"

The bartender nodded and called them, "Lizy! Marco! Missi! Peter! Lia is here!"

Some noises came out of the back, and then silence. Ocilia knew they wanted to put on something and were probably at it with each other since it was mating season, so she waited patiently.

Ocilia was a little stressed because of this time but could ignore it. Also, she went through her first one already, and luckily, it wasn't dramatic or anything like Lorient's. She was chaste but didn't get any skill out of it, only some dull and frustrating nights.

Some more beast-kin came in. The bartender was elated. They looked like younger mercenaries who were always strapped for coin and usually wandered to the cheaper parts of Wolfsteeth to get their fill.

For some reason, Sarah slightly twitched, and a smile slowly emerged on her reddened face while her tail slowly swung like a pendulum. In Ocilia's and the bartender's minds, she was getting a bit too drunk.

Everyone who looked at her well-kept hair, fur, and expensive clothes, knew immediately that she was a daughter of a wealthy merchant who looked for a thrill in these parts. Nothing unusual and actually a good source of coin. A gold coin for Sarah was chump change. For the bartender, though, it was feeding his family for a month.

After some more minutes came Ocilias old friends, but she looked at them without any emotions, and when they saw her, their faces showed disgust.

Forward came a rough spider-kin teenage boy. He wore cheap leather armor with daggers strapped to it, like the usual mercenary greenhorn.

His voice was rough and annoyed, "What do you want, Lia?"

She looked at Peter and frowned, "This means you don't have any information about Klepto?"

Peter started to frown, "No, we don't, so come later again..." He smirked at her, "...maybe we will have it then."

Ocilia squinted at him, "Do you think you can scam me?"

Peter shrugged, and the others started to smirk and chuckle, "So? What do you want..."

Suddenly Ocilia's fingers on her right hand moved weirdly, and an energy-filled thread emerged from nowhere, entangling Peter's neck.

Ocilia's voice was stern but full of hate, "Listen here, you scum. I kneeled on the ground and begged my master to not kill Klepto even though he wanted to kill me, and now this little piece of shit is gone. If you want to be on my bad side too, go on, I will make sure to make it worthwhile."

It became silent inside the bar momentarily, but Peter laughed and showed his arms in peace, "Hehe, fine, calm down Lia, you are always on edge since you are at the bigwig estate. We really don't have anything. You know how it is."

She sighed and wanted to disperse the thread, but Sarah suddenly slurred something as she licked her lips after taking another sip, "The killing intent is real, so don't."

Ocilia looked at her and only now saw the glint in Sarah's eyes, "Killing intent?"

Suddenly a mercenary stood up, and some of Peter's group started to go for their weapons nervously, 'What is going on?'

Before she could make sense, Sarah stood up, and with a quick turn, she kicked the barstool to the two mercenaries, from whom one swung a sword, which destroyed it.

She grabbed her bag, pulled out her new weapons, and slipped her hands into them with one fluent move.

Sarah stood before the mercenaries, looking like a hunter with joy in her eyes, seeing delicious prey. Her arms were adorned by steel gloves with two small shields soldered unto them.

It looked weird, and the mercenaries started laughing. A dog-kin came forward, "Hehe, listen, little girl, just make it easy on us all, right?"

Ocilia was confused, but suddenly her training kicked in as a dagger flew toward her, which she could barely avoid, grazing her cheek. She immediately conjured more threads around her acquaintances, but their energy shielded them as it couldn't touch them directly. She started to automatically weave a spell into the thread.

Sarah, on the other hand, walked forward to the mercenaries. It looked weird, as she had cold steel weapons, a cute and colorful summer dress with a bow around her waist, and mary jane shoes.

Her voice was giddy, "Hehe, you take the low lives, and I these scum."

Ocilia didn't turn around but concentrated on her past friends, "So, you become assassins? How lowly do you want to sink?"

Peter shrugged, "Pfff, how would you know, little miss scholar..." He pulled two daggers from the side, "...you are dead either way."

Ocilia was on the outside calm but inwardly worried as she couldn't believe her situation. Worst case, she knew she needed to do it, "Fine."

As she released a chant, the threads ignited around them a moment later. Her energy and the spell started to burn into her acquaintance's necks.

This shocked them, and they instantly tried to cut them. It wasn't that dangerous to hold for a second but with more time, their energy subsided around their necks and arms where the thread entangled them and burned intensely.

But Ocilia didn't let them. This time she constructed another spell or rather a combination of spells with three threads.

The first bound itself together into something like a spear, and earth started to wrap around it firmly and quickly, while another formed a small circle in front of her eye, and the last was made into a funnel behind the spear.

She marked one, and after a short moment and a chant, the funnel produced air pressure. The spear shot towards one of the girls with insane speed, penetrating her shoulder, which stopped her and surprised the others even more, slowing them down.

While she constructed another spear, the noise created by Sarah made her remember that there were more, and she would need to be more cautious with her mana and stamina.

Why was it so loud? With a smile, Sarah rushed toward the mercenaries and deflected both attacks with her arm shields, "Is that all? Come on!"

Both mercenaries were visibly shaken and confused by the wolf-kin girl, so they started using much more energy that surrounded their swords, "Damn it, little pup, you wanted it!"

Both were an excellent team, Sarah could see this, and they came at her simultaneously but tried not to kill her as they feared that her probably wealthy parents would put a hit on them. One swang at her legs, which Sarah easily avoided with a jump towards the other attack from the front, which she was ready to deflect, "Is that all? How cute!"

The one who attacked her legs tilted her sword, swung upwards, and hit Sarah in the back, cutting through her dress and gashing her back. Sarah lost balance, and the one from the front swung his sword toward her stomach, getting a clean hit.

The mercenaries expected a scream from the girl and were ready to pull out some cheap potions to not let her die at least, but what came was a scream from them, "Aaaahhh! Fuck! Who was it?"

The one who attacked her stomach scrunched back as his back suddenly started to hurt like hell, and he imagined that he had lost a ton of HP as it was excruciating. He turned around and wanted to see if some guard followed after the girl but was interrupted as he saw his colleague, who was behind the wolf-kin girl, suddenly started to spit massive amounts of blood while holding her stomach.

Both stepped quickly back from her, and she laughed like some maniac, "Haha! This is so much fun!"

They took another step back, readying their very [Mystic Skills], readying themselves to kill her now since she became suddenly dangerous in their eyes. However, the female mercenary behind Sarah suddenly felt something touching her arms, and before she could react, a thin line of fire was embedding itself into the space of her gloves, and like a snap, it cut off her hand.

She screamed heavily and started to try to stop the bleeding with most of her energy, "Ahhhh!"

Ocilia tried to help Sarah from the side since the fight with their group was somehow disappointingly easy. They were already draining their lackluster energy reserves, and she had more than enough stamina and mana to spare.

A dagger came flying towards Ocilia, which she easily avoided, and out of habit, which she trained through her grueling training, she accidentally jolted her threads around their necks with a massive amount of energy while constricting them. Like a satisfying cut, it went through the last bit of energy, and they lost their heads.

Ocilia made a terrible mistake as she wanted to take them alive, "Damn it!"

On the other hand, Sarah had a blast even though Ocilia ruined it for her slightly, "Oy oy oy, come one little doggy, show me what you got."

The mercenary looked around, and it was a shit show. His killing intent faded, and fear invaded his mind. Everything failed, and he needed to leave the fief as fast as possible.

Sarah frowned as her smell picked up that he was frightened, "Booooring!..." She suddenly smiled at him seducingly, "...don't you want to sacrifice yourself?"

She looked deeply into his eyes while hers filled up with energy. His eyes suddenly became pinkish, and he nodded. He took out a small dagger and, without any hesitation, rammed it into his neck.

A short moment later, he returned to himself and held his hand over the heavily bleeding wound. He was full of fear as he saw the weird skills this little girl showed. He fell down, and his world slowly darkened.

Sarah was sweating heavily, her stamina ran low, and she barely stood straight, but there was a giant smile on her face as it was a blast. Suddenly, someone was vomiting behind her, and as she turned around, she saw four decapitated youths and an on the floor squirming and crying female mercenary with a missing hand and blood around her stomach region while her armor was fully intact.

On the side was Ocilia, vomiting her insides out and crying. Sarah was somewhat ok, but she thought training as much as she did for the last months was a good idea. She would probably be dead by now if she didn't reach Tier 2. The 20% boost she got to her attributes was really worthwhile.

She looked around and didn't see the bartender, 'Probably ran away.'

Sarah shrugged inwardly and approached the mercenary, who started begging, "Please... don't kill me... it was a task by..."

Before she could end the sentence, purplish energy suddenly invaded her. Like a snake, it slithered through her mouth, silencing her and killing her shortly after.

Sarah shook her head, "What a moron. She was clearly under a strong contract."

She approached the vomiting Ocilia and lightly tapped on her back, "Hey, are you ok?"

Ocilia was crying and ralphed occasionally, but nothing came out anymore, "I... I killed... I didn't inte..."

Sarah started to caress her back and talk softly like to a little sister after a nightmare, "Don't worry Lia, they wanted to kill us from the beginning. You are not at fault."

Ocilia started to cry even more while Sarah tried to sniff out if there were any more threats around. However, she felt inwardly very different, 'By the circle... this was fun!'

After some minutes, they looked for some guards to report it and went back home.