“My dear daughter, I cannot allow your brother to be taken by Emperor Grandis.” A stately man sighed slowly, while sitting on a throne high up. “He is a wielder of Future Sight. This crime must fall on you.”

“Lord father…” A young woman, with long black hair flowing around her, looked up at the person that had raised her from young. “Is that all I amount to in your eyes? As a monument to your failure to protect Ruler Umbra?”

She broke eye contact with Duke Lustre and looked around at her father’s palace, which had little in the way of decoration. There weren’t many guards today; most of them had been activated to travel to a distant dukedom by order of Emperor Grandis.

The stately man took a deep breath. Something seemed to tremble inside him, and for a moment, the woman felt hope well up within her. “Men, listen to my orders. Princess Dia has been stripped of her claim to the Dukedom of Lustre. Bring her down, and escort her to Grandia for Emperor Grandis’ judgment.”

“Yes, sir!”

Three soldiers stepped out of the shadows and approached her. “Princess, you’re under arrest. Come quietly, and we won’t need to put you down.”

Dia ignored the leader of the trio and glared at the man gazing down on her. “Father. You seem to be labouring under the illusion that I would…come quietly. Perhaps you should have brought more guards today.”

The sword at her side cut a brilliant circle, and the three soldiers around her reeled back. In that small opening that her move created, Dia kicked off the ground and rocketed towards the palace’s exit. At the same time, a faint moan came from the man looking down on her. From the corner of her eye, she could see the old man clasp his heart.

My defiance gave father a heart attack? Dia, in disbelief, continued to run through gate after gate. Her father’s palace was smaller than even a count’s, and before the alarm could even be raised, the princess had already escaped outside.

What in the Moons…no, now isn’t the time to do that. I must get out of Lustre as quickly as possible. Dia’s mind raced through all her possible escape routes, and within moments, she had settled on her new destination.

The Dukedom of Istrel.

A scapegoat had already been prepared for her there, in a sense. The murder of Ruler Umbra had been twisted to the point that a petty thief was now the culprit. Of course, anyone with the tiniest bit of knowledge would know that even Pure Life Gems, the pinnacle form of pure-ranked lifestones, weren’t as rare as the announcement made it out to be.

However, someone related to Ruler Umbra — someone who took part in his death — had twisted it so that it appeared that way. It just so happened that her brother was in the Istrel Dukedom on exchange, serving as captain of the Istrel treasury’s guards when the thief struck. Since his failure to protect the treasury supposedly led to Ruler Umbra’s death, a lifetime of servitude to the Emperor would be his punishment.

And just as how a petty thief was turned into the culprit behind the Ruler’s death, she too had been turned into the sacrificial offering the Dukedom of Lustre was going to offer as an explanation. The records were probably already altered; they would show that she escaped from Istrel overnight.

All to protect her big brother.

If Dia was to overcome all that without implicating her family, there was only one thing she could do — capture the thief that was now the scapegoat for this whole mess and have him or her prove that there were other pure-ranked lifestones that he didn’t touch. In doing so, she would save herself from Emperor Grandis’ wrath…unless, of course, the thief’s memory showed that he did take every single pure-ranked lifestone there was.

Gripping her sword tightly, she calmed her trembling muscles and continued to run at a breakneck pace. Mana was flowing towards her legs, empowering their every step and supporting her mad dash out of the dukedom’s capital, Radia. Only by getting out could she even have the possibility of leaving the dukedom entirely, and—

Her thoughts screeched to a halt as five armoured figures fell from the skies.

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“Get her!”

Dia narrowed her eyes, and looked at the six squares at the top right of her vision. Parrying the first slash that came in, she took a few steps back and shrouded her sword with mana.

If I fight here… She shook her head. A wave of purple mana erupted out of her sword as she pointed its tip at the five warriors. Her pursuers were immediately engulfed by the storm of mana, but the only thing she had in mind was a fountain. Fixing the image of that iconic fountain and searing it into her mind, she snapped a strip of wood in her hand, willing the skill inside to bring her away.

A valuable skillstrip was destroyed like that, but it did serve its intended purpose.

Her surroundings faded away, replaced by the exact same fountain she had been imprinting onto her mind earlier. Breathing heavily, she looked around at the deserted town square, and then ducked into an alley.

This town was a territory of a minor baron, a baron of the Dukedom of Istrel. There was nothing much impressive about it, save for…

She froze as she saw a military camp, where fifty ragged-looking fellows had been strung up and tied onto poles. Nothing much impressive? Who wrote Atlas of Grandis? I’ll beat you up!

Retreating deeper into an alley, Dia poked her head out and looked at the scene. Now that she had a second, longer look, it was clear that the tied-up people had probably done something to the soldiers, who then tied them up and lashed them in return.

“I wonder what’s going on.”

“What indeed, dearie. Are you going to ask them that?”

“No, of course not, silly—” Dia froze, and turned to look at the speaker. An old woman, with a sunny smile on her face, waved at her merrily. “Who are you?”

“And who are you?”

“I’m a…mana-user. Here to seek out the thief that Emperor Grandis wants,” Dia replied.

“While looking and sounding like a spoilt lass from some noble family.” The old crone nodded thoughtfully. “Wow.”

Dia winced at her words, which had been somehow laced with so much…something that she couldn’t quite name. “My family disapproved of my idea. Vigorously.”

“I can see it. Your muscles are trembling. And your legs are giving off enough heat to warm up a bathtub,” said the old woman. “Anyway, your clothes…are you intending to wear those? You might have managed to escape your family in a dress, but men are wolves. They’ll drug you and—”

“Okay, okay. I don’t need to know that.”

“Really? Odd. I thought you noble girls liked stories like this.”

“There are so many things wrong with that I don’t even know where to begin.”

Dia looked at her clothes, and then sighed. A short frilly dress, lots of accessories, and only one sword. No one would believe her even if she hung the sign ‘Bounty Hunter’ on her dress. And worst of all, this dress didn’t even have pockets.

For some reason, the idea that pockets and noble girls were antithetical to each other had turned into a rock-solid fashion statement a hundred years ago, never to change after that. That was why her wardrobe at home was full of boyish clothes, but that didn’t stop her late mother from scolding her every time she bought some trousers.

Rubbing her nose, Dia nodded her head. “Do you know where I can get more…”

“Normal clothes?” the old woman asked.

“Normal clothes, yes.”

“Well, lucky you. I run a clothes shop,” said the old woman. “I have outfits for all kinds of people. Bounty hunters, mana-users, thieves, princes, and even for Emperor Grandis!”

“Yeah, I really, really doubt that last one.” Dia covered her mouth and laughed.

“You’d be surprised. Come, let me show you the inventory of a Profiteer! Guaranteed to make me money!”

Cackling, she pulled open a door that blended into the wall right beside her, before motioning for Dia to enter. “Don’t worry, dearie. I don’t bite.”

Somewhat regretting her decision, Dia took a deep breath — which was really smelly, now that she noticed it — and marched boldly into the door. A dim light illuminated her surroundings, and after a few seconds of acclimatisation, a sigh of relief escaped her.

Surprisingly enough, she was indeed in a boutique…well, if a dirty, dingy place like this could actually be graced with that name.

“A nice place, no?” Cackling, the old woman walked over to a shelf and pulled out three sets of clothes. “Anyway, you’re flat, skinny and mangy. These three will fit you to a tee.”

“Did you just insult a customer?”

“I’m just being hyper-efficient,” the old woman hobbled over to her, before poking her chest. “Besides, I’m never wrong. Anyway, for you, this set of three would cost you ten gold.”

Taking a step back, Dia took out her purse, before stopping.

“What? No money?”

“No, I only have platinum…”

“Well, I don’t have gold to give you as change.”

The two women stared at each other, and then the old crone sighed. “Two platinum, and I’ll make sure you leave this shop as a qualified bounty hunter. Crash course and equipment by me; quality guaranteed.”

“My target is time-sensitive—”

“One day, and you’ll be tracking down even the Moons’ cats.”

Dia gulped and looked around the shop. The events of the past hour had gone by far too quickly for her liking, and she couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed. Somehow, she had a feeling that the old woman in front of her was a tad dodgy, and yet, there was something like sincerity she could sense from her.

“Fine.” She took a deep breath and produced a second platinum coin. “Train me.”

“Best choice of your life, dearie.” She narrowed her eyes. “Since this is a crash course, however, I shall only teach you my experiences and my theories. Is that alright?”

The wannabe bounty hunter nodded.

The old crone grinned. “Good. Good. Here, take this drink…”