The largest city in the southern part of the human kingdom is called Vashala. Even now during winter people could be seen walking through the icy streets. Though food stalls had long closed due to the weather, you could feel the warm air drifting out of the numerous opened doors lining the streets in the commercial district.

While walking, you could see people stumbling out of bars and sobering up when hit by the cold winter wind.

The streets weren’t as crowded as they would be in the spring or summer, but even as the sun set, there were too many people walking around to count.

On a certain main road within the city, everyone stopped in their tracks and stared as two figures walked through the crowd. It was strange for the people who were constantly in a hurry to get to the warmth of the next shop suddenly come to a stop. However, once one saw what they were staring at, they would become a victim to the strangeness along with them.

One of them was a Beastkin slave, wearing a bloody pelt.

Normally this wouldn’t be a strange sight at all, however there were reasons why this slave drew everyone’s attention.

The first abnormality was the way the slave looked. The Beastkin’s fur was pure white from head to toe without imperfection. Its crystal blue eyes shone like glaciers amidst a sea of white. A single look would make people gasp in awe. It was unlike any Beastkin they had seen before. Surely the price on such a slave would be astronomical.

The second abnormality was with what the slave was wearing.

A jet black fur that contrast heavily with her snow white fur and seemed to suck in the light around it. The hairs on it squirmed as if they were living things and if you looked closely, you could see small lumps crawling around aimlessly within the fur. There was only one creature that had fur like that.

An Aronix (air-ah-nix). An S-class monster that’s said to need a team of the highest class adventurers to bring down. There were those that claimed if feasted on the souls of the living. It was said that clothing made from its fur would make the wearer completely immune to any degree of temperature, as well as ward off almost all magic. If someone sold this ridiculously high-grade material, they and their families could live comfortably for the rest of their life.

And yet this mere slave was walking around with it on. More than that, it was still dripping black blood, as if the S-class monster had just been slain.

Noticing this, their gazes change to the person walking beside the beastkin.

Solid black plate armor.

There was no one who wore such a thing at this time of year. Their first instinct was to think this person was insane. However, on a closer look, you couldn’t see him shaking at all. He walked with a firm but smooth gait, as if he were taking a stroll in the middle of summer. More than that, he gave off a pressuring aura that made them sweat as they looked at him. Though no one could see his face, they felt his gaze from within the darkness of his helmet. As he walked past, they thought they could feel the air around them become even colder.

The slave girl looks around nervously. So many humans were staring at her... She could hardly believe she was right back where she had escaped from. The fur she was wearing was still soaked in blood and the feeling of it on her fur made her sick. Though it strangely warded off the winter cold, keeping her body at room temperature, she couldn’t endure the stench of it or the way the sticky blood would make her fur stick together in clumps. Keeping her pace with the man next to her, she recalls the events of the past few days that led her here.

“Uwaa!! It’s so hard!”

A small beastkin girl throws a tantrum while sitting at a crudely made table in a small grass hut. The older beastkin woman sits beside her with a patient smile.

“It’s important to learn the common language.”

“But I can already talk good!”

The older woman’s smile widens and she looks at the child with gentle eyes.

“You need to have a complete understanding of the language. Someday you might find yourself in the outside world and at that time, you’ll need to be able to communicate properly.”

“Never! I’m staying here with mama and papa forever!”

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The woman stifles a soft laughter.

“In that case, maybe your father and I will speak in nothing but complex expressions and advanced vocabulary.”

The child’s expression becomes stiff as she hears her mother use words she doesn’t understand.

“Y, you guys wouldn’t do that…”

“Well, Elena is a smart girl, I’m sure you’ll be able to learn what we are saying eventually.”

“Noooo! You can’t use words you haven’t taught me yet!”

The woman gently pats her daughters head.

“What an honest child. Then, are you ready to keep learning more words?”

The child firmly nods, filled with determination.

Just as they were about to resume their studies, another beastkin enters the hut. Unlike the two female beastkin who’s fur was pure white, the male beastkin’s fur was dark grey.

“Papa!”

“Welcome home dear.”

The woman welcomes him as the child runs up and embraces him. The man reaches down and ruffles the child’s long silver hair.

“I hope you’re hungry, tonight we’re having deer.”

The child’s eyes light up and she looks back to her mother.

“Waa! Did you hear that?! Papa got a deer! Can I go out and help cook?”

Her mother looks at her with a confused expression.

“Elena? Papa still hasn’t returned yet. What are you doing over there?”

“What are you talking about, papa is right he-“

When the child turns back, the man she had been embracing was nowhere to be found.

“B, but…”

Confused, she turns to look back to her mother, but the chair she had been sitting on was now empty.

“Mama?”

Somehow, it seemed to have gotten dark without her noticing. She strains her eyes in the darkness, looking around in the dark grass hut.

“Mama? Papa? Where did you go?”

Calling out in a worried voice, her gaze falls on a door within the grass hut.

Had there always been a door like that? It was carved out of wood and swung on metal hinges, looking completely out of place within the simple grass hut.

The door creaked open slightly, and a sliver of light escaped from behind the door, brightening the dim interior of the room.

Stepping cautiously toward the door, the girl places her hand on the knob and pulls it open.

When she enters, she is surrounded by darkness and she can barely make out her surroundings. Why had she thought there was light coming from here?

Looking around, it appeared to have once been a child’s room, but the toys have long since fallen apart, the bed had mold growing on it, and the walls were peeling and falling apart. She could see black shadows skitter across the floor, darting between piles of trash.

Suddenly, she heard a quiet sobbing, and her eyes instantly find the source.

In a corner of the room, she can just make out the small figure of a hunched over girl. The girl appeared to be human, and had a long and ragged one-piece dress on. Her long black hair completely covered her face, and her shoulders trembled as if she were crying.

Elena’s mother had always told her to never show herself to a human. That if she ever saw one, she was to report it to her or her father and never approach them. However, the girl in front of her was about her age, and looked as if she were in trouble. It should be fine if she just makes sure she’s okay…

In an uneasy voice, Elena calls out to the small girl.

“H, hello?”

The girl in the corner shows no response and continues to sob quietly as if she didn’t hear her.

“Are you hurt?”

Slowly making her way towards the crying girl, Elena navigates through the piles of trash while calling out to her.

As she gets closer and closer, the sound of the sobs seem to carry further and further, bouncing off the walls and echoing all around her. The area around the girl starts to become blacker, as if all of the darkness in the room were converging on in the corner around the girl.

Elena comes to a stop at the center of the room. Something was not right.

Just as she decides it would be better to turn back, a pair of bloodshot eyes fly open within the girl’s black hair.

Before she can react, a loud scream is pierces the air and the girl lunges towards her at an incomprehensible speed.

[https://s5.postimg.org/gmg01qnlz/ch3pic.png]

It takes a fraction of a second before her vision fills completely with the black hair of the girl, and the pair of bloodshot eyes are inches from her own.

She feels her heart sink and a chill spreads through her brain as if her mind were frozen. As she opens her mouth to scream, her consciousness tugs at her and she opens her eyes while her upper body flies out of the snow like skeleton rising from a grave.

Sitting upright and breathing heavily from the shock, the cold air around her assaults her lungs. Looking ahead, she can make out the shapes trees hidden behind a layer of thick fog.

It was only a dream.

“Thanks for the meal.”

As she was calming her heart, a dry voice enters her ears. It sounded like someone with a bad cold was trying to sound cute and cheerful. Elena turns toward the strange voice and sees a black shadow.

The shadow was in the shape of a small girl, similar to the one she had just seen in her dream. Though it’s a shadow, it stood on the ground with two legs and its body was three dimensional. The shadow appeared to have on a dress which ran down to just before her knees. Its hair was long and adorned on the side of its head was an oversized bow, of course, that was also part of the shadow.

Though Elena was confused, she couldn’t sense any hostility from the peculiar shadow.

“W, who are you?”

Though it had no lips that she could see, she felt the shadow grin brightly.

“Who am I? I’m Lily, the world’s most lovable Night Terror!”

The shadow strikes a strange pose, puffing out its chest as it tries to use its dry and raspy voice to talk in a cute and prideful manner. Its actions were completely inconsistent with its demonic voice and appearance.

Elena’s eyes go wide. A Night Terror? It was a demon from fairytales that fed on fear of humans. They were only found in stories mothers told their children in order to get them to mind. Behave or the Night Terror will haunt your dreams! It was that kind of story.

However, right now one had appeared before her. Was this the cause of her nightmare?

[Good, you’re awake.]

As the deep voice fills her mind, she turns around and sees a black suit of armor leaning against the bark of a tree.

That’s right, she had made a contract with this person. In order to stay alive, she would dedicate her life to this person that granted it.

Remembering the chase with the knights, she hurriedly looks down at her body.

Not a single scratch could be found anywhere. Putting strength into her legs, they both moved normally and the pain from her broken leg was gone. Touching her face, she only felt her thin fur, even the blood had disappeared from her body as if she had never been injured in the first place.

“H, how…”

She lets out an amazed voice.