“Marisa, you drowsy rascal! For how long do you pretend to slumber?”

  “Hmm... Morning Ceryse, are you gonna come wake me up like this everytime?”

  She did the same yesterday, it seems she’s an early bird much like Heather, at least Heather has turned less aggressive when waking me up.

  “Don’t overindulge in sloth, how can you survive with such an attitude?”

  “Yeah yeah, don’t give me an earful, it’s too early for this!”

  Look, the twins get up before the sun does, prepare their meals and go to work.

  Which is wild, I always assumed they were just adventurers, but as it turns out, they have a proper job as farmers! It surprised me a lot to be honest, more so because the farm isn’t even theirs, they just go to this other guy’s pce to work.

  I guess they need to survive somehow at the end of the day.

  “M-marisa, good morning...”

  “Morning Evelyn”

  “S-Sorry about Ceryse waking you up, would you want to have breakfast with us?...”

  “Don’t mind if I do!”

  “What a bum! Do you pn on maintaining your mooching on our economy!?”

  “Ceryse! Don’t talk like that to our guests!”

  “I! Umm... sorry...”

  Evelyn only ever raises her voice with her sister, I guess it’s a sign of how much they love each other, besides she doesn’t do it with malice, Evelyn thinks Ceryse is rude, and Ceryse is protecting Evelyn so people don't take advantage of them.

  “Sorry as well, maybe I’m overstaying my welcome, let me-”

  “M-Marisa, it’s ok! D-don’t listen to my s-sister...”

  “Hmm... still, let me give you some more money because I really don’t know how long I’m gonna end up staying in this town, so please, accept it”

  Honestly, the local currency is pointless to me once I leave the town, so I was pnning on leaving everything to the sisters once I leave, so this just accelerates the process.

  “T-There’s no need! Y-You’ve done enough for us already...”

  “Take it, I insist~”

  “Well if you asseverate your point, allow me to retrieve it from your hands!”

  Ceryse took it without a second thought, much to the killer stare her sister is giving her. I don’t mind, really, Evelyn should be nicer with her sister.

  For now, all three of us took a seat to have breakfast. It's a stew of sorts, honestly it looks nasty as hell, and half the things floating in it are pretty unrecognizable, but taste wise, it’s not bad!

  I mean it’s not good either, but it doesn’t make me want to puke, so it could be worse. Either way this serves no purpose to me. Yesterday I went outside town to extract blood from the animals or monsters I could find, to satiate my hunger at the very least.

  “Are you two not going to go to work today?”

  “Today marks our day of respite!”

  “W-we pnned on going to the guild and get a herb gathering job...”

  “Hunting work! One in line with our ability stratum!”

  “I might tag along, it’s a better way to spend time than sightseeing!”

  More so because there’s really not a lot to do in town. Entertainment is something I realize this world is severely cking at! Outside the brothels and gossiping in pzas. There’s not a lot in terms of activities. At least I managed to write a letter and send it back home, praying that it reaches everyone.

  “Oh! That sounds like a magnificent arrangement!”

  “I-If you’re ok with it, M-maybe we could tag along...”

  “Sure thing! Let’s go have fun like st time!”

  “U-Umm... I-If we could do something less... umm... risky?”

  “Fine, let’s pick a boring job then”

  Ceryse doesn’t seem thrilled, but suck it up. We ended up taking a request from another farmer, who’s animals had escaped from their stable. I have absolutely no clue what ‘Ramears’ are. According to the twins description, I think they’re closer to goats, but they tend to be bulky and ram things constantly, so they can be dangerous. Which is the reason why they send adventurers to get them.

  “I’m not so sure about lost animal herding...”

  “I consider this an asinine assignment as well...”

  “W-Well, it is still above our rank...”

  It was a 4 bronze star request, I feel like it was still too high considering the contents of what they’re asking, but I don’t put the rules.

  Yet~

  “Observe! That’s where they’re hiding!”

  “Hmm?”

  Yikes, those are closer to bulls than goats! At least in size, I can see why they need stronger people to bring them back, more so because it’s not killing them, the request was to bring them back to the farm they escaped from.

  “Well, I could teleport them home, or carry them there, but what pn did you girls have in mind?”

  “M-Maybe if we scare them enough, they’ll accompany us without a problem...”

  What kind of logic is scaring animals into making them follow you?

  “Frighten them right? Leave that endeavor to me!”

  “Wait! Ceryse!”

  Ceryse dashed forward without a care in the world, brandishing her bde and slithering across the ground. Does she pn on cutting the animal? It was obviously not impressed, the bull sized goat proceeded to try to ram her with its horns, to which she jumped to the side to avoid it.

  “Phew, do not frighten me like that!”

  “Ceryse! Watch out!”

  There are 2 of them right here, so the other one tried to attack the reckless Lamia, but Evelyn jumped in to stop it with her shield.

  She managed to stand her ground this time, that’s an improvement! Without letting the opportunity go to waste, Ceryse proceeded to punch the abnormal goat in the face.

  It didn’t do much but piss them off...

  Look, I don’t believe the fight is that interesting, so to summarize, they managed to tire the animals enough where they’re barely moving.

  It’s the same for the twins, at this point it looks like whoever slips up first will probably bite the dust.

  “Do you want me to step in?”

  “D-Do not! We nearly get them to behave!”

  “W-we can do this!...”

  “Suit yourself”

  It took a while, but they managed to get the situation under control, now taking one of them each, leading them by grabbing their horns.

  “We did it!”

  “Congrats, that’s 2 out of 5!”

  “Ah...”

  They totally forgot that they reported 5 missing animals, no point in dragging this out any longer, let me-

  “Are we interrupting?~”

  Why do they tend to appear at the most inopportune moments?

  “You siblings again! What did I say about-”

  “It’s time to go, we did as requested, now let us continue, we’re in a hurry!”

  “NOW you’re in a hurry, screw it, give me another 30 minutes to an hour before we go!”

  “But-”

  “As you wish princess~ We will await for you in the center of town, where we arrived~”

  “Ok, good”

  And the pair disappeared once again.

  “Sigh... those two”

  “A-Are you leaving already?”

  “So it seems, but let’s finish this request before going!”

  Finding the missing three animals wasn’t difficult, and all I had to do was release my own aura to scare them senseless, enough for them to follow me at least.

  We took them to the farmer, and he reluctantly paid the money, probably because two of them were a bit rough around the edges.

  “Well, this is a goodbye for now”

  “Adieu my fellow adventurer and friend, maybe fate will make our paths meet once more?”

  “I would like that, Maybe I’ll come visit once I’m done with my mission, I hope you’ll let me crash at your pce again then!”

  “O-Of course Marisa, you’re always welcomed!”

  “Thanks Evelyn, Ceryse. Ah! But before I go, here”

  I handed them all the money I had with me in my pink purse, it’s everything on the local currency.

  “M-Marisa! We can’t possibly-”

  “Take it, it’s different to the money I mostly use, so taking it back home would be pointless, why don’t you buy proper equipment with it?”

  “Oh! Much obliged Marisa! I will-”

  “Ceryse! You’re not going around town with that money!”

  “I agree with Evelyn, you don’t strike me as the responsible kind”

  “I-I will go buy the things, ok? Just wait back home”

  “Buu, fine, have it your way!”

  “I’ll accompany you Ceryse, I need to pick up my backpack from your pce”

  “Oh! Of course”

  It was a short walk with the Lamia twin, I simply picked my backpack and was ready to leave.

  “Safe travels friend”

  “To you too Ceryse, Don’t get into dangerous situations, and don’t make your sister worry so much from your behaviour, help her out when needed”

  “You sound like my progenitors, just go!”

  “Yeah, it’s best that I do, see ya!”

  It’s not a goodbye, just a see you ter. We were together for 48 hours tops, but they’re cool people, enough to consider them my friends, so I will come back eventually.

  ...

  ...

  “There you are!”

  “Don’t give me that, if you were in a hurry, we would’ve left 2 days ago!”

  “Sorry, we needed to talk with some people~”

  The twins are covered head to toe as always, but there’s something that caught my attention, the two rge suitcase-like objects they were carrying, now there’s only one, carried by Aaron.

  “What are those things, and what happened to the other one?”

  “They’re a little gift from his majesty~”

  “We don’t have time for idle talk, let’s go Hope”

  “Yeah yeah, but before that, you might want to wear the hood to the next pce we’re heading princess~”

  “I’m not wearing that!”

  “We’re going to Meldar, capital of the demons”

  “Same capital that, is probably being raided by the church as we speak in one of their ‘crusades’ do you want to risk the empire finding your whereabouts?~”

  “Tch! Wait, attacked as we speak!?”

  “Why do you think we’re in a hurry?”

  “Alright, alright, geez”

  I put on the stupid cloak, and walked through the portal with the siblings, only to end up in what seems to be a dark basement, not that it affects me having night vision, but it is pretty dark.

  “Ah! Praise be upon our lord! I-”

  “Cut the pleasantries, what’s the situation like?”

  “Not good, the heathens have break through the town walls, and are now roaming the streets with their monsters”

  “I imagined as much, let us drive them away!”

  Hope then looked towards me.

  “Do you want to help with the fight princess, or would you rather wait here~”

  “I’m not gonna sit with my arms crossed when the empire bastards are running amok, I’m sure you two have things under control, but the faster it’s safe, the better”

  Plus, I still have a bone to pick with the empire! Why? Because It bothers me the idea of not getting the max adventurer rank thanks to those pricks, let’s see how strong they can be without their troops.

  “Very well, here~”

  A bde appeared from thin air, sleek with a very narrow bde, attached to what seems to be a belt.

  “What’s this?”

  “A gift from his majesty~ he instructed us to give it to you in case of a fight”

  “How considerate! Tell him to shove this sword up his-”

  “Kinky~ Please accept it, it’s a gift, and nothing more”

  Sigh... they’re capable of something outrageous if I don’t comply, like leaving the people in town to their luck, Hope has that unreasonable smirk on her stupid face.

  “Whatever, I’ll shove the bde up Maldi’s ass myself then!”

  Light, ridiculously so, from the weight alone, it feels like it’s made of paper, but it’s rigid, and not very long, the proper size for my stature too, compared to the ones Heather normally uses.

  I put the ornate leather belt across my waist, holding it to my side, it doesn’t feel like it will get in the way actually.

  “Let’s go then~”

  And so, the twins teleported away, probably a spell by Hope, since Aaron is a bit of a doofus in that regard. I get out of the dark room, and after a flight of stairs, I enter what seems to be a meeting room with proper windows and lighting, but with people that have the two weird eye cult symbols on their sleeves but are not covered. Fighting what seems to be the monsters that the church creates.

  Those guys again!? They take too long to be defeated thanks to their regeneration! No wonder they were having troubles with them! Let’s try that!

  I run towards one of them, and jump into the air, grabbing his back as if I were a certain suicidal character from a certain show.

  I close my eyes, and try to locate the monster’s soul, if I just shove it away, he would probably perish!

  He’s fighting and trying to get me off, crashing me against the wall, but the damage is negligible.

  ‘Got it!’

  Other me!?

  ‘Just focus on touching them, I will try to jerk their souls with us, then just pull your touch away on my signal!’

  That’s some teamwork! Let’s do this!

  I felt the energy on my left hand, so I jumped back getting off the monster, and lo and behold, the orb of light is in my hand! I simply let go of it, and it vanishes into thin air. All the while the monster ys defeated into the floor.

  “Bring it on big guys!”

  It’s a five against me. They got on edge after I managed to defeat one of them. I noticed something interesting as the first one tried to punch me and I stopped it with my bare hands without any problems.

  They’re weak! Weaker than the pair from the church’s basement, and way weaker than Heather’s dad, I wonder what the reason is? Maybe it’s not them that are weaker, maybe I’m the one who got stronger!

  I’m gonna toot my own horn like that, Because I felt like it~

  “GRAAAAAHH!!”

  He’s trying to get his hand away from my grasp. I’m holding it in pce after the punch, and-

  ‘Ready!’

  “Got it!”

  I crush his fist in my hand as it gets compressed into a red bloody mass, and inside it, is the glowing orb, the rest of the cult people are trying to get them off from me, they seem to realized that I’m capable of killing them for good, so they’re buying me time for my ‘spells’.

  “You’re next!”

  I gave another one a low sweep, the pn was to make him fall, but I sliced his legs off, it had the same effect though, he fell to the ground, so I stepped on his chest, his hands trying to crush my calves, as his rib cage cracks and gives way to my pressure, just like the floor.

  ‘This is harder! Please use your hands!’

  Sorry, sorry!

  I lifted my foot and his soul came with it, vanishing into the air again. That’s cool, we can do it even without finger grasp, but holding it becomes tougher however.

  “We can do this!”

  “Keep going sister! We will stall them out so you can focus on the individuals!”

  The other cult people just called me sister, probably a manner of speech, I doubt so much of my family is just existing in this pce.

  They did keep their word though, keeping the other’s off my back while I dealt with them one by one, before we knew it, all 6 of the monsters were defeated, and ying lifeless on the floor.

  “We did it!”

  “EEEEYY!”

  Cheers broke down in the building, whatever, you guys be weird and scream, I’m sure things are bad outside this pce.

  “Where are you going sister!?”

  “To help the people, there’s more threats, no?”

  “Y-Yeah, you’re right, allow us to accompany you!”

  “There’s no point to go all together, if possible split up to cover more area!”

  “R-Right away Ma’am!”

  What greeted me outside was pure and utter chaos, people running frantic through the town, an amount of different demon people I’ve never seen, all with panic and fear in their faces, as countless beefy monsters rip and tear through everyone they can get their hands on, all the while a group of knights accompany them.

  All of them have the same symbol on their chest, and the monsters don’t attack them, they must be the attackers.

  One of the knights was about to strike a demon dy and her daughter, she was quivering on the floor holding her daughter in her arms tightly, trying to protect her.

  I dashed towards them and punched the man so hard, it left a hole through his chest, he staggered for a moment and fell to the ground.

  The woman looked at me with fear and hope in her eyes at the same time.

  “T-Thank you! Thank you so much!”

  “It’s not safe, find a pce to hide!”

  This is pure chaos! Were it not for the fact that the knights are symbol coded, and the monsters have absurd bulging muscles, I wouldn’t know who’s who in the fight! The demons are fighting back but many are falling off to the waste side after getting killed by the attackers.

  I do my best and the knights fall in seconds, but the monsters take a bit more time, there’s simply too many of them to take care of all at the same time, and I can’t just nuke the pce without risking hurting civilians as well!

  I hate the idea, but I need more precise fire power! I unsheathe the sword in my waist. It's a vibrant scarlet red, but that’s not what caught my attention. The moment I held it outside the sheathe, I felt mana flowing from my hand to the bde, And then I realized something...

  “Hup!”

  Oh my! I sliced through that knight like he was made of butter! I felt no resistance at all, like I sliced nothing more than air! But there’s a weird feeling in my gut, something that I can’t quite put my finger on, like... like the bde was part of my own body! Not only that, the blood on the bde got absorbed into it, and then I felt a small surge of strength!

  This sword is alive! The implications are way too much to ponder right now! I sheathe it back in, lest Maldi is plotting something with it! My instincts are not picking up anything wrong with it, but it can’t be trusted!

  I continued attacking using only my fists and some spells, but before I realized it, I was panting and heaving as I ran through the city!

  “Haa... Ahh... Why am I so tired!?”

  ‘I think it's the soul removal! It’s getting harder and harder!’

  Is it!? Let’s avoid using it for a moment to make sure!

  I continued removing knights, the attack was clearly massive, there’s so many knights, I could make a pile of corpses that could reach the top of buildings.

  Unfortunately it’s the same for demons, they have even more casualties, I can only pretend to not notice the man, woman, children and elderly bodies littering the floor for so long, I can feel my blood boiling and my fists refusing to open from the clench.

  The only silver lining, if you could call it that, is that I’m recovering strength and my tiredness is going away after not using the soul removing spell, at least it’s not Maldi’s stupid sword as I was worrying! If it was, I was gonna just toss the bde to the side.

  Still, I guess I have no choice but to hold myself by my imaginary bootstraps, and power through the exhaustion, the monsters need to be dealt with! Whether I like it or not!

  ...

  ...

  “Haa... Ahh...”

  “Princess! Amazing work out there!”

  “Hope, Aaron, what were you doing!? Actually, don’t answer that, I can take a guess”

  They’re covered head to toe in blood, much like myself.

  “How was your first taste of a battlefield in towns?”

  “Awful, I don’t want to ever do it again!”

  “Then you won’t like the news we bring”

  “Oh just spit it out!”

  “Yrea was attacked as well, by a micro party in comparison to what assaulted this city, but considerable enough”

  “Yrea? Wait, is that the town we were just in!?”

  “Yes, but they will make do~ They’re disposable after all~”

  “How can you say that!? Did you know they were gonna be attacked!?”

  “Yes, but defending the capital was the priority, Yrea’s army was informed, so they should be able to take care of it”

  “You!”

  Ugh... I guess we can’t be in two different pces at the same time! I-

  “Are you worried about them? Give the order, and we’ll go back and help you~”

  “I’m gonna take your guts out and use them as jump rope! Get lost!”

  I teleported back to the previous town, The visage was grim, as bad as the capital, corpses of both knights and mias ying across the ground.

  Shit! Ceryse and Evelyn! For the love of all that’s good in the world, don’t kick the bucket!

  I hate the idea, but I’m running out of steam! I unsheathed the sword again, hitting knights on the way to the twins house, all the blood was absorbed by the bde and fed straight to me. It's slow, but enough to not lose any more energy, and slowly getting a second wind of power!

  “Haa...”

  “Ceryse!”

  She’s fighting one of the muscur monsters! She looks severely injured, and losing a lot of blood, but she’s alive!

  I sliced the brawn man, and then ripped his soul away while panting and heaving!

  “M-Marisa!”

  “Ceryse, thank god you’re ok!”

  I quickly applied healing magic to her, getting rid of her injuries, my vision turned blurry halfway through, and before I knew it, I was in Ceryse’s arms.

  “Are you ok!? Marisa!?”

  “Ah sorry, I bcked out for a second! And Evelyn!?”

  “I don’t know! She didn’t come back from shopping!”

  “Let’s not waste time then and go look for her!”

  We ran across the town, slicing knights that were not fighting anymore, they were retreating, much like the st ones at the capital.

  “Where are you going!?”

  Seriously, they bothered to come all the way here, and then flee, but not in terror, at least not at first, they panic after I slice them open, but they seem to be just ‘calling it a day’!

  “Where’s-”

  “EVELYN!”

  “Oh no...”

  There she is, ying on the floor, half her face covered in blood covered by her disheveled hair, as well as a very rge injury in her torso! We both got close to her, but the moment I touched her, I knew, it was already too te for her.

  “M-Marisa! Can you use healing magic again!?”

  “I could but... it would be pointless, Evelyn is already...”

  “NO!! THAT’S NOT TRUE!! EVELYN!!”

  She’s on the floor, shaking Evelyn’s lifeless body trying to get a reaction from her. Repeating her name over and over again, until finally breaking down crying on top of her sister’s chest. A cry so gut wrenching, it makes me feel like my stomach just sank to the bottom.

  Dammit! Had I known this was gonna happen, I would’ve stayed in this town!

  With my fists clenched hard enough where my nails are drawing blood from my palms, I jumped into the air, only to see the remnants of the church knights regrouping on the outskirts of town.

  Without hesitation, I created a rge enough fireball, one that caught everyone’s attention, including theirs.

  Without giving them the chance to flee, and using the opportunity that they’re all gathered in a single pce, I incinerated them without a second thought. There's still a couple of those monsters with them, and while they might not die from this, I doubt the knights will survive!

  It was just a couple of seconds that somehow felt to go on forever, but when I nded, Ceryse’s crying had stopped, at least the sound, tears continued to fall from her eyes and down her cheeks.

  Without hesitation, she closed the open eyes of her sister, and carefully removed the tattered and banged shield she was holding in her lifeless hand. And without a word, she started slithering away.

  “Where are you going Ceryse?”

  “To kill emperor Oliver with my own hands”

  “By yourself? You’re not strong enough to fight the empire’s army”

  “I will do it, even if it costs me my life!”

  I had to jump in front of her, to block her path.

  “...Are you trying to stop me Marisa? Are you working with them?”

  “No, I’m just stopping you from killing yourself”

  “Move aside Marisa!”

  Ceryse pointed at me with her scimitar, there is no light in her eyes, she’s looking in my direction, but she’s not really looking ‘at’ me.

  “If you really insist, then you’ll have to go through me to prove you’re strong enough for it!”

  I lifted my sword, and entered the same stance that Heather always uses before she enters a fight. I just wanted to scare Ceryse, but she simply attacked me in blind rage.

  It was a frontal ssh, something that I didn’t try to avoid or parry, I simply tossed my bde to the ground, and took her blow.

  It sliced through my clothes, but couldn’t even scratch my skin. After the attack, when the fear of having hurt someone she considers a friend struck her gaze, I simply gave her a hug, holding her arms in my embrace.

  “How would Evelyn feel if you joined her so quickly?”

  “Guh!! *sniffle*”

  “We will get rid of the empire, but a frontal attack is not the way to do it”

  Ceryse broke down crying in my arms, all I could do was hold her down and gently rub her head, as she shrunk down in my embrace.

  I... I want to scream, much like Ceryse, the urge to go to the empire and attack it head first fshes in my thoughts, but nothing will come out of it.

  This bde, and the behaviour of the siblings are proof that Maldi knew beforehand all that would happen here, he has power over the church after all, this won’t end until he’s taken out of the equation, even if we kill the goril emperor, someone else will rise up to do his bidding.

  We need to cut the problem to its roots.

  Joanne_carper