"Mono/Dialogue"

  'Inner thoughts'

  Narration

  Date: February 1074

  Location: Somewhere in Northern Kazimierz

  POV: Narrator

  It has been 1 and a half years since Kazimierz recimed their lost territory. Yet civil disturbance remained, and the devastation caused by Ursus' scorched earth policy left a visible mark on the northern region of Kazimierz. It will take at least a few more years for things to return to normal, and another decade to erase the majority of the traces of war.

  The destruction had caused a significant amount of bandits and outw groups to start staking their nests around the region. It caused tremendous strain on the recovering nation, especially when the recovering Adeptus were the ones taking the brunt of it.

  Destroyed vilges, unnamed mass graves, orphaned children, and so much more misery were caused by the recmation war. This is the ultimate inevitability of open war, the devastation of human lives, and complete regional instability that sow the seeds for prolonged violence and chaos.

  The Adeptus as a whole are mobilizing campaign knights to help maintain order along with the mobilization of squires, servants, and eager volunteers who come with varying motivations. These are heroes who lead turning the tide against Ursus and are still doing whatever they can to stem the bleeding of their nation while alleviating suffering as best they can.

  Nyx, as per her request, had been cleverly hidden from the prying eyes of Kazimierz politics. But only in Kazimierz, Ursus would know her existence and Nyx doesn't know how that would affect her moving forward.

  Due to Nyx being hidden from any official report, Kiril had been fully credited with breaking out the encirclement with minimal losses. He felt guilty about it but Nyx had reassured him that hiding her existence as best he could was enough for her, fame would be hers in due time.

  Thus Kiril Nearl, specifically, the hero of Daybreak over the Golden Prairie, had taken it upon himself to spearhead the stabilization effort. His name and exploits had been sung out loud by both his peers and people. His footing in Kawalerielki was more than robust, his influence, and by extension, the Adeptus influence, is on a steady rise with retive ease.

  It is a subtle show of power and that knighthood is not dead yet towards their primary political opponent. Their actions had further emboldened support from the commoner and those who suffered the most from the war, something K.G.C.C. can't just leave unchallenged.

  K.G.C.C chose a much easier, while being retively hands-off, approach while also flexing their financial fortitude and attention on Kazimierz's prosperity.

  Mercenaries and bounty hunters start roaming the nd, at the behest and promise of substantial rewards from K.G.C.C while subtly influencing the masses that money can solve problems much better than knights could ever manage. K.G.C.C. also supplied these mercenaries with modern gadgets as a means of advertisement, no opportunities shall be wasted as best as possible.

  Regardless of which game of politics the two factions are pying, the masses ironically won't care too much as long as their livelihood is guaranteed. This is an unfortunate fact, a clear difference between mobile city citizens and the left to be self-autonomous, for the most part, vilgers.

  What the commoners want is that they can bury their dead in peace, finally rebuild their lives, and then move on with what they have. Vilgers are a lot more resilient, they are under constant threat of catastrophe, bandits, and general misfortune such as a bad harvest, which is why their adaptability is always high.

  But that's enough discussing motivations and higher calling between factions. Politics is always a messy affair...

  Let us instead focus on the actual enforcer of stability and order, be it for fame, self-affirmation, wealth, or simple amalgamated emotions. Mercenaries, private contractors, bounty hunters, and even fledgling "heroes" prospered from the post-occupation period. Other’s misery can be one’s opportunity.

  And now we are back to a certain Pythian dy who had started to be recognized for her superb mercenary work ethic and efficiency, while also having her moniker finally spread with more validity...

  POV: Nyx

  'Ioleta said that Ursus patrolmen had been referring to me as the Grey Serpent, quite nice of them... while still gotten my face wrong, keyword gotten...' musing idly after gutting some scums to pieces, I'm now reflecting

  How time flies, it has been 4 years since I finally reached the surface. I have done a lot of things during the st 4 years. It ranged from something trivial such as teaching children basic mathematics to something serious and risky such as leading the defenses against foreign occupation army.

  The bad news is that...

  My Arts seems to be morphing my emotional drive quite a lot... I had a vague guess of what it affected. I'm usually quite a cool-headed individual, but nowadays I have become extremely aggressive in combat and if not outright irritable when told to be patient.

  The knights who were undoubtedly affected too are also still reeling from the residue, but their cases are not serious. It is just that mine takes a lot of time to, hopefully, wore-off... I need an audio-based Arts expert on this or get help from a mental therapist...

  Thankfully, it doesn't affect me outside of my working hours... but I don't know when I will finally slip...

  Well, there is also a piece of good news!

  'Ursus had finally managed to sketch my face correctly, they put up a hefty bounty on my head.' I'm quite proud that they finally pulled their head out of their asses and sketched my face with extreme detail. I was starting to get offended when their sketches made 5 years-old doodles look like a masterpiece by comparison.

  Of course said bounty only applies in Ursus, anywhere else I'm technically free. Still doesn't stop several bounty hunters from trying to nab me anyway... I need a hobby other than speaking with a sarcastic tone and exacting an extreme amount of pain just because I can...

  'All these years... this dagger is still plenty sharp... better than swords I had tried to procure sometimes.' I think that this dagger was crafted with an extreme level of metallurgy and bcksmithing skill behind its creation. The bded part had yet to show any signs of crack, dullness, and not even dents...

  'I wonder if there are godlike smiths out there who can make this dagger look like a toy... nah, don't think so.' No offense, but all creation had been quite mid around here... I'll stand by my stance until proven wrong.

  Narrator: Somewhere in the east, a certain Godsmith dy suddenly felt like someone had just made fun of her. It caused her to be miffed enough that she started forging even more masterpieces until her irritation was finally sated.

  'Speaking about stance, Adeptus fulfilled their promise. Wdirosa is more or less safe at the moment...'

  The people of Wdirosa had also become famous, repelling contingents of Ursus army on their own is no small feat. That is why they're being propped up to promote Kazimierzian national zeal or something along that line. This deters the more unscrupulous bounty hunters from using them against me.

  Between my head and a whole nation' ire, not to mention their elite force, it is easy to see which is more beneficial. Especially when the region is still a lucrative spot for mercenary work. No reason to stir up a hornet nest, especially if said nest is filled with hornets that can kill you instantly on a good day.

  The Adeptus had done their best to protect them from reporters and paparazzi. I'm not thrilled about meeting the tter, or else my work-side aggression would be fully triggered...

  Back then before the recmation war, I was just going around as an errand girl and doing odd jobs here and there in the morning while conducting sweeping and, sometimes, liberation of kidnapped vilgers, bandit or outw prisoners, and infected people.

  My work nowadays consists of exterminating wild beasts, searching and destroying any outw group, and weirdly enough... Even sparing against my new Campaign Knights friend periodically. Especially the Silvernce Pegasus who has an unhealthy level of reverence and deference to me.

  They are... alright, but it gives me creeps seeing some of them so enthusiastic being beaten bck and blue, hopefully, it didn't turn into something weird. I mean I have no problem if you like that, but don't project that sort of ‘interest’ on me.

  The sparing sessions made me aware of how much of a mess fighting style is. It is unique, yes, but there are still wasted movements... I'll... bme my unstable emotions, yeah that’s a good idea… Ha ha ha… hahhhhh….

  My Arts training has been going rather well... still have no idea how to apply it more safely. Immanuel was being very patient with me, to the point that he acted like I was his daughter or something... it felt nice actually... but I'm still unsure if he truly feels the same as I...

  Then during one of my mercenary work, I found out that my blood can also double as poison. The poison is a mix of paralytic and acidic properties. It can't melt metal, but it can go through fabrics with ease... I vaguely recalled the day my madness in that pce back then made my teeth coated with venom... just what the hell am I?

  Then I learned an unfortunate fact about this nation... chattel svery still exists...

  I was quite disturbed that Kazimierz still practiced chattel svery, completely on the opposite end of the spectrum in this quasi-modern world. I thought that knights who espouse chivalry and honor wouldn't condone such an act, but as things are just the way it is.

  I inquired Kiril about it and he had eborated on the matter. He had tried to lobby it to be illegal and outwed but got pushed back and the fact that there were people who willingly sold themselves to avoid starvation made things more complicated. Legal sves acted more like indentured servants, illegal sves on the other hand...

  Kazimierz had unfortunately earned a new bad rep in my book now. There are always positives and negatives for everything in this never-knowing-true-peace life of mine...

  Can't do anything directly against sves too, their status is really hard to verify most of the time. They can be criminal sve or they can even be people who got framed. I can try to free them by buying them off and then setting them free, but that's barely a stopgap measure and hurting myself for little actual gain.

  Legal sves have documentation and all those bureaucratic requirements with a fucking stamp of barcode on them. Like damn, that is some real commitment to attach a barcode on a living person. Thus I decided to not mess with something I couldn't do anything about in any meaningful way.

  It is easy to crow on and on then shout about change, enacting it is a whole different set of hurdles. Case in point? Look at Kiril, the poor guy seems to start balding early too, and he is a Knight Primus! I'm just a single mercenary with a decent reputation, my influence is limited and I doubt how much that would even mean at the moment.

  But all those are thrown out the window when minors are being the ones. I don't care how much, I will free them. My money had been used times and times again to free them. I'm not stupid, some took advantage of that.

  Let's just say I got creative when visiting them and... they're out of business.

  Wdirosa had been receiving an influx of children, mostly orphans. I asked the Silvernces for help and they obliged. I kinda feel bad about hoisting this problem on them, so I did take work and commissions for them in exchange for them taking care of freed children.

  Equivalent exchange can help in maintaining a retionship after all.

  Now, I'm in the middle of work. Just mused with myself, since my target had all been sent to meet god. Hopefully, they will be reborn into being a better person with a much better opportunity for gaining a peaceful life.

  'That's another 27...' I calcuted the felled outws in my mind. Mercenary work has been quite a lucrative venture. The one that paid me was none other than the infamous K.G.C.C I keep hearing about in the countryside.

  The campaign knights, or more like The Adeptus Sprawiedliwi, were undoubtedly conflicted but decided that I was just doing it for the money and not K.G.C.C political machinations. The Silvernces even vouched for me. You know what, I'll stop speaking about it. Politics is just migraine-inducing mental gymnastics that hardly pays if you have no intention to py.

  It appears that I had also gained a rather decent sort of reputation in this region. Well, that reputation certainly helps me on nding me with plenty of mercenary contracts, not just from K.G.C.C. mind you, regarding outw hunting and extermination.

  But I'll probably be at the lowest possible choices for rescue operation now... my st tenure was where I shot a hostage in a non-vital area. Thankfully they aren't resentful, but the mercenary HQ doesn't like that. So, I'm stuck with exterminations now...

  They paid me neither with Kazimierz coinage nor the paper currency of theirs called Heller, but instead with a paper currency called Lungmen Dolr or LMD for short. Snippets of conversations from mercenaries alluded that it had become some sort of unspoken rule, a stable form of currency is always preferable.

  The payment for hideout extermination varied since it was based on where the outw was st spotted, what sort of damage had been incurred by the locals, and how many outws were there. Otherwise, the payment rate for stragglers is 150 LMD each, allegedly enough to live off for a week or two in a mobile city.

  I have yet to find the need to use it, other than simple barter or trade with fellow mercenaries, since vilges are having a hard time deciding the conversion rate...

  Luckily I was gifted with a personal terminal. Provided to me by the Adeptus Sprawiedliwi, thus easing my burden of carrying stacks of money. I was quite surprised when they truly didn't do or try embedding anything weird with it... I'm very pleased with that commitment of theirs, chivalry and all that I suppose… would be nice if they could do something about svery…

  Mercenary work is, generally, always the same regardless of which world... you're murdering people but being paid for it. I sometimes muse about this sort of morality dilemma, only to reach the same answer.

  'It is merely one of several means to an end...' I'm not sure if my cim of not being a bad person still holds. I'm at peace with that notion since there are always those who must bloody their hands for the world to stay clean...

  Maybe because of me knowing no true peace... I had been morphed into something else entirely. Something that I must learn to live with... I'm not sure if... if... I'm stable as a person...

  What should I do if I finally lose it all? Would I still be "me"? Should I wait until things go wrong? I'm unsure... but for now...

  'Enough musing, back to work...' After finishing my inner thoughts, I start collecting the proof of subjugation so to speak. What kind of proof? You don't need to know the details, but the hint for it is ‘easy to bring’ and ‘acceptable’.

  "... Just a few more to go... heh..." I always loathed to admit it before, but it does start to get me addicted to hunting bandits. This exact feeling is starting to... truly... feel...

  Euphoric...

  POV: Narrator

  "Haa... haa... haa... ugh..." A single Liberi outw is running for his dear life through the darkness of the night, an arrow stuck deep in his upper shoulder. His adrenaline is at an all-time high, his breath shallow and hollow, scampering away as fast as possible, disregarding his screaming, tired, and bloodied body.

  He was one of the co-leaders of a middle-sized outw group. He has been sprinting away in terror for the st half an hour or so. The reason? Her.

  She comes like the reaper itself. Cutting 12 lives short merely seconds before using her unorthodox combat style to annihite the whole group. Because what sort of insane person would use a bow point bnk and using arrow as a makeshift rondel dagger?

  He can vividly remember his crew of 74 men and women and 3 co-leaders being cut down in less than 10 minutes. They did manage to injure her, but she only smirked at having been injured. They're fighting for their survival and yet her demeanor shows she is just pying around with her food before wolfing it down...

  She has become a nightmare itself for the outws around post-occupied Northern Kazimierz, there are even rumors about how her fellow mercenaries starting to grow fearful of her code of conduct or style of hunting. She doesn't hunt with normal conventions or tactics, her mind is seemingly locked in hunting with the best and most effective method possible. Rules and humanity be damned…

  Outws made their hideout inside a mine, cave, or other tight spaces? She will tear the whole pce down, colpsing it by throwing explosives, potentially burying her subjugation proof altogether with a nonchant air.

  Trying to use hostage, hoping that it will deter her? She will injure and immobilize the hostage with a pin-point, painful but not mortal wound, arrow shot. Then starts picking off everyone with mechanical-like systematic sughter.

  Luring her out into an open field then gang up on her? She turns the table just as easily, her bnk face sometimes morphing into a ridiculing sneer. Her eyes showed the purest form of sadistic joy and glee of having squashed a bunch of bugs underneath her feet.

  Feeding her false intel while also colborating with bounty hunters to stab her in the back? She can somehow, always, realize it. Like a psychic but such a thing shouldn't have been possible for ordinary terran, unless she isn't one to begin with.

  Fooling and dupping her with a falsified contract? She will be furious and not going to let the perpetrator off the hook easily. Agonized screams and pleading turn into a morbid choir that conveys her seething wrath. Nyx is being deemed a lunatic by those with better positions and know-how.

  And more things had been tried and ended up a failed gambit, if not turned into a literal catastrophic mistake. Now that embodiment of the nightmare is chasing him. His group only intended to make some quick buck and then dipped out, not getting butchered an hour after crossing the border...

  His panicking state of mind caused him to be careless and inattentive. He has been guided and hunted for... a little chat.

  "Agh!"

  He felt like something just yanked him down and then dragged him roughly upward, his body was further being battered by bruises and deeper injuries.

  "What... ugh... hell!?"

  He is now upside down, a rope has ensnared his legs and left him dangling 2 meters in the air. The suddenness of this situation had worsened his arrow wound. Further causing a much more serious internal bleeding.

  Before he can curse even more, his body freezes. His breathing quickened and panicked due to a rustling sound in this once quiet forest. Looking back on the ground he saw the woman he never wanted to meet.

  "PLE-"

  Just when he is about to beg for his life, the woman... no... the demon... just smiled sweetly at him before uttering her sonorous melody that heralded death’s arrival.

  "Hush my dear~, you and I will have a long intimate chat just for the two of us. So don't worry all that much." Scratch that, death is a luxury for the poor sod.

  That night cries of agony accompanied by ughter filled with delight echoing amidst the veil of moonlight.

  Accepting their newfound nature might be a prudent move...

  Enacting it based on that prudence is another different thing entirely...

  [END OF CHAPTER]

  Author Note:

  Hello this is me, myself, and I, the author who is filled with ideas but has no idea how to implement those ideas... not an ideal situation right?

  I'm trying to either pn or reroute the storyline about whether or not I should stretch things before the canon timeline...

  Update as usual. Hopefully, I'm still sane enough during the pnning phase.

  Ciao.