"Mono/Dialogue"

  'Inner thoughts'

  Narration

  [Message/communication apparatus]

  Date: Late April 1084

  Location: Northern Rim Billiton.

  POV: Narrator

  The sound of heavy and perhaps gargantuan machinery had caused an ashen-haired figure to stir awake from their slumber, the cracks of light that shone through the curtain also encouraged the figure to stretch themselves. The figure had been driving for days on end, thus they decided to take things a lot slower than usual.

  “… Morning already?” Said figure is none other than the Grey Serpent. After stretching some more, she stood up from her comms link chair turned the bed, and opened up the vehicle’ curtains. There she sees a megacorporation’ ndship that is scouring the nds for minerals. Her eyes can also see several smaller vehicles coming in and out of the ndship.

  “This is Rim Billiton huh?” She is amused with this nd of theirs, the Cautus’ homend was what she kept being told it was. She then tried to recall another lecture by none other than Doctor Kal’tsit, a complete motor mouth who can’t shut up, and Kal’tsit herself doesn’t deny Nyx’s opinion. She did however add several extra paragraphs of monologue that made the Grey Serpent thankful and irritated.

  “Let’s see… Rim Billiton is Terra's primary source of minerals export, originium or otherwise.” Despite Nyx's growing annoyance at how long the Feline doctor keeps on talking, Nyx is still beyond grateful that the busy and now really grumpy Feline even deigned to teach her what to expect in Rim Billiton.

  Kal’tsit had drilled into her skull a fact that Rim Billiton is a nation that relied on the export of Originium and is hungering for manpower in its mining sectors. When Nyx asked about how the infected were treated there, Kal’tsit’s answer was complete silence and a barely restrained scowl full of disgust.

  That’s enough as an answer for Nyx, the infected miners are not under indentured servitude but instead full-blown svery using a lot of things she can think of. One of them is surely the promise of medication and healthcare, something that would be jacked up to high hell. Then there is also the matter where actual svery happened, but they are then “freed” and spped with bills they must pay off by working in the mines.

  There are still a lot of things in mind, but she decided that the rest is hardly better anyway. What Nyx also comprehended from her lecture was that Rim Billiton is some kind of Megacorporation that acted like a nation, this megacorporation also donned the same name or perhaps Rim Billiton was taken from said megacorporation.

  “If that’s like that then… ugh… the corporate warfare between its subsidiaries and competing ndships would be ugly as all hell…” Nyx theorized that the corporate warfare between them would require a lot of mercenaries, thus causing an even more convoluted mess of a situation that made the Victorian Grand Dukes' feud to be an easy-to-understand mess.

  It doesn’t mean that she believes that every single one of them is some mustache-twirling vilin and tyrannical overlord. There should be people who understand that mistreatment will only cause problems further down the road, it is just that those people would be trying to blend in since it can be perceived as a weakness.

  One particur warning also stuck with her, however.

  Fshback

  “Nyx, there is one thing you must be careful with when you’re in Rim Billiton.”

  “And that is?”

  “You must be cautious when dealing with them. Especially when the economy and financial venues are concerned. You’re not invincible, and Rim Billiton has more than enough to exhaust you in a battle of attrition. That whole region is filled with ndships that are tirelessly excavating for resources, not to mention their actual mobile cities. These ndships can be turned into mobile headquarters and fortress.”

  “Got it… So these miners disliked it when I dug too deep huh?”

  “Indeed. Rim Billiton is an abyss that keeps on hungering for manpower… no matter who it must drag down the abyss to unearth its riches.”

  End of Fshback

  “Welp, time for my daily physical training.” She decided to postpone her brainstorming on what needed to be remembered and left the confines of her van. Nyx also needs to go to the meeting point with Notarial Hall agents. The Guardian Guns that she has amassed, numbering in dozens of originium guns, would attract unnecessary problems otherwise.

  She is not going to Laterano proper since she cares more about the Nearls than some allegedly heavenly city that is blessed with divine providence. Of course, she will visit it sometime in the future but said the future is not anywhere near.

  Nyx opened the door of her van and stepped outside. There she is greeted with a mix of arid scenery and savanna. That is not to say there aren’t any greeneries such as forested ndscapes however, she is on one of them after all.

  Nyx had her van parked on top of a pteau overlooking the arid nd that was filled with several ndships as far as her eyes could see. No matter how many times she sees it, Nyx still finds it hard to believe that something on their technological level can construct this insane feat of engineering.

  Once having her fill of gazing at the scenery, she starts her daily regiments. This regiment consisted of 700 sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups, and running for 2 hours without stopping. This whole thing can be accomplished before noon, an astonishingly high feat considering that she is still a zy slob when there is no job being undertaken.

  This activity was already started, albeit on a lighter duration at first, just a few days before she entered Kazdel, surprising a certain lime-haired Feline because of how fast her body can reacclimatize. After being checked to be physically hale and able once more, she was allowed to add more and more until her usual training quote was achieved.

  Nyx’s temporary personal doctor then asked her to conduct several tests… with a result that further confused the Feline. So much so that the unfppable Kal’tsit can be seen to be tearing several papers of her hypotheses to comprehend this alien situation.

  One of the tests was when Nyx started to feel less and less burdened with extreme physical activity. She is honestly lost at just what is happening to her body. This also brought another puzzlement, because, despite the extreme physical bor, her body was as lean as ever… but when Kal’tsit pried her flesh open, she could see that her patient’s nerves and muscuture had visibly tightened. This shouldn’t have happened so visibly, but it does for Nyx.

  Her Feline doctor was even forced to redo Nyx’s flesh sampling since another astonishing change was going on with her body. Thankfully, her blood was left unchanged, else Kal’tsit would without a doubt restrain her for a while to give herself a better understanding of what Nyx is.

  “Phew… that was nice… but, damn… I can’t have any muscle on me… Kal’tsit assured me that muscle has little to do with actual physical strength but come on… Even I want to show off…” She is honestly annoyed that she can’t have a pristine cheese grater of her own.

  Then there is another anomaly that both thrilled and made The Grey Serpent start to be afraid of herself. After finishing her training, she starts to look and scan all around her to ensure that no one is spying. The thing she will do now is something she had been curious about ever since that deadly duel and subsequent beat down by the Emperor’s Bde.

  “Hmm…” She pulled out an ordinary, non-military grade, dagger and used it to slice open her palm… it did little more than glide across her skin. It felt smooth, unnaturally so…

  “What the hell is happening?” Her ordinary and unremarkable dagger left nothing on her skin. Nyx is nowhere near knowledgeable with schorly or theoretical facets on how things are supposed to be done. Thus she conducted this extremely primitive, and barbaric, method of comparative research to understand herself in pce of Kal’tsit much more scientific one…

  But hey? At least it worked….

  Then The Grey Serpent pulled out a military-grade dagger. This dagger was a custom-made one she had commissioned years ago, yet it still lost out with her first dagger that was found on that mobile facility turned subterranean graveyard that was also her “birthpce” all things considered.

  She stabbed it on her with a higher level of strength. Her skin and flesh were penetrated, unsurprisingly… albeit no more than a few centimeters deep. Yet that’s not what she was aiming for actually.

  “… Again, why does the pain felt… so… so… disappointing? Did that Pursuer asshole’s eldritch energy fucked up my pain receptors or something? Hah…” That’s what she is looking for. Nyx discovered this when she was injured in Kazel, and every time she does, it gets progressively less painful.

  “Ngh…” She pushed it deeper and it started to sting more, but it didn’t cause her to scream. If we use a comparison, it is like getting your hand stuck on a branch while running, that’s the level of pain she currently feels. Some people might think that feeling less pain is something worth celebrating… Nyx thinks the opposite.

  ‘I can regenerate yeah, but who knows that there is something out there that can counteract it. If there is something like that and my pain receptors are not working… then I can just bleed out like an idiot. I wonder if Kal’tsit has a fix on this… but I can’t go back to Kazdel now… ah screw it, I should return home. The Nearls would still need me…’

  Nyx decided to stop with her experiment and rinse on a nearby basin she had found yesterday. She still needs to return the Sankta’s guardian guns after all…

  Location: Milites Valley, Northern Rim Billiton – Eastern Siracusa Border Zone.

  [Milites Valley, a name that was gained not from the fact that a pce was a home of courage militias or the like… no. The pce was known to be the graveyard of those militias. To comprehend the nature of this name, let us dive back to the time when Siracusa was not yet the Siracusa we know today.]

  [There was once a powerful famiglia of Siracusa called the Cisalphine-Socii. This Famiglia was once the richest and the most prolific in terms of raw power among the Mafioso, and they thrived during Siracusa’s era of total anarchy. “How could they achieve such a level of power?” one might ask. The answer is simple, they have themselves 5 mobile ndships that were turned into a singur nd-dreadnought]

  [This nd-dreadnought is improvised with the crudest and the most effective set of weaponry imaginable, originium artillery and liquid throwers. These weapon systems were created by their very bare hands and ingenuity that made even the pre-Columbian green with envy. This monstrous dreadnought had stoked the Don of Cisalphine-Socii, Don Tiberios Maximilian Cisalphini, ambition to unify Siracusa… but he needs resources, so what’s better than to stake their cim on the wilderness and badnds of Rim Billiton?]

  [Thus he steered his “army” away from Siracusa, and onwards towards Rim Billiton.]

  [Once there he subjugated several independent settlements and nomads. His conquest was a brutal affair, there was even a record where he used his nd-dreadnought, now baptized in the fmes of war with the name of “Il Crogiolo Dei Lupi” for its rabid nature of fttening settlements that refused to bend the knee. Of course, this caused the surrounding settlements to unite into against the foreign incursion.]

  [Coalition of Free Settlements, or perhaps more like an alliance of convenience, had convened and must act swiftly. Unlike the hated and dreaded Crogiolo, which is filled to the brim with plundered supplies, they are on a time limit since the Mafioso conducted raid after raid with blitzing speed. This situation goes on for a while before the Coalition managed to sabotage the fortress in unfavorable terrain, in a valley that is taller than the dreadnought itself.]

  [CFS then amassed whatever vehicle they had to overwhelm the nd-dreadnought from the valley entrances and have the rest of their thousands of militias, mercenaries, and volunteers drop down from the cliff side. The dreaded castle is seemingly hopeless now, their dead engine made them a sitting duck, and the amount of artilleries and liquid spewers barely over the second digits.]

  [The Don was not a fool, however, and knows that without proper pnning, this dreadnought of his can be overwhelmed with numbers and proper pnning. Not to mention that the size of his mobile castle will force it into an unfavorable position, thus her concocted a pn that will turn the terrain into his weapon and the nd dreadnought as the bait.]

  [One thing CFS didn’t know was that Tiberios deliberately allowed the mobile fortress engine to be damaged, thus ying in the bait. You might wonder why he made such a bold gamble, the answer is simple and that said answer is the valley itself.]

  [What was Rim Billiton's specialty? Mining minerals and originium. What are the commonly known locations ideal for mining? Hills, mountains, valleys, and even the river. Thus Tiberios sends out his prospector to look over the predicted ambush point quietly. As luck would have it, and misfortune for CFS fighters, the soon-to-be-known Milites has 11 originium veins.]

  [When the CFS fighters were just a hairbreadth away from the nd-dreadnought, explosions rocked the valley, and the sheer amount of originium-imbued particles caused simultaneous manmade catastrophes to be triggered. The valley was brought down with explosions while the sky darkened into a rain of orignium dust that ate up whatever was left of the CFS fighters.]

  [Such a thing should have spelled the doom for Cisalpine, but this is where The Don unveiled his final card. With a flick of a switch, and the primary power generator still working, the nd dreadnought brought forth its originium resistant walls. This piece of engineering is crude compared to Yumen, but it is thicker and much more disposable.]

  [Thus while the CFS are succumbing to oripathy and death, Cisalphine-Socii mobsters are celebrating their life. They sang in pure jubition while a volunteer was having their limbs turned into pure orignium. They drank the most savory liquor while the CFS mercenaries were choking on their bile. Lastly, they seek the greater carnal pleasure of flesh while the militias are biding each other the final warmth before their inevitable rest.]

  [When the storm dissipated, the nd quieted down, and the sky turned bright once more… the Dreadnought, Il Crogiolo Dei Lupi, rumbled the earth once more while shedding its dead skin. Several mafiosos then donned their originium-resistant gear and forced whatever remnant of CFS to mine the Milites Valley. Those corpses were turned into fuel and being sold.]

  [Thus came to be the Cisal-]

  “Pfft… neutral documentary my ass.” An ashen-haired Pythian scoffed seeing the documentary that she was currently watching on television. She is reclining on a rather rough bench, but it is expected since this pce is in the wild anyway.

  “Indeed, no matter how they tried to sugarcoat and deny the facts… this documentary was funded by the Siracusa.” A Sankta man chimed in with his opinion, he is none other than the leader of several dispatched Executors sent by Notarial Hall. It was done because their current colborator is a person of interest.

  “Eh, can’t bme them. Siracusa's primary fighting force was the Mafioso, they had no standing army. So they resorted to dick-waving contests to maintain their prestige…” The Sankta man grimaced a little from her choice of word and while he did find some logic to it, Siracusa is anything but weak.

  “I would word it better, but if I can advise you do not be fooled with their appearance.”

  “Yeah, yeah…” While the two are conversing about the topic surrounding Sircusa, numerous footsteps are heard behind them. Executors and civil servants of Notarial Hall are hard at work in documenting all the recently returned Guardian Guns that belonged to Laterano. All of these are gathered by none other than The Grey Serpent.

  “We have confirmed this battle rifle to be under the name of Emilio Cadiz. He was deemed MIA 3 years ago on the outskirts of Victoria.”

  “Please check the pattern for this pistol, then help me open this crate.”

  “Several rifles, patterned too, has been documented from this box… it was procured and sanctified 40 years ago according to its serial numbers.”

  “We still need to go through 3 more rge crates, and 4 small boxes. Get the folks outside to prepare the transport, this will be the most expensive convoy this year…”

  “Another heavy repeater gun has been confirmed. This one was issued to Angelica Artistica, she was reported to be K.I.A, more than 15 years ago in Kazdel. This guardian gun's condition is fairly damaged, but can still be restored.”

  “We have confirmed a dozen revolvers, of which all were issued under the name and identification of Marcus Solus.”

  “I detected a miss identification for this grenade uncher to not be under the name of Leticia Roxaline but to be under the name of Leticia Luxor. Do please update the database.”

  “Let's see… hmm… this is an undocumented guardian gun. Please contact the home office that we have confirmed a viotion of the article regarding illegal gun creation. Ensure that it is a priority development.”

  “Several Bcksteel guns have been recovered, thus we shall enact protocol 6 regarding the reintegration and sanctification of these guns. Prepare the specialized crate, the one that will be addressed to section 11.”

  “You guys are hard at work, I can respect that,” Nyx said her praise towards the ever-hardworking Leteran, but her tone was as dry as the Sargonian desert. The man that has been conversing with her soon replies with mild amusement.

  “Is that really? The diligent one here is you. To recover this many pieces of guardian guns is no small feat.”

  “Whatever really, I’m in it for the money and clout.”

  “As blunt as ever huh.”

  “Stop dancing around and ask away.”

  “… You had been missing for months and suddenly surfaced from Kazdel, I must say that was truly intriguing.”

  “Hmph, I follow where the money goes, and Kazdel is getting juicier these days.” Nyx just reclined on her seat, still listening attentively to the television. It has now gotten to the part of Cisalpine's eventual decline.

  “I can’t bme you for that, those Sarkaz are always tearing themselves. How uncivilized really…” The Sankta chuckled with morbid amusement, Kazdel is a shithole and he preferred it if that bsted hell on terra stays that way. Which is why he failed to notice a sharp glint from the ashen-haired Pythian that shone briefly.

  “Yeah, I know right? Can you imagine if they united under one banner? They would be a real menace to deal with.” Nyx masked her taunt with an opinion, something the Notarial Hall Executor understood.

  He let it slide however, his task is not to entertain her snarks but to recover the guardian guns, thus his first reason. The second reason to just let it be is that he understands how terrifying a unified Kazdel truly is. The more personal reasoning however… was the notion that this mercenary had been deemed to be as strong as Apostolic Gun Knights, no matter how ludicrous that is.

  Thus the current Pope of Laterano had made the issue to be brought to attention. He only wishes them all to not cause unnecessary conflict with her. It also helps that she is willing to form a positive and cooperative retionship with Laterano as a whole, along with returning Guardian Guns periodically.

  “What have you been doing all those months then? Other than wreaking havoc of course.” The Executor decides to move the conversation along, especially regarding her sudden disappearance.

  “Why should I tell you?” Nyx’s words were uttered with a tone that had an edge to it. Such a sudden spike of hostility armed the more mentally attuned Executors, but the Leader just smiled in a carefree manner.

  “As a reference, nothing more. Your mercenary career had been quite selective, as far as rumors go anyway.” He uttered his reasoning before reaching out for a water canteen that he brought along.

  “Heh, no… those rumors are going to be useless.”

  “How so?” The Sankta said before starting to ske his thirst.

  “I quit being a merc.”

  “Pfhhf! *cough* cough*!” He spat his drink, but thankfully the liquids were spat towards the ground and nothing else. The other Executors are also bewildered, they never thought that someone so knee-deep in violence would just quit being a merc. Not to mention that her reputation for being a sadistic mercenary precedes her. Nyx had half the mind to withhold her current allegiance but decided against it.

  “I’m going back to Kazimierz, making it official to work with Catastrophe Messenger.”

  “Oh…” The man felt relief wash over him, his mind was about to connect numerous possibilities and by The Law forbid she work with those devils from now on… then he ughed heartily.

  “Hahahaha! I can’t imagine you end up being someone who delivers mail!”

  “Yeah, yeah… very funny and mature. Who knows though? I might end up as nothing more than an ordinary mailwoman.” Nyx said with a so-done-with-this-convo tone and just turned off the TV. Her eyes are now looking at the ceiling while leaning back on the hardened steel chair.

  “Heh, ordinary, yeah… sure… since when was it the norm to use Hierovan Fowlbeast to deliver letters?”

  “Fun, I give you an A for trying… so how much is it this time around?” Her gaze wandered to him, he felt something suddenly nagged the back of his head but it dissipated just as quickly.

  “Ah yes, almost forgot.” He turned his gaze towards a Liberi woman who was crisscrossing here and there with a paper in hand. The man inquired her about the current tally of recovered relics.

  “How many relics that have been confirmed so far?”

  “Let me see the inventory pages and notes… the number of relics that have been recovered consisted of 27 bolt-action rifles, 11 semi-auto rifles, 8 assault rifles, 4 battle rifles, 3 carbines, 28 pistols, 10 spread guns, and shotguns, 5 pieces of grenade unchers, and a pair of heavy repeating guns.”

  ‘That’s an abnormally high amount of haul… just where did she get all of these? Do I need to recommend the Notarial Hall to attach an observer to study her modus operandi? Hmm…’ The Sankta Captain made a quick mental note regarding it, the person he was dealing with was an enigma.

  “Good work, ensure that our colborator received the remuneration she deserved.”

  “Consider it done, Captain. Lady Nyx, please follow me to finalize your contract with Notarial Hall.”

  “Sure, sure…”

  Date: Late April – Mid July 1084

  Location: Siracusa, Leithanien, and Kazimierz.

  Nyx had done some st bits of cndestine contracts for the Doctor of Babel. She can’t help but feel like the Doctor presents a level of danger that is nigh-unthinkable for someone who looks so harmless, but it does have some credence judging by how they seem to be inscrutable on contract offers.

  The first one was surveying whether or not a herd of Hippelian Burdenbeast had been moving around a certain region, which she had confirmed to be the case. Naturally, she can have an inkling that Odysseus is moving up with pns in mind. The second one was regarding whether or not an abandoned fortress is clear of bandits. She headed there and found the pce to be utterly deserted, not even insects could be found. The third one was regarding a mine, she was only told to go there and stay for a while… that’s it.

  At that point, she has no idea what the Doctor is pnning.

  What unnerved her however is the fact that probing their emotion only returned a single feedback, it was an endless maze of emotions that cannot even be ciphered. The Doctor’s head didn’t move, but Nyx could feel their eyes snapping directly at her, so much so that she stumbled back.

  After some small talks with Kal’tsit, along with her sternly reminding Nyx to adhere to the assigned health pn, especially the no-smoking part, Nyx departed from Kazdel. She was about to just blitz her way through and back to Kazimierz, but she thought that some souvenirs would be nice to have since her van was now much emptier after returning the guardian guns. Thus starts her brief vacation and sightseeing, from Siracusa to Leithanien, and only then will she return home.

  Her time in Siracusa was a really weird one. For one, she has no interest in starting some sort of viginte activity here, since their w enforcements are the mafias themselves. Thus she behaved as nothing more than a tourist. A ludicrously dangerous one, but a high-paying one too. Her first stop was the historical mobile city of Sette Colli, the birthpce of Siracusa’s Lupo and Vulpo.

  As per tradition, she was immediately monitored and shadowed by not only the Famiglia that has influence there but also by the Grey Hall itself, of which Nyx has no idea what even is a Grey Hall at first. Her reception was mixed due to her history when dealing with syndicates, but since she doesn’t do anything noteworthy, she was mostly left alone to wander like an actual tourist.

  Sette Colli was once the center of Siracusa, at least that’s what her tour guide expined to her. It was certainly surreal that someone who always seemed to be so sure of herself nodded along to whatever the tour guide told her. The tour guide was a Siracusan man, he was affable and seemed to know his stuff.

  After some inquiries, the man confessed that he was a graduate of a Columbian University who had chosen to return home. When asked why, the man just smiled and said nothing. Nyx is not blinded by that social cue and instead asks more regarding the country, which surprises the tour guide with how pleasant she is to talk with.

  The man told her about the one who had maintained the safety and civility of Siracusa city-states, the personage was none other than Signora Sicilia, the de facto and de jure ruler of Siracusa. He regaled the tale where Signora Sicilia had once made a pilgrimage to Laterano, something that deeply intrigued the Pythian, and returned to Siracusa with the thing that made it what it is today; the legal system of Pistole et Ordine or Guns and Order.

  Guns and Order exemplified that the Dodici Famiglie Siracusano must share power between them. This marked an era where prosperity and order finally came after centuries of wlessness following their independence from Leithania. The tour guide had, most likely being ordered to, extolled the virtue of civilized Siracusa… which she doesn’t buy even for a split second.

  Her stay in Sette Colli had painted the reality of how average life in Siracusa pyed out. Nyx had found corpses in the alleyway in a manner that is eerily simir to harvest seasons. The shadow wars there, from what she knew, happened frequently.

  When the Dons and their cadres are negotiating, the disposable mobsters are moving about towards rival establishments under the veil of secrecy. She even witnessed car bombing 3 times, with casualties that were weirdly enough not as bad as she would have thought.

  If it is this bad on such a historic and significant pce, then how bad would it be on a newly constructed settlement? Nyx also uncovered that, infected or not, if which you’re not a foreigner who minded their own business or a Mafioso, everyone would suffer the same way under the family.

  She had half the mind to intervene… if not for a presence that is simir to Gareth suddenly stalked her every time she tried to. Nyx thus had her hands full of keeping an eye on that particur existence, it did add more credence to what Gareth had said and made her more cautious when dealing with what she, tentatively, dubbed as the gods of terra.

  There was only one of them at first before she started to feel like being surrounded and told to leave the country gently, which she does so… after having her fill of not cursing out loud at how expensive a wheel of Terran’ Parmesan cheese was. The thing cost her 80,000 LMD each. To illustrate such an absurd cost, an average Columbian car cost only 12,000 LMD. She is loaded with cash, but even she pauses when finally learning the cost of it.

  Her next stop is Leithanien, the mobile city she visited was called Graufield, the closest mobile city to Kazimierz’s mobile garrison city of Dzwonek. Her arrival comes with an activity that has become her norm now.

  This country was a bit more welcoming, even though the fact of her working with the Duke of Windermere had come to light. The reason was simple, her singing was truly captivating for the musically inclined Leithanien… which is also why she got bombarded with criticism and praises in equal measure, well the former is a lot more but she honestly enjoyed hearing their opinions on her singing that brought her a lot of satisfaction.

  One of the most painful criticisms she had gotten was that her singing was true, but her soul and mind seemed to csh with one another. Nyx can’t lie that such a notion is true but withholds the fact of admitting it in public. She poured her mind to concentrate on the song, thus her soul is the st one to enjoy her performance since if she psed her Arts would fre up and things can go to shit.

  The praises she received were more on the side of how her vocal range and musical knowledge felt so otherworldly. One anonymous critic there even noted that her speaking in old dialects seems to breathe in the essence of memories itself. Nyx froze for a split second from that theory, but thankfully her face was already conditioned to not flinch for every ‘minor’ thing.

  Of course, she has her share of antagonistic crowds. Her Arts ability was publicly known to be none, thus some Arts-Supremacists called her a “Defects”, yet the person in question couldn’t care less since when she suddenly showed right in between them, they all scattered like frightened rams.

  While there she was also pleasantly surprised with the infected general treatment. Sure they’re still confined to a ghetto, but at least they have a community, are enterprising as human beings, and don’t need to fear getting lynched 24 / 7. This humane treatment is extremely good, even when compared with Kazimierz’s own.

  Nyx then departed merely days after staying there because the number of nobles who kept pestering her was incredibly high. Her more personal reasoning was that of an eeriness that pervaded the air, and an unknown shadowy group who was looking at her like some kind of thing to use and discard, not even being treated as a weapon, only an object.

  After purchasing some art units for the use of orphanage children who might have some talents and an interesting mask that can stabilize arts usage, she left the country. Nyx made a small stop in Dzwonek, and the Campaign Knights immediately welcomed her like a hero, something that made her a little stumped. The garrison and mayor strongly recommend the use of one of the empty mansions. She tried to decline, but because they insisted so much she relented.

  Her stay was filled with Campaign Knights that were more than eager for sparring. She obliged after the garrison commander offered her a favor or two and the fact that she arrived in Kazimierz earlier than expected. Thus her brief tenure as both instructor and sparring partner.

  After 5 days, she left the city and drove without stopping towards Kawalerielki.

  “Margaret, Zofia, Maria, Kiril… and Mwi… I’m going to be there again soon…”

  [END OF CHAPTER]

  Author’s Note:

  Hello there, this is me, myself, and I, the author who finally made some progress in his undergraduate thesis. Which is why I’ll churn up another .5 chapter soon!

  What do you think about those little tidbits of world-building? Good? Bad? Meh? It was aight? Feel free to criticize it.

  Nyx made some brief passes on the nations. She will come back ter, it is just that she needs to conclude her little contract with M?ynar about protecting the Nearls.

  That’s all really…

  Update as usual

  Ciao