It was morning and Sora was sleeping in his bed. He slowly opened his eyes and raised his back. Sora seemed sleepy and rubbed his eyes with his hands.
"Come on Yui, wake up it's morning."
Sora tried to shake Yui, who was supposed to sleep next to him. He turned and saw that Yui was gone. Sora was shocked and stood up.
"Yui."
Sora started searching. He saw under the bed, he checked inside the closet. Yui was gone. He ran to the bathroom and opened the door. Yui was naked in with a towel drying her hair. She turned her head slowly and saw Sora. After an hour, Sora and Yui were dressed and walking in the street. Yui was wearing a white hood covering most of her face.
"So, where are we gonna eat breakfast? Any recommendations?"
Yui raised her hand and showed a store not too far.
"Ok then, I guess we going there."
Sora seemed confused and saw Yui. He noticed that she was using her hands to pull the hood she was wearing and cover the most she could from her face. They were sitting on a wooden table in a corner of the shop. Yui was still wearing the hood but lighter this time.
"So, Yui, listen... I apologize for this morning for what happened. Now can you plea—"
Yui's face turned red.
"I-It's not like that…"
'Then why are you wearing that hood so tight when it's not for what happened this morning.'
A waiter came and took their orders.
"I think I'll go with… An apple, two cooked eggs and a glass of fresh milk."
The waiter wrote it down.
"And you madam?"
"Nothing…"
Yui sounded unhappy. The waiter left their table and went back to the kitchen. Sora looked to Yui.
"Yui is something the matter? You seem pretty down."
"I-It's nothing, don't worry about it…"
Sora sighed disappointedly. He heard some men talking at a nearby table loudly.
"So what happened with that demi-human slave you had?"
"Who her? I take rid of her and left her to run in the forest."
'Scums, they think of demi-humans as—'
Sora seemed surprised and turned his look to Yui's sad face.
'It must be hard for her to live like that…'
"So Yui… How did you end up in this town, I mean you were being chased so it doesn't seem like you are from here. It's fine if you don't want to answer—"
"N-No, it's fine…"
The food came soon after and Sora was eating. Sora swallowed a sip of milk.
"So if I get it right, humans are allowed to live in cities, and demi-humans are allowed to live in forests, making their societies. If demi-humans are found in a city, they are either enslaved or executed. That should count for humans going into demi-humans' societies, but nothing of the short."
"Indeed. My society, relatives, friends, family, and I got victims to an attack."
Yui looked another way depressed.
"It happened when I was seven years old… A big number of human slave traders came into our society… My kind gave a good fight, but not good enough…"
Yui started tearing up. She wiped her tears with her hands.
"Everyone I knew got killed in that fight and the kids got enslaved… The others got owned by rich humans or died by some illness or starvation in the traders' prison… I am the only one that came out of there alive and free."
Sora seemed serious.
"You don't have to worry about a thing now Yui."
Sora took a spoonful of cooked eggs and offered it to Yui. Yui was astonished to see Sora.
"Those days are gone, you can start again from this point."
Yui smiled kindly.
"Yes."
Yui bit the spoon. They finished the meal and they were walking in the street again.
"So what did you want me to see Yui?"
"We are pretty close."
Yui caught Sora's hand and started running in the streets. Sora looked at her and remembered when Airi was catching his hand. He shook his head slightly. They stopped in front of a house and Yui knocked on the door.
"Excuse me, are you there old man?"
The door opened and an old man appeared.
"I'm glad you are fine Yui, what happened to the people chasing you though?"
Yui smiled.
"Oh don't worry about them, Sora helped me and I don't think the will bother me again."
"I see, please come in."
They were sitting in wooden chairs. The old man was filling up some glasses with tea. He took two glasses and offered them to Sora and Yui.
"So Um…"
"Yui."
The old man looked at Sora.
"Yes, Yui, what brings you here?"
"Oh, I just wanted to help Sora a bit with his adventure and I thought you might be a reliable source of information for him."
"I see, I am always happy to help people with their problems. Come on Sora ask away."
"Um…"
Sora looked to Yui. She nodded positively with a smile in her face. He looked back at the old man.
"So, this book…"
Sora took out his book.
"The king gave me this book, saying someone from two hundred years ago gave it to his father's grandfather."
The old man took a closer look at the book.
"Oh, if it isn't the cursed grimoire. I've heard many stories from my grandfather about it."
"This means you know what this is?"
"Of course I do, my grandfather was the successor of that book before you. I can answer any question you might have."
"I see…"
Sora put his hand under his chin.
"Tell me Sora, what happened when you first opened the book?"
"Oh, I remember the book started shining after some seconds and suddenly I puked a big amount of blood. After that, I fainted and a friend healed me up."
"You are lucky. If you weren't the one, the book would suck all your blood out of your body."
Sora was speechless and swallowed frightened.
'Good thing I was the one, otherwise the game would end before it even started.'
"They are two kinds of magic skills, the active and the passive. You can learn the actives by knowing how the spell works and seeing it in action. You can learn passive skills the same way, name, and how it works. I can give you an example, throw me a fireball."
"Um, ok."
Sora opened his book.
"Chapter one, fire magic. Fire comet"
A fire sphere flew towards the old man and extinguished once it hit him without him being in any kind of pain. Sora seemed surprised.
"Every person has a different kind of passive and active skill like my active magic is ice and my passive magic is fire. The spell you saw was called fire endurance; it prevents its user from taking a small amount of fire damage. Turn the page please."
Sora turned the page and saw a spell written on it. He seemed surprised.
"You can use all kinds of active and magic skills that you wrote down in the grimoire. With a bit of exercise, you can learn to use them without reading them."
Sora smiled.
"I see, thanks for the help old man."
"Don't worry Sora, it was my job to help you with the grimoire. Every generation has to help the next successor."
"I see, one more thing before we leave."
The old man sipped from the glass filled with tea that he had in front of him. He put the glass on the table.
"Do you happen to know someone called Kazumi?"
"Oh, you mean Kazumi the goddess?"
"Um, I don't know…"
"Kazumi and Hanako are the two goddesses of this world. Kazumi is the goddess of kindness and peace; they say if she watches over you mean you have a bright future. Meanwhile, Hanako is the goddess of miss fortune and chaos; they say she is nearby whenever something bad happens."
Sora started thinking.
'This means they are like yin and yang, good and bad.'
After some time, Sora and Yui were at the front door ready to leave.
"Thanks for the help old man, I am grateful."
"Don't worry, it's my pleasure to help others, especially the next successor of my grandfather's grimoire"
Sora and Yui turned aside and left his apartment. The old man closed the door and headed inside.
'Good thing this kid is with Kazumi's side if he was with Hanako's we would have a big problem. He possesses a massive amount of mana, maybe as much as a god would have. Didn't expect anything less from a legendary hero with the cursed grimoire.'
It was night and Sora was lying in his bed in the room. He was holding the letter he received from Kazumi above his head.
"That explains how she knew that Yui wasn't in the bath."
Sora remembered the time he opened the door and Yui was missing. He remembered the old man when he was talking about Kazumi.
'they say if she watches over you means you have a bright future'
Sora sighed disappointedly.
'This is too confusing…'
Sora remembered what the old man said about the magic spells.
'With a bit of exercise, you can learn to use them without reading them.'
'I wonder what he meant with exercise.'
Sora put the letter in his pocket and remembered what Yui told him this morning when they were eating their breakfast.
'I am the only one that came out of there alive and free.'
'It must be tough for her, I mean I can't imagine my life being enslaved for ten years…'
Yui came outside of the bath dressed up and dried her hair with a towel.
"The bath is ready, you can go."
"Yui I wanted to ask you something."
Yui looked to sora wondered.
"What's up?"
"You mentioned that terrible things happened in that prison you were in and many people died there, right?"
Yui seemed unhappy.
"Yes…"
"What's your goal in your life?"
Yui looked surprised at Sora.
"What do you mean?"
"Why didn't you give up those ten years and got out of there alive? What motivated you to do so?"
"Oh… I think I want revenge for my people… I mean what those traders are doing every day is bad and I want to stop them, not only for the people that I knew or for my sake, but for everyone that lives a miserable life because of them."
"I see, I want to take revenge for a person as well… That's why I am here."
"Oh, do you mind me asking what happened?"
"I'll explain some other time, for now, let's just say that the kingdom is in danger"
Sora stood up and walked towards Yui.
"Let's make a deal. We will help each other granting our wishes for revenge, how does that sound?"
Yui looked another way.
"I don't think I can be much of a help though…"
Sora patted her head.
"This means, starting tomorrow I am going to train you. I'll cover your back and you'll cover mine on this one."