[Lilith Perspective]
I walked with Kale down a road heading to market. Kota had gone with Tera to do his entrance exam, so Kale grabbed me to watch him do his job. At first he wanted to train me, but decided that it would be best to see Fire King style used in a real situation. I didn't mind, The training we were doing did strengthen me a lot, but I wanted to really test it.
I noticed that I was just faster in general, my hit struck harder and swifter when I trained with kale. Kota seemed to have noticed too. One time, he was practicing magic in our room and he accidentally shot one of his dry ice spells at me. Usually that would have been extremely dangerous…maybe it was dangerous, but I dodged it with ease at close range. It surprised Kota and when Kale came into our room, he lectured Him about firing magic in his house.
Kale was walking ahead of me as we passed by multiple people. Kale's job today was to find a group of thieves that kept stealing from this meat shop, so we were heading there with the intent of asking the owner about the thieves. Usually Kale would do this faster, but since I was here, he had to slow it down so I could understand what he was doing.
"Lilith, the shops here." He pointed to his left, it was white building with it's doors open, a wooden sign was hung on a metal bar. I didn't really know what it said since I sorta…forgot what Kota told me. I'll have to have him teach me again!
I noticed my own reflection in the glass window the store had. Stopping to look at myself, Kale looked at me and rolled his eyes before he walked into the store.
"Guess she's growing now…" he mumbled.
Looking at myself, I noticed my hair had gotten longer, it was right below my shoulder now. I wonder if Kota likes hair like this? I only kept it short because I didn't really like having to tie up my hair or having it caught. But I think this length is perfectly fine for me.
Lifting my cloak, I examined my body. I wore my adventuring outfit that I packed in my bag when we left shanford. It was black and had a leather piece wrapped around my waist. It fit snugly around me, perfect for sword fighting as it didn't get in my way. The cloak I wore was the same gray one I usually had. I had when we got to kales since it had blood on it.
I haven't really grown that much in the body department though. But we haven't been out here for long, not sure why I'm thinking of this right now. Maybe down the road I'll be like Tera!
After observing myself, I walked into the meat shop and saw kale already asking the owner questions.
"So he looked like an older man, bearded and wore a yellow badge on his cloak?"
"Yep, He stole some meat and all my rubees from my safe. Tore a huge gap into my safe too."
"Mind if I look?"
The wonder opened a gate to let Kale in. "Go on." He then looked at me. "Who's that?"
"My apprentice, she's going to watch me do my job."
"An apprentice? Well Nice to meet you, girl."
The owner waved at me, so I bowed at him.
Kale moved through the gate and into the back room of the shop, I followed in suit as well. In the back room, there was meat on shelves that seemed to be up there for preservation. Moving past the meats, we got to a desk where I noticed a safe that had its front basically pried open.
"Lilith, what do you think happened here?" Kale got on one knee to examine the safe, he looked back at me for a response.
I walked closer to the safe, getting right next to kale as I examined it more. I wasn't really sure why he was asking me. I wasn't really a good person to really solve things, that would be Kota. Maybe Kale is asking me so I can figure things out myself?
The Safe was made of metal, not magic metal or anything like that. It seemed like whoever opened it did it with ease as the metal was bent all the way out. It must've been someone strong, really strong to have pried this open. There's no indication that someone used their swords or any tools though. In fact, looking at the edges of the safe, there were large marks of fingers on the safe's door. Like as if someone used their hands to quite literally open it.
"Someone really strong must've pried it open." I answered. "There's indents on the safe's door, meaning someone somehow managed to pry it with just their bare hands."
Kale looked at the safe for a moment, gathering his own thoughts before getting off his knee.
"Good answer, would you know what would do this?"
"Someone…strong?"
"Do you know any other races, Lilith?"
"Not really?"
"I thought Kota told you about them?"
I looked away out of embarrassment. "I wasn't…maybe I wasn't fully paying attention."
Kale sighed at that. I think he expected better of me to learn things. But I don't think I'm much of a reading learner, I'm more of a visual learner. That's how I'm able to really progress well in Fire King.
"Well, I'll tell you what we're looking for then. We're looking for a Brego. It's like a…Half man half horse species from the Eastern continent." Kale drew an imaginary outline of whatever he was imagining. It was all squiggly lines.
"Did you get it?"
"…No…"
"Damn…alright, I guess we'll have to find our robber then and see if I was correct." Kale then walked out of the back room, leaving me in here by myself.
Looking around, I noticed a vial on the ground. When I grabbed it, some liquid came out of it. It was a rainbow looking fluid. I think Kota or Tera talked about a fluid that looked like this before, I think it was pure mana?
I wonder why there was one here? Maybe the owner likes putting this stuff on meat? Is that even good to eat?
…is mana edible? I got too curious as I almost licked a droplet of mana before kale came back in.
"Don't lick that!" He yelled, snatching the vial from me instantly. "Where'd you find this?"
"The floor?"
"Why were you about to lick it?!"
"It looked edible!" I argued.
"W-what? Who just licks whatever they randomly find?" Kale seemed bewildered by my actions. "I guess being half dragon makes you eat anything, huh?"
I just shrugged it off, I was just curious if I could eat it. Or maybe it was the fact that I was a dragon hybrid. I never really was bothered by the fact that I wasn't fully one thing, other people did though. It's why I was picked on back in Shanford. I looked different from other people.
"Anyways, let's head out. There's only a couple of places I know a Brego or someone like that would go to." Kale put the vial into his pouch he had. We then walked out of the back room, the owner watching us as we walked out.
"Found anything?" The owner asked.
"Oh yeah, we'll find him for you!" Kale waved at him as he crossed the gate and towards the entrance.
"Thanks, and uh…keep the girl safe will ya?"
"Nothing is happening to her, not on my watch. Come on, Lilith." Kale kept the gate open as I walked out.
I waved the owner farewell as we walked out of the shop, Kale pointed left which was in the northwest.
"We're going to the farming district, there we'll head to the stables."
"Why the stables?"
"Half horse? Half man? Usually Any who is…" Kale hesitated and scratched his head, it was like the word was on the tip of his tongue. "Uh…Horse people. I'll ask Kota what the name of that race is…Anyways, they usually hang around the Farming district for food. We'll probably meet our culprit there, or maybe not." He then proceeded to walk in that direction.
"You don't sound so sure." I said, walking behind him. He didn't seem to acknowledge that reply. "…do you even want to do this job?"
Kale stopped and looked back, giving a sarcastic smile. "Oh of course! The day I want to bring my apprentice to watch me do work, King Lucian asks me to do a job that literally involves us only investigating. All slow stuff and no sword fighting." He then frowned at me. "No, I'm not enjoying this. I'd rather get this over and have us go on another job trip."
"We can make it fun! We can beat the crap out of the dude if we find him!"
"We already will, but I won't be able to teach you much since it seems like you already know how to do close combat…speaking of which, where did you learn it?" Kale started walking again as I followed in suit.
I didn't really know, I just kinda…knew how to do them. Father never told me anything and neither did mother. I guess I just had a habit of punching and kicking whenever I got the chance. Some of the things I did were really cool though.
"I honestly don't know." I responded back.
"Hm, you probably just have a knack of hitting things. I heard you punched Kota a bit during your trip here, even in the house too."
Did I punch him that hard? It didn't feel like it, it was more of a playful punch!
"You should probably ease it with him. I mean, don't you like him?" Kale continued.
I almost tripped just from hearing that.
"Huh?! Well yes but…" I pulled my cloak's hood to cover my face. "I don't think he likes me like that…"
"Trust me, he probably does. I mean If he didn't, why would he bring you to Prusha with him?"
"Because his dad told him?"
"Well maybe Geralt probably saw it too. Kota's got his dad's genes in him. He'll probably start showing interest once you and him are older."
"I-I Guess…" I considered Kota as a friend when we first met in Shanford. But once he made that promise to me in his room, I seemingly found myself attached to him. And more recently, I got put under Tera's charm spell where I guess I showed my true feelings to him. Just thinking about it makes me so…
"Err..That is so embarrassing! uh, oops." I realized I blurted that out and I proceeded to cover my mouth, which caused kale to twirl around and look at me.
"What the-Pfft Hah! You're blushing like hell! Haha!" Kale laughed as I tried to cover my face.
"Shut up!" I tried kicking Kale in his shin, but he stepped back fast enough to avoid it.
"Haha, alright. Alright, I'm sorry. Let's just head for the Farming district!" Kale gave a couple of last laughs before turning around and walking to the Farming district.
"…Damn it.." I mumbled to myself, following him once again.
After some time, we finally got to the farming district. Here there were some large farming plots for multiple vegetables and even plots focused on fruits. Each section of these large rectangles had people who would come and pick them out when they were ready. Some of the crops I recognized like apples and even potatoes. But I didn't really bother with these since I really didn't care for them. Kale was explaining this to me. I'm sure Kota would be more interested in all this than me. Actually, I wonder if Kota had finished his entrance exam at the university?
Once we passed the crops, we headed towards one of the stables. It was a large wooden building that was two stories. It was a red colored building with the outlines being white.
Walking up to the large door, we heard a commotion on the inside.
"How much you got?" One of the voices asked.
"Oh I got the whole thing, haha!" Another one spoke, they had a much deeper voice.
"No shit, must've been a easy clean up."
"Pfft, all cause of this.."
Kale slowly creaked the door open, peeking inside. I got underneath him to look inside as well.
There was a group of people, four people to be exact. All of them were not human, one of them had ears of a cat and another a reptilian looking face. The last two we saw were the ones in front, a humanoid horse was one of them. He had the face of a horse, but it seemed he had the body of a human which looked quite strong. His mane a black color as his skin pattern was brown. The other person was another Cat person. The horseman was holding the same exact vial we saw at the Owner's shop, only now it was filled with mana.
"There we go, I think we caught them…" Kale murmured. "I thought it'd take longer, but it seems like we got them."
"What do you think he needs the mana for?"
Kale scratched his chin, thinking. "Maybe he concentrated the mana in a way that would affect physical strength?"
"Sounds like something Kota or Tera could possibly know about?"
"Maybe tera, I'm not sure of Kota. I don't think he even knows about enchanting bodies with magic."
"How do you know this?" I asked.
"Tera. When she usually isn't harassing me."
"Ah."
"Hey, who's creeping through the doors?!" The horseman said. He must've noticed our small chat as he ran right up to the door.
"Lilith, Move!" Kale grabbed me and stepped to the left as the door blew open, the horseman kicking it a shocking far distance. Kale backstepped a couple of feet away from the hybrid man, holding me by my cloak.
"Well if it isn't the king's very own Sheriff, Kale. They can't hire anymore of those damn guards to watch the kingdom, so they can only afford one?" Then the Horseman flexed his arms and legs, almost inviting a fight.
"Oh yeah, well if it isn't….you? Robbing shops for what? Some quick rubees? Guess the Brego aren't doing that well in this kingdom." Kale gently pushed me to the side, standing a little taller now.
"Only because you fuckers keep sending us hybrids to the outside of the kingdom, we got family out there that need food."
"Maybe you'd be able to stay if you didn't cause so much trouble. Look, I'm taking you in. King Lucian will figure out what to do with you."
"Fuck your king." The horseman then readied for a charge. He started to breathe heavily as a faint blue glow surrounded him.
"Lilith, stay back. He's cloaking himself in mana. Do not interfere." Kale pulled out his left sword from its holster, positioned himself into his Fire king styler stance.
I stood idly off the side when I noticed the other people inside the stable walking outside. They looked ready to fight as well.
Kale looked at them and then me. "You know what? Lilith, let's use this as a training session. A live training session!" He pointed at the three other people. "Now we'll learn about taking multiple people!"
Yes! I get the fight!
I pulled out my short sword from my holster, crouching down into my own Fire king Style stance. From what I learned from kale, the only thing that matters in Fire king style is raw power and brute force. The stance only is a preference for the user. In this position, I felt comfortable as I was smaller and flexible than kale.
"Heh, looks like this job ain't so bad." Kale said, before he basically glided towards the horseman, starting his fight.
I stood still as the other three people walked around me.
"Little girl wants to fight? Haha, alright boys, take it easy with her." One of them said.
"Hehe, she's kinda cute though. How bout we rough her up and take her?" Another said.
Gross. I thought. Anyone that takes kids is wrong. Me and Kota have been in that situation already. And I don't want to be in another one.
Ok, Lilith. Let's put Kale's training into use, shall we?
A/N- Damn. Elden ring kicking my ass. Once again would iterate Al that from next week, it'll be a "upload when I can" schedule. I'll try my best to keep uploading…but it's elden ring, so I will playing until I finally break.