It took longer than I thought to find the location that was coming to the screams.
The screams came from a frightened girl who was being attacked by a medium-sized monster, which made more sense than in the previous case.
SLASH.
The cat girl managed to kill him, so I didn't have to intervene.
Her fighting style has evolved a lot, when we get back, I'll do something for her with the stones left over from the house, they seem quite resilient.
"Thank you." Said the frightened girl.
"What are you doing here?" The cat girl asked.
"My father sent me to this location," replied the girl while crying.
"Why?"
"I don't know for sure, from what I understand, my father doesn't want a daughter without talent."
"That's disgusting... And why did you come alone? Didn't your family send someone else?"
"No one came," answered the girl before she started crying again. "They think I'm useless."
"So much suffering..."
She must've been in pain just talking about her family like that. The fact that she decided to come to a place like this and fight alone had to be even worse.
There was no way I could ignore this.
"Let me ask you something. Why would anyone ever think you were useless?"
"Because I can't use magic," the girl answered.
"Do you mean you're incapable of using magic or that you don't know how to?"
"Both," replied the girl while wiping away her tears. "I always wanted to learn how to use magic but my parents wouldn't teach me anything. They said I wasn't good enough."
"And after you tried your best and still couldn't?" I asked.
"Yes, that's right."
"Then there are only two possibilities: Either you never put in the effort needed to learn or someone taught you wrong." said the cat-girl.
"What do you mean?"
"If you're capable of learning, then you should at least try. If you can't learn, then there's nothing more to say."
"I agree, but... If my parents told me not to bother trying, then why would I even bother trying?"
"You could start by reading a book on magic."
"A book...? Where would I find one?"
The girl was completely lost now. She probably had no idea where to look.
"It wasn't to have so many monsters here," the girl said while looking around.
"What did you say?"
"Amaterasu the ice queen..."
Ohhh, there's an ice queen too?
"She's a goddess, a goddess of ice."
"Ice?" I repeated.
"Yes, she controls all things icy."
Wait, so this world has a goddess of ice?! That's absurd!
I'd better leave it as it is, that's one more thing I'm going to have to figure out in time.
"Did your father send you to die?" The cat girl asked.
"Yes."
I poked her to stop touching that.
We won't be able to understand anything with her crying.
"My father abandoned me for being weak, if I wasn't weak, he wouldn't have thrown me here on this land where prisoners are being sent."
"I see..."
"Please help me!"
The girl began sobbing again, and that's when the cat-girl finally realized that I had stopped poking her.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"Didn't you know? This is where the worst criminals in the kingdom are sent," the girl said.
Every day that goes by, I wonder why I haven't moved out of here yet, this is a dump, everyone's sent here to die.
"Master, do you want to avenge this king for throwing garbage at your house?"
"Please don't call her trash like that."
"Don't worry, Master, I'm saying she deserves to be called trash."
"How dare you," the girl shouted.
"If it continues, we have no other choice than kill the king," the cat-girl said, ignoring the shout.
"Why the king?"
"Because he's the one who lets that happen."
"Don't take my father, please!" The girl screamed.
Her father's the king? This is getting more and more complicated.
"Why not, he throws things in my master's house."
"He does?!" I said.
"Well, it's not his fault that he's the king. He does what he thinks is best for the country," the girl explained.
"But he's not thinking at all."
"Is that so?"
"His mind isn't working properly. He has no talent to begin with. All he can do is throw things around."
"Isn't that a bit harsh?" I asked.
"That was a dry land until he arrived," the girl protested.
"We've been here almost a year, if your king is incompetent to the point of not noting such a change, I'm sorry, but he deserves to die," the cat-girl said in a sarcastic tone.
"That's because he's busy with invoking heroes."
"Oh, I get it, it's time to promote yourself."
"Why do you think that?"
"Why else would, I think? Heroes coming from an unknown land with powers given by gods that no one has seen."
"The war with the demonic people broke out again, we have to unite as much force as possible."
"If you would stop slavery and care more about the welfare of the people than the gun industry, perhaps this war wouldn't even have existed."
"If we stopped producing weapons, they would invade."
"So we have to trust some strange teenagers?"
"Your master is a strange teenager; as far as I know, there is nothing about him in my kingdom."
"He lived alone for months, these strangers couldn't live here for two weeks."
"Calm down girls…" I tried to calm the mood since if this continued, it wouldn't end well.
"I'm sorry, Master."
"Sorry too."
"I don't know what's going on in the kingdom, but we won't attack it."
"TSK"
"She popped her tongue, this girl," said the princess with an expression of anger.
"Why do you defend so much a father who has abandoned you or a kingdom that has done nothing to save you?"
"A girl of the breed is proud of cats and yet, strayed from the flock, maybe we are more alike than you think."
The cat girl took a battle position, so I had to stop her, holding her hands.
"STOP BOTH."
My cry had more effect than I expected, for not only the two, but the whole forest was silenced.
"All right, at two, stop taking offense, and we'll see how to move on."
"I have nowhere to go." Said the princess.
"You can settle in any corner of the forest, my master and I will return to our home." said the cat-girl.
They've barely met, and they've hated each other.
"Well, princess, if you'd like, you can accompany us."
"What?" The princess said, surprised.
"And if you don't want, I won't force anything on you."
"No, I-" She began, then she cut herself off. "Yes."
"Then let's start moving."