"Thank god I had this on hand." By the river bank the city, Bolhest, was named after, Erina said weakly as she used her hand to caress the small sparrow by her side.
Despite it's appearance, it had the blood of a legendary phoenix in it and though it was unable to bring the dead back to life, it could heal wounds and sicknesses.
"Where did he go?" Erina used a nearby bird to look at the place she fell from but found nothing there.
"Did he just leave like that without even confirming whether his opponent is dead?" Erina said in disbelief before realising her opponent, despite his strength, was just a kid.
"How naive." Her lips curled up into a sneer and she cradles the sparrow in her hand and walked towards the city.
There was a barrier around it but something like that wasn't going to stop Erina.
"Caw! Caw!" Numerous birds flew out of a forest nearby and Erina turned around to find out what the commotion was about.
And she wished she didn't.
...
"Omph, this is quite heavy." I leaked out a sigh as the pressure bore upon me.
There was a certain idea after I saw a martial arts movies.
The person threw some needles into the air and with a flock of his sleeves, the needles flew and pierced his opponents.
It seemed like a useful technique for getting rid of numerous opponents so I perfected my skill in doing it.
I call it...
"Lifebound arts..." I threw the hill I picked up into the air with all the force I could muster.
"... Rock rush!" I jumped even faster than I threw the hill and punched it and nodded in satisfaction as it shattered into pieces ignoring the sound that I generated.
"To palm strike, finger poke!" My arms turned into after images as I slammed the tiny pieces of rock with precise and accurate force and turned the innocent pieces of rock I to deadly projectiles.
Stone rained from the skies and the rhinos resting on the barrier were instantly turned into clouds of blood and flesh as the rock shot into them.
"That should do it." Even I wasn't skilled enough to get all of them but that should have wiped out around eighty to ninety percent of them.
I guess my work here is... Hmm?" I was about to proclaim my victory when I sensed a familiar burst of energy in the city and made my decision and flew towards the city.
...
"Impossible... " Erina couldn't even stand as she witnessed an impossible feat for a human happen right in front of her eyes.
Though it was a small hill about 45 meters in height, it was still impossible to move it with pure physical strength.
"What kind of monster did we take on?" Erina straightened up as she made her decision.
She would escape. Run. The organisation may come after her but she could handle the assassins they sent.
After all...
"They're still human." Erina had already reached the boundary of the forest when she felt a warm liquid trickling down her head.
Her vision faded to black and it was then she realized that she had been killed.
"No... Not like this."
She reached for the sparrow and her hand just clasped it when a projectile shot throw her hands and the sparrow, killing it.
"Who..." A robes figure walked out of the forest with a strange looking tube in his hand
The side of the tube the figure held had its end pointing towards the ground and the other trained on her with smoke rising into the air.
"You know too much for us to let you go."
Those were the final words Erina heard before she made her way to the afterlife.
...
"Why!?" Katarina looked at Rompe and screamed at him as blood from her mouth accompanied it.
"Why? Why, you ask? Because the system of this country is as rotten as hell!" Romper lost his previous demeanor and his face twisted as he spat out with hatred evident in his speech.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm sure a princess like you won't understand. After all, you sit above us all so you never really know what's at your feet. The royalty and nobility you're all so proud of us built on the sacrifices of people like us." Rompe took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself down and sat down on a chair.
"Let me tell you a story."
...
"Once upon a time, there was a boy who longed to work in the mayor's office. The mayor was a kind man who always took trips around town and handed over small bits of candy to the children he met. This boy was one of those children.
I'm order to repay the mayor for his kindness, this boy and his sister worked very hard. And eventually, they managed to pass the exam and begin the glorious work in the mayor's place.
But the darkness of the world ran much more deeper than they imagined.
The boy, high on his success, did not notice the looks the looks his sister was throwing him. It was an SOS, a cry for help. But the boy believed in the front the mayor put up and it wasn't until she committed suicide that he finally realized what was going on.
His sister was being harassed by the mayor during work and her colleagues, jealous off her also bullied her. Her brother worked in another department so there was no one she could turn to.
Little by little, her options narrowed until she was faced with a single path, suicide. That was what the brother found in here diary and rage and fury filled him and he dedicated his all towards getting revenge.
He assembled proof, gathered witnesses and finally, brought the mayor to court but it was all in vain.
The mayor was the third son of a distinguished viscount so in order to preserve the face of the family, the case was deemed invalid and the brother was cast out into the snow."
"Hmm... That's a very interesting story." Katarina nodded and stood up and a pale green light covered her stomach and in seconds, she was as good as new.
"H-how?" Rompe stared dumbfounded at the sight.
"Magic, duh."