Kaly stared at the naked girl, she observed the small breasts, then the horns, and finally the tail, she approached and carefully opened the girl's mouth, and she noticed two fangs. She woke Darius and explained that there was a naked girl on the floor, he didn't understand, Kaly took his right hand and placed it on the girl's body, she applied mana and a mark appeared on her back.
"This girl is Zenith, it's common for some demonic beasts to have human form, but some are not intelligent." Kaly said as she woke the girl up.
"Let me sleep."
"She can talk," Kaly was surprised.
"What's your name?" Darius asked the girl.
"I'm Zenith, you gave me that name."
"She's smart."
"What are we going to do with her?"
"We'll take care of her, we can't abandon her."
"You're right, but we'll have to explain that the cat has turned into a little girl."
Kaly took a ring out of her bag, she put it on Zenith's finger and the horns and tail disappeared, she looked like a human girl, her hair was violet and her eyes had two colors, blue and violet. They drew a bit of attention, but not like the horns and tail.
"I'll try to explain the situation to your parents. I hope they understand."
Kaly went into Lucian's office; he was reading some letters. Kaly spent a few minutes explaining the whole situation and how this was normal and could bring benefits to Darius, it took her a while to convince Lucian, he accepted but didn't seem very convinced.
When she spoke to Orphelia she didn't even need convincing, Orphelia liked the idea of having a new daughter, so Zenith would stay in the family. Even though she was considered a servant of Darius.
Orphelia put some clothes on the girl and she was presentable. At breakfast, everyone acted normally, but Zenith didn't eat like a human, she ate like a cat, and Orphelia was teaching her how to behave. As well as how cutlery should be used, Zenith imitated other people's movements, Kaly was amazed at how quickly the girl learned.
"We need to leave her with one of the maids," Julian said as he stood up.
"I'll take her," said one of the maids who was clearing the dirty dishes from the table.
They left the girl with her, they were in a carriage with the family crest, near the arena they stopped and got off, there were many people and it would be difficult to park the carriage in front, Lucian didn't mind getting off and walking a few meters.
They didn't enter through the common entrance, they went to a part where the nobles were entering. There was a room overlooking the arena, the places were marked with coats of arms, six chairs were stored. One for each member of the family and for Kaly, when she finished the duel.
Darius said goodbye to her and wished her luck, the first duel would be her against Baron Windstrider. Count Frostmourne entered the room and greeted Julian, then made an unfunny joke and talked about his sons' instructors fighting. The Count was confident and made more nonsense jokes about how strong and skilled Baron Windstrider was.
Afterwards they chatted about random topics, Lucian was furious, but he wouldn't argue with a Count, even if he was a Viscount, he was still lower in the hierarchy.
Before the fight started, Kaly was walking in the waiting room, she felt some energy, but didn't know where it came from, after a while she used invisibility magic and entered another room, there the Baron was taking a potion she knew, it increased all statuses for a few minutes.
The rules don't forbid the use of anything that can improve status, so she ignored it.
After a few minutes both were called, they were standing facing each other. A woman was speaking into a device that made her voice heard throughout the arena. She introduced the two competitors and after a few seconds she started the duel.
In less than a second the Baron was on the wall, he was bleeding and spitting blood, Kaly made a single attack, which was so fast that there was no way the Baron could dodge it.
"Kalynrae is the winner," the woman paused, she couldn't believe it. "From what I've heard here, that's the record for the shortest time in the arena. I don't know if Baron Windstrider is happy or sad to break that record."
Julian was laughing out loud, louder than he would have.
"So this is the Baron who brags so much, even my son can last longer with her."
The Count became more furious, he left the room without saying a word.
"You were a bit rude, but I agree. That man is very weak. Darius lasted a few minutes and even lost an arm and managed to get up. In other words, your son is stronger than Frostmourne's daughter's teacher," Amanda said as she glanced discreetly at the Count's wife, who remained in the room.
After a few minutes Kaly entered the room.
"I took it a bit hard, but I saw him taking a status-boosting potion and thought he would at least defend himself or dodge the attack. But he was such a bad joke, how can someone like him pass this test?"
"If you work for a noble, you can be nominated and go to the tournament without passing the tests."
"I didn't know, it would be much quicker. But that explains why he's here, I've already used this spell against Darius, he resisted. But the Baron took the status-boosting potion, he must be fooling the family who hired him, because he should resist, even without a potion, unless he's really very weak and takes potions to hide it."
"That's possible," Julian said.
"But it doesn't concern us, but it's not that difficult to deceive, there are potions that last up to days. But it depends on the skill of those who create them."
She sat down and waited for the next fight, the Count's wife listened in silence, she was angry, but at the same time she was curious about her being tricked.
The next fight was between two mages from Sarcosia, the country of mages, at least in quantity, is the place with the most people with the mage class on the entire continent.
The two were skilled and fast, they seemed to anticipate each other's attacks, perhaps they had trained together, Kaly thought.
The fight took a few minutes until the red-haired woman beat the white-haired one. The spell was a fire spell, Kaly watched, she thought it was strong, but she would do well, as it was fireproof.
The third fight was with an elderly mage and a muscular one. The elderly mage used a staff and cutting winds came out of it, the muscular man had his right arm cut off in less than a minute of fighting. But he managed to win when he used earth magic and caused the ground to move and trap the old man.
The fourth fight was again between mages from Sarcosia, they were as skilled as the other two, but their movements seemed more precise and one didn't seem to anticipate the other's move, the mage who won was short and young, he seemed weak, but he was quick when casting fire spells.
After the eighth fight she was tired of watching, so she and Darius left the room and went into town, Julian and Orphelia didn't object and Darius was also bored in the room.
They went to the Guild, where they picked up four D-rank missions. But they wouldn't do any, because they already had monsters stored in Kaly's item bag, there they were preserved and there was no way of knowing that they had been killed a few days ago. Then they went to a dwarf blacksmith, where Kaly placed a bar of mythril on the bench and asked him to analyze it, it was indeed mythril. She took out ten bars and asked him to make her some armor.
"That metal won't fit your whole body."
"I know, that's why I want it to cover only the vital parts."
"Breastplate, helmet, and shoulder pad?"
"I don't like shoulder pads, just a breastplate and helmet, the metal that's left over I'll make into a dagger and I want black snake leather for the handle."
"That's difficult and expensive."
Kaly took out a black snake from her bag of items.
"Remove the leather and keep the meat," she said as she took some gold coins from the bag. "Here's 50 gold coins, I think that's more than enough, considering I'm giving away the materials."
The dwarf stared and his eyes were shining. "Yes, you're right. But there'll still be some metal left over, do you want another item?"
"You can keep the rest. But I want to know something, considering these bars, how much would you pay for one?"
He looked at it and then put it on a scale, and it came to 5,000 imperial units. The equivalent of 6.5 kg.
"I can pay up to 500 gold coins, but my profit from reselling would be small."
"I can sell it for 400 gold coins if you buy in quantity," she paused and thought. "If you buy from me in 10 bar units, I can leave it at that price, what do you say?"
"I'd love to do business with you, I'm Shiva."