After telling me the details of my mission, Lady Prelia left the dojo alongside her entourage of guards.
Sensei Aegi followed afterwards. It seemed as though he was no longer comfortable being alone with me in a room. I wondered how that would affect my training.
Shortly after, I left the dojo and began to make my way through the hallways of the Dojin temple.
The base was peaceful as the night was upon us. The footsteps of my sandals against the wooden floor beneath me echoed against the walls.
Within the Dojin clan, there were hundreds of members. Those who were training to become a demon hunter lived inside the main temple, whilst others lived in the surrounding houses built around it.
My room was close to the dojo, so I wasted no time in going inside to prepare for my mission.
I could have waited until daytime, but I had no desire to.
Most young men and women would have family and friends to say goodbye to, before setting out on a mission.
But I had nobody to say goodbye to.
I felt no way about it. After all, things had been like this for years. I simply did not stand out within the clan.
However, something told me that by the end of tomorrow, my name might earn some notoriety. As soon as word spread of my awakening.
Inside my room, I put away my wooden training sword and withdrew my real sword from its stand.
It was a katana handed down to me from my father. Since he was only a C-Rank, the blade was weak and made from simple steel.
However, it held sentiment to me. It was all I had in memory of him.
After packing my pouch and donning my black robes, I headed out of my room and towards the temple exit.
The moon was high in the clouds, casting its faint glow upon the world of Vestus.
As I walked through the buildings and farmlands surrounding the temple, I took in the beauty of the emptiness.
Few settlers of the Dojin clan walked the pathways of our base, but most were in their homes, spending time with family or sleeping.
Once I reached the exit of our land, I came to the pathway that would lead to the village of my mission.
Usually, the path would be travelled on horseback. However, I had a better idea in mind.
This is a great opportunity to familiarise myself with my movement ability.
I focused on my system, honing in on the specific ability I had yet to try.
I had no idea whether it would work the way I wanted it to, but I'd rather find that out now instead of mid-battle with a Demon.
___
[Sakura Step: Cover a distance of up to twenty meters with just one step.]
___
Once the ability was activated, it felt as though my body became weightless.
I lifted my right leg from the ground, preparing to step forward.
At that moment, everything around me seemed to slow down. Before my foot touched the ground, my vision blurred.
In an instant, I was no longer where I once was.
The wind rushed against me, causing my robes and pink hair to sway behind me. Petals of unseen cherry blossoms drifted through the air in my wake, before slowly fading from existence.
My body had been thrown forward as though I had been shot from a bowstring.
As the technique ended, I was thrown off balance and forced to take a few regular steps to slow my momentum.
After I came to a stop, I swivelled my head to look behind me. The ability had worked.
I stood roughly twenty meters ahead of where I started. Most impressively, my body hardly felt drained.
This... This is incredible.
If I can just learn to control the distance and momentum, then its limits could be endless.
I tested the ability again, launching myself further down the pathway in the blink of an eye. However, this time, the momentum was too difficult to handle, causing me to stumble to the ground.
After pushing myself to my feet and dusting off my robes, I prepared myself to try again.
---
A journey that should have taken an hours on foot was shortened to only ten minutes.
I had started getting the hang of the Sakura step, now able to use the ability without stumbling from the momentum.
I still struggled to determine the distance that I would travel during each step, but most times, I ended up within a few meters from where I wished to land.
Now, with my body only slightly drained, I stood at the entrance of the village.
A wooden sign was stuck in the grass next to the pathway.
'Village of the Moon'
As expected, the village was extremely quiet.
The villagers had retired for the days, locking themselves inside of their houses. Not just because it was nighttime, but also because of the threat that lingered at the centre of their village.
I could feel it's presence now. Although there was no way for me to be certain whether or not it was a demon, I was sure that I had never felt anything so dark lurking within the Dojin base.
Have the Villagers really been sleeping here whilst this dark presence loomed over them?
It wasn't fair, but that did not matter.
I would ensure that they were safe by the end of the night.
Drawing my sword from its sheathe, I slowly began to make my way through the Village of the Moon.
Despite having awakened my rank, I couldn't deny the fears that resided inside of my body. I had never seen a demon in my life, only drawings inside scrolls and books or hearing descriptions from demon hunters.
Facing one in person was a different story.
As I walked, I noticed heads peeking through the windows of wooden houses.
At first, they must have wondered who dared to walk through a demon-infested village at night time.
However, my pink hair and the sword in my hand told them that I was a member of the Dojin clan.
In their eyes, a saviour had come.