NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 4: Night attack
While the receptionist wrote down what he could he suddenly remembered something.
"Ah, I forgot to ask, pardon me miss, but will you be staying in this city temporarily or permanently?"
"temporarily"
"do you have any experience with combat? or have you been a former or currently an adventurer?"
Blade thought for a moment before answering, remembering her experience, she opened her mouth.
"A little"
"And are you active or retired from the combat life?"
".... active"
"Thank you, apologies but the city will need to know who can fight on their own for safety reasons" Though the reasons are somewhat vague, Blade ignored the reasons entirely.
After he was done writing on the paper, he retrieved a ring from a box and placed it on top of the paper.
Magically, the ring slowly revealed carved markings on its surface.
The marking showed a towering knight overlooking a city along the ring.
"Done. Wear this at all times, this will be your identity, and you will be recognized as a citizen of Broad Meadow, congratulations!" The receptionist grabbed a handful of confetti and threw it in the air, glitter fell on her head.
"Oh, if you're wondering what the marking means, a human means you are a citizen without combat experience.
"A knight means you are an active combatant who can accept assignment from the city that involves hunting monsters and can freely enter and exit the city without needing protection"
"As for a sleeping dragon, it means the adventurer has retired to a city, but can still go out without needing permission from the guards at the gate, but if a city you're currently residing is in danger you are required to take action to protect it"
Receiving the ring, the blade placed it on her right middle hand.
"Is that all?"
"Yup, you're free to explore the city"
Blade left without a second thought, leaving with a glitter trail that fell from her head.
"Shoot, I need to clean that later" The receptionist regretted bringing his confetti glitter to work.
"AHLAD!" A shout from his boss in the back made him shudder.
"Y-Y-Yes b-boss" Ahlad slowly turned around to see a buffed cat-kin wearing a formal uniform approaching him.
She looked at Ahlad with burning eyes as Ahlad slowly accepted his fate.
A loud girlish scream could be heard resonating around the city coming from the administration guild.
'Hungry' Blade thought to herself.
~~
In the market district, a silver-haired figure gracefully explored the city, her most striking features were her fox ears and tails and the blindfold that covered her eyes.
Even with her sight covered she moved between obstacles and avoided colliding with any people.
But, people didn't seem to be curious about it, they had heard tales of meteors being cast down at will and priests channeling the power of god to regrow limbs.
A girl seeing through fabric doesn't cross the line within common sense.
Exploring the town, Blade searched around to find a place where food is served, guided by her acute sense of smell she ended up in the market district.
Many vendors advertise their products, attracting customers to buy their food or other products.
'hmm?' Her nose twitched a little as if attracted by a certain smell.
Following the smell, Blade made it to a food vendor who was selling grilled fish skewered with a stick.
In her past life, she did try fish before but most were mostly undercooked fish, leaving them with a fishy aftertaste.
"Ah little lady, you want some grilled fish, only 10 copper a piece, it will be the best stick of fish you will ever eat I guarantee that" The vendor gleefully advertised.
"One serving" Blade gave the vendor one silver coin and in exchange 90 copper and 1 stick of grilled fish.
'delicious' Though she doesn't show it, her stomach was hungry after not receiving food for 12 hours.
The original owner of this body was starved by the bandits who had captured her, only feeding her molded bread as the food of the day.
Being a fox-kin she was somewhat carnivore and only liked to eat meat, though fox-kin can eat plants, they prefer not to.
Extending her divine sense to an astronomical amount, she saw the sun was about to set and a wave of drowsiness overcame her.
She remembered mortals need rest to stay active, a way for the body to restore energy though a very primitive one.
One way for travelers to get some sleep is inns which settlements provide in exchange for money.
Looking around she saw an inn close by.
'drowsy dean' The letters at the sign overhead read.
Entering the room, there was a black-haired man, roughly in his twenties sitting behind a counter reading a book with his legs up on the counter.
"Welcome, would you like a room to stay?" After saying so, the man finally averted his vivid emerald-colored eyes from the book to meet hers.
"Oh, a rare sight to see indeed, what can I get for you, little fox lady" The man put down the book and stood up with a friendly face.
'Odd' She felt an anonymous aura coming from the man but felt he was a little threat to her, so she brushed it off.
"A room for 5 days," Blade thought a little about how many days she would spend here before deciding on five days.
"That would be 25 copper"
Dropping 25 copper to the counter, the man counted each one before handing her a wooden key and pointing to the stairs beside him.
"Room 10," He said with a friendly smile.
Blade headed to the stairs and as she ascended she heard the man talk once more.
"Careful to avoid the eyes of gold, they are quite possessive when they see something they like" After saying so, the man sat back down and continued reading his book, albeit with a smile stuck to his face.
Entering the room, she saw it was a very basic furnished room, with only a bed, table, and chair beside a window.
Locking the door behind her, she unwraps her blindfold revealing the hollowed eyes.
Setting the blindfold aside to the table, she lay on the bed and wrapped herself in a blanket.
"How.. peculiar"
She wondered about the situation, after self-destructing due to boredom, she somehow possessed this mortal's body.
Yet the thought of suicide did not appear again, maybe the fact of surviving the destruction of souls has given up the thoughts of killing herself again.
Or maybe it's the feeling of curiosity, the fact of returning to mortal hood, living a mortal life, it's a new enjoyment, one she had forgotten the sensation of.
Then a faint smile appeared on her face, the thought amused her as she fell into the embrace of mortal rest.
~Night~
Two shadows appeared on the window of a fox-kin's room.
"That's the girl?" A husky muscular voice came from one shadow.
"Yes," A feminine voice from the other shadow.
"Sigh, I'm sorry girl but you caught the attention of a noble, you're just unlucky you caught the eyes of one of them" A tint of pity appeared on the man's face behind the veiled mask.
"Unfortunate indeed, she's only a venerable little fox lady who came to my inn" A cheerful voice came behind them.
Both of them immediately became alarmed as they didn't recognize the voice, and created distance from the source of the voice.
"Aww, am I that scary, I'm not going to eat you you know rawr~" the innkeeper gestured in a monster pose with a cheerful glee, still wearing the same clothes he had when he met Blade.
"Who are you" The woman asked, they barely could sense his presence if none at all, it wasn't until he was behind them they noticed.
"Well, I'm the innkeeper of this place, and you just so happened to disturb one of my customers" A carefree air hung around him, yet both of them felt it would be dangerous to fight him in a head-to-head combat.
"Listen, if you hand her over to us, we won't disturb you any longer" The man tried to negotiate.
"Oh no no no no, how could I, Kanski abandon a sincere customer, whom already paid, listen here pal, if you want to start a business, you gotta EARN customer's trust and they will come back for more, that's how you do business kids, sheesh do you people not learn a thing about common sense!"
Not wanting to hear any more of his blabbering both of them rushed at him simultaneously.
Both trusted the Kanski's vital spot but as if it was an illusion, the man disappeared from their sight.
"Looking for me?" A voice came behind them, not wasting a beat, both slashed behind them.
"Oop!" The innkeeping keeping his charming smile, bent his spine back dodging the daggers by a hair's breadth.
"Now, now where's the politeness of introducing myself when I'm talking to a stranger, dear me" Kanski placed his hands on the ground and spun his legs performing a windmill kick, knocking their daggers from their hands.
"As you know, my name is Kanski, my full name is Kanski Bleash" Catching both of the flying daggers, Kanski brandished them to both of them.
"And my middle name is 'death'"
Both the kidnappers drew another dagger from their pocket and went on the offensive once more.
With the experience of being partners for a long time, they knew each other's thoughts without effort.
Their strikes were fluid, easily connecting one to another smoothly, yet Kanski effortlessly dodged them or parried their daggers with his.
But after a short exchange of strikes, one of Kanski's daggers flew out of his hand after parrying one of their strikes.
Seeing the opportunity the man recklessly stabs at Kanski's defenseless heart.
The woman, seeing a silver glint below the man's sleeve, screamed at him to stop but it was too late.
"Fool ya!" A hidden dagger appeared below his sleeve and parried the man's desperate strike stabbing the man's heart and ending his life in an instant.
"NOOOOOOO" The woman's eyes became bloodshot and crazily swung at Kanski but the frantic swinging became easier to dodge.
But after a while it stopped she felt a bleeding pain, looking down she saw a dagger embedded in her heart, a precise throw from Kanski.
"Oh, you can call me the heartbreaker by how dashingly AWESOME I dodged and of course breaking hearts" Kanski flicked his hair in style but suddenly remembered something.
"Ah right! My middle name is 'weath' not 'death' dear me, how can I misplace one letter, you're such a dummy Kanski" The innkeeper playfully knocked his head.
"Now, how do I clean this up, Sigh, I really don't wanna, but it would cause me more trouble tomorrow, I miss my janitor"
Then Kanski painstakingly cleaned up the whole place, to the blood, corpse, even the footprints and the bent branch where they observed Blade from.