by Virlyce
“Darkness, take heed, show me the path to my enemy.” If helping her see the traps didn’t work, at least I can show her the direction to avoid. And she’s running on it. Great. “Lucia, avoid the black path.”
“You mean the green one? Turn it off; it’s interfering with my footprints.”
I have no idea what Lucia is talking about. Why would her footprints be affected by my path? But I’ll listen to her since I have to put on a good impression. Sure, Teacher said he’ll appear if Lucia killed me, but how does that help me? I’d be dead. It’s better not to agitate Lucia further.
“So you finally realized?” a gruff voice asked. It was the teacher with the suit, tie, and briefcase. He was floating in the air with hundreds of fireballs, wind blades, and icicles revolving around his body, a display that would make even a manticore hesitate. “I just wanted to ask you a few simple questions; why did you have to run off and attract the attention of the predator? I see it hasn’t chosen to chase you.”
Lucia stopped running and stared up at the demon in the sky. She took in a deep breath and opened her mouth to shout. Was it going to be a declaration of battle? Lucia cupped her hands around her mouth. “I will give you a hundred and two penises if you let us go!”
The spells revolving around the demon’s body stopped. They started again after two seconds. “I, I think I misheard you there.”
“If you let us go,” Lucia shouted again, slower this time, “I will give you a hundred and two penises.”
The demon opened his mouth before shutting it. He opened it, raised an eyebrow, then stopped and closed it again. He scratched his head while Lucia glared at him with her hands on her hips. “Why don’t you just answer my questions?” he asked. “If they’re what I want to hear, I won’t need any … compensation at all.”
Lucia tilted her head. “I can keep my penises?”
“Yes, yes, all the penises shall be kept by you,” the demon said. “Do you know what happened to my students? There were five of them, and they chose a mission to hunt down a manticore in the nearby area. I haven’t heard from them in a while, so I decided to track them down, and what do you know? At the end of the trail was a squirrel and a little girl.”
“Oh…,” Lucia said with a nod. “Yeah, they’re dead. Sorry. Can’t help you. There was a … what was it called, Ilya? A corpse lover?”
“Corpse stalker.”
“Right. There was a corpse stalker eating them when we found them. But it saw me and ran away.”
“Is that so?” the demon asked and rubbed his chin. “And the manticore? I saw signs of a struggle.”
“It was already gone when we got there.” Lucia nodded twice. “Any more questions?”
“Why did you run when you sensed my presence?”
“Because my tail stiffened.”
“…Pardon?”
“Because my tail stiffened,” Lucia said again, louder this time.
“Last question. What’s the name of the demon sticking to your back?”
I spoke up this time. “My name is Ilya Pentorn. Daughter of Duke Pentorn.”
The spells floating around the demon’s body stopped and disappeared. “Very well,” the demon said. “Thank you for your time. If you go to the base the academy has set up in the mountains, you can use my name, Bartholomew Shinx, to gain access to our systems. Pass a good word to your father for me, will you?”
“Thank you, Sir Shinx,” I said, keeping my head level like my father taught me to in his etiquette lessons. “Which way is the base?”
“It’s east of here, about three mountains away.” Bartholomew smiled at me and adjusted his tie. “Do you need to be escorted?”
“Nope. We’re good,” Lucia said. “Thanks.”
“Ms. Pentorn?” Bartholomew asked, ignoring Lucia’s glare.
“As my companion has said, we won’t be needing your assistance. I appreciate the offer.”
Bartholomew nodded. “Then this is farewell.”
***
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit jealous of Ilya. She can drop her father’s name and even a seventh-circle magician will respect her. How is that even fair? It’s not like she’s her father, sheesh. Duke Pentorn…., that sounds like a really high position of nobility. I’m pretty sure it is. The first noble I was sold to was a baron. I wonder how different their statures are.
Anyways, I’ve decided to head east towards the base that the demon was talking about. The main reason being my interspacial ring ran out of space to hold anymore valuables. Like penises. Also, it’s taking me a lot longer to absorb this beast core than expected, and I feel like I’ve reached a wall in my Unrelenting Path of Slaughter. Usually, when I kill things with the path on, I’d get a rush of excitement. But after always having the path on, the excitement’s faded and following the path does nothing. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to breakthrough from a spirit warrior to a divine warrior. I’ll just ask Durandal when he wakes up, which should be really, really, really soon. Please.
On the way to the base—I’ve already crossed two mountains and halfway through a third—I’ve killed a total of thirty-three divine beasts, twenty-four of which dropped cores. That’s a lot more than the usual core rate! But during that whole time, the manticore beast core still hadn’t finished absorbing. Even sparring daily with Ilya doesn’t speed up the rate—probably because Ilya doesn’t present any challenge at all. The sparring’s mostly payback for setting my tail on fire, but she doesn’t know that.
Speaking of beasts…, that one looks awfully familiar. “Oh, look, it’s a corpse lover!”
“Corpse stalker,” Ilya said. I’m not sure when it happened, but Ilya’s been riding on my back more often than not. It’s because she refuses to consume any more bones to restore her mana to maintain her spells to keep up with me. Well, that just means more for me!
“These corpse stalkers follow strong beasts, right? I wonder what this one’s following.” Ah, it’s running away. How did it notice me? I think their sense of smell is stronger than mine. I have a few of their cores, but I can’t absorb them until this manticore’s is done digesting. Stupid divine beasts.
“Are you going to hunt another divine beast?” Ilya asked. Why does she sound so tired—no, that’s not the right word. Helpless?
“Of course. I need to get stronger.” Maybe if I kill whatever the corpse stalker was following, I’ll breakthrough. I doubt it though. I shouldn’t have fed Puppers to the manticore; he still hasn’t reappeared yet. He’d probably have an idea or two on how to become a divine warrior.
I circulated my qi to activate the Unrelenting Path of Slaughter. The red footprints showed me the way to the beast ahead. I wonder how that works. Can it be subconscious scents, sounds, or markings on the ground? Wait a minute…. Wait one gosh darn minute.
“Lucia? Why’d—”
“Shut up. I’m thinking.” I’ve had the Unrelenting Path of Slaughter active more often than not due to Puppers’ advice of live, breathe, and sleep the path. It’s always consuming a little bit of my qi every second it’s active, but the bones of strength refill it without an issue. Wasn’t the first time I used the path like a guide? It told me what to do and how to follow it. Well, it didn’t tell me, more like forcibly took control of my body until I listened. Then it slowly gave me freedom until it became like a navigation tool, which I’ve been using a lot. Maybe, the next step is to follow the Unrelenting Path of Slaughter without actually having it activated? Wouldn’t having it be active passively be the real meaning of living, breathing, and sleeping the path? Then my next step is to figure out how the path figures out where creatures are, where their weaknesses are, what mana lo—
“Lucia.”
Didn’t I tell her to stop bothering me? I have to figure out—
“Lucia!”
I’m going to throw her away if this isn’t important! “What!?”
“Beast!”
Oh. I was so lost in thought I didn’t even notice. “Unrel
enting Path of Slaughter: Breaking Blade!” Ah, I forgot to turn off the Unrelenting Path of Slaughter to try to figure out the giant snake’s weakness on my own.
“You killed an imugi in a single hit…,” Ilya said and climbed off my back.
Why does she sound so surprised? “Wasn’t it just too weak?”
“Oh, no, it was already weakened,” Ilya said and pointed at the gashes all along the beast’s body. “See?”
“Hey! Step away from our prey! It’s dangerous…. You killed it?” A group of demons wearing robes emblazoned with three A’s, the Arcane Arts Academy’s symbol, appeared from behind the imugi.
Oh, sweet, the imugi had a beast core. I’ll pretend it didn’t have one if anyone asks. Ilya’s good at talking, I’m sure she’s distracting them.
“Sorry about that,” Ilya said. “My companion wasn’t paying attention and killed it on accident. We would’ve left it alone if we knew you were chasing after it.”
The leader of the students stared at Ilya. “No, it was our fault for letting it get away. But do you mind if we keep the body? We need it as proof.”
“That’s not an issue,” Ilya said with a nod before looking at me. “Right?”
“That depends; is it male?”
“Male?” the leader asked. “No, it’s a female. Why?”
“Never mind, you can have it.” Ilya and I have left over a dozen divine beast corpses lying around mainly because we ran out of space in our interspacial rings. And Ilya has seven of them! Seven! For the record, I have three. The ring I got from the Briarwood envoy and the two earrings I conveniently found on a dying student. Of course, I hid them with the ring just in case the well-dressed demon teacher appears again and notices me wearing his deceased student’s jewelry.
“Thank you,” the leader said. He glanced at Ilya. “Are you a student of the academy?”
“No,” Ilya said, “but I’m an acquaintance of Bartholomew Shinx.”
“Teacher Shinx?” the leader asked. His eyes widened—from fear, I think. I have to admit that teacher was pretty scary. He even made my tail stiff. “I see. Were you heading to the base? We can escort you if you’d like.”
Everyone gives Ilya face. How come I don’t get any? It’s not fair.
***
I’m impressed. Bartholomew Shinx, his name can get me anywhere. How does a seventh-circle magician hold so much sway over this community? Unless he’s an eighth-circle magician, that would explain it, but I don’t think he is. No one’s even questioned my relationship with Mr. Shinx: they didn’t ask for proof, they didn’t ask how I knew him, they didn’t even harass Lucia when I said she was with me. Demons don’t take too kindly to beastkin.
The Arcane Arts Academy’s base is well-guarded. I know, earlier, I thought it’d be impossible to set up a town inside of the desolate mountains, but I’ve been proven wrong. There’s hundreds of spell arrays outside of the walls, and I think the dense mana hanging over the area dissuades beasts from coming. But there are still guards on the walls even with the many formations laying around. Most of them are at the sixth circle though; I only saw one seventh.
The walls are simple, made of earth and camouflaged with vines and trees. There are also corpses of dead beasts laying around in specific ways. There’s a dead elephant-like creature hanging from a tree, mimicking the prey of a divine shadow leopard. As long as beasts think stronger beasts live here, then they wouldn’t advance. Lucia was a bit nervous about entering this place as well, saying the territorial markings were unsettling.
The interior of the base is set up like a small section of the capital. There are buildings surrounding a plaza that has a teleportation array set up in the center. Stalls line the array where leaving students can sell their unused consumables and arriving students can buy useful items. Lucia said she wanted to hold off on selling our stuff until right before we left. She didn’t want to be surrounded by hundreds of demons who knew she had a fortune on her. I say our stuff, but really, it should all be Lucia’s. She just didn’t have enough space to carry all the corpses of the beasts she’s killed. I thought seven interspacial rings would be enough, but who knew it’d be too little?
After the group of students we were traveling with brought us here, they went to their commission area, and we tagged along. The academy has a nice system set up. They exchange spell books as rewards for handing in beast corpses. The beast corpses are used as materials to train alchemists, engravers, chefs, and necromancers who give their products to the school. These products, potions, bones, and meals, are also put up as rewards for killing beasts or accomplishing commissions. It’s a very self-sufficient economy that Lucia and I will be able to take part in because of Mr. Shinx. But I don’t know how useful Lucia will find this area; the academy is centered on creating magicians after all. A martial artist like her won’t get as much use out of it compared to someone like me.
“I want to take a hot bath,” Lucia said. She was staring fixedly at a sign that said lodgings. It was for the students who hadn’t booked their rooms in advance or visiting teachers. “I want a fluffy bed to sleep in too. I want to eat barbeque and drink beer.” Her tail twitched from side to side and she turned her gaze on me. Her face was akin to that of a divine beast’s. She pointed at the building.
“Okay. Let’s go.” Lucia made all the decisions, but I had to help her. All the demons we’ve encountered so far completely ignored her and focused their attentions on me instead. I’ve managed to deescalate the situation in every instance, but it’s only a matter of time before Lucia’s temper explodes and an incident occurs.
“Hello,” a feminine voice greeted us when we entered the building. “New student? You look awfully young. May I see your I.D.?”
“I’m not a student,” I said, “but I’m an acquaintance of Bartholomew Shinx.”
“Oh,” the woman at the counter said, bringing her hand to her mouth. “Teacher Shinx, is it? I understand. Will he be staying with you two as well?”
“He won’t,” I said. At least, I don’t think he will. He seemed like a very busy person with his briefcase and all.
The woman nodded. “Usually you’d have to pay with your contribution points, but considering you don’t have any, I’ll put the tab on Teacher Shinx’s account,” she said. “Would a regular room for two be sufficient?”
“VIP!” Lucia shouted.
The teacher glanced at Lucia, then turned her gaze back onto me.
I resisted the urge to scratch the itch that appeared on my neck, and I nodded. “We’ll take a VIP room.”
“Not a VIP room,” Lucia said and placed her hands on the counter while leaning forward. “The VIP room. The best one you have.” She glared at the unsettled woman with her tail twitching like it was smacking away flies. “It better have a hot bath.”
The woman smiled at Lucia while taking a step back. “The luxury suite does have a bath. It also has access to the private roof with a swimming pool and grill. The—”
“We’ll take it!” Lucia said. She turned her gaze onto me, and I involuntarily gulped.
“I’d like to book the luxury suite then,” I said to the woman. “Does Mr. Shinx have enough contribution points to afford it?”
“That depends on how many nights you’re staying,” the woman said. “Teacher Shinx has enough contribution points to book the room for a week.”
“Then we’ll stay for a week!” Lucia said.
It seemed like I had to tell my father about Mr. Shinx. If I used up all his contribution points and didn’t do anything in return for him..., terrible rumors would start about the Pentorn family. Who would want to help me out in the future if that were to occur? “Yes, we’ll book the room, but it’s possible we might leave in less than a week.”
“Impossible!” Lucia said, shaking her head.
Sorry, Mr. Shinx. Your sacrifice is appreciated.
***
Hot water! Fluffy towels! Clean clothes! The most gosh darn comfortable mattress I’ve ever re
sted on! Well, it’s like the second mattress I’ve ever tried before, but I’m sure it’s incomparable to others. It’s like I’m lying down on a cloud—ah, if only Durandal were here, then I could light those scented candles, kick Ilya out of the room, put on some nice music, and have my way with him. …Of course, that means beating him in a fair fight. I didn’t get to win enough before he fell asleep!
“Lucia, um, are we really going to stay here for a week?”
Of course! I need to rest! It’s been way, way too long since I’ve had any time to destress. “Mhm.” Ah, I can splay all my limbs and not leave the boundaries of the bed. This is great.
“Don’t you feel a little bad for Mr. Shinx? His students’ deaths were directly related to you, and now you’re abusing his trust in me.”
“That’s your problem, not mine.” One day, everyone will have to give me face. People will be able to say, I know Lucia Fluffytail, and they’ll be treated as well as Ilya is when she calls upon Bartholomew’s name. Mm, that’s a good goal.
“But, Lucia, what if he gets mad?”
“Then you kowtow to him and apologize. Throw in some dukes and other noble sounding titles too.” Sheesh, Ilya has so much power because of her father, but she doesn’t abuse it at all. What’s wrong with her? If my dad could make people tremble in their boots just by hearing his name, you can bet that I’d wear a sign, blatantly saying I was his daughter, on my forehead.
I heard Ilya sigh. She muttered, “We could’ve gotten a normal room. Could’ve lived modestly. Stayed in good favor with everyone.”
I lifted my head and looked towards the side. Ilya was drawing circles on her mattress with her finger while sitting with her knees against her chest. She looked so sad. Was I a little too excessive? May—