Darkness still reigned when Kary awoke the next day, her desire to enjoy the day to its maximum being fully heard by her brain, perhaps because of the novelty of such thought. Still, it was undeniable that it was still a little too early to get out of bed, even if there was no need to sleep more,, the girl still wanted to stay in bed for a while longer. Just five more minutes, she said to herself, rolling around the big, soft bed the Asteria had given her. From the narrowly open window, she looked at the bright stars far, far above the ground, farther than anyone in this planet could ever hope to reach, a dimension so removed from the mortal realm that it carried with it a form of serene divinity that forced all but the most insensitive to stare in admiration, even if only a single time throughout their lifespan. Infinite little white dots peppering the dark sky with their faint light, tauting the astronomers with their daily spectacle. Compared to the night sky Kary knew form Earth, bland and bored, obfuscated by the artificial creations of mankind, this one felt like it had a grand tale to tell, a story shown only through the teeny tiny points of white contrasting with the darkness of the night, leaving its meaning fully on the hands of those apt to interpret it.

  After a tenuous but short fight with the mattress, Kary got up from bed, silently walking with her bare feet towards the window, opening it fully in order to appreciate the beauty of Mistress Night. No matter how she looked at it, it was a marvelous thing to witness, even after being directly under her embrace during the better portion of the time she had spent on this world. In the nights she failed to sleep with the others, she would look at the sky, wondering what it was that that went on those far away lands. Maybe that was where the gods resided, overlooking this and many other planets from the comforts of burning balls of plasma, their indifference broken only when one thing or another happened to caught her interest. She wondered if Limo, the mad god through which she had been thrown into this wild planet, was out there, somewhere, watching her, enjoying her struggles, her efforts to live a better life, or if he had already grown tired of her, leaving her to her fate like an old toy forgotten beneath the bed, where only the monsters born out of children’s imagination would be able to play with it. Were all the gods as unhinged as that voiceless entity she had met postmortem, living for their own entertainment without the slightest regard for life? Were there rules they had to follow, self-imposed restrictions so as to maintain some semblance of balance, like in those old myths from Earth, or were they free to run wild and do whatever they pleased to their hearts content, be it spreading love and kindness or propagating death and disease? How did religion even look like in this world? Was it similar to how it was in her previous world, or had it manifested in some other way?

  Those were questions that only Asteria, and perhaps not even her, would be able to answer, so to ponder about them under the fading moonlight for any longer would only serve to waste time, precious time that she could be using to getting ready for another day. Yes, she had justified her unwillingness to be productive on the overly early hour, but there were only so many ways she could distract herself without actually going back to sleep, something that she really didn’t want to do, at least not on the very day her brain had decided to wake her up on the time she had asked it beforehand. It just seemed to be such a waste, to wake up super early, feeling well-rested and perfectly well, with no semblance of sleepiness in sight, and still wanting to go back to sleep, instead of putting those early hours to good use. After watching the slow rise of the sun for a few more minutes, Kary eventually resigned herself, boldly walking towards the door, as if she hadn’t been considering the idea of just turning around and falling face-first into the soft mattress, the pale light shining on the room giving way to a blotch of darkness that seemed to extend to every crevice past the threshold of her room. All the courage she had just gathered in order to get started with her day was seemingly gone, vanishing before her very eyes, disappearing into the artificial darkness of the mansion’s entrails, a stark contrast with the waning moonlight shining from behind her. Although she could see a bit in both directions of the hallway, the dark was quick to consume all, both the patterns on the wall and the structures themselves morphing into an amorphous wall of nothingness not only a few steps in.

  Now, to clarify, Kary wouldn’t consider herself a scaredy-cat, not by a long shot. She had gotten used to staying up until late at night, the only time when she could enjoy herself without the fear of being found out by her mother, the only time when she could do whatever she wanted, without the need to follow rules. The night has been her friend for as long as she could remember, its quiet yet comforting solitude always there to hear her sorrows, her pains, the perfect listener for her shy venting, one who had never cared to respond or properly interact with her, but also one who had always been there to catch her on the moments she allowed her mask to slip off. She felt no problem walking around at night, though there was little reason for her to go beyond the closed door of her room, the whimsical silence of the dead of the night felt peaceful, almost serene. And yet, there she was, cowering on the sight of a dark hallway, hands trembling as she looked from one side to the other, her idea of an ideal night disfigured into something alien, as if she was experiencing something she shouldn’t have, something that would leave her better off if she had never known of its existence. Should she have woken up just a little later, just late enough that the only three servants of the house had already started the usual morning routine, she wouldn’t be there, eyes narrowed, looking into the darkness, trying to spot something in the distance she couldn’t quite point her finger at, trying to block the gibberish whispers that reached down her ears, shivers descending through her spine with the speed of nervous synapses, her entire figure immobile, staring into the abyss as if it was about to swallow her whole. Petrifying would be the word she would later use to describe the brief, yet infinitely lengthy moment, the lifespan of an entire galaxy spent afraid of taking a single step forward, terrified of the idea the she could end up swallowed whole by the inanimate house .

  This dread continued up until the moment she heard th distant echoes of footsteps traveling down the hallway, the distance making the sound faint and distorted, the noise eerie and unnatural, making Kary promptly walk right back into her room and close the door behind her. Logically, she knew that it was most probably one of the other three people living in the house, but when faced with guttural, primal fear, logic was more often than not thrown out the window without a second thought, the instinctual desire for survival overwriting all previous instructions. Tucked once more in her bed, windows firmly closed, that was how Marta found Kary almost an hour later, sprawled beneath the mattress, drool falling on the pillow from her serene face, almost as if that moment had never happened in the first place, and her brain had never woken her up that early in the morning, even though the girl vividly remembered everything that had transpired, her silly little head refusing to let her forget that nightmare fuel anytime soon. All her previous excitement was gone, replaced instead with a moderate amount of paranoia and a severe distaste for her own mind, who insisted on tricking her on every opportunity it had. So centered she was on the dawn happenstance that she almost failed to notice a suspicious lack of a certain person eating beside her, as she had done on the day before. Although she could hear Marta walking from place to place, leaving everything pristine and free of any pesky clumps of dust, as well as the snipping of Gunther’s gardening scissors on the background, Asteria, the lady of the house, was nowhere to be seen. Even though the aforementioned dread of the empty void of the house had long since passed, the pit in her stomach still remained, a disgusting sensation that threatened to eat her whole, a heavy nausea that prevented the girl from enjoying the delicious breakfast prepared for her.

  Although she hadn’t eaten much, she was feeling stuffed to the point where she might burst if she forced anything more down her throat, despite her adventures the day before surely deserving a bigger-than-usual meal. Perhaps she had eaten too much the night before, and she simply couldn’t remember it at all, or she simply wasn’t as tired as she had imagined., or it might even be because that body of hers didn’t really had the necessity of eating much. After all she had a skill that allowed her to convert sunlight into direct energy, a weird peculiarity probably originated from her bizarre species. Yes, it must have been that, right? She was just exaggerating a non-issue, putting too much thought into something that was perfectly normal for her body to do. Still, even with that information, the creeping uneasiness that plagued her since being awoken for a second time failed to leave her, the heavy shackles binding her to some unforeseen future refusing to even budge under her pressure. It just felt too wrong for it to be chalked up to a simple misunderstanding, the feeling of a toxic sludge piling up on her stomach too dramatic for her to ignore. With a sigh, she got up from her chair, leaving behind a half-eaten meal she had yet to taste the flavor of, her bare feet moving her in the direction she had last heard Marta, most probably the only person other than Asteria who would know if something was amiss. Ideally, she would have wanted to speak with the knight directly, but, as she was nowhere to be found, she decided to rely on her closest aide instead, hoping that she would deliver nothing but good news.

  And thus, the girl who had once dreamed of getting up and ready to adventure early in the morning proceeded to play one of, if not the most bizarre version of tag this world has ever known, with one of the parties not even knowing they were participation, and the other simply unable to catch up to the erratic pattern with which the former party moved throughout the rooms and hallways, leaving in its wake nothing except shiny and well-cared for surfaces. Time passed by quickly, with Kary’s desire to go adventuring getting fainter and fainter with each and every step she took inside the mansion, its sheer size enough to make finding anyone inside it a complete nightmare. It was as if a rat was desperately trying to catch with an hyperactive dog that had way too much space for it to run around. Eventually, though, after an almost cartoonish chase sequence, she was finally able to run into the maid, who immediately noticed the approaching girl, even giving her a smile and a wave, as if she hadn’t been eluding the girl for the better part of an hour. It had been frustrating and tiring and infuriating, but Kary had finally been able to get to the overzealous maid, who even now was tirelessly cleaning up small statues and other decorations on the hallways. Careful so as to not mess anything the maid had already cleaned, the girl cautiously addressed her, curiosity gradually shaving away the apprehension out of her voice.

  “Umm… Marta… do you happen to know where Asteria is right now?”

  “Hmm…? Oh… mistress? She left right after you went to sleep, saying something like ‘the nobles have been worried about the current conflict with the Empire, even thought there hasn’t been any development in these past twenty years’. Then she began to rant and complain about the nobles, so I stopped listening for the better of my sanity. After that she asked me to take care of you and promptly left the estate, carrying with her that chunky and clunky armor in her body and her sword strapped to her waist.”

  “Ehh…? She left so soon after getting back? What in the world is happening on the front lines for her to be called to suddenly?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know. If I knew, I would’ve already told you, but, whatever the reason was, mistress seemed to want to keep it for herself. Sorry for not heaving anything better to tell you.”

  “Nah, it’s fine. If anything, it’s good that I at least know now where she went. If the front lines are as static as you said they were, then I can only hope that means she will be back soon.”

  “Yeah, let’s hope for her safe return.” With a smile, the maid once again returned to her job, humming a happy tune that intensely contrasted with the nausea Kary was still feeling. If anything, talking with Marta had only made that feeling worse, the pit in her stomach only deepening, the vile liquid piling up in her body only increasing in quantity and viscosity, it’s thick consistency weighting her down more than she would’ve liked. She felt sick, whatever there was inside of her burning her very being, tearing her apart from the inside, its elusive nature and lack of information about it frustrating the girl suffering from it greatly. There shouldn’t be anything in what she had eaten on the previous day that could cause such a reaction, especially with how considerate the chef had been so far. Whatever it was, it made sure to make its presence known in the most obnoxious way possible, tauting her from within her own body, gnawing at her flesh, drinking the acid that was supposed to have long since digested it, proclaiming itself the victor of the digestive struggle for all those who were willing to hear. It was annoying and it was painful and it only looked like it would get worse, but there was very little Kary could do to neutralize something she had no idea about what it was, meaning that she could only move forward, hoping that things wouldn’t devolve into something more worrisome. Still, she decided to at least ask the guild clerk about it once she got there, even though she didn’t want to get her hopes up. After all, the adventurers guild was essentially a place where people went to request and take on various kinds of quests, so there should be at least something pertaining abnormal effects.

  After quickly waving her goodbyes to Marta, the girl darted off to the opposite direction, once again plunging into the labyrinthine house, her visit to the guild once again delayed by her own inability of navigating through the hallways. After a grueling battle with her own ineptitude, she did manage to find the main doors, located in a grand, spacious room from where one could go to and from pretty much anywhere within the manor. It was honestly a miracle that she hadn’t stumbled upon it earlier, considering her frantic search for the exit, going from hallway to hallway, scratching her head as she made loops around the same sets of rooms, completely failing to get anything done through the better part of the morning, despite her previous desire of getting to work as early as possible. As she walked through the grass patch right outside the mansion, she had to seriously resist the urge to lay down in fetal position and scream in frustration, this time not even at whatever was going on inside her body, just at her utter inability to understand directions and walk through what should have been an straightforward path. Still, with clear eyes on the verge of tears, she made her way through the busy streets, walking down the road in full adventurer attire, cautiously looking around for any abnormality. Although she had already chalked up the bizarre feeling in her stomach to something more physical and actually threatening to her health, there was still a little bit of paranoia left over that completely took over her mind, perhaps because of the brief moment of terror she had gone through just a few hours prior, or perhaps because of the thick air of melancholy and distress looming over the inhabitants of the city. Street merchants who just the day before were boldly advertising their products throughout every corner of the city seemed ready to close down shop for the day as soon as the need arrived, the young folk going about their job on the main plaza, seemed to have suddenly disappeared, leaving behind a cacophony of objects with no relation or cohesion, from crude instruments trampled clothing.

  Although she would have preferred a more gentle way through which her system told her that something was wrong, it was undeniable that her gut feeling had been right all along. There was something happening, and everyone in the city seemed to know about it except for her, which was frustrating for sure, especially because it seemed as if she could have been in the known should she have left the manor just a little bit early, though even that theory started to fall apart once she noticed that there were barely any people other than those who were stuck there for the day, like the aforementioned merchants, who were just sitting behind their booths, silently, wary eyes looking for any plausible reason for them to go home with their carts, carpets, or wherever they put their merchandise in. The silence was disquieting, eerie in its apparent illogicality. With quick steps, she approached the guild, its hallways, once filled with adventurers, both young and old, bloody and pristine, men and women, now laid empty, devoid of any life other than the clerks diligently sitting at their desks, perhaps with the knowledge that whatever it was that was happening wouldn’t affect them in any significant way, only serving to make Kary more suspicious of the current situation. Approaching the same man with whom she had received her second quest just the day before, her seemed to be even more annoyed than before, his expression of complete and utter boredom a surprisingly common sight among the folks who would be usually be answering question after question, carefully directing the adventurers towards understanding. It was a taxing job, even though it required little mechanical movement, and the sudden lack of costumers was sure felt throughout the entirety of the employee roster. Sure, there were some adventurers occasionally coming in and out of the building, some hurriedly requesting quests that would take them out of the city, others coming back to report their quest completion, only to have the most recent knew told to them, upon which quite a few would immediately leave, probably to spend whatever time they had with their family or with their buddies.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Hello, welcome to the guild, Kary. What could I do for you in this… well, not so lovely day?” the clerk, seemingly remaining the girl’s name, addressed her as soon as she got close to the counter, the weird girl the only thing preventing him from simply slumping in his chair and traveling to the faraway land of dreams.

  “Umm… hello again. I… I just wanted to know what the heck is happening right now. There’s almost nobody in the streets, and even this place has been almost completely abandoned. Surely, something must have been going on, right? I had some… complications today, so I got here quite late, meaning I have yet to hear anything about anything at all. Please… could you please enlighten me?”

  “Oh… you poor soul. I do hope you don’t have any male family member, though I find it hard to believe. With a face like yours, you must come from a pretty well-off family, am I right? So if you don’t have a brother yet, I assure you it wasn’t for a lack of trying.” From beside the man currently tending to Kary, a high-pitched, coarse voice could be heard, the profile of the woman hidden by the dividers between the clerks.

  “Oi, Claire, don’t say that! At least let Mark explain it first before traumatizing the girl!” Even more to the left, a deep voice sounded, a fierce discussion between him and Claire sparkling with such an ease that one would have to wonder about the shared history of those two. That, however, was of very little importance to Kary in this moment, who, now having obtained quite a few clues, could already roughly guess what had happened, though the reason such a reaction had been warranted was still a mystery to her. Shutting her mouth, she simply allowed Mark to enlighten her on his boring monotone voice that didn’t seem to change regardless of the occasion.

  “Well, since you seem to be severely uninformed, let’s start from the basics, okay? So, do you at least know the duties of a knight in this country?”

  “I’d say it is to fight monsters and enemy armies, in order to keep the peace and integrity of the territory.”

  “Such a cute, idealist idea. Heh. If they existed in order to protect the people, do you think the people would be holed up in their houses, enjoying their last moments with their entire family before the men are deported to their almost certain deaths? No, right? Knights exist in order to protect the rich and powerful, and nothing else. They only act on their behalf, and only when something important to them is being threatened enough for them to temporarily change the status quo. Hah… politics. Something I’ll never quite understand. Regardless of that, the thing is, or at least that’s what I heard, that things were finally moving at the front lines between out humble kingdom and the neighboring Empire, after over a decade of stagnation, where a lot of conscripted knights were allowed to return home to their families. Well, guess what? All men who aren’t working on things essential to the maintenance of the city has been ordered to conscript, even those who have already had their time in the army. Despite having so many well-trained people still available for them to use, they instead prefer to use us as meat shields in order to get what? One, two acres of land at most. There are few people in this world that I hate more than these people sitting in their towers, sipping their wines and ordering the common folks to go die for them. It’s infuriating, and there’s nothing I can do about it. Nobody wants to go, nobody will benefit from this, but the king still deemed it necessary for some reason beyond my understanding. I just hope they stay safe out there when the knights inevitably come knocking for new recruits.” Contrary to what she had experienced thus far, however, Mark went on a wild tirade that would be sure to land him on the most privileged spot in an execution ceremony, right beside the executor, should anyone in power, those people he had been incessantly badmouthing for the past few minutes, decided to randomly show up. The flat voice he normally used was instead substituted by an infatuated one, rage seeping through his every word, the despair on his intonation present throughout it all. Calling the sudden outburst a surprise would be to downplay it a lot, the surprise apparently so apparent in Kary’s face that another employee had to intervene in Mark’s behalf, leaving the man to calm himself on the back of the room.

  “I’m sorry about his sudden outburst. I swear he is normally the most composed out of everyone here, and, if you don’t believe me, you can ask anyone else the same thing and their answers will be the exact same as mine. It’s just… well, the man has a little brother who just turned fifteen, and… yeah, you can see where this is going, right? Hah… It’s a fucked up world out there, that’s for sure. My only blessing on this life has been deciding to work here. Otherwise… well… I guess I would already be preparing myself mentally for the inevitable.”

  “Ah… I’m sorry to hear that… Now it makes… kind of sense?”

  “Is this a question?”

  “No, I’m just… confused. Why did things begin moving again? Why is the kingdom so desperate to have more manpower that it threatens its own society in such a way? Why now of all times?” She had been wanting to be an adventurer ever since she was granted the opportunity of a new life in a world devoid of everything she once knew, so to have such a bombshell dropped on her on her supposedly second day of adventuring his her particularly hard. She wasn’t worried about Asteria, who was also heading to the frontier or whatever conflict was going on there, far away from the eyes of the populace, its significance so little that the knight hadn’t even bothered to point it out to her in the time they had spent together.

  Yes, of course she was sorry for all the people who would have to say goodbye to their loved ones for what would hopefully not be the last time, and she was disgusted by the actions of the State, even if the one she had known had been much, much worse with its blatant abuse of laws and societal rules in order to benefit themselves. At least in this world they were able to justify themselves with a seemingly plausible reason, something many, many politicians in her old world miserably failed to do, and yet still managed to either rise in the hierarchy or retain their power, despite the utter nonsense that spewed out of their mouths. What she was worried the most about, however, was herself and her dream. Would she be able to work normally on the day that would come, or would the knights stationed in the capital deem her worthy of a foot soldier and promptly send her to the front lines? With no one here to defend her, chances were she would be forced to fight either way, the difference being against whom, with the best strategy probably being to lay low for a while, something she absolutely couldn’t do. There were very few things in this world she was willing to die in order to protect, and one of them was her dream of exploring the world, something that had already been postponed enough by the lengthy trip back to the capital and the impromptu party organized right after. There was no time to waste, fro she needed to get stronger, sharper, more capable, someone worthy of having learned from Asteria herself. Maybe she was scared that all her work would be for naught if she stopped now, right on the beginning of her journey, or maybe she just believed that there was simply no way they would force her to fight, a woman with a particularly sickly appearance. At the very least, she hoped the men known for their chivalry would never stoop so low.

  After a few more exchanges with very helpful clerks, she eventually managed to get herself another quest that would help her rise from a pathetic F-rank into something that would of a little more use to society. After leaving the guild into the equally deserted outside world, she remembered that she had, indeed, another reason to be there other than questioning them and getting another quest. As her stomach rumbled and grumbled, she could feel… well, something stirring inside her, that previous pain almost completely gone, leaving behind only the discomfort, the nausea that she had been feeling ever since the dawn of day and that had only gotten worse as the hours went by. With the slightest tinge of red in her cheeks, she once again went back inside, heading this time to a different counter, noticing that Mark still seemed to be a bit out of it, his sleepy appearance from when she entered replaced fully by a serious, worried and tense man, much too worried about his personal life to care for anything in the outside world. Asking them about the abnormality, however, wielded no result, with the best explanation being that it must be some kind of parasite that had installed itself in her stomach, making out of it it’s perfect home, an answer that left Kary wholly unsatisfied, as the deemed cause was something that she had already ruled out before. Still, with little to no evidence on what it could possibly be, she had no better option than simply move on with her day, hoping that nothing would come out of it, and that, if it did, it would be not too bad.

  With a heart heavy with worries and a stomach heavy with something else, she departed through the ghost city in, looking for a lost cat that had gone missing somewhere in the shopping district, to the west of the plaza. Such a quest being left to the adventurers still on ‘trial period’ was certainly odd, as it would entail that the frequency with which the poor animal got lost was high enough that someone had decided to make it a recurring quest, designated to test the level of blossoming adventurers. After walking through the empty streets for a little while, it eventually dawned on her how absolutely ridiculous such a quest was, to look for a lost pet in the middle of the largest city in a country. Even if there were seldom any people walking around, with everyone being at their homes and all that, it still seemed to be a ludicrous thing to ask for someone who had yet to prove themselves worthy of being an adventurer. It also didn’t help that her sense of direction wasn’t just non-existent, it was straight up in the negatives, making even the most well-lit and well-organized neighborhoods a pain to navigate through, to the point where she eventually didn’t know where she was anymore, her feet only moving forward in the vain hopes that it would get her back into the wider and centermost streets. As she was walking, though, she heard the faint noise of people talking, something that had become so rare that she couldn’t help but get closer in order to get a better idea on what was being said. In the tip of her toes, she carefully made her way through the street she was in, soon arriving at an intersection, where she simply listened on the other side of the corner.

  “But… are you really okay with all this? With everything we are doing? Knowing full well what will happen?”

  “Neither your nor my duty require us to question the orders that come from above. We simply execute them as efficiently as possible. Any personal feeling should be set aside until the mission is done, and, as you know well, we are far from done here.”

  “I know! I know that I am supposed to just accept everything that comes my way, but this…! This is too much!”

  “Do you question the reasoning of the nobility?”

  “No! I would never! But indiscriminate slaughter isn’t the solution, and you know this. I know you know this. Please. Think about it a little. Doesn’t your heart ache when you think about all the horrible things you have done or will be required to do in the future as a member of the knights? Don’t you feel any empathy, anything at all? Or are you —” The pretty much one-sided conversation ended almost as soon as Kary had started to listen, the sharp metallic sound of a sword leaving its scabbard shaking the very air around it, before the sound of cutting through wind was heard, followed right after by a guttural scream of pain, after which a dull thud echoed through the alley. Petrifying. There was no other world that could so aptly and succinctly describe the situation. Terrified, Kary listened to the last bit of conversation before tunning away as fast as she could, heart beating fast. Thinking back, she failed to remember what exactly it was that had been said, but her mind remembered fully well the scorn and mocking tone with which the second man addressed his dying companion, the contempt in his voice truly deplorable. He went on and on and on with his monologue, his armor clinking and clanking as he walked around the deserted street, his cold, almost annoyed voice echoing far and wide, letting everyone in a close radius know what the knights actually were, not that most didn’t already know. From her little corner, the only thing she saw was the warm, dark red blood maling its way across the crevices on the ground, the river of ready slowly spreading as the knight responsible for it seemed like he just couldn't care less. Although she wanted to stay longer, hear the disgusting man up to the completion of his speech for no one, Kary’s stomach was burning, the pain that she had thought had gone away once again back in full force, this time in a much more abrupt way than before, making her buckle in pain as soon as the pain hit. She could feel something nasty inside her body, moving from one side to the other as she walked as fast as she could on the opposite direction of the mad knight, the liquid sound making itself heard over every other sound reaching her ears, letting her know that time was up, and whatever was that inside her stomach was ready to get out, much to her despair.

  In an undisclosed alleyway far away from everyone, should someone approach silently from behind at this hour, one might find a girl puking her brains out in the dirt, letting out a black liquid that directly contrasted with her fair skin that seemed to receive no interference from the sun rays. Although she had no idea what exactly it was, she did understand that it was wrong and disgusting and that something had been indeed quite wrong with her. For a few minutes, she stood there, half folded, ready to spew any more of the toxic liquid should it feel the need to. Seeing the sizzling liquid on the ground, she couldn’t help but feel disgusted at herself, at the fact that her body had made that thing, without ever asking if doing such a vile thing was okay in the first place. It hurt her stomach, it burned her throat, and, most of all, it had been nagging at her since she had woken up, sapping away her forces by simply existing, the day one getting worse than it already was with its presence in her body. It felt unnecessary, something made purely out of spite by some god on the spot in order to create a more entertaining situation, a failed joke that hadn’t managed to even leave the ground, much less land with the grace with which good jokes should. It made her feel dirty, wrong, in a way that she had never experienced before, and in one that she hoped she would never need to relive ever again. For a few moments, she allowed herself to sink her soul into the sludge, her contundent stare in little helping her comprehending the reprehensible nature of it, only allowing her to truly see the disgusting little details she had failed to notice other first, more superficial view, the pitch black liquid bubbling and sizzling, a faint smoke raising from its top, like some sort or cartoonish-like potion one might see in an old TV show. Watching the hypnotic bubbles forming and popping, the only thing she was left with were more question. Why was this thing inside her? Why was it like that? Was she cursed? Or was that just some weird quirk of her species that had somehow gone under the radar ever since she had arrived in this world?

  Whatever it was, she knew that, should she stay there any longer, it was entirely possible that she would empty the actual contents of her stomach, instead of whatever the heck that on the ground was. Since she would very much like to continue doing her job, going around with an empty stomach wouldn't be particularly beneficial, meaning she probably should get moving before there was nothing more to leave her body. With trembling limbs, she resumed her walking, so rudely interrupted by an internal struggle within the knights, her feet dragging along the ground as her mind was on everything except in the cat se was supposed to be looking for. For the rest of the day she searched, nothing else managing to get her attention quite like that shred of a conversation she had witnessed from afar. Just as the night began to settle, the sun once again going down to rest, she managed to find the black cat she had been looking for, who surprisingly didn't seem to mind getting carried around, even if the person holding it in question needed quite a lit of time in order to get back to the main streets. With her mind still far away, she absent-mindedly received the pittance of money for the quest that had taken her a full day to complete. Although it was swholly unsatisfying, it also got delegated to a lesser place within her mind, the only thing reminding her that she had, indeed, already gotten through the guild being the la k of a black cat in her arms and clinking of bronze coins in her pocket.

  That night, she laid down in her bed, fully awake, wide eyes staring intently at the ceiling, thinking deeply about everything that had happened on that day. It seemed so slow, with nothing at all happening through the better part of it and yet, before she knew it, she was already laying down on her comfy pajamas, ready to say goodbye and until tomorrow to her counciousness. Still, she couldn't bring herself to do it, to allow herself to drift away, as there was simply too much to think about, to many different scenarios to simulate, questions that still lacked any answer. Despite how much she had been able to do today, from an information gathering perspective, it still felt like she had achieved nothing at all, leaving her with more questions than what she had started with. And, worse of all, the nausea that had accompanied her throughout her entire day remained faithfully by her side, watching her, observ8ng quietly, patiently from within her own shadows, just waiting for the disaster to come.