Chapter 23: The Meaning

During the day, the people of Aris Village usually went to the mines to gather minerals. It was how they had been making a living for generations now, and it had become their way of life.

However, in the last few weeks, they had no choice but to switch to selling vegetables. Being novices in farming, the people weren’t able to compete in the market, resulting in low sales and income.

The reason? Thunder Hounds.

These monsters had infested the mines the villagers had, keeping any human from setting foot in the area.

Once the Thunder Hounds have completed breeding, they would then set out to kill and eat any living creature on sight, except for their own.

The weaker the target, the better. That was why humans were the main course of their menu.

Shina Venilon jumped to the side with explosive speed, successfully evading a thunderbolt flying towards her face. The trees behind her got annihilated by this destructive force.

She faced gigantic wolves covered in black fur with yellow stripes around the neck and the end of their tails. The sharp horn on their head could shoot out a deadly thunderbolt after charging up.

Several arrows were still stuck to their flesh, but even after emptying her quiver of arrows, Shina wasn’t able to do the monsters in.

She had no choice but to fight them head on.

One mistake and Shina would most probably die. She had to complete this quest as soon as she could before she either lost her focus or gassed out.

One after another, the glowing spears of electricity flew towards the masked assassin, wreaking havoc in the silent forest. Using all the skills she’d managed to learn in the academy, Shina dodged them by a hair’s breadth while carefully getting closer to her targets.

When they were one leap apart, a sharp blade popped out of the gear on Shina’s forearm, acting as an extension of her limb. With her hands, she held a pair of daggers.

Shina spun with violent speed, making her attack unreadable for the savage beasts. Their flesh was slashed by the extended blade.

This blade retracted inside her suit as she switched to a defensive stance. Before a crude set of fangs chomped her head off her neck, she dashed away from the monster’s range.

’Again!’

Shina accelerated towards the enemies before they could charge up their horns. While they were trying to do so, they had to stop their movements and raise their heads high to collect elemental energy necessary for the thunderous attack. This was Shina’s cue to slice their heads off.

With one swift motion, Shina spun with her arms extended vertically. Since her daggers weren’t big enough to sever their necks, she sliced them twice by spinning like a saw blade. The hound’s head plopped to the ground as pools of blood gushed out of its neck.

The one she killed happened to be the biggest one. It might have been their alpha. The other monsters began to waver before turning around and retreating to the cave.

Shina threw one dagger towards them, hitting and destroying one of the monsters’ legs. She immediately followed up with a stab to the brain with the blade that popped out of her suit.

Suddenly, the monsters became the ones being hunted. She chased them inside the dark cave, exterminating them one by one like a skilled adventurer.

Blood spilled to the rocky ground and the monsters dropped dead one by one. After a few minutes of battle, Shina emerged victorious, wiping out the entire monster nest.

Or not. After she killed all of the monsters, she heard cries from the dark corner of the cave.

The cubs were wailing about and howling with their undeveloped vocal cords. Shina stepped closer and saw the little monsters search for their mother just like normal puppies.

Their horns were barely popping out and at first glance, they didn’t seem like monsters at all. They were just babies ignorant about this world.

It would be unfair for them to die without even making a choice for their lives. It was already unfair that they had been born as monsters. Shina had questioned the nature of life and its injustice many times. Why was the world created this way? Why did there have to be predators and preys? Why did there have to be winners and losers? Why can’t everyone just be equals?

For someone to survive, another had to die. For someone to be happy, another had to suffer. For someone to win, another had to lose. It just didn’t make sense to her.

Shina paused and looked at the cubs. It was the same conundrum she had faced after coming to Selense all over again.

She didn’t kill that cub, so there was no way she’d be able to kill these ones. Shina was well aware that it was disgustingly hypocritical of her to show mercy to these cubs when she just killed their parents. But she had already made a choice to not take their lives.

They would die of starvation or maybe other monsters would eat them. In the end, they will be dead. Despite knowing that, Shina just couldn’t muster the strength to raise her blade against these defenseless cubs.

With a heavy heart, she collected the loot from the quest before walking out of the cave and going back to the city.

After arriving at the adventurer’s guild of Selense Kingdom, she had shown the collected horns of the Thunder Hounds to the receptionist.

The receptionist looked at the masked adventurer in front of her with disbelieving eyes before accepting the monster loot. Their head was covered with a hood. Draped in a dark leather robe and a versatile suit, the identity of this adventurer remained a mystery.

“Y—You have completed the quest. Please take a seat while we go fetch your reward, Shadowblade.”

Shina nodded and then sat down at one of the vacant tables.

It had been about a week since she had left the capital. The night of her escape, she wandered aimlessly before deciding to settle in the Selense Kingdom temporarily. She told herself that after gathering enough information, she would travel farther east.

That plan was now close to abolition due to the new friend she’d found.

She heard footsteps coming her way, pulling her out of her thoughts. Looking up, Shina saw three young adventurers.

“You’re Shadowblade, aren’t you? I heard you don’t have a party yet. Do you wanna join us?” the brash-looking young man offered with a bright smile of optimism.

Shina had disguised herself as this mysterious adventurer — Shadowblade. In this place, no one knew where she came from, or if she was a man or a woman. Since travelers and adventures would often come and go in this kingdom, no one questioned her sudden appearance either.

The masked assassin shook her head and slightly raised a hand, indicating her humble declination.

Moments later, the receptionist called her name — her new name, to be precise.

Shina turned to the young adventurers and then did a curt bow before turning and walking up to the counter.

“Shadowblade, here’s your reward.”

Without uttering a word, she took the seven pieces of hexagon-shaped paper. She then left the adventurer’s guild and went straight to the market.

***

In the meat market of Selense, the people watched in bewilderment as a hooded, masked adventurer bought suspiciously large amounts of meat. They wondered where all this food went within the masked person’s petite body.

This was always the hardest part of Shina’s day: appearing like a complete glutton. Despite the shame, she carried the heavy bag of fresh meat and walked back home as the sun had begun to set.

Currently, what she called home was an abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere. But at least she had no neighbors that could potentially discover her real identity.

Upon entering the dark warehouse, she heard the loud, deep cooing that always greeted her everyday. She put the bag of meat down and a red-scaled, winged reptile with two dull spiraling horns suddenly emerged from the shadows. It was about as big as a goat at the moment, but give it a few hundred years, and this warehouse would be nowhere near enough space for it to hide!

Removing her hood and mask, Shina let her gorgeous silver hair fall to her back. She crouched down and smiled warmly, meeting the little dragon’s enthusiastic welcoming.

“I’m home, Remi.”

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