Blood

It had been almost five months since the start of Shay's training with Chloe, and things were going well. Také familia was now easily making enough money to support their shrine back in the Far East, and Shay was even able to take a bit off the top to help out Maria's place, too. Everyone had been bought new equipment as well, also courtesy of Shay, and were now equipped well enough to reasonably prowl the Upper Levels.

After attaining Level Two, Shay had noticed a slight slowdown in his growth. It had taken him a concentrated four months to Level up the first time, and after another five months Shay was nearing his ceiling again. It was quite early in the morning, but he was already down on the fifth floor of the Dungeon, in a secluded spot that had been determined to be a good place for training. As most other adventurers were just getting out of bed, a boot slammed into Shay's spear from the side knocking it out of his hands. The sparring match came to a pause as Shay went to retrieve his weapon from the rocky wall it was now embedded in. Extraordinary as his status was, even Shay could only shudder at the difference in strength between him and his new teacher.

"Was my technique wrong, or did you just feel like doing that?"

"Meow're not taking this seriously enough. I'm dedicating my valuable time to training you and you're not even using your magic, meow."

"Shouldn't I learn to fight without relying on my magic?"

"We've been over this. Several times. It looks cool, so lemme see it, meow."

As Chloe insisted, Shay could do nothing but sigh. Temperamental as she was, her training had certainly improved his status as promised. Shay also suspected that Chloe herself got more out of the training when he used his magic, since it seemed like her opponent was starting to fight back for real.

During the past five months, Shay had learned a lot about his magic. By arm wrestling Chloe to approximate his strength, he was able to guess that his 'Raijin' spell made him roughly 60% stronger than normal. That was fantastic on its own, but Shay was pretty ambitious. Since the enchantment noticeably improved not only his strength, but also his agility and defense, Shay had a theory that each one of his five basic abilities was being increased by that same 60%. If this was true, and if he had the skill to control his magic freely, Shay could probably focus all of the enchantment into one ability, say Strength, adding a maximum of 300% to that ability. This was the technique Shay had been developing in these most recent training sessions with Chloe. He was nowhere near the guesstimated 300% limit, but he had been able to nearly double the apparent strength of his enchantment so far. Chloe grinned as Shay lit up his enchantment once again, the crackling electricity lighting up the cave around him.

"Raijin."

"Oooh, so cool! That's what I'm talkin' nyabout!"

Let's start with Agility this time.

Focusing his mind as best he could, Shay felt the energy of his magic coursing through the nerves in his legs. It wasn't very creative, but that was the best method he had managed so far for focusing on Agility.

"Ready?"

"Fur sure!"

Shooting forward, throwing up dust and even small chunks of rock as he went, Shay immediately left the ground. This was only natural however, as in order to get enough friction to accelerate forward at that speed, Shay inevitably ended up pushing himself far off the ground. He'd begun running into this issue as soon as he Leveled up actually, and instead of just accelerating slower like a sensible person might've, Shay had recently thought of a way to incorporate it into his style of combat.

Flipping upside down before coming into contact with the ceiling, Shay pushed off violently again. Now on a path to land right in front of his opponent, Shay readied his spear. As Chloe intercepted her speeding bullet of a student, she complimented his apparent insanity.

"Prepawsterous! This is exactly why meow're my best student!"

Chloe deflected her one and only student's lightning fast attack with ease, Shay's spear sticking into the ground as dust flew up around them creating a smokescreen. Now in her preferred situation, Chloe disappeared into the temporary cloud. Shay was considering using the wind from a swipe of his spear to blow away the dust, but he was interrupted by his teacher suddenly appearing behind him. Startled, Shay quickly swung his spear to meet her knife, but to his surprise it passed straight through. The weapon continued through the woman without any resistance and mostly cleared the smokescreen, but it was already too late as Shay felt the tip of Chloe's signature karambit caressing his jugular.

"What the hell was that?...Wait, you have magic!?"

"What self respecting teacher wouldn't go all meowt after seeing such a beautiful display from her favorite student? After showing me that insanity, I just had to respawnd in kind!"

Shay had never used his wild acceleration trick against Chloe before, and she had gotten carried away in her enthusiasm. That was why she revealed her hidden trump card, the illusion magic she had used only a small number of times even in real combat. As Chloe moved her knife away from Shay's throat, he sighed.

"I can't believe I didn't know you had magic… I really thought that would catch you off guard, at least. Ah, dammit, whatever. You got any pointers this time?"

"Sorry to dash your hopes of beating me, meow. Meowr speed was off the charts though, and not just because of that trick! That seemed like a really big improvement in your magic. Mew definitely relied on it too much though, and you would be really easy to purry."

While Shay's enchantment allocation technique was incredibly powerful, it had its fair share of drawbacks. It was designed to shoot a single stat as high as it could go, immediately putting him on a different level in that one aspect. But, since it sacrificed the other four to do this, Shay's status became dreadfully unbalanced. In this most recent match, Shay had sacrificed everything for speed. This meant that as he attacked his perception couldn't really keep up, and his speed was just dragging him around. Chloe seemed to be feeling accomplished, and was smiling proudly at her star pupil.

"Man, you're lucky I was feline charitable when I decided to teach you. Look at how much mew've improved, all free of charge too! Don't rule out paying me back in the future though, I'm really going out of my way to invest in your potential, meow."

"Haha, I really do appreciate it Chloe, seriously. Even if it is a pain getting my ass kicked most mornings."

~

Shay breathed a sigh of contentment while watching the sun begin to set ahead of him. He was escorting Syr back to the Hostess of Fertility after spending the evening with Maria and the orphans. Syr and Chloe had allowed Shay to join in on their routine of visiting the orphanage, and today was one of the few days Chloe had missed out. She apparently owed Mia a favor, and had been held back by her to run some errands. Nothing out of the ordinary had really happened that day, with Shay going to the Dungeon as normal and coming back early to clean himself up before meeting up with Syr and the rest. Even so, Syr was fidgeting noticeably, finally bringing herself to say what was on her mind.

"You know, Shay? Something seems really off right now."

"...? What do you mean?"

"Well, isn't it weird? We haven't seen anyone these past few blocks."

Realizing she was right, Shay became just a little alert. He had been kind of dozing off, his mind drifting to thoughts of Eluria, wondering if he should ever head back. Not that he knew what he'd even do there, at this point. Syr started to get closer, acting like a child afraid of the dark.

"I mean, it's just a few blocks, right? And this part of town isn't exactly bustling at sunset."

"Yeah, but… I don't know. I just can't shake the feeling that we're being watched."

A pub waitress and a barely recognizable third tier? Who would even bother?

As Shay weighed the possibility of having to deal with some stalker on his way home, he found himself thinking Chloe would probably end up teasing them about having such dedicated fans.

—ping!

Out of nowhere, a metallic noise rang out right behind Shay, joined by the sound of a whip cracking and followed by a hard impact on the pavement to his side. Caught without his normal weapons, all he had to defend himself with were a few kunai. He spun around to face his attacker, grabbing a kunai from his leg holster and getting in front of Syr. The sunset behind him, Shay looked up to see his attacker standing atop a run down residential building overlooking the street below.

What the hell!? Eluria's still after me!? And… What just happened?

The attacker, clearly an assassin, was dressed in a black hood and covered half their face with a black cloth. A crossbow bolt was sticking into the ground behind Shay, after seemingly being deflected by something. The assassin wasted no time switching to plan B, unwilling to give his target time to think. Rushing down to street level, the assassin met Shay's kunai with a dagger in a loud clash, the noise of which Shay thought should've certainly drawn some attention.

He's stronger than me?! Ah, of course he is, dumbass! Get it together!

Trying to pull himself together, a flustered Shay jumped back to get some distance. As he did, the assassin gave chase, closing the gap almost immediately and throwing a small knife to keep him off balance. Still midair, he chanted his magic while blocking the incoming throwing knife with his kunai.

"Raijin!"

Landing with Electricity flowing through his body, Shay brought up his hand to see a small graze caused by the attack.

Shit!

He didn't have the time to curse himself as his opponent rained attacks down on him, the wound on his hand slowly becoming more and more discolored. Breaking away by shifting his magic to Agility, Shay decided to move the fight to the rooftops, where he could hopefully find some room to breathe. As the assassin followed him upwards, Shay tried to come up with some kind of strategy.

Okay, my right hand is already starting to go numb, that knife was definitely poisoned. I only have three kunai right now, so I can't—

As his attacker closed the distance yet again, Shay temporarily gave up on increasing his Agility, figuring that since they were on wooden rooftops they would only be able to go a certain speed without breaking their own footing anyway. Shifting instead to Strength, he met the assassin's dagger with a kunai in each hand, crossing them and using the bind to push his opponent away in midair. Apparently surprised by the tenacity of his target, the assassin seemed to switch gears as he landed on a roof across the street. After a few seconds of tension, Shay assessed the battle.

He's just standing there? …Oh. It was decided the moment I got scratched, huh?

Seemingly deciding to wait for the poison to take its course, the assassin watched Shay with cold eyes.

Damn, If only Chloe was here... —? Tch, she'd tease me to no end if she knew I was thinking like that.

As his arm started to go numb, Shay resolved to push the advantage. In their clash earlier, he had noticed that even if his opponent was definitely Level Three, he could be overpowered in Strength if Shay allocated his enchantment properly. It wasn't a whole lot, but he had found at least a small advantage. With the numbness beginning to spread to his shoulder, Shay decided that the only way to make it out of this alive was to end it quickly.

Lightning crackling as he boosted his Agility, Shay leaped as hard as he could, shattering the roof below him and sending him straight at the wide eyed assassin across the street. Barely jumping away in time, the assassin was still in midair while his target crashed horizontally through the dilapidated rooftop below, landing solidly on the next roof over and jumping at him again.

With no escape route, the assassin was forced to take the brunt of the attack. Rapidly switching his enchantment back to Strength, Shay thrust with his right arm, causing his opponent to block with his dagger. In an effort to disarm him, Shay grabbed his opponent's dagger arm with his left hand, stabbing his right kunai into the assassin's wrist and causing him to let out a groan and lose his grip on the weapon.

Not wanting to let up, Shay managed to stab his opponent a few times in the torso before being desperately kicked away. The two landed on their backs, each of them skidding to a stop on the cobblestone of East Main Street. After a kip up, the assassin was back on his feet with another dagger in his hand, holding his side as his blood dribbled onto the ground. Shay got to his feet quickly, not about to lose his momentum, and charged straight for his wounded adversary.

"Waltz of Blood!"

Before he could close the distance, Shay was enveloped in a cloud of red mist, dulling his hearing and clouding his vision.

Shit! Is this magic? No, a curse?

Shay jumped away in a panic as the smoke cleared from his vision as quickly as it had appeared. Landing almost 20 meders away, Shay nearly vomited as he took in the scene before him.

Wh… What is this!?

The cobblestones beneath his feet were red with blood. There were townspeople sprawled out on the ground all around him, their bodies stained and mutilated. In the middle of the street, like some kind of sickening centerpiece, there was a mangled pile of flesh, torn to pieces along with the dress it had once worn.

"...mom?"

This was definitely a curse. It had to be. Shay was seeing an illusion. He knew that.

But… still…!

As Shay's eyes widened in disbelief, a gruff voice boomed behind him.

"I left them to you! How could you fail me!?"

Turning to face the voice of his father, Shay was beginning to lose his will to fight. As his eyes moistened, Shay parried his father's dagger. The former king looked heartbroken as he bled from the stab wounds littering the side of his body.

Dammit… Why this!?

Trading blows in close combat, the resurrected king used only his left hand to fight, allowing Shay to be certain that he was the assassin. As his father backed away, the street was suddenly flooded with Kobolds and Goblins, all moving far faster towards him than their real life counterparts ever could. As they trampled the already mangled bodies of the townspeople, Shay looked inward for a solution.

What the hell do I do!? If he looks like one of the monsters, I won't know about an attack until it hits me! Actually, what's stopping him from using his crossbow while I'm distracted!?

With an unprecedented amount of desperation building, Shay began sporadically sprinting around the roads, rapidly changing his momentum again and again as he dodged imaginary crossbow bolts.

…! What do I do!?

His mind searching desperately for an answer, Shay bounded through the alleys, somehow pouring his enchantment into Defense for the first time out of pure terror. Shay couldn't stop himself from cursing his luck as he ran, wishing that Chloe had joined them today.

Chloe's got sketchy knowledge, right!? What would she do in this situation!?

Desperately thinking back to their training, Shay remembered something.

…my perception couldn't keep up. Is that it? Ah, screw it, It'll have to do! The numbness is spreading pretty far, I don't think I can even use my right arm effectively anymore. I'm really running out of time!

Having somehow made his way to Daedalus Street, Shay stopped abruptly in one of the narrow alleyways, resolving to end things there. Closing his eyes, he forcefully took a deep, calm breath. Guiding his magic into his spine and head, he spread his focus in a full 360 degrees as the illusory monsters bore down on him. With his mind completely clear, Shay paid the monsters no attention, searching instead for a sign of something real.

This was his last ditch effort. Shay had never tried it before, but he did what he felt might raise his Dexterity. Dexterity was the dark horse of Basic Abilities, helping not only with coordination but with perception as well. It was Shay's gamble that raising his perception would somehow allow him to locate his attacker, but in his hurry Shay hadn't even identified how specifically he would do that.

Letting the chips fall as they may, Shay listened to his senses. Now that his eyes were closed, it was quite a bit more peaceful. The ground wasn't rumbling, although Shay could still hear the roars and slashing of the stampeding monsters. Breaking the stillness, Shay felt a kind of —click! feeling coming up through the ground and immediately leaped upward, opening his eyes in pain as a crossbow bolt stuck into his leg. Due to how Shay had placed his feet, he was able to tell that the shot came from in front of him, and sure enough, there was a lone Kobold not stampeding, standing still at the end of the alleyway with its left arm raised.

Still hanging in the air, Shay boosted his Agility once more, fighting through the pain in his leg to rocket forward and bouncing between the walls of the narrow alleyway as they cracked from the impacts. As Shay landed close behind his fleeing target, the red world disappeared, Daedalus street going back to normal as the assassin released his curse to regain his status for the coming confrontation.

Putting everything into Strength, Shay viciously slashed with his left arm as his opponent struggled to defend. The assassin was barely keeping himself afloat, treading water in a sea of desperate violence as Shay madly bore down on him.

Just go down already!

As the two briefly locked weapons, Shay pulled the same stunt he had several times before and changed the target of his enchantment. Bewildered as the arcs of lightning began to jump across their weapons, the assassin felt his muscles tightening as he saw his impending doom. Under the reddening sky, Shay thrust his kunai into the paralyzed man's neck, pulling it out in a vicious slash as blood spilled freely to the ground. The man's body fell in silence as his killer watched on, breathing heavily. After a long pause Shay sighed, dropping his kunai next to the corpse.

~

She had watched the boy make his way from that spot on Daedalus street almost all the way to Central Park before finally collapsing. From a side street, the woman watched as he finally succumbed to the numbness that had spread throughout his body. From the shadow of a small house, a beautiful soprano voice filled the air.

"Heith."

"Yes, m'lady."

"I'll leave him to you."

"Understood."

As the healer went to work on the boy's limp body, the girl looked up at Babel tower in the distance, silhouetted by the disappearing traces of the blood red sunset. Gazing at the tower that was said to reach into the heavens, her lips cracked into a smile.

"What do you think, Ottarl?"

"...He has talent."

Humming at her follower's brief response, she gazed down at the battered boy with a satisfied smile.

"I've made my decision. Make the preparations."

"Yes, ma'am."

~

"Oh! Blondey's awake, meow!"

Shay's first experience after waking up was the yelling of an especially loud catgirl. He sat up, slowly looking around the room before his gaze finally settled on Ahnya, Chloe's friend and coworker at the Hostess of Fertility.

"...am I at the pub?"

"Spot on, meow! After leaving last night, Chloe came right back, panicking about mew and honestly kind of freaking meowt! Appawrently, she did some sneaky stuff and found you lying half-dead on East Main-nya! What the heck did you get meowrself into?"

Before he could answer the door burst open, startling Ahnya who made a strange noise.

"Shay, thank goodness! Are you alright?"

"Hey, Syr. I'm good, I think… is my familia alright? Wait, I was poisoned, wasn't I? Who cured me?"

"Your familia is fine, don't worry. As for the poison, apparently Syr's healer friend heard the commotion and was able to treat you in time. You were in bad shape though, Shay."

Chloe's even talking normally, huh? It must've been pretty bad.

"We've told your familia that you got in a fight and are resting up. I think when you're ready, it would be good for you to go show them you're alright."

"Yeah. That's a good idea. Také'll probably scold me for being reckless again though."

As he chuckled, Shay realized the danger he could've put his familia in. Against a Level Three assassin, Také familia wouldn't have stood a chance.

"Actually wait, Syr! I can't believe I left you alone! I'm so sorry! Did anyone come after you?"

"No, thankfully. It was really scary, though. It's easy to forget just how powerless a normal person is against an adventurer… Ah, I don't blame you, of course! You obviously had your hands full! Plus, I clearly wasn't the target, anyway."

The conversation continued, with Shay's main takeaways being to never try and hide from Chloe and that Syr was definitely more than she seemed. After the conversation died down, Syr left the room with Ahnya, leaving Shay and Chloe alone. Chloe was solemn, reminding Shay of his first night at the orphanage with her, when he had first shared his secret.

"There's a lot to talk about, Shay."

"...?"

"But, first… Let me thank you. For surviving… and doing what you had to to make that happen. I'm so glad you're still alive…"

Her expression mixed, Chloe tried to put her thoughts into words.

"Was that your first time…? …Killing someone?"

"...Yeah. I honestly… Well, not to be dramatic, but I was too desperate to really think much about it…"

Seeing him trail off, Chloe was compelled to let him know her thoughts.

"Seeing the state you were in, there clearly wasn't another choice. And, even if there was… you'd probably leave the world better off, killing someone like that."

Chloe wore a mixed expression, as if she was happy about Shay's survival but simultaneously despairing about something. Shay wasn't a genius by any means, but he wasn't nearly as unobservant as she apparently thought.

Hearing her self-deprecating tone, anyone could've connected the dots. In fact, Shay had already figured it out a while ago. From her illusion magic to her elusive fighting style and her unexplained high Level, it was obvious that at one point Chloe had been an assassin.

Even knowing that, Shay still couldn't figure out what to say to her. She clearly hated herself for her past, and Shay didn't think he was in a position to comfort her. Apparently deciding to put her worries off for later, Chloe asked about the encounter.

"I want to hear the details. Tell me about what happened."

"...He started with a surprise attack via crossbow. I'm really not sure what happened, but he missed and then switched to close range combat. He was Level Three, for certain. He covered his face, and his weapons were laced with strong poison. Even the tiny scratch on my hand had half my body numb by the end of the fight."

"..."

"He used a dagger, and… had a curse. It generated illusions… and reminded me of my past."

Chloe grimaced upon hearing that, as if she had lost all hope of escaping the source of her despair. She paused for a second before asking him to continue, subtly struggling to keep her voice stable.

"...keep going."

"...the streets were stained red. My mother was… a pile on the ground. My father, well, the assassin used him to attack me. The streets were filled with monsters, trampling the bodies of civilians. The way I finally managed to get out of it was…"

Shay was at a loss for words as he watched a tear roll down Chloe's cheek. After that first tear, she couldn't hold them back anymore. They began to stream down her face as she made her apology.

"...Shay, I'm so sorry…"

"..."

"I was planning on getting the details first… and… I really can't ask for your forgiveness… but you deserve to know…"

"..."

"I… I… I'm the one."

Ah…

As Chloe looked down like she was expecting a death sentence, Shay connected the final dot. His first time at the pub, she had winced when he mentioned Eluria. Later at the orphanage, Chloe had been noticeably disturbed after hearing he was the former prince.

I see. So that's it.

"Seven years ago… I killed the King of Eluria. I'm… the assassin that killed your father."

"..."

As he processed the confession, Shay noticed Chloe quivering. Her tone giving way to desperation, she started to get more hysterical as she continued.

"I know I don't have the right to apologize… but… I'm so, so sorry! I—! I was trying to leave my familia! That garbage Goddess made me do all sorts of insane things just to leave that garbage familia! And—"

"I forgive you."

"—I'm so sorry! You'll never have to see me again after this, just tell me about—! ...what?"

Blindsided out of her hysterical sobbing, Chloe gave Shay a truly bewildered expression. After a second, she built her momentum back up, continuing her tirade.

"h— How? How could you say that!? Your father's— he's dead! Because of me! He was prepared to fight and die honorably, but I robbed him of even that!"

"Chloe… it's okay."

"...what...!"

"My father was a good king, loved by the people, and he will be remembered fondly. That's all he could've wanted, in the end. The minute he found out what was happening that night, he was prepared to die… If it wasn't you, it would've been a soldier, or worse, a monster… the result was inevitable, and he knew it."

"..."

It was Chloe's turn to be silent. She was stunned, after having her guilt rejected by the man she had robbed of his father. Shay continued, his voice starting to shake ever so slightly.

"I can't resent you. How could I blame even an assassin given they're raised to kill since birth? You didn't cause the war against Eluria, Chloe. And, even if I truly resented the assassin, how could I hate someone trying desperately to escape their twisted familia?"

"..."

"The reality is, I can't find many people to truly hate. It took that coup for it to really sink in for me. The suffering, the insanity… that's just how things are. The strong take from the weak, the monsters from the people. The Gods do whatever they please, causing death and suffering just to quell their boredom. There's no way around it… That's just how it is."

"...shay…"

"I despaired at that thought as I first mourned my family. But, in that forest… that same, damned forest where I found my mother… I also found something breathtaking. Those frivolous, accursed Gods that treated us mortals as mere playthings… Intentional or not, in their quest for excitement those same Gods had given me something to fight back with."

"...?"

"I think I met a spirit in that forest, Chloe. And, do you know what it wanted from me? It wanted me to get stronger… As if it was saying, 'If you're so bitter towards the world, fix it yourself.'"

"...!"

"...And so… I decided I would. As payment for their entertainment, the Gods have aided mortals since the Ancient times, offering us Spirits and Blessings to deal with the world's cruelty. Now, even if it truly is by sheer luck, I have both."

Chloe was completely stumped as Shay revealed more than he ever had before. Nobody, not Ouka, Mikoto, or even the God he was pledged to had ever heard this much about his past. Shay had given her a deep look into his soul, and from its depths he presented her a truly warm smile.

"So… I really can't blame you for being strung along by the Gods, Chloe. After all, It's the same for me."