Chapter 106: (Chpt. 85) Runaway (2)

Azrie

This is from my chapter backlog so it's writing from 2 years ago, no I am not going to rewrite it. Worth noting that, in fact out of the 30k or so backlog this is the only chapter I can post. After this, all new writing!

Plot: Yami and Ari left the city on a dungeon subjugation quest as Aizen did her things at the Academy and ultimately became a priest. Yami found a talking skeleton and signed a contract with it, she ended up being called a necromancer by the adventurer party she was with as they ran away. Yami went to the following town instead of the capital in fear of a Holy Knight giving chase inside the capital. Inside the next town 'Niyer' North of the Capital. Yami makes a Legendary Armor, the town's appraiser ends up trying to confiscate it, but Yami retaliates with her summons. Burning part of the town down. Ari and Yami diguise themselves to escape. This following scene is right after disguising. 

 «Yami»

Why⁠— Why did I look like this?! I mean, I did ask for long hair and puffy cheeks, but this!? This wasn’t right, why? It didn’t make sense, did I even think about it? No, I didn’t, then why?! I simply thought of a female version of my old avatar, and I ended with this, this didn’t make sense…

“Wait… it’s not the right color…” I muttered with disbelief. My eyes weren’t brown, they were dead-black, I didn’t notice it, but it was definitely a difference. “Ah, I am glad…” I was about to have a panic attack. 

“Yami is something wrong? You seemed really panicked for a second.” 

“Ah… it’s nothing…” It’s nothing… “Well, now into the clothes.” 

I paused. “Enchant!” 

I got the same old menu and browsed under the useless category, and there it was. Floating in my vision, the key to getting out of this mess unscathed. I mean, I would look weird if I was wearing some dead person’s clothes. 

Item appearance change ⁠— 300MN

And so I pressed on the button, nothing happened. 

“Hey Ari, do I have to think about it or something?” 

“Well, whenever appearance changes were needed, people usually made a really detailed drawing for the enchanter, and also brought a lot of items, because you know ⁠— can’t guarantee the enchantment part.” Ah… So I needed to think about it. 

Let’s see… Yeah, that would be nice… I nodded fantasizing about my favorite warrior armor set, I mean… I wasn’t quite the warrior, but I always thought it was cool. A long trench coat, a small hat-like helmet, and gloves with spikes. Awa… I was already fantasizing about being cool. 

And then it happened, my clothes lit up and… shone for a second before becoming an entirely different thing. Enchanting was amazing! Although, I guess I was quite OP, huh? 

Wait… I mean. I was wearing a trench coat, but why was it so long? It was hitting my ankles, and why was it open styled?! 

Ari started laughing as I looked at myself. It was a long oversized trench coat, my glove was spiked so at least that was accurate. As far as hat went, well. There was nothing, so I basically had an oversized trench coat and a glove. No, that wasn’t all… 

I pressed my belly, this was too lewd. Why did my top suddenly become one of those that exposed one’s belly, and why did my skirt become a mini-short?! It at least covered half of my thigh, but it was still too lewd. Why?!

“I didn’t ask for this…” I muttered in desperation. 

“On second thought, I just want a robe… or a cloak, or something to cover myself…” Ari spontaneously requested. Yeah, I didn’t blame her. I looked downright stupid.

I looked at the puddle, at least I looked like an entirely different person, so there was that. It was kind of sad, but I guess it was a sacrifice. I never really felt attracted to girls, but being a girl was tiring. I always tried not to think about it, but bathrooms made me tense… and this… just makes it worse… 

“Ha… Why do things have to be like this…” My shoulders dropped. I felt a caress on my head, it was Ari. I lifted my gaze with confusion.

“Ahaha… I just thought you were cute and needed that…” 

“Thank you…” I guess she wasn’t expecting it⁠— I wasn’t expecting it. Having my ears uncovered felt nice, although I did not feel like having a finger pointing at me all the time. 

“Hey Ari, what can I do about this…” I pointed at my ears, I could feel them twitching every time they picked up a sound, I guess having them covered for so long was bad. But there was also a problem, the other ring had stopped working. Although, I guess you cannot stack item effects on one another, which I suppose would be kind of broken…

As I monologued Ari was thinking.

“Welllll… We could say they are an item?” 

“Eh?” How would that work?

“Well, like a tiara with cat ears or something, and it allows its user to be more aware or something! I mean… I’ve seen plenty of stupid items, inventing one wouldn’t really be a problem…” Stupid items? Yeah, there were plenty of those… Including my aura rings… Talking about rings…

I looked at my hand, and could actually see my black ring, it wasn’t leaking aura anymore. The disguise had made my leather glove to simply look like one of those fingerless gloves, so I could see my rings. But, I got curious…

“Why is it…” I drew my hand closer to myself and noticed the ring… “Ah… how stupid…” I muttered, what would happen if it broke? Well, I knew what would happen, but am I not cursed or something? No wait… I could enchant the ring with mending! I was a genius… 

“So… What do you think about my idea?” Ari nervously asked as she looked at me. 

“Sounds fine, but… how would we make it look like an item?” I mean, they looked plenty real. 

“Well, just like… wear a headband or something, or you could just like… hide them under your hair…”

“Oh right…” I recalled how the kind inn-keeper did it. She used some type of clips, but couldn’t I use something like a headband or something? Wait, where would I even get a headband?

“Hey Ari, I don’t think I got either of those two things…” She started to think and then her face lit up

“Why not buy them?”

“Eh, but that is⁠— Oh…” We looked completely different, however, my ears were still uncovered. I was still slightly hesitant. “Ari, are you telling me you will go to buy it?” She nodded. Although well, her clothing hadn’t changed. 

Ah… I was uneasy! I don’t even remember how many coins I had! I remember the obsidian and cobalt coins I got. I mean, that was about right. But wait… where were my other coins?! 

“I lost it…” 

“What did you lose?” Ari wasn’t following

“I lost my other coin pouch…”

“When?” Ari asked with genuine concern.

“I… I don’t know all I have left are obsidian and cobalt coins…” Ari suddenly became flat-faced. 

“You are panicking, about that?” I nodded. “Sigh… Adventurers get paid small fortunes you know? One mithril coin is worth one-thousand gold coins!” Oh…

“Doesn’t that mean this is still bad?! I mean, if I send you with even a cobalt coin wouldn’t that make thugs want to prey on you or something?!” 

“Well… yes…” 

We were in a conundrum. 

“I mean, it can’t be that bad, right?” Ari asked with hope, but I shook my head. 

“Considering last time I showed money I got assaulted by thieves, it’s a no.” Ari sighed seeing my reply, it wasn’t even a conundrum to begin with, it was simply a no choice kind of thing. 

“So, now what? We can go out there and everyone can look at your ears!” Right… 

“Well… I…” She was right, something needed to happen, something needed to be done, and yet. I was simply there, risking being caught and drawing even more attention. 

Sigh… if only I could… 

Wait, can’t I just hide them? I mean, like maybe change their orientation or make my hair longer… I had the enchanted collar with the blessed curse! Something told me it had to be possible, I mean, it had to be possible. Otherwise it simply wouldn’t make much sense, at least I thought so anyway. 

“So… what’s the plan?” Ari asked as she saw me think in my spot. Of course, I smiled, I had already found a plan. I simply had to use the collar again, and that would be it. 

“Just watch,” I said with a smirk. It was going to be perfect. First put a bit of mana on the ring anddd… think, the ears moving slowly closer to the place where normal ears would be… Just them changing to human ears would be nice. 

Creak…

“Eeek!” I held the side of my head with extreme pain as I felt my muscles and bones shifting around, why was it so painful?! The creaking continued for a few seconds, I wanted to stop it but I couldn’t. 

“Um Yami?” Ari hopelessly extended her hand towards me as I held my head, nothing could be done. I had no idea if she could hear the creaking, but it was painful. It hurt, it hurt, it hurt! 

“I-I made a… few, mistakes…” It was so painful, but it started to slow down, I felt my eyes get teary for a few seconds. 

I panted as I felt the pain subdue. Finally letting my hands off my head and placing them on my knees to not fall on the ground. It was truly painful, it felt as if I had broken some bones— having things drilled into my head, a migraine; a head-splitting headache. I couldn’t truly explain the experience with words, it was mind-numbingly painful. 

“Em Yami…” Now what? “Your ears are not hidden…”

“Eh… What do you mean?” My ears were still pained so I didn’t want to touch them. 

“Well…” I looked down at the puddle below me. 

“Eh…” My ears were still pretty much the same, they were actually slightly bigger. What? Why? I had so many questions and not enough answers however… Why did it hurt so much?!

“So… can you hide them under your hair or something?” Well, I mean.

Following Ari’s suggestion I touched my ear and⁠— 

“Ouch…” They were strained from the shifting around my skull. “It hurts, so… no.” I sighed. 

After a brief pause I made my decision. Would things continue like this? So much for trying to stay under the radar only for a street to burst into a pillar of flames? Was this really what things amounted to? 

“Hey Ari.”

“Yes?” She tilted her head. 

“Do you think it matters?” 

“Hm?” I guess she wasn’t following. 

“Do you think it matters that I am a beastkin?” 

“Well, not really. But you always seemed so on the edge about not drawing attention. So, I figured it mattered...” Very much true. “I mean, it doesn’t really seem to matter to you that I am linked to the church, so…” That was also true. 

I sighed. “I guess I worried for nothing.” 

As soon as I finally relaxed from the tension I felt my body’s fatigue build up. I guess I wasn’t Aizen to play god, I sighed and made the mental status note. Skipping over basically everything I focused solely on my mana. 

[MP: 3200/34590(+ 50%) ⁠— 4800/51,885 In combat.]

Okay… Since when did it actually do the calculation? I mean, I suppose I could do it in a few seconds multiplying by one-point-five, but that wasn’t the point! But I guess I already knew the answer to why I felt so fatigued, I had forgotten that summoning was so taxing in terms of mana. 

How much would Jer be? Level 93, would be around… 8,000? That’s quite a lot. Yeah no wonder… 

“Hey Ari, I am pretty tired. Let’s go to an inn or something.” 

“Um Yami, are you sure? I mean, if we go back…”

“I mean a new inn… I feel as if I forgot something on the last one. But I feel the elf is going to raid the place..” 

“Sigh… elves are really weird, huh?” Ari asked in tiredness. Every single elf we had met had been overly clingy, simply weird or stubborn. Why? 

“Well, we might also need to leave the capital…”

“Yeah… now that you mention it, yeah…” 

We basically declared war on the country by taking the armor back, at least I think? Well, if they think we are dead it might not escalate further than that. Thankfully… but it was still problematic.

“So Yami, how should I call you now?” Hmm? “We need new identities after all, at least for the time being. So Dark Shadow is pretty much dead, same goes for Ari. And well, the adventurer Yami is also kind of dead.” Hah…

I thought for a second. “Kuro is fine…” 

“Hmm, is that okay? Isn’t that his name too?” Whose? Ah right… 

“Yeah it’s fine, what about you?” What kind of name would Ari choose? 

“Hmm… Sera would be fine, I suppose…” Hm?

“Is it fine?”

Ari had a brief pause. “Yes… Sera…” 

“That’s a weird name,” never heard it before, to be honest. 

She started fidgeting. “Yeah, it stands for Seraphim, although I like to believe it simply is Sera…” Her voice rang hollow as she finished her sentence, I could see her biting her lip. I suppose it was better to drop the subject. 

“I see… Well, let us go Sera.”

“Right Kuro…” Wow, I felt so awkward. Ari was the same. 

“What about our roles? Are we adventurers?” 

“Yeah sure.” I thought for a second before taking out my dagger and placing it on my waist. I felt a bit awkward, I never really paid attention to my body or anything, but this was more touching than usual. After I slid it down the side of my waist and thigh I sighed. 

“And I thought I was getting used to it…” I muttered under my breath. “Well, I am a rouge, and you are?” 

“Hmmm…” Ari looked to the sky as she thought before finally shrugging. “No idea…” 

“Eh?” 

“I have an idea Ya-Kuro!” So she became the inverse Aizen? “How about I am a pretty noble girl and you are my hired bodyguard!” Oooh. I like the idea.

“Sure!” I smiled. 

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“Well for now, let us get an inn. I want to rest…” Well, actually if I used any more mana I would probably faint. Hah… 

“Hmhm…” Ari got to thinking. “Well, I don’t remember many inns.”

“We’ll find something.” 

Ari cheerfully nodded. I suppose it was time to get going, albeit calling her Sera was going to insanely hard if not flatout impossible. Since I am roleplaying as a bodyguard I suppose I could call her mistress or something. Weird… 

“Let’s get going.” Ari nodded once again and we started walking. 

I felt an increasing anxiety building up in my head ⁠— what if they noticed, would I get attacked for no particular reason, how bad is the discrimination around here? So many questions and yet so little answers, it was a bit annoying all things considered, but sadly there was not many things we could do. 

“All the inns are in the plaza, no?”

“Yes Ya-Kuro…” Ah… 

“Well, I’ll be sure to protect MIstress…” 

She suddenly blushed. 

“Just Sera is fine…”

“No no no, such a fine lady needs a servant that respects her.” 

I saw her cheeks get increasingly red but she said nothing. Teasing her was slightly fun. 

As I thought we entered the street, it was blooming with stands and little small businesses. Ari quietly followed behind me, looking at her surroundings with warryness. 

While there were a lot of people walking and going about their day I could see a heavy atmosphere ⁠— everyone was looking to the ground and no one was really focused at things. It just looked gloomy and grim, the only thing that echoed on the streets were the steps of the doomed. 

However, the soulless rhythmic footsteps changed as we joined. Effectively breaking the pace and drawing all the eyes towards us. I made eye contact with a few people, everyone looked just as shocked. 

Even though I was feeling uncomfortable it was something I had to ignore. With my head held high and chest puffed I continued walking. Ari meekly followed behind me. 

My bouncy ears drew all the eyes on the street ⁠— the vendors, the bypassers, even the kids were pointing at me. Well, as much as they could; they were also mentally exhausted from the previous disaster. But it was certainly awkward. 

Ari and I continued walking through the cobblestone, avoiding eye contact for the most part. People didn’t stare as much once we continued walking, they simply kept looking at the ground with helplessness. Now that I think about it… How many people died in my little tantrum? 

Were they NPCs? That certainly wasn’t it, I wanted to feel guilty, but why couldn’t I feel anything… Even Aizen would feel some remorse… albeit it was for a different reason, but why…. Why was it that I couldn’t feel remorse about it? How frustrating… 

Are things going to continue like this… 

I sighed as we entered the main plaza, ashes were falling down on the street as if it was snow, a pillar of smoke was rising to the skies. It was a rather grim day all things considered, I was hungry… I wanted to rest. 

I assume Ari felt the same. She was looking somewhere else though.

“Look at her belongings!” A shout attracted my attention.

There it was, an elf standing outside the inn I had just been in. He was shouting at guards, the elf himself didn’t look to be doing so good. His messy hair and completely battered attire spoke for itself, his eyes were akin to a wolf. 

I could see his deep frown. 

“Fuck… we need to find out her secrets! There is no way she died… But…”

“Sir… she died…” The knight captain held his shoulder. “We found her burned clothes.” 

Eh…

I looked at Ari and she mischievously smiled. 

The elf was biting his finger. “Still… What about the dragon!? How can it disappear like that?!” 

“That is… it’s currently under investigation…” The captain distanced himself. 

“Tch, how useless!” The elf was certainly mad as he stomped on the ground. 

I sighed, I mean… what was he doing searching my room? There was nothing there…

“We found something!” 

“Eh…” What did they find? 

“WHAT IS IT?!” Awa, the elf was certainly desperate. 

“It’s… a coin pouch! The inn-keeper was hiding it!” Eh…

“Hey Y-Kuro… isn’t that yours…” 

“It is…” Looks like that’s where it went… “Well… let us get going, while I certainly would like to get my coins back… it’s better to avoid the crazed elf, knowing him it would be nothing but trouble.” 

“I agree…” 

The elf ignored us as he continued arguing with his soldiers. Though it sounded like the innkeeper was fine. So there was that. 

“Let’s go.”

“Yea…” 

We continued walking and calmly looked around for an inn, well as calmly as we could while knowing the elf was in the same plaza as us. It was certainly a hard thing. 

In the end, we couldn’t really pinpoint an inn, I wanted something cheap. Well, as cheap as we could say it was. Albeit paying with a pretty coin would be quite bad… Ah… 

“Hey Kuro…” Eh? “How about we get an expensive inn? Like the most expensive one…” 

“Sure…” I trusted Ari to an extent regarding these type of decisions, so it made sense. Now the problem was who to ask… 

As I thought I saw a guild receptionist coming out of the building. She well… she had a pretty face as needed for the adventurers — brunette short hair and fluttering eyelashes and puffy cheeks. She probably was on a break or something. But well, knowing that guild staff was trained to not discriminate I think it was fine. Well, trained wouldn’t be the right word, but I had nothing but positive experiences with them. 

Ari and I walked towards her. 

“Excuse me…” Well, I was the one doing the talking as usual. 

“Oh I am on br⁠e— a cat-kin…” Wow, how surprising. 

“I was wondering if you knew what the most luxurious and expensive inn is… Mistress likes luxury you see…” I gestured towards Ari, she looked at the receptionist with an innocent face. 

“I-I see… Luxurious, is it?” We nodded. “Well, there is the Bottomrock inn…” Eh? “You see that place?” She pointed at a small tunnel across the street. It had a few people coming in and out of it, but most of them were well-dressed. 

“That’s Bottomrock, although I don’t know if they allow beastkin... I have no problem with races, but you see how people around here are. The only reason elves are allowed is because they often serve an important role regarding their class...:” Ah… 

“Ah I see… thank you.” We turned around and left the receptionist standing there.

“Em, wait! I have a request…” We turned around to see the receptionist looking at me with flushed cheeks. “Can I… touch them?” 

“Eh…” Did I hear it right?

“I know beastkins don’t like it that much, but you see I have always wanted to touch them once…” Ehhhh.

“It’s fine Ya-Kuro.” Ari firmly grabbed my hand, I was screwed…

“S-Sure…” I leaned my head as the receptionist meekly approached.

“I’ll try to be gentle…” I heard her sweet words as I saw a shadow creeping on my own. 

“Y-yes…” Her fingers carefully touched my ears, it felt nice. 

Tracing the rim of my ear, gently. It felt nice… She started to rub it and run her nails across them touching the base of my head, up and down… The sensation was sensitive and yet pleasant as she rubbed them… it was nice…

“Nya…” Did I… 

“I want to do it too…” Ari suddenly joined in and started touching my ears as well. 

“Thi⁠— nya… this…” It felt so nice… but this was wrong… Why… No, I wasn’t going to let my ears get assaulted by skilled hands! “Aah! Stop!” I managed to jank my head out of their reach. 

“My, my… I am sorry I got carried away…” The receptionist was smiling. I looked at Ari and she just averted her gaze. “Sorry, it’s rare to see beastkin around here. Since the capital doesn’t really allow them. Arlesh doesn’t really have any particular treatment for beastkin due to it being a trading town.” Oh. “But it was nice knowing you.” She leaned towards me, what was she doing!?

?! She touched my ears one last time. 

“Thank you.” Eh… 

“Well, let us go… Quick!” Ari hurriedly tugged on my arm, the receptionist simply touched her cheek and smiled at me. Awa… what was happening. Why was my face so hot?! 

As I managed to calm down, we finally arrived at a tunnel. It had a sign called Bottomrock. A single person stood there. It was a well-dressed old man, he had a tuxedo and a gentle smile with his ashen hair and mustache. 

“What can I do for you?” His voice was gentle, and practically didn’t change in spite of him clearly looking at my ears.

“A room for… Mistress…” Ahhh, how hard… 

“So a room for two? Hmm…” He looked at twitching ears with curiosity. “I don’t mean to discriminate, but the room price might have to go up due to cleaning fees…” 

“Eh…” 

“Beastkins shed fur, no? We need to clean that…” Ah… did they shed? 

“Sure…” This time Ari agreed. 

“How long do both of you intend to stay?” 

“One day…” I wanted to leave as soon as possible. Ari nodded. 

“I see… That would be two cobalt coins.” He extended his gloved hand towards me.

It was quite the price increase. 

“S-Sure…” I awkwardly pretended to put my hand into my trench coat and took out two cobalt coins. I handed it to him, his smile flinched a bit, but didn’t say anything. I guess he wasn’t expecting us to be able to pay? 

“Here is your key.” I extended my hand to receive it.

“Eh…” It was a shiny yellow rock. 

“Simply walk down and enjoy your stay.” Ehh… “The rock guides you into your room.” 

“O-Okay…” What a weird system.

“Well let us go  A-Mistress.” She nodded and held my hand. 

Quickly descending onto the darkness, I had no idea where we were walking. 

The eternal darkness was hard to walk in, I kind of wondered why was there no light at the bottom. Where were the rooms, where was the staff? So many questions to ask…

I blinked, and⁠— 

“Eh…” 

“What…” 

We were both in a room. It was entirely made out of wood, the floor was made out of grey carpet, probably of some type of animal. It was fluffy and our feet got buried in it. There was a single king size bed with bed-sheets made out of animal fur as well. 

The light was dim, I saw some rocks on the roof that gave quite the natural light. I kind of liked the ambient. It was a well furnished room with nightstands, a desk and another door, probably a bathroom. 

“Hey, Yami…”

“Y-Yes?” 

“What happened?”

“I don’t know…” 

We got teleported into the room? 

I looked behind us and there was a single door. With increasing curiosity I opened it and… it was looking into a dark abyss, there was nothing. The light from our room lit the floor of the abyss ever so slightly but there was nothing to be seen on the empty void. 

I closed the door. 

“Whatever… we are here now…” 

“Yea…” Ari seemed a bit confused still. But I was tired, the first thing I did was jump on the bed and lay there.

“Are you going to sleep now?” 

“Probably…” 

I was tired… The bed was nice, soft, fluffy, warm, it was perfect… I fell asleep as Ari did something else. I think she simply went into the bathroom to relax, although I did see her eyeing my ears. I felt a bit startled but there was not much I could do about it, I mean… my ears being tampered with was annoying but it felt nice. I couldn’t complain much.

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