Chapter 8: To Protect i

Isbeth and the girl she had named Cerise calmly walked through the streets of Viscor. Unlike before, Isbeth wasn’t in so much of a rush as she occasionally waved her hands towards several shops along the way. They made it halfway back before being confronted by another set of men. Unlike the member of the Golden Eagle, this set of men looked to be more of the ruffian type. Their dirty leather armor had scarring and markings showing that they weren’t some greenhorns, but by the way they moved and acted one can tell that they aren’t the kind to fight hard battles.

“Listen here girly. That child over there bumped into one of ours earlier and now we’ve got a problem. My friend here dropped his most precious sword and it had chipped on the ground. So either you pay up or give us the girl.”

Their leader, a rather large man whose height would even tower over Roy’s stood in front of them. One of the men behind him held up a rather stupidly long sword, battered and chipped throughout the years. Out of habit, the nearby blacksmiths looked at the sword before looking away in disinterest. The sword wasn’t of superior quality in the first place and the so called damages to the blade could easily be seen to be fabricated by the men.

Isbeth whose eyes were sharp and used to this treatment looked back at the men.

“Back off. My girl won’t even harm a fly and you expect her to be able to push a big dumb brute like your friend over there? And even then, it’s your fault in the first place if you decided to unsheathe a blade in a public place like this. Should I call the Watch on you four? I wonder whose word they’ll trust more, the account of a law-abiding citizen like me or fools like you who’ve only been here for a few days? Now listen here, if you wish to do well in Viscor and avoid the eyes of the Watch, you have to abide by every rule and law. Not even they can go against them and so long as you don’t break any, you should be fine. First off, any actions which can be seen as violent for no justifiable reason will result in you being arrested. Your possessions will be confiscated and kept, while you have to serve time in…”

Isbeth began reciting a long authoritarian speech to the four men. Her oppressive nature finally coming to light. The speech itself lasted for several painfully long minutes before a small unit from the Watch had to break them up. Due to many accounts from the amused onlookers and Isbeth’s own word, the men got off with nothing more than a stern warning against their behavior. They ran away at a moment’s notice swearing to never bother another person again. An odd acidic scent was left in the air as the men left the scene as abruptly as they appeared.

Unknown to Isbeth and most of the onlookers, the girl had been staring at the men for a good number of minutes. Her scarlet eyes seemed to gaze deep into their bodies and her creepy silent smile awakened an instinctual desire to flee. The men were deeply frightened by the little girl standing behind the woman they tried to rob from and were very glad that the Watch had let them escape. Anywhere else would be better than to be within that thing’s sight. The girl’s stare could even be felt on their backs as they ran away, which only served as a means to cause them to run faster. Only after a half hour of running and crossing the outer boundary of the city did the pressure cease. They collapsed on the ground outside the city’s gate exhausted, happy to finally escape from that thing.

The girl found it exciting. She did feel guilt over killing those that hadn’t done anything but after the episode with the Golden Eagle, she had resolved to face against those that have, including that man in her memories but she’s far too weak for that. The men that had stopped her and Isbeth had blatantly tried to threaten them, so she tried to move forward and cut them apart. But Isbeth blocked her path with her arm and started rattling off a hundred laws and why you shouldn’t commit crimes to the men, so she had to remain content with just staring at them. She only reached the thirtieth law before the Watch broke them up, but the girl had a sudden realization. She could still see the men even through all of the people between them.

Skill [Hunter’s Eye] has increased in Level (1)

Subskill {Hunter’s Mark} has been obtained

She could see a faint orange outline of the men from afar. They scrambled to get away from her before but now they were practically bolting through the streets, screaming at the top of their lungs trying to escape her sight. Isbeth guided her along the streets once more but she had been looking in their direction for several minutes. Isbeth saw this and thought that she was looking at the assorted wares of the weapon shop nearby.

“You want to become an adventurer? Trust me, pointy sticks and stabby things don’t solve all problems.”

The girl shook her head at Isbeth’s sudden statement and pointed her finger in the direction of the fuzzy orange shapes in her vision.

“Bad guys. Running there.”

Isbeth looked in the direction her finger was facing but only saw the most expensive weapon in the shop’s display. Baffled, Isbeth tried to communicate to the girl once more.

“Bad guys? All I see is a-“

Isbeth stopped midsentence. Her eyes went wide as she closely looked at Cerise at her side. She grabbed the girl’s arms and held them straight, their eyes locking together.

“Don’t mention this to anyone. We need to go.”

Isbeth’s usual cheery tone changed to a serious one. She grasped the girl’s arm in a firmer hold and quickly brought her back to the shop, the ‘Closed’ sign still hanging on the door. She put the girl into a chair in the backroom before pulling one up for herself. Isbeth then spoke to the girl.

“Don’t anyone know that you have that skill. If any of the Watch Captains find out about this, I won’t be able to protect you.”

Isbeth was serious this time. The law protected against the general recruitment of children, but that particular law has a few exception clauses with absurd requirements to be met. One of those many clauses specifies possessing any subskill under the [Hunter’s Eye] skill, a rare skill that only appears in few and leveling it is painstaking. The slowest speed recorded requiring several years just to reach level 2 and the fastest took even half a year. Obtaining a subskill was an even more outrageous occurrence, requiring the skill itself to be used enough in such a way to obtain one. What made Isbeth so clear on what skill the girl had was because of the nature of her eyes. A cross pattern appeared on the center of her pupil and had been spinning for quite some time. The fact that the girl in front of her already possessing a subskill for [Hunter’s Eye] raises doubts and flags within Isbeth’s mind, but desire to protect the girl far outstripped her rational side.

Isbeth told the girl not to use that particular skill at all as the very girl in question, Cerise, looked at the boxes for the first time since she woke up.

Name

Cerise

Age

12 Days

Race

Lesser Devil (Scarlet)

HP

47/47 (+.016/s)

MP

100/100 (+.027/s)

SP

16/34 (+.017/s)

STR

15

INT

25

WIS

15

CON

14

AGL

26

LUK

3

Skills

Level

Proficiency

[Demonic Vitality]

1/10

51.2%

[Hunter’s Eyes] {Hunter’s Mark}

3/10

.7%

[Blood Haunt]

N/A

N/A

[Twisted Fate]

N/A

N/A