The morning air inside the walls of Town Tata didn't carry that old, greasy stench of unrestrained greed anymore. Walking through the gates, the oppressive facade of artificial wealth and visible misery had completely collapsed along with Bernard Callus's regime. It was a staggering contrast to the days when the Bronze Coin mercenaries lounged like predators on the battlements, enforcing an inflation crisis that acted as a slow death sentence for the common folk.
Apart from the city of Balka over on the Milky Way continent, Tata had always been a territory naturally accompanied by a large demi-human population. But under Bernard's fanatical, racist rule, they had been reduced to commodities… chained to cold stone pillars in the plaza like luxuries for the corrupt nobility. Now, with a beastkin successfully installed as the new ruler, the systemic rot was being actively purged. The atmosphere felt lighter, the mercantile streets returning to a natural, bustling flow of fair trade rather than predatory extortion.
Beyond the thick, dense forests we had just flown over lay Karama Village, where I had completely cleared out the infestation of neo-spiders a month ago, further stabilizing the trade routes connecting Tata directly to Caria.
I kept my hood pulled low to protect my skin from the expanding morning sun, adjusting Elicia's heavy weight on my back as we navigated the familiar, winding cobblestone streets. Memories of my past infiltration swirled through my head… remembering when I was just a gold-ranked hunter executing a blind revenge arc, forced to use morphological shifts to infiltrate the castle.
"We're here," I whispered, turning down a narrow, shadowy side alley.
Looming ahead was the weathered, hanging sign of The Iron Ledger inn.
My chest tightened slightly with a sudden spike of phantom paranoia. This was, without a doubt, the exact same nondescript inn where Mochi, Harold, and I had stayed five months ago. This was the place where Harold had set up his binoculars at the highest vantage point, where Mochi had given me the sleeping needle, and where I had dragged a malnourished, unconscious castle maid named Clara Becker into a storage closet just to harvest a single drop of her blood and steal her grey dress.
"The Iron Ledger… Ren? Your heart rate just spiked. Is this where it happened?" Elicia murmured from over my shoulder, her voice pulled tight with concern as she felt the sudden, involuntary rigidity in my posture.
"No, This is just where the maid let the monsters in. Follow my lead, big sister. We're getting a room." I replied, my voice dropping into a cold, flat register under my hood as I pushed open the heavy wooden door of the tavern, stepping into the dim, dust-laden interior.
The moment my boots cleared the threshold of The Iron Ledger, Elicia shifted her weight on my back. Intent on getting a better look at my face in the dim indoor light, her hand reached up and carelessly pulled my deep hood right off my head.
She completely miscalculated our positioning.
A sharp, stray beam of morning sunlight was cutting directly through the inn's glass windowpane. The moment that golden ray struck my exposed cheek, my demonic biology reacted violently.
Sssssss!
A horrific, sizzling sound hissed through the quiet tavern air as the solar radiation instantly scorched my flesh, burning a raw, smoking hole right into my smooth skin.
"Big sister, stop!" I snarled, a low, predatory growl tearing from my fangs as I violently jerked my head back into the shadows, the intense cellular pain causing my dual-colored eyes to flash crimson.
Elicia gasped, her face instantly turning pale with horror as she frantically grabbed the heavy vanguard fabric and threw it back over my head, shadowing my features once more.
"Oh by the gods…sorry, Eirene! It slipped! I didn't mean to… You... you're violently allergic to sunlight, little Ren?"
"Hey, keep your mouth shut, will you?" I hissed under my breath, my voice cutting and sharp as I scanned the tavern floor. Luckily, the few early-morning patrons were slumped over their ale mugs and paid us no mind.
I paused, leaning against a wooden pillar as the reality of our situation settled heavily in my chest. I had originally intended to book us a room right here, but looking down at Elicia's completely limp, unresponsive legs, I realized a massive flaw in the plan. Her absolute Divine Regeneration spell back on the mountain pass hadn't just drained her reserves… it had completely bottomed out her magical core. Her mana pool was fundamentally fractured.
"Big sister, Change of plans. Let's go find a specialized medical facility or a high-tier alchemist clinic in this district. We need to restore your mana forcefully. By simply resting in a bed, a core depletion this severe will take weeks to naturally stabilize, and we don't have that kind of time. Let's move." I murmured, turning right around and walking back toward the heavy wooden exit doors of the inn, keeping myself strictly within the architectural shadows.
I adjusted the vanguard cloak, pulling the heavy fabric tight around my face to block out the rising sun, and shifted Elicia's weight back onto my shoulders. Even without my wings, my baseline parameters made the walk effortless. I navigated through the labyrinthine streets of Tata, keeping strictly to the long shadows of the buildings until I finally spotted the wooden sign of the town's primary medical clinic.
I pushed the heavy doors open and stepped inside. I breathed a quiet sigh of relief; the lobby was dim, lit only by low-burning mana lamps. No stray sunlight tore through my face this time.
I walked straight toward the receptionist counter where the town doctor… an older man with graying hair and spectacles… was organizing a shelf of alchemical potions.
"I need immediate assistance for my sister, her mana pool is completely bottomed out from an extreme over-exertion. She needs high-grade restorative elixirs or a mana-channeling array. Resting alone won't fix a core this massive." I said, my smooth, resonant voice cutting through the quiet office
I knew Elicia's stats. As the Principal of Sisiphon, her total mana pool reached well over tens of thousands of units… a standard low-grade potion wouldn't even tickle her reserve line. I reached into my leather purse, pulling out a heavy, gleaming handful of premium gold coins I had looted from Oksana's vaults.
"I can pay for whatever top-shelf catalyst you have."
The doctor looked up, intending to inspect the gold, but the moment his eyes drifted up into the shadows of my hood and caught the faint glint of my jade and crimson eyes, his spectacles nearly slipped down his nose. He went completely pale, backing up a step into his shelves.
"Wait... You... you're that girl. The one who spearheaded the bloody revolt through the Callus Manor..." the doctor stammered, his finger trembling as he pointed at me
My posture instantly locked up, every muscle in my body tightening into an iron wire as a sudden, sharp spike of paranoia and PTSD struck my chest. My mind flashed back to that chaotic night… the smell of smoke, the sound of breaking iron, and how my beastkin partner, Mochi, had completely lost his mind in a righteous rage, executing every single guard who had participated in the discrimination and trafficking of demi-humans.
I didn't realize the local civilians had documented my face during the crossfire.
On my back, Elicia felt the sudden, lethal tension radiating from my frame. She looked from my guarded stance to the terrified doctor, her prestigious administrative mind instantly picking up on the hidden history buried in the room.
"Ren… Do you know this man?" Elicia whispered, her voice dropping into a tense, cautious register as her arms tightened around my neck.
I stood perfectly still, remaining dead silent under the heavy fabric of my hood. My mind raced with calculating paranoia. Three months ago, during that brutal slaughter at the Callus Manor, my body had been a completely mutilated wreck… I had lost my right eye and my left arm to their torture before my evolution triggered. Yet, despite my features being fully restored, this doctor could still identify me. Even with my hood shadowing my face, the distinct, haunting gleam of my left jade-green eye gave me away. To those who witnessed the massacre, my heterochromia was the unmistakable mark of the phantom who broke this town.
The doctor's trembling posture suddenly shifted. The terror in his eyes didn't give way to hostility, but to a profound, overwhelming reverence.
"Well… This lady single-handedly saved our entire town. She completely dismantled the Bronze Coin Guild, crushed their absolute leader Dominik, and assassinated our tyrant, Bernard Callus. We all saw her fight from the skies that night... those terrifying blood wings, the way she slaughtered every single bandit in her path and literally sucked their blood dry to fuel her power. She was a menace to our oppressors... but to us, she was salvation."
He took off his spectacles, wiping them with a shaking hand as he looked directly into the shadows of my hood.
"Our town is finally saved. For all those long, agonizing years, us demi-humans were treated like livestock under Bernard's discrimination. When the LKBA Bureau arrived to investigate the aftermath, not a single citizen in Tata snitched on her. We all collectively lied to the investigators, telling the Bureau that the townspeople had staged a massive, chaotic slave revolt and that the mysterious blood demon had nothing to do with us. The Bureau believed our story, closed the case, and now our town is finally run by a new beastkin leader who treats us with kindness and dignity."
Elicia let out a sharp, trembling gasp against my neck, her heart hammering against my spine as the raw, unvarnished truth of my past brutality… and the hidden gratitude of an entire town… washed over her.
"Little Ren..." she whispered, her voice thick with emotion.
I didn't answer her. I kept my gaze fixed entirely on the doctor, pulling my leather purse back and letting the gold coins drop into the bottom of the pouch with a heavy clink.
"If that's the case, then use my past heroic act as currency. Consider it payment for free medicine for my sister. Restore her mana completely. I want the highest-tier alchemical catalysts you have."
"Of... of course! Right away! Anything for the savior of Tata. Follow me, please."
I carried Elicia through the double doors, navigating the clean, quiet hallway until we reached a private, secluded patient room away from any stray windows. I carefully laid her down onto the soft, white medical bed, adjusting the pillows behind her head as the medical staff rushed out to prepare the high-grade mana-restorative infusions.