A young kid… That man is… he’s… to a kid…

Shaula feels anger. Anger that keeps escalating as she finally realizes what the screaming of the young boy means. What’s happening to him right now…

Shaula is right outside the building of interest where she believes that Plenty resides.

She’s within the walls, standing on a grass lawn within the boundaries of this brothel. It is a brothel… Although, perhaps that’s a term that should be reserved for areas where the sex workers consent…

Right now, Shaula can hear the inside of the building and none of the women seem to be willing participants, they all seem to be forced to submit to their male clients. The boy as well…

Shaula leaps off of the ground quietly. Her heart beats faster and faster. She reaches a window on the second floor of the building. She hears the young boy. Her stomach starts to hurt. The anger in her feels like bile now. White-hot rage invades her being.

However, she isn’t releasing any flame yet. Shaula understands that she has to handle the invasion of this place properly. Otherwise, things could easily turn into a hostage situation. Shaula stands at the window ledge before the glass window.

She extends the index finger to the glass pane. Her nails are sharp right now.

The very tip of her nail is extremely superheated. Shaula carves out a large circular segment of the glass while being careful not to apply too much heat or too much force. She only wants to create an opening for herself that can allow her to enter the building.

She doesn’t want to notify anyone inside the building that she is intruding.

The circular segment of glass is extracted from the window pane. Shaula removes this portion from the glass window leaving an opening large enough to enter through.

Shaula then carefully removes the glass circle, and drops down to the ground below, carrying it. She then places this glass section on the grass gently. She listens carefully to see if the man in the room heard any of that or whether he noticed the draft through the closed curtains.

The man hasn’t. He’s only continuing his vile actions, his disgusting perversion. Shaula hears the boy continue to scream and the man in the room with him continue to laugh.

Now… Now I can end him.

Shaula leaps back up to the window. She feels the weight of the air currents in the room.

When she was merely human, she wouldn’t notice anything about the micro-movements of air in rooms without any wind in them. But now, she can magnify her sense of touch to understand how air flows in this room. She can witness the layout of the room easily and precisely even.

This particular sense is something that Ajax gave her tips on. It also allows her to sense exactly where the man and boy are.

The man is currently laying on top of the young boy--

“Ggghhkkk!”

Shaula enters through the curtains in a rush towards the man. She grabs him from off the bed by his neck in her right hand.

An old man. An old man of average weight in his sixties with a horseshoe pattern of grey hair, who is at the moment completely naked.

Shaula feels a desperate anger at seeing the boy, who is also naked. It… it reminds her of…

The young boy recedes away from Shaula and the old man being held in her grasp. He curls away under the blankets until he can’t see Shaula or the old man anymore. The boy is a beastkin, with pink hair, orange eyes and beige skin.

He’s crying, not from Shaula’s sudden appearance, but from what has been happening to him.

Shaula meanwhile declines to burn this man. That would be too quick. Shaula speaks so the young boy can hear her.

“Do not look over here. Stay hidden and close your eyes.”

The young boy doesn’t move at all and Shaula accepts that as acknowledgement that she has been heard. Shaula looks back at the man struggling to speak, to even breathe while in her grasp.

The old man tries desperately to get free of Shaula’s left hand, but it’s no use. His eyes start to get truly fearful. He finally starts to understand the true hopelessness in this situation.

This woman doesn’t even want him to speak, she doesn’t want him for information, for money, anything. The old man doesn’t understand what he’s done to her. How could she try to kill him, shouldn’t she at least tell him why? What has he been doing that was so wrong?

The thoughts of someone undeserving of sympathy, someone oblivious to the depths of their evil.

Shaula forces an immense amount of heat into her left hand, which is currently touching only the air. Shaula didn’t ask the boy to look away because she was merely killing this man. She asked him to look away because of how she was going to kill this man.

Shaula is going to make him suffer a little bit. She couldn’t forgive herself otherwise.

“Don’t… do this to… me… Stop!”

Shaula hears these gargled words from the man in front of her. These words are weak enough that nobody from past the room’s door would hear them. Shaula then touches the man’s right shoulder near his neck with her left hand.

The man feels heat on his shoulder for just a moment. Shaula’s grips tightens so the man’s screams won’t be a problem.

The left hand of Shaula slowly cuts through the man’s shoulder, through his right clavicle and his rib-cage. The man cannot fall unconscious or pass out because of the continuous deep pain. Slowly, Shaula’s hand continues through the man’s sternum and spine.

Eventually, it reaches a point where gravity pulls the man’s lower body from his upper body onto the floor.

Shaula’s slow motions allows her to control the sound released from this scumbag’s death such that the sound of the man’s body being separated wouldn’t be sharp and loud enough to alert anyone patrolling the hallways.

The man’s lower torso and legs fell. His intestines, stomach and liver splay across the floor, hitting it as nothing more than meat.

Shaula looks at the man still in her arms. He lost consciousness about thirty seconds ago, by the time Shaula cut through his sternum. His heart had also stopped beating. She can see some twitching in his face and no other signs of life.

Perhaps, the last vestiges of his soul’s grasp on his body… before it moves on to hell.

Blood flows from his lips. His eyes have rolled back into his skull.

Shaula lets go of his neck, drops his upper body, and hears the splat. It wasn’t very refreshing but it’s better than leaving him alive.

“Sigh… Hey, are you ok?”

“...”

The boy doesn’t speak to Shaula. He hasn’t seen what happened, but he heard the muffled choked screaming. The noises of meat and organs hitting the floor may not have left the room but it did strike him and his childish heart.

Shaula instantly feels regret and shame for what she has done. Not because the man didn’t deserve that and more, but because she did something so violent in front of this boy. She tried to control her blood lust but it got the better of her this time, making her oblivious.

“Don’t look yet.”

Shaula looks at the ground. Copious amounts of blood have splattered. Arms and legs here and there, exposed bones, organs…

Too much to cover up and too much to burn away. If she tried to get rid of all of this with her fire, she'd simply burn down the entire room and this building along with it.

Shaula does the easiest thing. She grabs the boy covered in his blanket and carries him in her arms. The boy struggles a bit before finally understanding the strength this new person has. It is a strength that is horrifying and gentle.

“Hey, what’s your name?”

“...”

“I-It’s alright, sorry for… sorry for being so reckless. I just… I just saw what that fucking bastard was doing to you and… don’t worry, you’re safe now. No one is going to hurt you again.”

“...”

“My name is Shaula. I’m here to look for a friend of mine, a woman named Plenty. Do you know about her? Actually, before that, could you tell me what kind of place this is? How did you get here?”

“...”

Shaula feels the boy silently cry in her arms. Is he crying in fear of her? No, his heart rate is actually getting slower. Relief?

Shaula starts to hear footsteps behind her. Someone is running to this room? Shaula has to move quickly, she has to get this child out of here first before continuing her incursion.

“For right now, I’m going to keep you outside. This room we’re in got really messy. I would rather you didn’t see that.”

Shaula walks towards the window and jumps through it. She lands softly on the ground, being careful to handle her passenger with care. She then lays him on the ground, still covered in his large blanket.

This grass courtyard that she’s in right now is free of anyone. The guard at the front of the brothel is quite far from this area so no one should be able to discover the boy here just sitting on the grass.

“Please, I need you to stay here and remain silent. Can you do that for me?”

“...”

Shaula hears the footsteps get closer to the door of the room she was just in. Whoever enters that room will see the blood and guts strewn across that room and all hell will break loose.

“Please, can you be quiet here?”

“...Will… will you come back for me? Y-You… You won’t leave me here?”

“No, I will take you with me out of here. You will be happy away from this place, you will be… you will be ok.”

“...Ok, I’ll be quiet.”

With that acknowledgement, Shaula leaps back into the room just as the guard opens the door.

~

“You’re pathetic… ugly… if I weren’t bound, I’d rip… your fucking head off…”

A woman is lying on a bed. A man is lying on top of her. The man and woman are both naked but not in the middle of coitus at the moment. Rather, the man is repeatedly striking the face of the woman.

He’s crying and shouting at her but she can barely hear him, nor does she care what he has to say.

The man isn’t beating her, he’s slapping her. If he wanted her unconscious he could have done so already, but no. He’s simply attempting to humiliate her and cause her as much conscious pain as possible to do so.

The woman’s arms and legs are chained. He didn’t gag her because he wanted to feel her verbal abuse towards him. This woman is at this man’s mercy right now.

She is named Tori Blentare. She was once a noble of the fallen province, Therea.

Therea used to be a well organized state of the Holy Sapioran Federation, just bordering the territory of the demons, the Supreme Azazelin Empire.

Border skirmishes were normal, but never ended in more than a few dead. The cities within Therea were walled off properly and the Blentare family managed the territory and farmland in a kind of backwoods area near one of the large cities of Therea, known as Plex.

Her life as a country noble was destroyed when the demons attacked. There was no warning, no surrendering, no negotiation.

The first city the demons attacked was a major city of Therea, a fortress, called Esto. Without warning, an epidemic spread throughout the city. Half the population was killed within hours. Many human and demihuman men, women and a few of the children perished.

The pestilence targeted the healthiest males and females first. The city’s fighting force was destroyed leaving mostly children and the elderly as well as a few healthy adults who managed to pass the harsh symptoms and gain immunity.

The city of Esto saw a disease destroy them so very few fled immediately. There were a few who suspected a man-made attack but no one was familiar enough with biological warfare to bring such a hypothesis to their (remaining) superiors; there was only chaos for some time.

Hundreds of the remaining simply killed themselves. Grandparents would commit to murder-suicides against their grandchildren rather than bear the reality that their children were all gone.

Such was the totalizing effect of the tactic used by the demon race.

Half a day after the first person became sick, the demons continued with a ground invasion to wipe out those remaining. The city was annihilated. The same sequence of events happened to two more large cities of Therea before the demons changed tactics. Many died as a result.

The Blentare family fled immediately after news of the fall of the three cities of Esto, Yurich and Plex reached them. Eventually, the Blentare family made it to Enkel, the last stronghold of humanity. They used their remaining wealth and business acumen to take advantage of the war.

They made a name for themselves as the servant nobles of a Marquess family in Enkel, named the Cerul-Fura family. Tori was engaged to be a concubine to the Cerul-Fura heir; it was quite the stroke of luck actually since Tori was already over thirty years old.

The engagement went without a hitch. Tori was quite the smart accountant and her skills were leveraged to handle the financial affairs of the heir. However, Tori realized.

The Cerul-Fura family weren’t contributing enough resources to the war. There was also a large amount of embezzlement going on. Tori discovered this through a look in their accounting.

She tried to talk to the heir but he gave her half answers and empty words. So eventually, she was forced to lodge a formal complaint to the church, reporting the embezzlement in detail. The church as a result cracked down on the Cerul-Fura family.

They were demoted from Marquess to Earl rank.

The head of the family kidnapped Tori and brought her here. This is a place where spirits were made to be broken.

Why did she stir the pot in that manner? Why did she do something so reckless? Why doesn’t she regret it even now?

Humanity is dying. The church is doing nothing about it. God is doing nothing about it. Action should be taken, she must take as much as she can to wipe out all the demons.

The Marquess was within her reach; she was careful to remain hidden, just not careful enough to avoid suspicion. She didn’t get caught, her complaint didn’t come to light and nobody knew anything about the truth of what she did.

Nevertheless, the heir held the slight suspicion concerning Tori and the head of the family decided to destroy her. Merely for her talking about their finances even once; no evidence, no trial, no waiting for her to plead her case.

Tori is currently being abused by a man on top of her. A weak man, a pathetic worthless nothing of a man. A man with some inferiority issues who wants to dominate a woman. Tori has done nothing to show him that she is being dominated.

This makes him feel at ease actually. This man understands on some level that he deserves abuse for the things he has done. Yet, the man still continues to abuse her while receiving her abuse towards him. Soon, he will violate her.

Tori has been in this place for five days.

She hasn’t met any of the other women yet. She hasn’t even been allowed to leave this floor. She is given her “patrons” and given only enough freedom to use the restroom and bathe while supervised by one of the guards.

She is then escorted back to her room where two or three meals are waiting for her daily.

She doesn’t want to have to think about what is happening to her right now. It’s ugly. It’s depraved.

She closes her eyes but the man doesn’t want that. He wants to gain some kind of extra gratification for himself, so he tells himself that victory is his if he can force her to leave her eyes open. It’s mere impulse.

Tori looks directly into the eyes of the man. The man looks away from the intensity of her gaze. He cowers in her presence even while holding all the power over her. Tori grimaces and speaks.

“Pathetic subhuman.”

The man doesn’t respond for a moment. Then, Tori sees a flicker of anger. The man strikes her with a real punch. Not in the face though; this is a strike to her solar plexus. Tori’s eyes roll back in her skull as she deals with the pain of this strike. It appears she went a bit too far.

No… I didn’t say anything I haven’t said already. I looked into his eyes and… this scum felt fear… he felt fear and wanted to get rid of it.

So he hit her. He hit the source of his fear, to gain power over his fear. Her face? The intensity of her gaze? Her eyes, perhaps their pale blue colour?

Tori coughs to the side of the bed while suppressing her urge to vomit. If she vomits, she might have to sleep with the smell of it until someone comes to clean up in the morning.

She glances towards the door past the side of her bed.

Huh?

Tori notices someone at the door. The door slowly opens. Tori decides not to draw attention to it. Rather, she doesn’t want to know what the owner of this place wants now; she doesn’t want to see that fuck at all.

She looks back at the man. He’s in the middle of removing his pants. The man has a malicious smile on his face. Tori tries to guess at the man’s true game here. He wanted to feel all the humiliation and anger of Tori berating and hating him.

Then he wanted to release all that anger in his violation of her?

Shit… please don’t… please don’t… please…

Tori sees the man look down at her once more. He smiles.

“Let’s see if we can’t have a better t--”

Gasp!

This man, who Tori didn’t know the name of, turns around. No. His body, his torso, arms and hips still face her. Only his head has turned completely backwards. Suddenly, his body is lifted off of her and carried to a corner of the room away from Tori. By whom?

“Hey, are you ok?”

“...”

“Yeah, sorry, my name’s Shaula, I was just looking for my friend and I decided to free you. Have you seen her? A beastkin woman named Plenty?”

Tori is completely dumbfounded. She wasn’t expecting the man to have been killed. She certainly wasn’t expecting his death to be so instant. This new person, a young woman, is whispering to her. The woman is tall and beautiful; actually, she’s Tori’s height.

But, she’s clearly much younger. Tori sees a different light in this woman, Shaula’s, eyes.

“Oh, you’re bound. Let me take care of that. Don’t make any sudden movements.”

Shaula turns the woman on her back, in an easy motion. Then, Shaula snaps the chains of her wrist with her bare hands; she pulls the chains apart. She does the same with the chains of Tori’s legs. The shackles remain but they don’t impede her ability to walk anymore.

She can even leave…

If it weren’t for the guards in this place. Tori turns over again and grabs her blanket to try and cover up her nakedness. Shaula turns to the doorway. No one is there and the doorway is closed. Does she hear something?

“Wait… hold on, let me take care of something quickly. Just a sec.”

Shaula quietly proceeds to the door and exits the room.

Tori regains her composure as soon as Shaula leaves her. She stands up from her spot on the bed. She doesn’t hear any noise. She simply waits. She waits for Shaula to return, either dead, or…

Tori waits for three minutes for Shaula’s return; she spends that time fixing her appearance and putting on a dress from a closet within her room. The dress is cheap, something a commoner might wear but it feels far better than nudity right now.

“Ok! I’m back. Phew. That’s better.”

Tori doesn’t speak. She understands perfectly well that Shaula… is strong. She notices that Shaula is wearing a different dress right now. It’s a black dress, a bit cheaper looking but still quite stylish on her.

“Shaula… Can… Can I leave here?”

“I wouldn’t advise that. I’m about to confront the owner of this shithole and I need you to help me out here.”

“M-Me? Wh-What do you need me--”

“Well, no offense but everyone else here is hardly even an adult. There’s a young beastkin boy here, two young beastkin girls and a young human girl. How old are you?”

“I-I’m thirty but--”

“Whoa, really!? You hardly look a day over your early twenties, wow!”

“Y-Yes, th-thank you… wait, so… did you get rid of…”

“Yeah, I got rid of all the men in this place, including the guys doing the disgusting assaults and the guards. All that’s left is the head guy. He hasn’t heard any of this, he doesn’t know what’s going on.”

“...”

Tori doesn’t quite believe Shaula. This sounds… far too good to be true. Shaula notices her hesitation. So, she takes Tori’s hand and brings her out into the hallway. There, Tori sees them all.

A young pink-haired beastkin boy wrapped in a blanket, a light-blue haired beastkin girl, a red-haired human woman, and a beastkin woman with dark-blue curly hair.

“By the way, why are you the only one chained up like this? What’s up?”

Shaula asks Tori this question. None of the other girls in this place have the kinds of chains that Tori has. Tori is still wearing iron shackle braces even though they don’t affect her ability to walk or range of motion.

“That… that weakling didn’t want me to hurt him while he had me for the night. The guard--”

“Ok, ok, I get it, fine.”

One of the women steps forward. This beastkin woman has been standing next to the young beastkin boy.

“Shaula, can you… can you really get us out of this place and back to where they all are? Are you sure you can handle the city guards at night? You said we were in the wealthy district, right? Beastkin are barely allowed to set foot in here, we’re gonna get stopped while we walk.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Even if we do get stopped, they can’t do anything against my power. I have ways to avoid interacting with them or even passing them on the streets. We’ll be fine.”

“And… and you’re going to take in all of us? What the fuck are we going to do, living in the same place as the other girls? How can you afford to be this generous?”

“Well, that’s hardly a problem either. But… no, that’s not your real concern. What exactly are… What's your fear?”

The curly haired beastkin woman paused before continuing to speak.

“Sh-Shaula, they… they must hate me now, right? Even… even Oitra must hate me now, right? I mean… I mean, what I did was… was unforgivable… I… I shouldn’t be allowed to return, I shouldn’t be allowed to even live. Why are… why are you letting me live? Wouldn’t… wouldn’t it be easier to just kill me?”

“Plenty--”

“Just… you can kill me now… You can do it, I won’t mind. I’ve… I’ve earned it… haven’t I, Shaula? I’ve… I should die, I must die. I… I don’t think I can face it… their--”

“Sigh. Come on, stop with that shit.”

Tori notices Shaula’s voice sharpen for a moment. Shaula looks at Plenty, the curly haired beastkin woman and speaks again.

“That’s an order.”

Plenty stops breathing temporarily while feeling the intensity of Shaula’s gaze. Shaula understands the power that Shaula wields. She wants to die, doesn’t she? Wouldn’t it be… no. Plenty is still too scared to die.

She would crumble in a pathetic display if Shaula had accepted her request. She simply bows her head slightly towards Shaula.

“Plenty. I’ve been nice enough to go out of my way to come find you. I’m not exactly doing this for you as it is, I’m doing this for Oitra. If you think you can escape them by death, you’re way off. You still have to apologize to them. You still have to atone, in life not in death.”

Plenty looks away from Shaula and closes her eyes for a few moments.

“...O-Ok. Ok, I’ll come see them. Sigh... Ok.”

Tori doesn’t fully understand the circumstances yet but this has been informative. Tori looks at the light-blue haired beastkin woman, the one not named Plenty. She has blood on her bare feet, with blood stains on her face as well. She’s smiling in… contentment?

The other human woman is looking at Shaula with stars in her eyes. Eyes of worship? The young boy is the most obviously traumatized. He’s shivering but he hasn’t died in this place quite yet.

“So… what do you need me for?”

Tori asks this question to Shaula.

“Well, honestly? I want you to help me look after these few until we escape this place. Look after that boy as well, with Plenty. Plus, we’re going to go talk to the owner of this shithouse. I can hear him still downstairs, he’s taking care of his documents or something, I don’t know.”

Tori contemplated her options and--

“Don’t worry about thinking it over, just come downstairs for now. I want to get out of here before Ajax comes here to get us.”

~

A man is writing to someone he knows. The man he’s writing to is named Siristine Crow. Siristine Crow is the third son of an Earl rank noble. A very competent man, charismatic and strong. It is quite the shame that he was born third.

The man is a friend of Siristine’s from when he was young. He’s also one of the people who reports directly to Siristine. This business of his is one managed under Siristine’s direct purview.

This business? It’s… a brothel, less delicately a whorehouse. One catering specifically to the rich. Of course, the rich have access to their own illegally procured enslaved demihuman and human women.

They have access to the very depths of debauchery that can be obtained in this world.

This brothel? Each of the enslaved prostitutes here are picked to be a certain type that he knows his patrons like to handle. They need to be people whose spirits aren’t broken yet.

People who might even be of the nobility, who won’t back down from insult or fall into patterns of obedience and submission very easily.

How long would such women last in a place where the patrons come specifically to break them? Not very long. Of course, the women must be selected fairly often and replaced fairly often, multiple times a week even.

However, his wealthy patrons, supplied to him by Siristine, enjoy their time here. They return for more. Business is good. The women this time were nothing out of the ordinary. The young boy will probably need to be replaced soon. That old bastard intended to kill him tonight actually…

That’s another thing. The enslaved of his establishment either leave through the breaking of their spirits, or as corpses.

Crack. Crack! Crack!

“Whoa!”

The man sitting in his seat behind his desk shields his head and eyes. He feels scraps of wood hit his arms lightly. The man raises his head slowly after the noise dissipates. He looks at his office door in front of his desk. It’s been shattered, completely torn open.

Of course, that’s of lesser importance to him than the person standing before him. A woman he’s never seen before. Behind this woman are a number of other people standing in the hallway past the entrance to his office. He recognizes them at least.

“So, you’re the last one left. I want to talk to you.”

“How did you get here? Where are my men!?”

“Oh, I’m afraid, they’re not doing very well. Assume they’re not going to help you right now. And, before you try it--”

Shaula takes hold of the large wooden desk that the man is sitting behind and lifts it to the side. This man was thinking of reaching for a magical weapon within his desk. That option is gone now.

His letter to Siristine flew away as well.

“How… dare you! Who do you think you are? Do you know who you’re dealing with here!?”

“Why would you say something so cliche? Have… Have you ever met someone who didn’t know who they were dealing with and once they knew, just left?”

“...”

“Alright, come in here, Tori.”

“Yes, Lady Shaula.”

A woman with blonde hair and pale blue eyes appears from the doorway and enters the now completely disorganized room. This woman’s arms and legs are in shackles. She starts searching through the desk that Shaula placed away.

“Please, you don’t need to call me that.”

“O-Ok, then…”

“Just Shaula is fine. You know who this is, right? Tell me again.”

“Y-Yes, Shaula. He is a nobleman, elevated to archbishop from my remembrance.”

“Right, the holy man. Hypocritical, huh? Well, I guess I’m not really all that surprised. Oh, wait, archbishop? I heard they were all fighters, right?”

“I don’t think he’s an archbishop anymore. Even archbishops wouldn’t be the heads of organizations like this. And, but he didn’t even try to defend himself. From my guess, he’s helpless. Possibly crippled.”

“Hm.”

Shaula walks over to the man. It is true, an archbishop would have at least attempted a defense. Even Shaula’s display of strength by destroying the door and moving that desk shouldn’t have been an issue for him to overcome.

It shouldn’t have been enough to break his spirit, to crush his desire to defend himself…

“So. What happened to you?”

Shaula asks this of the so-called archbishop. He doesn’t answer her.

The archbishop is keeping his lips sealed. He doesn’t have the power to defend himself so he has to be careful with his words. His torture training should prove useful to--

“AAAAGGGGHHHH!!”

The archbishop looks to his left hand. Shaula is holding it (when did she…), and his index finger is missing a fingernail. Not only that but, Shaula blew something like steam on the open wound of the tip of his index finger.

“See this? It’s not hot enough to destroy the nerve endings of your finger (because we need those, right? Otherwise, this torture wouldn’t be very effective). Anyways, we’re alright here, we’ll be fine. But, of course, I need you to be a bit more forthright with me here. Why are you in this state where I can so easily do this to you? Why are you the head of this organization that rapes and violates? Why are you the person who is sitting here doing your random activities while the people I rescued were getting sexually assaulted!?”

The archbishop looks into Shaula’s eyes but quickly notices that this woman’s hair is burning in flames. The flames recede as this woman, Shaula, realizes she’s being too hasty.

“Sigh… See? I’m not gonna get any satisfaction from asking you to confess or beg for your life. So, at least tell me, where’s your money?”

“...What?”

“Well, for a place like this, Tori over there tells me that there will always be a large amount of funds in-house. I’d like to take them off your hands if that’s ok with you.”

“All of this… for a robbery on me!?”

“Oh no no! That’s merely the bonus. You’re the unlucky person who happened to be housing someone I was looking for in a place as depraved and vile as this one. Although, to be honest, I probably would’ve destroyed you one of these days.”

The archbishop feels a burning rage in his chest, an ugly sensation of anger, frustration and confusion. Why was this happening to him of all--

“No introspection, no time for that, tell me where your money is.”

“You’re going to have to make me, bitch!!”

Shaula smiles. To the archbishop, it looks just like how he imagined the goddess Azazelin looks like. Malicious, fully of bile and venom towards him, to all of humanity. The demons… they took a lot from him. It is because of them that he is unable to use any magic to fight right now.

He used to be quite the powerful ice mage. He faced a divine general in battle in Therea. She used… a poison on him. Treacherous! The poison was intended to kill him but he survived and escaped. At the cost of his ability to wield magic… and a great deal of his physical strength.

Now he’s only as strong as the average human in this world.

The archbishop twists back in his chair but he has nowhere to go. Shaula grabs his left hand again and continues removing fingernails. The man screams in agony. He tries to get away from Shaula as quickly as possible.

It’s of no use however. The moment he attempted to leave his seat, Shaula crushes both his feet with her left hand. He learns his lesson quickly.

“Did you already get everything, Tori?”

“Yeah, I got all his documents. I’m glad you saw their importance as well, Shaula.”

“It’s nothing so grandiose, I just don’t want to let go of any information I can get my hands on. Especially from a rich asshole like this. Anyways, leave this room and head upstairs with all of them. I don’t want any of them, especially the little boy, to hear any of what I’m going to do from here on.”

“Are you sure nobody else from outside will hear?”

“Tori, this room here. You notice there’s no windows?”

“...I see, this room is soundproof, huh.”

“Yeah. Nothing is gonna be heard through these super thick walls. Any sound that passes through that door opening will make its way through the house rather than outside. The entire house seems to have been designed to be soundproof to the outside.”

“...Very well. Shaula, I will wait for you to come get us.”

Tori leaves the room. Shaula continues her work. The archbishop continues screaming.

Shaula hears his screams and they sound melodious. She sees his blood drip from his hands and it was as if God was telling her to continue.

The archbishop doesn’t break just yet. Shaula is somewhat impressed. Well, it’s not like she wanted him to give up immediately anyways. Shaula moves onto a new tactic.

There is a nerve in his left elbow that she wants to use for a test. She remembers how the manipulation of that nerve causes her hands to lose sensation. It’s the so-called funny bone. This is something that happened through trial and error even in her original world.

She’s felt what happens when the nerve is hit in an awkward position. But what if it were struck with just a little bit of fire? Some lightning, maybe? Shaula raises her hand and--

“Ok!! Ok!!! I-I’ll tell you where it is.”

The archbishop relents after about thirty seconds of this funny-bone treatment.

“In the wall to the right, over there. Behind that wooden panel.”

“Ah. You’re telling the truth! That easily, huh? This technique seems fairly useful then. I’m glad I decided to experiment”

“...”

“Oh? Not gonna ask?”

“...”

“Well, I knew where the safe was all along. I could smell the copper coins in there after all. I didn’t really need confirmation but it’s nice to have it and not need it, rather than need it and not have it, right? You know… after you’re dead, nobody’s going to be able to learn anything from you…”

Tears start slowly flowing from the archbishop’s eyes. He has to beg now. He has to grovel before her feet, her commoner blood and--

“...Ah.”

The archbishop lets out a voice of surprise mixed with resignation… his fate has been decided. Shaula impales the archbishop with her right hand, wrapping her fingers around his heart. Then, she smiles. Her fingers close.

The archbishop dies, with his heart crushed.

Shaula removes her hand from his chest and burns away the blood on her right hand and forearm. It’s all done now. She can take her reward and leave with the new people he has to protect.

~

Shaula walks down to a street with the five newcomers under her protection. She tells them to walk when they should walk. She tells them to stop when they should stop. They obey her without talking back, without saying a word. They’re all still in the wealthy area of Linis.

All of these women are wearing cloaks. Cloaks to hide their bruised bodies, their scratches and wounds, their scars. Tori’s shackles have been carefully removed by Shaula prior to leaving the building that she had been imprisoned in. Although, the bruises from those shackles remain.

Shaula is holding a sack filled with twenty-five gold pieces, fifty silver pieces and seventeen copper pieces. A place like this should be worth far more according to Tori’s estimates but this was probably what was left over since the last time that brothel made deposits to the bank.

Nevertheless, this was quite a good haul.

Shaula is tired. Well, not physically. Mentally, she feels like she wants to reach home as quickly as possible and relax for a while before debriefing the house about their new guests.

In some ways, she misses her human ability to sleep. After all, she could simply get some rest after a long day and let her troubles go. She would be asleep while her mind unconsciously worked on the problems of that day like a computer on rest-mode.

She would wake up with less worry and more progress. That bit of sudden progress and elation is not coming to her anymore. She doesn’t feel tired, to be sure. Yet, she never feels all that refreshed anymore either.

Perhaps being refreshed is a state achieved after feeling some form of tiredness and feeling its weight gone.

Shaula sighs.

Life has become so much more different. So much more--

There!

Shaula stops walking. She hears something. Something familiar.

“Shaula?”

Plenty calls out to her. Shaula doesn’t pay attention, gesturing to Plenty to be quiet. She hears it again. The familiar voice. The voice she knew but couldn’t identify.

“...training is… he’s really pushing us to…”

The voice gets louder and softer. Shaula still has trouble keeping track of this voice in the nighttime cacophony. But, it feels louder than it was before.

“...do you think Miss Ro… ”

What? Miss Ro… wait, no!! That was… that was English right there!?

Shaula has only heard English spoken from Ajax before in this world. For some reason, this familiar voice decided to switch from the language of Omicron, which Shaula had already learned fluently, to English, her native language.

Shaula deduces immediately who this voice is likely to be.

A familiar voice speaking English? Who else could it be then? It was obviously one of her classmates!!

Miss Ro… Is Miss Ro… Ms. Rowfield? Wait… wait, that voice is… is it… Arthur!?