Re: Ascension Rebirth – The guard dog princess’ inauguration into the big league

Chapter XI

PART ONE

[Eternum Calendar - Year 988]

“[Shadow Dash]!”

I dashed towards [Soumee] and tried to flank her from her blind spot but as expected, she easily countered my blow by merely shifting the position of the shield. Following that course of action I was blown away by a blunt force attack by said shield.

She’s a tough one, even if my body is like this right now my skills should be equivalent to a veteran knight. Guess that level 111 wasn’t a lie. No, I guess the bigger problem was that I shout out my skills before using them, so it’s way too obvious, still I don’t know how to activate my skills without doing that.

Probably better that I practice speechless skill activation earlier on than to regret not doing it later.

Now then, what were we doing?

Since I was to be accompanying Soumee on her mission she thought it would be a good idea for me to train up and get accustomed to fighting. Mind you that in everyone else’s perspective I was just a lazy princess who had only been staying indoors for the first seven years of my life and thus had no combat experience.

We were about to leave for the mission tomorrow and we had 6 days to train so far. Thanks to that I had a lot of improvements towards me skills and levels, so far it looks like this.

[Status Menu]

Liliana Crow Xix Ariadyne. Level 23

ASSASSIN

Strength: 5

Dexterity: 5

Magic: 5

Insight: 5

Agility: 5

[Status Points: 110]

[Skill List]

(PASSIVE) [Instinct of the Assassin]: Level 14

(ACTIVE) [Shadow Dash]: Level 23

(ACTIVE) [Shadow Cloak]: Level 17

(ACTIVE) [Assassinate]: Level 21

Perhaps it was due to the fact that I already had plenty of combat and training experience in my previous life that I was able to easily level up and gain a lot of skill levels. At the very least most of my muscle memories were intact from my previous life, albeit they were a bit wane since I didn’t train for the first seven years. So while the past 6 days were extremely grueling it was plenty worth it.

You probably also noticed that I didn’t assign any [status points], that’s because it’s still undecided on what I want to prioritize. Besides, whether I had a [strength] stat of 1 or 100 it wouldn’t make a difference when fighting with Soumee. In any case, if I am was going to go down the [Assassin] path then prioritizing [Dexterity] and [Agility] was probably a good idea.

[Dexterity] to enhance my attack damage and accuracy and [Agility] to increase my evasion and movement speed. The problem was how I was going to distribute them; whether it was a good idea to balance the two stats or if I should add more into one stat.

“Is something the matter, Lady Liliana?”

Soumee asked. I was thinking too deeply about how I should distribute my stats that I almost forgot we were in the middle of a sparring session.

“Ahahaha! How lame Liliana!”

From the sideline came a slightly annoying laughter. That insensitive and informal tone, it could only belong to one person. I turned around to see a girl about the same age as myself wearing a fabulously decorated dress, her pink hair resembled the coloration of flowers and her innocent blue eyes seemed to view everything in optimism.

My childhood friend of sorts, actually she was my cousin on my mother’s side. Her name was-

[Lucina Zeph. Level 6, Apprentice Magician].

“Lucina…”

“That’s right~ I’m here now, we can fight togethe-“

“Ah, Lucina you can’t interfere with their training.”

Coming to save the day from the small pink blob was my older sister, [Lyssa]. She was also watching from the sidelines until Lucina interrupted. Trying to give Soumee and myself more space she dragged Lucina off the field and had a small sparring session of their own.

“Now then… “

To be honest I should’ve done this earlier but I guess it’s not too late to try now. Since I’m fairly well acquainted with how [Shadow Dash] I should be able to activate it without shouting it out. Gathering all the strength towards my legs and pushing my center of gravity forward I sprinted towards Soumee with my short sword in hand.

She was waiting for me to shout but this time I kept my mouth closed. I felt an accelerating force push me forward to quickly close the gap between her and I. Taking this opportunity I decided to start with a stab, of course she isn’t even phased by my surprise and appropriately moves her shield forward to block my attack. However I wasn’t done yet, I quickly followed up with [Shadow Cloak].

Even at level 17 it didn’t make me completely invisible, you could still see a slight distortion at my position but I could easily mitigate that but kicking the dirt and causing a smokescreen of sorts. Then while my distortion became covered in the dust I once again activated [Shadow Dash], this time upwards.

While I was airborne Soumee quickly tried to search for my position but I wasn’t anywhere to be found. Thinking that I finally found her blind spot I activated my [Assassinate] and dashed downwards with my entire body weight.

However, to my surprise Soumee almost instantly detected my presence as I prepared for the attack and moved her shield above her head. Despite my [Assassinate] skill ‘ignoring defense rate’ of the enemy it didn’t have the power to go through a solid metal shield. Thus I landed on the shield, possibly even denting it a little.

Unable to balance anymore due to my odd position I fell off the shield and landed on the floor besides Soumee.

“Oww…”

“Are you okay, Lady Liliana?”

“Yeah, you don’t have to worry about me every time. Still, I thought I got you with that last one but you managed to block. It’s like you have superhuman reaction. Just what was that?”

I didn’t really expect an answer but she gave me one.

“I felt your presence.”

“What? You sensed my presence, like you could feel my position?”

“Yes, although your tactic was effective until the point you decided to go for an attack, once you activated your skill I could feel the hostility.”

“Ah… I see.”

That’s crazy, it’s like those old kung fu movies where the protagonist feels the enemy’s presence by sheer intuition. Don’t tell me that’s what she’s doing? It might be necessary to learn a skill that hides my presence and hostility.

“I think we should end training here, Lady Liliana. What do you say?”

“Yeah, I want to take a bath and rest too. Thanks for training me.”

“It is no problem.”

As soon as our sparring session ended I got another notification in the form of an interface box.

[You have gained 2 level(s)]

I guess I should start distributing my stats, they’ve piled up.

For now I decided to split it half and half between [dexterity] and [agility].

PART TWO

“I’m lost…”

Okay, facing reality, no matter how you look at it, I have no idea as to where I am right now. All alone in the wood filled with monsters that could maul off my face at any given moment… or not, since I could probably outrun them with my skills.

Either way though, this isn’t exactly a favorable situation for me. Just how exactly did I end up in such a compromising position? Thinking back it all happened 3 hours ago…

PART THREE

It’d been about half a day since we entered the forest. What forest you ask? And what was I doing here in the first place?

This place was a forest close to a village known as [Cherm Village]. Our mission; Soumee’s mission was to investigate the strange phenomenon that has been appearing right in this forest. According to the local reports, there were sightings of strange monsters lurking about, monsters that were many times stronger than normal monsters.

Due to the potential dangers of this unknown threat, sending in normal knights for investigation were quickly dismissed and instead an all-stars team of [Praetorian Knights] were formed for the sake of this mission, though that being said there were only three. Assigned as the leader was of course, [Soumee].

The next two are known as a pair.

[Eins. Level 43, Blademaster]

[Zwei. Level 44, Unarmed fighting specialist]

They both wore a black military-esque uniform complete with those golden shoulder pad things that high ranking generals in my previous world had. Their overall age seemed to only be around 16 ~ 17, but they were already serving as Praetorian Knights.

The man, Zwei, had a rather easy-going atmosphere about him, dishevelled brown hair and a relaxing smile. It was almost as though if you stared directly at him for too long your heart will also wane and become lazy. Just from a glimpse he had no immediately weaponry ready, but I had heard he was a master of a technique called [unarmed combat].

The woman, or young girl, Eins was a lot more serious looking and had an air of a stern noble. Her silky brown hair dropped down past her waist, she had an icy glare that could even stun the hearts of even the most hardened war veterans. To her waist was a long orient sword, I’d describe it as a Japanese style Katana, but that country doesn’t exist in this world. To be honest it was a little odd to find something like that in this world, especially since this country uses the standard double edged long swords as a base weapon.

In any case, their levels were definitely up to the average standard of Praetorian knights but they were incredibly young. I suppose by that logic I would also be a special case as I was at level 25 at age seven but I have a rather cheat like ability so I don’t think it should be counted.

Still, I have to commend their parents to name them so perfectly, especially when the German language doesn’t even exist in this world, heck I don’t even think they’re related which makes this an even more amazing coincidence. In any case this was our party, the three praetorian knights, myself and my older sister [Lyssa]. A party of 5.

“Soumee, don’t you think it’s time we took a small break, sister looks like she’s about to pass out.”

Perhaps it was because of my level, or my discipline from my previous world but I didn’t feel all that tired in the least. Though Lyssa was covered in sweat. Turning to check Lyssa’s condition, Soumee concluded that it was indeed a decent time to rest up.

“Very well, we’ll have a 10 minute break.”

“T- thank you.”

Lyssa says as she immediately drops down on a nearby boulder and breathes a sigh of relief. I know she’s a well-trained, well-disciplined fighter but she was still a child, besides that armor dress doesn’t look like it’s easy to move around in, as for me since I mostly wore leather-mail there was no problem with weight or movement.

We took out some food and replenished ourselves. As for me I also brought out something to eat, however I wasn’t physically carrying it, I had a special skill for that, [Inventory]. It really is mysterious as to how it works. Basically I can create a little pocket dimension to store items in. I’m not sure if there is a limit to how much I can store but I can even put an entire dinner table in there and it would still be fine.

As I was eating, I noticed to presence of two small enemies, most likely they were goblins, they were the most common type of monsters that lurked in forests. For the most part they weren’t really strong, insanely weak actually. They had sharp teeth and claws but not the strength needed to utilize them to the fullest.

From the looks of it there weren’t any other monsters in the vicinity either, so I had the bright idea of thinking that this was perfect opportunity to get in some actual combat experience. It was a 2v1 but they were goblins so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

“I’m going to check something, I’ll be right back in a minute.”

I told everyone.

“I’ll go with you.”

Soumee interjected as she stood up, since she’s my bodyguard it wasn’t too odd but I wanted to do this alone. There’s no point if Soumee comes along. Really, this was just my pride as a fighter, but this small task I could do with my eyes closed so I don’t need backup.

“It’s fine, I’m just going to pick the flowers.”

“Pick the flowers?”

“Leave it at that Soumee.”

To my aid was Lyssa who stopped Soumee. She understood what I was trying to say, of course that in itself was a lie but this was the only way they would let me go alone. Soumee still didn’t understand what I was talking about so Lyssa whispered into her ears.

“Ah… I see. Then at least please take this.”

Soumee handed to me a small stone like object. It was white and round with a magic symbol in carved into it. I inspected the object carefully to see what it was. When I did a small interface box opened up to reveal the details.

[Magic stone. Contains one spell: [Heaven’s shield]].

“What’s this?”

I asked to confirm.

“It contains a onetime use magic spell. It will shield you from any attack for a short period of time and since that magic stone was created by me, once activated I will sense my own mana and know to come to you.”

Oh, smart.

“Thanks.”

I reply with a cute smile as I excuse myself from the area.

PART FOUR

After walking for a bit I was now alone and noticing my presence the two goblins revealed themselves to me. Paled skin, slightly taller than me, ragged clothes and stone weaponry. They looked rather vicious with their sharp teeth and jagged nails but when I checked their levels all of my anxiety was alleviated.

[Goblin. Level 8, fighter]

[Goblin. Level 7, fighter]

From the looks of things they wouldn’t really pose a threat to Lyssa, much less me. I also checked the surroundings with my [Instincts of the assassin] to see if there were any others waiting in ambush, there were none. Though I shouldn’t really underestimate my opponents or overestimate my own abilities, but so far all victory conditions have been met.

From my [inventory] I pulled out a small dagger. This was given to me by our resident blacksmith.

[Steel Dagger]

+6 [Strength]

+6 [Dexterity]

+6 [Agility]

As far as weapons go this was actually pretty good and sturdy. Deciding that if more goblins show up it would be trouble I decided to go for first blood.

“Ki…”

“Kii, Kii.”

They were whispering amongst themselves in some weird language, perhaps they communicated in frequencies? They didn’t look like they were going to back off, perhaps they’re planning some sort of strategy? I’m not entirely sure on the intelligence level of goblins in this world but they’re usually depicted as dumb in my previous world.

Taking this opportunity I [shadow dashed] towards them. Catching them off guard I immediately stuck the blade into the heart of one of the goblins and immediately the other one backed off in panic. Just to make sure I [shadow dashed] once more to behind the stabbed goblin and stabbed once more into its neck, and made sure it was really dead.

[New skill acquired: [Back Stab(Passive)]]

Back stab?

[Back stab: attacking an enemy from the back will apply bonus damage]

Oh. If I use [Back stab] along with [Assassinate] I can probably dish out a massive amount of damage.

The other goblin became enraged and charged at me with an extremely telegraphed attack. It was going to swing down with its stone club but I easily dodged it, even without using any skills this level of foot work was child’s play. Evading all of its attack I drew closer and stabbed this one in the neck too.

I thought it would die quickly but to my surprise it had enough strength to get in one more hit. I slightly panicked and [shadow dashed] out of there, but this was a little different than my usual [shadow dash], I traveled a further range and it was instant.

[New skill acquired: [Blink(Active)]]

Blink?

Since the goblin was dead by lack of oxygen I took this time to inspect what this new [blink] skill did.

[Blink: allows the user to instantly teleport a moderate distance, if used while in [shadow dash] the user is able to gain longer range]

Oho~ this is quite useful; a teleportation ability.

Feeling triumphant at my victory against two measly goblins I thought it was time to head back to the camp since they were no doubt waiting for me. However, it was then that it happened.

“Gii!”

“Gii! Gigigigi!”

Strange cries were coming from the dead corpses of the goblins. Turning to see what it was I saw something extremely disturbing. Like a parasite had latched itself onto their deceased bodies, the goblins had pieces of yellow crystal growing through their skin in a disgusting manner. As the sun light touched their bodies it yellow gems started to glow which only amplified how gross this looked.

However the strangest part of this was that I couldn’t sense their presence with the [instincts of the assassin] skill, even now I couldn’t feel their presence. It was like they were invisible to detection, are they zombies?

Rather than the vicious expressions they had before, it was now replaced by a vacant stare.

[Crystalline Goblin. Level 21, Cursed unit]

[Crystalline Goblin. Level 20, Cursed unit]

When I checked their levels again, they were a lot higher and their names and class had changed into something else. What’s this? Crystalline? In any case, even though their levels were lower than mine they look a lot stronger and resistant to damage than before. My mind was telling me that running away from them was the smarter choice.

I get it now, this is probably that ‘strange phenomenon’ that had been sighted in this forest.

I turned around to escape the vicinity but as I did there were new monsters here to block my exit. I couldn’t even detect their movement or their presence, dammit, the situation was looking fairly grim.

[Crystalline Dire Wolf. Level 24] x 6

I was captured by complete surprise, but this was also a good place for a little test. The Crystalline monsters stood at bay waiting for me to make a move, using this opportunity I activated [shadow dash] and in the midst of it I activated [blink] on top, causing me to teleport at least 30 meters forward. Immediately following up on that I activated [shadow cloak] to further aid my escape.

The Crystalline monsters were thrown in to disarray as I had completely disappeared. However I was too distracted by how those monsters were reacting that I lost track of my environment and fell down a nearby cliff. It was fairly steep fall of about 50 meters but using my acrobatic skills I was able to avoid the worst.

PART FIVE

Thus I ended up wandering around for the past three hours trying to find my way back to the main camp. How did it all end up like this? I was just having lunch a few hours ago… I guess I already explained that.

Though it was a little worrisome because those crystalline monsters were close the main camp. I don’t think Soumee would have too much trouble being able to dispose of them, but those monsters whose presence couldn’t be detected, if they were to spread out of this area it could spell trouble for a lot of reasons.

Wondering around aimlessly I heard a voice all out to me.

“Liliana?!”

“Sister?!”

I looked around to see Lyssa all by herself, her clothes were visibly tattered and she was staggering about. I immediately ran to her and supported her from falling over. She looked at me. She was visibly fatigued, or at least that’s what it appeared to be. The left side of her forehead was scratched and blood was dripping from her legs.

“Just what happened?”

I asked.

“Monsters appeared, strange monsters with crystals attached to them.”

“I see.”

It must’ve been the group that was attacking me, but where are the others? Where is Eins and Zwei? And even Soumee separated from her? That doesn’t seem like something they would do. It could be that more monsters appeared and overwhelmed them, still… something was amiss here.

I just couldn’t put my… finger… on it…

[Noel. Level 32, Illusionist]

What… the?

That wasn’t Lyssa… I took out my knife and stabbed her right through the stomach.

“Ugh?!”

I then used [shadow dash] to back off. She’s a higher level than me and I have no idea what an ‘illusionist’ is capable of. I made distance to prepare for what kind of attacks she had for me.

“Why…?”

She was grabbing her stomach in pain, blood started to pour out but she applied pressure to stop it.

“Why? Because you’re not my sister. Don’t think you can fool me that easily, illusionist.”

I’ve no clue why she would pose as my sister but it was probably not a good reason. She also knew my name, just how much were we compromised?

“Where’s my sister?”

“H- how did you?”

At the very least the damage that I dealt to her was real. As an expert I made sure to stab a place on her body where she wouldn’t immediately bleed out. Don’t underestimate a veteran. Still, I must’ve been the worst match for an illusion, as long as I can see their names and titles I won’t have a problem of being fooled.

The illusionist, noel, transformed back into her original form, or at least I assumed that’s what it was. She had purpose hair tied up into a side tail and wore a half-mask, just enough to cover the left side of her face. Her eyes were blood red and they were glaring at me with intense anger.

Scary.

She wore and odd red robe which contrasted extremely poorly with the green of the forest. The extent some people would go through just for their own fashion was astounding. Still, I couldn’t relent or relax in this situation, as an expert, it was better to have the enemy fear you than you fear the enemy. In other words intimidation and asserting dominance.

“Noel the illusion, I will ask you again. Where is my sister? Comply and I may spare your miserable life.”

She found it shocking that I revealed her name.

“What are you?”

“That’s none of your business, now tell me where she is.”

“I refus-“

Before she could even finish that sentence I [blinked] behind her and placed the steel dagger up to her neck. She was fairly short so even for me I was able to reach up and threaten her life.

“What the hell… aren’t you just supposed to be a naïve princess?”

“It seems you aren’t taking this seriously enough.”

I slide the dagger just a few centimeters and blood started to trickle from her neck and noticing that she was about to die she started to tremble.

“I’d rather not kill people if I could help it, but if I have to then I will do it with a smile. Now I will not asking you any more after this so I suggest you start talking, where is my sister?”

“F- follow me.”

* * *

I was taken to a small camp on the edge of the forest and next to a high cliff. It was pretty well-concealed, there was a small tent and campfire, but the one thing that caught my interest the most was the sight of a large floating yellow crystal. It slowly rotated as it emitted a strange light.

From it I could feel some sort of energy emanating, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that this was what was causing the appearance of those strange crystalline monsters. If I had to hazard a guess, anything, that dies within its vicinity will turn into those crystalline monsters.

“What’s that?”

I asked.

“Why should I tell you?”

“Because I have a knife.”

“It’s… it’s a [monolith]. I’ve been experimenting with it in this forest.”

“For what purpose.”

She hesitated the answer the question and instead opted to change the topic.

“Didn’t you want to find your sister? Well she’s in that tent.’

She pointed towards the only tent in the camp.

I [shadow dashed] to the tent and as she said my sister was there, tied up and gagged. How horrible. I undid her binds and Lyssa leapt into my and embraced me.

“Liliana!”

I checked to make sure but she was the real Lyssa.

“Sister, what happened? Where’s Soumee, Eins and Zwei?”

We were overran by those strange crystal monsters, there were hundreds so even they couldn’t help me. I decided it was for the best if I ran and left them to fight without distractions but I got caught instead.”

“I see…”

“Are you done with your little reunion? Because I think it’s time I repaid the favor.”

Noel stated and as she did dozens of crystalline monsters appeared to her command. They were all waiting in line for her orders, no doubt about it that she was using this giant yellow crystal to control these monsters. My guess is that if I can destroy it, she will either lose control of the monsters or the monsters will simply die.

Still, the monsters gathered were all over my level. Guess it can’t be helped then; I had to fight. But first Lyssa who was injured was in no state to fight and she would only become a burden if she was factored into this battle.

I took out a small stone from my [inventory], the [magic stone] that Soumee gave me earlier. If I recall correctly this stone should provide a temporary barrier and will alert Soumee to our presence.

I activated the stone and cast the [heaven shield] skill around Lyssa.

“What? Liliana, why did you do that! You should’ve saved yourself!”

I gave her a small smile and replied.

“More than myself, I’m more scared of losing those closest to me. I… I don’t ever want to experience that feeling again. I will not fail a second time.”

It was odd, during such a time I was reminiscing about my time with Sir Aran. I wonder what he would say if he could see me now? I guess he’d probably laugh at me and call me ‘naïve’ but then would tell me I did a good job. He was… an odd person like that. Scary but once you got to know him he would open up to you, it was for that reason I could do my best as his guard… but that’s a moot point now.

I failed him, but I won’t fail again.

Tired of waiting for me to make my move, Noel commanded her monsters to attack me. This battle was obviously one that I could never win, even if I applied myself the best as I could. Those monsters are already dead so even with conventional weapons they won’t die. That means that this was a battle of attrition, I just need to conserve my stamina until Soumee and the others arrived.

The monsters started to dash towards me but in return I managed to [shadow dash] away. I would go immediately for Noel if I had the chance but she was smart enough to leave a few guard monsters so I couldn’t really get close.

Still, I was extremely lucky that I decided to go with the [assassin] class. If I had chosen [knight] or [brawler] I probably wouldn’t be able to move like this and would be mauled to death in a matter of moments.

Actually this was going better than I expected. With the combination of [shadow dash], [blink] and [shadow cloak] I was able to hold up for a lot longer than I thought. However that was simply my mistake, eventually I got tired and started to drop my speed, despite this the monsters didn’t lose stamina, instead they seemed faster.

A crystalline goblin managed to get in a strike and I was thrown about like a rag doll towards Lyssa’s location. It hurt like hell, I couldn’t even move my fingers.

“Liliana! Liliana!”

Lyssa cried out my name in panic, but all I could hear was a muffled voice and my vision starting to blur. Soon I was welcomed to a world of the void.

PART SIX

In my previous life, I was always alone. Never had siblings or even parents, didn’t have friends either. My parents passed away when I was only four and since then I was taken in by my relatives and passed around like some hot potato.

Perhaps they thought I was some kind of small animal that needed to be taken care of, however once that kind of novelty wore off they wanted to get rid of me as soon as possible. I always cried myself to sleep pondering what I did wrong, I wasn’t some prodigy, I wasn’t dumb, I was just a normal child.

In the end I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to live out on my own. There were some money left over from my parents so I thought I could manage that until I was older. Though that was the start of my mistake. School wasn’t much better, I was bulled by the others to the point that I had to quit school entirely.

I often thought to myself, if I had parents I may have been able to endure the stress but for a lone child that was impossible to deal with. Thinking back I made the right choice to drop out of school, I probably really would’ve ended myself if I stayed any longer in that hellhole.

I only ever got as far as middle school. It was around the age of 13 that I started getting into otaku culture, I would watch anime, read manga/light novels and play games throughout the entire day. By the time I caught track of time the sun would’ve already risen.

What was it about that kind of stuff that captivated me? Well, it was entrancing, the protagonist in those kinds of stories would always win, even if they were also bullied or had tragic pasts they would always pull themselves back together and make tons of friends.

However reality didn’t work like that. Even though I was going through the same thing why was it that things never went the way I wanted? I was just unfair. Why didn’t I have any friends that would help me pull through the hardships?

No one bat an eye when I was going through hell. Not even the teachers at school would lend me a hand, they probably all thought it was bothersome and rejoiced the day I was gone; just one less problem to worry about.

Like that I spent the next 10 years holed up in a single room. I grew fatter and lazier as time passed, by the time I had realized it and looked in the mirror, not a single shred of what I used to be remained. All I saw was something I came to despise. It was a vicious cycle, every time I became self aware I would avert my gaze and escaped further into my own hobbies, gorging myself on food in the process.

When I was about to turn 23, I noticed I was soon going to be out of my parent’s inheritance and that I would need to start working to continue living. But how could I? I became fat and ugly, not only that, I didn’t even have any sort of life skills. A middle school dropout, who would hire such a person? I wouldn’t.

I now had two choices in front of me.

The first would be to continue on as I have, eventually I would burn through the inheritance I had and become a vagrant. Perhaps then, if good felt merciful I would end up dead as well. It was the first time I had even considered to possibility of facing reality. It hurt to even say those words to myself, but thinking about how I would end up was a real wake up call.

The second choice was the slim down, then I could start working part time, I probably didn’t have much of a future prospect in store for me but at least I could earn enough money to escape reality from time to time. That kind of lifestyle didn’t seem all that bad when I thought about the alternative.

The choice was an obvious one but it was also extremely hard. I was lazy. It was hard to even move and I would have chronic pains, in such a state, could I even slim down enough? Such thoughts kept me from even trying.

However, I still had some pride left. I had to go through with my choice no matter what, else I would end up dead in a gutter somewhere. As a result I started some light jogs in the morning, every day without fail, through rain or hail I would do it.

It was tough, very tough. There were days I wanted to quit, no that wasn’t true, I wanted to quit every day, but I refused to give in, because the moment I stopped was the moment I died. Thinking about it now, I think I would’ve eventually quit if it wasn’t for a single event that helped me through.

I remember it well because it was snowing that morning. One day as I was jogging through my usual route I slipped on the ice and fell down. There was no one out there in the cold to even help me up. It was at that moment I finally realized that I was truly alone in this world. No one would give a crap if I stopped breathing right there.

Even if I decided to never move my body from that exact spot, no one would cry for me. I thought back to all the times I had a chance to change myself.

After dropping out of middle school, I could’ve gotten a job. I should’ve swallowed my pride and contacted one of my relatives. I should’ve done something but I spent my days wasting away in that dark room.

As it dawned on me, tears came running down my face. I was disturbed at myself. It wasn’t that the world had given up on me, it was me who gave up on even trying. I could only wryly laugh at my pathetic self as the snow continued to fall.

“Are you alright?”

It was then I heard the voice reaching out to me. It was the voice of a man, a foreigner? At first I was a little scared, if I had died like this I would only be disgracing myself but if I died right now I would be disgracing my own countrymen.

I was stunned at what I saw. Extremely well toned muscles, perfectly chiselled jaw line, cool green eyes and black hair.

The man came up and stared at me with sympathetic eyes. He was a few years older than me by the looks of it by the looks of it but I couldn’t really confirm that. From the looks of how he was dressed he was also going out for a light jog, even though it was snowing he went out for it. He was already considerably fit as well, I was amazed at his dedication and felt a little pathetic that I was about to give up because I fell.

He helped me up, even though I thought of myself as disgusting, he didn’t. He wiped the snow off my shoulders and gave me a light pat on the back.

“Shall we continue?”

He asked in a friendly voice. I remember it so clearly, I had a dumb expression on my face as I jogged from behind him. Or maybe it would be more apt to say that I was chasing after him… my savior.

“Whew, that was a good run. You have pretty good stamina.”

He gave me a compliment as we finished the course. I didn’t even know how many laps we ran, I didn’t even care, I was only chasing after him.

“Well then, it’s time for me to be going now. See you.”

“U- um!”

I stopped him as he was about to leave. Why? I don’t know, perhaps I felt some sort of attraction? Even if I did there was no way he would reciprocate my feelings. I wouldn’t I were him.

“Yes?”

He had a quizzical look on his face.

“D- do you come here to jog often? If you do, do you mind if we do so together?”

He paused for a moment before answering. I thought he would reject me but he didn’t.

“Ah, yes I come here to jog every morning at around 6:30, I would be glad to have a jogging partner.”

“R- really?”

He gave me a carefree smile as he answered.

“Sure.”

It was the first time I felt such kindness. I thought I could cry from happiness from just that alone. After that day, every day for two years I jogged with him. Eventually we became quite close. His name was [Aran Callahad], I thought I had heard that name before but at the time I couldn’t figure it out. It was only later that I realized what kind of titan I was dealing with, such an extraordinary man.

I actually confessed everything about myself to him.

About how my parents died when I was young.

About how I dropped out of middle school.

About how I became pathetic.

I didn’t even know why I was telling a stranger all this, but I felt like I needed to tell someone; to get this off my shoulders. That person didn’t look at me in scorn even after I told him all that. I gently stroke my hair as he said it would be alright. He told me he’ll continue jogging with me until I slim down. After that I cried. I cried till no more tears came out.

I couldn’t thank that person enough.

“How about a party to celebrate?”

He said as a joke, of course I declined. I just managed to lose all that weight after all. He then gave me a business card, I thought it was his but he shook his head, it was a friend of his.

Since I now needed to find a job, he asked me if I was interested in a physically oriented field. At first I didn’t know what he was saying but it turns out that his friend owned a security company and was looking for new employees. I had slimmed down and gained a bit of muscles with extra training so it wasn’t a bad idea for me who had no real life skills.

“A security firm, huh.”

I sighed.

“Do you not like them?”

“Oh, no I was just a little nervous. I will definitely take this opportunity, thank you very much.”

“I’m sure you’ll do well, I’ll even put in a good word for you. Besides with these things you learn as you go on and in your case you even have a good base physique.”

I blushed a little at his compliments.

“Aha, thank you very much.”

After that day I never met that man again until a couple of years after. I think he was only continuing to jog for my sake, he never returned to our jogging route, of course I continued on just for the sake of it.

“An angel.”

I said to myself, I met an angel.

The security firm was a little subsidiary company for a larger enterprise known as [Mobius industries], and when I finally learnt that [Aran Callahad] was the CEO of that company my eyes rolled out of my sockets. It was unfathomable as to why such an important person in the world was helping someone like me.

The job was fairly exciting, every day we got to handle different types of weapons. I thought jobs like these only existed in the world of anime but they really existed. Eventually after a long time I got promoted enough to become the bodyguard of an extremely important figure.

[Aran Callahad]. When I was reunited with him, he didn’t seem to recognize me at first sight, but I couldn’t really blame him for that, he was a busy person who probably met hundreds of people daily. I too had also changed quite a bit over the years.

Still, it was enough for me to be able to just stay by my angel’s side. Even when I learnt that he was to be married soon, though it was a little depressing I decided to support him with my entire being, for he was the person who I thought desired that happiness above all.

However after that, you all know what really happened.

I died and was reborn into this world. I couldn’t save him, the one person I treasured, I had failed him.

PART SEVEN

Now then, why did I confess to all of that? As I lied on the floor with blood spewing from my stomach I wondered the same question. Was this the thing that’s supposed to happen when someone was on the verge of death? You know, a person’s life flashing before their eyes.

I don’t know, however there is one thing I wanted to do before I died again. That was to save this child. Unlike me who actually had the experience of a full life, Lyssa was still a child, I wanted to save her at least.

Save her like Sir Aran saved me. I slowly dragged my body up again.

“Liliana! Are you okay?!”

“I’m… fine. Just give me a… moment.” S

I took a few moments to catch my breath. I didn’t have any sort of healing magic, this wasn’t looking too good.

“Hahaha!”

I let out a small pathetic laugh, even though I found conviction to save this child with my body in this state, what could I possibly even do?

“What are you laughing at?!”

Noel starts to get agitated, what was I laughing at? Indeed, what was I laughing at?

“It’s because I find this entire situation to be hilarious. I who should’ve died a long time ago is still standing, still fighting. Perhaps now I could finally find the place to die peacefully, knowing that I did not fail a second time.”

Soumee will come soon. I know it.

“Enough of your nonsensical babbling! Die!”

I closed my eyes to embrace my own death, but this time I was going down honorably. However that death never came, when I opened my eyes I saw a shining figure in front of me, protecting me.

“Soumee…?”

“I’m sorry for being late, Lady Liliana. I will take care of everything.”

“I see… thank you.”

Being able to relax I fell unconscious.

PART EIGHT

It seems that I’ve lost consciousness.

So then why am I talking as though I haven’t, you ask? Good question, I want to know the answer myself. Or maybe I was dead. That does make sense as well. Everything was dark; in every direction it was just a massive void.

From the darkness words appeared. Literally, glowing words appeared in front of me.

[System patch… 15%]

[System patch… 45%]

[System patch… 85%]

[System patch… complete]

[System updated]

Ominous robotic-like words appeared before me.

I was understandably shook by this point.

[Operator System Ver. 2 initializing…]

[Initialization complete]

That’s good… I think?

[Please select secondary class]

[Magician]

[Knight]

[Archer]

[Cleric]

[Necromancer]

[Brawler]

[Alchemy]

[Puppeteer]

[Bard]

What…

‘Secondary class’?!

I’ve heard of this. It’s actually quite a rare system but some games do have this.

The coveted [Dual Class System].

It’s a game setting that allows the player to choose two classes instead of the standard one. Developers sometimes add in such a feature to make the game more unique compared to others.

Actually I had been thinking about this for a while now and I’ve already picked a suitable class. I was going to choose [Alchemist] for its utility. I had no healing spells but I should be able to synthesize items like magic stones for those and I could even synthesize offensive magic with those too.

[Alchemy] it is!

I tapped on the [Alchemy] tab.

[Do you wish to finalize this decision?]

[Yes]

With that I once again lost my consciousness.

I’m still alive.

I will survive in this world and I will protect everyone close to me.

Watch me Sir Aran, I will live to the best of my ability.

END REPORT

[Status Menu]

Liliana Crow Xix Ariadyne. Level 25

ASSASSIN

ALCHEMIST

Strength: 11 (5 + 6)

Dexterity: 71 (65 + 6)

Magic: 5

Insight: 5

Agility: 71 (65 + 6)

[Status Points: 0]

[Skill List]

(PASSIVE) [Instinct of the Assassin]: Level 14

(PASSIVE) [Back Stab]: Level 2

(ACTIVE) [Shadow Dash]: Level 23

(ACTIVE) [Shadow Cloak]: Level 17

(ACTIVE) [Assassinate]: Level 21

(ACTIVE) [Blink]: Level 2

[Equipment]

[Steel Dagger]

+6 [Strength]

+6 [Dexterity]

+6 [Agility]