“So let me get this straight: You were part of a slave group, got hurt by the people in charge, ran into a cave with a dragon—which protected you—you came out with scales, were found and treated well by the Alsovs, got captured by some people and taken to a weird place, found a sword—”

“Gus. Met Gus.”

“You met ‘Gus,’ who helped you break out, then took over your body for a while, before bringing you through a cave system and teaching you some magic, just to pop out and be attacked by thieves and then the guys from the weird building, and then you were saved and watched on as Gus tortured your enemies to death.”

“Mhmm.”

“…”

“Are you ok, Selaena?”

“…”

“Yeah, just give me a minute to regain my sanity.”

“Nn.”

I don’t know what sanity is, but I do know that ‘give me a minute’ means to stop talking, so I’ll find something else to do. *sniff* Gus… What would Gus say right now? Hmm. I guess he’d say “What are you sitting around for with your pitiful fizzy-fizk-fizz-physique. Yeah, something like that. I guess I should do some circulating exercises in the meantime…

One pass. Two passes. Three passes … 20 … 83 … 125! *slump* I guess that’s better than last time. Still nowhere near 500, though! That’s what Gus told me. A beginner should be able to do at least 500 passes, and that within an hour. Any more than a hundred makes my brain hurt, though, so I have to do it two or three times a day!

“Chalia?”

“Yes?”

“How many passes did you do?”

Oh, my face is turning red. I’m embarrassed!

“125,” I whisper. “I know is still really low and pitiful, but I’m trying hard, I really am! I’ll get there soon!”

Selaena’s making a weird face.

“You’ll get where? How many?”

“500”

“500?!”

Her eyes got real big. Is that too low? Is that even worse than a beginner?

“Who told you to do 500?”

“Gus did!”

Oh, no, she’s angry! Not good! Not good!

“I’m sorry, I really trying! Please don’t hurt me! Please don’t!”

*Oomph*

She’s… hugging me? Is she like Mina?

“Chalia! You are so amazing! You’ve gone through so much, and yet you try to be so positive! If I were in the same place as you… I don’t know if I could have even made it! You’re really good!”

Why are you crying? I guess she is like Mina… There really are a lot of weird and nice people!

“Good?”

“Not good—really good! How old are you?”

“I never got an age.”

“Oh, Chalia. I’m going to guess you are eight years old. Most people around your age can do ten passes at once. Did you hear that? Ten passes! Yet you’ve done 125? That is phenomenal!”

Good? She said I was really good. But Gus said I was pitiful… Well, she is really nice though. I like her!

“Thank you? Oh, and what are we doing today?”

“First, let’s get something to eat!”

“Eat? But I haven’t done anything yet…” I know what happens when you eat before earning your food—and it’s never a good thing, so that would be pretty dangerous.

“Uh, you always work before eating?”

“Mhmm. If you don’t work before you eat, you’ll get beaten up! So, I always make sure to work before I eat.”

“Uh, well, you already did mana exercises, so that’s good! Let’s go eat!”

“But—”

“No but’s—we are going downstairs to eat. If you don’t eat you won’t be able to work as well!”

“Oh, Is that how—Ai!” I couldn’t even finish talking before she dragged me out of my room! I guess I can’t get out of this… Oh, I hope I don’t get beaten up! It’s not fun at all!”

“Alright, sit down here.”

Oh, shiny! The plates and the silverware are all so pretty! I’ve seen these before when I served some guests. They were really mean, but I know it wasn’t the fault of the plates and silverware! But there is a problem here.

“I can’t sit here! That’s where the guests sit!”

“Chalia! Sit down before I—I…”

Ok, not good, not good! I’ll sit down right now!

“Chalia.”

“Y-yes?”

“Let’s sit on the benches over here. Is that better?”

“Mhmm.”

*sigh* “What am I going to do with you?”

Why does everyone say that? Am I complicated?

“Susan!”

“Yes Selaena?”

“Could you bring us some breakfast? And make it one plate each. Yes, I know it’s weird, but there’s a reason. Don’t ask.”

“Ok, coming right up!”

Huh? WHAT?! THEY are serving US?! This is not right! Not good, not good at all!

“Chalia? … Chalia? … Chaaaliaaa”

*oomph* She’s hugging me. Again. I mean, it’s really nice, but why?

“You are stiffer than the leg of an ice-crawler!”

“Listen, Love: You are not a slave! All those things you were taught by the people you escaped from were wrong! You don’t have to work before you eat, you have to eat to be able to work! You don’t have to always be the one serving people, it’s ok for people to serve you too! And you are precious, and cute, and awesome, and people love you a lot!”

“Love?”

“Love. You know that feeling you got from the person you cooked food with before you ran away?”

“Twenty-Six!”

“Mhmm, you know how you felt when you were around her?”

“Like, really warm and nice and my stomach didn’t hurt as much?”

*Pffft* Yeah, the warm and nice part. That means you love someone. And when people love you, they will make sure your stomach doesn’t hurt too! So right now, I am making sure you have food, because I love you!

“And you know what? No one is going to beat you up here! Most people do not beat other people up, because it is not good! So if anyone tries to beat you up, we will stop them and put them in jail!”

“No one will beat me up?”

“Not in the army base, at least! And if you get stronger, you can even stop other people from trying to beat you up!”

“But if I stop them…”

“Chalia! Who told you that you that bad things would happen if you didn’t let people beat you up?”

“The mean people.”

“The mean people, yes. And remember what I said? Everything they told you is wrong! Completely wrong!”

“They were wrong?”

“Yes! Completely!”

*Cough, cough* The lady is here with the food.

“Oh, Susan, please give Chalia, hers first.”

What? What is happening? Give me mine first? That has never happened before! If I take then, then… It’s in front of me. I-I don’t want to take it. I don’t want to. It’s not right! But I guess I have to. Ah! My hands are shaking, I don’t know If I can hold onto it!

Oh, Selaena is helping me hold it. This is so embarrassing, and terrifying! What if I drop it? My hands are shaking so bad! Selaena and Susan are talking about something, but I can’t hear anymore. I’m just trying not to drop the plate. Huh?

*Crash* “Ahh! I-I’ll-I’ll g-g-g-go a-and”

I’m so dead! They’re going to kill me for sure!”

“Ooops, you dropped your plate! Just wait for a bit. I’ll go get you another one and send someone to clean that up for you!”

I knew it! Susan just said that…Wait, what did she say?!

“Chaaalia.”

“Y-Yes, S-S-Selaena?”

“You just got beaten up really bad didn’t you?”

“Yes I—Huh, I m-m-mean n-not-not yet…”

“That’s right, you didn’t. And you know what?”

“What?”

“No one is going to.”

“They’re not going to beat me up?” I look up cautiously. Is this a trick? It has to be!

“Are you Chalia?”

“Huh? I-I mean yes!” Who is she? She is young and looks so pretty!

“Hi, I’m Lannie! I was sent to clean up the mess on the floor, but first—”

Oh no, here it comes.

*Ooomph*

What in the world?! “Why aren’t you hitting me?!” I can help but blurt out.

*Ooof* She hold’s my shoulders out at arm’s length.

“Hit? Who would dare to hit someone as cute as you? That’s only what bad people do! Do I look like a bad person to you? I’m going to cry if you say yes!”

“No… You look nice…”

*Ooomph* What is with all these hugs?! If I don’t die from beatings I’m going to die from hugging suffocation!

“Only bad people?”

“Yes! Only bad people hit cute girls! And most people are good people!”

Only bad people. Most are good people? Is that how it works? Did I get hit so much just because there were bad people? Is this place… Safe?

“It’s ok. You are ok, and we will keep you safe from those bad people!”

Safe.

*** *** ***

After that I cried a little. Ok, maybe it was a lot… I was just so happy. Safe. I never really knew what “safe” felt like before, and it was so nice. Lannie held me and Selaena stroked my back saying really nice things. Then they got me to sit at the table to eat my breakfast. I still didn’t like it, but Susan said I could eat with the kitchen staff afterward if I ate my breakfast at the big table this time.

Now Selaena is going to show me around the city and get me signed up with the guild, like Gerald said to do. Oh Gerald, I hope he’s ok!

“Alright Chalia, where do you want to go first?”

“The Guild! Gerald told me to go there.”

“Haha, ok, ok, we’ll go to the guild first. That silly old man…”

We went out of that place and I followed Selaena through the city.

“Chalia, are you ok?”

“There are so many people!”

“Here, grab my hand. Is that better?”

“Mhmm.”

“Good! Let’s go.”

Selaena looked over with such a nice smile! I really super like her! And I’m so glad she’s here. I don’t know how long it would have taken me to find the right place without her!

“We are here!”

“Wooooah!” It’s so big! There are five whole levels, and the building is so many times bigger than the whole arenas we used to build. It’s also very open. I don’t see any doors on the outside, so it is easy for a lot of people to go in and come out at the same time. And boy are there a lot of people here! It seems like everyone is here for the guild!

“Here we have the Administration building of the guild!”

“There are other buildings too?!”

“Of course, there are! This isn’t just a small branch of the guild, this is one of the nine major hubs—almost everyone is precisely because of the guild. There is no way this building would be big enough to hold all people in the city, is there?”

“Wow.”

“Haha, Chalia, you are too cute! Come on, let’s get you registered.”

“Okay!”

“Schraeder!”

“Yes? Oh, Selaena! I wasn’t expecting…”

“No, no, I’m not exactly here on official business.”

“Oh, thank the heavens. You had me scared there! What’s going on? How can I help you today?”

“I’m here to register Gerald’s newest dispatch!”

“Oh?”

He’s looking at me. He’s looking at me! I’m feeling a little uncomfortable…

“This is Chalia! And by the look on your face, I believe you have already noticed she’s not your typical person.”

“Well, hello there, miss Chalia! I’m Mister Schraeder, the general manager of this floor, nice to meet you!”

He reached out his hand. Am I supposed to shake it? I think I’m supposed to…

I reach out and shake his hand. Then Selaena said something that made him act like he got frozen somehow, and the color of his face got lighter. Why? I don’t know. In fact, I don’t even understand what she meant by what she said!

“I have been assigned to take care of her by Master Loroven. She’s our adorable little Tier 6 threat!”

“…”

“What?”

“You heard me,” she said with a bright smile. “Remember what happened yesterday?”

“How could I not? We had to shut down the entire building instantly! Do you know how much of a headache… Oh. Wait, are you saying that she…?”

“Well, it wasn’t exactly her, but yeah, she was definitely related to it, so we are going to treat Chalia very well!”

*Ooomph*

I like hugs, I really do! But I have ab-so-lutely no idea why Nina, Selaena, and Lannie would keep hugging me at these random times. It makes no sense!

“So anyways, we are here to get her tested and registered with the guild. Could you help us out with that?”

“Yes ma’am! And I will see to it that she has the best of treatment along the way!”

“What is a Tier 6 threat?”

“Well, you’ll learn later, but for now, let’s just say it’s something really important to the guild.”

“I’m important to the guild?”

“Of course you are! You are so cute and strong and amazing, how couldn’t you be important? Look! They are waving us over to the testing area! Let’s see what rank you will start at!”

“Okay!”

Testing? Rank? Gerald didn’t say anything about those things, but he did say to register here, so if this is part of registering then it must not be too bad!

We walked over to the man who was waving at us, and he led us through a lot of doors and walkways until we ended up in a field. Well, it was inside, so I don’t know if it was actually a field, but it had grass.

“Alright, Chalia, we are going to start by sparring a bit so I can get an idea of your fighting style. Here, take this dull sword and attack me with it. Don’t hold back! And I will attack you as well. Don’t worry, though, I’m not going to hurt you. Much, at least…”

“Ok!”

This is just like I did with Gerald! I’ve done this before! Unfortunately, tests don’t take very long. We only played for a quarter of an hour before he said to stop. It was fun while it lasted, though!

“Hmm, mind if I ask who your teacher was?”

“Gerald taught me!”

“Oh, I see. No wonder it felt like a military style. That guy…”

“Do you know Gerald too?”

“No, not personally, but most of us know who he is. He has sent many beastkin to our city, and quite a number of them have turned out to be excellent fighters! If I’m not mistaken, you will be too! You are much stronger than most people your age, and you have a decent grasp of the techniques he taught you. You still have a lot to learn, but I definitely see potential in you!

“By the way, I know your usual style is to fight with swords, but do you know any magic?”

“Mhmm, I know a spell for cleaning myself off, I can make a fireball with magic, and I can make fire magic go through my sword!”

“You can channel magic?! Why didn’t you do that when you were fighting me?”

“Because you have to stab the sword in before heating it up, and Gus said that will kill people. Since we were just playing I didn’t use it.”

“Just playing?” He put his hand over his face. I wonder what he’s thinking?

“Alright, have you gone hunting before?”

“Uh, hunting?”

“Have you killed creatures like these?” He pulled a stack of pictures out of nowhere and started showing them to me.

“Uh, I killed something like that, but it had two extra eyes.” His eyes got big. Did I say something wrong?

He put those back and pulled out a different stack of pictures.

How about any of these?

“Yeah! I killed one of those, and one of these, oh, and Gus helped me with that one. He said it was too hard for me.”

He’s just sitting there for some reason. I really hope I didn’t say anything wrong!

“Alright, let’s see how you fare against mana beasts.”

We leave that area and go through a bunch of other hallways to yet another outside space that is actually inside, but this one is different. It has stone walls and doorways covered by bars.

“This is one of our testing grounds. There are mana beasts behind those gates. The beasts you recognized seem stronger than the impression I got from fighting you, so we’ll start you off with something smaller. Remember, if you feel you are in danger call “help” and I’ll jump in. Got it?”

“So I’m going to fight a monster?”

“Yes.”

“Ok, ready”

He looked up toward a platform above the gates and yelled out, “Alright, Krisselt, let out a T3 Growler”

One of the gates slowly lifted up with a *creak* and a *rumble*, and a creature came out. It looked kind of like a cat, but it had muscles and looked really mean.

“Do I go now?”

“Yes, go!”

Ooh, it noticed me already!

Ok, ok, what would Gus tell me? Hmm. Oh! Dragon realms!

Kill. Kill. Devour. Devour. Let’s do this!

*Beep beep beep beep* *Whoosh*

“Aaah!” A bunch of people just showed up around me! What’s going on? Ugh, I can’t process. Dragon realms, retract, retract!

“Aah!” Someone just jumped right in front of me! Oh, it’s Schraeder. He’s nice, I think?

“FREEZE!” Ouch, my ears!

“Schraeder? What’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you in a bit, but first put away your weapons, dammit!”

“Yes sir!” *Shink* *C-c-clank*

“Chalia!” *Oomph*

“Selaena, what’s going on? What are these people doing?”

“You’re ok, they just aren’t used to having nice dragons in the city, so when your dragon aura came out, they got scared.”

Dragon aura? Did she mean my dragon realms?

“Oh.”

“Alright guys, here’s what’s going on. We have a new addition to our guild, and she’s a bit special—in a good way though. Meet Chalia, our resident dragonkin!”

“Hmm?” “Oh” “What? A dragonkin?!” “Shh, Richard, you’re scaring her!” “I mean, ehem, there’s a dragonkin, that so awesome!” “You’re hopeless.” “A dragonkin? Aww, she’s so cute!”

They’re looking at me. Why are they looking at me? Are they mean people?

“Hello there, what’s your name?”

Is she nice? She seems ok, but…

“This is Chalia!”

“Aww, even the name is so adorable! Can I have a hug?”

“Chalia, this is Wren, she’s a nice person, why don’t you say hi to her?”

“Hi—” *Oomph!* Why in the three worlds are all these people hugging me?! I don’t even know you!

“Wren! Give her some space, you’re scaring her even more than Richard!”

“Oh, yes ma’am Selaena! I’m sorry!”

She said she’s sorry, but she’s still looking at me like a predator! You are scary Wren!

*Grrr* “Geos, throw the growler back in its cell.”

*Shriek* *Thud* *Clank* “Damn, I didn’t mean for you to literally throw it! Ah, whatever. Lidwell, do you think you have enough information to give her a ranking? I’d say that’s enough of this for today.”

“Haha, agreed. I can’t give you an exact estimate, but I’d rank her as a restricted C. Her swordsmanship didn’t seem strong enough for her to solo Class 5s, but her aura has utility value worthy of a C-rank group.”

“Alright then. Chalia, do you have a last name?”

“Hmm?” People can have more name than one? Oh, I just remembered! Gerald had a second one too. He must be a-maz-ing to have gotten two whole names!

“I’ll take that as a ‘no,’ haha. Well then, let’s get you a badge.”