Mia landed on the ground with a loud thud, she was mentally exhausted, but she did it. After everything, she had done it.

“Mi- what the hell?!” “Holy…” “What happened…”

‘That would be the cats…’ she closed her eyes and laid back, she was tempted to go to bed then and there but there was still worked to be done “Hi~” she lazily spoke, raising a hand and giving a slight wave before she lost all strength in her arm, causing it to flop to the ground. She could tell they approached her, one lagging behind that was probably La.

“Mia? What the hell is all this?! Who are these people? Why are they…dead?”

“We got your note at the spider… couldn’t really read it but, did you do all this? La I thought you said she was low level.”

“Mhm, did.”

‘Ah right, have to somehow explain this…’ something she was not, in anyway, good at, she also felt like she didn’t have a lot of time to do so, the light was still falling, and she knew for a fact there was more church members than just these 2 “Hard to explain, probably won’t believe me but, even if you don’t, please leave this place.”

“These… church robes.”

“La, are you sure? Mia you have a lot more to do then just explain.”

“Might not have a lot of time, ha… but kay.” Mia forced herself to sit up and opened her eyes. Si was looking towards her from a distance, standing away from the corpses and her. La was at the bodies, her religious symbol pulled out as she stood over them. Ra was the closest to her, hand on his sword but not pointed at her, for now. “I’ll start with the easiest, this light? It is some kind of magic cast by the church of Gaia and their invading force.”

“Gaia would never-!” La spoke out, stopping when Mia held out her hand.

“please, let me finish.” Mia pleaded, nodding once La stepped back a bit “Those two are apart of the invading force, after they attacked my village this morning they apparently spread out to look for survivors or run aways.” Mia paused, upon noticing that La wanted to speak out against Mia’s blasphemies talk against her religion Mia raised her hand again “Check the small ones robe, he has slave collars.”

“That doesn-“

“Check La.” Si interrupted La, looking back at her.

“But they wouldn’t…”

“La, check for them.” Si repeated.

“…ok” La moved over the smaller corpse, offering a small prayer before moving the robe, fishing through it for a moment before jolting back, landing on her back side as a she dropped a slave collar right at her feet “N-no… It can’t be.”

“…” Si stared at the collar, letting out a sigh “Alright, I believe you.” Shaking her head, she continued “Slave collars…”

‘Yeah, they suck…’ A tired smile spread on Mia’s face “Thank you.” The sound of metal scrapping against each other rung out in Mia’s ear, turning she saw Ra was now pointing his sword at her “…What? Don’t believe me?”

“Ra! What are you doing? She just saved us!” Si shouted.

“No, I trust you, but it doesn’t make sense! How was a little kid able to beat grown adults!” Ra tightened his grip on his sword “I just have to make sure, are you a monster of some sort?”

She couldn’t help but chuckle at this, finding it sad that one of the people she had tried to save for three months was now pointing a sword at him, buuut to be fair… it was understandable from his point of view. ‘What, 40 minutes ago I think I asked them how to use magic and that skill of theirs? Then I go off and solo two grown men.’

“Ra please, you are being ridiculous” Si said, trying to calm him down.

“No, if I am going to die, I at least want to know my enemy and not be stabbed in the back, it is just a precaution.”

“Ra…stupid…” La grumbled.

“Well, if you do stab me, I am not saving you next time.” Mia said, standing up and stretching.

“What? What do you mean?” Ra temporarily lowered his weapon in confusion, but it was quickly raised again.

Mia groaned “I have a very strong skill and 2 of my stats are higher than 100 and I have over 200 stat points available to put wherever the fuck I want, If you really think you can take that without your skills or magic right now Ra then bring it, I am angry, tired, and frankly done with this.” She spoke bluntly, crossing her arms “If this is how you act towards someone who just spent three months trying to save you then come on, let me correct my mistake.”

Ra took a step back, briefly looking behind Mia towards La to confirm if what she was saying was true.

La shrugged “Appraisal doesn’t work right now, besides, can’t see stat points and stats.”

“You want to risk it or what?” Mia spat, her ear twitching rapidly in frustration and stress.

“No… no I am sorry…” Ra slowly lowered his weapon.

“And?” Mia impatiently tapped her foot on the dirt floor.

“…Thank you for saving our lives.”

“Better.” Jeez, she really was a fool taking this much time to save just a few people, but that was hammered in enough already. She has been aware of that fact ever since AM took over, this had all just been finishing what she started. ‘How hard is it to just thank the eight-year-old that saved your life.’

“Yes, thank you Mia.” Si bowed.

“Thank you.” La added, giving a small courtesy.

A smile spread on her face see the two give their honest thanks, but it was quickly replaced with a frown “ok good, now get out of here. “She then fell onto her back. “Go as far as you can, tell someone about the invasion, get help.”

“Wait, you are not coming with?”

Mia shook her head “No, busy, other things to do.”

“Ki-Mia… Their companions are going to come looking for their missing members, you have to leave too.”

“And I will, Ra, once you guys leave.” Mia frowned “Just go, I will be fine.”

“We can’t leave you behind, not after everything you have done for us!” Si ran up, placing her paws on Mia’s stomach. “You can fight two of them off, but how many are there?”

“Foolish, not to leave now.” La spoke, nodding to herself.

“What part of…argh..” Mia groaned, pushing Si off her “Go, I have a plan.”

“Mia…”

“Let’s go.” Ra spoke up, grabbing Si who immediately started protesting. “I am sorry Mia, I do hope you have a plan…”

“Yup, everything is fine! I’ll get started on it the moment you leave~” Mia held her hand up to her head, getting a headache at this point.

“Alright, and thank you…again…” Ra nodded goodbye, dragging a screaming Si towards the exit.

“Mia… thank you…” La knelt, picking up the slave collar and stashing it in her robe “Will get help. Will stop this.”

“Yup good luck~” Mia said, waiting till she no longer heard their footsteps and letting out a deep sigh “Alright…now what.” She went limp, not moving a muscle, she had several options. “Can continue training, strong enough to explore on my own now… question is where to go.”

She could go south, find a way to cross the ocean and head to that one place Maria told her about, the cursed kingdom? Would be interesting in trying to get there and it would be pretty far from the kingdom, might be a nice place to further progress her training.

“Speaking of Maria…” Mia checked her status “Still brainwashed.” She still didn’t know what that did, she had a few guesses but no solid answer, she just hoped it faded.

Her other option was the one she was considering the most, and the one she was dreading the most. Get captured here in order to gather more information about her main enemy. She knew how stupid this sounded, and there were so many downsides… oh the downsides, but if she knew more about them then she’d be able make countermeasures.

“The downsides though…” For starters, that was a major commitment, she was sacrificing her freedom for at least three years while she gathered information, not even knowing if she’d get anything useful. She also didn’t know where she’ll end up, ideally, she needed to end up with the church or Athena.

Ending up at the church was bad, basically a death sentence. If she remembered correctly someone said that if they caught wind of her high stats right now then she’d be sent to the front lines, conversely if she hid her stats she might not be in the shop when John goes shopping for his *fated one*.

“Hrm… What even lead me that to the first place…” She had no clue why the appraiser hid her status, which resulted in her not going to the front lines, and no, he didn’t lie about her stats, the slave shop owner clearly had a paper with her stats written on it, plain as day.

“Ahh… I really shouldn’t decide this when tired…I am even talking to myself.” She sighed, if she was going to do something she better decide “Hrm… At least being a maid for a few years will be a change of pace…a break from all the killing…” Again, probably shouldn’t decide this when tired, she couldn’t even save right now, she had to commit to what ever she chose.

“…” She opened up her status, fiddling with the Disguise skill until she was satisfied.

Name: Mia

Status: None

Age: 8

Race: Fox Beastman

LVL: 2

HP: 60/60 MP: 20/20

Str: 4

Con: 6

Dex: 10

Int: 8

Mnd: 2

Lck: 1

Skills: [Ice Magic: 1] [Early Riser: MAX] [Willful: 3] [Packer: 2] [Dagger Arts: 1] [Cooking: 1] [Cleaning: 2] [Sneak: 1]

Titles: [Trophy Maid]

“Too on the nose? Too little?” First time she had done this, she didn’t have to worry about it with the cats and the two church thugs but this time she knew she was going to be appraised. She couldn’t remember if the guy who appraised her could read up to titles, but just in case she made that one visible. She couldn’t decide if she should keep her offensive skills hidden but considering the end goal it might help.

“Might also serve as a warning to perverts…” she shuddered; she couldn’t believe she was doing this. She also kept the language skill hidden, remembering Athena was very loose with her documents because she couldn’t read. now was a good spot to attempt this, she was stronger, had a lot of points to spend in case things get crazy, was aware of the effects of the collar from the start, and had a lot of questions.

She took a deep breath, feeling herself doze off “Can’t remember the last time I slept…” she hoped she wasn’t making a mistake but had a hard time caring after what she had been through “Tried to lead them to safety, gave assist mode control to train my skills for three months, watched the people I wanted to save get killed by me for those three months, talked to a man named [Void] in the void and found out how many people were manipulating me, finally got control back and found out he was right after disabling AM, got dragged away by some girls when I was about to save the cats, wasted time getting scolded when it doesn’t apply to me, saved the cats only for one to point their weapon at me, and here we are.”

She found it hard to open her eyes, knowing that by the next time she opened them she’d be either dead in the void, or with a slave collar wrapped around her neck, she let herself slip into sleep, hoping for the latter. A final thought entering her mind before she finally fell asleep.

‘I am NOT saving them again.’