I'm sick of this shit.

All I ever saw were dirt, rocks, more dirt, stones, even more dirt, and ugly motherfuckers. When I say ugly, I mean the monsters. After a time, you just get sick of seeing ugly creatures, you know. It's like looking at a monkey for an hour — I don't like monkeys, all of them look like a bunch of assholes. Staring at their faces just pisses me off. And always looking at ugly monsters was driving me crazy.

Why couldn't there be pretty looking monsters? Like sirens, or nymphs, or whatever. They may be all traps that lure the vulnerable, but at least they look beautiful. That was way better than looking at anything ugly. But there was something for sure, I would be way more beautiful than them. I might lure them myself, hehe.

Ahem…

At any rate, my suffering was close to its ending. Well, one of my sufferings anyway.

We were now close to our destination, the capital city of this island. Tomorrow, we should arrive there. I was feeling quite excited, because finally I'd get to return to society! A place where it was safe! And it was also where I would finally get to reunite with the original team!

Gotta love civilization.

Anyway, it was currently night time, and Nira was away for obvious reasons. Miyako was fiddling around with her sword. After leaving that bandit base, Miyako had been practicing her blood art. She was surprisingly eager to learn and improve on it. Likely because she realized how basically useless it was against a demon, and she had realized how dangerous demons were. How powerless she would be when faced with one, especially an imp, which we had an experience on.

Furthermore, as a warrior, she couldn't just let this weakness be. Otherwise, it would be her undoing. Fatally so. Because so far, the demons I had been facing were quite nasty. Again, another ugly looking motherfucker.

I sat down beside Miyako as she rubbed some of her own blood on her blade. Afterward, she closed her eyes and muttered a prayer. The blood on the blade began to glow faintly. Unlike before, the blood slightly shifted, spreading a little throughout the broad.

"Should it glow brighter if I did it right?" Miyako asked me.

I merely raised my eyebrow. "It's your spell. I wouldn't know." Her blood magic stuff was kinda different from mine, so I wouldn't know how it should look if cast properly. And considering that they had not taken this spell seriously, I could guess it was never commonly mentioned or known what it would look like in perfection. "But did you have faith?"

"... I'm trying to have faith in my weapon." She glanced down at her sword. "In this land without gods, we can only believe in our weapons to hold on to and defeat the monsters before us."

A bit awkward, but there is secretly a god beside you.

Knowing that someone was not acknowledging me as a god bothered me. Was it because of my godhood? Or was it because of my good, humble, and reasonable ego? Yeah, definitely the latter.

"Last I saw, holy magic is very bright. Did you try pouring more mana into it?"

"I did pour a bit more than last night. But I don't think it's the problem… I'm doing something wrong."

"Maybe it's a problem of getting used to it. Where both time and effort are the only solution."

It was quite one of the possibilities. Which would be the most annoying if you were impatient. Unless you're pretty talented, then I guess you wouldn't have to worry much. Like how some people quickly get good at drawing — talent is a thing, and having talent means you develop quickly in such a skill. 'Oh, but Estelia, it's not about talent but practice and hard work.' Oh shut up, tell that to those that took a very long time to get good at something, while others did it in a day.

"Can you demonstrate yours to me? Just a bit."

"Sure." I pulled out one of my daggers. "You still have the open wound, may I?" I pointed my dagger at her wounded finger.

"Eh? My blood?"

"Hey now, I'm not going to hurt myself again to show you." I had already demonstrated this to her the other day, and I cut myself for it. As it hurt, and a bother to use healing magic, I was too lazy to cut myself again. Besides, it worked on any blood.

Stolen story; please report.

She pouted briefly before giving a hesitant nod. "Very well. It's my request, after all."

Holding out her bleeding finger at me, I touched it with the tip of my dagger. Her blood began to shift and attach itself to my blade before spreading all over like veins and going over the edges. When it was done, I pulled back my blade.

Miyako sighed in astonishment. "I didn't know you could use someone else's blood."

"Can't you do that?"

"My father never mentioned it. Can I take a closer look?"

I handed her my dagger.

With wide eyes, she warily studied the blade. She tried touching the blood, and they were stiff. "Why does it spread like a vein?"

"That's just how it is. My guess is that it is more efficient. It spreads all over while having a firm grip on the blade." The effect was more broad and the less blood I would need. "And careful with the edges, they're extremely sharp."

"Oh, I see… Huh… I could guess there is a good amount of mana here. And the enhancement is imbued on the entire blade. Mine is only around where I put it, only moving slightly. Maybe I should practice making the blood shift more and copy the vein like formation."

"Just don't forget that the blade is not where the holy magic is, but in the blood itself."

"Yes… But making the blood move slightly was already difficult."

I couldn't relate with her difficulty in this. This blood magic thing came naturally to me.

"... Just try pouring significantly more mana. Brute force it."

"Brute force it?" Miyako looked weirdly at me. "Training is usually just doing it slowly at first."

"You've been doing it slowly since the first time. Time to give it a good punch." I grabbed my dagger from her hand. "Now, try it."

She moaned, hesitant about the idea. But not like it was an entirely bad idea. "Fine… Should I start from scratch?"

I chuckled. "You still have plenty of blood left, so I don't think that's a problem."

She sarcastically laughed. "Ha-ha-ha." She dispelled the magic on the sword, and the blood dropped to the soil. As she started rubbing some blood on the blade, I shifted a bit farther away and conjured a translucent barrier between me and her. She noticed me and her eyes blinked in confusion. "W-Why are you putting up a barrier?!"

"Oh, don't mind me. Continue."

I know science. The more the energy, the more the explosion. Even though magic was not technically scientific, that logic would still apply. Power overloading equals boom.

You know what they say. What can go wrong, will go wrong.

And in this one, a blood explosion was a possibility.

"Now I'm a bit worried."

I smiled, attempting to give her a little amount of relief. "Just a little precaution on my side. No need to worry."

Slightly frowning, she continued on her work, and started the prayer.

"Oh, this time, put more sincerity in the prayer. Even more sincerity," I added.

She prayed. The blood on her blade glowed slightly brighter. At the same time, the blood shifted to spread out around the blade. However, unlike before, they were moving faster. And before they reached the blade's edges, the crimson glow instantly grew even more brighter.

I noticed Miyako frowning. And then, as if the blood were overloaded with mana, the blood exploded, splattering in all directions.

"Ah!" Miyako exclaimed as the blood flew into the air.

Satomi casually blocked the blood coming at her with her sword's scabbard, while my barrier blocked all the blood coming at me.

"Eugh…" Meanwhile, Miyako had some blood stuck to her cheek. She slowly turned at me, at my barrier. "You knew this was going to happen."

"I knew it could potentially happen." I chuckled with a grin before dispelling the barrier, and the blood dropped to the soil. "Well, you almost had it, so good job!" I gave her a thumbs up.

She groaned as she rubbed the blood off her face. "I put too much, it seems."

"Or you put too much in a single moment. Next time, reduce the volume of mana you channel all at once. Find the most stable stream."

She let out a sigh. "I need to figure that out, huh?"

"Yup. Keep practicing. But don't do it too much." I grabbed a pouch of water. "And make sure to drink water."

She had been consistently practicing every night. And I feared that she might become anemic or something, so I always urged her to drink water.

"Thanks." She received the pouch and drank some water. "I wonder if all my practice, if my holy magic, is more effective now. At least ever so slightly."

"We'll never know unless we face another demon."

"Yeah. But that's not something we should even wish for."

"Hm. Maybe if you meet with one of my friends, he might have something to say. That man's an expert in a bunch of things."

"Oh? Maybe if we meet… We're almost there, huh?"

"Yeah. Are you ready for your meeting with those lords?"

She lowered her head, seemingly a bit anxious. "Yes… But… there might be among them that tried to kill me."

"It's dangerous, huh?"

It was not good to be in the same building as the people that wanted to kill you. I had a headache because of that.

"Yes, but it has always been dangerous between us. And my father had to face them every year."

"On the bright side, in a foreign city, it's less likely that they would do something. However, what if the one that sent those men is the lord of this very island we stand on?"

"... Now that is extremely worrying. But I hope not. I don't want conflict with him right now."

I looked up at the sky. "... Hm. Want some advice?"

"Sure."

I dispelled the blood on my dagger and sheathed it. "In enemy territory, do not trust anyone, do not try to get close with anyone."

"Anyone?"

"Anyone."

And when I said that, I meant absolutely anyone. The servants, the cleaner, or even a fucking dog. You'd never know when one of them fucks you up. Trusting anyone in an enemy territory requires an extreme amount of trial. Even the victims we had to watch out for.

She nodded. "I understand. Thanks."

"Alright, time to sleep. We should arrive in the city around late in the morning if we move out early."

With that, we slept early. We also woke up early and immediately moved out. Eager to finally arrive at our destination.

And then we arrived.

What a big city.

I let out a relieved sigh.

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