Chapter 381 Extra: The First Meeting with Renee (Part 1)
Each kingdom has its own collection of classic stories. The common folk of Nali tell tales of their golden king, Godlin the Ninth, or stories of noble daughters from castles eloping with someone, or perhaps the farmer responsible for repairing waterwheels discovering a vast amount of gold in the river.
The Nali people prefer these more relatable melodramatic stories, just like the lyrical love celebrated in “Moonlight,” which resonates closely with their lives while adding a touch of the fantastical.
However, the stories of Shivali are entirely different. Perhaps because even their founding emperor believed that slaying a giant serpent would bring fortune, Shivali folklore abounds with countless supernatural tales that are difficult to verify.
After illegally crossing into Shivali from Nali, Fisher traversed the entire region until he reached the vicinity of the Cardu border. Along the way, he became completely immune to bizarre legends involving “devils ringing bells at midnight,” “sentient magic,” and “shedding monsters.”
Therefore, when Fisher found himself in a carriage listening to the Shivali coachman recount such stories again, he felt a tinge of impatience.
“Every night, our village suffers attacks from an unknown monster, but the frequency of its appearances is very irregular. Some say that the monster is an old pervert with a huge wolf head and feathers all over, who often knocks on widows’ doors and likes to sneakily catch chickens from our coop.”
Inside the carriage, Fisher, dressed in a white shirt and suspenders, held a feather quill, comparing it with the map beside him as he planned his route.
On this trip into Shivali, he disguised himself as a city reporter from the capital, Climion, traveling to investigate these rural curiosities. In truth, his real purpose was to search for the rare subhuman race, sorceresses, hidden in the Western Continent.
Next to Fisher’s map, a book shimmering with golden light displayed its cover page, which contained four fateful lines of prophecy, the last of which read:
[The Undying Sorceress writes epitaphs for them with magic.]
“Stealing chickens? And then?”
The coachman outside had just finished this part in a hearty Shivali dialect, but Fisher did not hear what was said outside; he merely maintained an expressionless demeanor, remaining a stoic straight man to reduce his risk of exposure. After all, relations between Shivali and Nali were not good; otherwise, Godlin the Ninth would not have sent Elizabeth to the border.
Thinking of a lady with golden eyes and a playful smile, Fisher paused while inking his quill, having not written anything for a long time.
“And then? Oddly enough, the men in our village worry that it might be a subhuman from the wilderness or a bizarre monstrosity attacking the village. For a long time, they stood guard outside their homes at night, waiting to catch that monster. Strangely enough, every time we keep watch, it doesn’t show up. When we take a break, however, the chickens from the coops mysteriously disappear.”
“Could it be that the chickens just ran away?”
Fisher responded with a dismissive air, offering a nonsensical reply to appear as if he were listening.
“How could they run away?! It definitely is a monster stealing our chickens. Alina found a very long black feather in the coop the next day, and even more terrifying, her son claimed he saw a woman’s shadow in their chicken coop late at night catching chickens. Those birds didn’t make a sound, as if cursed by magic!”
“The villagers believe that the monster is either a mountain god or some kind of demon beast, but some say it’s a… sorceress!”
Fisher’s writing came to an abrupt halt. Although he hadn’t heard any of the previous words, he was drawn in by the last word from the old man.
Pausing for a second, he put down his feather quill and pushed open the carriage door, looking at the old man outside driving the carriage with a pipe clenched in his mouth.
“Repeat that story you just told. What was that about a sorceress?”
“Oh? Well, it’s like this. Since a few months ago, our coop has been losing chickens. Wait, you didn’t hear what I said just now?”
The old man turned to glance at the young gentleman sitting in the carriage. The gentleman had a handsome, chiseled face, exuding the weight of deep scholarly presence but appearing somewhat stern. His serious expression made the old man, who had just wanted to complain a bit, purse his lips and then continue,
“Alright then, let me tell you again.”
The story repeated again, and Fisher, sitting behind the door, stroked his chin. Originally, he approached the border of Shivali and Cardu for the purpose of finding a sorceress. The junction had a complex mountainous structure, and the ancient forests were still preserved to this day. According to ancient records, numerous activities involving sorceresses had taken place nearby.
Now that he had a clear lead, Fisher felt he had a goal. Whether it was true or not, it was best to investigate.
“Interesting. How often does she come to steal chickens?”
“It’s uncertain. Sometimes she comes once a week; other times, she appears several times in a week, and the times are always different. The widows say they sense someone is nearby in the first half of the night, but that little brat claims he sees the woman just before dawn. But she hasn’t stolen anything in the last week.”
“I understand. I’m very interested in her. This week, I will help you keep watch at night and see if I can catch her.”
However, upon hearing this, the old man quickly shook his head and advised him,
“Oh dear, you can’t do that! You’re a city reporter! Staying up all night watching some unknown thief—what if something happens? Honestly, after several failed attempts to catch it, the villagers were scared out of their wits. They’d rather she steals a bit than harm anyone.”
Fisher silently chuckled, extending the staff that stood by him. Soon, slender white light began to spread across the staff.
“This… is magic? My goodness, I’ve only seen something like this once when I participated in a prayer in the city as a child. And it was just a light magic.”
In reality, most magic is far removed from the common folk. The high cost of magic was beyond their consideration, and they could hardly use it, so they naturally believed that those capable of wielding magic were extraordinary figures in the city.
“Don’t worry about me. If anything happens, I can ensure my own safety, and even if something does happen, you won’t be held responsible.”
Of course, Fisher was an illegal immigrant from Nali; his identity could not stand scrutiny. If something happened to him, the Shivali government would thank the villagers for helping to subdue a Nali spy.
“And besides, your village faces nightly attacks from an unknown monster; I think you have endured enough, haven’t you?”
Since Fisher was so adamant, the old man opened his mouth, and of course, he wouldn’t refuse. He even felt that this reporter from the city was genuinely considering their situation instead of casually searching for inconsequential news and quickly leaving, with the villagers merely having their attention captivated as time passed them by, while what truly happened in these events was scarcely noticed.
“Alright then, we’ve arrived; this is our village.”
The carriage slowly came to a stop at the village entrance. What appeared before Fisher’s eyes was a small yet peaceful and harmonious village, complete with smoke, flowing water, and waterwheels. As they walked deeper into the village, a dense grove soon came into view in the distance.
Deep within that grove were mountains stretching from Shivali to Cardu’s border, a continuous range of mountains that remains humanity’s forbidden zone, effectively isolating Shivali and Cardu’s northern junction like a natural barrier.
Both countries have only set border patrols at the edges of their respective groves, while the middle mountains have truly become a natural sanctuary, a mysterious no-man’s land.
Walking about ten miles further from this village would bring one to the border checkpoint of Shivali, but unless necessary, Fisher had no intention of heading that way. Although he had brought a substantial amount of magic and a graduation gift from Heilson, crossing a national border unauthorized still posed considerable danger.
The old man happily welcomed Fisher into his home, where there was also a wife and two daughters who had not yet reached ten years of age. His twenty-year-old son had gone to work in a city factory, returning home only twice a year.
Upon hearing that Fisher, the great journalist, would help them keep watch at night, the old man’s wife chattered endlessly, sharing her speculations about the monster’s identity. They were a talkative couple, and even the two daughters could interject a few words,
“I heard that a long time ago, there was an exiled Shivali sorcerer in the mountains. That guy was sentenced to exile by the king for studying a forbidden magic! That magic was about killing living people, using their organs to cast spells. Even after being exiled here, he wouldn’t rest, attempting to use his daughter for magical experiments.”
“The people in our village say that the woman stealing chickens is the spirit of that sorcerer’s deceased daughter, who suffered abuse in life and craves to eat chicken flesh, which is why she steals them every day.”
As the conversation flowed, night fell heavily, and Fisher prepared to go outside the village to stand guard, checking to see if anyone would come to steal chickens. The old man wanted to persuade him against it but, seeing Fisher’s determination, resignedly handed him a single-barreled hunting rifle for self-defense.
He lay alone on a pile of straw outside the chicken coop, which not only kept him warm but also concealed his figure. With few families keeping chickens, he could nestle here close to each coop, clutching his rifle and staff and counting the chickens from every household before settling down.
In the sky, a gigantic, chilling full moon rose halfway into the heavens, while countless twinkling stars around it seemed merely decorative, unable to overshadow the radiance of that immense moon.
Fisher remained awake, alert to any rustling in the surroundings. But as the moonlight deepened, Fisher’s eyelids grew heavier, and nothing unusual occurred.
“Cluck…”
Amidst the occasional sounds of chickens crowing, for some reason, Fisher’s eyelids grew heavy, his consciousness slowly sinking into dreams. In that dream, he found himself standing alone in utter darkness until, at a certain moment, a bright full moon suddenly rose before him, coldly gazing at him.
That chilly gaze awakened Fisher abruptly. He suddenly remembered that he was still supposed to be watching over the chickens.
Stumbling up from the straw pile, he noticed how eerily quiet everything was.
It was still midnight. When he looked up at the sky, below the gigantic full moon, a purple lark stood on a villager’s rooftop. The lark’s feathers looked striking under the night sky, and upon seeing Fisher awake, it even tilted its head in a humanlike manner.
“A lark?”
A sense of foreboding surged through him. He quickly surveyed the surrounding chicken coops. Looking towards the coop underneath where the lark perched, he was shocked to find that one chicken was missing!
“Cluck!”
It seemed the lark noticed Fisher realizing something amiss. The next moment, it flapped its wings and flew off in a direction towards the forest. Everything around fell into a hushed silence; the other villagers lacked combat prowess, and even if they roused, it would only burden Fisher. Thus, he decided to follow the direction the bird had flown.
The lark led Fisher deep into the mountains behind the village. As the night wind swept through, illuminated by the gigantic full moon, the entire forest seemed to become restless. Nevertheless, Fisher remained calm, unperturbed by the scene; he still held onto a thread from a spinner, worried he might get lost in the woods.
“Cluck!”
The lark flying through the forest seemed to have pinpointed a direction, giving a sharp call as it swooped down quickly. At that moment, Fisher paused his steps.
The reason was simple; a flickering flame appeared ahead.
Furrowing his brows, Fisher lifted his staff to gaze toward the firelight. He discovered a small clearing in the forest, where a campfire was roasting a skewer with plucked chicken on it.
Fisher raised an eyebrow, glancing in the direction of whoever held the skewer, and the first thing to catch his eye was a cascade of black hair.
“Hehehe~”
The owner of the black hair hummed a tune Fisher couldn’t identify, crouched in front of the fire, engrossed in roasting the chicken. Her hair, so long, obscured much of the simple burlap clothing she wore, yet even then, it couldn’t hide her alluring figure.
The lark that Fisher had been following obediently settled on her shoulder, chirping to her quietly. In the next moment, that woman turned her head in surprise, looking towards Fisher.
Beneath her black hair, her face was beautiful, and deep, captivating purple eyes radiated alluring charm. Following that, her stunning visage betrayed a clear panic.
“Ah!”
“Cluck! Cluck!”
At the moment she spoke, Fisher noticed several larks, identical to the one on her shoulder, landing on branches nearby. The instant she opened her mouth, all the birds began to make a “cluck” sound.
Seeing Fisher approach with a rifle in hand caused her to panic. She immediately stood up, preparing to run into another part of the woods, despite still holding onto the skewered chicken.
Then, unexpectedly, the woman stumbled as she stood up, perhaps having squatted too long without realizing her legs had gone numb. The sudden movement caused her left leg to trip over her right, and she fell to the ground, landing hard.
“Thud!”
Fisher stood there, taken aback by the whole sequence. It took him a second to recover, swiftly leaping down with his staff, lunging at the chicken thief.
“Run?”
Fisher didn’t intend to harm her; he just wanted to restrain her to prevent her escape. So he used his magic to channel energy into his staff, striking her body—both her physical form and magical circuit simultaneously—such that even the toughest man in the world would find it unbearable.
Seeing her attempt to escape, Fisher swung the staff against her back.
“Ow!”
The woman let out a charming yelp, producing a sound so cute that it immediately made her huddle down, wrapping her arms around her head as she cried out loudly,
“Don’t hit me! Don’t hit me! I’m a good person! I’m human! I didn’t do anything! Help! Murder!”
Clutching the chicken in her hands, she shielded her face with her arms. The first part of her plea was in Nali, while the latter half mingled Shivali and Cardu languages, seemingly fearing Fisher wouldn’t understand and might kill her.
Her adorable cries of pain halted Fisher’s motion with the staff. He looked at the sight of the woman trembling on the ground, curled up with the chicken, feeling a momentary sense of sympathy. After a second of silence, he withdrew the staff from his grip and frowned at the blurry visage of the woman before him.
“Who are you, and why were you stealing from others?”
This question was posed in Shivali, as he did not wish to reveal his Nali identity.
However, in that moment of pity, under the profound moonlight, Fisher failed to notice the woman’s expression transforming beneath her black hair into a triumphant smirk. The next second, as she lifted her hair off her forehead while still cradling the chicken, her beautiful face appeared sad and pitiful, clearly showing signs of pain.
She hesitated to reveal her identity, cautiously glancing at Fisher’s staff, frightened he might strike her again. Finally, she nodded, speaking in a very feeble tone,
“I… I wasn’t intentionally trying to steal. I was just too hungry, and I had no choice. So please, don’t hit me anymore. It hurts, waah…”
“…”
Fisher remained expressionless, saying nothing, merely watching her as if waiting for her to explain further.
Cautiously lifting her gaze, she caught sight of his lack of aggression and immediately began explaining,
“I’m actually the daughter of a Shivali sorcerer. My father took me deep into the woods long ago to study magic and live there. But since my father passed away, it’s been hard for me to survive in the forest alone. That’s why I had no choice but to come out and steal from others because I’m just too hungry…”
Her words were vivid and pitiful. As Fisher observed her tightly gripping the staff with a glance at her scabbed arm and bruised ankle, he noted her severely injured state.
The woman’s demeanor grew uneasy under Fisher’s naked gaze, and she fidgeted, covering her skin. Just then, an audible rumble emerged from her stomach.
She was utterly famished, and awkwardly lowering her head, she even swept a glance at the chicken in her hands, swallowing hard.
“…You can eat. I want to ask you a few questions in return.”
Noticing that his gaze was indeed a bit ungentlemanly, the inexperienced Fisher cleared his throat to mask his embarrassment. Then, he stood and looked at her, saying,
“Can I eat?”
“You’ve already stolen so much, and even if you don’t eat now, do you expect the roasted chicken to turn back into a live chicken and return to the farmer’s coop?”
Upon hearing this, the woman finally couldn’t hold back anymore. She took a big bite from the perfectly roasted chicken, reveling in this rare delicacy.
“Thank you, kind person!”
“Kind person is an overstatement. So it turns out the one stealing chickens from that village below was you?”
Eating chicken, Renee pretended not to hear, as if she were temporarily deaf, almost exasperating Fisher to laughter. When he lifted the staff again, her expression turned pitiful once more.
“It was me! It was me! I know this is wrong, but I was just too hungry. I had no choice, right?”
Fisher raised an eyebrow, querying with some confusion,
“The villagers reported many unnatural occurrences to me. I thought the one stealing was a… sorceress.”
Hearing Fisher reference sorceress, Renee’s pupils shrank slightly. She hastily waved her hands, nervously explaining,
“How could that be? How could I be a sorceress?”
“Then what are those larks in the trees?”
“Those are… that’s a magic my father created. He was a very knowledgeable sorcerer. If you give me some more food, I can take you to see my father’s unique Shivali magic!”
Fisher’s heart stirred slightly at her words, but recalling his primary mission of “searching for the Undying Sorceress,” he saw no need to waste time here. If Shivali didn’t have a sorceress, he would have to head in another direction, and even the travel time would require considerable length.
After a moment’s hesitation, he shook his head and said,
“No need; I have other matters to attend to. However, it’s unrealistic for you to keep stealing from others. I will compensate the villagers for the chickens you took previously, but you should figure out your own path moving forward.”
Having seemingly confirmed that the woman before him was harmless, just an ordinary chicken thief, Fisher tightened his grip on the staff and prepared to turn away.
Yet behind him, the woman’s expression switched from pitiful to one of keen interest, as if she sensed danger in this man. With some tremor in her voice, she asked,
“Wait! Are you… searching for someone?”
“Um, you know I’m looking for someone?”
“…Well, this morning, I was hiding in the bushes and saw you asking the villagers about something. I didn’t catch it all, but it seemed like you were searching for a sorceress?”
Fisher’s expression turned blank as he turned back to look at the innocent-looking woman sitting on the ground, inspecting the visible wounds on her body. He asked,
“I’m looking for a [Undying Sorceress]. Do you have any leads on her?”
“Undying… sorceress?”
Her actions hesitated slightly before tilting her head as if pondering deeply.
However, Fisher didn’t notice that despite her natural demeanor, all the larks in the trees were now fixed on his figure.
“Um, I’m not really sure. But… my father’s magic tower contains a lot of records about sorceresses. It’s possible there might be leads.”
At that point, her speech halted, blinking at Fisher as if she were gathering her thoughts.
Fisher immediately grasped her meaning; she was seeking a reward.
“So, what do you want me to do?”
“Just a dinner would suffice. If you could give me some money, that would be even better. However, besides helping you find information, I can also demonstrate the unique magic my father researched!”
She said this without missing a beat, but Fisher narrowed his eyes, cautiously considering that it would be better not to easily trust the chicken thief before him.
“No need; best of luck to you. Farewell.”
The woman pursed her lips, managing a forced smile.
“Alright, actually, I… I’m just afraid to return after leaving my father’s magic tower. The mountains have many dangerous beasts, and I worry that if I go alone, I’ll be eaten. But all my father’s things are still there, and I want to retrieve them. Regardless, thank you for not holding it against me for my stealing.”
Fisher glanced at her, then waved his hand, turning to leave as she sat there on the ground, hugging her knees and silently watching his back, as if sending him off.
But out of Fisher’s sight, the woman’s expression under the firelight shifted to a sly smile as she quietly raised three fingers, watching Fisher walk away.
As Fisher moved further away, she began to lower each of her fingers one by one. When the last finger fell, Fisher’s actions came to an abrupt halt. He sighed and turned back to look at the seemingly pitiful woman.
“I’ll go prepare some supplies and handle a few matters first. Entering the forest at night is far too dangerous. It’s best to set off tomorrow during the day. I’ll bring you some food, so don’t steal again. In return, I’d like you to find information about the sorceress and show me your father’s magic. Deal?”
The dull purple of the woman’s eyes gradually brightened. She seemed incredulous yet grateful that Fisher was willing to agree to her terms.
“Okay, I promise you!”
“Alright, then.”
Just as Fisher turned to leave again, the woman suddenly called after him.
Underneath her somewhat disheveled hair, her not-so-clean face blossomed with a radiant smile. Those purple eyes were deeper than the most shining stars, making her intentions unclear.
With an innocent smile, she asked Fisher,
“I completely forgot to introduce myself and ask your name. What is your name?”
“My name is Renee.”
(End of Chapter)
