The moment we left the Guild building, we were surrounded by several of the city guards as well as I think several of the Duchess’ personal guards also.

I sighed in part resentment and part exhaustion. I don’t want to deal with her anymore, I’m even considering just straight up killing her, but that wouldn’t look good on me no matter how you look at it.

I mean, maybe if I pronounce my heritage to the world then perhaps? But I don’t want those secretive manipulating bastards to know about me just yet.

"Halt! In the name of-"

"Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard this before, get on with it." I interrupted the guardswoman’s speech, not wanting to go through the drab prefabricated public announcement they have to spew every single time.

Clearly a little offset by my dismissal, she quickly shook her head and spoke, "That woman is considered a danger to the city! She must be either detained or executed!"

I could feel bags forming under my eyes from having to deal with this nonsense. ’I really don’t wanna deal with this.’

"She is a child. She has recently awakened her powers and has not yet had time to properly train them." I explained in a loud and clear voice so that everyone could all hear this. Including the bystanders behind them and the Guild behind us.

"She’s a child!?!?" Someone exclaimed from inside as they slammed their hands on the table.

I ignored them and continued, "Are you really telling everyone that you’re going to execute someone who hasn’t even reached fifty years of age?"

The guards winced, not sure of how to handle this anymore. Sure, she caused some damage, but it’s not like she’s committed some heinous act of absolute evil. That’s no grounds for execution.

"W-Well we still need to detain her!" One of them yelled.

"Again, why? For the same reasons, you’re going to imprison a GIFTED child instead of helping them? Where’s the sense in that? Maybe the Duchess fears that her power will somehow undermine her authority because she’s a corrupt bitch."

The moment I spat out those last two words with pure contempt, her personal guard came forth, pointing their weapons directly at me now.

"How dare you insult the ruler of this city! She would have your head for that!" The one I took for one of her head guardswomen shouted at me with a righteous fury.

I stayed silent for a moment, debating whether I should just teleport the lot of us out of here or not. But I decided not just yet. I wanted to say at least one more thing before I left.

"I’m also still a child. Only a hundred and eighty years old."

That made them waver just a tiny bit, but they ultimately remained steadfast in their duties. And it was at this point that I decided it wasn’t worth staying, so I teleported all four of us away from here to some random side street within the city.

I cared not for the following commotion that would cause, as I was quite frankly tired of dealing with the stupid Duchess at this point. Hell, I might even move cities if this becomes a daily nuisance. Take all my friends with me.

AH! I need to find David then if that’s the case. But, will he even remember us? ’Fuck! This whole situation is annoying as all hell. Just why did this even have to happen?’

"Wh-Where are we? How did we? Huh?" Shirayaa blurted out as she looked around confused, which in itself was confusing.

"I have [Astromancy], remember? I can teleport with it."

"O-Oh yeah. I-I forgot about that."

"Anyways, we now need to look for David." I said turning to look at my friends. "I’ll be honest, I don’t know if he’ll remember us, but I want to look for him anyways since he’s still out friend."

"Right! He must be so lonely without us!" Asty shouted in worry as she rushed out of the side.

But before she could, I grabbed her and reminded her, "I’ll just teleport us back there." And so, I did.

We appeared in the slums in moments and fanned out to look for David, splitting into pairs of two. Ash and Asty, and me and Shirayaa.

To be honest I wasn’t exactly over the moon about this, but what else could I do? We may be on amicable terms, but she isn’t exactly one of us. At least, not yet. And I just can’t leave her alone with the others. She’s too much of a wildcard with what I know and have seen about or, or lack thereof.

Even without this suspicion I have of Shirayaa, this would still be the way we would’ve split up since the other two are a couple and it would be mean to split them up like this and make one of them spend time with a stranger.

Regardless of my qualms with this arrangement, it was all to find David, so we parted ways for now and began our search.

_

_

_

After an hour of searching throughout the slums, we’d only managed to cover about a third of the area when all of a sudden, we heard a scream coming from the way we came.

Obviously, we didn’t think much of it at first since that wasn’t unexpected here. But when it happened again, then again, and again. That was when we started to get a little worried.

We hurriedly backtracked our path and found a small group of guards threatening the denizens that lived here. Some of them were even already bleeding.

The moment we turned the corner however, the guards locked onto us. Or more specifically, me.

"You! You are to be detained and later executed for crimes against the Duchess!"

I rolled my eyes, tired of this stupid situation and decided to finally fight back.

The blood in my veins started to boil slightly as I glared at the guards, making them shudder, rattling their armour. My eyes glimmered with an overbearing light like that of the sun as I furrowed my brows.

I moved towards to the guards fearlessly and with an air of pure arrogance, because I knew that they wouldn’t be able to do anything to me. I was basically daring them to try it.

And after a few seconds, one of them gritted her teeth and charged me.

"AAAAAHHHHH!!!" She pulled her spear back, ready to thrust it into me.

But before she could reach me, I squinted my eyes and my [Bloodline Aura] came out in full swing. The guardswoman was suddenly fell to the ground and I even heard bones cracking under the pressure.

I glared down at her with contempt as I calmly slithered up to her, then up at the remaining guards. The one I cursed wasn’t here, which is to be expected, but I was kind of hoping that she would be here, just so I could make things worse for her.

But she wasn’t, and so instead, these bitches would get punished much worse. Objectively so.

Though, I might not have to do anything, as I could see them all quaking underneath all that armour they had, making them look so weak and pathetic that I almost pitied them. Almost.

My lips curled into a smug smile of satisfaction, seeing these pathetic wretches cower before me like they should for what they’ve done, for who they work for, and Goddess knows what else.

"Uhh... T-Trayt-tora?" Shirayaa called out to me in a shaky voice.

When I turned back to look at her, she let out a terrified shriek as her body collapsed to the ground. Even the homeless serpentine that the guards were intimidating were scared to hell, just cowering in a corner.

I blinked, not understanding why she was so scared just by me looking at her. And then it slowly started to click together.

My Bloodline was currently active, and I was annoyed and upset right now. But what I was feeling was more than simple annoyance. It was rage. Something I didn’t quite feel, not as strongly as I am right now, not truly.

But somehow, something or someone somewhere was influencing me to feel this way. For what reason, I don’t know.

All I know is that this is not how I feel, not truly at least. On some level maybe, but not to this degree.

And because of it, I was now affecting Shirayaa. And if this is what I did to her, then what about Ash and Asty? I don’t want to scare them. I don’t want to make them worry either because I can’t control myself.

’This... I need to control this. How though? My Serpentine Bloodline is literally boiling inside of me because of what those guards did...’

’... The guards... Of course! I understand it now! I think. Maybe. I’ll have to consult someone else about this. For now though, I need to do something about, well, me now.’