đź’ [Quest Update: Shadow Threat Recognized]
đź’ [Bonus Objective Available: Assist in planning creature's defeat]
đź’ [Warning: Creature is more dangerous than initial assessment indicated]
As they left the main hall, Ray caught his father pulling Sergeant Tommas aside for a private conversation. No doubt they were already discussing patrol schedules and defensive measures.
The servants' quarters were located in a practical wing of the manor, designed for function rather than luxury but still comfortable by most standards. Ray showed Marcus to a small but clean room with a proper bed, washbasin, and window overlooking the manor's vegetable gardens.
"Thank you," Marcus said quietly as he set down his meager possessions. "For all of this. The story, the chance to start over... I know I don't deserve it."
"Everyone deserves a second chance," Ray replied. "The question is what you do with it."
Marcus nodded solemnly. "I won't waste it. I promise."
A soft knock at the door interrupted them. Ray opened it to find Kira standing in the hallway, carrying a bundle of clothes and looking curious about the stranger.
"Lady Elise asked me to bring these," she said, offering the bundle to Marcus. "They belonged to one of the stable hands who left last season. Should fit you well enough."
"Thank you," Marcus said, accepting the clothes gratefully. His eyes widened slightly as he took in Kira's fox ears and tail. "You're... beastkin?"
Kira's expression became guarded immediately. "Is that a problem?"
"No! No, not at all," Marcus hastened to assure her. "I just... I haven't seen many beastkin before. My apologies if I stared."
Ray stepped in smoothly. "Marcus, this is Kira. She's staying with us as well. Kira, Marcus is the survivor I found this morning."
Kira studied Marcus with the same careful assessment she seemed to apply to everything. After a moment, her posture relaxed slightly. "You look like someone who's seen too much death."
Marcus flinched at the observation. "Is it that obvious?"
"Yes." She paused, then added more gently, "But you're safe here. This family... they don't judge people for their past."
Ray watched the exchange with interest. There was something in Kira's tone that suggested she was speaking from personal experience about being judged for one's past. He made a mental note to ask her about it later.
"I'll let you get settled," Ray told Marcus.
"Rest, eat, clean up. We'll talk more later about the shadow beast and what we might be able to do about it."
As they left Marcus to get situated, Ray walked with Kira toward the main part of the manor. The fox-girl seemed thoughtful, her tail swishing slowly behind her.
"He's not telling the whole truth," she said without preamble once they were out of earshot.
Ray nearly stumbled. "What do you mean?"
"His scent," Kira explained matter-of-factly. "There's fear, yes, and grief. But also guilt. Deep guilt. And something else..." She paused, sniffing delicately. "Desperation, I don't know for what but I can smell it."
Ray considered how to respond. Kira's enhanced senses were clearly picking up on the aspects of Marcus's story they'd omitted. "People make mistakes when they're desperate," he said carefully. "What matters is whether they're willing to change."
Kira looked at him sharply. "You know what he's not telling us."
It wasn't a question. Ray sighed, realizing that lying to someone with enhanced senses was probably futile.
"Some of it. But I believe he deserves a chance to prove he can be better."
They walked in silence for a few moments before Kira spoke again. "In my experience, people rarely change unless they have strong motivation to do so. What's his motivation?"
"Survival, initially. But hopefully, belonging. Purpose. The chance to make amends for past mistakes."
Kira nodded slowly. "Those can be powerful motivators. I hope you're right about him."
They had reached the manor's main courtyard, where the morning sun was burning off the last of the dew. Ray found himself studying Kira's profile as she looked out over the gardens. There was something different about her today—she seemed more... settled. Less like someone constantly ready to flee.
"Can I ask you something?" Ray said.
"Of course."
"Yesterday, when I first saw you, you seemed terrified of everything. Today, you're much calmer. What changed?"
Kira was quiet for a long moment, her amber eyes distant. Finally, she spoke, her voice soft but clear.
"I've been a prisoner for over two years," she said. "Not in chains, but... controlled. Watched. Forced to be something I wasn't." She touched her fox ears gently. "I was suppose to be able to transform in a fox whenever I wanted but a spell made it so I couldn't I was forced to just stay in my fox form. A spell meant to control me and suppress my mind."
Ray felt a chill run down his spine. "Someone used magic to transform you?"
"A curse, more precisely. Designed to strip away my humanity and make me dependent on my captors." Her voice carried old pain but also a growing strength.
"But yesterday, when your family welcomed me without question, when you looked at me like I was a person rather than a creature... something broke. Or maybe something healed."
"The curse?"
"I think so. I feel... more myself today than I have in years. Like I'm remembering who I used to be before all of this happened."
Ray processed this information carefully. If Kira was recovering from a curse, that raised serious questions about who had cast it and why. It also meant she might be more important than just a random refugee.
"Do you remember anything about who cursed you? Or why?"
Kira's expression darkened. "Pieces. Fragments. Men in dark robes who spoke of 'the princess' and 'keeping her contained.' I was... I am..." She frowned, struggling with the memories. "I think I'm someone they wanted to keep hidden."
"Princess?" Ray's mind raced through the implications.
"I don't know. The memories are still fragmented. But I remember a castle. Servants who called me 'Your Highness.' And then... darkness. Pain. Waking up changed and afraid."
Ray felt the system chime in his mind:
đź’ [Important NPC Identified: Princess Kira of Unknown Kingdom]
đź’ [Status: Recovering from curse/transformation magic]
đź’ [Warning: Her presence may attract hostile attention]
đź’ [Recommendation: Increase security measures]
"Kira," Ray said carefully, "do you think whoever cursed you might still be looking for you?"
Her ears flattened against her head—a clear sign of distress. "I... yes. I think they are. That's why I was so afraid when I first arrived. I keep expecting them to find me."
đź’ [New Quest Started: Help hide the princess, young souls should not go through suffering.]
đź’ [Rewards: 200VP points]
đź’ [Penalty: impure soul 80% stat reduction, beings who let harm happen should become weak and experience their suffering.]
đź’ [Shop Updated: New item added, one time use skill, True Illusion: cast a spell that even the strongest in the world cannot perceive through, Price 400VP.]
Ray paused for a few seconds to read the quest and also to decide what to do. Seeing the girl talk about being imprisoned did affect his decision making but more than that it was how she said that she felt welcomed here. Implying that before she didn't have anyone, just like Ray in his last life no one to rely on all on her on. Ray new that it would be hard to get that much virtue points to help her but he felt like he had to try and help her because he himself would have wanted someone to be there for him in his last life. To get these virtue points he would have to start right now.
Ray made a decision. "Then we need to make sure you're protected. And we need to help you recover your full memories so we know what we're dealing with."
"You would do that? Even knowing it might bring danger to your family?"
"My family doesn't abandon people who need help," Ray said firmly. "That's not who we are."
Kira's eyes filled with tears—but for the first time since he'd met her, they seemed to be tears of relief rather than fear.
"Thank you," she whispered. "I don't know what I did to deserve such kindness from strangers."
"You don't have to do anything to deserve basic human decency," Ray replied. "That's just how decent people behave."
They stood together in comfortable silence for a while, watching the manor come fully alive as the day progressed. Ray's mind was already working through the complications this new information created. A cursed princess with missing memories, a traumatized former bandit with knowledge of an intelligent shadow beast, and his own system-driven quest to protect everyone around him.
đź’ [Good Deed detected: Only providing help was promoted by the system but unlike what the system has observed the host gave unnatural compassionate words to a stranger. Anomaly. Proving host with 10VP for a unnatural good deed.]
'Okay what do you mean I'm not such a bad person' Ray thought.
đź’ [System Analysing: False this is unnatural behaviour, host has always tried to do the bare minimum.]
'Ugh whatever,' Ray thought
It was shaping up to be a much more complicated day than he'd anticipated.
Several miles away, hidden in the deep shadows of the northern forest, three cloaked figures observed the Arkwright manor through scrying magic. The image in their crystal showed the courtyard clearly, focusing particularly on the fox-eared girl standing beside the young baron's son.
"The transformation has come undone," the first figure spoke. "Transfering imagery my queen. The princess has grown up in her human body even though she was stuck in her animal form. The fox features are becoming more refined, more natural. The curse seems broken."
The second figure, taller and more composed, studied the image with cold calculation. "More concerning is her apparent comfort with the family. She's forming bonds. That will make extraction... complicated."
"We could simply eliminate everyone in the manor," the third figure suggested with casual cruelty. "Remove all witnesses and retrieve the princess directly."
"No." The tall figure's voice carried absolute authority. "Too obvious. Too messy. The Baron may be minor nobility, but his death would draw attention from the capital. We need subtlety."
The first figure leaned closer to the crystal. "What about the boy? He seems... unusually capable for his age. And there's something about his aura that doesn't match our intelligence."
"Irrelevant. A child, no matter how gifted, poses no real threat to our plans."
The scrying crystal suddenly flickered, its image wavering as if something was interfering with the connection. The third figure cursed and channeled more power into the spell, but the image remained unstable.
"Someone is warding the manor," he reported with frustration. "Basic protections, but enough to disrupt remote observation."
The tall figure considered this development. "Interesting. Either the Baron is more paranoid than expected, or..." He paused. "No matter. We have confirmed the princess's location and condition. That's sufficient for now."
"What are your orders?" the first figure asked.
"Don't engage just monitor, two of you fall back. The orginal plan was to help hide her and slowly take away the curse but this might be better. I don't how it happened but maybe during the teleportation my daughters curse came undone. The other leaders are mainly looking for people with curses, with the curse being undone it will be harder to detect her. Only one of you monitor her we don't want others finding her by following you. The other two go find anything that can maybe change her current appearance or hide her any lingering traces of her curse. The leaders suspect I helped her escape but if my best squad comes back without finding her it may help erase some suspicions."
The crystal went dark as they ended the scrying spell. In the sudden darkness of the forest, only their glowing eyes were visible beneath their hoods.
"If she regains her full memories? Her full power? The other leaders will know. They might then also find out the attack was staged." One of the figures spoke
The tall figure then spoke. "The queen has always hided her true power they won't notice the difference for a long time and they will never find out the attack was staged everyone who knew is dead and more just in case."
As the three figures melted back into the shadows of the forest, none of them noticed the small golden pulse that emanated from the direction of the manor—a pulse that suggested someone with very unusual abilities had just become aware of their presence.
Back at the manor, Ray paused in his conversation with Kira, his hand instinctively moving to where he'd felt a strange tingling sensation. The system had gone quiet, but there was something in the air that made his newly developed instincts scream.
"Is everything alright?" Kira asked, noticing his sudden tension.
Ray looked toward the northern forest, his enhanced perception picking up traces of magical energy that felt wrong.
"Maybe," he said quietly. "But I think we should head inside. And Kira? If you start remembering more about who you were, or who was holding you prisoner... tell me immediately."
As they walked back toward the manor, neither of them saw the small shadow that detached itself from the forest's edge and began to follow at a discreet distance.
The game of cat and mouse had begun, and Ray was beginning to suspect that his lazy, peaceful life was about to become significantly more complicated.