Our story continues with Xeno and Satella. As they began their search of the thief. So far, things have been going not so great.
Xeno figured the best strategy would be to ask around about who the thief is. Surely this isn't the first time she has stolen something. Just from her state of attire one could figure out she was poor, she likely stole just to survive.
But to their bad luck, the local were not helpful, giving either two responses: "Don't know" or "Don't care" . It goes to show that even in another world, people are just as apathetic to the struggles of strangers.
Xeno: 'Well, that didn't work out,' he thought to himself as he and Satella walked around the capital city of the kingdom whose name he totally remembers.
After the failure of his first strategy, he quickly thought of another. His knowledge from playing and watching a lot of detective-type games was really paying off.
Xeno: "Hey, Satella, why don't we just ask for help from the Knights? Let the professionals do the work?" he suggested, but before he could begin to convince her—
Satella: "NO NEED!" she yelped.
Xeno: "Wha—why not?" he questioned, confused as to why she wanted to make things even harder for them.
Satella: "Y-you see, it's no good. I don't think the Knights will help over a little theft like this... also, I can't rely on them due to personal circumstances," she explained with an apologetic expression.
Xeno was, to say the least, interested and curious why that was the case. He would have probably asked if it didn't seem intrusive—and also because Satella's expression clearly said "I can't explain why."
Xeno: 'What kind of identity does she have? It must be bad if she was surprised I was helping her—even after hearing her name. It's like she expected me to be shocked or back away,'
he thought, really confused but also annoyed that he couldn't slack off and had to put in more effort than he felt like doing.
Since that was the case, he just had to think of another strategy.
Xeno: 'No big deal, come on, Xeno, you got this' he tried to motivate himself.
And so, they spent the next hour wandering through the capital, moving from street to street while keeping an eye out for any sign of the thief. Merchants shouted, people passed by, and carriages rolled through the roads, but none of it helped. To Xeno, it just felt like they were walking in circles.
By now Xeno really had no idea how to search for her, especially in a city he had never been to. It was worse because apparently Satella herself wasn't familiar with the city either.
Which meant the two were searching for a thief in a place they knew little to nothing about.
Xeno: 'just great, absolutely GREAT. Geezzz Satella, finding your darn thing was already difficult but now it's on hard mode' he thought frustrated. As they climbed a set staircase that led to an overlook of the city.
This was the spot where they decided to take a little break. While Satella herself wasn't tired, Xeno definitely was—he wasn't built for this kind of thing. He wasn't unfit, he wasn't exactly active either.
he leaned against the railing and looked out at the view of the city.
Xeno: "Hey, Satella, I got a question?"
Satella: "Yes? What is it?" she was curious as to what he wanted to ask, since during their search Xeno hadn't talked much, if at all, to her.
Xeno: "This may be a bit rude, but I gotta know what's your deal? I don't like to overthink about things, so tell me honestly, why did you look shocked when I wanted to help you?"
This had been bugging him for a while, and he couldn't ignore his curiosity any longer. So Xeno promptly threw basic decency out the window and just asked.
Truly the lowest scum.
Satella was obviously surprised by his bluntness, not expecting to be asked such a question.
Puck: "Well, aren't you blunt," the cat said, coming out of Satella's silver hair.
Xeno: "She doesn't have to answer, cat. It's just a poorly asked question,"
Despite saying that, he still looked at the woman in question. She was hesitating to answer such a question,then decided to be a bit honest.
Seeing how earnestly he was trying to help her. It made her feel a bit guilty about being dishonest.
Satella began nervously, twirling her hair.
Satella: "W-well, you see…"
Satella: "I'm... a half-elf," she admitted, already envisioning that he would react the same as everyone else.
But to Satella and Puck's surprise, the reaction they got was—
Xeno: "YOU'RE AN ELF?!" he exclaimed excitedly, his inner otaku temporarily overriding his reserved nature.
Satella/Puck: "Eh? / Huh?" This was the last reaction they expected.
Noticing their looks, Xeno coughed.
he tried to sound like his usual self. He even went as far as to widen his eyes in faint surprise.
Xeno: "I mean… you're an elf?"
Xeno: 'No wonder she's so beautiful. It all makes sense now.'
Satella: "A-aren't you afraid? Or… hate me? I'm a half-elf," she asked, confused.
In response, Xeno only tilted his head, not understanding what the problem was.
Satella: "I-I look like the Witch of Envy," she explained further, but once again, the only thing she was met with was him tilting his body to convey further confusion.
Puck: "Do you not know who the Witch of Envy is?" he asked, surprised.
Xeno straightened up, put a finger on his chin, then answered.
Xeno: "Maybe?"
This answer shocked both of them for the second time.
Puck: "What do you mean, maybe?" he narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
He raised his hands.
Xeno: "Look, I'm a very forgetful person, especially when it comes to history. Maybe I knew about it but forgot. Believe me, it's more likely than you think." he made up what he considered a reasonable excuse.
Xeno: 'I can't even remember the name of this kingdom despite it being an important detail…' he thought, annoyed by his terrible memory.
Satella and Puck looked at him, bewildered, for a few seconds before Puck shook his head.
Puck: "You know, I can somewhat read minds. I have to say, you're a strange one, Xeno."
Xeno: "I know. Now then, I'm feeling better—we can continue our search."
Xeno quickly changed the subject.
Satella: "Yes, of course."
This time, shortly after coming down from the overlook, Satella noticed a child with green hair crying in the corner of the street.
Satella: "Wait."
Satella: "Um… Xeno, doesn't that child look lost?" She grabbed his attention and pointed toward the green-haired child.
He narrowed his eyes before speaking.
Xeno: "You're right, let's go help her... wait, can you afford to do that? We're on a time crunch. Do you really have the time to help someone else?"
He questioned while Xeno, a 'nice and honest' person, had no problem helping the kid. But whether Satella could afford to was a different question entirely.
Satella: "We can't just leave her. We have to help her," she said without hesitation.
Xeno: "Well, if you say so," he shrugged.
Both of them approached the crying child. Satella went down to her level.
Satella: "Are you lost? Where are your mom and dad?"
But the child only cried even more, seemingly scared of Satella.
Satella: "Umm, d-don't cry, I'm not going to hurt you," she panicked as she tried to calm the kid down—but it didn't work.
Meanwhile, Xeno stood beside her, looking dumbfounded, a single thought in his mind.
Xeno: 'Bruh.'
He had wanted Satella to handle this while he preferably did nothing. But she was somehow making the situation worse.
Xeno: 'Ugh, looks like I have to handle this myself.' he thought, shaking his head.
Xeno: "Lia, let me handle this"
Satella, surprised that he called her Lia, complied and took a step back, seeing that her attempts weren't working.
Xeno went down on one knee, closing his eyes with a sigh. When he opened them, he made the most tender expression he could manage and gently called out to her.
Xeno: "Kid, we're not here to harm you. We're here to help you."
The girl looked up at Xeno, her eyes widening in surprise—not because of his expression, but because of his eyes.
Green-haired girl: "Mister, how did you do that? Your eyes… they're like stars," she exclaimed in awe.
Xeno and Satella were both completely confused by what she meant. Still, Xeno decided he'd ask Satella later if something was wrong with his eyes. Meanwhile, Satella wanted to ask him the same thing.
Xeno: "U-umm, yes… this is but one of my many tricks. I'd love to show you more, but for now, can you tell me why you're crying?"
He played along, bullshitting his way through successfully making the girl stop crying.
Green-hair girl: "I lost my mommy" she answered, becoming sad once again.
Xeno: "Oh! That's terrible, we'll help you find her can you explain what she looks like?"
The girl nodded.
And so began their side quest of helping a lost child. As all three walked, Xeno held the girl's hand which then led to her holding Satella's hand as well. What a wonderful outcome, who knew all she needed to trust Satella was someone with apparently strange eyes helping her.
Xeno: 'We probably look like young married couple' he thought, amused.
Xeno: "Say kid, what kind of work does your daddy do?" while yes, they were looking for the girl's mother. It wouldn't hurt to ask as he wants to do this the easiest way he can.
Xeno: 'Better explore both options. I already reached my quota for interacting with another person today'
Green-hair girl: "Daddy, sells delicious fruits in his store."
Xeno stopped upon hearing that. Satella and the girl stop as well.
Satella looked at him, puzzled.
Satella: "Is something wrong, Xeno?"
Xeno turned to look directly at the girl's face.
Xeno: 'Green hair, blue eyes. It can't be-please tell me your joking. This may be a long shot'
Satella: "Xeno, what happened?"
Xeno: "Say, kid, does your dad happen to be buff, have a twig in his mouth, and two scars on his face?"
Green-hair girl: "Gasp! You know daddy?"
Xeno: "Yes, yes I do" he said deadpan.
Xeno: 'How could I ever forget my painfully awkward conversation with him'
Satella was surprised by this outcome.
Satella: "Really?"
Xeno: "Lia, do you know the way back to where we met?" he called her Lia once again, but Satella decided to ask him about this too later.
Satella: "Umm, yes, I do"
Xeno: "Good, because her dad's shop is near there. So lead the way"
Satella nodded and began leading them back to the area where they first met, and soon they arrived at the general location.
It didn't take long for them to find the appa seller. Upon seeing her father, the girl rushed towards him.
Green-hair girl: "DAADDY"
Vendor: "Hmmmm?" He looked at the direction of the voice, saw his daughter running toward him and, she promptly hugged him.
he looked confused about why she was here.
Vendor: "Plum? What are you doing here and where's your mother?"
Plum: "i got lost from mommy, but two kind people helped me" she then pointed toward Xeno and Satella
The vendor looked where Plum was pointing and saw the werid kid and Satella.
Vendor: "You're that weird kid from before"
Xeno: "Yes... we meet again Mister."
Satella: "We saw your daughter was lost so decided to help" she stepped into the conversation seeing how awkward xeno was being.
Xeno: "Right, and we didn't know where her mother was, but I knew where you were so we brought her here. I hope that alright with you ? "
Vendor: "No, it's fine. Im just greatful to you for helping plum. If there ever anything i can do for you just ask" the vendor offered.
Xeno: "As a matter of fact, yes, you can. We're looking for a thief. She's a young girl with golden hair and red eyes. Do you know anything about her?"
Vendor: "Gold hair, red eyes, huh? Yeah, I know her. Her name's Felt. She lives in the slums" he then told them where the slums were.
Satella: "Thank you for your help, sir"
Plum offered Satella a flower pin.
Satella: 'A flower pin, for me?'
Vendor: "Please, accept it. It's her way of showing her gratitude"
Satella smiled, accepting the gift and attaching the pin to her dress.
Xeno not so subtly glanced at the girl.
Plum: "Sorry, mister. I only had one"
Xeno: "...It's fine, I didn't want one" he casually waved it off.
Xeno: 'It's fine, who cares about a flower pin not like I helped just as much or anything.'
Xeno: "Let's go"
Satella nodded as they began heading towards the slums.
Now that they were on their way, both of them wanted to ask the other something.
Xeno/Satella: "Hey, Satella— / Umm, Xeno—"
Xeno: "...Okay, that just happened. Anyways, what is it, Satella?"
Satella: "No, no, you go ahead."
Xeno: "What I wanted to ask isn't that important, so go ahead. I insist."
Satella: "If you say so. I wanted to ask, why did you call me Lia back then?"
Xeno: "Oh! That my reasoning is a bit questionable. Basically, your identity is controversial, so I didn't want to call you by 'your name' in front of people and draw attention to you. Sorry if you found it rude"
Satella was surprised by his reasoning. She once again felt bad for lying to him about her name.
Xeno turned to face her.
Xeno: "But that aside, Satella, I wanna know—do my eyes look weird?" As he said that, he fully opened his eyelids.
Satella: "You don't know?"
Xeno: "No. Last time I checked, my eyes couldn't turn into stars... so are they really stars right now?"
Satella took a look at his eyes, only to find they were normal.
She shook her head.
Xeno: "Really?... that's disappointing."
Satella: "You really don't know anything about it?"
Xeno: "No."
They spent the rest of the journey mostly in silence, talking every now and then. By the time they reached the slums, it was sunset.
The slums themselves were as miserable as Xeno had expected. Barely upright houses, people thin and malnourished, wearing rags—the entire atmosphere reeked of despair.
As the duo walked down the dirt road, they noticed people hiding in their houses from them.
Xeno: "..."
Xeno: "Let's just find Felt quickly before it gets dark."
Satella: "Maybe someone will tell us if we ask nicely."
Xeno: "Don't think that would work. Fortunately, I have something that might do the trick."
Xeno: 'Time to put my groceries to good use.'
Puck: "Are we close? I'm almost out of time." He suddenly appeared, floating next to Xeno.
He looked a lot more tired and pale.
Xeno jumped and almost fell.
Xeno: "GAH! WHAT THE HECK?! Give a man a warning next time! And what do you mean your time's running out?!"
Puck: "You see, as a spirit it takes a lot of mana to appear physically. On average, I can only be out from 9 to 5."
Puck yawned.
Xeno: "…So you're about to sleep now?"
Puck: "Correct."
Satella: "Don't worry, Puck. We can handle things on our own."
Puck's form began flickering.
Puck: "Just make sure not to do anything reckless. If it comes down to it, use your od to summon me again."
Puck turned to Xeno.
Puck: "Take care of the rest, Xeno."
Xeno: "Leave it to me."
Puck's form scattered, dissolving into the green gem on Satella's dress.
Xeno: "Sigh… just wait here, Satella. I'll come back with some good news."
Xeno went to the nearest slum dweller he could find.
Xeno: "Heya, I want to find someone. Answer truthfully and you might just win yourself a carton of milk."
The slum dweller's eyes instantly lit up at the offer.
Slum dweller: "Who do you want to know? I'll tell you anything you want," he said rapidly.
Xeno: "Tell me about Felt. Where does she live?"
Slum dweller: "Felt, huh? What, did she steal something from you?"
Xeno: "Sure, let's go with that. So where is she?"
Slum dweller: "If that's the case, you'll have to buy it off her at old man Rom's loot house." The man began giving directions.
Xeno listened closely and, not trusting his own memory, decided to write it down on the back of his grocery list.
Xeno: "Thank you for your time and as promised."
Xeno handed the man the carton of milk from his bag who eagerly grab it, holding it like it was his life line.
Xeno then made his way back to Satella, who was patiently waiting.
Xeno: "Good news. I got her location. Bad news, we have to buy your insignia off her."
Satella: "What? Why do I have to pay for something that was stolen from me?"
Xeno: "That's just life. She's poor she probably doesn't have much of a choice here. Don't worry, I have another idea. I'll just sell my items to her."
Satella: "No! You've already done so much for me. I can't allow that."
Xeno: "It's fine, I don't need it. Going forward, it's basically useless to me. Besides, think of it like this if we do this, we can solve things peacefully and you both get what you want. I see this as an absolute win."
Satella couldn't understand it… well, she did but not the why.
Satella: "Why are you going so far to help me?"
Xeno: 'Because you're unbelievably cute and attractive.'
Xeno: "Let's just say… I'm a pacifist. I don't like conflict. And I feel a bit bad for Felt. That's all."
Xeno: 'Also, selling my phone is basically scamming her.'
Satella clearly surprised by his answer, then slowly smiled.
Satella: "You reeeeally are a strange man."
Xeno, seeing her beautiful smile, turned
away and scratched his head nervously.
Xeno: "Hehe… hehe, I'm really not."
Satella: "Xeno, after this… I would like to apologize about something."
Satella: 'He's helped me so much. I feel awful for lying to him.'
Xeno was confused by what she meant. As far as he knew, she hadn't done anything worth apologizing for. But regardless, he nodded.
It had become night by the time they reached the loot house. It was quiet—not a single soul in sight. The atmosphere was spine-chilling.
It was almost the end of this whole ordeal.
Xeno: 'I don't like this.'
He felt creeped out, and that feeling only grew stronger when they saw the door of the loot house was wide open.
Xeno: "Satella… you feel it too, right? Something's definitely wrong."
Satella: "The door being open?"
Xeno: "Yeah. Why would someone do that? In an area like this, that's basically asking to be robbed."
Xeno: "Let's proceed with caution."
Satella moved toward the door, with Xeno right behind her.
It was completely dark inside.
Xeno took out his phone and turned on the flashlight.
As the light illuminated the interior… what they saw shocked them to their core.
A giant old man with long white eyebrows was slumped against the wall, hunched over. Blood poured from his neck and mouth.
And Felt...She was lying on the floor. Her guts spilled out around her.
Xeno clutched his stomach and vomited to the side.
Satella covered her mouth with both hands, frozen in horror.
???: "Oh dear, it seems I've been caught."
A seductive female voice.
Xeno barely recovered and pointed his flashlight toward the speaker.
Standing near Felt's corpse was a tall, beautiful woman.
She had long black hair, braided into a tail that rested over her left shoulder, reaching down to her hips. A purple flower decorated that same side of her head. She wore revealing clothes and a black cape.
A look of twisted pleasure spread across her face as she stared at them like prey.
Sadistic woman: "Looks like I'll have to dispose of two more. I wonder how beautiful your entrails will be."
She licked her lips—and dashed toward them faster than a normal person could react.
But Satella was anything but normal.
In an instant, she constructed a wall of ice, blocking the woman's attack.
Satella jumped back, dragging Xeno along with her to create some distance.
The sadistic woman casually shattered the ice wall, stepping through while idly spinning her kukri blade.
Satella summoned shards of ice and launched them at her, while attempting to shout at the panicked Xeno—
Satella: "RUN!"
It's said that in moments of crisis, a person's true self is revealed.
For Satella, that meant trying to protect him telling him to run without hesitation.
Xeno had already started running—before Satella even told him to.
Sadistic woman: "It's cute you think you can run." She cleanly dodged, Satella's attack and went straight for Xenophanes.
Satella: NOOO!" She tried to stop her. But the sadistic woman was to fast for help to do anything.
Xeno but had looked back when heard the sadistic woman coming straight towards at inhuman speeds and saw her aiming straight for his gut.
Acting fast. At a speed way beyond a human blocked with left arm while moving back to dodge.
The sadistic woman kukri blade ripped right through the plastic bag sending chips of various flavours in all directions and... cutting his arm off.
Fortunately he backed away just in time to avoid being hit in the gut.
Xeno: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH."
clutching what stump where half his arm should be. Crying white hot cries in extreme pain.
Satella: "XENO!" she fired lots to ice shard at the sadistic woman while running towards Xeno.
She dodged once again making it look like child's play. Satella kept attacking.
Sadistic woman: "Since you're so eager to die, little girl. I'll finish you off first." She smiled with glee.
She began to toy with Satella dodging and blocking her attack without a sweat. Unable to get a solid hit in.
As Satella blocked her attacks with a ice wall. The sadistic woman adapted as Satella shields weren't omnidirectional.
She feinted an attack to the right as Satella blocked her upcoming attack. She abruptly changed directions to attack Satella left side.
Once again aiming straight for the bowels.
Satella tried to block again, but she was a second too late. She stumbled back, shaking, looking down—seeing massive amounts of blood oozing out.
She collapsed on the floor, her body burning up, losing all strength to move. In her final moments, only one thought passed through her mind.
Satella: 'Pu...ck, X....xeno, I'm....sorry, I fai.....'
... She was unable to finish her thought as her eyes lost all color.
Sadistic woman: "AH such beautiful bowels you have." She said with a look of arousal and glee.
The sadistic woman turned her attention to Xeno.
He was still clutching his arm, trying to get up—trying to fight through the pain, rapidly losing strength from the blood loss.
Sadistic woman: "Ah! Good, you're still here. I thought I'd have to chase you again."
She walked toward him gleefully. She kicked him in the chest, knocking him back down.
Xeno coughed up blood from the blow.
Sadistic woman: "Now… I wonder how beautiful your entrails will look."
Xeno: "G-get a-away… g-get away…"
He kept sliding back from the crazy woman as fast as he could, repeating the same words over and over.
The sadistic woman, finally having her fill of watching him squirm, decided to finish it.
Sadistic woman: "It's been fun. But I have other business to attend to."
She raised her blade and slashed straight toward his gut.
The blade drew closer.
And closer.
In that moment…
something ₵Ⱨ₳₦₲ɆĐ.
His black eyes turned a deep purple.
The sadistic woman's eyes widened in surprise.
Dark purple chains shot out of the ground—
One tore her arm clean off. Another pierced through multiple parts of her body.
Xeno felt a surge of new found strength in himself.
He looked up at the sadistic woman dispite having an arm ripped off and multiple chains stabbing through her. She looked relatively fine.
Her arm was growing back rapidly.
Sadistic woman: "Well, isn't this fascinating. So you did have some tricks up you're sleeve."
She touched the dark purple chains being fascinated by them.
Xeno didn't say anything but instead looked at the chains holding the sadistic woman in place. This was his chance.
He got up. Using all of his new found strength and RAN.
And kept running as fast... faster and faster at a speed he normally couldn't dream off.
Sadistic woman: "Running, again are you? Don't think I'll allow that" she striked a chain her kukri blade bouncing off. Dealing little damage to it.
She narrowed her eyes judging by the damage she did. It'll take her more than 15 strikes to destroy one. If she didn't destroy them quickly Xenophanes could actually escape.
She began strategically striking the chains.
As for Xenophanes, he ran for what felt like an eternity.
His heart pounded, his muscles burned, his body screamed from being pushed beyond its limits.
But he didn't stop.
Even as blood poured from his arm, he kept running until his body could no longer go on.
He was exhausted.
Looking behind him, he had somehow managed to reach the edge of the slums.
He had escaped?
He actually did it.
But now… he was tired.
So tired his eyes could barely stay open.
He dragged his body into an alleyway and leaned against the wall.
Xeno: 'Tired… so tired… why… is this happening… what did I do to deserve this…?'
Xeno: '…'
Xeno: 'It… doesn't… matter… I just hope… when I open my eyes again… I'm back home… and all of this… is just a bad dream…
Xeno felt his body growing light… drained.
His eyes slowly lost their purple glow.
He could feel his heart beginning to slow.
Then slower.
…slower.
His head dropped.
Silence.
Xenophanes closed his eyes.
And this time… he wouldn't open them again.