Sosshi Village stood as the northernmost settlement in the Clover Kingdom, its weathered buildings casting long shadows in the afternoon sun. The village bordered the treacherous Grand Magic Zone that separated the Clover and Spade Kingdoms—a wild expanse of unpredictable magical phenomena that made it one of the most dangerous places in the known world. Despite its remote location, or perhaps because of it, Sosshi had developed a hardy, independent spirit among its residents.
A tall boy with black hair and brown eyes walked leisurely through the village streets, taking in the unique northern architecture and customs. After a few days of traveling leisurely to the east from Hage Village, taking his time to explore and experience new places, Kenji had finally reached this frontier settlement.
He approached a food vendor selling meat skewers, the aroma making his stomach growl.
"How much are the skewers, boss?" he asked with a friendly smile.
"Four Yuls each," the vendor replied.
Kenji nodded and placed twelve Yuls on the counter. "I'll take three."
The man handed him three perfectly grilled skewers. Smiling, Kenji accepted them and flicked another coin to the vendor. "Thanks, boss."
As he walked through the streets, savoring the local flavor and taking in the scenery, he was drawn to a large crowd gathering in the center of town. The noise and energy were impossible to ignore.
This looks interesting, he thought to himself.
Curious, he made his way through the crowd to get a better look. Shoving past the gathered villagers, he finally saw what had caused the commotion.
A girl, looking a couple of years older than himself, stood on an elevated platform, speaking passionately to the crowd. She had striking white hair tied in a single braid that fell over her shoulder and intense golden eyes. Her clothing was clearly expensive—a white formal shirt, black tight-fitting dress pants with golden engravings, and polished black boots.
Why does she look so familiar? Kenji thought, listening intently to her words.
"No more should those of noble and royal birth profit off the hard work of the common citizens of the Clover Kingdom!" she declared.
The crowd roared in response: "YEAH!"
"No more should the citizens of the Clover Kingdom be treated as lesser beings because of where and to whom they were born!"
"YEAH!"
"Those nobles like to think they are so much better than us, but they're no differnt—only rich off the hard work of the citizens of this kingdom!"
"YEAH!"
Witnessing the scene around him and hearing the cheers from the villagers, Kenji looked around dumfounded. This girl is out of her mind.
"I stand here today telling you to strive for change, to create a better future for this kingdom, for yourselves, for—"
She was suddenly cut off by a cold chuckle coming from the roof of one of the buildings.
"HAHAHA! I finally found you. You didn't think you could run forever, did you?"
The girl hearing this muttered, "Shit, they found me."
Enhancing her body with magic, she began running away from the village in the direction of the Grand Magic Zone. Several men in dark clothing appeared launching spells towards where she was previously standing. Seeing her flee, the group began to give chase.
This caused people to become startled and start rushing back to their homes, some even bumping into Kenji as he stood in the middle of the crowd.
Well, that looks interesting. And why does that girl seem so familiar? Unable to suppress his curiosity, Kenji masked his mana signature and quietly slipped out of the chaos, following the group chasing the girl.
POV: Yuwei Liu
My name is Yuwei Liu, and my life until now could not exactly be described as peaceful.
I was born the daughter of a minor noble house, to my father Zheng Liu and my mother, Shae Liu. Growing up, I was raised in a nice house by my mother and father, who both treated me kindly and spoiled me all my life.
I could always tell my father was different from other nobles. He treated the commoners nicely in our town and was loved by them, always showing them respect. He would tell me growing up that nobles were no different from commoners—the only difference was where they were born. I always believed him. He was my hero when I was younger, and still is.
As I got older, I noticed that other nobles always treated our family coldly and acted superior and arrogant. I was never able to get along with them because of this, but that didn't really matter to me because I had my family and I was happy.
This all changed when I was fourteen. One day, when I came home from lessons with one of the sisters, I saw my father and mother in the living room. My mother wasn't moving and was bleeding, and my father had tears in his eyes with a knife in his stomach.
I don't remember much from that day—whether from trauma or just suppressing those memories—but I do remember his last words before he died in my arms. He said to me, with that kind look he always wore, "Yuwei, I'm sorry. It seems I won't be able to see you grow up. You must leave here immediately. There is a key in my pocket to the basement cellar. Take it—there's a path that leads outside the village and gold stored down there. You must take it and run. Always remember, I love y-"
After saying that, he succumbed to his wounds.
To this day, I don't know exactly who was responsible for my father's death, but I wasn't stupid. I knew it must have been one of the many noble houses that hated my father and what he stood for, what he preached and represented. They must have seen it as dangerous, perhaps feared what it could cause.
Since that day, I've done my best to survive. I didn't lack money, as there was quite a bit in the cellar to take before I left. I mostly traveled from town to town, never really finding another place to call home, and spent time with the commoners that my family loved.
I wanted to see for myself whether my father's words held merit, and after spending time going from village to village and meeting all types of different people, I realized they mostly did. Besides the outlying few who are vile creatures, the majority are just innocent people trying their best to survive.
Knowing this, I finally discovered what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to make a difference, change this kingdom for the better, and improve the lives of these people. So I trained to get stronger and started going village to village speaking to the public, trying to act as a symbol to give them hope, to remind them they were people too, and to strive to improve their lives.
That was one year ago.
At first, it felt great what I was doing. People were starting to listen and larger crowds gathered. But I guess not everyone liked what I was doing, as one day a noble didn't like what he was hearing and ordered his guards to attack me.
Since that day, more and more people have been after my life. When I tried to ask Magic Knights for help, they would either turn me away or be too scared to do anything. Those who turned me away were most likely of noble birth—those I do blame. But those who were too scared, I don't. They were probably just normal people without background trying to survive, why would they stick their necks out for me.
On the run, I continued going to different villages, doing the same and trying to escape. Which leads me to today.
I once again find myself running from these dogs, now in the middle of a Grand Magic Zone. Probably not the best place to be, now that I think about it.
Looking back, I counted five of them. They didn't seem too strong, but as I looked back while running, remembering what I've been through and what I'm trying to do, something inside me snapped. I decided I was done running.
Slowing down, I came to a stop and turned around, watching as the five of them did the same in front of me.
The man in the lead said, "Finally given up, have you? Hahaha, seems you aren't as dumb as I thought."
I didn't respond.
Getting no response, the man said, "Tch. Go tie her up. We're bringing her back."
Two of them approached me. When one opened his grimoire, he said, "Plant Magic: Binding Vin—"
Seeing they were now close enough, and have lowered their guards I created two golden spears and launched them at the two who approached. The spears cut the man off and embedded into them both, causing them to collapse.
The man in the lead looked pissed. "Why, you little shit! We were gonna keep you alive, but now I'm gonna kill you! You two, with me."
The three of them opened their grimoires and announced: "Poison Magic: Reaper's Touch!" "Echo Magic: Canary's Scream!" "Water Magic: Water Jet!"
A giant hand of poison, a wave of sound, and a jet of water all approached me, giving me no room to escape.
I looked around and thought, I'm done running. If this is all I amount to, then so be it. I will fight for what I believe in.
Suddenly, a golden grimoire appeared and began flipping pages rapidly, stopping on a page with fresh writing appearing on it.
Suddenly it was as if I developed a new understanding of my magic, as a new spell appeared in my mind. Taking advantage of this I stomped my foot on the ground and announced, "Rule Magic: Queen's Domain!"
A golden sphere of mana rapidly expanded outward from me, encasing all of us. Looking up, I saw the three spells a few feet from me, rapidly approaching.
"Freeze!"
Everything within the sphere suddenly froze where it was, like all time had stopped within the domain.
Encasing myself in golden mana, I began walking forward through the three spells. Letting the spells harmlessly bounce off of me as I approached.
Finally in front of them, I paused and said, "Kneel."
All three of them knelt.
I materialized a golden spear of mana and said coldly, "You have chased me for a whole year, never letting me sleep, eat, or do anything in peace. And for what? So you could all stand here kneeling before the very one you chased."
The man in charge got bloodshot eyes and began to speak. "Why, you little sh—"
He couldn't finish his sentence as struck all three men with the spear, ending them.
With everything finished, I let out a deep breath, sweating, and collapsed on the floor as the golden domain disappeared, catching my breath and extremely low on mana.
"To think I ran from them all this time. Pathetic."
All of a sudden, a black blur appeared from a tree, rushing toward me at extremely fast speed with a blade in hand.
Shit there's one more, where the hell did he come from!
Seeing the blade approach me, without mana and my body completely out of energy,I tried to move out of the way, but my body chose that moment to give out and I could no longer dodge in time. So this is it, huh? Sorry, father. It seems I won't be able to finish what you started.
A tear slid down my cheek.
Snap
Clang
"phew that was a close call. You alright there"
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Athour note: might get mixed reactions with this one but hopefully you will trust the process lol, wont have a major impact until later in the story. Anyways hope you enjoyed the chapter and let me know your thoughts so far.