The Tale Of Kitsuna

“I told you don’t eat it!” Kayda yelled while rubbing my back.

“You never said it was poisonous-blegh.” I tried fighting back only to threw up again.

“Do I need to clarify everything for you!” Kayda shouted angrily.

“You only said it’s not eatable for us, and I thought-blegh- that you forgot that I am actually a monster,” I said, feeling my stomach becoming lighter.

“Ah for fuck sakes, Kitsuna! You might be that, but you will still get sick if you eat fucken troll meat!” Kayda yelled, getting angrier and angrier at me.

“Well, I know that now,” I said, standing up.

“You got everything out?” Kayda asked worriedly.

.....

“Yeah, I am as empty as air,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.

“don’t ever say that again,” Kayda said, giving me a deadpan look.

“What, why not?” I asked, confused.

“That just sounds wrong,” Kayda said, standing up before dusting herself off.

“It does?” I said, tilting my head at Kayda.

“Yes, I even just said you started to listen to me. Only for you to prove me wrong by wanting to fucken eat troll meat that I advised against,” Kayda said while glaring at me.

“Ha-ha, sorry, it won’t happen again,” I said, laughing at her.

“Whatever, let’s talk about the crimson bandits and why you didn’t talk about everything last night,” Kayda said, changing the subject.

“Well, firstly, Sammy was only a mid-level info broker for them, so she doesn’t have all the info about the crimson bandits, but she still had a lot of info for me,” I said, getting more serious.

“I see dit you kill her?” Kayda asked, shocking me a bit.

“No, but I did traumatize her. But that’s not important. The point I want to talk about is how they operate and get new members.” I said, not caring much about someone else’s mental state.

“Okay, go on. I am all ears.”

“The crimson bandits run about 70% of the kingdom’s orphanages. That does sound as if they are doing something very bad, right?” I said with a bit of sarcasm.

“Yeah, it sounds like they are making child soldiers,” Kayda said with a complicated expression.

“Yes, that is what I thought at first as well, but that’s not fully true. At the age of 16, each child has an option to join the bandits or to start a normal life.” I said, surprising Kayda.

“Hmm, that sounds like they are actually giving them a proper option. But carry on.” Kayda said, testing to me to continue.

“They take any child off the street and let them join the orphanage. Full meals are no hardship, really, but they do get trained in the basics at the orphanage. After the child reaches 16, they can join the bandits who have cared for them from a young or join the society where they have a normal life. The problem with them joins this side is that they will be forced to forget everything about the orphanage and are left to fight for themself in a way. Even though this is what they say, it’s not true. However, the part about forgetting is true, but they aren’t left without anything. There are people in the light that help them when they need it in the beginning and only in the beginning.” I explain with a thoughtful look.

“I see where your problem is, but you need to remember they do kill innocent people sometimes,” Kayda said, making me look at her like she was dumb.

“Of course, I know that they are bandits. However, we aren’t always certain that these people are actually innocent but let’s not go too far into detail. That will only be a pain. My problem is more they do help orphans out a lot, but they aren’t doing it for the right reason.” I said with a conflicted expression.

“That’s true, but the kids do get an option to join,” Kayda said with a thoughtful expression.

“They do, but what will you do if you hear that you will need to forget everything about the people who took care of you your entire life. Will you still take the other option?” I asked, looking at Kayda.

“Hmm, that’s true. I don’t want to forget about the people who raised me.” Kayda said, shaking her head.

“So, if I told you that I want to take over the crimson bandits, what will you do?” I said with a bright smile.

“Hmm, that’s not- wait, you want to take over a bandit group!? For what reason do you want to do that!?” Kayda shouted, looking at me, surprised.

“We can destroy them. It will do more harm than good to do so. So, if we get Grandenzil under control, we can monopolize the bandit group as a second black ops elite force. This will just be a place where any class can join them. Of course, a lot will be changing of how they do things.” I said, clarifying my decision.

“And what will happen with the option of joining or forgetting?”

“It will stay the same, but the children will be taught differently before the time comes for that. They will need to know what is good and what’s bad.” I said, gesturing with my hands of good and bad.

“Hmm, what about job requests?” Kayda said with a thoughtful expression.

“I think it should stay the same, but if it’s like a massacre or an assassination of someone high rank, it should be declined or will need to be clear by mom or Dean.”

“Hmm, you have thought about this for a while?”

“Only one night.”

‘I couldn’t sleep, so I had to keep myself busy after all.” I thought, a bit embarrassed, remembering Kayda sleeping face from last night.

“Okay, I will think about it. For in case have you figured out how we will get Grandenzil under control?” Kayda said with a raised eyebrow.

“Heh, of course. We will use her daughter.” I said, bring the chakrams in front of me before I continued. “When I bought these chakrams, Grandenzil bet on them as well. They didn’t bet too much on them because she thought she could use her name to get them off me. So, she confronted me after the auction, and when I met her, she was with another woman half her size. I didn’t think too much of it until the person talked, and she sounded just like Grandenzil, just younger.”

“So, you are not hundred percent certain they are actually family.”

“Yeah, I am not, but if they are, we can use her. And how many times have I been wrong.” I said, adding the last part cheekily, only to receive a deadpan look from Kayda.

“How are we going to use her?” Kayda asks, ignoring my last comment.

“Well, we will kidnap her and make her join my squad,” I said with a smile.

“You want her to join your squad and kidnap no less,” Kayda said, looking at me with wide eyes.

“Yes, her main weapon is chakrams. That’s not something you see every day.” I said, keeping my smile.

“Seriously,” Kayda said, giving me a deadpan look at my reason.

“Yeah, I don’t know much about Grandenzil, but at the fight yesterday, she seemed like she cared a lot for the death of that ax guy. Oh, his name was Big baby ax.” I said, snapping my fingers.

“Well, I don’t know,” Kayda said, shrugging.

“But haven’t you fought against her a lot?”

“I have, and every time we fought, she would try and use numbers against me, so I don’t think so,” Kayda said, shaking her head.

“Is that so. We will have to see how they will react.” I said, walking into the cave again.

“What do you mean by that.”

“Nothing let’s finish this quest already,” I said, grabbing two chakrams out of the air before throwing them into the cave towards more trolls coming our way.

“Are you not going to answer me?” Kayda said, annoyed.

“Nope, anyways, what sort of metal do we need to get again.”

“I don’t know. It’s on the quest paper.” Kayda said, taking out the quest paper. “Oh, we are looking for blue gems.”

“I see. I will keep an eye open for that then,” I said to catch the chakrams again.

“Nah, you kill everything while I look for the gems,” Kayda said, pushing forward, making 5 scorch balls around her for light.

“Okay, I guess I do need the kills,” I said, walking in front.

(1 hour later)

“You still haven’t found any gems?” I asked, a bit frustrated, looking at Kayda.

“I don’t understand there is nun, and it’s not like there is also no sign of them still being here. It’s more like it has already been taken out.” Kayda said, frustrated.

“You mean it’s already been excavated?”

“Yes, but not very good.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Here, look,” Kayda said, pointing at the rock walls. “See how the walls have straight marks and not a lot of cracks.”

“It looks like they were torn out,” I said, inspecting the wall.

“That shouldn’t be like that. If you wanted to have the biggest and best out of a mine, you should break them, not tear them out like this.”

“I am guessing that trolls don’t collect gems,” I said, looking at Kayda for confirmation.

“You should start learning about monsters, but yes, they don’t care much for gems. However, a troll king can be different sometimes. Every king has a different personality.” Kayda said, looking at me.

“So, we are fighting a troll king?”

“Yes, pretty much.”

“Can I kill it?”

“Yes, if it is a slow troll king,” Kayda said, giving me a playful punch on my shoulder.

“Well, he is collecting gems, so I think he would be a fat troll,” I said sarcastically.

“True, let’s go and find where they are then.”

.....