The Primal Hunter

Pietra looked through the newly arrived shipment as she picked out the best silk from what was left. Most of it had already been taken by the other seamstresses, and Pietra felt lucky that at least some had been left behind she could work with.

If not, it would be hard to ever save up and buy their freedom, not to mention pay the monthly dues.

Putting all she could get in her spatial bag, she paid at the exit of the warehouse before heading home for the day. Renting a spatial bag had luckily gotten quite cheap recently as their clan had a lot fewer members than they used to.

On the way home, she couldn’t help but peek at her neighbor’s small residence. It looked worse by the day due to a lack of maintenance, but Pietra couldn’t really say anything. They had lost the patriarch of their family and thus their position, despite him being the late son of an elder… alas, all that was from the days of old.

Getting home, Pietra smiled the moment she opened the door, fighting through any feelings of exhaustion.

“Mom!” her youngest yelled as she got up from her little bench and ran over.

“Hey honey,” Pietra said with a radiant smile, kneeling down and scooping up her daughter in a hug.

Holding her daughter tight, she looked out the small window showing the neighbor’s house, and inside, she saw a tall but very thin elf sitting in front of a small worktable with listless eyes. Pietra couldn’t help but sigh internally at the sight, holding her daughter even closer than before.

Deliah was truly an unfortunate soul. She had lost not only her husband but also her eldest daughter due to unfortunate timing when the Order of the Malefic had taken over. It had been a few years since it happened, and even if there had been some changes for their clan, it hadn’t really impacted the normal clan members much. It was more the higher-ups who had to deal with new rules.

Things were pretty bad initially. Right when the Order took over, they required the clan to send a certain number of E and D-grades to the Order every month and year, respectively. That had ended pretty fast, though, and since then, they had only been required to pay taxes.

Of course, if they didn’t pay the required taxes, the Order would make up for the difference by taking something else of equal value – more often than not, a few slaves. Which was honestly getting off pretty cheap, considering they were all slaves of the Order to begin with, though Pietra guessed they were considered some other kinds of slaves than those taken to the Order? The members of the clan didn’t have any contracts, after all.

That was why everyone had to contribute, and as a widow, Deliah had to contribute extra as her husband couldn’t. Her remaining children weren’t old enough to contribute much yet, and as she was responsible for them, she had to pay their share.

Honestly, it was a miracle she hadn’t given up any of them yet by sending them to the Order. Pietra already had a hard enough time as a single mother paying for her one daughter and herself, and even if Deliah was a pretty talented jeweler who could use some of the many raw gemstones found in the mines, she had to be struggling to provide for four people alone.

“Mom?” her daughter interrupted her train of thought.

Pietra smiled and shook her head as she stood up and looked down at her daughter. “I was just thinking about adult stuff. Now, what do you want for dinner?”

Deliah coughed as she suppressed the pain. The kids were still in the small academy the clan had established, so she had to finish work before they came home. After a moment of hesitation, she reached into a drawer in her desk and pulled out a potion. It was her last one, but she was too low on resources to keep going.

She hadn’t been able to fully regenerate her stamina and mana pool for several months by now, and it was starting to take a toll. The healer had said she was at risk of taking minor soul damage from overexertion, but she didn’t really have a choice. Thus, she quickly drank the potion, ignoring the slightly rancid taste of a low-quality product. Low-quality but cheap product.

Her husband had been a pinnacle D-grade, which had given their family a respectable position in the social hierarchy, not to mention who her husband’s father was. The fact that her father-in-law was an elder of the clan had helped to at least allow the kids into the academy to put some pressure off Deliah, and if all things went well, they all had a good chance of reaching D-grade. Assuming Deliah herself could continue to support them… something she would do everything in her power to do.

No matter how many years passed, she still couldn’t forgive herself for what had happened to her eldest daughter. Her husband had been insistent on Meira being their way out of the clan and a way to a better life, and Deliah hadn’t done enough to try and convince him otherwise or protect her daughter.

Despite her initial reluctance to go along with her husband, perhaps Deliah herself had begun to believe that marrying a young master from the Brimstone Conglomerate would have been a better fate than staying in the clan for the rest of her life. She would be a slave in both places, but at least she had a chance, however minor, for a bright future as the bride of an influential young man. Meira was smart and a talented healer, so as long as the young master had taken a liking to her, she could definitely have reached D-grade.

Now, none of that mattered. Deliah had agreed to let her husband take Meira to meet the young master, and the rest was history. The Brimstone Conglomerate had been destroyed, gods had fallen, and she had lost her eldest daughter and husband. What made it worse was that she could only blame herself, as blaming such massive factions with untold power like the Order was utterly meaningless.

Instead, they stopped in mid-air, not far from the hole in space, as a single figure walked out after several who looked like guards. From below, Deliah could not see who or what had appeared, but words seemed to be exchanged, and only a minute later, a clan-wide order was given.

Every single member of their clan had to gather… for there was about to be made an announcement regarding their future.

There was no questioning this order, no protests. All they could do was to comply. Over the next several minutes, the entire clan gathered in the large central square of the clan’s main village. Women, children, men, young and old. Everyone was present as they stared at what happened in the sky above.

Out of the large crack of space had floated a large platform of gray stone with hundreds of people on it and what looked like a podium in the middle. Looking at the people there, Deliah recognized them. She had seen one before.

They were enforcers from the Order of the Malefic Viper. However, the last time she saw one, there had been only that one. But… here, there were hundreds. Every single one of them was a B-grade, capable of wiping out any of the small clans in this entire section of the Great Planet. What’s more, there was the leader of this group. A dragonkin with black and dark green scales radiating power far beyond any of the others.

She had heard of these beings. It was a Malefic Dragonkin, a being closely connected and always blessed by the Malefic Viper himself. It was also this man who was the origin of the aura that had frozen the entire clan.

Why is someone like that here? Deliah asked herself as a shiver ran down her spine. Had they done something wrong… had some idiot provoked the Order of the Malefic somehow.

“Did… did your father-in-law tell you anything?” Pietra, who stood beside Deliah and her kids, asked in a worried tone.

“No… he didn’t know or had even heard anything either,” Deliah shook her head and answered in a low whisper while not taking her eyes off the platform above.

“Then what do you think is-“

“Shh!” a third person shushed them, Deliah agreeing that staying silent was probably best. To attract attention was not something anyone wanted, and while Deliah was curious, questioning out loud wouldn’t help anyone.

On the platform above, the dragonkin that seemed to be the leader stepped forward.

“Today, we are here to celebrate a joyous occasion. A change in your way of life. The sole disciple and Chosen of Grand Elder Duskleaf has laid claim to the Willowood Clan from this day onward,” the Malefic Dragonkin said in a voice that echoed so loud every person heard it.

Deliah was even more confused as she heard this. Why was some Chosen in this backwater mining clan, and why would they claim it? Was there something they didn’t know?

With a wave of his hand, the Malefic Dragonkin summoned a sea of gemstones that quickly gathered to form a rectangular gateway before stepping to the side.

Everyone kneeled as the gateway activated. Even the Malefic Dragonkin went down to one knee as they prepared to welcome someone clearly recognized as their superior. In unison, the entire crowd also kneeled, with some even kowtowing entirely. Deliah naturally did the same, keeping her stare firmly directed at the ground.

“All welcome, the honored Mistress Dawnleaf!”

A new aura appeared at that moment. One clearly amplified by the platform above.

“A high elf…” Pietra muttered beside her, feeling the sheer qualitative difference between a regular and a high elf.

However, Deliah hadn’t even noticed the high elf aspect. Instead, her head had whipped up due to the sheer familiarity of the presence of the person who had just stepped out of the gate.

She was a tall high elf, wearing a white dress with minimal jewelry. Deliah only really looked at the face of this elf, and despite the distance, she recognized her… even if a sliver of doubt still remained.

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