In Loki's Honor

I hid in a partially collapsed set of shacks. The core was too shiny to hide and I had a hunch that it was too valuable to leave behind. I also needed time to rest and regenerate a throat and a mouth. My jaw hadn't fallen off but it came close. Drinking demon blood is not an experience I recommend. I had no idea how long I could stay there. The slums were on fire, most of the people that lived here became food for the demon, and the city was going to shit.

I hoped my family was fine. They were on the other side of the city. The despair of not knowing was greater than the pain.

She covered my body with a bubble of water. Clutching the core in my belly, I let my consciousness slip.

I woke up and it was cold. Freezing cold. I was submerged in the water surrounded by a cocoon of ice. I was still in my hybrid form. My fur was silvery white now.

Because there wasn't anything valuable in the slums.

I checked my Status.

A wall of text rose up. My skill points were automatically assigned while I slept. My Attributes were gone. I still had only sixteen on all physical, and six on all mental. My HP suffered the biggest change.

HP: 11,269 / 11,269 (168 base x39 Attributes x1,72 Skill)

Damn, that was a lot.

I cooed.

I could swear she blushed.

There was a throng of refugees outside the city. The city was under lockdown and nobody could get in. Even then, they weren't too keen to return and there were talks that the city was cursed. I stole a backpack and some clothes from a merchant's wagon and made myself as presentable as I could. I knew I should go to the plantation but I needed to check on my family. So I went back to the city, climbing and jumping the wall because the guard was not letting people in.

Listening to rumors as I walked led me to understand why. The demon destroyed the merchant quarter and the slums. Including the food warehouses. The Baron decided that the food inside the city should be used by those inside the city, letting the horde of people outside the wall to starve. He was sitting on the siege granaries tightly. Probably because the people outside would try to besiege the city when they get even more hungry than they were.

So far they survived by eating the food deliveries inbound. But now some of them were turning to banditry and the merchants would flee from this city like the plague. The demon might cause more deaths after his death than what he killed alive.

I had a hole in my stomach when I approached our house. The usual guards were watching the street like hawks. I climbed the wall and jumped to the house roof. From there I entered through a window on the servants' attic.

I sighed with relief. I met nobody as I went to my room and changed out of my stolen clothes, hiding the core inside some old boots I kept above my armoire.

I picked up a bunch and looked. Yes, my hair was now anime silver. Silky and glossy as usual but now it had an extra metallic sheen. I focused and used my chameleon power to make my hair dark brown as before. Then I went to meet my family.

The women were in the sitting room, wearing tired and worried expressions. All five of them. Relief washed over me and my heart skipped a beat. I was so worried! I stopped by the door and softly knocked on the wood.

Cerise was the first to look up. "Apricot! You're okay!"

My sister came to hug me. Olive looked at me and smiled, giving me a nod of complicity.

"Yes, I'm okay. I'm sorry I couldn't let you know I was okay, but..." I stopped when I looked at how furious mom was.

"No lies, young lady," my mother said with a firm voice. "You will come here and tell us the truth. Where were you?"

I swallowed, nodded, and rubbed my hands, covered in sweat. I was shaking hard and my legs felt like cooked spaghetti but I walked and sat next to mom. The women were all looking at me with interest. Only Olive was slightly frowning.

"Where were you, Apricot? I know you are a grown woman and you sometimes go on errands for Lord Ackerton. You never failed to come back home. We saw the demon destroying the city and worried about the worst. Where were you all these days?"

I tried to speak but words didn't come out. I looked down at my feet and felt a cold worse than any other before. And I was in a cocoon of ice hours ago. When I did speak, I said, "Buried under the debris of some hovels in the slums, mom."

"What were you doing there?" Mirabelle asked.

"Resting and healing my wounds," I replied without raising my head to look at any of them.

Mom gasped and touched all over me. "Where are you hurt?"

In the heart, but I didn't say that. "Nowhere, mom. I already healed everything."

Olive came and sat by my side. She grabbed my hand and squeezed it. "It is okay, Apricot. You have to tell them," She spoke softly to me while she rubbed my forearm. "Mom, Apricot is fine. She has no wound on her, not even a scar, I bet. But she was doing something very important to keep us safe, weren't you, Apricot?"

I sobbed and hugged Olive. She'd seen the worst in me and accepted me. "I love you, sister," I mumbled while I drenched her dress with snot. She didn't mind and patted my head.

"What were you doing in the slums?" Mom asked.

I felt a tug on my shoulder and let myself move with it. Mom was strong as a bull. [Farmers] had to be.

"Do you want the whole truth, mom?" I asked looking in her eyes. Olive was rubbing my back.

"Of course! Out with it! If my daughter was doing something dangerous, I have to know."

I knew I had to keep my secrets. To keep my mouth shut. But how could I disobey my mother? "Did you get the quest prompt?"

"Yes. Everyone did," Anjou replied. "The one the great Bundeus gave us to kill the Demon Lord."

"Good. So, that's what I was doing. killing a Demon Lord," I said. Olive's hands stopped and she jumped on me, hugging my neck.

"Liar!" Anjou replied. "That's impossible. She's lying, mom!" She whined to Mirabelle. Apricot you're a liar! You're too dumb to even have a Class!" She was screeching at the end.

That was expected. The real shock was when mom slapped my cheek. "You don't dare to lie to me! Were you seeing a man? Is that it? You've become some man's mistress as the rumors say?"

No, the real shock was that there were any rumors of me with a man. Like, the last thing in my mind was to get into a romantic or sexual relationship with a male.

"Say what? No. I don't have anyone. I'm nobody's mistress and never was."

Another big mistake. I glanced at Mirabelle while I said that. My eldest and wicked sister jumped on my neck. "What are you implying, you bitch? We did our best to feed someone as worthless as you and that's how you repay us?"

"Mira!" Olive protested, "Take it back right now! Apricot really works hard to keep us safe!"

"You shut up, Olive," Mirabelle barked back, possessed. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"No. You are the one that will shut up, sister!" Olive shot back, angry. "Get down from your high horse now! Apricot is not lying. She rescued me from the magistrate! He was raping me and she came like an angel of death! She killed the bastard and saved me!"

"Can we please stop!" Cerise said. "You two are going too far."

"You killed the magistrate?" Mom asked me.

I met her eyes. "Yes, mom. He was raping Olive. I cut his head off then set his house on fire to keep Olive safe."

"She did. I'm forever thankful she came for me," Olive remarked as she covered my trembling body like a blanket. "I'll be by Apricot's side whatever happens. And if she says she killed the Demon Lord, she did. Because Apricot is more powerful than you can imagine. she's the reason we are here in this mansion now."

Mirabelle stood up. she walked and forcefully separated Olive from me. She was also a [Farmer].

"She's also the reason we lost our father! We lost our farm! We would be a happy family if she hadn't come back that winter!"

And your daughter wouldn't be a [Lady]. But Mirabelle's trademarked Bottle of Repressed Resentment ™ was far from done.

"She's the reason we had to whore ourselves at that brothel!" My eldest sister screamed to the four winds. "The reason Almond was taken from us. Colby and Jordan too."

"You have to take the bad with the good, sister. I--"

"YOU WERE A BABY. YOU DON'T EVEN REMEMBER THE FACE OF YOUR BROTHERS!" Mirabelle jumped on Olive and slapped her.

My focus slipped and my hair returned to the silver color. I was growling without even noticing it. But Olive did.

"Apricot, don't. She's not worth it!"

"Do you want proof that I killed the Demon Lord?" I asked Mirabelle. She scoffed. "Fine. Stay here. If I see a single bruise on Olive, you're paying dearly for it."

I stormed out of the room and ran up the stairs to my room. The tears still fell from my eyes.

the fairy warned.

The fairy flew and kissed my nose. "Oh, Apricot. I'm afraid that's something no amount of wealth can fix," She said. "I will meet your family and present the core with you. They'll listen to you, or I'll do something nasty to them."

"Oh, what, pray tell?" I asked. Nenandil's apparent levity lifted a bit of my sorrow.

"I'll freeze their pussies," She snarked. "But I'm afraid some of them are already frozen."

"Yeah, you do that. Let's go back."

"I'll fix your hair first. Sit by the vanity."

I came downstairs feeling like a [Princess]. Nenandil didn't only fix my hair. She gave me ice ornaments. The same thing with my neckline and earrings. All made of ice. A combination of the transparent and foggy versions of ice. I had to admit I squealed when I saw myself in the mirror.

I entered the room with the core on one hand like it was the Sovereign's Orb and Nenandil perched on my left shoulder. The bickering women - yes, they didn't stop getting at each one's throats while I was out - paused to look at me.

"So, here it is. The Demon Lord's Magic Core. And this is Nenandil, my water fairy {Familiar}."

If my dress was blue, I'd have to sing the iconic song by Idina Menzel.

"You have a fairy?" Anjou asked full of envy.

"Is that core real?" Cerise asked ogling the core.

"You didn't tell me you had a fairy!" Olive protested.

Mom and Mirabelle didn't speak. Their jaw muscles were malfunctioning.

"Yes. This is Nenandil. She's been with me since ever. She's one of the reasons I never starved even though you stole my food," I said that staring at Mirabelle. "And this is a level fifty-nine magic core. You can stop drooling, Anjou. I'll break this and scatter the pieces to the four corners before you'll see a single copper from this core."

Anjou didn't even listen to my threat. "Why does SHE have a fairy? That's unfair! That stupid retarded girl doesn't even have a Class!"

I closed my eyes and shut Anjou and Mirabelle in a mental box. There was only one person that mattered.

"Mom? Do you believe me now?"

She avoided my gaze and mumbled, "I have no idea what I should do now."

Olive stood up and poked our mother's nose with her finger. "Then you should accept your daughter. I was too young to remember, but I heard everything from her. Apricot returned with the coin pouch after you SOLD her to a merchant. She didn't tell dad to come to town or to not be careful with the money. It wasn't her fault. She arranged for that crook to buy you from the brothel. She didn't put you in there, but surely as the sun rises in the east she TOOK YOU OUT of there and released you from your collars. That disgusting man's thing was inside me when she cut his head off. The most beautiful angel of vengeance! She rescued me and traded the treasure she took from the magistrate for this very place you take for granted.

"And now, she killed a Demon Lord and saved the town. Probably the whole country owes their lives to her! She's an [Hero] if I ever saw one! May the Gods smite me if that's a lie!"

I hugged Olive in case the gods decided to smite her. At least next to me, she wouldn't be harmed. But as I felt her warmth, the tears came back.

"Thanks, sister."

"You're welcome, Apricot," Olive chirped.

"But you got it wrong, sister. My Class is not [Hero]. I am a [Silver Slayer]. I hunt demons. That's why my hair is this color."

Olive turned around and hugged me. She licked the ice earrings to test it. Then she whispered in my ear, "I thought it was [Assassin]."

I whispered back. "I ranked up after getting six hundred million from the demon."

I snorted. Olive pushed me away. "Six hundred million Exp?" She looked to the core and to my eyes. "You're shitting me!"

"Six hundred, thirty-six and a half million," Nenandil cheekily corrected me.

Anjou swooned and fell to the floor.