Life Hunter

After enjoying the amusement park for a short period, Lanya led Arima's group to a building in its center. That building looked like a modern mansion and even had a pool on the roof.

"Ugh, I don't care anymore," Arima blankly commented as he observed the mansion. His group easily entered the mansion thanks to Lanya. It felt like everyone there knew about her. They were escorted to a room by a maid and were left waiting there.

"Ooh," Arima exclaimed and headed to the table in the center of the room. He sat down on a couch and started to eat all of the sweets prepared for the visitors. Lilis and Lanya shrugged and began to eat with him. Night laid down in the corner of the room and closed his eyes.

They waited for around five minutes before a figure barged into the room and leaped on Lanya to hug her. She had a petite figure, gold hair and eyes, and a beautiful pair of transparent wings. She truly looked like a fairy.

"Lanya!" She beamed as she was hugging Lanya and the latter smiled in return.

"Vinia, it's good to see you again."

"Yes!" Vinia then calmed down and let Lanya free. When she inspected Lanya with a closer look, she tilted her head, "Have you gotten bigger?"

Lanya chuckled and wryly smiled, "Yes."

"It's a shame… It was fun to have someone as small as me," The princess casually uttered an extremely selfish statement and then finally concentrated on the other people present in the room. "Who are they, Lanya?" She looked at Arima who was idly stuffing himself and Lilis who was smiling brightly as she stared back.

"They're friends of mine."

"Humans, huh?" Vinia muttered, "So? Why have you come here after all this time?"

"Of course, I wanted to see you. I'm extremely thankful to you, so I thought it was time for me to come visit you."

Vinia laughed like a genuine little girl, "Then let's talk. I want to know what happened to you since the last time we met."

Lanya was caught off guard. She glanced at Arima and hesitation was clearly plastered all over her face, "But…"

Vinia's eyes widened, "What? He doesn't know about your past?"

Arima frowned and gazed at them, "Go on. It's not like my attitude toward you will change in any way," He stated and swallowed the last bit of his biscuit.

Lanya acquiesced and began to tell her story. It took her around ten minutes to disclose the whole thing.

As she had said before, she was born in the Republic in a small village. The only paternal figure she had was her mother. The latter never told her about her father and she basically grew up without knowing anything about him. She lived a peaceful life until she was ten. When Lanya turned ten years old, the village discovered that she had monster genes in her.

"Apparently, my mother…had been assaulted by a monster and I was the child that resulted from that."

At the age of ten, some strange marks started to appear on her skin. It wasn't long before she and her mother became the target of the village's hostility. In the end, Lanya's mother was pushed to her limits and forced to a corner until she committed suicide. It wasn't like she was trying to flee responsibilities or that she didn't love her daughter, it was merely because she alleged that the village would be satisfied with her death. Furthermore, she was physically weak and didn't want to cause trouble for her daughter who was already stronger than average thanks to her bloodline.

Ultimately, Lanya was chased out of the village like an animal. The villagers didn't kill her. Probably because the guilt they were feeling after pushing a weak woman to suicide and perhaps also because they had realized how ugly their actions were; only too late.

So, just like this, Lanya first cried and mourned for days before she initiated her trip to places that even herself didn't know about. She was just like some sort of fugitive. She had to hide her appearance from others and work at the guild to be able to eat.

Her life continued like this until she met Vinia who was out of her homeland to meet with others royalty with her father. Vinia took care of her and they quickly became friends. But after a few months, Lanya insisted on leaving and Vinia helplessly agreed and gave her some food, weapons, and clothes to use.

At that time, Lanya's goal was the monster territory and her father that lived there. Her only purpose was pure vengeance. It was an immature and reckless thought.

While she was in the monster territory, she learned how to fight and survive. And it was also then that she received the inheritance of Chronepsis. Her body stopped growing and at the same time, her body stabilized and reverted to a normal human appearance. As he gave her the inheritance, Chronepsis also offered her the information about her father.

After everything was said, Lanya unhesitatingly attacked the lizard clan to find her father who actually had a small nobility title. She succeeded in her assassination but was captured in the process to finally be sold to a certain vampire and bought by Arima sometime later.

Arima, Lilis, and Vinia attentively listened to her, even Night perked his ears.

"I see, so the reason you insisted on leaving this place was for revenge…" Vinia mumbled and bitterly smiled, "No wonder you didn't tell me anything. You knew I would've stopped you… You received the power of a god and he encouraged your revenge. That's outrageous."

Apparently, the spirit princess was a bit mad against Chronepsis for giving Lanya information about her father.

Arima finished his tea and rested his back on the couch. He crossed his arms and indifferently looked at Vinia, "What's wrong with that?"

Lanya didn't expect those words and her eyes widened.

"What do you mean?" On the opposite, Vinia's eyes narrowed and glared at Arima.

"Revenge. Who are you to proclaim that it's a bad thing? People who say revenge is stupid and nonsensical are cowards who can't accomplish it. Vendetta, vengeance, revenge, retribution… They're all the same. That's what you call justice."

"Justice?"

"Yes. Revenge can also be referred to as a punishment. That's what justice is. Not the disgusting thing people call laws, tainted with misplaced and useless morals," Arima voice got colder, "If you dare to say one should not seek for revenge, you are indirectly expressing that the criminals should be left alone although they crushed the lives of innocent people. Is that your belief, princess?"

Vinia fell silent for a moment. Her eyes drifted toward Lanya who was sighing in relief as a faint smile appeared on her face. The main reason she was irresolute to tell her past to Arima was because of her origins and the fact that she sought vengeance on her own biological father.

Vinia shook her head and stood up. She stared at Arima, "You were the one who saved her so I shall thank you for that. But," She released her aura of the eighth level inside the room and maybe the entire mansion shook, "If you make her sad or if something happens to her, I will then take your advice and give justice."

Arima chuckled while Lilis couldn't resist the urge to burst out laughing, "You have great resolve, little girl. You want to protect your friend, that's admirable," She praised Vinia as if she was talking to a child. She smirked and pointed at Arima, "But you shouldn't threaten someone who can single-handedly destroy your country."

"Sorry?" Vinia was shocked by those words. She urgently turned toward Lanya and the latter shrugged in response. Vinia felt like she had done something really stupid and embarrassing as her cheeks reddened. She retrieved her aura and stiffly bowed in front of Arima, "I'm sorry… I got carried away."

Arima waved his hand dismissively, "Don't worry about it."

Lanya giggled then cast a really intrigued look at Vinia, "Still, you usually didn't snap like that before, what happened?"

Vinia sat down on a chair and groaned shamefully, "Actually… I'm having a bad experience with humans at the moment."

"Bad experience?"

"A few months ago, I went with father to the capital for a meeting with the human king. There, I stumbled upon the first prince. 'I fell in love with you at first sight,' he said"

Vinia grumbled with a great annoyance in her voice, "Since then, he kept proposing to me over and over again and recently it changed into threats. Of course, I looked into his reputation and what I found was a really disturbing rumor. I heard that he has the hobby of seducing and luring women to have fun with before abandoning them. In fact, some young girls even disappeared after visiting his chambers."

A cold flashed in Lanya's eyes, "Is that information reliable?"

Vinia sighed, "It is. I investigated that rumor quite profoundly."

"That's…" Lanya was speechless, "…What kind of threats did he send you?"

"Things such as declaring war against the spirits, spreading false rumors about us, or even sabotaging our trades…"

Lanya's expression darkened, "Does he really have that kind of power?"

"Yes, unfortunately. He's greatly influent. Even in front of the king himself. He possesses a lot of backers and supporters among the nobles," Vinia helplessly said.

When Vinia stopped talking, only the noise of Arima and Lilis eating was still resounding in the room.

"Arima, do you have an idea?" Lanya couldn't stand this odd silence and asked Arima for help.

"Hm?" Arima was indolently listening until now so he was a bit late to react, "Oh. Well, in my opinion, there's a really easy solution."

"Really?" Vinia's expression brightened.

"Yeah, someone like that, you just need to kill him."

Now, the silence came back and it was even more unbearable than before. Night grunted and Lilis snickered.

"What's wrong? I can even do it from here if you want," Arima declared. Before anyone could stop him, he released his aura toward the sky. Like a guided missile, his aura flew off. Around two thousand and a half kilometers away, toward the human capital.

Above that same city, the sky darkened and every citizen looked up. They all witnessed the clouds gathering together to form a spiral. Just after, all of them felt a wave of spirit going through them.

The strong people around the continent got the same thought at the same time, "(Not that guy again…)"

The clouds above the city slowly blackened and thunder rumbled. Dark lightning hovered around the city as if it was threatening it.

"So? Just tell me how he looks like and the problem is solved," Back in the spirit realm, Arima's eyes glowed and a projection of the human city appeared in the room. Arima pointed at the projection with his finger and everywhere his finger pointed, black lightning would follow, both in the projection and the real world.

Vinia was agape. She didn't know how to react but when she heard the question Arima just asked her, she paled and recovered her senses, "Wait! I don't need you to do that! Also, the prince is at the eighth level, you can't kill him just like that!"

Arima scowled at her, "If it's only the eighth level, I can do it with one lightning bolt. Two, if I'm unlucky."

"It's fine! I don't want someone else to kill for me!"

"Did you already forget what I said?" Arima retorted and the fairy couldn't any anything else to counter him.

"I…"

Arima shrugged. The projection vanished and the clouds above the human city dispersed. All of the humans breathed out in relief.

"If it was up to me, I would have directly eliminated him. But since it's your problem, I'll respect your opinion, as Lanya's friend."

Vinia sat down again and sighed heavily.

Arima looked at her and hummed, "Well, to be honest, I have a non-lethal way to deal with this."

"…What is it?"

"Simple, you just need to-" Arima froze in the middle of his sentence. His expression suffered some changes and he closed his eyes as if he was seriously listening to something

"Mh?" Lilis and Lanya were as much confused as Vinia and even Night couldn't tell what was going on.

Arima slowly stood up, he opened his eyes. "Sorry, I have to go somewhere," He said and turned toward the corner the room, "Night, stay here and take care of that guy for me. I don't think I need your help on this one."

"Huh?" Vinia was stunned when she saw Night who nodded. Because he hadn't moved or said anything at all since the beginning, she didn't realize he was in the room. Even his aura and presence were freakishly concealed and maybe some people would even have a hard time noticing him even if they were right next to him.

"Good luck then. Later," Arima waved his hand to say bye and teleported away.

The room fell silent once again. This time, the three girls eyed Night in curiosity. They were very curious about what Arima was going to say earlier. The wolf clicked his tongue as he didn't want to work and unwillingly explained the 'plan'.