Short-Tailed Jackal Woodland was a large forest not too far away from the Capital. There were lots of Short-Tailed Jackals there, so people started to call it as such. However, aside from these beasts, many precious herbs could be found in the forest as well. Elora and Zelie formed a team and chose a Common Rank herb gathering mission. 

 After that Slyff, Nefia and Khrom formed another team while Hot Rod, Barret and Dion made the final group. Though they were surprised when they realised that they could travel all over the Pengolla whenever they wanted, soon after a thrilling expression appeared on their faces. An arrogant person once said that the world is in his palm, currently, they were feeling the same.

 Kadyn sat down on the couch that was lying near the counter after everyone went to complete their missions. Rayna, Kove and Melvona had also gone to work, leaving him alone. He thought about something briefly and then opened the Pengolla Portal. Then he went to Avibria City to ask about his parents, but he was disappointed. Elder Jyn still didn’t know where they went after causing havoc.

 Nonetheless, he couldn’t do anything about it and had to go back in disappointment.

 —

 Cecelia looked at the tavern in front of her and strolled towards it at a slow pace. She had just arrived and realised that the Pengolla Formation had sent her to the outskirts of the Glovergonie Highlands. The tavern was called Molten Cod Bar. Mostly adventurers and criminals gathered here. Some came to find an opportunity to turn their lives for the better while others came to take their fortune for themselves.

The laws were a joke here as it was the border, far away from the reach of the empire. Furthermore, Ceston Empire didn’t place any army at this place either as it was almost impossible to cross the Glovergonie Highlands. So they didn’t care much about the differences against the Phelan Empire that was on the other side of the mountain range.

The Molten Cod Bar was bustling with laughter and shouting and curses. However, when Cecelia walked into it, many people fell silent, gazing at her curiously. There weren’t many females in the tavern and those who were present couldn’t be said to be appealing from any angle. Therefore, when they saw a beauty like Cecelia their eyes lit up, gulping sounds could be heard all around the tavern. Many licked their lips and their lower bodies started to react.

Nonetheless, Cecelia didn’t care about the gawking crowd and sat on an empty table near the corner of the hall. “One ale!” she ordered.

It didn’t take long for her order to arrive. However, when she was about to pour herself, someone came to her seat. A grin appeared on the scarred face of the burly man, and he sat down without asking. “5000 Ces,” he said.

Cecelia looked at him and an amused expression appeared on her face. The man misunderstood her smile for something else and straightened his back before saying, “How about 10,000, then? I don’t think you are a virgin, even virgins would cost less than ten thousand; though you are beautiful, ten thousand should be more than enough for a loose cunt—”

Before the man could finish his sentence, a terrible pain came from his chest. Then blood dripped from his lips. When he lowered his head, he realised a hand had pierced his chest. When he lifted his gaze, a grinning face that was too beautiful for the likes of him appeared. The face that cost him his life.

“You can watch however you want. You can think however you want, but you can’t talk however you want. Remember to control your dick and tongue in your next life,” Cecelia said and pulled her hand out of his chest. However, there was something extra in her palm. A heart. Furiously pumping heart. The man looked at his heart in Cecelia’s hand and then crumpled lifelessly.

After that Cecelia threw the piece of meat at the corner and wiped the blood off her hand with the napkin. She looked at the horrifying gazes of the bystanders and grinned. People felt cold sweat trickling behind their backs as her gaze fell on them. No one dared to make a sound until Cecelia remained in the tavern.

Only when she left did the tavern owner come in front of the corpse and examined it. “Huh, what’s this?!” he said with a horrified voice. The corpse was no longer a corpse, but a mummy, and there was no blood around or over it, as they had expected.

Cecelia didn’t know that her tale would become famous after this incident and people would call her the Demoness of the Highlands.

—

The two figures rushed through the woods, hand in hand, and covered in sweat and bruises. Breathing heavily and fatigue was apparent on their lovely faces.

“Fuck!” one of the two girls cursed as they tried to escape from the pack of the Short-Tailed Jackals. “I never thought that a single Common Rank herb would make us so miserable.”

“Don’t worry,” Elora said. “We just need to escape from them, and then we will be able to heal ourselves.”

“I hope so,” replied Zelie.

“Grrr-grrr-grrr~”

Suddenly a jackal rushed towards them from the front. The duo didn’t panic as this wasn’t the first time they were dealing with such a situation. After many trials and errors, they had become a lot proficient in dealing with tricky situations like this. Zelie first acted and tens of fire arrows rushed towards the jackal that was intercepting their path. The attack wounded the beast but it was far from being fatal. It stood and again lunged towards the duo. This time Zelie didn’t move and Elora attacked.

“Wound Rupture!”

The jackal froze as soon as she cast the spell. Then it started to roar furiously as if in agony.. And before its companion could catch up to them, it burst into a bloody mist.