Story

"The barony's name is Isthragard, and before you ask no it is not Elven it just has some influence from that region"

That had been evident even to the most ignorant of world affairs that sat there, humans were generally not accepted into elven society and vice versa.

"The ruling family of that barony are all descendants of the demonic invaders of the time of Upheaval, though I don't know if you call it that?"

All of the occupants nodded their heads at the question, a custom that had been ingrained in all of them since birth from the elders.

"I'm going to assume that that means you do in fact call it the same as we do, that saves the explanation"

Not everyone had an understanding of the events that took place in those tumultuous times but they all had a basic knowledge of the key events such as the sacking of Yural.

"I will spare the finer details in the interest of my privacy and time, but I have some of the blood of the demons running through me too which has caused me to be forced to undertake this journey"

Victoria was filled to the brim with questions that she wanted to ask but had to restrain herself since she understood that it was highly unlikely that she would manage to pry any more information at this time.

"What does having the blood of the demon even mean for you?"

It wasn't Victoria asking the questions this time, instead one of her brothers spoke up from his now sitting position behind the chair.

"It means that my blood is some part human, some part demon"

"And you're not scared about telling us this information that apparently got you exiled from your homeland?"

Alex opened his mouth to respond but decided against it, seemingly coming to a revelation about what he had just revealed to strangers.

"Well there's not much to worry about with this being a village disconnected from the rest of the world apart from small parties that wander to and from every once in a while"

Victoria's mother was trying to calm the boy down since it looked like he was heading straight for a panic attack.

"If it was going to send you this much into a negative spin you shouldn't have said anything about it"

Victoria's words were definitely not helping the situation and in fact, seemed to only help in making it worse as Alex's breathing started rapidly increasing in pace and ferocity.

"VICTORIA OUT"

Thus she was kicked out of the house while the others tried to calm Alex down by reassuring him that nothing bad was going to happen.

"BAHAHAHA, O-h that was was great to watch, you're both as dumb as each other"

The goddess seemed to find the entire thing incredibly funny, in great contrast to the feelings of all the other witnesses except Victoria who was also cracking up but was able to hide it better, or more aptly, was more willing to hide it.

`I mean why would he tell us if he was going to have such a fit over it?`

"Some people you will just never be able to explain I guess would be the way to describe it"

`I think you're onto something there`

*GRMBL*

A loud grumbling sound emanated from Victoria's stomach, it was loud enough that she was worried about possibly waking the neighbours if they were asleep.

"Haven't you eaten yet?"

`What does it look like to you oh omnipotent being`

"*Sigh* I'm not even going to bother, but if you don't eat you'll find yourself lagging behind all the other candidates more than you already are"

`Well it can't be that bad can it` While Victoria had barely given a though to the overall game that she was stuck in, she certainly hadn't forgotten but was fairly certain that everyone else would be similarly stuck as kids in their progression as she was.

"Some are already on their way to becoming warlords in the northern reaches not too far from here"

Victoria's jaw dropped so hard that it might as well have hit the floor with the amount of force that was generated by her muscles loosening themselves.

`You're sure about that, it's not just a joke?`

"I would never joke about something like that to you"

`I don't know about that one`

"You barely know me and yet you think that you have a perfect grasp on my character, how much more conceited could you possibly be?"

Although her tone was angry the way she said it made it seem like she was half serious and half playing.

"Anyway everything that I said is one-hundred percent true, but that's not all, one of your opponents was really lucky and is one of the princes of Teurbraum a small polity in the south"

`So you're saying that I basically drew the proverbial short straw in terms of my birth`

"No, not necessarily I mean look at your words use, it's certainly more intellectual than any of the others could hope to reach"

That was a small bit of good news in a sea of bad, it almost felt like a family dinner where everyone was showing off their children and she had to have small things inflated to even measure up to the other children.

"That analogy is not far from the truth in all honesty"

`DID YOU JUST READ MY MIND`

"Well what am I doing currently"

`That's... a good point` She had been beaten in a game of words in her very own head due to her not thinking about things.

"Honestly, now do you see why you need to start getting a bit of a move on and begin your journey of self-strengthening?"

`What do you expect from me, my physical age is nine and add all the maluses I get to my physical status and WHAT DO YOU EXPECT` She was angry because it seemed blatantly obvious what the outcome would be from mixing all of those factors together.

"Well what I didn't expect was someone who did nothing to help themselves and then complains about the odds being stacked against them"

`AND WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?`

"Well for starters, recruiting that boy will help you immeasurably later on, so work on doing that and also you could start training with a weapon, even if it's something small like a knife"

Victoria wanted to respond but needed time to cool herself down and collect her thoughts, while she may not like getting advice from the goddess, she wasn't in a position to turn it down.

`But I have no plans to use a knife when fighting`

"As a famous man once said, the best-laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley, I'm assuming you know what I mean"

`To be honest, I have no idea, but I'm assuming it has to do with plans not going the way you want`

"That's exactly what I meant by that, you can have a plan in mind, but there's no saying that it will work out for you"

`So you're telling me to have a backup plan just in case`

It wasn't a question, just Victoria making sure that was the intention of the goddess.

"Yes, I don't know how you got it into your head that you were going to use an arquebus without having the funds to even buy the powder let alone the gun"

`Yeah I.. probably should have though about that earlier huh`

"You should have"

She sat there for the rest of the time that she was kicked out of the house for, silently contemplating about what she should do about her lack of combat abilities.

It was a harrowing thought that while she went exploring off into a dark forest there were others who were presumably fighting in wars where their lives could be taken in a heartbeat.

The feeling of inadequacy that she felt when comparing the two situations was enough for her to want to cry into a pillow, to try anything to get her mind off of it.

But it would all be pointless anyway, crying at a problem wouldn't do anything to solve it, just prolong the time that it would affect her for.

"Vic? What are you doing out here in the cold, come on let's go inside"

Her inner thoughts were interrupted by a familiarly broad man walking past her, stopping only for a second to confirm it was her.

"That was a quick recognition"

"What can I say? I've trained my whole life for skills like these, and someday you will too"

Her dad had never wanted her to become like all the other women in the village, he wanted her to be what her brothers couldn't muster the courage to be, an adventurer and today she felt like taking him up on the offer to become one.

"You know what dad, I think I will"

He was taken aback, she had never shown any sort of interest in training other than the kind that she did by herself.

"*Cough* Well then we'll start tomorrow"

Victoria saw through what the cough was trying to hide, her dad was secretly incredibly happy, he was just trying to play it cool.

"Enough of that anyway, I'm ready to eat and I'm sure you are too so let's go inside"

When he walked in his footsteps stopped dead in their tracks, in his eyes he saw an unfamiliar face sitting with his family brandishing a sword, even if it was someone who looked to be the same age as his daughter he wouldn't let this go without an explanation.