71 Kari Returns

After a brief halt in class due to my lack of attention, the teacher starts to talk about history again.

"So, as I was saying, the ancient name of the Elven United Territories is Alfheim, Land of the Elves. After the civil war approximately two thousand years ago, Alfheim split into multiple different kingdoms."

"The time after was met with hundreds of years of conflict between the different kingdoms and countries that came out of the split Alfheim. The end result was the different kingdoms we have nowadays."

It is kind of strange that the history of the world after the Shift seems to be loosely based on ancient mythology before it. Of course, modern interpretations of ancient mythology.

I mean, the original description of elves in Norse mythology had nothing in relation to what the elves after the Shift looked like.

Does this imply that the changes after the Shift were based on people's visions of what a "fantasy world" would look like? Or does it imply that a higher power had some hand in the effects of the Shift? Is it maybe just some weird coincidence?

Ah... getting sidetracked again.

"As you can see, since ancient times, many people of different races have begun to immigrate into our country. Nowadays, our country shares a fair bit of diversity."

This stupid- I mean, important class went on for a while. Honestly, these classes really suck. I'm not really interested in history that much, even if history is now more fantastical than it used to be.

Now that I think about it, all the history I learned in the past is completely useless now! I mean, all the details are completely different! Well, not all of them, but most of them.

Not anything I can do by going off task thinking about this, so...

"And does anyone know what the antiderivative of x squared plus the natural log of x is?"

No, no one does, Mr. Calc teacher. Your entire class makes absolutely no sense, you know that, right? I could never say that out loud, though. Have we even learned how to take the antiderivative of natural logs yet?

Well, my calculus teacher isn't well known for elaborating further, so I guess I'm going to have to youtube it later.

===

Ugh. Finally, school is over. Well, time to figure out more about these "artifacts." Ooh, fancy name.

It makes some sense that they have the power to block magic; however, that may not be their only ability. The magic canceling ability must come from the fact that they are from a time before the Shift, aka back when there was no magic.

They must reject magic on a fundamental level. It is so fascinating. Maybe that is why I'm like... this now.

I obviously didn't get completely affected by the Shift, and that must have caused a strange mutation because my existence itself rejected magic.

Maybe in trying to compensate for all the changes that were happening around it, my body took a more, ahem, feminine form. Why a female, though?

Well, trying to reason through this is kind of pointless, isn't it. The Shift was obviously a very unreasonable event; trying to reason through why and how it happened right now will get me nowhere. I'll know more in less than a week when we find these artifacts.

===

Unknown POV:

"They have found out about the artifacts; what do we do?" - Grunt 1

"We knew this would happen the moment you sent in those good-for-nothings! Getting beaten up by a high school girl? Seriously?" - Grunt 2

"Don't underestimate their ferocity, those girls can be absolutely horrifying sometimes!" - Grunt 1

"Okay, who invited that guy here?" - Grunt 2

"Everyone shut up. It doesn't matter that they found out about the artifacts; it will take them a while to find out how to use them to their true potential. For now, we still have the upper hand." - Codename: Baron

"Yeah, that is true." - Grunt 2

"The No-Name Kingdom is a stronghold for their stupid race equality philosophy. If we can isolate them, then it will be easier to act in the future." - Codename: Baron

"Oh, so that's your plan. Thanks for telling me. I've been looking for Magic Liberator strongholds, and I managed to come across a 'noble' on the first try!" - ???

"How do you know about the nobles?" - Baron

"You mean the upper leaders of the Magic Liberators? Well, you guys don't exactly hide your information that well, I was literally just eavesdropping on your entire conversation." - ???

"Anyway, I gotta get home, I have movie night with my sister tonight, so do you mind quickly telling me more about these 'artifacts' you were talking about?" - ???

"AAAUUUUGGGHHHH!"

===

Jess' POV:

"Kari, what took you so long?"

"Err, I got caught up in traffic?"

"Why did you say it as a question?"

"Don't worry about it. You ready to watch some movies?"

"Yeah! You wanna watch Game of Chairs? Maybe Joan Nick?"

"Sure, why not? How is school going?"

"Well, it's going. I think getting kidnapped was better than doing particle motion problems in calculus."

"I never thought I would hear that sentence. I think it is unfortunate you have the experience to actually compare getting kidnapped to calculus."

"Whatever, can we get to the movie?"

"Sure."

I have a feeling that my sister didn't really get stuck in traffic. I wonder what she was doing. I mean, it has to be something important; she is keeping it a secret, after all.

"Hey, Jess, do you know anything about 'artifacts?'"

*Pffff* "WHAT!" I just spit out my drink! How does she know about the artifacts!?!

"Seems you know something. I heard a little about them. When I heard you came home injured a while back, I wondered who could even lay a finger on you, but now I know how."

"Uhhh... well..."

"You are going to tell me how you know about those things and why you've been putting yourself in danger recently."

"Oh great..."

...

"So let me get this straight. You got hired by the PRINCESS to defend an important conference holding the future of our country. And she hired a 17-year-old because of a hunch... are you kidding me?"

"I wish I was joking."

"Why didn't you refuse!?!"

"Are you telling me that would have ended well? Rejecting an offer made by royalty?"

"... Good point. But seriously, I know you are strong, but are you cut out for this? You are still in high school; this shouldn't be put on your shoulders."

"I'll be fine; only loser assassins have been sent so far. I beat all of them relatively quickly."

"You know how ridiculous that sounds, right?"

"It's fine, Kari! They have someone looking into these 'artifacts' right now. We'll be getting information on what they can do in less than a week and maybe how to deactivate them. All we know is that they are items that reject magic and shouldn't exist in this world!"

"Hold up, shouldn't exist?"

"Uhhh, yeah. We don't know how they exist, but they do."

Well, I know where they are from and that they are basically the leftovers from the Shift, but Kari doesn't necessarily need to know that.

"Great... just promise me you'll be safe."

"Sure, the last day of my impromptu job is over tomorrow anyway."

"Well, good; just stay as safe as you can under your circumstances, okay?"

"Yeah..."

(Kari's thoughts)

Seems like I have some cleaning up to do. I can't leave these crazy people to hurt my sister, can I?