“What…is that?”

  There was a symbol at the center of her soul.

  The branches radiated outward like veins or cracks from the open eye. And on the lower curve of it, was the bite mark.

  Yuzuriha’s hands instinctively touched her chest, as if expecting to feel something there. But all she could feel was her smooth and warm skin.

  Even when covered by her hands, the symbol was still visible through them.

  ‘Is this the Azure Ooze thing? No, that’s not right. Grace didn’t mention anything about it having a symbol etched onto it. Besides, it's just slime, right?’

  Grace described it as spherical, smooth and iridescent blue. Its texture was similar to that of protein gel. In other words, it was just slime. There was nothing about the symbol and that was starting to make Yuzuriha worried.

  She backed away from the mirror, her mind racing.

  ‘Okay. Okayokayokay. Calm down. No need to panic. For all I know this could be nothing to be worried about. Everyone must have something like that in their soul somewhere right?’

  That was not true at all since she didn’t see something like that when she looked at Grace, Willow, Leo and Marcille. But she snapped her fingers together with a smile enlisted on her face.

  ‘That’s right I didn’t see any mark on them, but the difference between them and me is that I had to focus on my vision to even catch a glimpse of it. Yes, that’s it!’

  Yuzuriha praised herself on such logical level thinking. To which in any case wasn’t wrong since she did have to adjust her sight a bit.

  ‘So that’s it then. But to confirm things, I’ll have to ask her. Sawatari’

  Responding to her thoughts, the assistant made itself known to her. But she didn’t give her the answer she was looking for, she said…

  ?? Information not found ??

  In that case, there was no use prying on it right now. She’ll get answers soon enough, probably from that Tansy fellow Marcille is taking her to.

  ‘That’s if she’s not as stuck up as Marcille. Seriously, what is her problem? I get that she is trying to protect me but isn’t she going about it the wrong way?’

  To truly protect her she could have at least taught her how to fight or something, like those Ascendants. Maybe then she wouldn’t be so worried about her younger sister.

  That said, Yuzuriha wasn’t completely defenseless. Back in her old life she did a bit of martial arts but that didn’t go anywhere seeing as how she mostly used poisons to deal with her targets.

  And besides, it probably wouldn’t work in this young and frail body anyways. She had to find her own means of getting stronger and acquiring protection.

  ‘First, it comes with understanding what’s inside me right now’

  Marcille said that owning a Sacrament was the same as labelling yourself as a target. But the way Grace put it, she made it sound as though this was a breakthrough and yet Marcille is trying to take that away.

  Other than the obvious reason, what other reason did Marcille have in wanting to remove Azure Ooze from her?

  Without pondering too much on it, Yuzuriha focused on the mirror again. Nothing much changed from what she saw, but this time, she had a question.

  “Back in Grace’s workshop you said you wanted to do an appraisal on Azure Ooze. I did that then…”

  The incident happened. She couldn’t say it out loud and thinking about it only sent shivers down her spine.

  She took a calming breath, trying to forget about that horrible experience.

  “...Even now I’m not too sure if the word means something else, but I’m still working with what I know. Are you going to do the appraisal or not….please?”

  That was the only reason Yuzuriha even considered touching the dangerous slime.

  Well, it did help with her blindness so one of its uses included reducing her blindness by speedrunning through the training Marcille was trying to teach her.

  That’s one, but what else was there? There’s no way something sought by dangerous individuals would be a one trick pony. Granted that depended on what the trick was, but still you get the point!

  Yuzuriha waited for a bit before the voice of Sawatari echoed in her head.

  ?? The Azure Ooze has been partially appraised, though at the time of first contact, the analysis was incomplete. I required more time to release the multiple seals placed on its core properties. Some of which had been layered to protect the contents. ??

  ??The materials the woman used are of ancient origin. Even surpassing that ??

  That caught her attention.

  ‘Ancient origin? Wait, was what she said back then the truth? Didn’t she say she was joking?’

  So many questions and no answers. Of course, what she was referring to was when Grace told her about using the saliva of a primordial beast to create this.

  ‘What was it called ... .the world something…?’

  She moved her head left to right while caressing her chin with her hand.

  Then, she snapped her fingers upon reaching a clear answer.

  “Ah, the World Serpent!”

  That was what Grace jokingly said, and yet Sawatari seemed to have picked up something that it could very well fall under.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  Then again there was the possibility of just being another cosmic horror Sawatari detected. Without any sort of knowledge or irrefutable evidence, all she was making were baseless assumptions.

  Yuzuriha exhaled a long breath as she dropped her head to stare into the bathroom sink.

  “I may be straying off topic but I can’t go on like this. There must be a school or academy that teaches this kind of stuff, right? Even to the blind— partially blind, right?”

  As a 13 year old teenager, she was at that ripe age to go back to school. And this country should be full of them.

  However, the question now was which would cater to her special needs?

  ?? That would the Saint Sable College ??

  Yuzuriha remembered Grace telling her something about it, though she wasn’t really specific. More like she mentioned it.

  She said that her brother works as a professor there. And Yuzuriha herself would totally fit in going to a place like that. But what kind of a place was it?

  Through the name alone, she could already tell that it's an institution and when she asked Sawatari about it. There was nothing beyond telling her that it's where Ascendants attend to learn about their special abilities.

  Although it sounded straightforward, Yuzuriha had a feeling that it was much deeper than that. Unfortunately, her secretive assistant had no new information to give her.

  And so, she returned her focus to the original topic. Which was the appraisal of the Azure Ooze. Knowing that, Sawatari continued her explanations.

  ?? Due to the Sacrament being uncompleted, I had to take a few liberties. Merging it with the host was the only way I could temper with its original design and suit your physiology and astris signature.

  Since then, I have been regulating its flow and integration with your body. The process is complete. The properties of it are vast and adaptive. Surely, it will be useful in certain situations ??

  “So, what I am getting here is that you hijacked Grace’s project and made it your own? It’s dishonorable but as long as it works for me, I guess it's fine”

  And besides, Sawatari is just a voice in her head. Nobody would actually believe that such a thing created a tool this amazing.

  But that didn’t change the fact that scum will be after her for it now. That in itself was already stressful. And speaking of…

  “Wait, that was you?!...who….”

  Remembering what happened in Grace’s workshop made Yuzuriha place a hand on her mouth, where the slime had entered. At the time, she didn’t think much of it, but now that Sawatari mentioned it, she felt like vomiting.

  However nothing was coming out, but she still felt like it.

  Taking a breath and stopping the drama, she instructed the Manifestation to continue, and this time actually highlight the Sacrament’s other functions, something more practical and useful.

  ?? With the integration of [Astris Perception] It augments your perception, not just your vision. All of your senses have been heightened. What you are currently experiencing is a heavily filtered version of reality. If I had not been regulating the influx of stimuli, your brain would have collapsed ??

  Yuzurriha felt her throat tighten from hearing that. So, by what Sawatari was saying, was that she was seeing only a small portion of what the Azure Ooze was capable of.

  ‘I’m already seeing the anatomy of existence unrevealing before me. What else could there be to see?’

  ?? The Beyond ??

  ***

  Friday, 12th of Solnace, 849 P.E.

  Yuzuriha awoke to the warm rays of sunlight bathing her delicate skin. What pulled her out of her sleep though was more so the sweet scent of cinnamon porridge wafting from the kitchen.

  With that, she could already tell that this was another morning, another day waking up in this world.

  ‘It’s the second day now since my reincarnation. Is it right to keep referring to myself with the name of my previous life, Kobayashi Yuzuriha?’

  ‘Yor Drapes, was it?’

  As she thought about that, footsteps shuffled past her again like yesterday, the Drapes household was fully awake and getting ready to start the day.

  Willow and Leopold moved through the motions of their routine. School bags zipped, porridges ate, and ready for school. Even without her unique sight, she could tell that today felt calmer.

  ‘Yeah, but that’s far from it’

  It made sense to her now why she didn’t have memories of walking beside the two kids to school every morning. It was because she was getting homeschooled, by their kind and sort of psycho neighbor, Grace Windsor.

  It wasn’t bad really. In fact, she learned a lot from her about this world and also she gained something to make it a little less unbearable.

  So yes, yesterday was very productive and fell in route with her goal of wanting to learn more.

  Now then, with Marcille fully dressed. She and Yuzuriha stood by the doorway once again, watching as the two kids descended the apartment staircase. They didn’t outright shout goodbyes, instead they waved their hands quietly.

  Normally, after this Marcille would take her to see Grace but today was different. Today they were going to see an acquaintance of her old sister by the name of Temperance Wrenleigh, a strange name but this whole place is strange.

  Yuzuriha held on to Marcille’s hand as they crossed Dalny Street, the smooth leather of her gloves brushing softly against her fingers.

  It wasn’t particularly cold, it was a bit chilly but not to the extent of needing to wear a whole garment fit for winter!

  Right now, Yuzuriha was dressed in a wool dress brushing against her boots as she walked. A knitted shawl hugged her shoulders, and petticoats kept the chilly breeze from creeping through.

  ‘This is a bit over dramatic, but admittedly I do feel cozy. So I’ll allow it’

  Compared to the first time she walked outside when she was blind, this was a whole different world now.

  The street was paved with uneven cobblestone, all worn at the edges and polished by decades of horse hooves and boots and now the occasional modern wheel.

  The buildings that lined the street stood tall and rows, wrought by iron balconies, and tall arched windows framed by cornices. Many had ivy climbing up their walls like nature’s lace.

  People wove in and out of each other’s path like strands in a living tapestry. She saw collared ladies with their parasols raised against the cloudy sun, young delivery boys in suspenders, and newsmen calling out the morning’s scandal.

  Yuzuriha couldn’t stop looking around, although she couldn’t get a vivid picture, this was still incredible!

  A crimson curtain fluttered from a second story window from the left and on her right, she passed a small flower shop where marigolds sat bright as embers in chipped wooden crates.

  And finally was the bakery door that swung open, releasing a gust of heat and scent so delicious it almost made her stomach grumble again. Luckily she already had her fill of sweet porridge.

  “Dalny Street’s always busy on Fridays. Vendors set up for lunch rush, couriers run errands, and there’s always a fight near the old post office. Just wait until the rain kicks in and the drunks spill out from the taverns. That’s when it really gets lively”

  She turned her head to the entranced girl.

  “What do you think, Yor? We barely go out together due to my work. Now that we are, I wish it was under better circumstances.”

  Yuzuriha took a whiff of air before parting her lips. She didn’t really know how to answer Marcille’s question, but she could feel the sincerity of it. Well…more like see it through the change in the shade of her astris.

  “I thought I had imagined how the world must look all these years. I never imagined this, but I don’t think I mind it”

  Of course, she was referring to the sights she was looking at.

  Marcille went quiet, and when she spoke she said.

  “Yor, what you are about to see I want you to keep it a secret from Leo and Willow. Promise?”

  Her voice sounded more serious than usual, and so with no choice, Yuzuriha responded with honesty.

  “Yes, I promise”

  “Wonderful. Get ready to meet the Vultures of Duskfall”