These stupid kids! I don’t want to play with them and I don’t have ice cream for them! Maybe I should turn them into snacks, so I’m free from their pestering. And their mother is useless, as she keeps inviting me for tea! This continent is doomed! Mothers don’t care for their kids anymore, and kids jump at danger at the first chance! It’s time to move continent!

  Moving is a great idea, though. These pests have my location. Maybe the lion beast kin neighbor can be a bro and deal with them.

  “Mr. Silver Torrent! Let’s play!”

  Go to school!

  “We’re on holiday!”

  Ugh, lazy students, always on holiday.

  This is ridiculous. A mythical beast losing to 2 brats. But no more! The soundproof barrier got reinforced and the giggling disappeared.

  And now to [Fade] the house!

  My house [Faded] successfully and I used [Elgard Overload] to swap it with an empty house 5 blocks further up.

  The [Fade] and soundproof barrier lifted, and I scanned the area.

  Foolish mortals.

  Nilah and I took a stroll through our new neighborhood with no obnoxious kids or careless mothers.

  There was even a store nearby that looked quite strange. It even advertised that they sold everything. Perfect for clearing out!

  We stepped in, and it was huge.

  “Excuse me mister, but pets aren’t allowed in here.”

  A Misha? No just a very tired-looking woman with a strange hat.

  I placed Nilah on my head and continued looking through the store.

  “Hey! I said no pets! Putting it on your head won’t change her into a hat!”

  This wannabe Misha sure is nosy. Nilah changed into her sword form and I looked at some strange wooden cups.

  “Yeah, he’s in aisle 27, he came in with a pet, then pretended it was a hat, and now he’s carrying a sword.”

  Hey it's not nice to tattle.

  “You have no respect for rules! I will keep you here till the security arrives!” She took a broom and pointed it at me. Is this person for real? I could cut her in ribbons between her blinks. That would get me in trouble, though. I decided to not get into trouble and put Nilah in my dimensional pocket.

  Footsteps echoed through the halls and 2 men appeared. “Where is he!” The ogre and lizardman in uniform looked around after addressing the woman.

  “It’s this man here! Watch out, he’s dangerous!” The woman still pointed the broom at me.

  “You said he had a pet and a sword. I don’t see any of these. He’s also not carrying a dimensional box.” The Lizardman said as he patted me down and shook his head at the ogre.

  “He…he had its moments ago! His pet turned into a sword!” She said as her broom shook.

  The ogre shook his head. “it seems you’re overworked. Come on, take your break early. I’m sorry lad.” The ogre made a polite bow and escorted the woman away.

  “Hey! Wait! I’m not overworked! I know what I saw! Wait!” The woman yelled while trashing as she got carried away.

  So even store workers can get overworked.

  For a store advertising that they had everything, they didn’t have everything. They didn’t have the apparatus Azu used in her lab or anything I could use to make the synthesis of magic volumes easier.

  They also didn’t have any important components which I needed for create a spirit vessel. I had run out of clay to make male models, so I would have to do another Magnum Opus process. The important ingredients are secured; there are just certain things and apparatus I’m missing.

  I am aware that they mean ‘everything within reason’ but… There is more that they miss than they possess. Isn’t there another way they could advertise?

  It was relatively busy, so I held back on clearing the place out. There were so many things I would probably never use, but who knows.

  The fashion section made me upset. Did these people come here to start a war?

  Excuse me! Can you explain to me what that is?

  “Oh, it’s a coat made out of synthetic fur.”

  You do know in what city you are, right? It being synthetic doesn’t make it better you know…

  “We understand, but fox beast kin have gone extinct centuries ago….”

  I held up my tail.

  “I’m so sorry! We will remove it!”

  Unbelievable! It’s ok because we went extinct? And It's not even soft at all, as if they’ve never experienced fox fur before! Wait, they probably didn’t…

  I hope that that’s the only faux pas they have.

  Nothing I could detect, but other races might think it is. Leather might be debatable as it could also come from monsters, at least fox fur is specific.

  My mood had been ruined, so I just bought up anything useful. None of the clothing was created in Jarn so they got skipped over.

  “Hey dude! You can’t just buy up everything!” 3 bull beast kin said and blocked my path.

  Why not? It’s not yours, right?

  “There is no way you can pay for all of that food, you can’t fool us.”

  Bull-ies eh? Listen here, whether I can pay for it or not is not your business. Nothing here is yours or mine until it has been paid for. You’re all tough guys, I’m sure you can handle that reality.

  I went over to the fish section, but the bullies followed me and tried to grab whatever fish I was headed for. Aren’t bulls vegetarian? Ah well, not my problem, I’m way faster. I abused my speed to clear out the fish to clear out the fish and went to the vegetables. They want my fish? I’ll take their vegetables.

  The bullies were struggling carrying all their stuff. I had my groceries neatly organized and stacked on my tail. They might be bulky, but I bet my tail kicks their asses any day of the week.

  I stood at the dairy section as I had gone through a lot of poison by making that ice cream and I needed more of it but… I was boxed in by the Bull-ies and friends.

  “That’s some impressive feat with your tail. I haven’t encountered a beast kin like you before. Impressive!” A bully said while panting, almost succumbing to the weight of his groceries.

  Can you please move aside?

  “What?! This is everyone’s space! We can stand where we want!”

  Then let me leave and you can continue standing there. It will only take 2 seconds.

  “Nah bud, that’s not how it works.”

  The bull-ies got joined by cow beast kin, probably their wives. “What are you guys doing? Are you harassing others again? Let that guy go…”

  “But Miranda! He bought up everything! Look at that enormous stack on his tail!”

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  “Nobody complains when you buy all the protein powder Werner… you’re looking for trouble…”

  Thank you, miss, I wish you good health.

  I still got blocked.

  Could you please move?

  The bullies and their friends smirked. “Make us!”

  I exhaled. Don’t create trouble… stay calm… they're just beefheads…

  How about this, one of you move to the side, enough for me to pass, for 1 second. If I can’t make it through in that time, I will stay here till you guys get tired and fuck off, how about that?

  The bullies laughed and agreed. They ignored their wives. What a bunch of assholes. I don’t care if they don’t listen to me, but a least listen to your wife…

  They counted down loudly, and I got ready to move.

  The count reached 0, someone moved aside and I escaped easily. Speed is king, and they discovered that today. They can stack beef as long as they want, but they will never be able to beat or catch me.

  I kept up the speed and just bought anything I could carry and paid for my haul. I got a massive discount as they had a policy that they would give a discount if I could name things they didn’t have. I just read the catalog of my dimensional pocket.

  I got some weird looks for some things I mentioned like; sand, wind eggs, cnidaria seeds, dawnlights, phoenix flowers and Hourai Rubies.

  Everything went into my dimensional pocket and I went for more rounds.

  The bullies were still doing bully things, but I moved too fast for them. Most also seem to skip leg day, so it was easy to deal with them.

  A productive day of shopping. I might return the next day to clear out more items.

  No brats at my door, perfect! Nilah got released the moment my door closed. I had gotten into trouble but it wasn’t severe.

  Nilah helped me put away groceries I had bought for the house when the doorbell rang.

  Oh please no…

  I stormed at the door and threw open the door.

  Go away brats!

  “Hehe, don’t think you can escape us! We know the whole neighborhood! It wasn’t cool buying up everything so we will clear out your house!”

  The bullies had found my location!

  I slammed the door in their face, used [Fade] on my house and swapped it with another empty house several blocks further with an [Elgard Overload].

  Living in the city sucks…

  Nilah and I peeked through the window. This neighborhood looks normal, but looks can be deceiving.

  How about we stay inside Nilah?

  We had no choice. Trouble always finds us, so staying at home it was. All went well until the doorbell rang after 2 hours.

  Nilah I did my best right? I stayed inside and didn’t do anything.

  Nilah requested cuddles and treats. I picked her up and opened the door.

  Stop stalking me bullies!

  3 harpies backed off. “Oh.. sorry wrong address. Oh, what a cutie! Can we pet her?”!

  I raised an eyebrow.

  We’re foxes…harpies are quite tasty you know?

  “Oh don’t worry! We get this all the time and nothing ever happens! Probably because we’re hot!”

  This time my house got invaded by random harpies and they were all petting Nilah. Am I cursed? Trouble literally rang the doorbell and invaded my house.

  “Wow you have a nice house!” The harpies were making themselves at home.

  Hey…can you please leave…this is a bad idea, and not because I’m a fox beast kin but because my house is drenched in charm magic…

  “Ha? What are you talking about? This fox is so fluffy! Do you brush her fur regularly?”

  “Hey, you seem rich, do you want a wife?”

  The harpies were loud, Nilah finished stealing mana from them and was getting tired of them, but more importantly… there were feathers everywhere!

  Aaagh! What a mess! You! Clean up the ice cream you spilled! You! Take your harpy feet off my table! You! You didn’t make a mess, so you can clean up these feathers! Chop chop!

  The harpies complained, so I added some intimidation, and they cleaned up the mess. They played around a lot and created a bigger mess before it got better. And they sure are loud!

  Ugh, Giana is going to kill me if this headache doesn’t finish me off first. Now that you cleaned up your mess! Scram!

  I opened the front door and pointed outside.

  “But your place is so nice!”

  Please leave before I kick your ass…

  “We’ll be back tomorrow!”

  Don’t!

  I slammed the door after the last harpy butt had left my house. My headache was killing me. I will have to ask a Misha to find out if there is a new tier of curses. I can’t find anything on my, but there must be something.

  My house got swapped to another random residential block. I sat down in front of my door and had a normal [Fireball] ready. Anyone who would attempt to ring my doorbell will get scared off.

  “Hey there lad, want to buy strawberries?”

  A middle-aged man from a 4 armed race addressed me.

  Does this [Fireball] look like I want to buy strawberries?

  “You sound stressed. How about you buy strawberries, and I’ll listen to your problems?” The man said as he sat down next to me.

  I don’t want to buy strawberries!

  “I can still listen.” The old man started to eat his own strawberries.

  You’re scamming yourself…and if this is a trick… I’m not buying strawberries! But… I have so many problems. I don’t know where to start solving them. I’m also wondering…

  Memories of the last 2 days flashed by.

  I’m wondering if my presence is attracting trouble to those close to me.

  “Everyone has worries. It's completely normal. Just live life on your own terms! Life is too short to worry about those!”

  How long does your race live?

  “About 200 to 250 years, why?”

  I pointed at myself. My race doesn’t have a life expectancy.

  “Oh…excuse me for my ignorance. That surely changes a lot. Will your problems be solved over time?” He offered me strawberries, but I refused.

  Most get worse over time. And because I’m responsible… I try to make sure that my friends don’t get bothered as much by similar problems.

  “You sound like a leader of an adventurer group! How about playing to the strengths of your team members to solve the problems?”

  This old man means well but that’s exactly the problem. If we play to our strengths, half of our problems will get worse. Deities will find us, we might burn out doing our roles and drive our races closer to extinction, and those are just the macro scale problems.

  It might sound weird but playing into their strength will speed up the progress of the problem. It feels as if there is a noose around our necks and no matter which way we move, it will tighten.

  “Hmm…and they know of these problems?”

  I surely hope they do. But I have noticed that I attract a lot of trouble. As far as I know, they have quiet times when I’m not near them. They went to relax, and I stayed behind because this was one of the reasons. They won't be able to relax with me around.

  “That is a difficult situation, and it seems you’re shouldering a lot. I am just a strawberry vendor, so I don’t have the answers to your problems. How about you split the problems and tackle them one at the time? Want to buy my strawberries now?”

  Split… the problem…Split up my problems? Is that possible? It would automatically solve my problems if I do! Thank you old man! I’m still not buying strawberries, but you can get this strawberry ice cream and 2 silver!

  I repaid the strange old man and ran inside. It was so simple! Maybe too simple to come up with. But it requires an astronomical amount of work. It does fit in with my original plan. It might even be a prerequisite.

  In moments like this, it feels as if someone is controlling my fate.

  Nilah, we have a lot to do. I need you to cool my tails. This will get rough.

  follow if the story is interesting enough.

  Moorland Menace