The house Lea was assigned to has two floors. The living room, kitchen, and storage are on the ground floor. A single bedroom, a study room, a toilet, and a bathroom on the upper floor.

  It wasn't as spacious compared to other houses in her neighborhood, but it was bigger than anything she had before.

  Dragging her briefcase onto the second floor, she lightly put it on the side next to her bed.

  Taking in a deep breath, Lea focused on her emotion detection... it was rather easy to use. From her point of view, there are pulsating, colorful orbs of various sizes and intervals.

  The smaller the orbs are, the further they are away. The interval of the pulses is the intensity of the emotions. And the colors are what emotion they are feeling the most. Like the two orbs closest to her, her next-door neighbor is pulsating quite frequently, almost like waves and bouncing off each other, colored light red.

  They are having sex. Lea knows what sex is, but she doesn't know any more than what it means, so she was oblivious to their antics.

  She can observe up to 50 meters, making her detection range quite rge.

  Lea deactivated her radar and headed downstairs. She was quite famished after the ride from the Cathedral to here. After all, she had to take a few detours and switch cabs multiple times.

  It was tiring.

  But when she opened to fridge, it was empty. Quite literally, it was brand new as the smell was still here.

  Letting out a sigh, she closed the fridge.

  Heading back upstairs, Lea jumped onto her bed and closed her eyes.

  =0=0=

  "FUCKING FINALLY!!!", Dawn Ryteline screamed in joy as she stared at the blueprint she drew up.

  She could feel it, her body, soul, and mind were screaming that the ritual was completed. What she drew was the blueprint for a computation device, although massive, with her personal finances, even not counting the royal treasury, this machine can be built and maintained for a long time.

  Although the function id out in the blueprint is only calcuting numbers for now, Dawn can see the potential and future of this device and what will come after...

  Shaking her head, Dawn csped her hands together, chanting the Honorific Title of Erudition.

  "Mind's Eye hidden within All;Eternity begets Knowledge;Erudition of Infinity!!"

  A feeling of completeness washed over her. Her pale amber eyes glow slightly, and streaks of silver invade her hair, cutting apart the scarlet red of her royal proof.

  She felt her mind expand, memories came and go more smoothly, and her photographic memories became clearer. The extraordinary power she got from the Second Step, Cognito, was once again enhanced; calcutions that would have taken her days turned to mere seconds.

  And most important of all, the Fourth Step's power, Mimicry. She can mimic the power of any and all extraordinary Paths she has extensive knowledge of. Although she could only use two different abilities at the same time, Cognito covered that weakness.

  So, the first thing Dawn did was Mimic her father, like all kings, was a Pathstrider of Order, Exchange, and Legacy. Though only up to the Fourth Step as per the Covenant of Kingship.

  Being the daughter of the king, Dawn had witnessed him using his power multiple times. So she was quite familiar with it.

  "Order Domain.", she whispered.

  In an instant, she felt loud noises coming from all direction. The cries of the people, the people scheming, all the chaos in the kingdom. It was overwhelming; it was hard to hear her own thoughts.

  Dawn deactivated it in an instant.

  This was what her father had to deal with all the time, yet he still maintained his gentle demeanor as a father in front of her. Dawn was the only one the king could spoil directly, since she dropped out of the race for the throne early on.

  With her intellect, Dawn wants to help her father in any way she can.

  "Phew... I should get used to this power for a while then think about the Fifth Step.", she muttered, feeling despair for a moment.

  Despite being the Mother of the Future, who created countless ideas opening to the future, Dawn is a pure Erudite; this was the worst decision in her life.

  =0=0=

  Lea woke up after a few hours of sleeping. It was refreshing, if not for the growing hunger. Looking outside, it was already dark outside.

  Her old town has some night vendors, so she thinks a city must have a few too. Opening the wardrobe, Lea's eyes twitched in disbelief.

  Inside were clothes that made her look very suspicious. There was a long dress in gray, a bck coat, and some vestments, even though she was not a priest. This was her outerwear; there are three sets of them, too.

  Did the church buy them in bulk, or was there a mistake in shipment, and this is their opportunity to get rid of them?

  With a sigh, she changed her clothes and put them on. Looking in the mirror, Lea found herself looking cool, despite the heretical priest look, she was quite pleased. But she put the vestment back into the wardrobe, it make her look way more suspicious than she already is.

  After that, she put on three pendants, one bearing the symbol of the Three Rings, one of a wooden cross with a gold border, and one of a burning eye.

  The first one was self expnatory, the second one was the emergency signal, and the third was the communication device issued by the Temple of Fire.

  Although Lea have qualms with the Church of Sacrifice and the Church of War, the Temple of Fire is Renlou's original religion as well as the true official religion, not in-name-only. As a citizen, she has a positive impression of it.

  She put a notebook and a pen in her dress' pocket, with a gun loaded with six bullets. Although she had never fired a gun before, somehow, she knew she could do it.

  Using her emotion radar, she looks out for people with a high pulse interval. Except for the couple next door who were bouncing up and down on each other, there was nothing worth noting.

  Taking the chance, Lea exited her house and locked the door. With three Drach in her pocket, she was looking for a slightly above average vendor so she could get some Hern, the lower currency of the Renlou Empire.

  One Drach, which has the face of the empire's first emperor, Zhenma the Magnificent, is equal to thirty Hern. And smaller than that were Lou coins, with one Hern equal to twelve. Holding too much money won't do her good.

  Besides getting smaller changes and food, she would like to check out the surroundings.

  Walking down the dimly lit streets, Lea instinctively sticks to the shadows. She doesn't even know that she was walking slowly and steadily, like a hunter prowling.

  With her emotion radar on, she avoids the people going out at night, hiding in the darkness where unsuspecting passerbys feel only a chilling sensation as if something was looking at them, making them walk slightly faster.

  If any of them try to find her, they would only be met with a pair of glowing yellow eyes full of hostility.

  After a few minutes of walking, Lea found a diner still open. There were a few patrons, chatting over food and organizing small gambling dens.

  When she entered, all the colors inside turned a deep red, the color of hostility. Lea was taken aback; she just wanted to eat dinner.

  Taking an empty table, she quietly sat down. A waiter soon came over with a menu; his color was a pale yellow, showing that he was nervous. Lea frowned as she took the menu...

  In the end, she ordered a lemonade and Renlou Empire's national food, Curin's meat tray. It was something she only had on special occasions like Founding Day, sharing with others.

  Lea wants to try what eating a Curin's meat tray by herself would be like.

  After ordering, Lea has some time to look around.

  People are still wary of her due to the nature of Malediction... but there was someone she could not discern, a man was looking at her with interest. A light gray color signifying curiosity.

  Her gaze nded on him, the young gentleman flinched, for a moment, he thought he had killed her mother. Reassuring himself, he confidently walked over and sat opposite of her.

  "What do you want, young dy?", he smiled. He was indeed handsome, but somehow he irritated her.

  "I want to punch you in the face.", she said with a cold voice.

  A moment of silence dawned upon the entire diner. Lea widens her eyes, surprising herself for even saying that. But to the gentleman, it looked like she was gring at him even harder.

  Some patrons were snickering, ughing at what they assumed was a poor attempt at flirting.

  "Haha...", he tried to ugh it off, but his pathetic side had been shown off, "Are you a part of the Three Rings Church? You look quite dangerous for being a woman of faith."

  Lea twitched her eyes, "Did your mother not teach you anything? Do you just go and talk down to people?"

  For some reason, Lea brought up his mother. This was considered a low blow to every culture; Renlou was not the exception.

  She continued after looking at his confused expression, "What? Did your mother tell you to come and flirt with any woman? Do you think I was easy?"

  "Look here, I don't give a damn who you are, any sensible person wouldn't sit down, invading someone's space, talking to them as if they were friends.", Lea clicked her tongue. Malediction was in full effect.

  Her gaze swept the diner, not one of them was decent people from how they looked, sure, they were wearing nice clothes, but Lea could sense the filth from their gaze, something she picked up as a cleric. But even they don't approach her out of nowhere.

  "Hold on now, miss!", the man raised his voice, panicking, "I just want to know about a new face here, you don't seem to be from here!"

  She replied with an earnest gre, "I just moved in, of course, you don't know me. Do you think approaching anyone is fine? Listen here, all I want today is to have a hearty dinner, so fuck off. Or do you want to throw it down?"

  Malediction grants her a minor boost in muscle density and a thirst for harming others. Lea has no qualms about throwing hands with anyone.

  Just at that moment, the waiter from before brought her Curin's meat tray, four types of meats, mb, beef, pork, and sausage of unidentifiable meat. With a side of sad and red dipping sauce. And her lemonade.

  The young man admitted defeat and left the table. The other patrons burst out ughing in mockery, his group patted his back and cheered him on between ughs.

  Just then, as Lea was about to eat, she felt something strange. A pull toward that young man, something primal and evil...

  "Oh no...", she whispered.

  The ritual for her Second Step has begun, accidentally so.