She had never thought that she would get thrown on the streets of the Withered after all she did for the royal family, and the whole kingdom at that. She trained the future king, and the whole army at that, so how could the son of a Celestial exile her for touching and grabbing his wrist? It made no sense!

At first, she had thought that it was a joke, but now that she was here, it was definitely not a joke. She had no worse, only feelings.

Her mind was in shambles, corrupted by hate, grief, astonishment, exhaustion, and many other things that were taking a toll on her.

And being in such a sad place made things even worse.

This was the place where her mother was born, where she survived and climbed up to become a respected maiden. You would expect it to be at least livable, but no, the Withered was an absolute madness at the moment, the worst it had been in decades.

And it was all because the marketplace, its fast growth had overthrown the Withered, as many switched to try and claw at the hype and make some money. And it was working, but that was exactly why it was bad.

With more people who made a lot of money, others are more inclined to try and steal from them, so the Withered were in a theft apocalypse, where you could be robbed at any moment.

Since she came, she already had six people try to take everything she had; the only reason she was able to survive was because the people here were severely untrained, and so no one could touch her with their dirty blades.

And while she was able to survive, there was a big problem, which was that she had no money on her, which meant that she had no water, or food, or shelter at that.

She had to find a way to make money.

'But how?'

She had some relics on her, but at the same time, she didn't want to sell any of them, and plus, she doubted that anyone would buy from her since people from the Blue District were very hated in this place, and she definitely didn't do a good job at blending in.

'Then... maybe I can grant wishes for money.'

Many people inside the Withered would pay someone capable from the Blue District to do their work, even more when they learn who she was.

Her name had to be known, after all, the sword style of the army is based on hers.

"Yeah, let's grant some wishes and make some money."

...

Nothing, no one had hired her.

She ran her hands through her hair, scratching her scalp as she tried to figure anything out, but at the same time, her stomach was screaming at her, asking her for something to eat. And if she didn't, she was going to be weakened, and who could fight against the countless thieves inside the Withered.

If she didn't want to kill any of them, she had to figure something out, and the best she could, was ask someone for the money to buy some food.

So she approached the first person she saw who carried himself better than most; that way, the one he found had the most money.

"Excuse me, are you willing to spare me some coins so I can buy something to consume? I am terribly hungry."

The man turned to her, confused, but as she saw her attire, he immediately recognized the place she came from. A bright smile and a cocky smile appeared on his face, making her slightly nervous.

"No? I mean, maybe if you actually did something to the Blue Rose, and were actually talented, you wouldn't end up in this situation."

Clarisse's face darkened as she turned her head down so he couldn't see her expression. His words had really made her rethink her whole situation and the world she had to live in.

The man was clearly amused by her reaction, laughing uncontrollably.

"Oh, boho, I was worthless to the Blue Rose, so now I'm in the Withered. You Blue Rose freaks don't know anything about real life, it isn't just some Wonderland, you know?"

...

"I don't know how the real world is."

Before he could react, a blade swung down, cutting his arm off. His head turned to look at his bleeding shoulder from where his arm used to be attached.

"You're right, maybe my time in the Castle made me forget the life outside it was. I shall thank you in fashion now, for reminding me that the only way to survive in this place is to kill."

"Wait, don't do thi-"

Before he could finish, the world had started to shift, as his somehow got shorter... wait, was that his body?

...

Clarisse watched as the head of the man fell onto the ground, and after the Codex confirmed her kill, she didn't hesitate to control the body for any money. And to her luck, she had done it; she had found money to get something to eat.

...

She lived to see another day because she made someone's life end today.

That was how things worked in the Withered

...

...

Many, and I mean many, years have passed since that day, and she has become quite an old lady; her movements were much slower, and she didn't have the power she used to have. But she had experience, and another thing, she had become a seeker.

Life here had become a routine; she knew many ways to kill a human and to steal everything they had, both mental and physical ways. But when she didn't want to rob a human, she would rob houses.

Her name had become well known inside the Withered, but her face remained unknown, since if people learned it, her relic would stop working. The ring she had bought before coming here had proved to be the most important thing for her.

Hope, it was something very rare inside such a place, and so everyone who saw her, glistening with it, or rather her ring, got caught too close to it, and it became their downfall.

But if people knew who she was, they would know not to trust that same hope, and so it would make things more complicated.

Either way, this day was one of those where she would be robbing some houses. She decided to check those close to the border, since soon, the war was going to start, and she knew that there was going to be a chance that these homes were going to be destroyed.

...

She had already gone through three houses and had found nothing, and so she had no expectation for the fourth, but to her surprise, she found something more important than any money or expensive item.

The dead body of one of the Blue Rose's guards.

Her eyes widened at the sight of a small knife standing right in the gap between the plates of armor. The one who had killed the guard must really have a lot of experience, so how had she not heard of him before?

She looked around, trying to find anyone, but to no avail.

But to her horror, when she looked back, the knife was gone. And as she realized that, a small figure lunged at her from the shadows, she tried to get away, but her leg had suddenly crapped badly, making her unable to move.

She cursed as the knife of the figure got closer to her stomach.

...

And yet nothing happened, the figure had stopped just before her stomach.

Now that she could see clearly, the figure was a young boy with bright blonde hair and a pair of majestic blue eyes. Not something you saw in the Withered, and paired that with being at the border with the other kingdom. The boy might as well not even be from the whole kingdom at that.

He looked to be hesitating, not being able to bury the blade into her stomach. Which surprised her, since if he was really the one who had killed a guard... then what potential could this child have?

The boy had tried one more time, but failed to do it. Falling on his knees and starting to cry. He was confused; she could figure that out.

"Hey, brat. Who are you? What's your name?"

With his cheeks puffy and eyes filled with tears, he tried to wash them away as he answered.

"Aether... My name is Aether Moirai."

"Moirai? I see, then you really are from the neighbouring kingdom... and because you have the same last name as the king. Then you must be a prince... so how did you get here?"

She knelt down to his level, flicking his forehead to the boy would look at her.

"I-I don't know, it all happened so suddenly, I was scared, there was so much blood... I don't understand why I was attacked by my own knights."

...

"I see, then you must have been betrayed, Aether."

She got back up, smilling to herself, and leneded him a hand to get up.

"Do they... teach royal children about revenge?"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.