Midday had already progressed to the afternoon by the time the duel had started. This dey fostered anticipation in the people of Mourning Raven, the vilgers, and Quinn herself. Her right hand was firmly gripping the rapier she had come into this world with and her eyes were fiercely studying her target.

  Sirius was not a very sightly man; he had dark rings under his eyes, short, bck, messy hair, and a painfully thin stature. His slight hunch was the cherry on top of this grotesque cake. Nevertheless, Quinn never broke eye contact with the grim man and continued to analyze his movements carefully.

  Through her analysis, she quickly came to realize one major issue, Quinn could not identify Sirius's weapon; in fact, she could not determine if Sirius was carrying a weapon whatsoever. The man shifted around slowly, keeping his hands deep in his pockets.

  Growing impatient, Quinn decided to rush forward and strike… Her bde did not meet skin or even cloth; the bck figure had flipped backward and unched himself into the air. With a swift movement, his hand momentarily revealed itself from the bck jacket before returning deep within the abyss of his coat pockets.

  Quinn felt a small impact on her chest. A throwing knife had struck her breast. The crowd of mostly men began cheering at the set of events, but Quinn was too puzzled with her health bar to notice what they were so happy about. She hadn't taken much damage from the attack. Instead, her health bar shifted from a bright red to purple, and a small indicator appeared under it. The indicator consisted of a purple skull with an infinity symbol next to it.

  She inferred that the purple skull represented some sort of "poison" status effect, but she obviously cked knowledge of how poison specifically worked in this game. Was there a manner in which to cure the poison? Would the poison completely kill her, or would it simply leave a single point of health? Whatever the case turned out to be, she began devising another one of her pns. A battle of attrition was not one Quinn could win, even forgetting the poison, a more protracted battle would naturally favor the more skilled pyer.

  Sirius took advantage of his enemy being paralyzed in thought and unched a barrage of throwing knives. The knives moved at lightning speed, some whizzing past the intended target and others making their mark. Slowly but surely, the Grim-faced man took the lead in the duel.

  The crowd had taken on two wildly different faces at this point. The people of Mourning Raven were amused by the battle taking pce, and the vilgers looked as though they had seen a ghost. Quinn had taken a vow to protect the vilgers for her own pride, and their expressions were beginning to chip away at it.

  However, this damage to her pride also served as a motivation. A new solution appeared in her mind. Suddenly, the purple-haired girl started retreating from the open area they had been fighting in. Her health continually dropped as she ran through into the wooded area of the forest and hid behind a tree. Murmurs and boos began in the crowd as it seemed as if the girl was simply scared to lose. Sirius had been forced into a rough position to advance into the more cramped forest area, even though he had an inkling of the girl's pn.

  Quinn couldn't be sure her pn would work as it relied on a gamble. It relied on the poison being non-lethal and leaving her with single health point remaining. While this gamble had risks, she could see her path to victory. So slowly, she waited and waited until her health dropped to a single point. She winced in anticipation, but her health bar did not empty.

  She then heard Sirius approaching and felt a rush of excitement.

  I can win this.

  Quinn assured herself as the man in bck finally came into her sight. Immediately, she bolted after him, unching herself forward through flight. Attempting to react to the charge, Sirius tried to throw a knife, but it was too te. By the time he was halfway through his throw, a rapier had pierced his stomach, and a prompt appeared decring the winner. The duel ending far from the crowd's sight only strengthened the booing that the two duelists could hear from afar.

  "Well Lucia, it looks like you were victorious."

  “Lucia?”

  “Ah, you can see basic information about nearby pyers on your status window, stuff like their name, level, and guild status.”

  “Wait, doesn’t that mean that…”

  Quinn's, or rather Lucia's, face flushed in embarrassment.

  "Canceling would have been a downer to the crowd; by the time I had checked your profile, we had already set up all the festivities. What can I say? I am a man of the people!"

  Sirius ughed unnervingly while using his hands to cover his eyes.

  "I can't quite figure you out, ss. How is your level so high, but you remember nothing about the game?"

  Lucia couldn't give an answer that she herself did not know. However, this was a learning opportunity, so she inquired into the workings of FOO. Sirius reiterated the theory of this world being that of Fairy Overture Online, a recently released game with high reviews. Its world had four races: Gaians, Sylvans, Umbrals, and Wyrmkin. These four races were then divided into pyers or "Fairies," and NPCs or "Ferefolk." Fairies could fly, respawn, and use magic. The NPCs, on the other hand, were more like normal humans who would fall and die if they attempted to fly.

  On the topic of the four races, he expined that Gaians were the most human-like, essentially being normal humans with different colored eyes and hair. The Sylvans were of a shorter height than the Gaians and had long fox ears attached to their heads. The most petite of races were the Umbrals, also identifiable by their dark gray skin. The Wyrmkin were the final and tallest of the four races, with long dragonic horns sprouting from their heads.

  Finally, Sirius gave a basic expnation of the status window. While, by default, a miniature heads-up dispy was automatically deployed in combat, Lucia had struggled to open the full menu or even just the HUD after the battle had ended. He expined that one simply had to think of the status window appearing for it to appear. Navigating the status window pyed out simirly, with thoughts being enough to select menus and view information on nearby pyers.

  Lucia nodded to the grim man's expnation and felt slightly more comfortable with the world after hearing about the basics. Her shoulders also visibly rexed after knowing the vilge was supposedly safe. Of course, that did rely on Sirius upholding his end of the bargain, as Lucia obviously cked a guild ready to fight for the vilge's freedom. As they returned to the vilge, Lucia confirmed Sirius's intent to honor his agreement. He responded in his usual peculiar manner of speech.

  “Of course, of course ss. I may not look it, but I am a man of honor!”

  The two eventually reached the vilge and filled everyone in on the situation. Mourning Raven agreed to return the stolen items and leave the vilge permanently. Some of the lower-ranked members of Mourning Raven let out a few grumbles as they returned items to the NPCs, but there was no violence nor much outward hostility left from them. One bandit caught Lucia's attention when he returned something that looked like a locket to a child.

  Upon closer inspection, this was a child that Lucia had seen before.

  “Hiya, thank you for saving our vilge!”

  Despite still being at a distance, the child called out to her. It was not until Lucia noticed the child’s bruised eye that she truly remembered.

  "Was that your mother being hurt before? Is she also doing okay?"

  Lucia had st seen the child beside a woman who had been abused by Mourning Raven and felt worried for both of them.

  "Mommy hasn't woken up yet. The doctor said she needed more rest."

  Surprisingly, the child remained calm despite her unconscious parent. Lucia felt a little admiration for the girl.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Marie.”

  "Nice to meet you, Marie! My name is Lucia! Has anyone ever told you that you are quite mature? I would have been bawling my eyes out at your age. Be proud of yourself!"

  Lucia gave a slight smile as her hand patted the girl's head. Marie then requested to py tag with her, which she obliged. While it may have been out of pity, Lucia did feel it was the right thing to do. And so, after pying with Marie for a few minutes, she went to see Mourning Raven off.

  The sun was setting by the time the guild returned their stolen items. For Lucia, it had been quite the tiring day, and all she could only think about was drifting off in a nice bed. Unfortunately for her, Sirius had requested one st conversation with her earlier in the day. As the purple-haired fairy approached Mourning Raven's makeshift encampment, she could hear yelling, specifically Sirius boisterously reprimanding his subordinates. It took a few moments before Sirius noticed her out of the corner of his eye.

  “Ah, my darling Lucia has arrived!”

  “Uhh, please refrain from calling me that.”

  "It was simply a jest! I am a man of humor, after all!"

  “Sure sure, now what exactly do you want?”

  For some reason, Sirius had taken a serious liking to Lucia and gave her some parting tips about the world. Firstly, he recommended that Lucia find someone to train her in combat. According to Sirius, she was only able to best him due to their difference in levels. Despite not having any previous memories of pying the game, Lucia was level 31. In contrast, Sirius and most other pyers were only around Level 10 at most.

  Next, he told Lucia of the country whose soil they were walking upon, the Vel Empire. Founded by Gaians centuries ago, the Vel Empire wielded the most military might of any country in the world of FOO. Valeria, the capital of the Vel Empire, was a popur meeting point for Fairies. Although it was a Gaian city, Valeria could be chosen as a starting point for any of the races due to its multicultural nature. This led to Valeria becoming one of the more popur capital cities due to the abundance of different races. In fact, Valeria had even started to become known as the game's unofficial community hub.

  Sirius advised Lucia to visit Valeria and find a party of other Fairies she could band up with. This also led to his final piece of advice: Try not to die. Apparently, dying in this game was costly, and not just monetarily. On top of losing all of their gold, a pyer would lose a single level upon defeat. While a single level may not seem like much, continually losing levels could quickly leave one far behind other Fairies.

  Before Sirius left, Lucia also asked if he had any insight into why they were inside FOO. Lucia received no satisfactory response from him. Sirius found himself inside FOO just four nights prior and believed he was one of the first people transported. He only began seeing the online status of his guild members after a day or so. Using this information and the fact that Valeria had so few pyers, he concluded that he had been one of the first pyers transported here. None of the recent pyers had memories of disappearances being reported in the real world either.

  With his expnation done, Sirius and his guild left the vilge promising to never return. While she saw them off, her facial expressions became a mix of relief and anger. Their inability to consider the possibility of the Ferefolk being conscious people, as well as their absolute savagery, left a bad taste in her mouth. Sirius had helped her regain footing in this world, but images in her mind of the abused vilgers reminded Lucia of why she refused to forgive him.

  The sun had set entirely at this point and the darkness of the night began creeping into the world. Lucia took this as a signal to return to the vilge. While she pnned to eventually travel to Valeria, she also wanted to ensure Mourning Raven wouldn't return in the next few days. As she walked, she mapped out a short-term pn that would see her leaving the vilge in about four days.

  This period of downtime would also allow her to prepare for the journey to Valeria. Sirius reported that FOO cked any sort of fast travel system, meaning that any travel would have to be done by flight, something that Fairies apparently had a limited amount of. Sirius had also expined to her another element of the status window, the "flight gauge." This bar dispyed how much flight time a pyer had left. A pyer could fly up to thirty minutes at a time and the gauge would regenerate ten minutes of flight every hour. After being bombarded with new information for the entire day, her head was starting to spin.

  When Lucia returned to the vilge, she had one st task before she could rest: Finding a pce to stay. She was fairly confident the vilgers would be eager to pay her back, so she wasn't too worried. Marie was standing on the streetside and looking around warily, so Lucia called out.

  “Hi Marie! It’s me, Lucia!”

  The young girl was slightly startled before recognizing Lucia's voice and figure, but then she came running up to the purple-haired young woman.

  "Hiiiii Lucia!”

  "What are you doing up so te? Shouldn't you be in bed by now?"

  "I felt lonely because mommy is still sleeping."

  Lucia's heart broke into multiple pieces. This girl was just too adorable. She felt the need to help the small child on an instinctual level. Thus, Lucia found herself pying babysitter for a while longer.

  As the child guided Lucia to her house, she continually gnced upward at her. Lucia took notice of this but paid no attention to it until the girl spoke up.

  “Mommy used to always read me stories about the Fairies and how cool they were. Then they attacked the vilge until you saved us. Those must have been fake Fairies.”

  Lucia's face froze like ice. How much turmoil was this little girl going through? Her so-called heroes had been the source of so much torment.

  "Hey Marie, I have an idea. Do you want to try flying?"

  “I wanna try it so bad! Flying looks like so much fun, but I’m not a Fairy like you.”

  Feeling ashamed to be somewhat lumped in with Mourning Raven, Lucia made an offer to the girl and positioned herself so Marie could climb on her back. Right before take-off, Lucia double-checked the flight gauge out of anxiety, even though it would have long been refilled by now. Falling out of the sky probably wouldn't serve to rehabilitate the image of Fairies in this child's mind.

  After the "safety precautions" were taken care of, the two were off into the night sky. Flying through the night contrasted the day in a few different ways, one being the starlit sky with two moons brightly illuminating the trees below. The night of this world was on a whole other level. At first, Lucia thought it had just been bright because of how early into the night it had been — this was not the case. Vivid reds and purples filled the horizon enough to be stunning without being overwhelming. Lucia needed to know how people could sleep with something so beautiful just outside.

  “Is it always like this in this world?”

  “This world?”

  "Uhh, sorry, just talking to myself."

  “Hmm, okay! I’m surprised a Fairy doesn’t know about the Nebu Night. Mommy and the people of Rena celebrate Nebu Night every week, but today was no good because of the Fairy attack.”

  A wave of mencholy washed over Lucia. Even though she had not been a part of the raid on the vilge, she felt sadness seeing the vilgers' festivities being interrupted by what were essentially foreign invaders. It also came as a surprise to her that she hadn't heard the vilge's name before.

  Rena, huh.

  It was a pretty name for a vilge.

  I bet Alice would have loved to see this vilge and this colorful night.

  For some reason, Lucia's mind began wandering to Alice. It was finally setting in that the two may have been separated forever by FOO. However, Lucia pushed aside these sad thoughts for a different night, as she needed to return Marie home.

  By the time they had returned, it was even further into the night. Lucia quickly returned the girl to her house, but someone y waiting for both of them.

  “I’m so gd you're safe my sweetheart.”

  At the doorstep, Marie’s mother was sobbing uncontrolbly while waiting for her return.

  “We’ve got to get you back inside and treat that eye of yours.”

  Lucia sat awkwardly in silence waiting to be addressed by the woman.

  "Lucia, is it? I heard what you did for the vilge… You have my utmost gratitude; if you need anything from me, feel free to ask."

  She immediately started thinking of beds, bnkets, and pillows. Marie's mother seemed apologetic while she expressed her gratitude, and Lucia felt a little guilty about taking advantage of her, but she was on the verge of colpsing from exhaustion.

  “I hate to do this, but do you have an open room or really anywhere I can sleep?”

  "Of course, Marie and I can sleep together tonight. Please make yourself at home in my room."

  The guilt continued to grow, but she obliged.

  “Yes please!”

  The rest of the night was a blur to Lucia. She colpsed onto her bed and drifted away faster than she had ever done prior.

  ???

  Lucia awoke to both a scream and Marie’s mother catapulting her door open.

  "Lucia, please help, Marie is missing"