“Sorry for being blunt, but if someone were to rip it out of you tonight, would you even let them? Or is it something you intend to keep, risks and all?”

  Arthur’s voice carried a hint of sincerity as well curiosity as he asked that question.

  After coming this far, it wasn’t really difficult to come up with an answer. She had already decided in the silence of her own thoughts on why she wanted to keep the Sacrament. There was no reason to rehearse her answer again.

  Without hesitation, she broke into a sudden run and circled in front of him, prompting the gentleman to stop in his tracks. Her shoes scraped lightly against the cobblestones as she dropped into a deep bow, her hands pressed to her knees.

  “I want to keep it. If this means I’ll always be in danger, then I’ll just have to become stronger. Strong enough to protect myself… strong enough to protect others”

  Taking a deep sharp breath, she lowered her head even more.

  “Please…help me attain that strength!”

  For a brief second, there was only silence between them. And without sparing anymore,, Arthur gave his response.

  “Alright”

  He said simply then continued on his merry way. He stepped past the blind girl so casually that it left her in shock.

  “Wha—?!”

  Yuzuriha’s head snapped up as she turned to look at the man who didn’t bother glancing back. His cane clicked against the pavement while continuing his graceful stride.

  ‘He agreed to it like it's nothing! So easily!’

  Yuzuriha had been stunned by this, her mouth hanging open as she tried to process how quickly and how easily he agreed.

  She had expected him to give her a hassle on training her, either dismissing or outright telling her that Marcille wouldn’t approve, so to respect his comrade in arms, he can’t betray her trust.

  But none of that happened!

  Arthur gave her a surprising amount of trouble when she asked to join him on this errand. So why did he agree on this one so easily?

  Still searching for answers, Arthur left her with these words.

  “Don’t breathe a word of this to Marcille. She’d have my head if she knew”

  A few minutes of walking brought them to a narrow shop that smelled of oiled steel and sawdust. There was the clang of hammering and the faint heat of a forge still clung to the walls. This place was a cutler's shop, though inside it was more akin to an armory.

  A whole row of weaponry displayed the pride of craftsmen.

  Arthur was already leaning against the counter, his cane tucked under one arm as he bargained with the shopkeep.

  “I’m not paying full price for a blade with a nick at the hilt, my good man. Do I look like a fool?”

  However the shopkeep was unrelenting to his haggling. He kept telling the gentleman about the hassle he went through to import the necessary steel required to craft such a masterpiece. And something about ‘fine craftsmanship’.

  Since Yuzuriha didn’t understand any of the stuff they were negotiating about, she decided to wander deeper inside the store.

  Through her astris sight, the shop unfolded in colorful outlines. An entire room of blue pressure and resonance. Every blade shimmered with ripples, sharp currents flowing along their edges.

  She could feel their weight and the subtle differences between long, heavy swords and short daggers. Rifles stacked against the far wall gave off a dense metallic pulse.

  Even their flaws were visible to her perception in a way her blind eyes could never see.

  Yuzuriha walked among them, taking in the view and her fingers brushing the air just short of the steel.

  For a moment she allowed herself to marvel at them. She hadn’t been to a real weapons shop, or any kind of shop which had tools like this.

  In her old world, her primary tool to kill was mostly poison, she never had the opportunity to get her actual hands dirty. Seeing them so up close was surreal.

  She took a look toward her right palm then a thought crept up into her mind.

  ‘What am I capable of in this world?’

  If she truly wanted to get stronger then she first had to understand her current strengths. She had never considered that before now.

  Without speaking aloud, she called out.

  ‘Sawatari. I need you to tell me everything you are capable of’

  Her assistant could be considered her strength since she was the only one Yuzuriha could hear and had access to. So in a way she could be considered a special ability, not necessarily a Sealed Technique.

  She waited there for a bit before the Manifestation responded.

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  ?? As your assistant, I have the following functions…

  Appraisal: The ability to perceive and break down the properties of an object, person, or phenomenon. However, stronger individuals may reject the function, which would cause feedback

  Parallel Cognition: Process multiple lines of thought at once, allowing the host to analyze multiple scenarios simultaneously within an accelerated time frame.

  Astris Regulation: Fine tunes astris output so that no excess energy bleeds away. It prevents leaks into useless parts of the body. Over time, this massively extends stamina in combat. It also makes the host’s astris feel unnaturally sharp and controlled to others

  Guardian: In the event the host is rendered incapacitated, [Sawatari] can temporarily assume direct control over the body.

  That concludes with all the functions you have access to??

  After Sawatari went quiet, Yuzuriha stood there frozen. Her chest fell too quickly from a strange exhilaration she hadn’t shown she could feel. She couldn’t believe it…

  ‘All of that…I can do all that stuff this whole time?!’

  All this time she thought the Azure Ooze was her only source of power. She thought if she were to lose that then she would lose any real semblance of power she had in this world, but that turned out to be completely false!

  Sawatari just revealed something else entirely, an arsenal of abilities she hadn’t even touched.

  Her lips pressed into a thin line.

  ‘Then…let’s test it, use [Appraisal] on me’

  Without speaking out loud, she called again inwardly. Hoping to get some answers on her present state of strength. Since that was what she strived to achieve now.

  If she could realize that, then perhaps her way of living might become slightly better. It wasn’t bad by normal standards, but if she wanted to preserve what she has currently, then she would have to get stronger.

  There were a lot of reasons why she was pursuing strength, and all of them seemed justifiable. At least in her eyes.

  For a moment, Yuzuriha felt as though something was brushing against the core of her being. Her vision folded in on itself, catching a glimpse of an unseen hand peeling her apart strand by strand, examining each piece of her existence before stitching her back together.

  Then finally came the response, seconds after.

  ?? The function [Appraisal] has been successfully performed. Here is the status information??

  Name: ???

  Species: Human

  Alignment: ???

  Ascension: ???

  Art: [Field Vision], [Soul Speak]

  ?? That is all I can uncover for now ??

  Then Sawatari went quiet, giving way for Yuzuriha’s face to slacken.

  ‘That’s it?’

  She didn’t know what she was expecting, but she was still heavily disappointed. All of this time she was barely above ordinary!

  Heck she even barely passed as an Ascendant, even though she was still unclear on what makes one a proper Ascendant, but it was definitely not what she was currently.

  What was she anyways?

  Some of the words Sawatari had offered were entirely new to her. Alignment and Ascension. They were concepts she understood by general knowledge from her old world, but they must have different meanings in this one.

  Before she could press the Manifestation on answering what they are, she recalled having her call her species human. Which was a small comfort that she was indeed human.

  That bastard Daigo had her worried over nothing!

  That alone eased the hollow space inside her chest until she realized she was deemed nameless. That was what Sawatari implied when she did her [Appraisal] on her.

  ‘Is this some sort of cruel joke?’

  Or was it a reflection of her fractured identity? As it stood, she had no idea who she was.

  Internally, she was Yuzuriha Kobayashi, a woman who had crawled her way up the corporate ladder and made it closer to the top. Married to a treacherous man and had two beautiful twins.

  Externally, she was Yor Drapes, a blind working class citizen girl in this foreign nation of Tinsel. The little sister of Marcille, and Leopold, as well as a few days younger than Willow.

  What they both had in common was that they had both died.

  So who was standing here right now?

  What identity was she associated with right now, or which one should she identify with?

  Yuzuriha caught herself spiraling down that thought and immediately shook her head sharply. For extra effect, she even gently slapped both her cheeks.

  ‘Snap out of it! This isn’t the time or place to be thinking of stuff like this. I’ll deal with it later, not now’

  Dwelling on this wasn’t going to save her. And so, she forced her attention back to Sawatari. But first to avoid looking strange standing and emoting in one place, she kept wandering the weapons racks, her fingers brushing hilts and handles with casual pretense.

  There was no real need other than that, especially because this store had a scarcity of customers. Still, it felt like the normal thing to do.

  ‘Tell me about [Soul Speak]’

  As soon as she requested that, Sawatari’s voice resonated in her mind. She was faster than usual this time around.

  ?? Information on the Spirit Art: [Soul Speak]

  Path: Mind

  Tier: Greater

  Effects: Enables the user to understand and speak any language, including those of other species and spirits. This Spirit Art transcends linguistic barriers, allowing for seamless communication ??

  That explains how she is able to speak the Tinsellan tongue so easily without having to learn it. One could argue that it's because of receiving bits and bits of Yor’s memories, but in all honesty, they weren’t as useful in most stuff.

  And besides, she needed specific triggers to even get some information from her memories. At the very least, they did allow her to understand the language without having to learn it, speaking it was a different matter.

  With that established…

  “Its tier is…greater?”

  Field Vision was of the basic tier, and this one was greater. That meant they followed an evolutionary line, or in other words, a path of ascension. Hence the ascension part on her status profile.

  That idea lit like a lightbulb in her head and a smile enlisted on her face.

  “That confirms it, I really am a genius”

  The words left her lips with the kind of self satisfaction one usually reserved for solving impossible riddles or discovering hidden treasure. Learning more about this world wouldn’t be as hard as she thought

  Her chest was warm with pride. For a brief moment, she let herself bask in it.

  That was until a voice cut her little celebration short.

  “What’s this about a genius?”

  Arthur snapped her out of it while steadily making his way toward her, with a new cane strapping across the floor. His haggling must have been a successful one because he seemed pretty content by the sound of his tone.

  However, Yuzuriha on the other hand felt flustered by that question. Heat touched her cheeks, and she quickly waved a hand as if brushing away her own words.

  “I-it’s nothing. Just mumbling to myself”

  Arthur didn’t press on, instead, he said this.

  “Talking to yourself is incredibly sad, you know. Do you have any friends?”

  The question landed harder than she expected. It also served as a trigger to a current of new memories surging into her mind like a cold tide.

  There weren’t a lot of them and from what she could interpret. Yor had been a loner. And that realization stung, because she didn’t have friends at all!

  She had spent most of her time indulging in Grace’s lessons, the Sunday school teachings of the Church of the Cruel Sun and other mundane stuff which kept her even more alone.

  Yuzuriha hesitated, then forced herself to speak.

  “Well…I spent most of my time with Aunt Grace, a peculiar woman from where I stay. And…Willow and Leo, my siblings, whenever they weren’t busy with school. In a sense, you could say I don’t have friends”

  She left it at that, with a slightly nervous laugh to go with the last part.

  Arthur was silent for a moment.

  “I see. My apologies”

  He took off his top hat and lowered his head a little before returning back to his dignified state.

  “Tell me, then. The Azure Ooze. What exactly can it do? While we are still inside a weaponry store, might as well take full advantage of it”