The Sword Saint's Second Life As a Fox Girl

Dawn came and went. Midday was only around an hour away. That said, the air was still chilly. Anyone who wore only a single layer of clothing would definitely feel the cold, especially if it was someone who spent the better half of their life within the safe and warm confines of their abode. Katya was not one of these privileged individuals, far from it. For most of her life, there was no roof over her head, even during the night. She was accustomed to having nothing. She was accustomed to the way of the wilderness. However, she was no longer the Katya who spent most of her life living in hardship. In fact, she didn’t even know who or what she was. She was an Elf, a Fae. She had a physique that would break under the slightest pressure.

Flames burned her lungs. She had barely started running, but she was already running out of breath. This body was weaker than a child’s. The cold weather and the uneven forest terrain were not helping her predicament. She remembered her training. She remembered her experiences. She used them, but her body still failed her. She mustered every ounce of strength that she could, but her legs gave out before she could even reach a single mile.

She knew she could no longer run. Her body would break. She quickly looked for a place to hide as the sounds of her pursuers’ steps drew nearer and nearer behind her. She found a log. It was lying in a small clearing. The log was hollow on the inside. It was the most conspicuous place to hide, but it worked to her advantage. She would make it so. She went towards the log. Instead of hiding in it, she hid behind the tree closest to the log. She immediately slumped on the ground the moment she got behind the tree. Her legs had lost all of their strength.

“She came through here!”

The voice of her pursuers became clear. She took a peek from behind the tree. She saw them, her pursuers, a bunch of rough-looking thugs. There were four of them and more were coming. They were clearly bandits. They were pursuing her with great fervency as if her capture was the most important thing in their schedule. Any time people moved with such speed and enthusiasm, money must be involved.

“Ivan… you hired them,” Katya muttered under her breath. She withdrew behind the tree. She tried to stand but her legs would not budge. It was too much for her to stand. She wondered just how far she could get before she was eventually captured. It wouldn’t be far, given the pathetic state of her new body, but she sure as hell would not make it easy for Ivan. He didn’t even have the decency to come after her himself.

“There’s a log over there.”

“I know that log. It’s empty inside. She couldn’t have run far. She must be hiding inside of it.”

“Oh, definitely. If she were further ahead, we would be hearing her screams by now. We will approach the log slowly and quietly.”

Katya snorted. The bandits were not talking out loud. They were whispering, but she could hear them as clearly as she could hear the cold breeze blowing gently past her ears. If the seasons were not any different from her old world, winter must be near.

The bandits drew near and they drew their swords.

Katya could hear the blades leaving their sheaths.

The bandits surrounded the log.

She gripped tightly onto the knife she had taken from the cellar. It was a small knife. It was mostly blunt and slightly rusty but it could still tear through flesh if she swung hard enough. It must have been used to cut ropes or whatever simple thing that needed to be cut in a wine cellar. The rust on the blade would help tremendously. It would be no different than lacing a blade with poison.

“She’s not here!”

Katya heard the bandits’ surprise. They had looked inside the log. That was the signal. She whipped her body to stand up. She sprang out from behind the tree and lunged at the nearest bandit.

“Behind you!”

The other bandits warned the one closest to Katya, but it was too late. The bandit turned around to face Katya. That quickly proved to be a mistake. Katya threw her knife at the bandit. The knife missed the bandit’s neck, but it did graze him. Since the blade was blunt and rusty, it tore the side of his neck as a serrated edge would. The bandit panicked at the blood and a sharp pang of pain. Before he could yell, Katya grabbed his hand that was wielding the sword and turned it against him, stabbing into his neck.

The bandits yelled their companion’s name and lunged at Katya. She kicked up the dirt at the bandit to her left and shoved the dead bandit to the one on her right. She met the one directly in front of her head-on. The bandit swung at her without any hesitation, but not without openings. He was full of them. A lifetime of murder and stealing had not made the bandit a better fighter. She dodged his obvious thrust and trapped his arm with both of her arms. Then, she dropped to the ground, pulling the bandit down with her. The bandit loosened his grip on the sword in the tumble. She snatched it out of his hand and thrust it into his face before the two could find their bearings.

When the remaining two bandits had gotten over their plights, Katya had already recovered her bearings, though she was not armed. She didn’t have the strength to pull either of the swords back out.

“Absurd!” cried one of the two remaining bandits. “This one is no damsel. That damn noble tricked us.”

“Hush. Damsel or not, she’s just one girl. And look, she’s already out of breath. She won’t be pulling any more of those fancy moves.”

Katya couldn’t help but scoff at the two. She might have been the weakest amongst all the children in the institution, but she was not weak by any means. The weakest beast in a herd is still a beast nonetheless.

“Wait.”

“Wait? Are you serious? What are we waiting for?”

“Her ears. Look at ‘em.”

The bandits’ gazes went to Katya's ears, which were long and pointy, a definite physical trait of an Elf. Their eyes widened at the realisation.

“Oh, my lord. She’s a Fae. That fucking noble kidnapped a Fae and got us involved. We are so fucked. What do we do?”

“What else can we do at this point? We catch her and bring her to the chief. He’ll decide what to do from then on.”

“Are you being serious? You think the chief would be happy if we knowingly capture and bring an Elf to him? We might as well paint a huge mark on him.”

“Then, what do you suggest we do? Let her go? Do you think the boss will be any happier?”

“Ah, damn it! I don’t know, alright?! It’s all that damn noble’s fault. They got us into this mess.”

“Whatever. It ain’t our fault. We’re just doing our job. Let’s just get this over with. We can—”

“She’s running away!”

The two bandits finally snapped out of their argument.

“Damn,” Katya muttered. She didn’t make it far. She could barely stand. Her body felt as if stones were dragging it down, but she refused to give up right now. She refused to be sent back into the arms of her detested former lover.

“And where do you think you’re going, missy?”

Katya gasped. Before she knew it, the bandit chief had appeared in front of her.

“Chief!”

“You’re here!”

The bandit chief ignored exclamations of his underlings. His attention was on the girl’s ears. “You’re an Elf…”

“So what if I am?”

“...A naive one, at that.” The chief chuckled. “No matter. You’re his problem as soon as we hand you over to him.”

“B-boss, are we going to take the Elf with us?”

“Are you questioning my decisions now?” The chief stared down at his two underlings and they immediately shrank in recoil. He snorted at the two and scooped Katya onto his shoulders.

Surprisingly, Katya was very cooperative. She did not struggle or flail around. She understood the difference in their strength. The chief was not like his underlings. Far from it. The man was old and she had learned to be cautious of old men in professions where men die young. Even if she hadn’t given up her attempts, she still needed to be smart about this.

“How did he manage to take you away from your home?” asked the bandit chief.

“What? What did you say?” Katya responded on instinct. She was surprised the bandit was trying to converse with her.

“How did the noble manage to kidnap you from your home?” the chief repeated his question.

“What makes you think I was taken from my home?”

“You have a weak body. You couldn’t have ventured out too far from home with that kind of body.”

“You couldn’t be more wrong about that,” Katya scoffed.

“So, you were not taken from your home.”

“Why does it matter?”

“It matters because if you have been taken from your home, there would be an army of Fae looking for you. If you were not taken from home, but somewhere else, far away from your home, your abduction will be significantly less of a problem for your new noble master and me.”

Katya grimaced. Clearly, there was a misunderstanding in the bandit’s perspective, but she had no intention of correcting him. It wouldn’t benefit her in any way.

In no time at all, they saw the road that led to the clearing where the cottage was. The chief was fast despite his age and the fact that he was carrying someone, although the person he was carrying was lighter than the average lady. Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks.

“B-boss, what’s wrong?” asked one of the bandits following behind the chief.

“...Wasn’t there a Fae embassy in the city?”

“I believe there is one, boss. Why? What about it? Will they be a problem?”

“Oh, no. They won’t be. But I intend to have them become a problem.”

The two bandits blinked and looked at one another in confusion.

“I want you two to go and alert the embassy. There’s a captured Fae in the hands of a fallen noble.”

“Boss, you intend to… betray him?”

“Betray?” The chief scoffed. “There’s no betrayal here. There was no agreement. There was no handshake. We were threatened. I will not let this stand. Besides, I doubt he would let us live after we bring this Elf to him.”

“And you are a hundred percent right in that regard.”

The three bandits jumped and turned around. There Marsh was, waiting in the shadows of the trees in his suit of darkness.

“Do you honestly believe that I would be so naive as to trust that you won’t hamstring me?”

“Fuck…” the bandit chief grunted.

“Well, everything’s out in the open. But I do have to thank you for bringing her all the way here.”

Seeing no other way, the bandit chief could only resort to one act. He put Katya down from his shoulders before putting a knife to her throat.

“Oh? We’re going this path, huh?” Marsh chuckled. “What do you think is going to happen now?”

“I will die, but I will make sure to take your precious woman with me to hell.”

Marsh’s smile fell off his face. “That’s not going to happen.”

The bandit chief tutted. “We’ll see about that,” he said and began pressing the blade deeper onto Katya’s neck. However, before he could drag the sword across her neck, the sword fell from his limp hand as he collapsed to the ground, his head rolling across the ground, away from the body.

“Boss!” the two bandits shouted in unison.

“Fucking idiot,” Marsh sneered. “Now, what to do with you two?”