Chapter 421 City of Yoru
In the city of Yoru, the streets were bustling as a carriage could be seen entering through the front gates.
A few people passing by were a little curious as to what's inside the carriage but didn't spare them much thought since there were plenty of people to come into the city by carriage.
"Young miss, we've arrived." Phillip called out from the front seat.
"Mn, got it. For now, let's get some food to eat, I'm quite hungry." Shiro replied with a smile.
A week ago, after she gave them their first order, the first thing that they did was escort her out of the forest. It turns out that the forest they were in was called Teriu forest.
If one was to go north, they would reach Teriu city which was where they had come from. The closest city to Teriu city would be Yoru and that was to the east of Teriu forest. To reach Yoru, one would need to travel for around a week with their speed.
During this week, Shiro had the shadow guards show them how they would normally use the Celestial Energy.
Similar to mana, they had a hidden reservoir inside them that stored all of their energy. This energy couldn't be regenerated through the day but only when they rested their bodies. This means that they had to stay still and rest properly for the energy to actually regenerate since it was akin to their physical stamina.
This made it so that they had to be careful with how they used their energy. Should they waste it, they'll be quite vulnerable.
As for how they used the energy, they would link their soul strands into this reservoir and have it transferred into their physical body which then allows them to activate their spells.
Thankfully for Shiro, this meant that her broken mana links couldn't prevent her from using this power. But now the problem was that both girls were needed to use this power.
With Kuromi no longer being 'inside' her, their strands couldn't link up properly so their reservoir was essentially cut off.
But this didn't bother her too much since they could always experiment. However, with the guards around, it would be dangerous to expose their experiments so they both agreed to keep it on hold for now.
In addition to this, Shiro and Kuromi both decided to train the shadow guards under the guise of 'practice'. It may seem like the two girls were being trained through the guard's guidance but with their meticulous planning and positioning, they slowly forced the unneeded movements out of each and every guard, slowly refining them into lethal killers.
Of course, they weren't able to do much within the week but compared to what they were like before, each guard could fight two copies of themselves without a single problem!
There were also a few changes in the shadow guards mindsets. Despite being the one's 'training' the two girls, they felt like they were suppressed. Their confidence and aura would overwhelm their senses at the start of the battle but soon fade.
Shiro, a girl they realised to have the confidence to envelop everything under her rule. A tyrant that could swallow everything up, refusing to be swallowed up. An endless void that hungers.
Kuromi, the older sister that was similar yet different to Shiro. Sure, she was also like a void that absorbs everything but rather than consume, she controls them. As if placing them in a stasis, she would link strings to them and control them like a puppeteer.
Every time one of the shadow guards fought against her, it was as if they were in a play that Kuromi wrote herself. Only when she gave you permission were you allowed to move/act with your own will.
Both girls were equally frighting and the guards unconsciously submitted themselves towards the two, accepting them as their new masters.
"Say Kuromi, do you think we should get ourselves a residence here first? We'll have the guards do some tasks and make some money." Shiro asked while peering out into the streets of Yoru.
"Ha? Why would we do that? I'm more concerned about structuring the guards properly first. Plus, since we're going to be stirring some serious business in this world, having a secure residence is akin to a chain that would bind us down." Kuromi replied with a shake of her head.
In her hands was a makeshift notebook of sorts and it contained all of the information she had written down for the shadow guards.
With a total of 26 members, including the captain – Phillip, Kuromi organised them into four categories.
Attackers, Defenders, Support and Utility. Each category was rather self explanatory due to their titles.
As for how many members were in each category, they were listed as such.
Attackers – 12 members
Defenders – 4 members
Support – 8 members
Utility – 2 members
The next few pages were some information about each of the members. For now, Kuromi had labelled them with their code names but they had planned to give them each a different name once they've finished gathering all of the supplies that they need.
"Young miss, what is it that you wanted to eat? It's a little dangerous for you to be going out so we'll buy it for you." Phillip called out while stabilising the carriage.
"What I want to eat? Hmm… I don't know. Isn't it easier for me to just come out and choose for myself?" Shiro smiled.
"But…"
"It's fine Phillip. I doubt she'll listen anyways." Kuromi closed her book with a sigh.
". . .I understand." Phillip nodded since he understood how stubborn Shiro could be during this week.
Opening the carriage doors, both Shiro and Kuromi walked out of the carriage as they stretched their bodies.
Since they didn't want to be recognised too soon, they had a mask that obscured their faces.
Shiro wore a white and red hanfu much like what she had worn back in the quest where Lyrica obtained Yuan Tian while Kuromi wore a black and blue hanfu.
After stretching her body, Shiro looked towards the restaurant that they were in front of and couldn't help but smell a wonderful scent coming from the kitchen.
"Hou hou, seems like we're going to get some good food today. To be honest, I'm somewhat tired of having the bland meat that we've been making for the past week." Shiro smiled while making her way into the restaurant.
"*Sigh* It's no wonder that Yin's a glutton with your eating habits. To be honest, it seems like she's just an enhanced version of you that somehow got a skill." Kuromi sighed.
"Well let's just be honest here why don't we? Since we're the 'same', both you and I know that you would pamper her just as much as I did." Shiro chuckled.
"Fufu… maybe, maybe not. Who knows? After all, it's also thanks to this skill that my dear niece is not an obese phoenix. Now THAT, would be quite depressing. It's both a blessing and a curse I suppose." Kuromi smiled.
"Yeah a curse for my wallet." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Oh please, you can earn more for darling Yin can't you? Plus it's not like you're going to be spending that much money anyways."
"What do you mean I'm not going to be spending that much money? I might need it to buy some materials and weapons you know." Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Perhaps but highly unlikely. Not only that, I'm pretty sure that you're more likely to 'borrow' the material or weapon than buy it like a lawful person."
"I am lawful. It's just called long term borrowing which means I might return the item or material should I still have it and don't have a use for it."
"You? Being lawful? I'll believe that when the system crumbles and the gods die." Kuromi rolled her eyes.
"Oh yeah? You wanna bet?" Shiro frowned.
"I don't want to make a bet for you to do something reckless. You are the 'main' after all, your life is my life." Kuromi shook her head.
While this was all happening, Phillip only ignored this since their two young misses go through this episode of drama every single day. They just dismiss it as children playing since young people tend to be more imaginative.
'Maybe they're going through an embarrassing phase that they might want to forget?' Phillip thought to himself while following them into the restaurant.