Chapter 17. Lesson in Etiquette

Seeing the indifference with which Lucy handled the human heads from which blood still flowed as if they were mere watermelons, and recalling how the two arrows sent her way had failed to harm her, even though they had certainly made contact with her legs, the ten lionkin men who initially didn't expect the catgirl in front of them to pose any significant threat realized that the situation was far more dangerous than they had anticipated. Therefore, they decided to bide their time until reinforcements arrived.

"Tell me, catkin, where did you encounter the group of mercenaries?" asked the lionkin man who had spoken the most so far, and whom Lucy believed to be the group's leader.

"Well, in that direction, at a distance I covered in about 4 hours..." Lucy replied, pointing with one hand towards the direction she came from, thinking that the lionkins were finally taking her seriously.

The lionkin man continued to question Lucy about the number of mercenaries and their fighting strength, questions Lucy tried to answer as accurately as possible, though she began to find the attitude of the lionkins in front of her rather strange, as they didn't seem to trust her any more than they did initially, and they didn't seem to analyze her answers too deeply.

'If they still don't intend to believe me, why do they keep asking me questions?' Lucy had begun to wonder in her mind, unsure if it was worth continuing to converse with the lionkins' group or if it would be better to leave.

However, Lucy didn't have much time to think about how to get out of the increasingly frustrating situation because her attention was drawn to two masses of mana moving towards her from the direction of the village entrance, crawling along the ground.

'Oh, so this is what these ungrateful people had in mind. They just wanted to buy time and catch me off guard... Very well, then. Let's see what they plan to do next...', Lucy thought. She then simultaneously used the skills Steps of Light, Bending of Light, and Substitute Creator to leave behind a substitute made of black vines without the lionkins in front of her realizing what had happened.

Lucy didn't have to wait long to see what the lionkins' plan was because, in less than 5 seconds, the masses of mana reached her substitute. At that moment, two human hands emerged from the ground, grabbing the substitute by the legs and pulling it into the earth up to the waist, and immediately after, two other human hands emerged from the ground and placed a collar around the substitute's neck, which Lucy was sure had the purpose of controlling the one who wears it.

"What... What does this mean? Is this how you treat your saviors?" the substitute asked, panic evident in its voice, as it was being remotely controlled by Lucy to appear as real as possible.

"Saviors, you say? We'll see about that...", one of the two lionkins who had completely emerged from the ground said, these two being the ones responsible for the surprise attack that had occurred a few seconds earlier, resulting in the capture of Lucy's substitute.

"Yes, we will now see the true reason for your visit..." the lionkin Lucy believed to be the group's leader said. "Catkin, I command you to tell us exactly who you are and what your purpose for being here is!" he continued, his voice dripping with confidence that he was now in control.

Unfortunately for the lionkins, their strategy was not as flawless as they had thought, and after nearly a minute, the catgirl in front of them remained silent.

"Boss, what's happening? Why isn't the collar working?" one of the lionkins asked, noticing that the catgirl didn't seem to be affected by the collar's power, which was supposed to inflict increasing pain on the wearers as long as they didn't obey the orders given by their master.

"Hahaha! You are truly idiots!" suddenly exclaimed Lucy's substitute, then transforming in less than a second into a pile of black vines that captured four of the Lionkin who were closest to it.

"Oh, damn! What's going on?"

"How did she escape?"

"Where did she go?"

"Help me! Get me out of here!"

Watching from a distance the commotion that had engulfed the lionkins, Lucy didn't feel sufficiently avenged for what they tried to do to her.

'I can accept the fact that these lionkins don't trust strangers, and I believe they have every right to be cautious. However, that doesn't justify the fact that they attempted to turn me into their slave, even if they would have released me after discovering the truth. Considering that I hadn't harmed them, not even when they insulted me or shot arrows at me, what they did could only be regarded as a crime. No, it wasn't just a crime. It was even more serious than that. It was a crime against me. Yes, something like this could not go unpunished...' Lucy thought as she headed toward the panicked lionkins, and although she wasn't intending to kill them, she was planning to leave them with at least a few broken bones.

'Since I arrived in this world, I've only focused on lethal techniques and using ninja weapons, so I haven't had the chance to use my karate skills... Well, I guess I'll take this opportunity to see if I haven't lost my touch...', Lucy told herself in her mind as she reached the lonkin man closest to her. She then deactivated her invisibility skill and started attacking him without any warning, a tactic she intended to employ against all the others who were present.

......................

While outside the village walls, a violent confrontation had begun, in which Lucy was throwing punches and kicks mercilessly, as if her opponents were sand-filled dummies, inside a house on the other side of the village, a verbal confrontation had started between a young lionkin woman, who was very attractive, her trained body making her seem like a true war goddess, and a middle-aged lionkin woman, who, although still beautiful, it was quite evident that her days of youth had passed some time ago.

"To feed the ducks, to pick beans, and now, to knit socks! Are these the very important tasks that made my grandfather not take me hunting? Tell me, grandma, what does this mean?" the young lionkin woman asked the middle-aged lionkin woman in front of her, who was her grandmother, and was holding several skeins of thread in her hand.

"Rina, both your grandfather and I thought it would be good for you to learn to do some household chores. When you get married..."

"Who said I have any intention of getting married?" interrupted the young lionkin woman, whose hazel-orange eyes were filled with anger as if she were facing her greatest enemy. "I told you from the very beginning that I won't accept such a thing! If Grandpa is so eager to form an alliance with the tigerkins' leader, he can go and be his bride himself!" she continued, and then turned and headed for the door.

"Rina, have you heard the news about the pantherkins' clan, how many have died, how many have been taken as slaves... I think you realize we'll face the same fate if we don't agree to the tigerkins' demands..." the middle-aged woman said, her words causing her granddaughter to stop in her tracks.

"Whatever you say, I'll never accept it... I'll accept fighting if the others want to fight, I'll accept leaving the village if others decide it's too dangerous to stay here, but I'll never accept being the only one to suffer so that others can live comfortably..." Rina said, not turning back and still looking towards the door, as she didn't want to see the disappointment in her grandmother's eyes, fearing that her determination would waver.

"Rina, how can you say such a thing? Are you aware of how many have sacrificed themselves so that we can live in peace in this village? Your father, your mother..."

"They at least died in battle! They died as heroes! I would gladly accept such a fate rather than being sent to the enemy's bed...", Rina replied to her grandmother and then reached out to open the door.

"Bang!"

"Ah, my head!" Rina shouted as she held her head in pain, looking angrily at the lionkin girl four years younger than her who had opened the door without any warning and hit her while she was still lost in thought.

"I'm sorry. Rina, I didn't mean to... Are you okay?" the lionkin girl started apologizing, momentarily forgetting why she had sought out Rina.

"Do I look okay to you? I hope you have a good reason for barging in like that, Nalani, or the fur on your ears won't be safe for long..."

"Yes, Rina, it's an emergency! A fight has broken out at the eastern gate of the village. All the fighters who remained in the village have gone there..."

"Huh, a fight? Is someone attacking the village?" Rina asked, not understanding what the lionkin girl in front of her was trying to say.

"I have no idea. Because I headed straight to you, I didn't have the opportunity to find out more details..." replied the lionkin girl, whose name was Nalani, her tone indicating her regret at not being able to provide Rina with more information.

"It doesn't matter. I'll go see for myself. Stay here with my grandmother until I return..." Rina told Nalani, then hurriedly left through the door.

"But..." Nalani tried to object, but when she stepped outside, Rina had already left the street.

"Nalani, do as Rina told you. If the situation is very serious, she might have an easier time escaping if she's alone..." Rina's grandmother told Nalani, who didn't have a class yet and wasn't a very competent fighter.

"Okay, I don't want to be a burden..." Nalani said quietly, aware that at that moment she couldn't be of any help. However, she didn't let herself be influenced by negative emotions for too long, and after a few seconds, she lifted her head from the ground, her determination to become stronger visible in her eyes.

"Take care, big sister Rina! Come back safely!" Nalani shouted as she looked in the direction of the east.

...................

When Rina arrived at the village entrance, she found the twelve individuals who had confronted Lucy and approximately 200 other lionkins who had come to their aid lying on the ground. Some of them were unconscious, some were groaning in pain, and others were trying to crawl back toward the gate to escape from Lucy's relentless blows, because as soon as she saw them attempting to get back on their feet, she would appear next to them and start treating them like punching bags.

Since most of Lucy's opponents so far had levels between 30 and 50 and weren't particularly fast, partly due to their heavy equipment and partly because they were elderly, she had encountered no difficulty in her mission to make the lionkins more courteous in the future, showing them what could happen if they didn't behave nicely with honest visitors.

Seeing the scenes unfolding before her eyes, Rina had the impression for a few seconds that it might all be a dream because she couldn't believe that one person could defeat the entire defense of their village.

"Run, Rina, run! If she sees you, you'll suffer the same fate as us!" one of the lionkins who was crawling near her said, his words making her realize that what she was seeing was real.

Unfortunately for Rina, she didn't have time to decide whether it would be wise to follow his advice, because Lucy, who had all her passive ocular abilities activated, immediately detected her as she exited through the gate, and after finishing off the last lionkin who was still trying to get up, Lucy appeared instantly in front of Rina, her starry-eyed gaze assessing her from head to toe.

"Well, it's about time for some fresh blood. I'm tired of hitting uncles and aunts..." Lucy said enthusiastically as if she had become an avatar of the Karate God, a deity born from the fighting spirit of millions of Karate practitioners and she was no longer interested in anything other than defeating all those who challenged her.

***Author's thoughts: In this chapter's comments section, I added an image of Rina (AI-generated via WOMBO Dream and modified in Photopea).