All Chapters of I Returned to Kill Monsters, and Created the Worst One: Chapter 1 - Chapter 7

Elara VeyneIn my first life, I spent three nights praying before the evaluation.Back then, I believed a powerful ability could change an orphan’s fate. The Church was full of children waiting to be chosen by noble families, merchants, officers, or wealthy lupine houses.Most of us were human. Wars created human orphans efficiently, especially among families without inherited strength or a second form to help them survive. Some humans had blessings. Others had nothing unusual at all. Shifters and hereditary manifestations existed too.The Church claimed the First Light made no distinction between bloodlines.Being adopted by a powerful lupine family was even considered fortunate. People called it being welcomed beneath the protection of a new pack.I had believed that once.Now I stood before the same crystal and tried not to smash it.“You can place your hand on it,” the sister said.Gideon Caldris stood on the other side of the room reviewing records. House Caldris was one of Alder

Elara VeyneFreedom, I discovered, charged rent.My first room outside the church was cramped, old, and very ugly, but it was mine. It had a bed, an unstable table, an old mana stove, and a door I could lock from the inside.I spent an unreasonable amount of time staring at the key in my hand.So I went to buy some bread, because, apparently, freedom doesn't work on an empty stomach either.I took temporary jobs and trained at night. By then, I could strengthen mixtures without visible light and stop before the familiar pressure behind my eyes became trembling, blood, or unconsciousness.One afternoon at a teahouse, two lupine merchants sat near the table I was cleaning.“Azhareth reduced the shipment again.”“At this rate, Nythrium will double before winter.”My hand stopped.Nythrium.I remembered a black box Gideon had opened years earlier. Inside was a nearly transparent crystal crossed by gold. He had allowed me to use it once while making a regeneration potion.Normally, that mu

Elara VeyneTwo days after applying, the palace hired me.For the kitchen.I had requested corridor service, but apparently a foreign human with no noble-house experience belonged near sacks of flour instead of important doors.Fine.First I would get inside.Then I would move.The temporary workers gathered in a service courtyard. Humans and lupines stood together, which no longer surprised me in Namarra.The woman commanding us was Samira Qadri, a lupine in her forties with tightly pulled hair and the expression of someone personally disappointed by the existence of inefficiency.She inspected my documents.“Aldervane.”“Yes, ma’am.”“Human.”“Yes, ma’am.”“Is your Azhari sufficient?”“Yes, ma’am.”She gave me instructions so quickly I caught half.“Did you understand?”“The part up to ‘east storeroom.’”“You said you spoke Azhari.”“I said I understood it. You need to go slower.”She stared long enough for me to wonder whether she disliked foreigners, humans, or everyone equally.“