Through the window of her hotel room, Kaiser stared at the structures that made up the Council’s headquarters. There was quite a bit of distance in between, making them appear as little toy buildings. She held a cup of hot coffee in her hands. Seeing how mercilessly the sun was scorching Era, Kaiser would have liked to stay in for the day. She felt lazy and sleepy, and definitely not fresh. It was either too hot or too wet these days, and she couldn’t go outside if it was raining because she needed keep her wound dry until the stitches were removed. A few days had passed since the most horrible thing ever happened to her, but she was dedicated to fix it. She was dedicated to fix her goddamn face. Today, to be exact.

A freezing shower brought her back to life and the thought of repairing her damaged face enthused her to the point that she was grinning like a maniac. It was a sight to behold. If anyone saw her face right now, with the stitches right across and that crazy smile, they would immediately think that she belonged in an asylum. But the reason behind the crazy grin, was even crazier. You couldn’t blame her though. I mean, what narcissistic girl who was in love with her face would leave it be after some punk lacerated it right in the center. It was going to leave a giant scar that would last for the rest of her life. Don’t believe it? Save it. She asked the doctor who stitched it up for her. It definitely will leave a scar.

The majority of her morning was spent at the hospital, and most of that time, she spent waiting for the patients who had arrived earlier than her. It was a public hospital, so basically everyone who couldn’t afford to go to a private hospital was there. Honestly, the only reason she was here was because this was where she had her wound stitched up, so she had to come back here and get the stitches removed. If it was up to her, she would’ve preferred a private hospital.

Removing the stitches took about five minutes, and everything was over in about fifteen, so naturally she was pissed that she had to wait about an hour to do something that took only fifteen minutes. Her excitement for her next plan did not diminish, nevertheless, and she set out to find the magical substance that would take away her misery—which was her face at the moment.

Kaiser navigated the streets of Era with a colorful mini-map in her delicate hands. Though the city was much larger than Astera in all aspects, it was easier to find her way around in Era, maybe because the buildings in Astera looked all the same and the town was like a labyrinth. So she liked it here. And because of all the knights standing around, she had a virtual sense of safety. The shop she was looking for was called ‘Black Cat Den’ which was odd and shady. In any normal case, she would have avoided such a place just by hearing its name, but she was kind of in desperate need of their help.

While she thought she was making the right turns, she seemed to have been walking in circles for about a quarter of an hour. Maybe she had passed and overlooked or something. Starting to feel like the heat was getting unbearable, she looked around and spotted a man with long blonde hair—oh no it was orange—and quickly walked towards him. Giving him a pat on the shoulder, she shoved the map in his face. “Hello! Do you know the way to get here?” she asked in her strange accent as she violently jabbing at a point on the map. She tried her best to form a friendly smile, forgetting that she had a fresh scar across her face.

Kaiser was more than pleased with the stranger’s response. He didn’t give much of a reaction after seeing her scar, which was also very nice of him. She would have probably exploded on the spot if he reacted badly or made a negative comment, since the heat was already enough to bear. She allowed the man to have her map, fanning herself with her hands as she waited. There were street signs at every corner, and Kaiser had of course been following their directions, but she just couldn’t seem to find her destination. She had a feeling it was meant to be that way, seeing how they sold some questionable products. Moments later, the stranger offered to walk her there, which she thought wasn’t such a bad idea. She didn’t like having a stranger take her places, but it was so hot and she just wanted to get there fast.

“Alright, sure,” she said and gestured for him to lead the way. If he tried anything funny, she was very capable of handling him anyway, which was why she agreed. Of course, she wasn’t aware of how strong or capable the strange man was, but her self-confidence had no limit so she almost always assumed that she was stronger in most cases, unless there was a very good reason for her to believe otherwise.

They reached a section of the road that Kaiser had already passed, but something caught her eye this time. She stopped in her tracks, squinted—that made her face hurt and didn’t really help her see anything—and said, “There it is.” It looked like a shop that had been abandoned from afar, but the movement inside said shop was what grabbed Kaiser’s attention. She could see a tiny figure bobbing around through the dusty window pane, like a little black blob that was alive. At this point, Kaiser had already forgotten that she had company when she walked towards the shop and peered through the grimy glass. The blob seemed to notice her arrival and bounced down...into the floor? No. There was a hole in it, that was immediately closed shut after the blob disappeared. “Welcome to Black Cat Den,” she mumbled to herself with a grin and looked for a way to get in.

There was no way in. Which was strange, because even if Black Cat Den took over a shop that used to be here, wouldn’t there have been a door before or something? Weird. Kaiser came to the conclusion that she would have to break the glass to get in, but she didn’t want to scare Black Cat or whoever ran the shop away because that was going to make some noise. Taking a few steps back to look for something to break the glass with, the stranger who brought her here came into vision. “Oh, you’re still here. I forgot about you. Anyway, a little help?” she asked, cocking her head towards the glass.

It was very interesting how the strange man agreed to help her break into an abandoned store so easily, but Kaiser was glad that even if she got into some trouble, she wasn’t going to be alone. That’s the kind of person she was. The glass shattered under the impact of his punch, and Kaiser stepped over the broken pieces to get inside. The odor of unused furniture made her scrunch up her nose in disgust. Each step caused the floorboards to creak ever so eerily. The last thing she expected was for her companion to be a motherfucking wizard.

“Impressive,” she said, her eyes reflecting the light of his flame. Though she wanted to know more about his magic, and his journey as a wizard, her focus at this moment was to get her face fixed, and approached the trapdoor through which the blob disappeared. “How to get in…?” she mumbled, mostly to herself as she lightly knocked on it.

Without further inspection, Kaiser forcefully kicked the door down, essentially breaking the entrance to their little hideout or whatever and making her arrival known to everyone underneath. Motioning her new friend to follow her, the starlight mage took careful steps down the shaky stairs that led them to a room full of bewildered creatures, all wearing vibrant colors.

“Sorry about the noise! I’m here for a potion to...change my face?” Kaiser wasn’t sure how they called it in their terms, but she tried her best so that they could easily understand her. Unlike what they saw above, the interior of this gigantic basement was absolutely dazzling. She couldn’t take her eyes off of the different types of jewelry that each and everyone here wore on their bodies. It was quite amusing too. She couldn’t wrap her head around the idea of this little underground party where no one was human, everyone wore diamonds around their necks, and not a single one of them looked like they cared about anything going on outside of here.

Of course her loud entrance caught all of their attention, and it was kind of awkward because they were still just standing on the stairs. “And this is my friend...John,” she added, tilting her head towards her companion. She couldn’t think of anything fast enough to blurt out and not raise suspicion. They were still doing some shady stuff down here, so she didn’t want them to kick her out for bringing someone without informing that she would beforehand.

No one at the underground party cared about what Kaiser was saying. Only at the mention of the potion, a head poked out of the crowd with a curious look. The head belonged to the owner of the shop, who didn’t really looked like she owned anything to be quite honest. She looked like she was here to carry one of the guests’ belongings or something, which was why Kaiser didn’t notice her at all in the beginning. Only when Black Cat approached the sorceress, did she see the small neko who had a petite form and looked very young.

“Oh!” said Kaiser, digging into her purse for money to pay for the potion. Black Cat reached out as if asking for payment. She held the potion in the other hand and didn’t speak a word. “Can I see it first?” she asked. The shop owner handed her to little vial that held a sparkling pink liquid. Kaiser shook it a little and looked at it from all angles. Once she was satisfied, she paid the amount for it and said, “If it doesn’t work, I’ll be back for a refund!” with a delightful grin and turned to head out. “Alright, let’s go John. Our business here is finished,” she told the orange haired man. Black Cat was left speechless, not that she was saying anything in the first place.

As soon as they were out of the building and back on the road, Kaiser popped the vial open and gulped down its contents. “Well stranger, that was fun. See you again later maybe!” she said gleefully and headed back to the hotel. She was pretty hyped to find out what her new face was going to be like.