Now It's My Turn

“Olga Korsakova – a stupid girl who thought getting out of her comfort zone was the best way to live life. Little did she know that everyone else had their own ways of living the “best life”. One who believes happiness grows easily from another’s misfortune.”

Everyone is always out there to affect another person’s life. Some people are always prepared to deal with others trying to affect their own lives.

These actions and reactions can result positively for both sides, negatively for one side, or even negatively for both sides.

Keep this in mind as an example is presented to you.

Let’s say there is a small shop. It is completely filled with all sorts of weapons and armor. Swords, daggers, shields, suits of armor, and even magic wands. They are all out on display for patrons to browse.

What kind of clerk would run this shop? It would be one that has great craftsmanship. And yet, he has not raised a weapon as he is held hostage by two dark cloaked figures working for the demon lord. The reason is that having great craftsmanship does not mean having experience in fighting.

So, why do these cloaked figures threaten to kill? Why do they support a so-called “demon lord?” Everyone has their story and personal reasons. Otherwise, it is seen as nothing more than just plain unfair evil toward the innocents for their own happiness.

“Surrender all your weapons right now,” said one of the cloaked figures eerily.

The first of the cloaked figures held a scepter. It was dark and twisted, like someone had intertwined two steel rods. He pointed the end with a dark purple orb straight at the clerk.

The clerk was an older-looking man with a moustache. His face was wrinkled, and he stared back at the cloaked figure in front of the counter.

Across the room was another cloaked figure. He was dealing with a group of customers who were preparing for an adventure.

The customers could only see a black robe with dark smoke fuming out of the hood where his head should be. Glowing red eyes scared the patrons to the point of wetting themselves.

“If even one living human doesn’t comply, we’ll just have to kill every one of you one by one. Let the guilt of not giving up your weapon eat you away to the end,” announced the second cloak figure, as he also lifted his scepter.

“AAAAH”

CLANG!

All of a sudden, a brave voice cried out. It was actually the clerk, who was now locking one of his swords against one of the cloaked figure’s scepters.

The cloaked figure, however, remained unmoved. He only turned its head to the customers.

“I can’t really use this scepter for melee combat, but it works well to defend against your futile weaponry. Now, look at where the end of my scepter is pointing. Watch the consequences of your mistake unfold.”

FWOOSH!

A dark burning cloud emits from the scepter. The customers are on fire! They started screaming and rolling on the ground. The flames burned the floor to a pitch black.

“Are these shoppers really the so called warriors who intend to fight against our lord? Such a waste of life. Put them out of- GAAAAAAAAAHK!”

The second cloaked figure failed to give the rest of his threats, as he suddenly stumbled and screamed. He lay dead on the ground.

The dark cloud of the figure faded away, revealing a hideous, pale face underneath that matched his evil attitude. On his back, however, was a small rip in the cloak, as if someone stabbed through it.

The clerk jumped back from the cloaked figure he locked swords with. He was confused about what just happened. He looked down at the dead, cloaked figure on the floor, and back up at the living one in front of him.

The clerk turned to the customers, who were now patting the fire off their clothes. One of them attempted to use a healing spell to extinguish themselves. It was clear none of them were responsible from the sudden fatality he witnessed.

The cloaked figure, however, paid no mind to what happened. He prepared to attack the clerk.

“Yeargh!”

CLANG!

The cloaked figure tried to prepare his scepter, but the motion of his swinging made contact with something metal. It wasn’t the clerk’s sword again. Instead, behind the cloaked figure was a strange, floating green cloth that greeted him and the clerk.

The cloaked figure once again raised his scepter, and it began to glow. He pointed it right at the floating green cloth that appeared out of nowhere.

“GAH-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

He too fell on the ground, and suffered the same fate as his comrade. It was like someone stabbed him in the back.

The clerk once again was stunned. He looked all over the place. He held his sword in preparation for what was yet to come.

Three people began to melt into existence right in front of his eyes. Two paladin guys appeared, but the main attention is on the odd-looking woman who stuck out like a sci-fi alien.

The woman was wearing what appears to be a weird, blue helmet, a red cape, and a brightly colored t-shirt and shorts. To someone in the real world, she looked like a superhero. However, for someone in this new world, it was something unorthodox.

“I know it’s invisible, but I made it very clear. DO. NOT. LOSE. THE. INVISIBLE. DAGGER!” the woman yelled at one of the paladins.

A dagger suddenly melted into the woman’s hand.

“I bet you didn’t realize I was holding it up to your neck.”

The man gasped and backed away from the woman.

The strange woman looked at the crowd of burning patrons and then towards the clerk.

“I don’t know how to deal with stuff involving customers set on fire, so now it’s your turn.”

The clerk was looking for anything to try and extinguish the flames.

“Oh, and don’t think like you’re being the hero of your own story. A hero would not fail to protect their customers, and attempt to resuscitate them,” the woman continued.

“But, I was doing my best to help! What was I supposed to do?! You are partially to blame for arriving late, you know!” exclaimed the clerk.

“Yeah, yeah, I don’t feel like arguing. I had this conversation a billion times now.”

The woman stopped paying attention to everyone.

“Leaving now,” the woman said rudely.

The sound of the bell in the weapons shop rang as she slammed the door open.

“Wait, you just saved my shop! Don’t you want something in return?” asked the clerk

“I’m getting my reward right now at the guild.”

“But, I didn’t request the guild. This was a hostage situation, so this must’ve been an order by the constable, so there is no-”

“Alright, alright! I’ll take whatever!” the woman interrupted.

The woman snatched the gold pieces from the clerk’s desk, and walked off without another word.

The paladins were speechless. The clerk tried whatever he could to help the burned patrons.

“Owww! This is dark fire magic. It doesn’t heal like regular fire magic burns.”

“Ow ow ow! Let’s go, we could probably find a cure at the pharmacy.”

The customers rushed out as the black flames continued to make them jump in pain.

“That woman. I hope my guess isn’t correct, but is that the invisible phenomenon Kitezh?”

One of the paladins groaned and looked away.

“I’m surprised you didn’t know, but Kitezh is a total bitch to work with,” he said.

“Stuck up as always,” said the other paladin.

“Kitezh. So that explained the invisibility. But, isn’t she some sort of Goddess? She was the one who saved this city! We need to respect her!” said the clerk, as he tried to slowly comprehend everything.

“She doesn’t deserve that treatment! She thinks just because she’s some Goddess hero that she can treat us like pawns on a chess board,” said the first paladin.

“I don’t know what her issue is. She came out of nowhere, buck naked and in a helmet, screaming in the middle of the city. Next time we saw her, it was when the demon lord led a surprise attack on our city. She turned part of the city invisible, and flabbergasted the demon lord’s army when they ran into nothing. It was a crazy fight and we won thanks to her,” said the other paladin.

The clerk paced around and looked at the swords and bows on the walls and in his cabinets.

“So, this Kitezh girl came out of nowhere just to save us? Well, it is apparent she continues to save us. But, based on what I saw today, it sounds like she also hates doing that kind of work. Is she an actual Goddess from above that came to help us?” the clerk questioned.

“Sigh, no one knows. After the battle, she claimed she was a Goddess, though she didn’t sound sincere. Definitely not what one would think a Goddess would act.”

“But she has the same name of our city, Kitezh! She must be the Goddess of our city then.”

“I doubt that. When we asked for her name, and she told us to address her as the namesake of our city of Kitezh. She didn’t sound sincere. She said it like she wanted to be the Goddess among all of us,” said the first paladin.

“So, she just wanted to name herself that, or her name was really-“

“I DON’T KNOW! We keep asking her questions of her origins, but she just ignores us and goes on with saving people reluctantly.”

The clerk pulled out a broom to clean up the mess of dead cloaked bodies and burnt wooden pieces of paneling.

“Well, as long as she isn’t trying to kill us, nothing we can do but praise the phenomenon. She’s probably doing all of this just because she’s bored. She doesn’t ask to do any of the work, but I bet she doesn’t want to sit around doing nothing either,” concluded the clerk.

And that was how, after only a few days since resetting a new life in the new world, the woman who was once Olga Korsakova transformed into her new identity, Kitezh! In just this course of a couple of days, she had managed to simultaneously make herself a Goddess amongst everyone, while creating negative press through her unintentionally pompous personality. Nevertheless, everyone knew her as being the invisible phenomenon of the city!

By the way, these side characters are almost correct about Kitezh’s life. Kitezh didn’t actually try to save the city on the day of the battle against the Demon Lord’s army invasion. It was all just an accidental experiment with her newfound powers.

However, these characters raised some interesting points. Why did Kitezh come to this world? Did she actually have a goal in her life? No one was able to break an answer out of her. However, one would finally open the door that reveals everything one should know about Kitezh.

Just like an unfortunate encounter at a café, a simple guild task in the fantasy world could suddenly change one’s life.