The Primal Hunter

Pietra looked through the newly arrived shipment as she picked out the best silk from what was left. Most of it had already been taken by the other seamstresses, and Pietra felt lucky that at least some had been left behind she could work with.

If not, it would be hard to ever save up and buy their freedom, not to mention pay the monthly dues.

Putting all she could get in her spatial bag, she paid at the exit of the warehouse before heading home for the day. Renting a spatial bag had luckily gotten quite cheap recently as their clan had a lot fewer members than they used to.

On the way home, she couldn’t help but peek at her neighbor’s small residence. It looked worse by the day due to a lack of maintenance, but Pietra couldn’t really say anything. They had lost the patriarch of their family and thus their position, despite him being the late son of an elder… alas, all that was from the days of old.

Getting home, Pietra smiled the moment she opened the door, fighting through any feelings of exhaustion.

“Mom!” her youngest yelled as she got up from her little bench and ran over.

“Hey honey,” Pietra said with a radiant smile, kneeling down and scooping up her daughter in a hug.

Holding her daughter tight, she looked out the small window showing the neighbor’s house, and inside, she saw a tall but very thin elf sitting in front of a small worktable with listless eyes. Pietra couldn’t help but sigh internally at the sight, holding her daughter even closer than before.

Deliah was truly an unfortunate soul. She had lost not only her husband but also her eldest daughter due to unfortunate timing when the Order of the Malefic had taken over. It had been a few years since it happened, and even if there had been some changes for their clan, it hadn’t really impacted the normal clan members much. It was more the higher-ups who had to deal with new rules.

Things were pretty bad initially. Right when the Order took over, they required the clan to send a certain number of E and D-grades to the Order every month and year, respectively. That had ended pretty fast, though, and since then, they had only been required to pay taxes.

Of course, if they didn’t pay the required taxes, the Order would make up for the difference by taking something else of equal value – more often than not, a few slaves. Which was honestly getting off pretty cheap, considering they were all slaves of the Order to begin with, though Pietra guessed they were considered some other kinds of slaves than those taken to the Order? The members of the clan didn’t have any contracts, after all.

That was why everyone had to contribute, and as a widow, Deliah had to contribute extra as her husband couldn’t. Her remaining children weren’t old enough to contribute much yet, and as she was responsible for them, she had to pay their share.

Honestly, it was a miracle she hadn’t given up any of them yet by sending them to the Order. Pietra already had a hard enough time as a single mother paying for her one daughter and herself, and even if Deliah was a pretty talented jeweler who could use some of the many raw gemstones found in the mines, she had to be struggling to provide for four people alone.

“Mom?” her daughter interrupted her train of thought.

Pietra smiled and shook her head as she stood up and looked down at her daughter. “I was just thinking about adult stuff. Now, what do you want for dinner?”

Deliah coughed as she suppressed the pain. The kids were still in the small academy the clan had established, so she had to finish work before they came home. After a moment of hesitation, she reached into a drawer in her desk and pulled out a potion. It was her last one, but she was too low on resources to keep going.

been able to fully regenerate her stamina and mana pool for several months by now, and it was starting to take a toll. The healer had said she was at risk of taking

elder of the clan had helped to at least allow the kids into the academy

she still couldn’t forgive herself for what had happened to her eldest daughter. Her husband had been insistent on Meira being their way out of the clan and a way to a better life, and Deliah hadn’t done

believe that marrying a young master from the Brimstone Conglomerate would have been a better fate than staying in the clan for the rest of her life. She would be a slave in both places, but at least she had a chance, however minor, for a bright future as the bride of an influential young man. Meira was smart and a talented healer, so as long as the young master had taken a liking

meet the young master, and the rest was history. The Brimstone Conglomerate had been destroyed, gods had fallen, and she had lost her eldest daughter and husband. What made it worse was that she could only blame herself, as blaming such massive factions with untold power like the

to the branch of the Conglomerate, Meira had told her mother she wasn’t sure she wanted to go and if she couldn’t just stay home and work as a

if she had stayed back in the clan, she would still be alive. Especially now that the Order

wouldn’t give up on any of her children. She hadn’t fought enough for Meira, and there was no way she going to let her little brother and two little sisters down in the same way. Who knows, maybe she could even get them off the Great

begin to provide for themselves, and the rest was simply hopeful thinking. But for her children, it was worth

were her two youngest. They were twins, a boy and a girl, both having just turned twenty this year and both in mid-tier E-grade. Elves having twins was incredibly rare, and while Deliah knew that it was considered relatively common among humans and even half-elves, it had come as a massive surprise to her and her husband. They had never planned on having more than three children but had ended up with four. Despite the struggles that had brought,

talented, she had been close

exhausted all her potential, so that had been a welcome surprise and had helped her get her work done quicker and better. She was still only mid-tier D-grade, but that was already considered pretty good

a bit of time before the kids came home, so she went to take a quick nap. She would get a delivery again around nighttime and had more

heard a commotion at the door. With a brief glance out the window, she saw that around an

enough for even the neighbors to hear. It wasn’t like their house was even big,

where she saw her three kids walk in with an older man. He was tall and well-built, with bushy brows and a short beard, giving off a certain air of power. It was her father-in-law.

bowed as the man walked

to be so formal, Deliah,” the

home, and she would have cleaned up if she knew they would have visitors. However, she also knew that the elder

to change things or help, but in reality, it was an empty title that barely did anything. A single word from a member of the Order of the Malefic Viper would supersede anything he ever said or did, and the rules of the Order were very clear that each family had to contribute on their own, not

still helped where he could, but it

inside and prepared to get something to drink when a shiver suddenly went down her spine. She froze mid-movement, her entire family doing the same. In fact, throughout the whole clan, they experienced this

aura had fallen over the

out with her. Right outside, she saw her neighbor Petria also rush out, holding

of what the clan had also seen a few years ago, and they all knew what it meant… someone powerful was coming. Someone

any chance to do or say anything, her father-in-law had already shot into the air along with eight other figures from

walked out after several who looked like guards. From below, Deliah could not see who or what had appeared, but words seemed to

of their clan had to gather… for there was about to be made an announcement regarding their

next several minutes, the entire clan gathered in the large central square of the clan’s main village. Women, children,