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.

she was at risk of taking minor soul damage

their family a respectable position in the social hierarchy, not to mention who her husband’s father was. The fact that her father-in-law was an elder of the clan had helped to at least allow the kids into the academy to put some pressure off Deliah, and if all things went well, they all had a good chance of reaching D-grade. Assuming

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 enough to try and convince him otherwise or protect

perhaps Deliah herself had begun to 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

and she had lost her eldest daughter and husband. What made it worse was that she could only blame herself, as blaming such

forgiven herself yet for letting Meira leave that day. The night before Meira and her husband had gone 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

had done. At least if she had stayed back in the clan, she would still be alive. Especially now that the Order at least offered a way to earn true freedom

there was no way she going to let her little brother and two little sisters down

three of them could begin to provide for themselves, and the rest was simply hopeful thinking. But for her

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

Meira had been quite a bit older than both the twins and her sister, and being more talented, she had been close to D-grade before she passed away. Deliah also knew that none of her kids were fully over losing their father

she had already 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 within

at the sky outside, she still had 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 jewelry to complete while everyone else slept, so she had to try and restore her

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

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

her, though, and quickly went to the door, 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. Of course, more importantly than that, It was one of the elders

Deliah bowed as the man walked in with

so formal, Deliah,” the older man

state of her home, and she would have cleaned up if she knew they would have visitors. However, she also knew that the elder wasn’t holding back a sigh of disappointment

as an elder, he would have the power 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

he could, but it was

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

fallen

saw her neighbor Petria also rush out, holding her daughter’s hand. In unison, they stared up and saw what looked like the arrival

sky had split open as space shattered, the entire world shaking. It was a sight reminiscent of what the clan had also seen a few years ago, and they all knew what it meant… someone powerful was

with eight other figures from different places in the clan. It was the nine elders, their only C-grades. However, they had not flown up to

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

to gather… for there was

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