My Reincarnation as a Chicken

In a dark alleyway on the streets of Yorul, a person wrapped in a cloak moved silently.

It was very hard to find a place as dark and filthy as this in Yorul, which was the capital city of Atlantis, named after its founder. Since it is the chosen ground of the highly exalted founder, the residents try their best to ensure that it was safely and cleanly kept. It was seen as a sort of Holy Land that the purest and wisest of the 3 original merfolk, Yorul had decided to set up his kingdom to ensure his people flourished.

Eventually his followers became so numerous, they had to create additional cities chosen by Yorul himself, which began the five nations of Atlantis. Since his death, the residents refused to create an additional city since they assumed it would be an offense the first king.

So, they ensured that their cities were clean to the best of their abilities. They monitored the increase in size population and came up with magic for that problem. The monitored the increase in crime rate, so they came up with the street patrol for that problem. Every problem they encountered, they efficiently solved.

Unfortunately, no matter how well kept an item was, over a couple of centuries, cracks formed.

There were some slums in Yorul due to the influx of residents who wanted to get closer to the holy land, Yorul instead of the other cities with more space. The crime rates, although not as bad as in the other cities, still existed and scared some people. Yorul, couldn’t be called the safest out of the 5 cities. In fact, it was potentially the most hazardous place for anyone to live in the current era and this was all due to the presence of a guild that snuck their way into Atlantis.

Generally, Yorul was a clean place with little to no bandits. This was because of how efficient the guards were at keeing the streets clear of any crimes. Still, even the guards had met their match in this particular group of thugs. If anything, there were rumours spreading that these thugs were the most efficient group of assassins ever seen in the history of the three kingdoms.

Easily avoiding capture, going about their normal business smoothly and always completing their missions.

The Sikari Guild, the most fearsome band of assassins roaming the mass blue. Their real purpose was unknown, their leader was unknown, their motivation was unknown. The only evidence of their existence was the dead bodies they left behind.

The one wrapped in a cloak stumbled across a lazy looking merman with a bottle of alcohol to his lips. The merman looked at them and glared for a bit, to which they replied with expressionless eyes. He looked away and burped, which was a foul sight to the cloaked person.

Someone also wrapped in a cloak, but with no visible showing of their true physical attributes in display moved in from the shadows. It was as obvious as anything that the new being was an assassin. Their movements and clothes were more than enough to prove this.

Looking back, the drunk man was currently sleeping. It appeared the alcohol had caught up with him and knocked him out.

The cloaked figure looked at the assassin firmly. The assassin looked at her and slowly approached.

“Who do you want gone?”

“Someone will be passing through the streets tomorrow.”

“Not very descriptive, are you?”

He mocked her description skills, since she gave him little to no information on his actual target.

“You will know who the target is the moment you set eyes on them. They don’t normally pass this side of the city.”

The assassin thought more over what she was saying and shrugged.

“Whatever. I hope my payment is here already.”

The hooded merman pulled out a bag, which she threw to the assassin.

“I believe this is more than enough of someone of your rank, Needle Master.”

The assassin opened up the bag and grinned. The amount of silver in the bag greatly exceeded the amount he got on a normal mission, but he wouldn’t say that. Not like it mattered either way.

“How do you know who I am?”

He asked her, but the person kept swimming off.

“Answer my question or I refuse to do this job.”

Once he threatened as such, the person sighed and paused in their movement.

“The Secret Council.”

After delivering their final piece, the person swam off. Needle Master looked at the figure for a bit, then laughed.

“If you’re going to lie, come up with a better one, brat.”

He himself vanished back into the shadows of the alleyway. Wherever he was going would remain unknown.

____________________

This princess was proving to be too much of a pain. She had a war coming up and had no interest in it. Rather, what she wanted was to go out on a walk through the city.

A transport had been prepared for the trip. As expected, it was giant sea shell being pulled by two large sea horses known as Ocean Dragoons. They were a sub species of dragons, much like drakes were. They weren’t really strong, but they had high speed stats.

As soon as we boarded it, the coachman started out journey.

“You see, a leader is supposed to attend to their people. Address their problems, ensure their mental, spiritual and physical health is in an acceptable range. As a leader, you carry the people on your back and as such, wouldn’t it be better to know the people you’re carrying?”

She had been lecturing me like this ever since we went to fetch the others.

‘But, walking through a city. Isn’t it dangerous for royalty?’

“I don’t know how it works for surface dwellers, but down here, it is virtually impossible for criminals to commit crimes. In fact, there are close to no criminals in Yorul, the Holy Land of our first king.”

‘Holy land?’

“Yes, indeed. You aren’t aware of our history?”

‘Uh, no. Why would I?’

“Why would you go to a different country of which you know nothing? That is simply reckless behaviour. Research on everyone, enemies and allies alike. Find their weaknesses and strengths, how to exploit them, benefits and disadvantages of partnering up or antagonising them. Assume your species was a delicacy here, you would be dead by now, you know? Of course, we wouldn’t consume something as ugly as your former appearance.”

She insulted me and I couldn’t help feeling angry. I waned to smack her on the head, but as if they read my thoughts, both Yokino and Sunalla glared at me.

‘So, we’re walking through the streets because you simply wish to check up on your people?’

I asked her as we approached the city. The carriage slowed down the moment we reached the reached the entrance to the town. All around people who were working on decorations or playing stopped and stared at the carriage.

“That and other reasons. Care to think up the others? There are 2 more fundamental reasons for this.”

Two more fundamental reasons? Well, the princess didn’t look like the kind-type so I doubted the people really cared much for her unless she had been really helpful to them.

‘Easy. To get the people on your side.’

“Good and the other reason?”

‘Uhh… to identify the problems in the town?’

I couldn’t think up anything beyond that. Maybe if I had read some of those “Coming-of-age” stories about kings or isekai protagonists to taking up leadership roles, I would know. Whatever, not like those were real.

“If I wanted that, I could have easily sent servants to come check-up on the current affairs. It also falls under the first thing I do.”

She had a point. There was virtually no reason for her to be here in person when she could easily send servants to come do this tedious job. I scratched my head a bit, trying to think up the reason.

“Your highness!”

“I-It’s the princess!”

“She was returned to us!? Did the prince manage to rescue her?”

“Woohoo! This year’s feast might be good again!”

“Might? It’s going to be excellent!”

The people all around the carriage suddenly had their moods sent up to a whole new level. It was almost terrifying how much charisma the princess possessed and she hadn’t even said anything to them. Was her third point this?

To increase the charisma amongst the people?

‘Is this it? Making the people more confident?’

I asked her. She smiled and gave me no proper response. Rather, she got up from her seat and got off from the carriage.

‘Princess!’

I instinctively reached out for her as she got off, but Sunalla grabbed me by the shoulder.

‘Don’t bother. It’s just how the princess does things.’

She sent me a telepathic message. I looked at her and she had a smile on her face while looking at the princess’ figure. I wasn’t sure how to feel looking at her face when I knew she was in so much pain on the inside. Not wanting to bring up the fact that her father had died and she wasn’t given time to make her peace, I decided it would be best to ignore.

I focused on the princess once again while making sure to keep an eye out for anything or anyone dangerous. Even if she said there were close to zero, she still gave me a very strict warning about my fate should even a strand of her hair be lost.

“My dearest citizens. It has been quite some time since our last meeting like this! Of course, I will be making my way to other parts of the city to personally spread this message. As the annual Yorul Feast is approaching, I have decided to come and ask you the citizens to help me in my endeavours! At this festival, my father plans to choose the new ruler of Atlantis and I need your help!”

She shouted loudly for everyone around to see. People started gathering around as she spoke. She described how she was fiendishly tortured by the SharkFang kingdom and how she bravely managed to escape with help from her personal task force (Sunalla, Yokino and myself). Of course, she didn’t show us to the public, but it was heavily implied that we were her task force since apart from Yokino, we were new faces around here.

Her speech continued on for about 30 minutes, making me get bored. And since Akira and Akkun were tending to magic and skills, I decided to take a look at my stats. After continuously staring at it doing nothing, I asked the agent what my intelligence stat did. I first thought it related to magic power, but I had a magic power stat and mana stat.

The agent said it had a myriad of purposes depending on the species. For humans, an intelligence stat meant the number of skills, spells, techniques or jobs they could acquire. For me, it meant the number of stat points I could acquire with each level up. But the agent had a theory that if my intelligence stat reached a certain point, I could possibly develop other stats entirely. I wasn’t sure how this worked, but it basically meant, I needed to feed my intelligence stat.