Chapter 10: Chapter 10. Hard decisions

“I’m leaving to the manor in this afternoon. You’ll be on your own to the rest of the day,” Tsilonee told Felix while they were having a lunch. “How about we take a walk to the town tomorrow?”

“That would be great. It’s been like ages since I was out,” Felix responded, sipping his aromatic tea gracefully as he was taught by the woman sitting opposite of him.

“You should stop exaggerating simple matters. It doesn’t suit a young woman in your appearance.”

These kinds of chidings were becoming common habit of her lately. At the beginning, it was perfectly fine with Felix, since this was correlated with his own goals. But now, it’d become irritating that he found the language lessons more favorable.

“Oh, before I forgot. This is the map that depicts inner structure of the town manor,” she took out a folded parchment and handed him. “You should get to know it thoroughly. If it’s possible, memorize every room and corner.”

When he spread it on the side of the table, he saw a whole building arrangements of what looked like a small military base. Training field, armory, infirmary, stables, storage, and other army related words were written on the rectangle-shaped drawings of the paper. There weren’t any measurements put on. Felix flipped over the parchment to see a detailed inner plan of the main building, where the town lord himself resided as it was written.

“The request I told you before is about you acting as Lina,” Tsilonee’s face turned serious for the first time when she was speaking to him. “She is one of the maids who serve Geelim Kartan himself, and she can access his private chambers, even his bedroom, without difficulty. Your task is to enter the kitchen and transform into one of the servants who will be delivering a tray of food to the Lord. Lina will help you to replace the maid. Two vials will be given to you on that day. You will drink one of them on this pathway,” she leaned forward, extending her hand at a spot of the map, “and the other one must be poured into the teapot on the tray, there and then.”

She retrieved her hand and became silent after saying that all, watching Felix’s reaction to the mission he was given.

In the end, turned out he was the main executor of this assassination. He had hoped to be given a sidekick role at the very least, assuming he agreed to this scheme. Now he was the one to be thrown under the bus if things went south.

“Do this well and I’ll take you to my side. You will live safely, even in luxury after this mission. And you won’t be locked up in such secluded places,” she looked him straight in the eye, her tone now even deeper.

It seemed like a final test to check if he would agree to become loyal to her and remain to be her underling, maybe for the rest of his life. The pressure in her tone was indicating hidden implications, telling him she was aware everything about him. It was as if she was expecting him to reveal his true self.

Did she know his night strollings? His spying over her and her bodyguard and the magic warrior she was accommodating?

Felix didn’t surface his thoughts on his current maiden face, though, instead, he showed his uneasiness about the task he was presented.

“Think this over. I’ll be back by dusk and expect you to have a decision,” she finally said, stirring from her sit to leave. This caused him to take a relieved sigh.

As if I’ve been seeing dusk, Felix was left alone in a confused state, with his bitter thoughts.

She was really headed to the town manor, which meant it was likely that Lina would accompany her along the way. Did the town lord know about Lina’s doppelganger? If he did not, why was there a need for a shapeshifter in this assassination attempt? The girl must be a scapegoat to throw all the blame onto when the deed was done if she was exposed. His role in this endeavor was to act as her character and transform along the way into another persona, leaving traces of evidence to show that these two were at the top of the list of suspects. Then get rid of them if necessity required to eliminate a ring of the chain that could lead to Tsilonee.

That left the swordswoman who resembled Lina. Tsilonee had said if her plans didn’t go according to her estimations, her bodyguard and Lina’s copy would be needed to battle with the town lord. Did this mean his life would be in danger in the first place if the operation failed?

Felix let out a frustrated and helpless sigh before collapsing onto his bed. Things were going to the totally opposite direction than he wanted. He curled up in his smooth blanket. That helped a bit.

Tsilonee was intending to limit his freedom no matter what she was promising. He would turn into a bloody murderer despite his lack of involvement in this assassination. His fate would be to stay in this world and become a plaything to the powerful, being exploited from his transformation ability.

The desire to go back to his home world wasn’t bothering him since he realized the capability of his skill. But now, the longing to finding a means to Earth embraced him firmly. The warmness of the sheet that was covering him didn’t help anymore because of the cold stress, so he changed into his serpent form to coil into his own body.

He lay motionless, his eyes closed tight. It was a nice feeling to shut himself off in this way and blank his mind to prevent hard emotions from overcoming his spirit.

After ten or fifteen minutes, or more, Felix put himself together a little to start piecing some thoughts for getting himself out of this miserable situation. The only hope was the swordswoman. But she would not cooperate. Then make her.

A new resolution spurted in Felix’s sluggishly working brain. Though, it was like an ember that could ignite a huge fire. He made up his mind and prepared his bed sheet to appear like it was occupied. He then got down under the furniture and sank through the makeshift door to the subfloor heating system.

It didn’t take long time to reach the magic warrior’s training facility. Thankfully, she hadn’t left yet. There was also no sign she was ready to leave outside of the mansion. That was perfect.

Felix slithered along the small tunnels and quickly began searching for a lone walking servant on the hallways. There, carrying a tray of used dishes, was a young woman, oblivious to what would happen to her in moments. He located a suitable point to emerge to the corridor and found a position behind a corner to change into his feline form.

Seeing the head of the mansion’s cat was coming out of a corner only mildly surprised the servant. She caressed and patted the cute animal, but received no affection back, so she continued her walk. Felix rose to a human size in the young woman’s body he changed into after Tsilonee’s. Stark naked. Nevertheless, he had already got used to his nudeness after transformation.

Gathering mana to his right arm, he struck at the head of the maid with the back of his hand, trying his best not to crack her skull, and desperately hoping she wouldn’t make a sound from the impact. She didn’t, and went limp afterwards, letting loose her grip on the tray. Felix caught it fast, no object on it fell or alerted anyone in the vicinity if there was one.

There would be little time until someone found the unconscious body. He just dragged her to a safer location and stripped her clothes. After putting on the maid outfit, he began tearing the fabric of the gown. He also made a few cuts using the knife on the tray.

Finally, when the first step of preparations was made, he transformed into Tsilonee and made a dash toward the swordswoman’s training chamber. All was lest for him was to act properly, convincingly. If she believed his condition, that would be a half success.

Felix reached to his destination and started madly knocking the door. Its lone occupant should be still training. He strongly hoped Tsilonee didn’t manage to get pass his observations and entered or took away the woman that was supposed to be inside.

The door opened and revealed the Lina’s doppelganger, giving Felix a small relief. She was all alone, which was another small fortune.

“Quick. Get ready to leave this mansion. The town guards are here,” he managed to speak urgently to the surprised and confused woman from her tattered appearance, before she had time to open her mouth.

The swordswoman stood no more than half a second. She got to move towards her hanging sword on the wall. Felix followed her inside and closed the door behind, leaning on it as if pausing to take a short break before diving into an immediate action.

He uttered words he had prepared in advance in a low, grave like voice. “Seron stayed to buy me time.”

He tried to say as fewer words as possible, in order not to expose he was not the woman he was pretending to be. Mimicking her voice and accent was hard enough, but the trembling while he spoke must do the job.

“Are there hidden passages in the building to the outside?” the swordswoman asked, her voice was calm as a seasoned soldier.

“All are blocked. They have planned this,” he said as hollowly as possible. This question was expected, and he didn’t obviously know any hidden entrances or exits. He would’ve been gone weeksago otherwise.

“Don’t worry ma’am, I’ll protect you and lead you out of this place at any cost.”

The woman came close and tried to comfort him. It didn’t help his strenuously beating heart from what he was about to do, but he took a deep breath and calmed himself a little anyway.

The swordswoman opened the door and listened to the silence of the hallways to catch any coming sound. Felix did the same, not moving from where he stood near the door. There were not any approaching steps, which was a really good sign

“You can follow me, ma’am,” she said after glancing at him, straitening her body to walk out.

Felix nodded, and began gathering force to his right arm for the second time in this hour. He had been barely restraining himself from not rushing. It would require great patience to make a sudden assault to an experienced warrior. It was especially true if it was a magic one. So he waited for a right moment, held himself back from drawing mana and hitting her when she turned her back against him, twice, as if saying ‘hit me on the back and make me unconscious’. Perhaps this was the courage from his first successful and pretty easy ambush.

Warriors had to have battle awareness, from what he had read, of course. They would be ready for unexpected attacks. However, it should be almost impossible in case the assault came from the person they were protecting. He would place her body into one of those shelves in the training facility, along with the maid lying out in the corridor.

Felix had calculated every move beforehand, and now made his crucial blow in his risky plan. He eyed his punch at the point behind the ear, as he did with the servant. It should be a safest spot where it could leave the least damage to the brain, if he were to believe to the source once he read from the internet about making people unconscious.

His first swept at the swordswoman’s head in mana-fueled speed, from left to right. But…

It was stopped by a hand. The hand didn’t even budge a bit from his force. By the time Felix realized it was the swordswoman’s right arm that wasn’t visible to him when he struck, he got a hit to his midsection, which forced him take a few steps back that almost made him fall. Before he regained his balance, he heard the door’s gentle clicking sound.

He didn’t ponder about his failure too much now the woman wanted a match with him alone. The right arm was still powered up, so he bent a little forward and aimed at her temple. This warrior had truly seen some fight; she didn’t react to his move and came at him straight on. Just when his punch was about make contact with her head she crouched down to his right diagonally with extreme speed, her arm making a way to his midsection again like a plane’s wing.

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Felix only had time to see the upcoming strike, but his body couldn’t react as his perception did. His legs were lifted up inches from the floor, and then his body was immediately slammed onto the wooden surface, forcing the air inside his lungs out. Still, he didn’t want to give up. He stirred his arm to ready for another attack, only for it to be twisted to his back along with his body, putting him in an uncomfortable state to move. He was locked up. Bodily now.

“Change back to your original body,” the woman ordered in a stern tone.

Felix obeyed without a word. He didn’t transform into his original appearance, though. But into the young maiden form he was in minutes ago.

“What is your name?” the inquire started.

“Sareen.”

“How did you come to this place?” Not ‘why did you attack me?’

“I was captured over two months ago.” Nearly three.

“You were a slave?” her investigation didn’t slow down; it was as though she had already prepared these questions.

“No.”

“Then why are you working in this brothel?”

Felix took a half bitter, half exasperated sigh before responding.

“Not with my own… will,” he said, still rusty at this language.

She paused for a second before throwing her next question.

“Where were you born?” Her voice sounded somehow softer now.

“Far away from here,” he replied, images of his home world slowly materializing in his mind.

What could this woman be intending to do with him, now he was caught while attempting to assault her? The dreams about being free were rapidly dissolving into dark nothingness. It was just steps away from feasible-seemed freedom, and it was crushed under his idiotic failure. He couldn’t even manage to take town someone who turned her back against him. What incompetence! Maybe he did deserve to be a slave.

“You want to get out of here? To be free?” she released her iron grip on him.

Felix looked at the swordswoman, perplexed. He tried to read the meaning behind those words. They were spoken in a tone that conveyed a wisp of compassion, in the first sentence. Turning into a stern inquire mixed demand in the second part.

Was this what he thought it was? A cooperation attempt? Or was this woman inwardly testing his intentions?

Only one way to find out.

“What if I say ‘yes’? Will you help me?” he asked while sitting up, utilizing his girl form’s suspicious and a little angry demeanor in his expression.

The swordswoman stared at him in silence, and then directed her gaze toward the closed door.

“Where is your room?” she finally answered, with her own question. But it ignited a tiny flame of hope in Felix’s heart.

“The… the end of the hall, two corridors away,” he hesitantly replied.

“Return to your room now and come to my room at night. It’s right out of this hall. Can you do that?”

Felix nodded his head eagerly, fearing this opportunity would run away if he didn’t clutch it tightly.

“Good,” she said, but then paused as though she just recalled something. “Wait, don’t go out now. Lady Tsilonee will be coming soon to take me to the town manor. Will she look for you if you are absent in your room?”

He pondered a bit over the question. Really, would she come to his cell on the way here? She had left him to his own devices to make an important decision. Which meant it was unlikely she would visit him until evening.

“I don’t think so,” he gave his reply.

“Then hide inside one of those shelves until we are gone. You can go back to your room after that.”

Felix agreed with the swordswoman and scampered towards one of the shelves nearest to him. But he stopped in front of its door, not reaching his delicate hand to the handle.

“Ah, well, by the way, I, ah, kind of knocked down a servant girl out in the hallway. What should we do with her?” he slowly, and timidly,looked at the swordswoman.

Lina’s copy didn’t immediately answer to her question. She kept her neutral demeanor for a while before closing her eyes, pained and tired mood was evident from her actions.

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Kiria sat on a creaking wooden bench, observing the lack of customers in a below-average-looking tavern. Her face was shaded under a heavy hood, but not to the point that blocked her view. The person she had been waiting should arrive at any moment. It must be her maid duties that delayed her coming before the scheduled time. The quicker she was done with this troublesome mission, the sooner she would return to Chindon, to her ordinary job style, where she could punch and kick her way through, and swing her blade when necessity rose.

If it weren’t for Duke Ling’s personal request, she would have outright rejected this task the time she heard its description. This kind of assignment should have been given to a skilled spy, not to a wandering warrior like her. Good thing her wax mask still hung on her face, covering nerve veins when they became visible from listening seduction techniques given by prostitutes according to that head prostitute’s commands. It was notably helpful even when her bodyguard’s mocking face taunted her because of her outwardly lack of mana control, because of her weakness.

She had to be patient, as she always was, just a little. At most a week and all will be over. Now she was aware what that woman had been hiding in that high security chamber. No wonder even inner guards had no idea what sort of prisoner was caged inside that steeled room.

Where could she have brought, or bought, a shapeshifter from? Clearly, it was not in the plan when she was brought there first. Or was it a ‘he’? That had always been a debatable topic to determine the true gender of a changeling. She seemed young, not from her behavior, but from the way she spoke. Where could she have come from? Her accent reminded the folks from the west. Was she brought as a child, or was she caught as a slave in a run?

Actually, there was no need to overwork her brain in this matter, since she would find out the truth anyway, at this night. How she got out of the guarded chamber would become clear at that time as well. Assuming she could repeat her feat once more.

Kiria quickly regained her thoughts once she spotted the young woman she had been expecting to appear. Lina was her name, which she should share until the end of the mission when she was not being Kalin. She too was in a thick coat with a matching hood.

Lina took a seat to the opposite where Kiria sat. “I’m sorry, her ladyship suddenly ordered me to clean the mantelpiece when I was about to leave.”

It was a believable excuse. No doubt the wife of Geelim Kartan hadn’t yet used to the presence of this young and sweetly beautiful maiden. Since she was brought by the assistance of the woman Kiria was now presumably working, the town’s first lady had lost her piece.

“That’s all right. Just go to the rest room and change your clothes to the prepared ones. I’ll be there in a minute,” Kiria gently instructed her.

The lass scurried to the said room, and soon Kiria followed her. In less than five minutes, the two women exchanged their outfits and swapped roles. Lina would stay here, but not for long. A guard would see her off to the brothel’s location.

“Don’t be late at night to come to the servants’ entry,” Kiria reminded to her copy. “Two hours before midnight.”

She then got to work to the more irritating part of her job than it currently was. She headed to the town manor in order to familiarize herself with the manor’s inner structure and its people.

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