Chapter 60: 4-3 Plans

Stahlia, Twelve Years Old, Second Month of 948

It was two days after getting out of the Francois Estate that I realized I had made a mistake in how I handled things, not in getting out of there. That had, in all honesty, been a long time coming. No, the mistake I had made was using Lord Gustav, one of the instructors, as a messenger. Not only had Rowell witnessed me doing what essentially amounted to giving him an order, but the message had also been delivered to Jacqueline. Someone who I knew was being listened in on at least periodically, and probably near constantly.

It was a grim reminder that I needed to avoid letting my emotions get to my head. Thankfully, at least for the time being it looked like I had gotten away with that mistake, for once. In other news, the day after I moved out I finally started that thing that I had been expecting and dreading for some time. It was incredibly late and I had actually been starting to worry there might be something wrong with me. Then again, a first period can’t be late unless it’s missed entirely, and there’s no way I could be in a position to miss it. I would definitely be aware if I had done that.

It was overall unpleasant, but the knowledge that it was coming, as well as what was probably my endurance stat made it bearable for me and it wasn’t as bad as I had been expecting. Though telling Jacqueline it had started so I could get the things I needed was mildly traumatizing, for some reason. In a way, I actually found it overall oddly satisfying. Not because I was enjoying myself, but because I no longer had it looming over my head off in the background. Now that it had started, instead of getting upset and confused my overall reaction was simply an acknowledgment. I was going to take this as an indication that I had gotten over any lingering misgivings over my gender swap.

As for my living conditions, I owed Rupert for that. According to Gustav, when he learned what had happened, he made arrangements behind the scenes so I would have access to money until I could get in touch with my parents. I was also told to try and keep my distance from Dominic until what was going on could be ascertained, but I was going to do that anyway. Thinking back over the events of what had happened, I could only conclude that he had accessed a skill from the Anger family of demons. Whether it was something he had always had or had only recently obtained, I didn't know.

Without a free slot to browse the skills list, I couldn’t double-check but I was fairly certain he had used either [Berserk] or simply [Anger]. I had committed both the skill descriptions to memory, back when researching Felicity’s [Envious]. They were similar, though the latter was more insidious; the increase in power was stronger, but it came with the tagline about the skill triggering “Demonization” if it was overused. Given his mana color though, “Demonization” was probably already in progress… though I had never actually seen a real Demon’s mana to compare.

The final side effect of what had happened was my near-complete social isolation. In the past two days since the incident, I had found that the instant I entered a room, all conversation ceased and I would be beset by fervent stares. It was disconcerting at first, but I had grown to ignore it. I was helped by the knowledge that in a few weeks they would all very likely be singing a different tune, though I was careful to remind myself not to let it get to my head.

In the meantime, I had confirmed through very careful experimentation that my limit with Blood Magic was less than a tenth of what I could normally control, and I couldn’t chant at all. Controlling my mana with Blood Magic felt raw, like rubbing salt into an open wound. Chanting didn’t hurt like that, but the spell would immediately destabilize. Either way, it was obviously better to avoid using mana at all, but I needed to know my options in case of any arising issues.

As far as my lessons were concerned, I had surreptitiously dropped the sword-fighting class, by which I mean I had simply stopped attending. The instructor didn’t say anything, and I was not called to see Percius, so I could assume that my actions were at least on the fringe of what was considered acceptable. As for the magic classes, Clarice was a massive thorn in my side, consistently shooting me looks when she brought up an example of a battlefield injury and what spells could treat it. I could still memorize chants, even if I couldn’t participate in practical lessons so it wasn’t like classes were a complete waste of time. Though there had been only three days of classes at this point, so we would have to see how things went as I continued to heal.

That, of course, didn’t hold true for Blue Magic, which was being used as a way for me to keep in touch with Rupert through Gustav as a middleman. Over the past two days, it had also been used to make arrangements for the disposal of Rowell. The Alchemy class that I was still helping to teach would prove integral to that plan, and my math class was as easy as ever, entirely unworthy of mention.

Standing up, I spoke to Jacqueline in a regretful tone, “I’m going out, Jacqueline. Please look after Felicity.”

Jacqueline gave me a concerned look, before nodding resignedly. At this point, she knew I was again keeping secrets and a lot of them. The events of the past two days had been a whirlwind and there was no way she couldn’t figure out that things were moving behind the scenes. Thankfully, rather than confronting me, it seemed she had decided on the wait-and-see approach. It was both upsetting and flattering that she was still going to give me that much trust, and it was probably one of the only things keeping me stable as I worked to set things in motion.

Exiting out from the inn I was staying in, under a pseudonym, I headed for the lower city’s adventurers guild. My connection to Rupert had given me essentially an unlimited budget when I indicated that I was planning to move on Rowell and I was going to use as much as I needed to make sure things went well. To execute my plan, I needed people to act on my behalf. For that, I had chosen to use adventurers. My request was going to be a bit illegal, so I couldn’t make it an official request, but there was nothing preventing me from just not using the guild.

As for why I had settled on adventurers instead of actual criminals, the adventurers were more likely to honor the terms of the agreement and not make things go sideways. Of course, there was no guarantee, but it wasn’t like I had a lot of time to come up with a different plan. I knew that Five wanted me married to Dominic, and now that was essentially an obvious impossibility. I had to assume that he would do something soon, and I needed Jacqueline back before then.

I arrived at the adventurer’s guild after moving through the city and went up to the counter. I had dressed in such a way as to evoke the idea that I was a noble in disguise, as that would make the receptionist more likely to put up with a bit of strangeness and not ask questions. Pulling at my hood to ensure my face was hidden, I approached the counter.

“Excuse me, I have an appointment.” The receptionist looked down at me questioningly, and I handed over a letter I had been provided with to serve as an introduction. Not Aaron’s letter, though the thought of using that crossed my mind, I didn’t think that the situation I was presently in was such that I had “nothing else to lose.” This letter was one I had been given by Gustav, who had placed the request in my name, or at least a trusted agent of his had. I didn’t know which.

Taking the letter, the woman read through it before nodding, “Follow me miss.”

I followed the woman into a meeting room on the guild’s second floor where I was met by three men, “These are the members of the B-Ranker team…”

I waved my hand, “I don’t want to know. I also don’t want to know your names, it’s better that way.”

The three of them adopted serious expressions and the one who was presumably their leader sat up straighter in his seat. This was an obvious loophole when you thought about it, but it was one that was often used by the nobles so it wasn’t likely to be closed anytime soon; I had presented a request to be introduced to a B-ranked or higher team. Once introduced what we discussed was no longer guild business, introducing us was where their involvement ended.

Taking the quest card from the receptionist, I signed that the request was fulfilled and she promptly left. Right, now it’s time to convince these guys to help me out. The leader waited a moment to see if I was going to start before he spoke further, “Well then, what did you want us to do? I have to imagine it won’t be the most legal operation now, will it?”

Nodding my head briefly, I took a deep breath, “I need you to kidnap a noble girl and her bodyguard. Stahlia von Ris will be in the forest north of the city in two days to gather material with her alchemy class. She will have one guard, a knight by the name of Rowell.”

One of the men, by his armor and weapon he was something of a scout, let out a low whistle, “Kidnapping a noble? Hey boss, aint ‘Ris’ the name of the Francois’ boy’s fiancé?”

I bit the inside of my cheek, my name being a known quantity wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t unexpected. Still, they know about my relationship with Dominic… I was expecting to be known as the one behind so many useful compounds that made their lives easier… To try and avoid the conversation derailing I confirmed the man’s question, “Yes, that’s her. Though things aren’t going so well with their relationship… My fathe- I mean, if she were to disappear now, it would make some people very happy.”

The leader glanced at his two comrades before addressing me, “Still, even if we were to go along with this… it wouldn’t be cheap.”

Good, Gustav was correct. I had specifically chosen a team after a bit of conversation with Gustav, after all; kidnapping a noble girl, while not unheard of, was still a serious crime. Team Red Iron had a bit of a reputation for doing anything for money. The original request I had placed with the guild had been vague enough to not be suspicious, but specific enough that I all but hand-picked Red Iron.

“Money won’t be an issue. If money isn’t enough, I am sure we could work something else out.” But you’re going to pick money, aren’t you Kurt? It was honestly impressive how quickly Gustav had moved when I gave him the outline of what I planned and what I needed to go about that. Doubly impressive, or perhaps foolish depending on who you asked, how the prince was basically letting me do as I pleased in this case.

Sure enough, Kurtis licked his lips, “No, money will do nicely. Two days isn’t a lot of prep time though, so it’ll be costly.”

I nodded, “And my fa… I need both of them kept alive and as unharmed as possible.” My fictional father I had now mentioned twice was intended to convince Kurtis that I was simply some noble kid out of her depth, and it seemed to be working. Though, I’ll end up overpaying from this.

Kurtis nodded and his grin got even bigger, “Aye, that we can do though it will be more expensive. After all, we’re dealing with a knight.”

A shadow, actually. I would just do it myself, but I don’t fancy my chances without magic. He might be ordered not to hurt me even if I attack him, but I can’t count on that. In any case, I certainly couldn’t subdue an adult man in my current condition, I need my magic for that. “You can name your price.”

Kurtis glanced at his two lackeys and then, after receiving a nod from each looked back at me, “One million Drak.”

Really? That’s lower than I was expecting, to be honest. I folded my arms and fidgeted a bit, “O-one million…?”

Kurtis’ smile deepened, “You have to understand, your father wants us to kidnap a noble and her knight bodyguard. That isn’t going to be easy. What’s more, the opportunity we have to do it, she’ll be near a lot of other nobles… We need to consider that some of their guards might get involved….”

After a short pause, he continued, “…Your father is the one who wants this done right…?”

Jackpot. My face was still obscured by the hood, but the general angle of my face was discernable. I looked away from Kurtis and pretended to stare at the wall, “Y-yes. That’s…”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Kurtis and his men grinning at each other, “Well, then I’m certain that he can pay that much right?”

I could pay a lot more than that. Honestly, I was expecting you to ask for five times as much. “H-half. I can pay you half now, and the remaining half after you finish.”

Kurtis’ smile widened, if I had to guess he was happy I wasn’t trying to haggle him down. Is my sense of money really that off? A million is a big number, but like, for what I’m asking them to do… it seems low.

“We can do that, though do understand that we won’t be handing the two over until you pay us… Now, how will we know who the target is?”

I let a bit of confidence return to my voice and told Kurtis my plan, “R-Right, Stahlia will be wearing a uniform that depicts her house’s crest. I will be present as well, and make sure she separates from the group at some point, so wait for her to be on her own please.” While speaking, I took out a rolled-up paper on which was a sketch of my noble crest and passed it to one of Kurtis’ men.

My sudden change of pace seemed to throw Kurtis for a loop, but after a moment the thought of his upcoming payday his smile returned. Reaching out his hand to me, I simply stared at it until he awkwardly put it away. I might be entering into a brief business relationship with him, but I wasn’t about to shake his hand. Standing, I bowed slightly and hurried from the room.

That went better than expected. Once out in the hallway, I put a *trickle* of mana into my ears, wincing at the pain as I did so. It was faint, but it was just enough to be able to hear the conversation on the other side of the door. A voice that I thought was probably the scout, though I had only heard it once, asked Kurtis a question.

“Boss… what do ya think? Think we can trust her? This kinda job… and she didn’t try and negotiate at all. It’s a bit suspicious.”

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Kurtis said something I couldn’t catch, probably facing one of the other two, and another voice answered, “It should be fine, I think she was just a wee bit flustered is all. You saw ‘er reaction when Kurt mentioned her father no?”

I stopped listening in as I heard footsteps approaching, and made my way past the receptionist who was leading another client to a different room. Considering the reputation the guild has, they sure are professional about how they conduct business. It was no more than a curiosity, but one that stood out enough to notice.

I got back to my room in the hotel as the sun was setting and Jacqueline set about getting me ready for bed. Perhaps it was because I felt so bad about hiding so many things from her, but I was keenly aware of things I had been missing before. Without Frieda and Lucy, I could plainly see the areas my maid was struggling in due to lack of her arm. When my remorse had been deadened, I had missed a lot of it and had the impression that she was some sort of super maid.

Now that I was fully feeling again though, I could see that she was struggling and was simply good at hiding it. I need to see about getting that fixed… Or at least getting her some help. I could always contact Sieg by mail, but I didn’t want to pester him, and that was a long shot at best. Perhaps a prosthesis or something… No, I would know if there were any easily accessible magic tools, and a regular prosthesis would just get in her way. If I had considered it earlier, then it might have been a good idea. With things moving the way they are, she wouldn’t have time to get used to one.

Climbing into bed, Felicity curled up under my arm like she usually did, and I put the thoughts of Jacqueline’s arm out of my head. For now, once things settled down a bit, I would look into getting her a temporary replacement until I had a more permanent solution. Such as a custom-made White Magic spell; according to all known chants, regeneration of a limb was impossible. I was hoping that with the right vocabulary, I might be able to come up with something.

Of course, it was possible that such chants did exist and were simply closely guarded secrets, but until I joined the royal family, I probably wouldn’t be able to learn them. Either way, I had classes tomorrow, and an outing to plan for the day after that. It was going to be an eventful few days. Closing my eyes, I again put out distracting thoughts and fell into a dreamless sleep.

★★★★★★

“Stahlia!” A familiar voice called out my name.

The next day, I was sitting alone on a bench between classes when I heard my name called out. It was nominally lunch though I wasn’t eating today, and was instead taking the opportunity to decompress before my next class, which was White Magic. Lifting my head I looked up in the direction of the familiar voice and saw Elienor.

Right, she did start this year, though I got a tad caught up in things and forgot to really congratulate her or anything… My bad. Now, I was sort of in a bit of a thing with her father and older brother, but knowing Elienor, she wouldn’t let something like that stop her. Adopting a smile, I greeted her, “Elienor, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

As she was going to answer, I quickly darted my eyes around. Save for Rowell and Elienor’s own knight, I didn’t see anyone nearby. Of those a short distance from us, none seemed to be watching us particularly closely.

Elienor also looked around nervously, in particular, her gaze lingered on Rowell. No way she knows he’s a Shadow, but he was assigned at least in part by her father. I turned to my knight, “Rowell, please wait over there.”

Gesturing some distance away from us, he made a face but he couldn’t protest without risking his cover. Especially not when Elienor nodded to me and dismissed her own knight.

“Thanks for that Stali.” She gave me a relieved smile once both the knights were a distance away. Though Rowell could probably still hear, I would be dealing with him tomorrow. Besides, it’s not like I could tell her something like “Oh by the way, my knight can still hear you!” I could, but that would just make her anxious.

“No problem at all, what would be the matter?” I kept my tone civil, though I hoped that my face would get my concern across to her.

She frowned at the distance I was taking, “Stali… My brother is an ass. I live with the guy, please… don’t take it out on me?”

After a short delay, I nodded. I didn’t want to be distant with Elienor, out of the entire family she was the only one I actually enjoyed the company of, “…Right, I’m sorry, Elienor. What did you want to talk about?”

She smiled briefly, but that was quickly replaced with a troubled frown, “My idiot brother, actually. Sorry.”

“Well, he is your brother. As long as you don’t plan on asking me to make nice, feel free to vent.” I offered a reassuring smile, but internally I was a bit troubled. That damn count… Rupert said that he asked for the engagement himself… he isn’t planning to try and use Elienor to get me to start playing nice is he? That would really piss me off.

Elienor nodded, “No, I wouldn’t do that. It’s… Have you seen him recently? I would think probably not.”

Slowly, I shook my head no, “No… I haven’t been going to the sword-fighting class, and that’s the only one we shared. Why do you ask?”

Elienor glanced over her shoulder then leaned in close to whisper, “Something… something’s different. …When our dad brought him back, he was livid. Not Dominic, our dad. He dragged Dominic into his office, and I don’t know what happened, but Dominic has been… different. Something’s wrong, Stali. He keeps muttering about how it’s all your fault, and how he’s going to get you and make you understand.”

Well, that’s a thing… hopefully he doesn’t do anything rash, but given how he has a literal rage skill,  I wouldn’t put it past him to lose control… I’ll have to watch out for this. But what the hell? Isn’t that a bit of a heavy change of personality? All I did was reject him, and he flew off the rails and started acting like a child. Then I laughed and now he’s going ballistic and turning into a rage monster?

“Thank you for the warning, I’ll be sure to watch myself. …What about you? You don’t feel threatened, do you?” That was a real concern, that Elienor might get caught between things. Especially now that she had given me a warning. It was a distinct possibility that an unstable Dominic would believe she had taken my side and try to punish her.

Elienor shook her head, “No, not really… I know better than to act out in front of him.” Right, red flag.

“Elienor… did he do something to you…?” I let the question hang while fixing my eyes on Elienor and holding her gaze without blinking. After a few seconds, she broke our staring contest and mumbled weakly, “Last night… He was mumbling something about another girl, someone named ‘Irtis’. He… he was comparing you to her and muttering about how you just didn’t understand him as she did. I hadn’t ever heard of this girl before, so I asked him who she was. He got real quiet then, and just glared at me.”

“When I backed up, he practically spat her name at me, like it was my fault for not knowing. ‘Irtis von Asmo’ then he asked me if I thought she would be a better fit for him than you. I asked him, ‘does it matter?’ and he got real mad.”

Elienor was now trembling slightly and turned to face away from me. At first, I thought she was just being embarrassed about opening up to me, or perhaps a bit scared of telling me her family’s secret going on. After a moment though, I felt my stomach lurch. Elienor moved her hair to the side, and revealed a large purple bruise on the side of her neck. …What the fuck…

“I ran just as he moved, he grabbed me by the neck and started s-shaking…” I didn’t have words. He’s fucking insane! How the hell do you go from being rejected to assaulting your sister!?

“Elienor… I’m sorry, what, what happened after that?” My voice caught a bit as I asked her. I was honestly surprised that she wasn’t crying or breaking down given the gravity of the situation, though maybe I should give her more credit. Elienor had always been pretty strong-willed.

“N-nothing. I, well I hit him and ran to my room. Gordon stopped him from following me, though Dominic threatened to rip him apart. From his tone, he sounded like he was actually going to try, had our dad not come in and shouted at him to stop acting out.”

“Stali, I don’t know what my dad said to him in his office, but Dominic is scared of him now. He cowers as soon as our dad even enters the room.” Her voice was serious, though she still looked a bit anxious.

I… I need to do something about this, since Dominic is only acting this way because of how I acted at the funeral. There wasn’t very much I could do right now though. I had barely been able to stop Dominic’s enraged state when I had my full strength. Without my magic, I was hardly in a position to do anything to physically stop him. The laws of the country were pretty clear on the matter, that until they came of age, inter-family issues were the strict purview of the father, unless he could be proven to be neglecting his duties.

I could go to Rupert, but he would certainly just tell me to wait until we were ready to move on the count as a whole. And what’s worse, the pragmatist in me sees his point and even somewhat agrees with him… I’ll at least make sure to tell Gustav about this, Rupert might be able to use it to accelerate things… in the meantime, “Elienor, do you want to leave the house for a bit? I can get you a room at the inn I’m staying at.”

After a moment, she shook her head, “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I can just mind what I say at home, but if I leave I’m worried Dominic might perceive you as interfering in his life or something stupid. He’s, he’s not in a very good place at the moment.”

No shit he isn’t. What are you saying? It’s like those stories I would read about sometimes, where the girlfriend or wife defends the abusive husband… No, it isn’t that bad, since she’s clearly aware of the problem… “Is Count Francois doing something other than just shouting him down?”

Elienor thought for a moment, “No… I don’t think mom is either for that matter.” Before I could ask another question, the bell rang and Elienor gave me one last smile, “Thanks for talkin’ to me Stali! Man, it feels good to get all that off my chest!”

I nodded, “Yea, come and find me whenever you need to talk… I’ll do my best to help you.” Elienor’s knight returned with Rowell and then departed with his mistress as she made her way to her next class.

As I headed towards my own White Magic course, I took a moment to consider everything I had just heard. Something is definitely going on with Count Francois… If I had to guess, he’s getting some backlash from Five and is taking it out on Dominic, blaming him for how I acted. Dominic is throwing a temper tantrum about that, and lashing out at the people around him… if only I had more people to interact with at school… I had come to regret not forming a network in my first year here, since now that Edith and Sarala were temporarily out of commission I had no allies.

There’s that other girl Elienor mentioned as well, Irtis von Asmo. There isn’t a house Asmo to my knowledge… Though that isn’t to say there isn’t one somewhere but to have a relationship where Dominic would be comparing her to me, even if we are estranged, Asmo would need to be a fairly major household… Asmo… Asmo…dea

Irtis von Asmodea, or should I say Sitri Asmodea. A shiver ran down my spine as the youthful face of the Original Sin came to the forefront of my memory. If that’s her, and it would be too much of a coincidence for it to not be, then this is a major priority. Of course, she would be able to get close to him, he only saw her for a second or two before getting knocked out. Damnit, I need to figure out how to deal with this. If she’s involved now, Elienor is in way more danger than I thought.

With my impending kidnapping, there wasn’t much I could do at the moment. Due to how I had planned things, I had no real way to reach out to Red Iron and call things off. Damnit! I need to get things resolved on my end before Five and Sitri execute whatever move they are planning. I was on the back foot, in part due to my own actions, but at least this time I knew it. With that knowledge, I could plan a response.

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