Chapter 7 - A God King Walks Into a Tavern

As the intensely bright light blossomed above my head I immediately dove for the largest shadow I could see - The one under Duke’s body a few feet away.

As I touched the ground next to him I instantly melded into his shadow, then jumped across to the shadow of the next nearest object, a pile of rubble that had been blown out. From there I continued to jump to the farthest shadows I could reach.

These rapid jumps lasted only fractions of a second as I pushed the ability to its limit in both speed and range.

A huge column of light descended from the sky, blasting the entire city block with a blinding light that overpowered the sun.

When the light subsided after a few seconds, the entire back field of the church and the buildings on the other side of the street were scorched and black.

I didn’t wait to see if Fake Yuto had noticed my use of Shadow Jump. I jumped one more time to round the corner and then emerged from the wall. I gritted my teeth. My hands were shaking as I briefly caught my breath. This was my city that he was burning down! He really sacrificed half a block to try to stop me!

I took off down the street, not wasting any time as I walked away as fast as I could without looking suspicious. Already there was a curious crowd of people gathering and curiously walking over to where the huge cylinder of light had just toasted the area. I passed by them, keeping my head lowered as I weaved through the crowd.

I kept glancing over my shoulder, half expecting to see the figure of Yuto flying through the sky chasing after me, but he never appeared.

~

I quickly exited the core of the city, easily avoiding the sight of guards. I minimized the use of shadow meld, partially because there weren’t that many deep shadows in the afternoon sun, and also because I didn’t really need to. As I blended in with the crowds, I noticed that the guards didn’t appear particularly alert or on the lookout for me.

In this way I made it out of the city center and into the less crowded mid-class section of the city.

Due to the festival, many of the shops around town were closed for the day. Using shadow meld I slipped under the doorways of several shops and perused the items at my leisure. Stealing from people was not ideal, but survival was my first priority. I tried not to take too much from any one store, and only grab what I needed. I quickly changed my outfit into something less conspicuous, and grabbed a few coins from the tills to have some spending cash.

I ended up settling on a mix of practical and stylish, with long leather boots, hempen shorts and a light brown, airy tunic with a scoop neck. I wore a black bandana to cover the tops of my ears and on top of that I put on a wide brimmed summer hat - both to shield me from the sun, and to partially hide my face. Finally, I had a hooded cloak that could cover my whole body and a pair of leather gloves. I didn’t need these in the heat of the summer sun, so I put them in my pocket dimension.

I ditched my original ragged black clothes. Out of my original equipment, I didn’t have many items on me - A dagger, a used up wand of some sort that looked like a black twig, a few used up charms.

The runes on the wand had inscriptions that indicated that it contained an anti-magic spell. If I was in my original body I could use my Artificer skills to appraise it, but in my current condition I could only go off of memory. I remembered enough to pin down that the spell’s aspect was arcana, but arcana wasn’t my specialty so I couldn’t decipher its specific use. I had a strong suspicion that this wand was provided by my past teammate Ezra, who was one of the top arcana mages that I knew of.

I kept it in my pocket dimension for future use. If I could find an arcana mage with a high enough level I could find out what it was for and recharge the wand.

As for the charms, they were coin-sized scraps of metal with runic engravings that held a single spell. Charms were easy to use, all you had to do was chant the predetermined incantation word and the spell would go off. The downside was that they were one time use and didn’t last very long before the magic inside dissipated. These spells were simpler and I was able to deduce that there were two used up light ward charms and a haste charm.

The metal of the charms was blackened and corroded, indicating that they had been used up and were now useless scrap. Based on the delicate flowing inscriptions I knew that these were made by my former teammate Yylisie.

The items gave me a clue as to what Fake Yuto’s method was to infiltrate my castle, however this was not nearly enough equipment to storm the castle. Perhaps he had ditched the items he had used as he climbed my castle. Most disappointingly, the items didn’t give me an answer to the one big question - How had Fake Yuto stolen my body?

Upon further reflection, I couldn’t come up with an explanation. Although soul magic existed in the world, the type of spell that swapped bodies had many requirements and conditions. They typically required the victim to be weakened or even unconscious, and due to the large mana requirements they were typically conducted as a ritual.

It was possible that an instant-cast spell existed that could swap souls. In hindsight this weakness against soul magic was a flaw in my armour set that I wasn’t aware of. But high level soul aspected magic itself was rare, and I had never heard of such a spell before.

In addition, the assassin had simply looked at me and smirked, and the spell had been cast. No incantations, no wands.

I was stumped.

Before I could face Fake Yuto again, I needed to figure out what he did, and how he managed the swap. Otherwise I was at too big of a disadvantage. The biggest leads that I had were my former traitorous teammates, surely at least one of them had a deeper understanding of the plan.

It was getting late in the afternoon as I slipped into a small tavern near the edge of town. There was still maybe an hour or two until sunset. I planned to grab a quick bite to eat and then leave before nightfall.

I sat down at an empty table and ordered a slow roasted pork dish with baked root vegetables from the waitress. It was already quite full in the tavern, filled with numerous groups of people who, judging from their clothing were an even mix of locals and visitors. This was actually one of the more famous taverns in the city, known as the Flying Boar. I had been here once, but by then I was already King and the entire upper floor of the restaurant had been cleared out for my meal.

This time, sitting in the middle of the restaurant as just a regular patron I had a completely different experience. It had been a long time since I had gone anywhere without being recognized and revered. It was actually quite refreshing. I felt my stomach gurgle as I smelled the rich, delicious scents of the dishes at the other tables.

I kept my eye on the door to watch for any guards or suspicious characters, but otherwise allowed myself to relax. Since I hadn’t heard any ruckus being made about a fugitive Shadowkind I assumed that Fake Yuto likely thought I was dead. There were even a pair of guards in yellow tabards drinking at the bar. They had glanced casually over to me once or twice but there wasn’t any unusual reaction from them.

“Well, well. Aren’t you a pretty little thing.” A voice said from across my table.

As I was lost in thought I didn’t immediately catch that the man was talking to me until he cleared his throat and placed his hand on my table.

The young man with over-styled hair and too many rings on his fingers looked at me with a suggestive grin. He was dressed in fine clothes, with a deep purple cloak over his shoulders that was embroidered with teal thread. There were two large men with him, clearly subordinates as they stood silently just behind him on either side. They wore plate armour with purple livery and a fancy crest with a stag on it. All three of them had sheathed swords at their waists. The man tipped his hat at me as I looked over at him.

“My name is Lord Dougan Estwester. As I passed by I saw your gorgeous face and I thought to myself, it is a shame that such a lovely lady is dining alone. Thus, I couldn’t help but come over. May I invite you to my private table upstairs?”

I stared at him for a second as I suddenly had the urge to punch this man in the face. I had a feeling that his grin was supposed to be alluring or something, but the way he was looking at me filled me with a sense of disgust that I hadn’t ever experienced before. It was like the sensation of ants crawling up my body, I just wanted to fling them off.

“No.” I said coolly, “I’m fine here.”

“Well then I hope you don’t mind if I join you.” Dougan said, sitting down before I had the chance to object. Though he maintained an aristocratic air with his mannerisms and speech, his eyes never stopped staring at me like a hungry animal circling a prey.

I was about to stand up and leave when the waitress came over with my meal. She set a plate of delicious smelling food in front of me. “Your roast pork, miss. May I get you anything else?”

“A table for one.” I said bluntly.

The waitress, whose face was turned away from Dougan, gave me an apologetic look that said that she was aware of the uncomfortable situation but could not do anything about it. My lips drew a thin line across my face in response as she walked away meekly, clearly not willing to confront the noble.

“A table for one! How charming and witty.” Lord Dougan laughed.

I ignored him as I started to eat my food. His laughter died down as he realized I had no interest in talking to him. After an awkward minute he regained his composure and put on that disgusting smile again as he leaned across the table towards me. “You are the most beautiful girl in the tavern tonight. Please tell me about yourself, I must know more about you.”

He looked at me with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

I knew his type. He was a young spoiled son of a noble that had never been told no in his life. He’d always get his way through money and flaunting his influence as a noble. It was likely that denying him again would insult him and aggravate him further.

The two men beside him didn’t look too weak and were obviously hired bodyguards. Though their armour had decorative elements, they were solidly built, likely at least fine quality but possibly even superior. Their countenance was professional and they showed no sign of weariness at their Lord’s sleazy behaviour. Likely they were used to it and followed orders without question.

I was in a tight spot. I wasn’t worried about being harmed and I could get away easily enough, but if I revealed my Shadowed powers here I would definitely catch the attention of the guards. Even getting into a regular altercation was undesirable, so keeping a low profile was important. In other words, I needed to carefully choose my next words.

“Get lost.” I said loudly. “You’re making my food taste bad!”

There was a sudden silence in our corner of the tavern as the tables near us stopped talking and looked over. Lord Dougan’s face twitched as he sat upright in his seat.

His face turned two different shades of red as he declared, “I am Lord Dougan, Son of the Earl of Elkhaven! How dare you talk to me in that uncouth manner!”

“How dare you talk to me with that uncouth face!” I retorted as I stuffed a piece of pork in my mouth, “It physically pains me to listen to the dog fart coming out of your mouth. Go away!”

There was a loud screech of the chair against the floor as he abruptly stood up.

“I tried to be kind, but it looks like you’re just an uncultured bitch from the country!” He glared at me, practically frothing at the mouth.

I almost laughed in surprise as I heard the word bitch being directed at me. Right, I’m a girl now. It wasn’t that I’d forgotten, it was just interesting how differently people treated me now that I was a girl. Even the apologetic look from the waitress earlier was something that was a mix of regret and sympathy that was uniquely shared between girls.

The amused smile that had appeared on my lips only enraged Lord Dougan even more.

“I think I’ll take you back to my manor to teach you a lesson!” He said, looking at his men, “Grab her!”

I stuffed another piece of pork in my mouth, but my appetite had already disappeared.

“Seriously?” I said as I chewed, shooting a nonplussed expression at the bodyguards as they started stepping forward. I didn’t even know how to react to such a childish farce. I glanced over to the guards at the bar. Like the other patrons they had turned around in their seats and were watching, but they showed no intention of interfering.

“Looking for help?” Dougan sneered, “Those guards can’t do anything. My father supplies all the weapons for the town guard! There’s no one in this city that can lay a finger on me!”

I raised an eyebrow as I pointed my fork casually towards him.

“Wanna bet?”