“What’s he doing?” Tsilonee asked the guard who was appointed to Felix’s actions.

“After he had breakfast, he got into bed. He’s still in there, in his cat shape.”

Tsilonee could not suppress her disappointment in the shapeshifter. After hearing a lot about his home world, Earth as he had called, she was sure the people in that world were not as emotionally sturdy as the people in this realm. No magic, no fighting to death, even violence was prohibited and looked upon as a type of crime that had to be restrained.

Needless violence would be punished in this continent, too, she knew well. But to be all the situations to that degree, they had to be living close to heaven.

She thought it was an exaggeration when he said if people in his home world got out of control and damaged to someone’s personal property or to someone physically, no matter the background of these people, they would be arrested. Too soft.

Yesterday, she had just proposed the easiest part of the mission, and the result now he was all gloomy as though she had ordered him to slaughter his entire clan.

It would not matter, though, in the end. She had instructed Kalin to keep an eye on him. She had even entrusted the poisons to the swordswoman. Whether Felix could perform satisfactorily under heavy pressure or not, it would be evident after his trip to the manor with Kalin. Then Tsilonee would change her own plans accordingly.

“Let’s go to the manor, then,” she told her bodyguard.

Geelim Kartan had summoned her to be in his manor in the morning. She wondered the reason behind this sudden call. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be related to her unexpected visitors from Chindon. They couldn’t have done anything else that demanded even more sacrifices from her part.

The town was now in full swing, preparing for the grant festivity that would be celebrated three days after. She didn’t like walking that much among the folk. Assuming the nobles were not scheming anything behind her back, she would have any opportunity to stroll in decorated carriages in large cities, far from here once she was done with her personal job, once the last Kartan was in grave where she put his other two younger siblings.

Duke Sivin’s support in both of her revenge attempts was immense. He had provided manpower, though it was not at her bodyguard’s level nor as strong and useful as Kalin, they were huge help to build her strength and fame in the town. There was also the funding he had supplied her to construct the brothel from the beginning. Therefore, she had no other choice but to accept the conditions the Viscount had told her without further protests, and trust the Duke who always knew what he was doing.

A group of town guards were approaching, some staring at her directly and others taking subtle glimpses. She had used to this kind of observations, but something in their gaze’s, especially the leader’s, made her feel as if there was something slightly off. She turned her pathway aside in order give them enough space to pass, but they halted when they were all a few steps away from her party.

“You must be madam Tsilonee, the head prostitute of the town’s brothel, correct?” a man with a mustache on his square rigid face asked, who must be in charge of this bunch of soldiers in front of her.

“Yes, I am,” her answer was in a tone that sought the reason of their heavy bearing presence.

“We were ordered to escort you to the Town Manor. If you could come with us, we would be grateful.” His speaking manner was a little forceful, but it was obvious he was trying to avoid a crash in the street. She had two additional guards with her, along with Seron, whose gait and fierce facial structure were telling he was not someone you could joke with him about combat.

“We will follow you, of course. But please, tell us the reason for this special treatment,” Her bodyguard tried to find out the purpose of these armed men next.

“Can’t you just be quiet and come with us,” the guard beside the chief guard yelled, probably the second in lead. “Your spy was caught with poison she was trying to use it in the Lord Kartan’s residence.”

The leader of the group gave his colleague a harsh glare, which proved what she just heard was true.

“What do you mean by ‘caught with poison’? Explain this first, please,” Seron insisted to take an answer before blindly following the said orders.

“There are some misunderstandings we want to clarify at the manor. So we urge you to follow us without any unnecessary struggle,” the chief guard explained, trying his best to soften the atmosphere.

But it was too late, all the warriors were already in tense state, ready to draw their weapons the moment someone made a wrong movement. Tsilonee glanced at her protector, and she read from his worried and angry expression he was in the same opinion as her.

Were the Viscount and the younger noble behind this scheme? What did they do? Maybe she had fulfilled her usefulness and was being excessive, after all she had arranged the preparations for the assassination.

Tsilonee gave her bodyguard a look of resignation, yielding the final decision to his rein when hers had led to this dire situation. If only she had listened to her young lover when she had enough blood spilling to pacify her diseased parents and younger brother’s souls, they would be faraway now, outside of politics and nasty schemes of selfish nobles.

Seron unsheathed his weapon in a flash, and swiftly took a stride toward a guard standing right of the group in front of them. But he altered his aim instantly and lunged at the unprepared and surprised the man on the left side, piercing his chest with the naked blade. Then gave a guard next to him a mighty kick that generated a crunching noise of inwardly cracked rib bones and sent the man flying meters away, crashing sideways to another guard on his flight way.

All the men at the scene bared their swords with ruthless determination in their eyes. Passing and curious citizens started scattering to distant spots, or away where the collision wouldn’t threaten their lives. The extra two guards let Tsilonee behind them, out of the battle circle.

The town guards were consisted of eight men, all warriors with mana and without. The chief guard was clearly a mana user, probably a second stage warrior. He and his assistant locked their attention to her bodyguard, with much more cautiousness that now they realized his level of mana mastery wasn’t low. Her two guards divided for themselves other remaining four men evenly, starting to clash swords.

They believed the advantage in the numbers, but they had no idea Tsilonee’s own field of proficiency at magic wielding. She was a fire mage, middle stage. No person other than Seron was aware of the height of her skill at spell casting. Throwing a fireball without the need of chanting was not a big issue for her. So she prepared in her both hands spheres of burning flames, ready to assist her bodyguard to take down his opponents as fast as possible.

She aimed her fireballs at the leader, preparing to hurl them both at once. But she feigned only one to redirect it at one of her guards’ opponents. He was having a hard time battling with a combination of two first stage magic warriors.

One of them took the heated strike with his forearm, halving the damage that was intended to his face. Her guard didn’t waste the opportunity, promptly approaching the half-burnt soldier with his raised blade. But because of the injured man’s friend tried to intercept, he could not finish the guard.

Still, he chopped off the man’s right hand with a mana powered sword strike, forcing the guard back off who screamed through his gritted teeth.

The other fireball went to her other guard’s aid, but didn’t do more than to distract the warrior it was aimed. Her guard used this to his advantage to make a slash that sliced his opponent’s chest part of the leather he was wearing.

Tsilonee prepared another pair of fireballs. This time her targets were truly her bodyguard’s opponents. He was managing the magic warriors who were at most on the equal level of mastery in mana control and swordsmanship.

“Left!” she signaled her young lover, her target already in the trajectory of her aim. Seron quickly sidestepped, a flame of ball passed by his right side, rushing at a speed normal human couldn’t dodge in time. Although the person it was launched was most likely a second stage magic warrior, both with a quick combination of crafty actions and short distance, it hit the assistant guard to the chin with a well-timed strike.

The sphere of flame seared his face and started burning his clothes under his neck, making him stumble and forcing him to take a paned groan.

Seron didn’t go to the face-scorched guard. He directed a powerful sword strike at the chief guard from above, making the man’s knees almost buckle from the impact. He then booted the leader onto his thigh, receiving a pained groan from his opponent. Using the small opening, her bodyguard swung his blade from below at the chief guard, leaving a quite noticeable cut on his upper-arm.

The burned man had regained his well-being come to this moment. But his attempt at fending off Seron was in vain, as he gained a slash on his left rib the moment he lifted his sword.

“Stop the fighting!” a furious voice came from afar.

Tsilonee took a look at the direction beyond where the battle was raging, and saw guards running straight at the bloody scene. From their expressions, it appeared they were not coming to stop the squabble; they were reinforcements.

Tsilonee’s heart sank from the situation. She looked at her protector who was more experienced at this type of heated moments than she was.

“Go!” he said.

Tsilonee’s breath caught halfway through her throat. She wanted to refuse to run away, leaving her most trusted person in the clutches of danger. But her bodyguard didn’t let her protest at the choice of the only way to escape as she started opening her mouth to refute.

“I’ll deal with the guards and catch up to you soon. I can manage this,” he said, going back to fighting his opponents.

She looked at her other guards, who wore angry and helpless expressions as they too resumed their fighting. They were not her most loyal guards she had hired. Those who were trustworthy were left at the brothel since she didn’t have any idea the events would take shape at this unexpected pace.

These two would stay to fight the guards anyway. They were against the Kartan Town’s security forces and one of them had been killed. The punishment waiting for them was inevitable execution; on the spot or at a later date, no matter how they chose their current actions.

She eventually complied with her protector’s instruction and dashed toward the direction her brothel was located. Running away without due preparations was a fool’s act, so she hoped the place wasn’t gone chaotic this quickly as she exerted her legs, not caring her feminine etiquette at a street.

When she reached her mansion, it was surprisingly peaceful and organized, not counting the work of the servants at the outside. She rushed at the secluded compound.

Her money and jewels would be essential assuming she would plan to find another place to settle down. And she didn’t have any intentions to leave behind the shapeshifter. If the hidden path out of the mansion weren’t already blocked, it would be mostly fortunate. But if it was, she wanted to have a means to make negotiations with the Duke’s son-in-law, since the secret passage was only known to these nobles.

“Ah… Madam Tsilonee,” the guard at the iron entrance into the underground section stammered upon seeing her. “I… I have just let you in.”

“What do you mean? You saw me come through this door?” she said, and a possibility struck her already messed up mind.

It can’t be.

She immediately went to Felix’s chamber after confirming her identity with the entrance guard. The guard responsible for the shapeshifter said he didn’t come out of the bed for the whole morning. She entered the room and lifted up his blanked. It was empty. She looked at the guard with a questioning gaze, who promptly walked to the bathroom of the chamber. It was empty as well.

Cats were small creatures and they would squeeze through any type of hole and opening. With a last guess, she inspected underside of the bed, only to see a small breach on the floor in the size of a newborn baby’s head.

“Move this away,” she ordered her guard.

She searched the inside of the subfloor. The figure of her cat wasn’t in there, of course. However, she spotted shining tiny coin-like cluster of objects near the small entrance to the subfloor, under the brightness of her artificially made flame in her palm. When she pulled it out and held it in her hand to finally see its full shape, she became aware what it was.

Tsilonee’s brain sprinted from one possibility into another, picturing the types of actions the shapeshifter could have taken, until she stopped in one that made her fists curl up so tightly that blood in their veins ran dry. She wanted to curse, wanted to display her rage to the world, to everyone that could remind her of the otherworldly bastard that somehow ruined her plan she had been nurturing for so long time.

He is still here.

“Go to the hidden passage’s entrance, and if you see a living creature anywhere, bring them to me alive,” she commanded at her guard.

--------------------

Felix was inside of the underground section of the brothel he had been attempting to break out for months, walking freely, nodding to servants he was encountering. He still couldn’t believe himself that he was actually here, carrying out the promise he had given to the warrior woman he again forgot to ask her name. Somehow, it didn’t feel right to flee the town without assisting her a bit. The risk didn’t seem that toweringly high.

Besides, he had been eyeing the trinkets in the prostitute’s chamber for long. There should have also been money. His plan was to go to the Great Forest where he appeared first in this world, where many creatures resided along with barghests. The barghests were middle dangerous type magical creatures. As long as he restrained himself from venturing too deep into the woods, it should be all right in his feral form in the forest.

However, he was a community’s person. So it was natural he would return to human habitats again. Collecting some loot from the person who was being interrogated at present was also natural.

The task he was entrusted was to take out real Lina from the mansion and escort her out to the closest tavern to the brothel, where the magic warrior would meet him. It was a bit risky, but after being informed the passwords and specific guards’ names, and changing into Tsilonee’s appearance with recently bought clothes, he was pretty much ready.

He headed to Tsilonee’s room, the mirrors reflecting his current character’s beauty. There was one more thing the woman asked of him; a little request, she had said. That would take some time to search for the items he needed to find. He started searching the shelves, under the furniture, inside of the bed sheets, but he couldn’t find them at all. Then, he remembered a lengthy crate under the floor he saw several times, though not having enough curiosity to know its contents when his true objective was to just remain stealthy and spy.

Using his mental map, he located the approximate place of the crate, and expectedly, he found it. Inside of it were the items he hoped to find, along with two vials; red and green colored liquids were teeming inside each vial. He didn’t even want to imagine what they were.

Felix held a pair of straight blades shimmering with a faint reddish metallic color, as if they were lightly painted sharp steel metals with hilts, but finely crafted. From what he heard, they should be effective against magical attacks. Therefore, their value must be quite high if Felix had read correctly the magic warrior’s intentions.

He covered the swords with a piece of cloth he found in the room, leaving the vials on their crate since he had no idea what to make use of them, and hurried to accomplish his main task. Before he reached the door, it opened itself from behind, making his heart take a stronger beat. But when he saw the person who was at the threshold, his heart truly began drumming in his chest.

She isn’t supposed to be here, was the first thought that ran though his almost stopped mind from surprise.

“I was the fool who were being tricked, it looks” the prostitute said, a wisp of rage was obvious from her tone, but it was still hidden behind the smiling mask.

Felix didn’t respond. He was standing still like a statue, as if ready for a sudden pounce of an attack of a predator. Because Tsilonee did seem like one now.

“Perhaps I should’ve listened to Seron’s suggestions to tame you to be obedient to us,” she started slowly taking steps toward Felix.

“I now realize I must’ve taught you in a different way.” A tine flame formed in her halfway lifted hand, followed by her other hand. The fires were like candle flames at the start, but then they swiftly took larger size in moments.

“In a strict way,” the head prostitute said, and started barraging him with fireballs bigger than an adult man’s fists.

Despite him only taking four hits, the scorching heat of the hurled flames began creating burnt holes on Felix recently bought clothes. Not only were the flames hot, but they had high compelling force that made Felix take steps away from the woman attacking him.

The wrapped weapons fell from his hand. He tried to go and take them back up, but the kick from Tsilonee didn’t let him.

The searingly hot spheres didn’t let Felix concentrated to shapeshift to his feral form, or even to gather enough mana into his limbs to make his skin sturdier or enhance his physical trait to counterattack.

The fifth fireball was directed at his head, which he dodged by bending his body backward, but the following fast attack forced him fall hard on his feminine butt.

Felix suddenly had an idea how to take down his tough teacher. So he directed his focus only to his arm and made a dent on the wooden floor while turning his back at Tsilonee as he tried to stand up.

In order to block the fireballs, he took defense behind one of the mirrors. Though they started shattering and breaking after a few flaming strikes. The fireballs were very powerful; in both heat damage and pure force. There were other mirrors. He kept taking them to the front of him, using as shields against magical strikes. Eventually, he was buried under the shards of glass and wood. But this was the moment and the state he had planned to be in.

“If I don’t find Seron alive after this, you will see how harsh this world’s torture methods can be,” the prostitute threatened, slightly panting from anger.

She halted her assault, took a few steps to a direction, where the vials were left in the crate.

“These were not intended for you,” she said, picking up the liquid filled containers. “But who cares now?”

She approached where Felix was buried under broken pieces of mirrors. “You will never get free. Until the end of your life, you will remain in my-“

She was cut off when a slippery, thick rope-like creature reeled up firmly around her neck. Felix had used the dent to pass by and attack Tsilonee from behind. And now he was strangling the woman whose intention was to make him her slave for life.

He tightened his coil, ignoring the vain attempt to unravel his long body from the prostitute’s throat, retaliating for the burn marks on his body. The heat pattern that was being emitted from Tsilonee’s head started increasing, gradually along with the rest of her torso. Her eyes began slightly bulging from the internal pressure, showing her desperate expression in need of oxygen.

Felix wasn’t a killer, not a human killer, at least. He slowly loosened his grip, letting the woman breath through the stiff throat. Her complexion was regaining its mild yellow color when Felix hesitated in his decision.

She was the person who wanted to enslave him. She planned to poison him so he would beg her to give a single drop of the antidote to lengthen his life. Her main purpose in mind was herself, her own gains. She would not care about his safety. As the hunters in the forest, she would remove him if he were to ever get on her way, or ceased being useful to her.

Although he was not a murderer, this magical realm would sooner or later force him to take a human life. Felix had no idea what had to Tsilonee’s bodyguard, but if he managed to get rid of this woman, maybe his identity as an otherworlder would remain secret. It would make his life in this world less troublesome.

Felix made up his mind, and restrengthened his limbless body. Resisting the feeling to stop strangling the woman was challenging, like he was moving against a powerful flood wave , the urge to let the woman live embraced his mind and body; the human morale. Then he stopped thinking of what he was doing, seeing it as simply a job currently he was supposed to do.

He observed the room, looking everywhere but the woman whose life was dwindling away, tightening his hold around the prostitute’s delicate throat. The neck bones’ crunching sounds were heard as Tsilonee fell down the floor; writhing her body, thrashing her arms in search of any assistance to save her life. Her twisting became weaker and weaker as seconds ticked by.

Finally, she stopped moving.

Felix wanted to make sure the woman wasn’t faking death. He kept his bodily grip for at least a minute before loosening up. Then he transformed back to his previous appearance, looking at Tsilonee’s dead body, as if observing his own reflection in lifeless state.

He had finally done it. He had killed a person.