Eventually Francesca managed to scrounge together a passable meal for the little ladies. While they were eating the meal, Francesca and Clara had to discreetly deal with the rest of the assassins infiltrating the restaurant, so a few more bits of garbage were cleared out. Eventually the meal was finished, and the posse set off towards the park.

Livia and Annabella were walking hand-in-hand, happily chatting while going on their merry way. Francesca held the rear, while Clara scouted from the front. Through their teamwork, the group managed to make it all the way to the park without having to deal with any more nuisances. Francesca however did not feel satisfaction at this, she was always ready for the other shoe to drop.

The central park was an enormous bit of hilly forest that had been left in a somewhat natural state in the middle of the city. Trails passed through the hills, making for pleasant walking routes. Livia’s favourite spot was a playground that had been constructed a bit deeper into the park, far from the noises of the city.

Francesca dreaded that particular playground, as its out-of-sight location made it a prime target for annoyances. After a short walk through the shaded trails, the group arrived at the playground. There were no other children there today, so the little ladies had the whole place for themselves. Livia and Annabella immediately ran off to play on the swings, where they began swinging higher and higher.

“Fran Fran! Look how far I can kick my shoe!”

Livia prepared for a big kick on the down swing, then on the way up flung her shoe off her foot, quite adeptly at that. It flew off out of the park, into the brush surrounding it. Francesca sighed; the young lady was just too excitable some days.

“Young miss, you shouldn’t mistreat your shoes so, think of how your mother would react were she to hear of this.”

Livia’s eyes sparkled with childish mischief as she kept swinging back and forth, her hair energetically waving in the air.

“But Fraaan, you wouldn’t tell mother, would you? Please?”

There was just no winning against those puppy-dog eyes. Livia sighed and turned to go fetch the shoe from the forest. She heard a quick conversation behind her as Annabella seemed interested in trying out the activity.

“Clara, I want to try that too!”

“Absolutely not, young lady.”

“Eeep, Ok Clara, don’t give me the glare please.”

Francesca sometimes wished she had the same level of control over her own ward as Clara did, but it just wasn’t her way. Her musings were interrupted as she felt a tingle with her [Detect Disturbance] skill. Francesca focused on her skill and began to piece together the sensation; it felt like something very familiar to their household: cat hair.

“Oh great, they had to go and get something exotic this time, didn’t they? They never do get tired of the ol’ release-monster-into-the-park gambit.” Francesca quietly grumbled.

Things never could be simple. Francesca picked up Livia’s shoe from the ground, used [Gossip] to implant a message in it, and threw it off in Clara’s direction. She could handle things on that front; Francesca had stray cats to scare off.

The first step in a situation like this was to attract the troublesome pests out, so Francesca deliberately lowered her guard. To an outside observed it would have looked as if she had just laid down against a tree for a quick nap. Her attention however was on sensing the bits of fur around in the forest, and so she felt the creatures gradually creeping closer, until she finally caught sight of them.

Tigermonkeys were bothersome creatures, combining the mobility and cunning of monkeys with the speed and brutality of tigers. The lumbering forms gradually crept out of the forest, swinging down from trees and rising up from the bushes to surround the seemingly defenceless maid. Their forms had seemed to blur in amongst the trees, as their patterned skin served as apt camouflage in the terrain.

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Francesca discreetly peeked out from one eye, observing the nearest of the creatures. Its bipedal form was clearly preparing for an attack; claws had been pulled out, and a fearsome mouth was slobbering with hunger. Francesca counted eight of the creatures around her, but she would not let them have the initiative.

Francesca acted in the blink of an eye, launching herself forward and using [Serve Food] to take out a bag of spices from her [Apron of Holding], which she flung towards the creatures. The tigermonkeys however were not caught frozen, and they quickly moved away from the threatening object, trying to circle to Francescas back.

This was however only the first step of Francesca’s plan. As the spices spread out into the air, Francesca took out her [Feather Duster +10] and used it to whip up a whirlwind towards the spices. They soon got caught in it, and rapidly began spreading a deadly storm of spice around Francesca.

The tigermonkeys stood no chance at escaping the whirlwind of spice, and soon their noses, mouths and eyes were covered in the burning substance. Having superior senses led to some disadvantages in situations like these, and soon the whole lot was splayed on the ground, howling out with pain. Francesca did not give them time to recover and moved in.

The madam of the Albergoni house owned a rather fine jacket that was made out of a tigermonkey pelt. Francesca had naturally had to launder the jacket quite a few times, so she focused her mind on the sensation of handling that jacket in the laundry. As she reached the first tigermonkey, which was struggling and screaming on the ground, Francesca grabbed hold of one of its limbs. She activated her [Dry Laundry] skill and began wringing out the blood and other bodily fluids from the limb with a sickening crunch.

The creature howled out with even more intense pain and tried to lash out, but Francesca already had a hold of its other arm. The process was repeated a few more times in the span of 5 seconds, and soon the first tigermonkey lay on the ground a dry corpse, surrounded by the murky pool of liquids wrung out from its body.

This was only the first out of many, however so Francesca could not rest. The other 7 beasts were gradually starting to recover from their pain, rising up to their feet shakily. Francesca looked at the dried-out beast below her and picked it up. With it in this state, it could truly be treated as a pelt.

Francesca decided that she would have to go all out to make it out of this situation elegantly, so she chose to use one of her daily skills. She picked out a [Necromantic Sewing Needle] and some [Living Thread] from her [Apron of Holding] and held them in one hand with the pelt in the other as the enraged beasts rushed at her.

As the beasts jumped at her, she slipped under them and stitched the pelt attached to two of the beasts that she passed under, then used her [Create Clothing] skill. The pelt instantly began to change form, shrinking and condensing as it began to form into an elegant fur jacket. The tigermonkeys that were now attached to the morphing piece of clothing found that, to their horror, their own skin and fur began to be ripped off as it was gradually assimilated into the forming piece of clothing.

As their bodies were left stripped of their skin, they collapsed down onto the spice-laden ground where they twitched in pain, the life fading from them gradually. The remaining 5 tigermonkeys watched the gruesome affair with fear in their eyes, and decided that this was no longer a fight they wanted to be involved in. They began sprinting off away from Francesca, flying through the trees.

Francesca however was not the type to leave a job half-done, and her forming jacket was still far from finished. She narrowed her eyes and ran off after the beasts. With the hunter and hunted reversed, the beasts stood no chance at escape. Their senses were still dulled by the spice, making their normally graceful movements awkward. One after the other, Francesca caught up to them and stitched them to her forming piece of clothing, which quickly stole their skins off.

A short chase later, Francesca was the lone victor standing in the forest. She gazed at the now finished jacket in her hand idly as dug out her [Wand of Remove Trash]. These assassins just had to give her the gaudiest materials possible, didn’t they? The jacket was in no way fit to be worn in high society.

[8 Pieces of trash cleared!]

[Progress towards next level, 57/100!]

Upon her return to the playground, Francesca noted that the little ladies were having a jolly time playing on some sort of elaborate climbing contraption. Clara was covertly using her [Guide Conversation] skill to make sure the sounds of the nearby fight did not find their way here. Francesca eyed the little lady’s form, then compared it to the jacket she was discreetly stuffing inside her apron.

“I don’t think it’ll be of much use right now, but she might like it if I turned it into pyjamas for the winter...”

A maid had to take care of their lady’s wardrobe after all.