“So how did it go?” asked Esperanza.
Inwardly she cringed at herself for being such a coward that she hadn’t personally gone out to look for Alissa herself. Esperanza was worried that if they were to accidentally meet she might not be able to control herself and thus might blow their cover as a result, something that she did not want to happen, so she had mostly stayed at the inn in the past couple of days.
The others kept an eye out for Alissa on her behalf instead.
“The three of us didn’t see the person you described today either, Exalted One, but we did see a couple of women that matches the description you gave us visiting the southern district a couple of times,” reported Tiara. She had gone out and prowled around the south with Resitia and Iryl as her escort, just in case Alissa as a [Hero] was more sensitive in detecting people with strong connection to Oldies like them.
As for the volunteers, Esperanza was actually less worried about them, as they had records of running into [Heroes] in their history and got away unscathed. Just to be safe they were using the old version of their skills, though, rather than the modified one the group had worked together to create. Who knew if there might be something about the old method that would prevent a [Hero] from noticing them that the new method lacked?
It was only a slight inconvenience to use the old method anyway, and definitely better than risking their lives unnecessarily.
“Anything you noticed about them?” she asked the three, as they happened to return first that day. The other four usually returned later in the evening, as they had established such a pattern during their earlier stay and saw no reason to break it as that might cause suspicion. “Anything that comes to mind as important might be, so just say whatever comes to mind.”
“Well… One of the soldiers definitely called the nice-looking lady something like ‘Her Royal’ something before she shushed them. From that, I’d guess she’s connected to the Royal Family, probably one of the younger Princes or Princesses, as it’s not uncommon to have them become part of the [Hero]’s retinue,” said Tiara. “At least, that’s what the human history books we had said.”
“I do recall such a passage in the books I perused back in Zikeal, yes,” noted Esperanza. She had helped herself to the tribe’s library, which they acquired from the human towns and villages they visited regularly. Naturally, since they could only visit smaller towns and villages, their collection of books were mostly made up of the common ones that even such poor and far-flung places could access.
“Apparently it is common for members of the human royalty that joined the [Hero]’s retinue to become the next king or queen,” supplied Tiara, “Some of the older books I read stated that the grandfather of the current human king was one such person, as was his great-great-grandfather. They served as part of the [Hero]’s retinue one cycle and two cycles ago respectively.”
“Got it, so there’s plenty of motivation for a young member of the royal family with the right sort of class and level to join the [Hero]’s retinue and fight alongside them, and even to befriend the [Hero] in question, I bet,” Esperanza said. “Let’s chalk that one off the side first. If the person you refer to was the one I noticed walking with Alissa, they looked like genuine friends, and that girl isn’t easily fooled in that regard.”
The thought made Esperanza hold back a chuckle as she thought back of their days at school. Alissa, being one of the school’s ace athletes, a straight-A student, and pretty to boot, naturally attracted a whole host of people, both boys trying to woo her and girls trying to be part of her nonexistent “clique”. Alissa mostly kept to herself and a few people close to her like Ethan, though, and saw through the shallow desires of those who flocked to her for their own purposes.
She was always good at noticing them.
Just around then, Kurt and Leo returned, with Murad and Mora following them into the Inn. Esperanza waved her hand and beckoned for them to join the group at her table, and they did so. Once they were close enough, Mora checked the sound dampening skill Tiara used around the table and gave a satisfied nod since the responsibility fell to the younger girl when Mora wasn’t around.
“We have returned, Exalted One, with some confirmations,” reported Kurt as he sat on the table. Resitia had already ordered more drinks for the four of them the moment she saw them appear at the door, and soon enough a waitress passed by and deposited her order.
“So, what news?” asked Esperanza after the waitress left their skill’s range. She and Mora naturally put up their skills once again, as they had dropped the skills temporarily to allow the four to notice her when they arrived at the inn. “I see from your faces that you seem to have discovered something that might be of use?”
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“We might have done so, Exalted One,” said Murad politely as he nodded. “As you are aware, yesterday we confirmed that the [Hero] mostly went around with her… friends, mostly in the northern district, though their place of stay straddles the border between the central and northern districts. Today they went their own ways, though, and the [Hero] went to the academy and only left in the evening.”
“Huh, so she’s doing something there? You did mention that the three of them visited the academy briefly yesterday, so could yesterday be arranging for permission to get her access to the place maybe?” pondered Esperanza with the information she was given. “I don’t think she'd be studying at the academy, especially if she’s on a leave, so she’d probably hit the library?”
“Considering that the academy’s library is known to house one of the best collections of old manuscripts in the kingdom, that sounds likely,” noted Mora with a nod. “I am unfamiliar with the [Hero], unlike the Exalted One, but if she is indeed like you said and is not under the control of the usurpers while harboring doubts about this world, that sounds like a good place for her to trawl for information that might not be readily available elsewhere.”
“If Alissa is not under the control of the usurpers, then I highly doubt she’d look at the situation of this world, especially the war between the humans and demons, and not feel suspicious about it. They aren’t even trying to hide it, the whole thing just feels staged if you look at it from an outside perspective,” said Esperanza with a shake of her head. “And if they stopped Alissa from looking into the situation, that would just make her even more suspicious, so unless she’s fallen under the usurpers’ control, there is absolutely no way she would not find this world’s situation as anything but suspicious, if she’s still the same girl I know.”
“What would you like us to do, Exalted One?” asked Leo. The way the man looked was as if he was prepared to jump into a fire if Esperanza told him to, which both flattered and bothered her at the same time. She could never get used to people literally worshiping her like that, even after months. “We are at your command.”
“Like I said a couple days ago, I want all of you out of the city, just in case. Regroup with the rest and be ready to run in case things go south,” said Esperanza sternly. “You can consider that an order,” she added to cut off any protests. “Kurt, Leo, you two take Iryl and leave together tomorrow evening, relay the situation to the rest and tell them to wait first.”
“Resitia, you escort the rest. I want you to leave in the afternoon, two days from now. The four of you will relay the latest situation to the others at the time, and tell them to prepare to escape in the worst case,” she continued. “If Alissa keeps staying at the library these next few days, I will try to infiltrate and confront her there, where there’s less people. Otherwise, we’ll see when the time comes.”
******************************
Two days later, Esperanza was alone in Clearridge as everyone else from her group had already left the city. It was already evening, and Esperanza herself had altered her appearance to disassociate herself from the group, as she had “left” the city with them earlier and re-entered discreetly on her own. It appeared that some god – probably Oldies – heard her prayers, as Alissa had been staying longer in the library the day before, only leaving well after the sunset.
It was already sunset by then, and Alissa was still in the academy’s library as far as she could tell. Esperanza herself had attempted to break into the library during the nights, and she managed to slip through the wards and protections the night before, but left them be instead of slipping through, as she wanted to make her first – and probably only – visit to the place as useful as possible.
After she glanced left and right to ensure that nobody was looking at her, Esperanza shifted her form and blended together with the wood of the balcony she was looking at the academy from. Her amorphous form then slid over to the roof below her, spreading herself thin and changing her body’s color and texture to match the roof beneath her so anyone that happened to look her way would not notice a thing.
It was easy enough for her to slide across rooftops – fortunately the buildings in Clearridge were built pretty close together – while turning her body transparent when she needed to leap over gaps. Within a few minutes, Esperanza had oozed into the academy’s garden without anyone noticing either her presence or her passage.
The academy grounds were mostly safe, other than the occasional patrolling guard. It was obvious that the academy took its security seriously, given the otherwise sparse presence of patrols in Clearridge as a whole. Even so, between [Veil of Entropy] and her amorphous, camouflaged form, it was easy enough for her to slip past those guards.
Once she reached the academy building proper, things started to get more complicated. The academy’s builder was clearly rather paranoid about its security, so they had the building warded in a way that would sound an alarm if people coming in or out were not in the vicinity of someone that had a token keyed to the ward itself.
Previously, Esperanza had contemplated risking it and entering at the same time as when someone walked in or out of the academy. However, she discovered a weakness in the ward the night before. The ward did not extend under the ground, and while the academy kept its grounds clean… some moles still nested beneath the building.
Esperanza simply turned her body into a slim enough form to navigate the mole tunnels then quietly seeped through the wooden flooring of the academy’s interior, from where she navigated her way towards the library. Her [Soul Sense] greatly helped her in avoiding any people still in the academy at that time, and also showed her where Alissa was, as her soul shone like a miniature star to Esperanza’s [Soul Sense].
The library itself was a challenge to tackle, as the wards around the area were far more secure. However, while they guarded well against intrusions from all directions and even the top, the floor was similarly far less secure than the rest. She turned herself into an amorphous form once more and slipped beneath the academy’s floorboards, careful not to trigger the wards that permeated the library’s walls.
Once she was inside, she searched for an area that was unoccupied and as far away from Alissa’s position as she could find. She did not want to surprise her old friend by oozing out from the floorboards, as such an action would likely provoke a violent reaction instead, so she tried to slip into the library unnoticed, away from any prying eyes.
As Esperanza found herself in a secluded corner of the library, separated from Alissa by multiple filled bookshelves, she took a deep breath and set her appearance to her original appearance from the previous world, and slowly walked out.