The month-long excursion passed more quickly than those before it. Isa suspected it was because she’d brought Addy along instead of leaving her in the care of others. If it wasn’t for Addy’s need for socialization with kids her own age, she’d probably take her along every time.

They returned to the city late enough that Isa didn’t have to worry about being bothered by members of the council right away, which was good.

Isa had a few things she wanted to take care of before being officially briefed on the incident with Karena. She’d put quite a bit of thought into how to best deal with the annoyance, and removing her completely was by far the best option.

Had the woman left her alone, she’d never have given her another thought.

But she hadn’t, and there was no way the former goddess was going to leave an enemy behind her. She’d learned that lesson in more than one life. She would not repeat it again.

Isa left a message with the council, letting them know that she planned to spend the next day organizing and processing the materials gathered during the expedition. It was her normal course of action following such a trip, so she hoped nobody would insist on meeting with her during that time.

She didn’t think her plans would take more than a single night, but she wanted to give herself extra time, just in case something unexpected happened. It was usually better to overestimate and under-promise things like this anyway.

Addy would be fine during the short time she was away. Even if it took her a full day to reach her goal, the girl wouldn’t have any trouble. She was used to Isa’s occasional seclusions during projects and likely wouldn’t even notice her absence.

By the end of the third week of their trip, Addy had been eager to return to the comforts of home. She’d also started complaining about missing her friends. Isa had little doubt the young girl would want to fill as much of her time with friends as possible during the next several days.

That suited the former goddess fine.

As soon as Addy fell asleep, Isa headed to the airport, keeping her movement hidden from any observers.

While passenger flights to and from Aurora were limited, cargo shipments were not. The volume of trade conducted with the growing city was one of the reasons Mazlex Corp. wanted to work out a deal with the leaders of Aurora.

Sneaking aboard one of the late transports was simple with a bit of magic. Arcane magic wasn’t the best for anything in particular, but it worked well enough for almost everything – including stealth spells.

The flight was uncomfortable, but Isa didn’t mind. Her self-imposed mission wasn’t meant to be comfortable.

As soon as the flight landed, Isa connected to every network in the vicinity. She hadn’t tested herself like this since the ascension, so the volume of input took a few minutes to get used to.

Once her mind grew accustomed to the flow of data, Isa headed in the direction of her first target. Karena had only just left her residence, so there was no reason to rush to catch up.

Based on the last set of text messages she’d sent, Karena planned to spend hours out. That gave Isa plenty of time to make a few stops before reaching the other woman’s destination.

The former goddess had put a lot of research into the people she would use as distractions during her month-long expedition. Each of her targets deserved far worse fates than they would be getting. In many ways, they deserved to die more than Karena did.

Of those on her list of potential targets, only a few had connections to Karena. Isa hoped the lack of an obvious connection between the soon-to-be-victims would hinder those who’d investigate afterward – because there would almost certainly be an investigation into the sudden deaths of so many individuals.

It was too good of an opportunity to clean some of the filth from the world to waste.

Isa had already taken steps to hide her identity from any who might use magic to search for the culprit, and she felt confident her efforts would shield her from identification. If someone could see through her efforts to hide, all they’d see was a small person wearing black clothing and a mask.

The former goddess doubted anyone could pierce through her efforts to hide, though. The most advanced individuals in the world were likely only D-Grade, and she doubted many of the city-dwelling civilians could even claim that.

As she traveled to the first destination along her route, Isa could hardly tell the city had been sieged by monsters just a handful of years earlier. Almost everything looked new, and she could tell a great deal of work had gone into reinforcing the buildings against future assaults.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

That was good. The people living in the cities needed strong shelters from the monsters that infested the wilds around the city.

Not everyone could be a warrior. Cities needed crafters and service workers to function.

Her first target was in an upscale housing tower that looked newer than many of the surrounding buildings. It also had a much better security system than the buildings she’d helped clear during her time with the Horizian forces.

Even so, it was no match for Isa’s abilities.

She entered the target’s apartment like a wraith, calling upon magics she hadn’t used in longer than some deities had existed. The target sat on an opulent couch, barely paying attention to the ministrations of the women sitting around him as he focused his attention on the screen mounted to the opposite wall.

Isa didn’t care about his actions with adult women. His blatant disregard for the desires of others wasn’t what consigned the man to death. That decision was based on darker proclivities that deeply offended the former goddess.

A drop of poison in the man’s drink was all it took to ensure the E-Grade man’s demise – not that she waited around for such a thing.

The poison was something she’d crafted during the expedition, and was based on a recipe from another world. It was tasteless and odorless and could kill a weak C-Grade with only a moderate dose.

There would be no signs to warn the target of their impending death since the poison wouldn’t fully activate until the target fell asleep – a sleep from which they would never wake.

By morning, they would be dead.

It was the perfect tool for assassination since healers were almost never called until it was much too late. Even if they were called, the people of this world didn’t know how to treat such a poison. Their efforts would be wasted.

Isa crossed the city like a ghost. Neither person nor device registered her presence as she made her way to the exclusive club where Karena was drinking in one of the VIP booths overlooking the dance floor.

Even those she visited weren’t aware of her presence.

Using poison to kill her targets was almost too simple. She nearly expected to somehow get caught as she slipped in and out of residences and establishments, bringing a quiet death to those she visited.

Poisoning Karena’s drink was no different, though she struggled to keep from bumping into anyone in the relatively confined space.

With plenty of time to spare before the next transport left the city headed for Aurora, Isa decided to stay and watch to woman for a while, though she was unable to remain as close as she would have liked.

She’d never really interacted with her before, so most of what she knew about Karena was from recordings and the data extracted from her various devices.

The woman was everything she suspected and more. Arrogant, entitled, snobbish, and rude to those she deemed beneath her – which was nearly everyone. She also seemed unusually uptight for someone surrounded by sycophants in a fancy club.

Isa had no idea what the CEO’s son saw in her, aside from the obvious physical appeal.

Karena seemed particularly interested in one of her followers, and Isa caught her staring at the woman several times. Her attention was obvious enough that the woman in question blushed and slid a little closer to the married woman.

Having no desire to watch what might transpire in a private booth, Isa decided to move on to her next target. While Karena was her primary target of the night, there was more to be done.

= = =

She made it back to the airport with plenty of time to spare and was back in her manor before Addy woke up for school the next day.

“You look tired,” the eleven-year-old commented with a yawn as she sat at the table for breakfast.

“I am,” Isa said between bites. “I stayed up late working on a project. I’ll probably take a nap after you head to school.”

As a D-Grade human, she only needed a few hours of sleep a night. She looked forward to only needing a few hours of sleep a week. But that wouldn’t come until she reached B-Grade.

“I told Gabriella I’d show her my new spell after school. Do you care if she comes over?”

“That should be fine,” Isa said. “I’ll probably be in the workshop organizing everything from the expedition. We collected a lot of material.”

Addy grinned widely. “We did! We got so much!”

Isa understood the girl’s excitement since she’d been promised a share of the loot collected from the dungeons that she and Isa had cleared together. It was only a small share, but that was still a lot of wealth for a child.

“You’d better hurry up, or you’ll be late,” Isa warned the girl.

Addy’s eyes grew wide as she glanced at her watch. “On no! I gotta go!” she said, jumping to her feet. “Love you! See you after school!”

Isa chuckled as the curly-haired youth rushed out of the room. It had been a very long time since Isa felt such child-like exuberance. A small part of her longed for such innocence once again, especially after a night like the last.

Perhaps after this life, she’d spend a life or two doing normal, mortal things. Maybe she could have a family and focus on living instead of progressing.

Her goal had been accomplished, after all. Her memories were secure.

In fact, there really wasn’t a good reason to wait to have such things in a future life. She wasn’t very old, and her life expectancy was much higher than it had been at birth.

Maybe once Addy grew up, she could look into finding someone to start a family with. Experiences were the whole point of living, after all.

She’d need to clean up some of the remaining undesirables on the continent, but that could be something she did slowly. Killing too many people in a short period might draw unwanted attention, especially since her city would not suffer the same fate.

If Aurora did have such individuals living there, she’d root them out immediately. But so far, it seemed their screening efforts were working.

Of course, that wouldn’t stop new problems from growing, but she could handle those individually. Minor threats could be encouraged to leave the city, and significant threats could be culled more directly.

Those who would prey on children had no place in Aurora, or any city, as far as she was concerned. Cheaters, thieves, and murderers were a lesser concern, but Isa would still act against them if they pushed too far.

She was aware of her own hypocrisy, but being a hypocrite didn’t bother her. It was the right of the powerful to make the rules.

They didn’t have to abide by them.