After several spot-checks, enduring an awkward tea break in a run-down house, and confusing someone’s house with the guard barracks, a child guided them to the correct barracks.

“Thanks.” Claude’s leg waved goodbye to the child.

“Stop jeopardizing our cover,” Yanko barked at Rika’s sister.

“Do you even understand the meaning of that word, old man?”

“I’ve been alive longer than you, brat.”

“Refrain from using Ric’s words without grasping their significance,” the kid retorted and spat for dramatic effect. “Ew! Someone clean me.” Claude’s leg flailed about.

“Which one is that again?” Yanko asked, eyeing Rika while the sisters shifted within the skin, causing the suit to bulge in various places.

“This one is Elle,” Rika pointed at Claude’s belly, then gestured downwards. “Belle, Shay, and Mae,” she concluded, showing the leg that had taunted Yanko.

“Listen to me, you little...” Yanko pointed and yelled at Claude’s leg.

“Who are you yelling at?” Rika inquired.

“Mae?”

“She moved here,” Rika said, smacking two of Claude’s legs and his stomach, silencing three of the girls who were bickering.

“Then what’s there?” Yanko gestured.

“My leg.”

“God! You young ones are so flexible. Back in my day—”

Wrilo ignored him and headed inside, while Rika manipulated four of Claude’s legs and both his hands, her sisters maintaining the crab’s stature and controlling the remaining two legs, following Wrilo.

Cathel’s most prominent building in the lower sector, the guard barracks, stood sturdy as a two-story structure with no holes, leaks, or puddles of drainage water in its vicinity.

Two guards saluted them and led them underground, deep enough to escape the stench from above. Uvrodon’s chambers were on the lowest floor, with fresh air flooding the room from large cylinders placed around the cabin.

“The only worthwhile building is built underground. Should have guessed.” Wrilo slid out of her suit, her expression as unreadable as when she had the skin suit on.

The sisters stormed out, tearing the crab suit into pieces. Rika: left with two crab legs and a massive head wider than her shoulders, stumbled toward the door to bar it shut. Only after barricading the office did she join the yells and finger-pointing.

“How could you do that to those kids?” The sisters ganged up on Yanko, their voices overlapping and completing each other’s sentences. Yanko presumed the sisters somehow shared the same vocal chords due to the smooth flow of dialogue.

“I bet he will sell us out when we get bigger.”

“Or wait until our guards are down.”

“What do you have to say for yourself…” Two of the sisters spoke in unison. “…old—”

“—man,” the other two chimed in.

“Are we too young—”

“—or not young enough?”

Rika stomped forward, but her usual intimidation factor failed as these floors absorbed her forceful steps, unlike the infested floorboards back in their house. If her sisters had been there, the loud creaking floor would have intimidated them into submission.

The sinister sounds helped project an artificial malevolent persona, making her seem more powerful than she intended. Yet these floors were not only sturdy but also enchanted by an artifact or anti-sound spell. With her sisters and Yanko causing a ruckus, she prayed for the walls to possess the same magical protection.

“I did what I had to do,” Yanko defended himself. “Those brats wanted to pick a fight and didn’t care about the consequences. I saw it in their eyes. The guards waited on purpose because they wanted them to cross the line.”

“Since when did they need permission to be a jerk?”

“I agree on that point,” Wrilo interjected without looking, her focus on scanning the room.

“Since these people exist, and until they do, they are useful to the noblemen. I don’t have to explain myself to you, brat. You will never understand—Ah!” Yanko yelped as Shay bit his leg.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Hmm… The old man makes sense too.”

“Whose side are you on?” Shay mumbled.

Rika seized the opportunity and pounced forward. She held Mae in a chokehold and locked Elle between her legs, glaring at Shay and Belle who crawled around Yanko like insects, biting and scratching him.

“Last time I checked, we were all on the same side,” Wirlo shrugged from behind a beautiful wooden desk. Her comment stopped everyone in their tracks, their gazes fixed on her. She ignored their stares, pretending not to have seen them, and inspected the sofa behind the desk. With frail arms, she pushed the soft fabric deep, finding no resistance, and without any hesitation, she sank into the sofa.

The sofa’s comfort overwhelms Wrilo’s unreadable persona as a deep moan escapes her lips. The group didn’t even question before diving into the furniture around the office. Several deep moans echoed within the room. Their pent-up frustration sank deeper into the fabric, and tranquility took over.

“The universe moved for us to infiltrate,” Yanko pondered out loud. “If not for it, we never—AH!” Yanko yelped again and glared at Mae. Shay? He didn’t know. All of them were blurry blobs in the end. “Stop doing that.” He kicked her into another soft cushion.

“We go in. Didn’t we?” the sisters protested.

“That’s because all of them are scared and never dared to look at us for more than a second. We missed every turn. Literally asked everyone for directions. Spoke through our appendages,” Yanko pointed at the kids. “Couldn’t control anyone.” He glanced at Rika. “Too old to be useful.” He scolded himself and turned to Wirlo. “And... what are you doing?”

All eyes shifted to Wrilo, who hopped off the sofa, dragging it along as she searched for something.

“What we came here to do?”

She hopped and knocked over a vase, shattering it and spilling water everywhere. Instead of spreading, the water sank beneath the floorboards. The floor was too perfect for them to consider any deformities, so Wirlo reluctantly got up to check.

Following the flow of the water, she slid and pushed a section of the floorboard, revealing a hidden compartment. The narrow, bottomless dark pit made it difficult for Wirlo to reach deep enough to uncover the contents.

“You trust that brat?” Yanko’s statement caused the sisters to ready themselves to inflict some genuine pain on the old man.

“Not you,” Yanko frowns. “Ric.”

“Coin a word or be creative,” said Rika.

Despite her efforts, the stubborn sofa refused to release its grip on her. Her body resisted, but she still reached out her hand. Halfway through, she yielded and collapsed back into its warm embrace with a heavy sigh. Lucky for her, even her over-energetic siblings refused to leave their soft cushions, giving Yanko a break from defending himself.

“Even the universe you claimed helped us would have been useless if it weren’t for that brat,” Wirlo surprised the group once again by defending Ric. “He predicted the questions and gave us answers, tricks, and a chance to fight back. Do you remember what he said right before we left?”

Elle raised her hand, ecstatic to share. “Be useful, you worthless piece of trash.”

“No!” Belle jumped over and landed on Elle’s cushion, her weight sinking Elle into the soft fabric, muffling her voice. “I shall starve you to the bone if I find out you cost me my mission.” She smiled, waving her hands.

“No!” Shay threw a pillow that knocked Belle onto the floor. She landed with a thud and stayed down. The group ignored her theatrics and focused on Shay, who mimicked Ric’s evil grin, tapping her fingertips together.

“Girls your age sell for a pretty penny, yet I shall sell you for free. Not now though, no! Once I have liberated the town and you know nothing else but pure bliss, then… Then I shall show you true hell. Hahaha ha!” Shay’s tone shifted as she blurted out the rest. “All of this can be avoided if you get the job done, so cheer up and hope neither you nor others screw up.”

The gaping mouths turned toward Mae, the naughtiest of the four, expecting an even worse warning.

“He said he likes me and has high hopes for me,” Mae shrugged. The group’s brows furrowed as one, disbelief clear on their faces. “If I fail, he will make a skin suit out of me to remember me by.”

The group relaxed, then got caught between terror and disgust.

Who is the villain here? Are they on the good or the demon side?

The four sisters, however, found the notion acceptable. They accepted it long ago and already chose to support Ric. Because they shared a deeper secret.

Staying true to their boss, they attempted to drag the group back on track by figuring out the right answer to Sister Wrilo’s question. After a brief telepathic communication, which did not work, hence sowing seeds of doubt within the boss’s infiltration squad, the sisters mumbled to find the answer.

“Bos—HIS HUNCH OF SOMETHING BEING WRONG?” Mae dragged the elder’s attention.

“Gut… Thingy,” Elle added.

“To keep one’s eye open for the unusual. You will find it when you find it,” Belle and Shay completed each other’s sentences.

“Yeah… Yes—That!” Wrilo confirmed. “Isn’t this it?” She squinted, yet couldn’t penetrate the veil of darkness. “I kept a constant eye out for something weird and everything around us felt weird. Like a puzzle that made no sense.”

The sisters nodded at the statement, giving their support and hoping to dispel the doubt they planted.

“We are one-fourth through the infiltration process, yet I can say with confidence Ric would disapprove,” Wrilo continued. The sisters urged the others to comply with her thoughts. “We got here thanks to the dumb universe and Ric’s devious nature.” She took quick breaths and shoved her hand into the floor, yet her hands were too short to reach such depths. “I think his gut sense can be proved once we find out what this secret vault holds.”

Before Yanko and Rika protested, the sisters hopped out of their cushions, forming a chain but holding each other’s legs. Mae squeezed into the hole, with Belle following through, holding Mae’s legs. With the hole being deeper, even Elle and Shay disappeared into it.

Wrilo acted before her mind processed what was happening. She shoved her hand inside, catching hold of Shay’s feet, and yanking them back to the surface.

She was terrified to put her hand inside the dark vault and these kids dove head first without fear.

Wrilo’s power waned compared to the combined strength of the sisters as they resisted her pull. Only after Mae’s cheers echoed inside the hole could Wrilo pull them out one by one with the help of Rika. If the sisters hadn’t held each other’s feet or let go while being pulled, it would have been impossible to save them all.

“What were you thinking?” Yanko yelled.

Mae only smiled in response, revealing a jet-black book between her arms.

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