With cold, unfeeling eyes, Felicie watched the girl before her being devoured. She barely recalled the girl's name and would normally never pay attention to someone as unremarkable as this. However, this girl had gotten in Felicie's way, and Felicie had no mercy for those who dare obstruct her.

It was all terribly unfortunate for the girl. There was a promising young apprentice that Felicie was interested in. Sadly, this apprentice had shown what appeared to be interested in this girl instead. It did not matter if Felicie might have been mistaken in what she saw. All threats to her ambition must be removed.

"There, there, Silica~ It has been a while since you've had such a feast. Eat up."

Tenderly, Felicie caressed her fingers through the feathers of the 'owl' she named Silica. At least, it had been an owl. The transformation happened suddenly. At the very moment it attacked the girl, its body rapidly expanded to the size of a grown man, growing scaly arms and claws as it pounced on the poor, unremarkable girl.

This horrifying creature, Silica, even as it feasted on the girl's innards with its bloodied beak, quivered in joy at its master's gentle caress.

As Silica ate, changes began to occur with its body. The beak receded and was replaced by a gaping maw with sharp fangs as Silica began to take larger and larger bites out of the corpse, crushing the bones easily between its teeth. On its arms, the scale gradually faded as they were replaced with skin not too different from that of a human's in texture. Then, its face started to twist and meld, eventually forming into a horrifying visage of something akin to a person with their cheeks sliced at the lips.

Suddenly, Silica stopped eating. The feathers that were on her stood to attention as she began to look around, its human-like head twisting around like that of an owl's.

"What's wrong, Silica? Done already?" Felicie called out with her lovely voice. "But you love eating corpses and there's still plenty more to clean up."

But Silica was hardly listening. Its attention was focused on an old, decrepit cabinet in the corner.

Before Felicie could say anything more, Silica pounced at the cabinet, sticking its head into the gaps between the ajar doors.

"Silica, what is it!? What did you find?"

In response, Silica turned to its master, showing her the mouse it had caught in between its teeth.

"Silica, spit that out this instance! That's filthy!" Felicie cried out with a controlled voice, loud enough for those in the room to hear but not so that anyone outside could make out anything.

But Silica did not listen and hastily swallowed the mouse whole, not wanting her master to take its snack away.

"Oh, Silica, what am I going to do with you? You're not an actual owl, you realize?" said Felicie as she shook her head. "And you shouldn't be snacking before you finished your meal. Come over here and clean this up. I don't want even a drop of blood left, you hear?"

Unaffected by the scolding, Silica began to sniff around in the cabinet, having smelled something suspicious.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

***

Theodore had slipped up. It wasn't the fact that he decided to move from the cabinet. It wasn't the fact that he just couldn't be patient and sit still for a few moments. No, the mistake occurred far earlier. It was his scent.

The moment he realized that the creature called Silica wasn't an owl, he feared that it had a sense of smell that might lead to him being discovered. Especially since he had slept in the cabinet, where the ventilation was by no means excellent. He had sweated quite a bit in his sleep too.

It was only thanks to the thick scent of blood in the air that he was able to avoid detection thus far, but it seemed that it won't be so for long. However, if Lady Felicie was careful, she ought to have a plan to clean up the scent one way or another. It was also highly probable that Theodore would be caught during the cleanup process. As such, he decided that he had to take a few risks to better his chances of leaving this place alive.

Kalman had given Theodore three special smoke bombs. Having used one the prior night, Theodore had but two left. The smoke bombs were capable of creating a thick smokescreen when used. Combined with fine Aethervoid sand, both sight and Aether-sense would be obstructed. Additionally, the smoke was also capable of disrupting a creature's sense of smell due to its thickness. However, it was unable to do anything about hearing.

With how quickly it discovered the mouse left by Theodore, he judged that the creature must have a good sense of hearing as well, being able to hear the soft pitter-patter of the mouse's footsteps.

The smokescreen alone would not be enough to ensure that Theodore could escape.

Not to mention, escaping the storeroom was the first step. Though he was confident that he could force his way out if he used the smoke bomb Kalman gave him, the creature could still track him. If Silica were to turn back to an owl and track him from the sky using its sight and hearing, it would be difficult for him to shake it off while running around in these unfamiliar streets.

As such, in order to escape, Theodore must first do something about Silica, a condition that was cleared the moment Silica swallowed that mouse.

The mouse was an undead that Theodore had made, the very same used in the Dandelion Mandragora heist. To prevent it from being captured, various countermeasures had been imprinted within its behavioral matrix. And when all else fails, there was the final resort of self-destructing by unleashing all of the energy within the crystal's Aether, destroying all traces of the undead as well as whatever was trapping it.

"Ugh!" Silica grunted the moment it felt something in its stomach.

"What's wrong Silica? Don't tell me you have an upset stomach. I didn't know that could even happen."

But before Felicie got an answer, a hole was blasted through Silica's stomach, spraying blood everywhere.

"Silica, what's happening!?"

Felicia was shocked by what had just occurred before her, and in that moment of distraction, Theodore leaped out from behind a shelf.

As he revealed himself, Theodore took the chance to have a good look at Felicie's face.

She was a young woman somewhere around fifteen to sixteen years of age. With a head of wavy locks of gold, a pair of eyes as blue as the all-consuming ocean, and a complexion as fair as pearls, few would not fall in love at first sight. On the side of her neck, there was a single mole which she tried to hide by wearing her collar higher than one normally would.

Then, Theodore shifted his gaze to the corner, finding there a creature hunched over the cabinet. It wore a face that was a mockery of the human features and the rest of its body was half human and half beast, with patches of feathers, scales, and bare skin.

Theodore had suspected it while he was hidden within the cabinet, but having seen the creature with his own eyes, his suspicions were reinforced.

(A Corpse Eater... The same as Merry...)

His mind was working fast. Having taken the time to overlay his nervous system with Aether while in the cabinet, Theodore was able to boost his processing speed and reflexes.

"You! Who-"

As the shock in Felicie's eyes shifted into a hateful glare, Theodore made his move, not giving her the opportunity to react. With a swift swing of the arm, Theodore smashed the special smoke bomb against the ground.

The bomb was set off on impact, filling the room with smoke. In that moment, Theodore took the chance to make his escape.

***

End of Chapter 98

***