Kyon closed the last book on formations with a slam, visibly satisfied. He returned to his nook behind the bushes in the dark of the night. Fortunately, the servants did not dare to disobey the instructions of the lady’s new girlfriend, that is Marina. No one approached the boy’s shelter.

The next night he went on the prowl armed with the bread that Marina had brought. In the picturesque pond, there lived some pencil-necked swans. Kyon lured one of those beauties away from its kin with a piece of bread. He remembered the guidance of the Pithecanthropus ancestors and stunned the winged creature with a stone, straight on its silly little head. Then he disappeared in his dear bushes holding the limp carcass, happy like a fox who’d stolen a fat rooster on the farm.

The execution continued in the hide. With the help of Synergy, Kyon cut the nerve in the bird’s vocal cords to keep its beak shut and paralyzed the bird’s muscular system. Now the swan could only turn its head. An ideal testee. Of course, in the future, he was going to get the bird back to the pond safe and sound. He was no slaughterer, and the swan wasn’t Juno.

The white-winged bird awoke, its eyes opened in dismay: the body didn’t move, the throat didn’t quack! The poor fellow desperately twirled its head trying to escape, all to no avail.

Kyon focused. He put his finger on the bird’s forehead and tried to create a slot using pure energy. It was not as easy as he had hoped...

He needed a special tool to create it faster and easier. He was going to fail if he did it manually, on the spot. Kyon he had to study and master the necessary skill. Ideally, it would take him at least three months of tireless training to develop it.

Kyon tried once, twice, the third time... For the hundredth time, he lost it and cursed his clumsiness. For the five hundredth time, he was so nervous he wanted to beat his head against the wall or a tree to stimulate mental activity. Kyon had failed two thousand times to create a slot. He had no instructions on how to do it. All he had was an idea that the slot was created with energy and it should keep a formation consistently and for a long time.

It was his 3000-th attempt when he succeeded at last! The empty sphere inside the bird’s head seemed to hold together and didn’t collapse. Kyon tried to apply a primitive formation but it got successfully dispelled. The swan, tired of resisting, opened its beak in a silent “quack.” Kyon could swear the bird was mocking him.

It took him three days to fine-tune the slot where the energy would hold together permanently. In comparison with other mortals, the result of his efforts exceeded all the expectations in terms of time and quality. He wished he could show off his talents but there was no one interested.

The first step was completed. It was the time to start long-term experiments with formations and refine the one that would meet his requirements.

He had enough of his life as a ghost of the mansion. That’s how he called himself because none of the inhabitants could see or hear him and yet, he existed. Marina once said he was a scarecrow behind the bushed, which didn’t correspond to his gloomy and mysterious image of a ghost and was rather offensive.

It took him another three days to design and work out the plan of action, and, most importantly, to practice on the swan. He had reached the 4th stage of the base phase. It was perfect timing. The chances of success increased starting with this level. Ideally, he shouldn’t rush and keep improving himself for 6 months or so. However, he was under suspicion that he did not have so much time to start with. The bushes would eventually grow back, and someone would come to trim them.

Besides, he knew that the rate of development slowed down closer to the peak stages. He wasn’t developing his body in any way, which meant that his development would like a snail by the end of the stage.

The next evening, Kyon finally understood how to put the formation into the slot. He had to apply the code that he had written and optimized. He had pondered over each line a hundred times. He could not imagine the rank of his formation. It must be an “S” or maybe an “SS” if such rank existed at all. His formation was definitely legendary because it contained all the skills of the guy from a high-tech world.

He finally did it the next day. His formation worked smoothly, flawlessly! Probably. He couldn't test it. It was applied without errors, if nothing else.

His formation should work properly according to the laws of formacy. Otherwise, there was not a drop of logic in that world, and his Synergy was a stupid chicken unable to solve 2 + 2. He had checked the code of the formation with Synergy for a thousand times. He had optimized it to one hundred percent. Now it was time to move on to the execution of the plan.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

In the evening, as usual, Marina sat on the bench with a book in her hands. It was a standard conspiracy to communicate with her “invisible” friend in the bushes.

«Do you want to kill lady Juno for what she did to you?! I... I won’t let you! She's my friend!» - The girl exclaimed in a low voice at Kyon’s statement that he was intending to enter Juno’s room.

«I am not going to kill her. I swear. I’ll just fix her a bit so that I could stop being the scarecrow behind the bushes. I won’t hurt her. She will stay your friend. Do you believe me?» - Kyon said looking deep into her eyes.

Marina hesitated, frowned, sighed. Finally, she replied:

«I... I do not know... She did so unspeakable things to you. I would have been terrified in your place. You are not going to do anything to her, are you?»

«Marina, I swear I am not going to cripple her, let alone kill her. I can no longer live in the bushes. I was not born for this.»

«I see... Kyon, if you say so, I believe you... Alright, I will help you. But promise you won’t fool me.»

Kyon willingly gave her his “honest” and “sincere” word. She agreed amazingly quickly. He could keep persuading her for days. He would get what he wanted anyway.

Marina calmed down and won round her conscience. She had become attached to the boy so much she could not sleep at night. She kept thinking and worrying about his wretched fate. He was the ghost of the mansion, after all. Of course, she was going to believe him and help or she risked to disappointed herself for not understanding and helping out a good person.

After the blonde had agreed to participate in sabotage, Kyon explained to her what he needed in detail. Of course, he played on their incredibly good relations. It’s fair to say he took advantage of her just as he did with Martha. But it was the only way out. In any case, he wanted to compensate her in full and even started thinking how he would do it. As for Juno, it was a matter of life and death. It was high time to deal with her or he might be accidentally discovered any day from now.

The long-awaited night had come.

Kyon got into the mansion, silently climbed upstairs and hid behind the corner.

After some time, the door in Juno's bedroom opened. The cute angel in a gray nightie headed for into the bathroom, still fast asleep. That evening, Marina got an idea to play cards with her. After each game, the loser had to drink a glass of juice.

Kyon saw the graceful figure disappear and pleaded: {Hurry up!} As soon as he was out of Juno’s sight, he darted to her room. He put his fingers through the split in the door at the very last moment. Another second of delay and the door would be closed. Only a special formation could open it again. Kyon gave a sigh of relief. Behold, he entered the sanctum sanctorum of the local demoness.

The room was spacious even taking into account the accumulation of the entire army of soft pillows and pads. Apparently, they served as a substitute for fluffy toys that looked like real animals. Juno was so afraid of them. Every detail of the interior showed a good taste, softness, and tenderness. A pleasant aroma was in the air: a mix of shampoo, perfume, and some sweets. Jean might have given his life to spend a night here, even on his own.

In general, there was little furniture inside apart from the piles of pillows. There was a large soft bed in the corner, a wardrobe, a cupboard, several chairs, and a table. There was nowhere to hide except, perhaps, the standard option. Kyon sighed heavily and crawled under the bed, in the hope there was no dust and spiders. One monster in the room was quite enough for him. He wished he could twist the “monster” into a corkscrew. The little scum made his life impossible. She tried to kill him. In fact, she did. His persistence had overpowered all her diligent attempts.

Soon the door opened. A pair of slender bare legs in soft slippers with ears caught Kyon’s eye. The bed creaked. The slippers reluctantly fell off the skinny feet. The girl crawled under the covers and soon began to snuffle.

Kyon waited for another half an hour, just to be on the safe side. Then he rolled out of his refuge, removed a cobweb from his hair in disgust, and hovered over the young lady like a god of death, except that his eyes were not highlighted in red and there were no horns under his hair. His mind was absorbed in the bloodlust for this particular girl. Unfortunately, he had to suppress his ruthless impulses. He could not physically harm Juno because in this case his life would be interrupted right after that. He had to apply the formation and follow the plan.

Kyon slowly held out a finger when, all of a sudden, the girl frowned and turned over on the other side.

The boy went splat on the floor, thunderstruck. Fortunately, the whole room was covered with soft carpets so his sudden landing was noiseless. Juno’s sensitivity and intuitive vigilance were really impressive.

Another ten minutes and he hovered over her again trying to touch the back of her head and pour in some Synergy so that it would contribute to a more sound sleep. But Juno frowned again, turned over and opened her hazy eyes.

Kyon took a plank position at once and rolled under the bed like an egg roll. He had almost had a heart attack on the way. What a lucky devil she was!

The unsuspecting girl let down her legs from the bed and fumbled them in search of the slippers. She couldn’t find them. Kyon had scattered them around the room while doing his equilibristic tricks. So, she dragged her bare feet to the bathroom.

{Marina... You went too far! Now she takes trips to the toilet every five minutes!}