As I returned to the inn arranged for me by the city, I was tempted to leave the city instead. Other than finding someone to frame for the fake-smuggling, I had accomplished all that was necessary for the fake operation. At this point, I could leave the city to proceed with the operation, and it would still work well enough, and I could go back to make sure Town Maell and Town Yoentia operated perfectly.

I sent a message to Zolast, asking whether I should do so. His answer arrived soon after, asking me not to panic and trust the younglings.

He was right. The younglings had been working hard to improve themselves, and if I hovered above them, it would only slow their development down. My mere presence would be enough to make them second-guess themselves, and micromanagement would hardly help.

With that, I returned to the inn, to a room that was assigned to me as a calculated disrespect. Calling it a room was certainly misguided. It covered the whole floor, and filled with high-quality, tasteful furniture, better than even Baron Maell's private residence.

Such a great disrespect indeed.

I particularly enjoyed the fact that there was no hint of yellow anywhere in the room. Likely another calculated disrespect, not having the color of the sun our church members 'lovingly' wore, but its absence was a true pleasure.

I retreated back to my room, wondering if the 'disrespect' of a luxury room was the extent of their plans before I could meet with the city lord, or would they be daring enough to attack me during my first night.

I decided to make their job easier and went into the balcony, where the wards were much weaker. As I sat on the chair with a cup of herbal tea, I paid some attention to the wards, feeling how it linked to the rest of the structure.

Examining the wards and other mana-based defenses was another benefit of Intelligence. Magic was challenging, because there were too many variables that affected the flow of mana. Without Intelligence, it felt like trying to understand how a computer worked by looking at a wall of zeros and ones — which was the extent of my IT knowledge.

However, with Intelligence, I was able to treat it as a math problem. Not easily. I couldn't build a ward with a simple gesture like Zolast could — something that any decent apprentice should be able to do, according to him — but understanding how the ward worked was far more doable

My discernment ability was strong enough to realize that, not only were the wards of the balcony weak, but they were deliberately weakened, and had been weakened very recently considering the slight instability.

A good entrance for any killer that was feeling lucky. I wondered if I was important enough to deserve the visit of a royal assassin, or whether they would just send a few thugs that were willing to ambush me in my sleep.

Whatever they had in mind, it acquired the attention of a crowd. As I stayed at the balcony, the number of observers that was spread around the neighborhood increased, soon reaching dozens. Not all of them belonged to the same group, and their attitude was easy to read.

I raised my glass, swirling it gently before taking another leisurely sip, acting unaware of their numbers, wondering exactly why they were not taking the golden opportunity I was granting them. The conservative assumption was that they were scared of me, or breaking the status quo.

Yet, my observers — at least a portion of them — were far too tense for a routine observation mission. They were about to act, no doubt. But for some reason, they didn't want to act when I was on the balcony.

So, I stayed there. I wanted to trigger their trap, but not by just doing exactly what they wanted. I had clearly misread the situation, and the objective of the balcony was not to deliver the first attack.

Another twenty minutes, and it was past midnight when they acted. A knock on the door. "Sir, we have a messenger from the city lord. It's urgent," a familiar voice called. One of the waiters at the inn, but his voice was too cold for a commoner that was trying to please a noble.

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"Tell him to wait until morning," I said.

"Sir, he says the matter is urgent," he immediately added.

"I'm not one of his pet knights. He can wait," I answered, not bothering to hide my disrespect. And, since I was at the balcony, most of my observers heard it as well, along with a few street rats, inevitably feeding the gossip.

"Sir, please, open the door," he said, knocking harder. For some reason, they didn't want me on the balcony, which meant I was even more determined to stay there. While I was confident that I could get away from whatever plot they had in mind, I had no intention to make their trap work any easier.

I was determined to see exactly how they wanted to push me.

The answer, as it turned out, was directly. Five minutes later, I had noticed four waiters leave the inn, their hidden bows not as hidden as they assumed. Then, they revealed their bows and attacked simultaneously.

Their arrows were covered with red mana.

Cultists.

I was surprised, not by their presence, but by their daring to use Destruction Mana in the middle of the city without fear. However, my shock wasn't enough to miss their attack pattern. The four arrows were spread to leave me an easy escape, as long as I went back into my room.

An interesting choice, but I couldn't help but question why they would choose to weaken the balcony wards in the first place to leave a clue, if the trap they had inside was so important. However, I didn't prioritize searching for an answer. First, I needed to escape.

I was intimately familiar with imbuing Destruction Mana to arrows, and could see that those four arrows would explode before hitting me, burning the balcony with cursed fires. However, my knowledge also gave me its weaknesses. It would have been trivial to deal with if I still had my ability to manipulate Destruction Mana, but even without it, it wasn't too hard.

I imbued the glass in my hand with mana and threw it, hitting one of the arrows right in the middle, triggering its explosion early, which left a gap in the pattern. Even better, the explosion shattered the already-weakened ward, allowing me to escape without revealing my Speed.

The moment I touched the ground, I rolled forward, my blade already drawn. The cultists were already drawing their second set of arrows, though I noted that they showed no signs of anger or panic, just the frustration of a ruined plan.

Yet, as I noticed the sudden burst of action from my observers, I realized the cultists weren't the only ones with ruined plans. It led me to the conclusion that the balcony was not done by my current attackers, rather by one of the observer groups.

Two assassinations tangled with each other. A chuckle escaped my mouth even as I continued to roll forward. It was funny, in a very morbid way, like an unnecessarily edgy sitcom.

I had been planning to deal with the four archers first before dealing with the other observers, when I felt a flicker of Destruction Mana behind me. I would have written it off as the effect of the cursed fires that devastated the balcony, but I was too familiar with the Destruction Mana to mistake a spreading fire with a new ward being triggered.

And, whatever it was that was being triggered, it wasn't small.

When I registered that, I was already among the archers, who had been gathered close together, not worried about a counterattack. It was a mistake, which was a lesson I was able to teach them with four slashes, one for each.

Before the explosion could pick up energy, I waved my hand, creating a defensive shield that would keep me safe. I might not be very good at spells, but a shield was something I had practiced endlessly. As I waved my hand, dozens of shield layers appeared, surrounding me like a blue egg.

[-450 Mana]

I didn't neglect pulling out one of the ward plates, acting like I was activating a stored ward. Just because I was in danger didn't mean it was any less important to hide my capabilities.

The shield wrapped around me just in time for the explosion to trigger and threw me back, allowing me to escape without using Speed. The dark flames stuck on the surface of the mana shield, forcing me to shed layers and replace them with new ones from under.

[-100 Mana]

I needed it only once as the explosion threw me away. I was four blocks away when I let the last remaining layer fall rather than replacing it, and watched the situation. The dark flames had already devoured the inn, and were spreading to other buildings, some occupants quick to run out, while the others freezing in fear to the point of letting the flames devour them.

It appeared that, even in a world that was determined to kill them, some people let the safety of the city dull their sense of vigilance. A mistake, not that I could blame them when I was guilty of the same.

However, my empathy wasn't enough for me to throw myself into the flame to save them. I just spread my Charisma to cover the surrounding buildings, and gave an order to dispel their panic. "Run!"

That was all I would do when I could feel several figures approaching me, some with Concealment.

My observers might not be the ones to set the fire, but they looked happy enough to use the opportunity.