Momentum lost, the King had to go back to the drawing board. It gave us enough time to go back home and plan our next move.

A week passed and Anjou was married. Mirabelle went with her and would do her best to be the mother-in-law nobody ever wanted and the two women would fade into a sidenote in Apricot's chronicles. As far as I know, and I checked with historians during a later incarnation, they lived a good life and died of old age. Anjou's bloodline lasted for a few centuries. Maybe some descendants are around after that but future me couldn't track them.

But Apricot's fate was way more violent, well, I was anathema to this world. A contradiction, an unwilling agent of an ancient enemy.

The duel. The duel was the spark that burned everything.

We were preparing to stay in the winter. If we left the capital right after Anjou's wedding, we could get back home before the snow but that would weaken our position too much. No, we needed to hunker down, make our stand, and murder the shit out of our enemies.

I was with the Master and Gloria in the sitting room when he broached the spiny subject.

"The King is pissed with us. He's going to send his [Royal Assassin] after us. Probably after you first. You are now officially a threat to his rule."

I sighed, a heavy sigh from the bottom of my soul. It was a sigh the Great White One sighed once amidst hunter-gatherers, it was a sigh Lily sighed in the forests outside Fulgen.

"Yes. Kings and I, we don't see eye to eye. The score is two to one for them. Maybe I can even it out before I go."

Gloria froze mid-sip. She didn't do anything untoward with her tea and finished her sip before putting the cup down. "Kings? Plural?" She made a perfect ' sip - bloody hell' meme.

The Master leaned forward, "She reincarnates," He guessed. I nodded. "That's the only explanation as to how she knows as much as she does. And she probably keeps what she learns from previous lives."

Master was a genius.

"My last two deaths were at the hands of Kings," I volunteered. "I got to kill one of them before I died, though. Which ones are not important."

I looked away from them. Remembering and talking about my past lives hurt me because it brought the memories of those lives back to fore. The pain. The grief.

"Let's not talk about this again," Master said. "We need to survive the storm. Winter is coming and will be a bloody one."

"I'm stronger in winter," I joked as I forced the sorrow into a box. Seriously, I wanted to keep Apricot's mental compartmentalization forever. I couldn't consider her handicapped. She was just different. If it weren't me, she would have a severe problem learning things but that was because the world didn't know how to teach her stuff.

"You better be, "Master said, serious. "We received a contract on Apricot's head from the father of the man you killed."

"Can I?"

"You can certainly kill yourself," He joked with a chuckle. "But you can also kill him. If you don't get caught, you can kill anyone in this city. A place full of high-level nobles ripe for the taking."

"I'm satisfied with the Marquis, the King, and the General. By the way, any news on my brother Almond?"

"Well, that's a relief. I thought Gloria and I would be your first victims."

I narrowed my eyes. "Not yet," I said with an emotionless tone. "My brother."

"He was sent to work in a galley rowing. The galley vanished during a trip seven years ago. We don't know anything else."

"So after we're done here, I'm going east to the sea," I declared. Apricot would chase after the moons if she had to.

"The ship sunk," Gloria repeated as if I hadn't understood the first time.

"I have a water fairy. Nenandil can search the ocean."

She came out of my chest to sit on my shoulder. "Hello," She greeted.

The master raised an eyebrow. "Sixty-seven. Is her level equal to yours? Why didn't I think about that?"

"Caught!" Nenandil giggled. "That's correct, sir."

We shared traits but not curses. I was thankful for that little mercy.

"Damn, she out-leveled you, Gloria."

That moment, I felt something clamp on my soul. Nenandil cried sharply and fell from my shoulder on the couch. I fought back and the pressure snapped.

"Damn, what was that?" I said, getting my bearings and trying to make my stomach stop spinning around my head. Figuratively speaking.

"A contract," Gloria said. I felt a contract on you momentarily."

"The fuck?" I bit down hard to stop from throwing up. The nausea was unbearable.

Master stood up and rubbed my back vigorously. "The [Royal Assassin] has made his move. And he probably fainted. Putting an {Assassin Contract} on someone with a higher level Perk rank is hard, someone with spiritual Attributes like yours even harder. He probably gave his all and failed."

"Our hope is that he probably fainted from the effort. His perk was what, rank three?" Gloria asked. "We must strike and kill him before he wakes up."

I was pissed. So that was the guy that dispelled my contracts on the King. A flick of anger and my will pressing on my soul and bang! They were contracted. I shared it with my fellow [Assassins].

"Damn," Gloria's eyes unfocused to read some notification. "You are a scary killer, girl."

"Rest for a bit," The master eased me to lie down on the couch. You have a mission, Your Highness. Kill the [Royal Assassin] and try to prevent information about your Class from leaking."

I closed my eyes for a nap.

Getting an {Assassin's Contract} on my person, aware as I was of it the moment the contract was cast, felt as if the shadow of the reaper came down to clamp on my soul. It was a mix of despair, fear, and anguish nobody would ever want to go through.

I woke up a few hours later. It was the dead of the night, the perfect time to assassinate someone. I went to my room and stripped naked. I thought feral and wild thoughts and my body answered. The power of the moon-bound flared to life and silver fur covered my body as my face, back, hips, and limbs shifted into the body, face, back, hips, and limbs of a were-jaguar. That night, the matriarch would prowl.

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I turned off my title display. No need to make people wonder why there was a were-jaguar {Heroine} walking in the dead of the night. I warmed my throat with a rumbling mix of a growl and a roar. It felt menacing. It felt right. I moved to the basement and from there down a tunnel that led to a storm drain in a back alley. I was free and out in the city.

Crossing the streets and going from shadow to shadow, I made my way to the castle and found my first obstacle. Nenandil warned me that she sensed wards atop the walls, magical wards that would warn those on the wall of intruders. I probably could burrow underneath but the underside of the castle could be also warded and I'd have lost the time to tunnel.

I crawled over the wall underneath the battlements, using chameleon to hide my shape. Machicolations weren't yet a thing, that's high middle ages architecture. Nenandil found a spot where the wards were the weakest and I put myself to work. I was hungry and my {Magic Devourer} perk would make the wards a tasty morsel. As I put myself to feed on the magic I found they were arcane in nature. Or at least not divine. A divine enchantment crumbles upon a mere touch from me. The wards drained their power source then weakened and sputtered out with a low-frequency poof. Probably inaudible for human ears.

I rose on the battlements and watched the patrols pass. Once it was safe, I put myself on the other face of the wall and made my way down. I infiltrated the palace.

The [Royal Assassin] was probably in the palace infirmary. Or his quarters, if he tried to mark me alone. I prowled close to the ground on all fours and made my way to the infirmary first. It was a low-security area, normally used by the King's guards when they are hurt. I found no traces of my mark anywhere.

Sensing the contract, I was led to the edge of one of the smaller ziggurat-with-four-towers buildings and I felt he was below the ground. Not wanting to deal with whatever trapped maze that building was, I shifted into jaguar form and dug my own way. I was always amazed at how digging at twice the speed my Skill allowed with half the debris was efficient. Not even rocks stood in my path. Not the wall of the [Royal Assassin]'s room.

I couldn't help that the block of wall I dislodged fell forward, collapsing on the floor making a heavy dull noise and raising a respectable dust cloud as the debris from my tunnel fell down past me. A man I recognized from the banquet with a contract on his head was lying on a bed. He was pale and was having a restless sleep. I decided to cure him of his ailments with a bite to the throat.

> Assassination successful. Contract fulfilled.

>

> You killed level 71 Royal Assassin. You gained 15,689,254 Exp (50,410 base x 10,000 perk x 0,0001 curse x 3.05 perk x 7,57 contract x 4 Class rank x 3,37 favored enemy).

An [Aristocrat] that got a hell of a Class rank up. I heard a noise outside. I pulled his blanket to cover his head and jumped to the roof, clinging to it and letting chameleon hide me. The pseudopods were working double-time to clean the blood from my muzzle.

A pair of young men in black leathers entered shouting "Master, master!" They looked at the hole and at the immobile figure on the bed, covered with the blanket like a shroud.

"I smell blood," one of them, a beast-kin now that I got a closer look at his face and saw the bushy canine tail behind, said. He was wearing a leather cap that covered his animal ears. "I also smell... beast."

"A tunnel!" The human said as he examined the hole I dug. Level thirty-four, this one...

The beast-kin pulled the cloth. He was level forty-two. He shouted when he saw the damage I did. I used the noise to land on the human, putting a contract as I bit his head off.

> Assassination successful. Contract fulfilled.

>

> You killed level 34 Aristocrat. You gained 899,463 Exp (11,560 base x 10,000 perk x 0,0001 curse x 3.05 perk x 7,57 contract x 3,37 favored enemy).

I didn't even touch the ground. I pushed the body down and jumped on the beast-kin's back. With great agility, he spun and sliced with a dagger, cutting a gash across my muzzle. He struck before getting a good look. Now that he saw the silver jaguar coming on top of him, his eyes went wide. I crashed on him, missing my bite because I flinched from the pain of the slash. My sharp claws only found purchase on his leather armor. I failed the rake with the rear paws. He fell on the bed over the body of his dead master.

He brought the dagger between my ribs. It hurt like hell. I bit his face but only nipped his lips. My front paws stayed latched to his armor, pinning him to the bed under my weight but he was skidding on the blood as he struggled to get free. My rear paws raked several times until I hit flesh and slashed his thighs.

"Get off me, beast!" he grunted.

I cried.

While we struggled, a blob of blood engulfed the beast-kin, blinding him and forcing itself inside his airways. He gagged but that didn't stop him from stabbing me with his dagger. But it gave me room to reach his neck and bite him. Not a critical hit but he got a {Stunning Bleed} debuff. The next bite ended his life.

> You killed level 42 Assassin. You gained 53,802 Exp (17,640 base x 10,000 perk x 0,0001 curse x 3.05 perk).

I jumped away from him and limped. I was wheezing, the bastard had punctured my lung. And what a waste. He wasn't a favored enemy and I forgot to put a contract on him. I shifted to hybrid form and searched the room. There was no noise of people approaching, this place must be soundproof. I opened a box and found some glass vials with iridescent liquids. Glass was expensive as fuck and this was probably a potion. I tested a small drop and yes, it was a healing potion. Also expensive as fuck.

I had two choices. Save the potion and wait to recover here, or use the potion and get the fuck out before someone found me. Or maybe option three. I closed the trunk and walked out to explore the place.

Side-option number three point five. Examine the Beastkin. I picked up his head and removed the cap by clawing a strap of leather under his chin. Two triangular ears with white at the tip popped up. The tail was soft and bushy, ending in a white tip as well. A fox-kin, perhaps. I placed the head next to the body and used their own weapons to mangle the bodies enough to hide the claw and teeth wounds.

I was right about sounds not escaping the place. Because this was a fucking torture complex. Iron grates on the floor of the corridor showed cylindrical cells reeking of old blood, feces, and urine. A skeleton lied on the bottom of one. It was inhumane. Even if I had no other reason to murder that guy, I would kill because of these cells.

On the second-to-last one, I saw a person. Slender frame, a tangled and dirt mess of long brown hair, pale skin. Uncountable bruises and cuts on her skin, some of them in different stages of healing. Her level was thirty-eight. On the verge of a Class rank up.

I knew the best would be to leave her alone. Or end her misery. Yet I was curious and compassionate enough to dig her out. I walked down the shaft as easy as I would walk down a road and lifted her with a paw under each armpit. She weighed like a feather and I could feel too many ribs under her arms.

Once outside, I decided to do something very stupid. I asked for Nenandil's help as unconscious people have trouble swallowing and gave her half the healing potion. Her wounds scabbed and healed almost immediately. Damn, that was the good stuff. Well, half of it.

She coughed and gasped. I let chameleon cloak me. Frantically looking around, she saw nobody. I said, "Calm down. You are safe here."

"Who is there?" She asked weakly.

"Not an enemy."

"Not a friend?"

"That depends on who you are. I'm inclined to be."

"I'm Princess Morvoren of Elteran. Did my brother send you?"

A dollop of genre-savviness never hurt anyone. And I got a shiver down my spine.

"Is your brother a half-minotaur?"

She lit up and I dismayed. "Yes! Prince Bodivka! Did he send you?"

"Not exactly. I'll be honest with you, Your Highness. Your brother was desperate and associated himself with bandits, slavers, and rapists. He was searching for some artifact deep in the forests to the south-east of here."

"Oh, brother, no."

"You can guess what happened, right? I had nothing against him but he fought to defend the camp while I tried to liberate the women."

"He's gone then," She sniffled and I saw her back straighten. Damn, that girl had a backbone with a dash of chutzpah. No wonder she survived whatever horrors they inflicted on her. "Are you here to kill me?"

"I wouldn't give you half an expensive healing potion if I were. I found you by happenstance. I killed the [Royal Assassin] and his apprentices then decided to take a stroll instead of going away."

She swallowed dry. "Did you kill him?"

"Second door to the left, you'll see the bodies. I don't recommend, it is not pretty. Just try to not scream."

"Yes, let me see that rapist's corpse. Could you help me up?"

"I shouldn't, but I'll do. Hope you like fur." Changing my fur pattern to a normal were-jaguar, I picked her up and lifted her. She looked behind and we were face-to-face. "Hello. Just your friendly neighborhood cat-girl."

"That's... not what I was expecting. Not at all. Thankfully it is not a night with a full moon."

"Who said that?" I huffed and raised an eyebrow.

She gave me a duh face and rolled her eyes the way girls do when they hear something stupid, "Otherwise we wouldn't be talking but dining. I'd probably be the dessert."

Yup, I liked her. I made a mental note to ask the Master if I could keep her.

She went and took a good look at the mangled bodies. Then she spat on the [Royal Assassin]'s dead face, picked a dagger from the ground, and cut off his dick. She stared at me with an imperious face.

"Help me turn him around," the [Princess] said.

I did.