I looked at the colorfully-painted building in front of me. People went in and out through the poorly-decorated entrance, and the surrounding street was similarly packed. However, I cancelled out the background noise, diverting my full concentration and attention to analyzing the building.

‘Education Bureau of Gravia’ was engraved on top of the entrance, which meant that this was the right place. Yet, I had to wonder why this place was heavily guarded…

The entrance alone garnered extravagant protection—six haunted armors stood guard with their gauntlets wrapped around the hilts of their sheathed blades. To the side, four more armors were patrolling around. There were probably more guards scattered around the place. Steel fencing surrounded the building from all sides.

If it weren’t for the rainbow-schemed paint of the building, I would’ve thought that this was a military compound.

My eyes slowly scanned the place until I could hear footsteps approaching me. This was the only noise I didn’t cancel out. Slowly, the background noise started coming back, and I sighed. The concentration of mana around my body started dissipating.

Though my hood was already quite low, I tugged it down for good measure. I tightened the bracer underneath my loose cloak sleeves and checked the dagger neatly tucked on my waist. By the time the footsteps were near me, I had finished my final preparation.

“Boss Kendra! We got you the strawberry bun you asked! We made sure to make the smell of strawberry as strong as possible!” Two skeletons approached me and handed me a cloth bag. I opened it and took a whiff. Sure enough, the smell was strong.

“Alright. You can go,” I said.

“Are you sure you’ll be fine? We still haven’t confirmed how many fairies are there inside the bureau,” a skeleton murmured.

I glanced at the skeleton and frowned. “Are you the boss here or am I?”

The two skeletons raised their hands and nodded. “You’re the boss here.”

I nodded and fastened my cloak. Before I could even take a step forward, I was immediately interrupted by one of the skeletons yet again. “Ah, ah, Boss Kendra. We’ll be on stand by outside.”

I knitted my brow and huffed. “I got it.”

I walked through the entrance while remembering the positions of the heavily armored guards. There were quite a few undead and mortal beings waiting at the reception hall. Behind the reception counters, I could see a guarded large spiral stairway at the back which led towards the restricted areas. It was the only way in or out of the second floor. Though the bureau mostly consisted of spectrals who could just fly through the walls and floors, the building was still built on the basis that there would be non-spectrals moving around the place.

I waited just for the right moment when two non-spectral undead walked up the stairs.

I stared blankly in front of me, trying to memorize the scenery in front of me as much as I could. The world slowed down, and the color started to blur out. Noise started to fade out, and the only thing I could hear was my own breathing.

I closed my eyes and opened them. An empty black void surrounded me. I tried to move forward, but it felt like I was trying to plow through a thick layer of mud. Every step took an excrutiation amount of effort. I could feel piercing gazes from the sides and behind, but I dared not to look anywhere else.

I calculated how many steps I took, and reached my hand out. I closed my eyes and felt a marble handrail. I opened my eyes, and I was at the staircase, just behind the two undead. The guards behind me hadn’t noticed me, so I followed behind after masking the presence of my life aura.

Upon reaching the second floor, I hid myself by a wall and created a one-way illusionary wall around me. Though imperfect, its magical presence was weak, and its not really noticeable unless people get too close to the wall. Master had said that he used the same spell in a prison break, so it should be good enough for an infiltration into a government building.

Security had drastically decreased within the restricted area, though I still had to be careful as a random phantom could just walk through the wall behind me and spook me.

I looked at the back of my hand and whispered, “Map. Second floor.”

Black ink started to expand from my hand until it created a very simplistic drawing of a floor map. I quickly analyzed the map, then removed my illusionary wall before moving through the floor stealthily. It didn’t take a long time to find the next set of stairs. Floor by floor, I made my way up. Each floor had less people than the previous one, making the whole infiltration easier. There were times where I was nearly caught, but the illusion wall helped me well.

Once I reached the stairway leading to the seventh floor, I stopped my advance. There was a ghost behind a table right in front of the stairs, probably a secretary for the head of the education bureau and the head advisor.

It would be impossible for me to get into the head advisor’s office without alerting the ghost. Ghosts and spectrals tend to wail very loudly when dying, so killing the secretary would just be counter-intuitive. Fortunately for me, I was prepared. After making sure that the floor below was empty, I walked up the staircase and stopped midway. I took out the strawberry bun out of my cloth bag and waved it around.

I heard a door open, followed by a gurgling voice saying, “What is that smell?”

“What do you mean, Mister Yuvez?” the ghost secretary asked.

“I smell something nice. Can you smell it?”

“Mister Yuvez, ghosts can’t smell.”

I heard slithering sounds approaching my way so I slowly lured my target downstairs. I pulled out my dagger and hid it behind my back. A giant oozing green slug poked its head from the stairwell and saw me.

“Who are you?” the giant slug asked.

“Are you Burmlin Yuvez, Head Advisor of the Education Bureau of Gravia?” I asked back.

“Yes. Now who are you?” the giant slug repeated its question.

“Mister Yuvez, is there someone down there with you?” the ghost upstairs shouted.

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I raised the strawberry bun up in the air, and the slug’s eyes were locked onto the bun. I heard that slugs like strawberries, but I didn’t know if it was going to work on an undead giant slug. Perhaps the bakery I frequented was just great at making pastry.

“Little girl, is that for me?” the giant slug asked with a hunger-induced stare.

“Of course. Not just that, this one’s for you too!” Once I got closed enough, I propelled myself forward with air magic and stabbed my dagger into Yuvez as deeply as I could. The slug screamed loudly and shook its body. I sliced its chest and dug my hands into Yuvez’s gaping wound.

“Huh? This isn’t the spot?” I muttered to myself.

The giant slug shook me off and headbutted me to the wall. It screeched while wiggling its bleeding body, “Guuaaaards! Guuuaaaards!”

After quickly recovering, I charged at the slug and lunged my dagger forward. Ice crystals started forming at the tip of the dagger until the blade was as long as a sword. This time, I buried my weapon deep;y and sliced again to make way.

Vile black blood spilled everywhere as I calmly searched for the fairy within. By this time, the secretary found out about my excavation attempt on Yuvez, and she flew through the floor to alert the guards. Judging from my memory, the guards should take only a few seconds to reach the top floor.

I had to make this quick.

After cutting the slug in half, a fairy crawled out of the corpse and tried to fly away, but I grabbed her just in time. I slammed her into a prepared jar and placed it into the now-vacant cloth bag.

Several haunted armor appeared from the staircase and charged at me without hesitation. I dodged a slash and deflected a stab towards my chest. I jumped up, kicked one of the haunted armors, and launched myself away from the angry guards. With a considerable distance between us, I quickly ran away from them. Sprinting through the hallway, I slammed a door open and entered the room.

After bashing a window open, I glanced at the distant rooftop across the street and teleported away just as a sword was about to rudely introduce itself to my head.

As soon as my feet touched the rooftop, I broke into a sprint and jumped onto the next building. I hopped over the roof’s parapet and blinked into another building. After teleporting just three buildings away, several armored undead appeared at the rooftops.

Their blue armor matched with their ghastly glowing blue eyes. There was only one group of undead which wore this kind of uniform.

“Stop right there, criminal scum!” a death commissioner shouted.

“In the name of the Gravian law, you are under arrest! Do not resist or we will lawfully introduce you to the afterlife!” another threatened.

I clicked my tongue. “Damn, you guys are fast.”

“Why thank you, criminal scum. We try our best- HEY! HEY! SHE’S ESCAPING!”

I parkoured and teleported between buildings as I dodged several dark arcane bolts. Explosions followed behind me closely. As I ran, I formed a ball of lightning in my hand and threw it at the nearest group of death commissioners.

With a large ‘boom’, they were struck mid-jump and fell straight towards the ground.

Teleportation was taking a huge toll on me so I leapt from the edge of the roof I was in and used air magic to glide myself. Pedestrians panicked and parted as I sprinted through the crowded streets.

A blue-and-black wagon crashed close to me, and several skeletons aimed their multi-bolt crossbows at me from the wagon’s window. “In the name of the Enforcers, stop, see?!”

“Scram!” I shouted in response and waved my dagger. A moon-shaped bolt overturned the wagon. I jumped over the wagon and continued my escape as bolts passed overhead.

After crossing several streets, I stopped on my track when I found some death commissioners blocking my path. I tried to escape to the side, but the paths were blocked by the enforcers.

“You are surrounded! Surrender! In the name of the law!” one of the law enforcers shouted.

Just as I was about to use a near-divine spell, the commissioners and enforcers around me were attacked by armed skeletons.

“This is for the Skeleton Godfather!”

”Free the Skeleton Godfather!”

”Avenge the Godfather!”

A fight broke out between members of the Skeleton Gang and the law enforcers. Though the Skeleton Godfather was already freed, both of the city’s law enforcers were unaware of this. This was just obviously my backup from Master’s minions.

A skeleton wearing baggy pants and a headband approached me while dodging several crossbow bolts. “Quickly, Boss Kendra! We’ll pave a path out for you!”

The fighting opened a gap into an open alleyway, so I sprinted into it without hesitation.

“Don’t let that person get away!” someone shouted.

Several death commissioners broke off from the brawl and chased after me. I navigated through the labyrinth-like alleyways until I turned a corner and found an open backdoor. I burst through it and closed the door behind me.

I didn’t even have the time to check what was inside, so I was greeted by the sight of a familiar person sitting on a chair while reading a book. It was none other than the angel-like pastry seller! This room was probably the bakery’s backroom, where she was currently taking a break.

She stared at me, and I did the same as I leaned my body against the door. Her sight fell towards the black blood splattered all over my cloak and robes. The pastry seller had a stiff face.

“Ah-”

“W-Wait, don’t shout!” I begged.

The lady raised her hand from her book, touched the tip of her index finger with her thumb and said, “I won’t sell you out if you pay me.”

This is no angel! Not an angel at all! What kind of angel would be a money-grubber?!

Without hesitation, I threw my purse at her and waited. The sounds of armor clanking could be heard through the door.

“Search every alleyway! They can’t be that far!” an angry voice shouted.

It took minutes for the place to settle down. I opened the door, confirmed that the death commissioners were gone, and sighed a breath of relief. Looking back at the lady, she was happily counting her money. Noticing my deathly stare, she pulled the purse back as if I was going to snatch it away from her.

Well, whatever.

I left the bakery, turned a few corners, and ditched my bloodied clothes. Luckily, the outer layers were thick enough so that the inner layer, my tunic and pants, weren’t bloodied noticeably.

I exited the alleyways and merged with the crowded street. Though I managed to escape, I still avoided the scattered groups of enforcers and commissioners who were still on the lookout for a supposed murderer on the loose.

It took me almost a day to reach Master’s headquarters, and by then, I was exhausted physically and mentally. As soon as I reached the top floor and entered Master’s office, he shouted, “Kendra! Did you hear the news?! There’s a murderer on the loose! Why did you come home so late?! What if he murders you next?!”

“The murderer is me, idiot!” I replied with a click of my tongue and showed him the jar of fairy. “I found the demon-fairy-whatever after chopping the educational bureau’s head advisor in half.”

“Ah. That makes sense.” Master grabbed the jar and inspected the fairy within. The tiny girl slammed her fist against the glass and scratched her face. Bloody claw marks could be seen all over her body when I looked closer. “With this, it won’t be long until the educational bureau falls under my control.”

“What if there’s more than one fairy controlling the bureau?” I asked as I sat down on the sofa, exhausted.

Master held the jar up and shook it. “We only need the head of the snake. Resistance would falter easily with the head fairy locked up by us. I’ll send Daggerless to negotiate with the bureau after things cool down.”

“Whatever,” I murmured while sinking into my seat.

“Once I take the bureau, I can finally target Particia. It’ll only take a few weeks to take her down,” Master estimated, his tone laced with confidence.

“A few weeks? Huh. Just in time for election day. Here I thought you were just doing nothing all day. Didn’t realize we’ve already made this much progress.” I yawned. “What’s your plan for Senator Particia?”

“Kendra, you already know my mode of operation here at Gravia.”

“Wait…” I sat up straight and shot him a look of confusion. “You’re going to kidnap her as well?”

Master cackled and waved his finger. “Not necessarily me.”