「I have a reason to suspect you do not belong here. I ask again… Who are you?」

The tall spearman glares at the dark figure at the door, speaking calmly but in a cold, stern tone.

《Shit… Do I come up with an excuse? Is it worth letting him hear my voice?… There's no way he'll buy one, right!?》

The figure thinks as her yellow eyes size the man up. He is wearing a blue, full bodysuit, though its sleeves end at the middle of his thick bicep, revealing the skin on the remainder of his muscular arms. His face is frigid and serious, his black eyes stare at her with a piercing gaze, but at the same time, there is no apparent hostility in neither his expression, nor his body language. He stands many heads taller than the average man in the capital, his stature being the first thing that easily catches the eye at a glance.

「…If you do not tell me-」

「I um, uhh…」

The spearman goes silent when the woman begins to speak. Her eyes dart around the room.

「I, umm… I am a… 」

She continues, and the man tilts his head. His black ponytail jiggles a little behind him as he listens. Her golden eyes dart all around the room at a rapid pace.

「A… Aaa… Chimneeey…」

The woman turns her eyes to the fireplace, and the red bricks leading upward just above it.

「Chimney?…」

Narrowing his eyes, the man tilts his head the other way.

「A… Chimney… Sweep! I'm a chimney sweep!」

《There's no way he'll buy that! Idiot!》

The dark figure exclaims as she points her clawed finger at the lit fireplace. He slowly turns his head towards the flames dancing on a small log, then his eyes return to her.

「…I see. My apologies.」

The man lightly bows his head towards her while he apologizes.

《He bought it!? What an idiot!》

Her head perks up, and golden eyes open wide in shock as she retracts her hand. The man straightens out again.

「That explains why you cover your face, and why you wear black. I have been tasked with providing security for the palace in return for being able to stay here until my master returns.」

He speaks in a calm voice, though his face remains serious and frigid, and his black eyes continue glaring at her.

「R- Right…」

The masked woman nods along, quietly agreeing.

「While I am mostly accustomed to this land now, its culture is still very foreign to me. Someone dressed like you would be killed on sight in my land…」

「Urk!?…」

The man continues his explanation. The woman's head perks up again, and she stifles a surprised grunt.

「…That's why, again, my apologies for misunderstanding. I do not want to keep you from your duties any longer…」

The spearman bows his black head down again, and the woman starts to covertly shift to grasp the door handle.

「Riiight… There's no problem, I'm going to go and get to work right now-」

She quietly replies, reaching for the door behind her back, still facing the man as he's straightening out.

「…Which is why I'll come with you to verify your identity with the palace guards.」

He abruptly adds, looking at her with his constant serious and frigid expression. The woman visibly cringes.

《No, of course he didn't! Idiot!…》

She thinks, clenching her teeth with her golden eyes forced shut in a pained wince.

「Ah, there's no need for that, I'll just sweep the chimneys really quick and-」

「My apologies, but I've only just arrived to the palace. I believe you, but I do not know you. While I can't do it, the guards should know any chimney sweeps who work here.」

The man quickly replies, interrupting the woman in black.

《They won't know any!…》

She winces again, glancing aside before her gaze returns to the man. Her golden eyes look at his black ones as she goes silent and still.

「It should take only a moment. Moreover…」

He adds, and takes a peek over his shoulder at the dancing flames.

「…If you climb into the hot chimney right now, it might be dangerous. It's best if you allow it to cool off. Shall we go?」

His eyes return to her, and he begins to approach her with a relaxed but sure step, wider than the average man's pace and much faster, owing to his long legs.

「S- Sure, yes, let's go….」

The woman nods her cloth-wrapped head and hesitantly opens the door, still facing the rapidly approaching man. As soon as it's halfway open, she dashes through it.

「Hm?…」

The man stops in his tracks and tilts his head. His brows furrow as he tries to process the event. When he finally realizes what has happened, his vertically-slit eyes snap wide open.

「…Hold it right there!」

He screams into the open doorway and lunges towards the hallway, briefly becoming a blue blur.

The woman looks over her shoulder while in a mad dash away from the open door and the spearman. Just as she reaches the junction at the end of the hall, he leaps out into the hallway.

「Halt!」

He screams at her as she slides to a stop at the junction, then rushes her way in wide, rapid jumps. She runs to the side, sprinting past one of the corners.

「Aggghh!…」

Through her rapid panting breaths, she lets out a dismayed, frustrated groan.

《Why is my life just a string of misfortunate events!?》

She clenches her teeth as she runs through a crossing. Two confused guards stop in their tracks to avoid collision with the black figure that suddenly appears before them, only to disappear just as suddenly down the hallway. They glance at each other before turning their eyes back to the crossing. They take another step forward, and see Shien rapidly closing in with wide leaps.

「Intruder! After her!」

Ffffwoom!

He screams and leaps past the guards with a gust of wind as if a hurricane just blew past them, red plumes flapping on their helmets from the air current. They glance at each other with shocked eyes again and rush after him, though there's slim chances of them ever catching up to his inhuman top speed. Shien reaches the woman, rapidly gaining on her before she turns another corner. He's forced to abort the next leap and slide his feet along the ground to brake, slowing to avoid a collision with the wall ahead.

「Stop right there! The palace has guards everywhere, you have nowhere to run!」

Shien demands as he slides to a halt and sees the intruder in black, but the woman continues running from him. Ignored, he takes a leap again, rushing after her.

Suddenly, the woman takes a leap forward as well. Her head swivels around to him as the rest of her body soon follows. She swings her arm and Shien's eyes widen.

Clank-clank!

He deflects two translucent glass-like shapes speeding through the air for his throat and thigh with his spear, shattering them both and sending them crashing down to the ground.

「Both of them!?…」

The woman exclaims in disbelief with her golden eyes wide as well, then turns to run again as she lands back on her feet.

「Ice?…」

Drops of cold water splash his cheek, distracting him momentarily as he looks at the shattered remnants of the daggers on the floor. His vertically-slit black eyes return to the woman's back, sharply focused on her. She runs into the stairs downwards, sliding down the railing rather than running down them. Shien ignores the stairs and simply leaps their whole length down to the landing.

Thud!

「Last chance! If you continue running, I'll stop you by any means necessary!」

He shouts at the woman who ignores him and continues running.

Thud!

Shien leaps down the rest of the stairs to the ground floor and grips his spear with both of his hands.

Just as he takes a low stance, the woman glances at him over her shoulder and jumps aside into one of the rooms.

「Slippery woman…」

He grumbles as he straightens out and runs for the door she entered. As he approaches, he hears something scatter along the wooden floor inside. Pointing his spearhead into the doorway, he notices the woman climbing out of the open window. The woman and Shien briefly gain eye contact as she looks over her shoulder at him.

「I won't let you!…」

He declares and rushes into the room, viciously driving his spear towards her back.

「Ngh!?」

Thud. Clinkclinkclink…

Shien collapses to his knees when something painfully pierces through his foot. As his legs brush something scattered on the floor aside, the objects give out a dense, metallic sound.

「Wait!… You're not getting away-!」

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The spearman shouts as she vaults the window and runs off. He tries to stand up and give chase, but the moment he makes an attempt, he winces and realizes something hard is lodged in the bottom of his foot. He turns his foot to take a good look at it. It bleeds heavily. Something made of dark metal is indeed stuck in it, making running and standing extremely difficult, if not outright impossible. As he looks around, he notices the objects scattered on the wooden floor. He picks one up, examining it in his fingers.

Dark metal, strongly resembling three nails twisted around each other, sharp and pointing in nearly all possible directions. Rather than a crude construction of actual nails, it appears to have been custom made for this specific purpose, now one of them stuck in his foot. He lets out a sound full of discomfort, frustration, and maybe pain, all amounting to a grunt, groan, or perhaps both. The palace guards Shien had passed a few moments ago run up, their armored feet hammering on the floor outside as they slow down and peek inside the room.

「Nghh… She's outside! Sound the alarm! Form a perimeter! Find her!」

Shien pulls the bloodied twisted metal out of his foot and discards it onto the floor. He stands up, propping himself up on his spear and points his finger towards the window, commanding the guards. They nod their plumed armored heads and rush away towards the palace gate. Using his spear as a walking stick, Shien limps outside the room, his foot dripping blood onto the floor…

…

Mere moments earlier…

「I won't let you!…」

The spearman declares and rushes into the room, viciously driving his spear towards the black figure's back.

《Shit!》

She clenches her teeth as the broad spearhead draws near.

「Ngh!?」

Thud. Clinkclinkclink…

The man lets out a pained, surprised grunt, and collapses.

《Lucky for once!… Now's my chance!》

Through her black cloth, the figure lets out relieved huff from her nose and jumps out onto the grass outside.

「Wait!… You're not getting away-!」

The man on the ground shouts. She runs off as fast as her legs can take her into the darkness.

《I've accomplished nothing and now they're going to increase the security!… Why can't I get one lucky break!?》

She thinks as she runs amidst the shadows of the palace perimeter, clenching her fist in dismay.

《Now is not the time… Think, think, think! I need to get out of here! I could just run through the gate…》

Her golden eyes turn to the guards at the front gate that face the disabled magic lamp.

《No, that's way too risky!… Even if I can run past them, I'll have to lose them!-》

Crouched down, she hammers her clawed fist on the grass in frustration. She notices two plumed guards run to the two at the gate, shouting and waving their arms at them.

《Damn it… Now even that way out is gone…》

Her eyes cringe while she watches the guards talk for a few moments, then the gate guards begin watching the perimeter interior on full alert, rather than the exterior.

《I can't stay here… Maybe the garden?》

In a low crouch and in deep shadows, she sneaks out of the line of sight of the gate guards towards the back of the palace, making her way back to the garden at the other side.

The rear of the palace appears to be an area for the maids and the palace workers. There are small tool sheds near, and lights are lit, pouring outside the windows of the rectangular homes.

Avoiding the light, the dark figure sticks to the shadows, clinging onto the walls with her back, head constantly swiveling back and forth. She peeks her head out from beyond a corner.

A maid enters one of the lit buildings, yawning with her mouth covered as she walks through the door and shuts it behind her. Keeping an eye on the general area between the buildings, the figure dashes into the darkness, heading directly for the side of the palace.

She navigates through a particularly dark segment of the interior perimeter. Though there's plenty of lit windows above and beside her, the brick wall covered in vines towards the fence blocks all light from the lamps outside. Crouched, she sneaks her way towards the door in the wall, and cautiously enters through it, peeking her golden eyes inside first. Beyond the wall there is a beautiful, colorful flower garden. The aroma of flowers is powerful despite the cold autumn weather, and beside the flowerbed, just a few paces away, there is a tall hedgerow trimmed to perfection.

Curious, the figure takes a few reluctant steps towards it. There apparently is an entrance into the depths of the hedgerow walls, inviting the onlooker to walk in, but there is also a straight path just beside the hedge stretching all the way back to the long glass windows, the door, and the gazebo.

《…Is this a maze? For what purpose? You can just climb above it.》

The brows above her golden eyes furrow a little as she looks at the dark hedgerow maze and its exposed top, tilting her cloth-wrapped head.

《Doesn't matter. I need to get out of here.》

She shakes her head, and takes the path beside the maze back to the gazebo. Before she enters the wide, open area, she peeks her eyes out of the corner of the maze. So far, there is nobody.

While there is nobody in the garden around the gazebo, the guards' screaming is audible on the other side of the palace through the quiet night.

《…But how do I?》

Her yellow eyes look at the fence and the oak tree growing nearby. She turns her attention to the gazebo.

Its roof is very conical and steep, though its bottom-most edge likely has enough space to place one's toes or edge of the feet on. The figure walks up to the gazebo, crouches down to compress like a spring, and leaps upward. Her clawed fingers clutch onto the tiny edge, and her split-toed footwear kicks against the pillars holding up the roof. She makes an attempt to roll onto it, but it's simply physically impossible as there is far too little space, and the conical roof is just far too steep.

「Hnf!…」

With a stifled grunt, she lands on her feet despite the extremely awkward and outright dangerous position of her body while in the air. Squatting down, her eyes glare at the gazebo.

「Hnnnnnngggrrh!…」

The all-black figure curls up and presses her masked face between her knees. She lets out a frustrated, dismayed growl while her clawed, cloth-wrapped hands cover her head.

《I can't do it like this! The roof is too steep! The edge is too tiny! The pillars under the thing are too far, I can barely reach them!…》

She clenches her teeth, hiding her already hidden face further into her legs. She lifts her head up, and her hands drop down to her knees. With her brows furrowed, she looks at the oak.

《…If I just somehow made it up there, I could probably swing off the tree onto the fence.》

The figure thinks, visually gauging the distance between the tree and the spiked wrought iron fence with her vertically-slit golden eyes.

「…Spread out! Secure all the entrances to the palace!…」

A guard's distant voice shouts, echoing in the night. The woman looks over her shoulder at the glass door behind her, and winces.

「…Do I just climb to the top and then jump back to the palace to swing off towards the fence?」

She thinks out loud as she looks at the oak's tall treetop, briefly glancing at the small grappling hook on her hip that hangs off a rope tied to her narrow waist. Her eyes return to the treetop.

「Aggghh!…」

The woman lets out another dismayed groan and clutches onto her head again, hiding her face in her knees once more.

「…That's way too fast. If I jump off the top, I might as well land on my head.」

She grumbles to herself, and freezes completely still for a few seconds.

「What do I doooo?… Think Stripe, think!」

The figure asks nobody in particular with her brows greatly furrowed as her arms drop limp. She lifts her head up, looking at the gazebo's roof-covered interior.

「Ah.」

Beneath her mask, her jaw drops, and her eyes slowly open wider.

《…The table.》

She shoots up to her feet as she looks at the long table inside the gazebo. She glances at the edge of its roof, then back at the table.

《…I could just climb the table up to the roof! Then I could swing off the gazebo to the fence!》

The woman lets out a relieved sigh, then rushes beneath the gazebo's roof. She sets the chairs aside, and starts pulling the wooden table outside.

Krrrrrrrrrkkkkkrrkkk…

It scrapes loudly against the gazebo's stone floor, causing her to wince.

《There's no way nobody will notice!…》

She thinks, and continues pulling. A mere moment later, breathing heavily, she manages to get the table's far end to align with the edge of the roof.

《Now I need to get it up there…》

Her golden eyes dart up to the edge, then back down to the table. She grips the table's edge, and starts lifting it up, straining loudly.

「Hnnghhrgggghhh!…」

《Damn it, I wish I had a man to help me with this!…》

Her arms and legs wobble as she grunts, lifting the edge above her cloth-wrapped head. Locking her elbows and taking a moment to catch her breath, she begins to pull the table closer.

Krkkkk… Krrrrkk… Krrrrrrrrk…

When finished, she steps aside from underneath it. The table is now resting against one of the pillars, diagonal, and almost reaching the roof of the gazebo.

《It's not quite there, but it's good enough! I can work with this!》

With her hands on her hips, she gives the table a powerful nod of her head. She walks out in front of it, taking a few steps backwards.

Thud-thud-thudTHUD!

The figure dashes towads the table, leaps up, and begins running up along it towards the gazebo. She jumps upwards one more time, propelling herself off of it.

THUD!…

As her feet push off the table, it slips off the pillar and slams on the ground. The noise echoes through the night when she lands on the roof and hugs her body to the cone.

「Hrrrrk!」

Her wide-open eyes snap downward at the table as she gasps for air in shock.

「…Hey! I just heard something in the garden!…」

A voice from the front of the palace shouts.

「Nononononononono…」

She repeats rapidly while she begins untying the rope around her waist to free the grappling hook.

「Nonononononono…」

Quickly untying it from her waist, the woman grips onto the grappling hook's base and lets it slide out of her hand a little, gripping onto the rope attached to it.

「Please work please work please work please work…」

As if repeating a mantra, she swings the hook on the rope, giving it a faster and faster spin while her golden eyes are sharply focused on the oak nearby.

Fwoop…

She throws it at one of its lonelier branches above while her heart beats like a wardrum.

Swoosh.

The golden, orange, and yellow leaves upon the tree rustle softly as the hook wraps itself on the branch. The woman lets out a large sigh of relief, but her relief is short-lived.

Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack!

Her eyes snap to the noise of armored footsteps drawing near the garden. She gulps, and turns her gaze back to the tree.

《I only have one chance…》

The woman thinks, and leaps off the gazebo towards the tree, clutching onto the rope in her hands for her life. Just before impact with the ground, the rope becomes taut and instead pulls her forward. With cat-like grace, she narrowly avoids the grass beneath by twisting her body around, her golden eyes wide-open and glowing like spotlights as the moonlight briefly reflects off them.

At the height of her swing, she lets go of the rope. She leaps through the air with her feet outstretched towards the horizontal bar just beneath the sharp spikes along the entire length of the fence.

Thunk.

The bar makes a hollow sound as the soles of her footwear make contact, however, she is still diagonally tilted towards the interior of the perimeter. She wildly flaps her arms in circles trying to gain some extra velocity. It works, at least for a few seconds, before her tilt towards the fence slows to a halt.

When she feels the gravity is pulling her back towards the palace, she makes a last ditch effort to grab the spikes.

Clunk!…

The bones in her hands impact the sides of the iron spikes hard enough to make them ring softly as her clawed fingers wrap around them.

「Hmmmpffffgghh!…」

She grunts heavily, tensing all her leg, back, stomach, and arm muscles to pull herself forward and upright. Though her arms are tired, she slowly manages to right herself more and more.

The masked woman breathes heavily with her eyes wide-open as she stands upright on the horizontal bar, no longer fighting gravity. She tries to take a few seconds to catch her breath, but the footsteps drawing near interrupt her. She leaps forward and rolls on the ground outside of the fence, then sprints towards the closest dark alleyway. Her eyes look at the plumed guards rushing towards the garden to check if she has been discovered.

「Hey! There's a rope here!…」

One of the men shouts, pointing his armored finger at the grappling hook hanging off a branch. She lets out another relieved sigh, and stumbles into the alleyway's darkness…