A woman was standing outside the manor when Cass finally found her way to it. Identify called her a level 17 Human Servant, and she was dressed to match in simple, though good quality clothes.

“Miss Cass Yuan?” the woman asked.

“Hi?” Cass said with a wave. This couldn’t be an assassin, could it? On Alyx’s front porch? At a level lower than Cass? No. No way. “That’s me. What’s up?”

“The madam has asked you to see her upon your return. I am here to guide you there.”

The madam, huh? Alyx’s mother? But hadn’t that dragon said Alyx’s mother was dead? A stepmother then? It would be rude to refuse, right?

“Okay, lead the way,” Cass said. The servant led Cass into the house, ascending the stairs and bowing low at the Grand Duchess’s portrait before continuing higher into the house.

She walked with silent steps, her hands folded quietly before her.

“Why does the—madam was it?—want to see me?” Was that the title the woman had used? Cass’s entirely too extensive reading of trashy, historical romance dramas suggested the madam should refer to the lady of the house. It also suggested she should be petty and clinging to her husband’s power.

“I could not comment,” the servant replied.

Cass frowned. You have any guesses?

If the nobles of this time are anything like the ones I knew, your presence should not have been noticed. You are too weak to be worth considering, much less inviting to speak with.

So nothing good, you think? Cass asked.

Was that what I said?

Not in so many words. But if you can’t think of a good reason she’d want to see me, that just leaves dumb and petty ones.

Cass looked down at her clothes, suddenly remembering the dry blood on her robes. It would wash out thanks to the magic of the material but in the meantime… “Should I have washed up before seeing her?”

“The madam asked me to bring you right away, miss.”

Well, maybe it was just her Earth sensibilities that had a problem with blood on her clothes. This was a far more violent world, after all. The people on the street had barely screamed when she’d been ambushed earlier. No one had been concerned about Daidyn pinning a man to the ground. The librarian hadn’t commented on the blood either, now that she thought about it.

It must be fine. Though, if this kept happening, she would need to find a combination of applications of Elemental Manipulation to clean herself up. It would bother her, even if it was unremarkable to everyone else.

Maybe she could summon water to clean it while the blood was still wet? Or could she blood-bend it off right away? Maybe. It was definitely worth experimenting with. Was blood its own ‘element’ or would it just be an application of water?

You are thinking about something strange, aren’t you? Salos accused her.

No. I’m thinking about how to avoid walking around all day with blood on me in the future. That’s entirely reasonable.

Do I want to know what you have come up with so far?

Cass took a second to explain her current plans.

Only you would consider using a combat skill for something like this.

Elemental Manipulation isn’t a combat skill. It has combat applications, but face it, I make more dishware with it than I use it to burn my enemies.

He sighed on her shoulder.

“I don’t think I caught your name,” Cass said, making idle talk as they walked.

The woman glanced over her shoulder, an eyebrow raised. “No. I did not give it.”

“Oh, no worries if you didn’t want to share.” Maybe this was a name tag at Target kind of situation, she didn’t want a complete stranger calling her name all familiar like when they weren’t even acquaintances and she just wanted to show Cass where the toilet paper was kept.

How big was this house? How many people lived here? Just Alyx and her family, right? Also, their servants, she supposed. “How big is Alyx’s family again?”

She hadn’t meant to wonder that aloud, but it’d slipped out.

The woman was staring at her again with far more concern and judgment in her eyes than was probably professional for a servant, but who was Cass to judge?

The servant coughed politely. “The Veldor family can be split into four houses, named for the manors of their respective heirs: Ahdain, Blyn, Sellen, and Delim. This is the Delim Manor.

“The Lord Warden Thaycer Delim Veldor is its master. His wife is the madam, Lady Litya Delim Veldor. They have two children: young masters Kohen and Ahryn. There is also the master’s ward, his (bastard?) daughter Alyx.”

That was an interesting pair of words for Alyx, ‘ward’ and ‘bastard’. Cass’s skill stressed that ‘(bastard?)’ here had a strictly different connotation than the English equivalent but provided no hints as to which ways it was similar or different.

She set that aside for now, ‘ward’ on its own was odd. “Shouldn’t it be just ‘his daughter’?”

Wasn’t that what you called adopted kids? Or was ward a step short of adoption?

It was one of those kind of old-timey relations. The kind of thing stories set in Industrial Revolution London used to explain why the romantic leads grew up in the same household without them being siblings.

“Miss Alyx is not a daughter of this house.” There was a finality to the servant’s tone that Cass was uncomfortable arguing with.

She had a mountain more questions, but none seemed appropriate to ask point blank to the staff.

Finally, they came to another impressive-sized set of double doors. The wood was a rich mahogany, the grain swirling in delicate patterns that simultaneously did not seem like the sort a tree would naturally grow in but also did not appear to have been painted into the wood later.

The servant knocked. “I have brought Miss Yuan.”

“Enter,” a woman’s voice called from within.

The servant pushed open the door and gestured for Cass to enter.

Inside was a sitting room. A woman in green robes sat beside a roaring fireplace on a plush armchair. Her eyes and hair were dark purple, like the petals of poison nightshade. Those eyes regarded Cass with a flick.

Vaisom Noble (Lvl 36)

The two women stared at one another, Cass standing just inside the doorway, the woman, Litya Veldor, sitting silently. The minute dragged on.

Is there something I’m supposed to say? Cass asked.

It was polite for the weaker party to not speak until spoken to in these sorts of situations when I last checked. Salos said.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

So this is hazing then? Cass suppressed a sigh.

Likely. Salos agreed.

“Well?” the woman said finally. Her voice was sharp, a weapon as much as the wand hanging from a strap around her arm was. It was a little less than a foot long, the handle encrusted with gems, the tip adorned with a single jewel the size of Cass’s thumb.

“Well, what?” Cass asked, only willing to play this game to a certain degree.

“Are you not going to greet me?” she asked.

“Am I supposed to?” Cass asked. What happened to not talking until spoken to?

How should I know? Salos asked. Things have changed so much the alphabet has gone through a realignment while I have been gone. We should just be happy the spoken language is still the same.

“It is polite for the guest to greet their host when invited to their parlor.” The exasperation in her voice was monumental.

“Oh, well, hi. I’m Cass.” Cass accompanied it with her usual wave.

I am hardly an expert, but I doubt that is the polite greeting this woman was expecting.

The woman met Cass’s wave with a passionless stare. “Welcome. I am Lady Litya Delim Veldor, wife of the Warden of Vaisom, daughter-in-law of the Grand Duchess, and owner of the Kelsorsia Emporium.”

“Nice to meet you,” Cass said, walking into the room and seating herself across from the woman.

Her eyebrow twitched, but that may have been a trick of the lights.

“I was told you wanted to see me, but not about what.”

“Indeed,” the woman said. “I wanted to meet the guest that has been staying in my house.” She clapped and a plate of small cookies appeared on the coffee table between them. “Please help yourself. Would you care for tea?”

“Yes, please,” Cass said.

Identify the food!

I know, Cass hissed back.

Small Cookies

[A sweet baked good flavored with trellis nuts.]

They seemed fine. She picked one up from the plate and nibbled on it. It reminded her of an almond cookie if it was flavored like burnt caramel. Good, but different.

A pair of tea cups appeared on the table beside the plate. A teapot poured itself into the two cups, then disappeared again when the two were full.

Litya plucked hers up and sipped it appreciatively.

Cass held the cup, admiring the swirling glass design as she Identified the contents.

Tainted Mulben Tea

[A fruity tea blend mixing black tea from Fairhelm and dried mulben fruit skins. This drink has additionally been laced with Trentel.]

Cass couldn’t believe what she was seeing. No. No way.

It’s actually poisoned? Salos asked.

Well, don’t sound surprised about it when you were the one who told me to check!

I mean, I didn’t honestly think you were important enough to poison. Is it poison or is it just a drug?

It says ‘laced’ with some drug I’ve never heard of. I assume it’s a drug. What do I even do? I can’t just accuse her of poisoning me, can I? The poison is just a polite way to do this. It makes her job easier. She’s way stronger than me. If she wants me dead, she could just kill me.

Salos’s unease rippled over their bond. Yes, that is all very true.

So?

So, pretend to sip it.

Just pretend to drink it! And then what? Won’t she notice that it’s still full?

The other choice is to hope it’s not poison and that it’s just a truth serum or something of that nature.

Cass looked down at the dark tea. Herbal Concocting was strongly insisting that this wasn’t an ordinary tea. Cass poked Trap Detection. It didn’t so much as stir. Either there was no trap or this wasn’t the kind of trap it looked for. Cass suspected it was the second.

“What kind of tea is this?” Cass asked, stalling.

“Mulben. It is a very popular variety in the duchy, imported from the Far Coast.”

“Oh, interesting,” Cass said, still swirling the dark liquid around the cup hesitantly. “Do you get a lot of trade from out there?” Cass did not care about the trade practices of the duchy. Cass did not know where the Far Coast was and was hoping it was just as far away as Litya had implied it was.

How did she get rid of this drink? She couldn’t just pour it down her sleeve like they did in the movies. Even with her inhuman Dexterity, she couldn’t imagine how characters did that. Also, it was very hot. Best case, she’d leave a puddle under the chair; worst case, she’d scald her arm attempting it.

What other options did she have?

Spill it? In the movies, the plucky heroine pretended to be bumped by a servant or another lady to perform such a dodge, but right now, she was woefully alone. She’d have to be exceptionally clumsy to pull that off believably and, while Cass of Earth could certainly believably drop her tea in her lap, Cass the slyphid was far too dexterous to believably flounder like that.

“Quite a bit, yes,” the noblewoman tittered. “You’ll find that Vaisom has excellent variety in both spices and silks, far more so than you might expect for the peninsula otherwise. Why, these robes are…” She continued talking about her clothes and their pattern and the dyes and, Cass really wasn’t listening. If nothing else, it was good information that the woman was more than happy to talk about herself ad nauseam if given the option.

Which meant Cass had another minute to think.

Could she get rid of it with Elemental Manipulation? Tea was—as Kaye liked to insist—just dirty water, after all. Could she use the skill to pull off the pour the water down her sleeve trick? There was still the issue of where to put it after the fact. It would look strange if there was a damp spot in her clothes or if a puddle formed under her chair.

There was also the question of whether or not the woman would see her doing it. Cass had no idea how her skills appeared to Mana Sense. She remembered seeing other monster’s attacks with the skill in the past, the cockroach’s wind blades, for example. If Mana Sense was a common skill, Cass would be caught right away.

“But you didn’t come to hear me extol the virtues of our lively trade, did you?” the woman said with a laugh, re-engaging Cass’s attention. She phrased it like Cass had chosen to visit the woman, not summoned without asking Cass’s opinion.

Cass politely shook her head. She wanted this woman in a good mood. “No. But it was fascinating all the same.”

“Oh, stop, I could tell you were bored out of your mind.” The woman laughed. More seriously, she added, “You can stop staring at your tea.”

Had she been that obvious?

Yes. You were very obvious.

“Why?” Cass set the teacup down on the table, plucking up the tray of cookies as she sat back up. She popped another cookie in her mouth and waited.

The noblewoman smirked. “Why lace your cup with a truth serum?”

“Why did you call me up here?” Cass elaborated. She could guess at the whys for the truth serum—if that really was all it was—and she didn’t really care.

The woman scowled. “Who are you?”

Cass cocked her head to her side. “I told you. I’m Cass Yuan.”

The woman slammed a hand down on the table, their tea glasses clinked as they bounced from the force. “Not your useless name. Who are you? Where did you come from? Did you really help that brat conquer Uvana?”

“Oh.” Cass sighed. This was about that. Maybe she should have dueled what’s his name. Maybe, if she’d shown them she was strong in a way they understood, they’d leave her alone.

Then again, it probably would have fueled their curiosity all the more. Unless she’d lost the duel, then people could have written her off as a liar and everyone could have moved on with their lives.

The idea rankled in a way she hadn’t expected it to. She couldn’t quite believe that was the right answer either, though she couldn’t think of a single logical reason.

But what did she tell this woman? The truth? A lie? Did she even have a believable lie?

“I’m Alyx’s friend,” Cass said finally.

She didn’t know why that was the line she’d chosen out of all the things she could have said.

Not, ‘I’m not from here.’

Not, ‘I’m from Earth.’

Not, ‘I’m a human who turned herself into a slyphid.’

Not, ‘I’m a slyphid and so I am much stronger than my level would imply.’

Not, ‘I was dropped into Uvana against my will.’

Not, ‘I was kidnapped by gods for their games.’

Any and all of that would have been a more direct answer to her stated questions. Any and all of that would be just as true.

But only ‘I’m Alyx’s friend’ meant anything to Cass.

“Why?” the woman asked. It was a whip of a question, cracking against raw flesh and expecting to draw blood.

Cass just shrugged instead. There were any number of things she could say to that. Instead, what ended up falling out of her mouth was, “Do you all have kindergarten here?”

Cass could tell right away that the word kindergarten was not automatically translated by her skill, so she didn’t wait for the woman to say no before she continued talking. “In kindergarten, you aren’t worried about things like who your friends are. You’re just two kids in the same place at the same time for reasons entirely outside of your control. You make friends with the kid who likes the same color as you or who sits next to you during story time or who also bounces off the walls at recess. There is no ‘why’ and there’s definitely no singular ‘why’. You just are.”

“If there is no reason, then—“

Cass cut her off. “I didn’t say there was no reason. There’s just no ‘why’.”

That did not make any sense, Salos said as the noble stared at Cass.

Well, of course not. You all don’t have kindergarten here. Cass sighed.

I promise that isn’t the part that makes no sense.

Cass shook her head. “Look, this isn’t nearly as complicated as you seem to think this is. I’m not anybody important. I promise. All I want is information on inter-realm transversal.” That wasn’t a secret. She was sure this woman either had already heard or could easily confirm it from the Academy. “Alyx promised she’d help me with that. There is no secret deal or hidden pact or whatever you all are imagining. Can I please leave now? It’s been a very long day.”