What the hell did he even mean…? I feel… scared… it’s like someone is watching me now… Hey…. He was joking, right? Ghosts don’t exist, right?

Oh, wait. They do. There’s even a whole book on it.

Even so… I cautiously returned to the stables. From there, I activated the only machine the packhorse was holding. It expanded, and the shape changed, turning into a golem. A human shaped bronze looking golem. Of course, it wasn’t exactly bronze, but a unique alloy that is much more durable and heat resistant. Well, it would be called a bronze golem either ways.

The moment it, Alferdo, finished transforming, it started to move all my stuff into a crate. Since it would follow me when it’s done, I returned to the house, remembering to command Alferdo to lock the door when he comes in. With that settled, I went upstairs, choosing the first room that isn’t ‘occupied’.

The first room was occupied by Dusk, the next was a person called ‘Alice’. I don’t know who that is though.

I sat on the bed in the room. I was honestly surprised. I never knew that Dusk was this rich, to have such a huge mansion as his home. Not to mention, isn’t this a little too… lavish? I think? He doesn’t seem to be that kind of guy though.

“But the devil… What, or who, did he mean?”

“Me, of course.” Said a woman with black hair tied in a ponytail. She wore a maid outfit, and was smiling at me. “You have a surprisingly nice scent… and your age… yes, you’ll do, you’ll do well indeed.”

“Wait? What! No! What are you dooooiiinnnngggg???”

From my room, I heard the scream. I am not surprised at all.

“Good morning, Shiina.”

“Uu….” I wanted to cry. I couldn’t understand what happened last night. It was incomprehensible, but the results were obvious. Now, I was lying on a bed, fitted in an unpractical frilly princess outfit, and the maid, the devil, Alice, was nodding happily.

“Why…?” I groaned, glaring at Alferdo. What a traitor. The moment he saw Alice violating me (not sexually), he hid in a corner and shut himself down. What a jackass. I didn’t even give him that function!

I suppose it’s my fault that I gave him 15% overall control. He must have took over at that point. Since its usually dangerous to give an AI 100% control, normally, Elanor would limit the AIs at 0% to 10%, but I increased Alferdo’s control to 15%... He was my creation… I wanted to trust him…

I was betrayed.

Alice, while setting my breakfast on a tray on me as I lied on the bed, spoke, “So, today! You are taking the same mission as Dusk, right?”

“Erm. Yes. But in a different group.”

“Good enough. I’m bringing you to get some essentials. And some information.”

Essentials… Food? And information. Information rarely hurts… and there is something suspicious going on…

“Since you have a good magic bag already, we could skip on that somewhat. Please finish your breakfast while I make some additional preparations.”

Additional preparations? Oh I don’t care anymore, this is really really good… I didn’t expect this… But then, she is a maid…

“So, how is she?” I asked, finishing up my breakfast. “Elanor’s only disciple.”

“Perfect, and more! She emits this… addicting scent… I want to make love with her…”

”Alice…”

“Oh Sorry. I mean, she seems really good. Her golem could even fell fear when it faced me!”

I nodded. I hadn’t seen the golem, but Elanor told me about it. She had made the golem all by herself over 6 years, and it is one of the top machines ever made, even among Elanor’s own creations. “Well, I need to get going now. I need to meet… the Spymaster.”

“John.”

“Yes, him. Thanks, Alice, for helping… her.” I coughed midway, covering up my pause, but she saw through it perfectly.

“It’s Shiina. Isn’t it just one night?”

“…Sorry.”

I left the house, leaving Shiina to Alice. I suppose that would make me irresponsible, but I didn’t have time to spare on her.

She returned just as I was done, and quickly cleaned up.

“Please get ready, we are going out soon.”

“Erm. I need to go to the engineer’s guild… so… do you think I can change out of this?”

Alice frowned a bit, before starting to chuckle. No, please. Don’t tell me you are….

I beg you. Please don’t.

My pleas were ignored. This time, I was given a white, long sleeved shirt, and a pair of brown trousers. It also came with leather boots and gloves.

Sorry. That is my normal outfit, not a special one. She just forced it onto me. I want to cry.

At least, after that is done, we could finally do whatever she wanted to do. Of course, I had Alferdo gather the stuff I need later, and put him on hold, before going out with Alice.

We went to the Ostmont market… it was huge, to say the least. Ostmont was the capital, but it was also closest to the mountains and volcanos to the north, the home of many monsters. It is said that the weakest monsters there are beyond S ranked. The closer it is to Ostmont, the weaker the monsters are, and hence, this is a great spot for both beginning adventurers and veteran adventurers.

It also houses the royal palace, and the church. Elanor often speaks of both of them very badly though, and told me not to trust anyone from there.

Even now, there is a huge wave of adventurers walking around in the market. With Alice dragging me along, we went deeper and deeper, before stopping in front of a huge store. It was a general store, a huge one, almost as large as Elanor’s secondary workshops. It has a total of 5 floors, and Alice dragged me through them, stopping in front of a room in the top floor.

No, she didn’t stop, she simply kicked open the door and entered.

The door, surprisingly, didn’t fly off. It seems that it is actually a pushing door, which has no knob. I have a feeling that it used to have one… I could see it, the wall had been fixed once…

“Devil, what is it this time?” We entered an office, and there was a person behind the desk in front of us. He had been doing some writing, but when Alice came in, he facepalmed. “Don’t tell me you finally lost it and abducted a girl this time.”

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“Not really, Orwen. The plan is going on this time. This girl needs supplies, food, water, emergency rations. You have a first aid kit of your own, right?”

The last part was directed towards me, and I nodded.

“She even has a magic bag with 24 times the size.

“They’re sending even kids now? Damn.” Orwen winced. Wait! They are talking about me? “I’m not a kid!”

“Sorry. Sorry.” Orwen muttered, walking to the cupboard to the side, “Highest quality food. Check. Water pouch, check. Emergency rations, check. She needs general adventurer’s supplies, right?” He returned with 4 small boxes, and he set them on the desk.

“The food will last you at least 5 days. All precooked, just heat them up. The water pouch will keep the water fresh, and even clean up dirty water. Leaving it exposed in the rain works as well, and in emergency situations, just pour mana into the pouch. The rations will last at least a month in total, just remember to control yourself.”

As he gave me the instructions, he passed the boxes over to me, which I stored in my backpack.

“The kit has many things, including torches, antidotes, a rope, a few traps for hunting too. There is also a map, if you need it. Worse comes to worst, there is a full heal potion, which is expensive as hell.”

“Erm. Thanks!” I bowed, and he smiled, “No worries, it has all been paid for, so thank her instead.” HE gestured to Alice, who looked at me expectantly.

Sorry. I don’t want to thank her.

Alice sighed, but since I had no intentions to really thank her, she simply pouted. “Remember to check over the stuff before you actually start the mission. Orwen might be careless. Anyways, we’re done here, so you go to the engineer’s guild.”

“Erm. Thanks…” I scratched my cheek, and Alice brightened up.

“Aw… So cute…”

“Alice, restrain yourself.” Orwen said while I fled. Alice stayed back, probably to talk about something else, but I didn’t stay around to listen. I quickly sent an order to Alferdo to bring my stuff, and Ducky to scout. Using my tablet and Ducky, I ran over the engineer’s guild.

“I’m coming in.” I muttered, entering the crime scene. I was in a shop, and everything inside was scattered on the ground. It seemed that someone was looking for something, or just wanted to destroy the items in the shop. Even all the furniture was destroyed, except for the counter, which was open and empty. There was also the corpse of the shopkeeper, lying face down at the side.

I walked over to the corpse, touching the arm. It was still warm. Good, good…

I kicked the corpse.

It slowly turned around, looking at me with a tired face. “What is it?”

“I want to meet the master.”

He continued looking at me blankly, while I used the little mana I had to create a stone pillar. Well, even if I have little mana, this much is easy for me. I calmly sat down on the chair I made, and waited.

Finally, the corpse replied, “That’s too much work. Go find him yourself.”

I stood up calmly.

And kicked the corpse again. The ‘gufu’ sound he is giving sounds so nice.

“I’m here, I’m here. Oh, it’s you.” An 11 year old boy said as he walked in. “Didn’t expect you to come here first.”

When one thinks of a Royal spymaster, one would think of a noble in an office gathering info from various subordinates, or even an assassin running around gathering info themselves.

Both assumptions, while plausible, is utterly wrong.

The boy in front of him was barely 11, had brown spiky hair, wearing ragged, old and patched clothes. He lives in the slums and is addicted to candy. Using his ability to run, he would always manage to skip his chores, and add the fact that he’s an asshole to everyone in the slums, he’s quite famous.

He’s a kid.

That’s the Royal Spymaster.

“Elanor is rushing the plans.”

He shrugged when I said that though, and sat on the corpse, facing me. “Naturally. What did you expect of her? At least the girl is cute, right? Right?”

I sighed, “So what now? I have to save the girl, right?”

“It doesn’t seem like we have a choice. I’ll try to stall their assassins, but that’s the best we can do.” He said, shrugging again. “It’ll be bad to lose you… but if we fight them head on…”

“We will lose. It’s basically our small group fighting all the humans.”

The boy laughed. “Not all, but a lot. Every noble and all families under them only. That’s about 95% of the humans.”

“So, I save her, bring her to Alice, and run like hell towards the Red Zone?”

“I would help you, but we’re so severely outnumbered… Sorry. I don’t want to lose you.”

I laughed wryly, “Too valuable of a chess piece huh? The Queen? Well, there are pawns that can replace me.”

He looked to the side, “No… you are unreplaceable… dammit. But Elanor is right, stalling for 4 more years is not possible. They are targeting even the Shadows.”

The Shadows, the spymaster’s personal strike force. There are about 70 of them in total, each of them strong in their own jobs, not just assassinating. Even the corpse is an official shadow, being the body guard of the spymaster.

Not that he needs one.

“Then… I suppose it’s my job. Do you think that was what Drax was thinking then?”

“Heh, not really. In your case, he just didn’t want you to die, you know. You were his kid, naturally he would want to protect you.”

“I suppose it seems so… Well. I guess I will get going…” I got up, reabsorbing the mana from the stone pillar, which disappeared. Only got 10% of the mana used back, which sucks.

“Sorry, Dusk.”

“I won’t go down without a fight. At the very least, I’ll give them a bloody nose, if only for Drax.”