I came back to consciousness with a bunch of notifications, a throbbing headache and a knock at my door. “May I come in” a voice I had never heard asked. “I have brought dinner as Lady Xing is presently unwell.”
“Please leave it outside” I asked in a rush jumping off the bed and rushing to the door grabbing the chair that had been left lying on its side after my futile attempt to defend myself with it. Jamming it under the handle just in case the maid attempted to open it without my permission.
“Are you sure?” the voice asked hesitantly. “I was specifically instructed…”
“And am I not a princess” I demanded shrilly the stress of being caught with the body of a maid coming through my voice. “I will come and grab it when I’m good and ready at this moment I do not wish to be disturbed”
“Of course your highness, I will leave it here now” the voice said and I listened at the door to the sound of her footsteps fading away into the distance.
Well that’s one issue solved I thought as I turned around looking at the mess that was my floor and the body now lying on it. Only many more to go.
A ping in the back of my mind reminded me of the bunch of notifications that I had received after waking up and I rushed to check them.
*Congratulations Absorber class has reached level 1
*Congratulations Rouge class has reached level 1
*You have 10 free stat points to distribute, do you wish to do so now?
Do you wish to add the skill [Stealth] to the rogue class?
Immediately I added the skill reading the added description.
[Stealth] Common
Remain out of sight and out of mind. Helps the user to keep out of sight, move silently and not be spotted. This effect is non magical and only provides basic information at the common level.
What is this? I wondered, why does the skill have a grade? Immediately I went and checked and yes all my skills were now marked at common level. Damn I muttered my stomach sinking, another advantage my siblings have that I will need to beat. The eldest twins had been competing with their classes for years, not revealing anything to me but surely at this stage they had several skills ranked well above mine! I didn’t even know what the rankings above common even were!
“Wait” I muttered to myself “how is it that I have been surrounded by people who have had classes and skills for years and yet I know nothing!”
Something very wrong is going on I decided as I thought deeply about the situation, knowing so little about something so important cannot be an accident.
I dismissed the other notifications, deciding to only distribute the stats as needed. Next I stopped and stood in the middle of the room. Breathing in deeply I concentrated and focused on the new skills I had. Specifically on my Rouge class and the silence spell. Almost on autopilot as if my hands were moving outside of my conscious control they started dancing and following through several complex symbols almost too fast to follow. A force I had never felt before flowed out of me and I felt a sensation drain out of me and instinctively I knew my mana had dropped.
Checking I quickly confirmed my suspicionsu and as I suspected my mana was down one point. Sighing in relief I immediately clapped my hands over my mouth as I heard my voice.
Wait it didn’t work? I wondered, but no mana was definitely still connected to something. I concluded that surprisingly having a bunch of awesome new skills did not mean I had any idea how to use them and how they worked. I decided to proceed as though it had completely failed but leave it up just in case.
With great trepidation I walked slowly over to the woman I killed, still lying with her one remaining eye gazing towards the sky and the dagger planted firmly in her other eye.
Out of a morbid curiosity I attempted to identify the attacker. No result. I then went and withdrew the knife from her eye and examined it. The curved jagged black blade appeared even more menacing up close. As I held it I felt something odd. As if it was trying to connect to my mana. Curious I identified it and almost dropped it in my shock as the description appeared in front of my eyes.
Bloodletting dagger (Uncommon)
Wounds made by this weapon take 25% more mana to heal and the area around the blood around the wound will refuse to clot.
Well that seems damn useful I thought to myself as I tucked it away. My first enchanted item! And straight to something that's uncommon.
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Looking back down at the body and the spreading puddle of blood I dragged the body over to the window, suddenly incredibly grateful for the storm raging outside. Putting her as out of sight as I could behind the desk I looked down at the woman I killed, who looked so diminished now in death, a crumpled doll with her strings cut, never to be animated again.
“In hindsight I have to thank you” I said to the corpse “You rescued me from insignificance, and have opened up a new path, I may have been a princess but now I can become something more. And if it wasn't for you I would spend quite possibly the rest of my life insignificant never knowing this potential just out of reach.”
“Also” I said looking behind me at my bed “thanks for the towels.”
******
“Manual labour” I muttered to myself as I grabbed yet another towel attempting to get the rest of the blood still staining the tiles, “is incredibly difficult, I really should give the maids more credit, also,” I said as I tried to mop up the last of the blood and surveyed the room looking for any obvious patches that I missed “why does this stuff seem to just get absolutely everywhere?”
Looking around at last I decided that that was enough blood for one day. I placed the towels away and under the bed, deciding to get my own maids outfit at some time in the future.”If only to get rid of those towels.” I thought to myself.
Now came decision time, Looking at the body I now had to decide the next step, I had the vague outlines of a plan however it was incredibly risky. But Ihad no choice unless I wanted to reveal that someone had tried to kill me. And that left the risk of people wondering how I had survived and higher levels of scrutiny, and scrutiny left a higher risk of someone noticing I had awakened. Any type of plausible deniability would be better than nothing.
So that left what the best way forward would be. Looking out the window at the storm that was continuing to rage I swung open the window, grateful the wind was only blowing a little water onto the floor. Looking outside I confirmed that no one was outside in the courtyard and the only visible guards were huddled into their. Also thor job was to protect the castle from outside threats not examine what was happening inside the castle proper. With one last look I attempted to pick up the body and push it out the window. It turns out however that a relatively small window just at eye height and a body is not the easiest task as dead bodies are not overly maneuverable.
“Get out” I grunted as I attempted for the third time to correctly position the body, leveraging it over the windowsill. Sighing as yet again the body did not magically put itself where I wanted it to go I. placed the body back down and kicked it in annoyance. “ Damn you” I sighed again. Looking out I confirmed no one had noticed my failed attempts at defenestration, I sat and sighed. “What to do” I muttered to myself looking at the body. “You got any thoughts?” I asked morbidly. Shockingly the body did not respond. “Didn't think so” I said standing back up looking at the window and around my room hoping that something would happen to fix my problem.
And then a lightning bolt struck me, I have stats now! Quickly I went and added two points to strength, bumping it up to 8 form its measly 6 effectively adding a quarter to my strength pool. Picking up the body to try again I immediately noticed the difference and found it significantly easier to pick up and maneuver the body. Grabbing it again and confirming no changes happened outside I shoved the body out the window, immediately slamming the window shut as I watch the body tumble down. Carefully as it hits the ground in a macabre and unnatural position I carefully confirm that there is no alarm, no shouting and no changes with the raging wind and thunder covering the sound of the fall.
Sighing in relief when I don’t immediately get found out, I rushed to the door as I check to confirm yet again that I have no major bloodstains on me. However looking back down I noticed that there were now blood covering the ground in front of the window where the body was lying previously.
Damn it.
****
After fixing that issue and ruining a few more towels, I activated my new stealth skill easing myself towards the door rolling my footsteps heel to toe as suddenly felt so natural as I used my skill. As I did so I decided to end my silence magic ability to give myself some more practice.
Slowly I eased the door open lifting the door up off the hinges to keep it from squeaking as I slipped out, smiling to myself as I watched my clueless and frankly most irritating and least favourite knight that helped guard my room. He was way too touchy with me for my liking and I avoided interacting with him as much as possible. At least I thought if something goes wrong with my plan I can try and blame him.
Slamming the door behind me I make Sir James jump in his fright. “Take me to my … immediately” I demand not taking a second to respond as I walk ahead making him rush to catch up.
“Of course your highness” he says, struggling to straighten his breastplate and panting slightly as he rushes ahead to guide me along.
As we head down a flight I find the equivalent window to the one I opened one level down and take a look outside trying not remain as subtle as possible, opening the window as far as it would go.
“Why have you opened that?” The knight asked as he looked waiting for me at the top of the next flight down.
“I just was having a look at the storm” I responded breathlessly trying to look as ditzy as possible. “It’s the biggest one we have had in some time”
“You should have seen the wailing storm of fifteen years ago” Sir John said as he walked back up and out over me as I held my breath and desperately tried to shield as much of the ground beneath me as possible. “We suspect a weather classer was involved but we never found anything. The wailing of mourners continued for weeks afterward.” He continued his expression dimming as he looked outside, speaking and looking out but with his mind clearly far away. “Anyway come along now” he said almost dragging me down the hall.
Sighing in relief I followed him watching and leaving the heavy window waving slightly in the torrential gale. I had my alibi, Sir John could not confirm that the maid had left, there was an open window and a body. It would take a brave person now to accuse me of anything. And with muddied suspicion almost no one would even consider that I had anything to do with it. Much less has awakened because of it.
Rouge class has now upgraded to level two, another two points have been assigned.
I smiled as I walked, clearly I had a long way to go and a lot to learn about being a rouge and an absorber, and a lot of preparation to overcome the disadvantages I had already received. But for the first time in a long time things were finally looking up!