“Why are we here?” I asked as we walked through one of the many small markets of Pearlrock the capital city nestled just to the south of the main castle that my family resided in. I had dressed to blend in so was wearing clothes no princess would have found themselves wearing a pair of black baggy pants that didn’t fit and a grey shirt ill fitting and worn underneath I wore a pair of fitting leather armour that Lady Xing had managed to find or as I suspected had made for me because I had never seen such a quality set of armour that had fit so perfectly

“I can tell you have some kind of stealth related class and that means that you have or will be likely to get some kind of thieving skill. So use it.” Lady Xing remarked walking straight down the centre of the street forcing the crowd to walk around her with the force of her presence alone.

“That’s it?” I asked staring at her and dodging around citizens who were much less willing to get out of my way. “That’s the extent of your teaching?”

“Well you won’t know unless you actually do what I ask will you?” She responded rather sardonically as she glanced at me with a teasing expression. “You are seemingly of the opinion that you have the power here, I may have been your maid for as long as you have known me but I have lived many other lives prior.”

“Care to elaborate on that?” I asked eagerly

Lady Xing raised an eyebrow “do you plan on doing anything so that you can try to level up?”

“Fine” I muttered darkly as I scanned the open air market, watching the blend of all classes and spheres of life blending together in a melting pot of laughter, raised voices, bartering and selling. looking around I tried to identify a reasonable target activating fade as I slipped slowly into the crowd and trying to blend in as much as possible.

Sliding between people and keeping my steps quiet I used identify across many possible targets, looking for the wealthy but weaker people, those who could afford to loose what was taken but those with the best chance of letting her get away with it.

However after a ten or so minutes of walking through the crowd I realised that no one really fit the profile I was looking for, the only people who appeared wealthy were classers well in advance of my ability to identify, and I wasn’t going to risk myself targeting them. As I watched a man with [Warrior]?? Above his head grabbed a reaching hand and broke it leaving its owner, a kid dressed in tattered clothes no older than fifteen screaming in pain on the ground in writhing pain. The crowd seemed to take no notice of this and continued walking as if this was an ordinary sight.

I have never seen anything like that before I thought to myself in shock. Can classers really act like this and it raises absolutely no reaction from the population. As far as I knew crime and homelessness was down! Yet the crowd was treating this like it was any other day.

Muttering my prayers to the child I continued to look around but no person I thought was targetable who was a person I would willingly target passed by.

Of course not I realised they are specifically avoiding people like me, if they are extremely or even moderately wealthy they wouldn't be doing the shopping themselves. It’s not as if a servant is particularly expensive and it’s not as if I have ever gone to a market like this. Abandoning that idea I instead started looking at the stalls themselves as my potential targets. Scanning them very few were classers and not knowing their skills I went out of my way to avoid them.

Walking up and down lead me to a smaller stall selling small weapons such as daggers and shortswords laid out on a cloth. When I walked up the man was being mobbed by several customers and the man and his assistant were being overwhelmed trying to manage everything. As I watched the assistant walked away as though to grab more stock. Quickly I identified the shopkeeper and the potential buyers and confirmed that they weren’t classers. Out of an idle curiosity and with little hope for anything I identified the weapons on the table to see if they were like the bloodletting dagger I still had. Most of them were plain and just as I was about to give up I saw an older looking dagger, covered in green flecks of rust off in the back corner with what looked like runic script decorated up the hilt.

[Assassin of the church] Common. A blade made for those of the church to kill their enemies. The weapon secretes an unknown poison said to be curable only by a clergy member. Crafted, Upgradable.

My eyes widened as I read the information about the weapon. Carefully looking at the other customers one of whom was loudly arguing that the weapon she was after was in fact far too expensive and the shopkeeper who was vehemently defending his product and emphasising its quality I determined that they were all sufficiently distracted with their negotiations . Confirming again that fade was active I reached her arm out hiding it next to the table and keeping it out of the shopkeeper’s view. Slowly reaching up I grabbed the weapon from the table and withdrew it twisting her arm so that it remained out of view.

Stepping back I turned to make a clean getaway, but when I heard a shout of behind me. Glancing back over my shoulder I saw the assistant I had forgotten about come back from around the corner, and as I heard him shout thief I knew that the time for subtly had come to an end. Immediately I took off, hearing the assistant doing the same.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Quickly I ducked into the crowd trying to get myself out of view and reuse fade which had deactivated once I had been spotted unfortunately and unsurprisingly it didn’t work and the assistant was hot on my trail

Ducking away into the crowd which had not bothered to stop at the shout, I increased my pace, not running or I would draw more attention but a very quick walk. I also tore off my shirt and undid my hair and raised a dust mask on the lower half of my face to help hide my identity, hoping that the change in appearance would help with throwing the man off my trail.

Glancing behind me I noticed the man was still behind me and making ground through the crowd, however fortunately he was still scanning the crowd and he didn’t actually have his gaze locked onto me. Slowly I started to divert myself away to try and get myself lost further. However as I did so the man shifted and started to follow me again. Concerned I shifted myself again through the crowd along a different side street and watched again as he continued to follow me. What is going on? I wondered very concerned.

Then a thought hit me and I scanned him with identify. As the result came back to me his eyes immediately locked with mine.

[Merchant] L15

Muttering curses damning that I missed scanning him earlier to the lower planes I took off into a dead sprint. somehow hearing the sound of his thundering footsteps over the crowd behind me.

***

Darting down another back alley I turned to hear him still behind me and quickly making up the distance. I had been running for almost 10 minutes away from and I had even added two points into dexterity and vitality, hoping it would help with my speed and endurance but it clearly was coming up short. Looking ahead I saw the alley coming up to a dead end with a wall cutting off the space between the two houses.

In desperation I tried to use my climbing skills to escape over the wall but before I even made it halfway up I felt a hand on my ankle pulling me back down. Losing my grip I tumbled down making sure I rolled to both break the grip on my leg and cushion the fall. Thank you captain Tiberius for those lessons in how to properly fall.

Quickly getting up I withdrew the new knife from its sheath and also withdrew my bloodletting dagger from the new sheath I had for it at my waist.

The assistant getting back up from where my roll had threw him to the ground glared at me. “Return that at once you thief, that is more precious than you could possibly realise.”

“Is telling a thief that something is valuable when the person who you took it from is unarmed a wise idea” I asked raising an eyebrow at him.

“No” he smiled cruelly “but telling said thief he is a classer that will kill her without a second thought is.”

So my identify didn’t give me away I realised, pleasantly surprised.

“Why are you smiling bastard child, I’m about to break open your skull” the man shouted glaring at the small smile that had run across my face. “Even if you somehow manage to kill me the church of ascension will hunt you down, that weapon is important to them and is being used to hunt a dangerous classer in the region, they are all able to be tracked down and are considered a vital asset.”

Me I realised in horror the knife was being used to hunt me, how the hell am I this unlucky?

“Then why do you have one?” I asked, “Clearly you are someone the church would hold in such high esteem being a cheap knife seller.”

The man scowled in annoyance “I know people firstly, and at the moment these are being distributed everywhere. There is a new classer in this area they have confirmed that needs to be killed, and they are making sure people they trust in all walks and have the ability to identify said person has them. Now return the weapon or die.” he said, withdrawing a sword from what appeared to be thin air.

“And why should I believe you?” I asked, readying my blades and glancing over my shoulder to confirm that there was no way I missed to escape “For all I know you will kill me anyway.”

“You, he said laughing “ Your useless. You're not a classer as no classer would try to rob as you say a pathetic knife stand and there is no other reason to kill you, unless you don't pass it to me now.”

“Okay Im trusting you here” I said edging myself closer towards him and rotating the blade so the top of the hilt was facing him. He reached and grabbed it using his left hand and grabbed the top but stooped and stiffened as soon as he touched the hilt.

“Wait, your” he began

Immediately realising what he had discovered and hoping his shock was enough to save me I ripped the dagger form his weak grasp and drove it directly into his stomach, unprepared even with his likely superior abilities due to his higher levels he was unable to react quickly enough to avoid it. Immediately I withdrew the weapon and backed up hoping that the poison on the weapon was enough.

“You bitch” the man growled, stumbling back slightly, his grip on the sword in his hand shaking. “your dead”

Gripping his weapon more firmly he raised it above his head and went for a very telegraphed overhead cut. Stepping in as I had been taught long ago I crossed my blades and caught the sword between them as close to the hilt as I could. Grunting I was almost driven to my knees, shocked at how strong the attack was. Shoving the sword to the side causing him in his weak position to stumble I drove the poisoned dagger into his side again and sliced the dagger along his neck causing blood to burst out in a torrent.

Stepping back as I watched him sink to his knees and the light slowly go out of his eyes I turned and thew up what little food I had eaten onto the cobbles.

“Well” Lady Xing said “This stealing thing you don't seem to be particularly good at, but for a princess you seem surprisingly good at murder.”