“What’s the point of a greenhouse on the roof? I mean, we’re in a frontier citadel, right?” I called out, causing the curled-up elf to jump in surprise. “Sounds like such a useless waste of resources or a liability even…”

Standard reaction, pretty much. She soon turned to an expression of confusion while weakly staring at me still unsure of why I was there. Keeping a conversation with broken sign language and mimics wouldn’t be too useful, though, so instead of saying anything else, I gave her the stolen pen and parchment I got on the way here.

“Let us have a chat, okay? I have to show off soon, so it’ll need to be fast.” She took the items as I spoke, keeping an expression of confusion. Again, reasonable, but beyond the point.

She didn't write anything right away too, so I kinda had to start the conversation.

“I do have an idea of why you’re here, but I won’t pep-talk you. Nothing good happened for me to do so. Worse even, if you walk around me, setting one person on flames will be only the beginning...” I started jumping to the point right away, somewhat shocking the elf with the bluntness. “Still, I'll ask, what you wanna do?”

Lhori only wrote an ‘I don’t know’ on her paper in answer Somewhat expected, but not what I wanted to hear, which she seemed to notice as she continued.

What came on her parchment pieces ended as a small rant on how she got angry just by noticing a blade similar to what she saw when Hayato was taken down. She was very sure he had something to do with the attack and got angry due to that, it seems. Then, she didn't bother to think at all until she got my signal and set someone in flames. Which was how the image of a guy in flames got stuck in her head...

Even if that guy was likely alive, it was a bad image to get on your head.

I’m sure he was wounded, but it wasn’t instakill, I think, so he should be alive If I wanted, convincing her it was fine and making the little girl not bother with following me anymore wouldn't be hard with it. The situation was to my advantage, but only if I ignored the fact I would turn her into some sort of deluded murderer.

Heck, I’m sure that having her around would very well make it so we would use more killing. The only reason subterfuge was the focus now was because I couldn’t manage as is.

Though, to be honest, I somewhat considered everyone around as a soldier. Something I got proved wrong now. An oversight from my side since I imagined everyone around was close to Elen’s and her maids’ level.

A bunch of young heroes running around the demon wastes wiping the local fauna didn’t sound that different than normal soldiers in my head, you see? I guess not everyone considers hunting demons as killing… Lhori didn’t, at least. And I guess she didn’t consider the probable outcome of the fires I made her create.

Really long-range weapons surely have this effect, eh? Funny how people’s minds work.

The elf was now scribbling something really big again.

Something she even took a while to get right as I waited. All for a big and convoluted way of explaining what she was feeling. Everything from still seeing the burning guy to thinking about everyone else who died there. The sort of thing one would expect from someone who lacked the disposition for murder.

There, she was also asking me the important question I wanted to avoid: ‘don’t you care about killing people, Illia?’

Tough question. And one I answered in a much cooler way already. Having to spell it out is so lame. It also makes me think of things I prefer not to, but since we’re here…

“No one can ‘not care’ about something of this kind. At least no one who’s normal, okay? Some people aren’t hit that much, some others panic just by seeing blood, but everyone feels it. Heck, weapons in my word half-evolved to make people see less when they kill, so it was always important…”

See? I can be deep too. I’m only kinda repeating what I heard people telling others on TV when in this situation, but it sounds deep. It’d take a hell lot of time and a proper psychologist to do anything more about it, so it wasn’t like I could do more than try and pull her focus away from this mess.

My words had the little elf entranced, almost. She was very focused on my random babbling with no real content, but that was pretty much what I expected. It was what she had to hear, pretty much, even if it was somewhat a lie too… I never actually answered her question if you hear it well.

Something I had to shake away from my head more and more as I talked.

"The best you can do is accept the need for it and move on. The best would be if we didn't need to kill anyone, but that's not happening..." I continued, keeping the attention of the elf stuck on me while changing subjects. "That's the reason why having someone ignore the system made to avoid mass deaths is so annoying. And that's why I won't be asking for you to follow me if you don't want to anymore."

Don’t get me wrong, I would love to keep this one around. Her way of fighting had something very interesting in it, and if I coupled her with the handsome mage, I would be able to pull off some very powerful tricks.

Elen and Eve were very powerful by themselves, but a mage and an archer gave more options than a pair of infiltrators could. And that’s without the R&D possibilities I would have with those two around. It wouldn’t even be that hard to convince her that a ‘soldier mentality’ was the best.

But I don’t want to do it.

Even if it was the most effective path, creating a new assassin wasn’t something I was willing to do. I would prefer if Lhori decided that staying around wasn’t worth it, of course, but this was a mess-up on my side, so I had to solve it. I didn’t think very well when bringing someone I knew little about to a battlefield like this, especially someone who was with the ‘hero’. This was no ‘hero’ work and if she thought I was a ‘crazy girl’ and nothing else, then it would be for the best.

“Either way, you don’t need to bother with what happened there. No matter how you look at it, I was the one doing the fighting and the one who caused the damage. All you did was help the fake suicidal hero do another stupid thing, and nothing more.” I smiled at the shortstack while patting her head just because I felt like it. “So, don’t bother about whatever happened there, and go wait for Mr. Hero to wake up. He’ll need help for sure, and I'll be sure he'll have the chance to use it.”

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

I then got up and started to move away as I saw my words sink on the elf (mostly to look cool), but she held me back. She was also scribbling furiously as I turned around with my cool moment stopped, forcing me to wait.

Something that almost made me laugh as I read the simple ‘you are a bad liar’ in her parchment as she also returned the tools and smiled.

“I’m sure many people would say otherwise, little elf… In fact, I’m sure most of the people around already believe I’m a hero.” I fixed my clothes with a smug smile and started to leave the area again. “Come down when you’re ready. I’ll be heading to the festival outside after I’m done here.”

I left the somewhat isolated area on the top of the castle and then wandered to the darkness outside for a few moments before stopping.

“And you two shouldn’t spy on people just because you can, you know?”

“C’mon! How?!” I heard Elen’s shout as she left her hiding spot with Eve. And as they did so, all I could do was give them my evil-looking smile again.

“There’s no ‘how’, Elen… I was bluffing.”

“Heh? You annoying brat...”

“And you should be at a party right now, shouldn’t you? The fun one.” I shot back while trying to get my head back in character. “Can I take it as you wanting to have ‘fun’ with the nobles instead?”

“No way in the hells. We were being sure you wouldn’t do anything weird to the forest girl over there… Or something of the kind.”

“I was only following Your Highness’ whims, milady.”

“You’re being very outspoken today, aren’t you, Eve? Wanting a pay cut or something?”

“I’m only thinking of your best interest, Your Highness. Nothing more, and nothing less…”

“You damn…”

“Hahahah!” My laughter stopped the banter as I lost control. “Goddammit, you two are something. A real something for sure…”

“Look who’s talking…” Elen answered with slitted eyes and a small smile. “But that’s that, I guess. Are you sure about trying to send that girl back? Isn’t she important to that trick of yours?”

“She is, but that’s fine. I won’t be using that again, probably. Heck, if I have to use it again, I’m not so sure we won’t be attacked right away… That’s a slow-to-set trick and they know about it now.”

“Even so…”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it… I feel we’ll keep jumping into messy situations and we don’t want to lose the option.” I gave one decent enough excuse for Elen, even if only to avoid saying that I would feel bad dragging that shorty any longer. “If needed be, I’ll call her again. Good enough, no?”

“You also would gain from being more honest, milady.”

“And I don’t even see why you keep moving around the subject…”

The two answered in turn, making me feel that I wasn't in my best state right now. But, c’mon, being straight with these things isn’t my style, okay? Saying Lhori kinda makes me remember someone I knew and that it wouldn’t be good if I ended up having her become some cold-blooded killer wasn't right.

Not fun to see and not very heroic, and heroic was my thing at the moment. Saying it straight-up was lame.

“How much do you trust me, Elen?” I asked out after thinking a little about the whole situation. “Is it enough to take on a job you’re sure would be suicide?”

“What the hells are you going on now…?”

I started to wander away from the greenhouse and towards the walls while talking randomly. My main excuse was that I planned to go there anyway for a little trick, but it was more so Lhori would have a harder time hearing.

“Just answer me, it’s important.”

“Weirdo…” The silver-haired girl mumbled while still following me around until she decided to answer. “I’d say I trust you enough. Wouldn’t follow you to something that was obviously hopeless, but if you have a good enough plan…”

“Now that’s fun to hear… And you, Eve?” I turned to the maid staying quiet while around us. “Trusting me a lot already? More than you trust our ranger princess here?”

“I would do my best to follow your orders, milady... As long as they don’t go against Your Highness or her family.”

“More conditional, but that’s still a lot, no? Is this only because I’m interesting or the whole ‘being a summoned hero’ is the real reason?” I continued asking as I climbed on the crenelations of the wall but didn’t give time for anyone to answer. “Doesn’t really matter, to be honest. What matters is that I can influence you two already, right? So, what if I told you we really really need to kill some civilians? Or something worse. What you'd do?”

“That’s a little…”

“Is it?” I cut into the princess’ weirded-out expression and then turned to her and the maid. “I’m sure I could be convincing enough to make you consider it and depending on the situation, it would be reasonable. And then, by the next time, my words would be even more convincing, and I could even pull something more drastic…”

“What are you trying to say here?” Elen asked while still unsure of where I was going.

“What I’m saying is that I could convince Lhori to ignore this and follow us. She could act like both you and Eve, and she would be able to rationalize killing. That would be the end of it. Not only could I convince her to give up on some of her principles, I could have her go further away from it. I don’t want to give myself this sort of weapon.” I sighed and went to stop the serious talk for good. “I won’t do a thing if someone else does the dirty job, but that’s not for someone of my stature. I’m not fond of mind tricks this simple…”

I hope my voice could make it obvious that I knew what I was talking about. Or at least, that it could hide my real intentions well enough. Saying this much already felt bad since it made me remember things, so going deeper would hurt…

It was enough, though. The two people around me didn’t even seem keen on asking more about the mass of babbling I had going on for a while. Looks like I was more reasonable than crazy at the end of the day, right? Fun to see it.

No time to dwindle on the funny feelings or watch my companions look worried. I had a job to finish and a theory to test now, and I was also done receiving emotional damage.

So, I changed the tone of my voice and aura, as usual.

“Well, that’s it from my reasoning, so let’s go to what matters more.” I put on my flashing smile and puffed my chest. “I have one last work to do, and since you two are here, what about helping me?”

It took a while for the two to react to it, Eve doing so decently faster than her master.

“Whatever I can do, milady.”

“Sigh… I sometimes don’t get you.” Elen answered eventually. “Hard to guess if you’re serious or a doofus… But whatever. Tell me what you need?”

“Can you make me shine for a while then? Something like a big light around me. And for you, Eve…” I got the pen and papers stuck in my pockets and then drew a circle there. “Can you try this spell on me? It should get you tired, but if it works, then it should help me waste less mana.”

I didn’t add the part that using this spell would likely make my aching body hurt even more, but no one needed to know that. This spell should be more like a ‘brain stimulant’ than anything else anyway. With some tweaks, it could even be a powerful anesthetic.

“What the hells is this thing…?”

“Is this really a spell, milady? Where did you find it?”

“In books. All the parts of it, at least. Something like strapping spells together to make something I couldn’t find…”

Experimentation, I call it. Makes me wonder why people don’t create weird spells since they have all those examples… It's all about reading the runes and moving them around.

“You’re crazy…” Elen sighed, but I could see she was almost laughing by now. “Is it safe?”

“Probably. More than another potion, at least.” I answered both of her sentences in order but then turned around with my last question for now. “We good to go?”

“Your Highness…?”

“Go on. But stop right away if you feel anything going wrong, Eve.”

“Understood.”

The maid touched my back as I got ready to use my own spell and I could feel Elen getting ready too. I could feel another person moving closer, but it was fine if she saw it now. Focusing on copying a spell I saw once was enough to make me unable to react anyway.

But now I had the lights and the speakers, so all needed was to put on a show...

And so, as the night sky lit up and my head got the most focused it ever was, my magical circle went off and my boasting voice rang across the whole of the city.

“Good evening, everyone! Are you ready to hear how your most noble hero defeated the barbarian invaders knocking on your door…?!”

Hearing from the news is nice, but hearing from the source is much better, you see? Especially if you wanted to play with propaganda...