She shook her head. “Master is only alone when he uses the toilet. The teacher has a secret room though, he brought me there one time.”

“By teacher, you mean the ogre right?”

She nodded, placing a hand on the map and fixing it with her own magic. “There, see? And he is usually alone there. He doesn’t go there often though, only once every four meals or so.”

‘I can work with that’ “Do you know when he will be going there next?”

She nodded again before pausing and shaking her head. “I don’t… But if he sees me going inside he will follow me for sure…”

‘Speaking from an unfortunate experience no doubt…’ “Ok… Do you think you can lure him inside then? If we can take him out first that will make everything else so much easier.”

She slowly looked to the side. “You don’t mean kill do you…”

‘That would be ideal… You don’t wake up from being killed… And he can use magic… Well, I guess I have the chains…’ I sighed. “You don’t want me to kill him do you…” I slowly poked her arm, using my magic to try and nullify the poison. I couldn’t reverse it entirely, but at least the swelling started to go down.

She timidly lowered her eyes. “Well… I guess I don’t know much… But Plutia only heals people, doesn’t she? A-and… When you kill people like him they don’t go to heaven… So…”

‘Geeze… How in the world did they end up raising a kid like this… I’m missing something right?’ “Ok… We won’t kill any of them…” ‘I get paid more this way too… So it’s not like it doesn’t come with benefits…’

She slowly raised her arm watching as the swelling continued to slowly decrease. Then she smiled for the first time I had seen. Through her swollen cheeks and bruised jaw, the corners of her mouth rose to a full smile. That gave me anything but regret for my decision. I couldn’t say why she was smiling, much less at such a strange time. Whether it was because she was happy the people that raised her didn’t have to die, or because my decision fully convinced her I really was an angel. Regardless of the reason, it was hard not to feel good after seeing it.

“Ok… Show me to the secret room. I’ll wait inside, then you can draw him in.”

She nodded and led me back to the second floor down a side path to a large open room that was completely empty, then she used her magic to move a false wall in the cave and asked me to head inside.

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

There was nothing special about the secret room, other than the soft blue flowers that grew there, slightly illuminating the darkness. They had a pleasant scent to them as well, making it almost comfortable as I waited to strike.

Almost as if she had practiced it… Or as if it was real, when the Ogre saw her he shouted, and she flinched in fear, quickly running inside the room. It was the perfect bait really.

The moment he stepped beyond the false wall I fell from the ceiling and slammed the hilt of my dagger right into the back of his head. He groaned, somehow still semi-conscious until a small pilar of earth shot from the ground and rammed into his temple knocking him out.

‘I’m surprised she’s actually helping me fight too.’ After the thought passed I grabbed the anti-magic chains and, shackled him up, creating another pillar of earth and hanging him from it. From there we gaged him and sealed him away in the secret room.

‘One down. Now I’ll be able to use magic freely without being found out.’ “Ok, next, the goblin, you call him master is that right? He’s the one that made your arm swell up like this? First I want you to walk up to him and show him that the swelling went down. Seem’s like that would make him curious. Then I want you to duck down and cover your eyes as tight as you can. I’ll take care of the rest.”

She nodded and again followed directions perfectly. While she was doing it I honestly wasn’t sure if I was impressed… Or just felt bad about the most likely reason as to why she was so good at listening to orders. Although regardless her execution was perfect.

We positioned on opposite sides and she approached from his front. Sure enough, he lowered his guard ever so slightly, focusing on her arm. It allowed me to just keep with the theme of earth magic, using two boulder toss spells one after another to take out both of the rogues with him. The moment he turned to see what was happening Mochi was already covering her eyes, and I used blinding flash, which worked even better thanks to the dim lighting of the cave. He was so disoriented he fell down, making it easy to deliver the final blow.

‘Here is where things get intense.’ I stepped over the goblin's body and checked it, looting a pretty nice pair of twin daggers and quickly tossing them in storage. “Magnus has the key to the gate, right? So let’s head back up and take it from him. Then we can get out of here.”

She hesitated but nodded after a moment, and just as she opened the door to walk out of the room she ran right into someone and froze stiff.

‘That’s… Not ideal…’ Just as he looked past us I expanded the doorframe outward into his head with enough force to knock him out. Although, that hallway wasn’t exactly hard to see from most of the floor. Somehow no one caught on right away though. “Just act normal…” I whispered to Mochi, stepping over the man and outside, heading back up to the first floor.

We had made it halfway to the gate, and while we were at it I set another three lightning runes on the ground. ‘Magnus is just a brawler, if he doesn’t even use blades he will be easy to deal with. I’m more worried about the number right now than anything else. If they can overwhelm me with sheer numbers things will get dicey and I might have to kill a few or it will end up just like last time…’ I looked back at Mochi. ‘Only I’m losing a bit more than just some food this time if I don’t win…’

“I FOUND HER!”

‘Yeah, that tracks…’ “Are you ready Mochi?”

“Isn’t it too late to be asking that?”

‘Well her voice is calm at least…’

Instead of charging in blindly, they seemed to gather around and bide their time, even as anxious as they were.

My heart started to pound with excitement at the thought of a real fight, it felt as though it had been far too long, and for the first time in a while any pain I was feeling completely disappeared. I pulled my great blade from storage and flipped it over my shoulder. “You should probably get somewhere safe shorty…” I muttered, unable to help myself from grinning as I patted her head, staring past her to the rogues as my body already started to flood with adrenaline in anticipation.

‘My breath is steady, and my body feels good considering.’ I made a tight fist with my free hand, feeling the strength in my fingers. ‘Maybe I really should pray more often.’