With Densooth’s begrudging permission, Soral continued his magic testing, perfecting the magic to travel twenty hours into the past. The last four were tricky, but he figured he should just give up on those. Instead, he could focus on his second disguise and the possibility of a third timeline for emergency situations. But to get that disguise, he needed to open his shop and find a tailor or seamstress.

It all looped right back to the beginning again. Soral decided to tell everyone about his experiment since he would need their help, or rather, that his cousin would be coming to help Howler with the orchard. Originally, he was only going to tell Ruena, but Densooth already knew, and both Howler and Rosalie had already seen his disguise.

“What do you have up your sleeve this time?” Ruena asked with a playful smile as she entered. She had lost the trepidation she used to have with his surprises and almost seemed excited. Ruena still wasn’t ready for what he had in store this time, though.

“I created a new magic for my personal use,” Soral told them, “I even got that old man’s approval to use it.”

“Why are you bringing him up?” Rosalie asked. She had quickly grown to dislike their ancient landlord, especially once she found out his identity as the Black Wolf.

“Because he doesn’t like it when I do most things and stops me,” Soral explained, “Well, he didn’t really like this either, but the phoenix told him to let me.”

Rosalie scowled. “So he is the puppet of a phoenix.”

“He is our benefactor and we are living in his castle,” Ruena reminded.

“What was your magic?” Howler prompted, trying to get them back on topic.

“In short, I figured out a way to be in two places at once,” Soral told them, “One of me just has to be in disguise.”

They all stared at him with varying levels of disbelief.

“And the phoenix was okay with this?” Rosalie checked.

Only because of Insanity, but Soral didn’t know how he felt about telling everyone he had a constant voice in his head. “Yep.”

“Are you going to be using that disguise from before?” Howler asked.

“I am. Which is why I am telling you all. I will be working with Howler on the orchard in my disguise, and I will be staying here as myself to work on my new shop.”

“And when do you sleep?” Ruena asked with narrowed eyes. She had immediately pushed past the magic absurdity.

Soral thought she might mention that. “I can’t do a full day with it so I will just sleep in that time,” he told her.

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She let that subject drop for now. “This should help you be less antsy while working on your shop,” she decided, already giving up on what most considered normalcy.

“It will,” Soral agreed, “Because I know that I will be spending all day in the orchard as well. Howler, could you meet my cousin by the faerutil tree?”

“Your cousin?” Howler asked.

Soral suddenly remembered he had only told those at the Oasis about his cousin idea, so he quickly explained it to them, eliciting an audible groan from Rosalie, with Ruena shaking her head.

“Got it,” Howler told him, understanding, “I will head out with your cousin.”

After Howler left, Soral got to work on the shop with the others. Luckily it turned out that his invention he gave to Belleas counted as a mission, so he was still considered active. That meant he could put all his focus as Soral into the shop. Now that he was all in, everything started falling in line.

He found all the suppliers, the assistants, and other employees to work at the shop except for the main one. The chief tailor, or seamstress. It was partially because Soral was being so particular. He was hoping for someone with the ability to enchant the clothing. Either way, he started his employees on working on his second disguise so they could start getting their paycheck before the store opened. He also worked on designs for the warrior uniforms.

As the day finished, he used his special spell to meet Howler as Mr. Dehd Lee. Howler had prepared equipment for himself so he would not be effected by the poisoned landscape. Soral had gotten Densooth to show it to him the day before so he knew where they were going. He had also acquired the trystalis saplings they needed.

Planting trees wasn’t the most exciting of work, but they got a lot done, and the trystalis grew quickly as it soaked up the poison in the surroundings. Not as quickly as the faerutil had, though. It only grew from a handheld sapling to one as tall as he was. He had to remind himself that this was still far faster than normal trees.

Living the day twice became part of his normal routine. He spent a lot more time with Ruena as Soral and Rosalie joined the guild to make some extra income until the shop took off. Jazz started helping out too, in his own way. He would go off on his own and eat the offerings residents of Evergreen gave him. He also learned to control his aura so no one could tell he was anything but a regular cat.

As Mr. Dehd Lee, he helped Howler craft a carefully spaced trystalis orchard. After their first growth spurt the trees took much longer to grow, but Howler assured him they had already gone far beyond what he had ever seen. Besides, the crystal-like trees were beautiful to behold even without their useful properties.

They planted the first faerutil between them once a poison free area appeared. Soral didn’t give magic to this one, since the whole idea of this test was to see if they would grow from the magic of trystalis. Again, progress was slow, but the two trees definitely helped each other. Everything was going perfectly.

Too perfectly. Soral had no idea that his presence alone was enough to brew trouble nearby.

==========

In the Kingdom of Assassins, Qilin, there was one who was known as the best of the best. He was strong, fast, and crafty. So much so that he had been given the title Silver Devil. But this so-called Silver Devil did not care for all the trouble his strength and fame brought him. He had only grown stronger to escape from the rigorous life of a disposable pawn.

He had grown so strong he could even refuse requests, sometimes even disposing of his clients rather than his targets. As long as he obeyed the ruler of Qilin, all was forgiven. The problem was, now he had a summons from that very ruler that he could not refuse. It would no doubt be a ridiculously difficult task again.

The audience chamber was as imposing as ever when he arrived. He was sure to hide his distaste for the morbid decor the latest ruler had a taste for. Rulers of Qilin never lasted long, so this would not last either. He could endure.

“Silver Devil! Welcome, and thank you for answering my summons,” the ruler declared, drunk on his current power. The assassin thought him far too oblivious to his own coming demise. The laws of Qilin that got him into that position were not going to change.

“I have answered your summons. What is it you require?” he managed instead.

“The Black Wolf has banned the use of one of our poisons,” the ruler told him, “I need you to take care of it.”

He had heard of that. All mental poisons had been banned, as well as alcohol. Of course, what the ruler truly cared about was alcohol. Something about a dangerous being nearby that could not risk being exposed.

“The Black Wolf cannot be killed,” the assassin pointed out.

“Perhaps not, but the mysterious being in the toxic wastelands can. Get rid of it,” the ruler ordered.

The assassin grimaced before he could stop himself. His target was some mysterious being who the Black Wolf was being oddly protective of. He could not refuse the ruler or he would lose the protection he currently had. He could not kill the being, or he risked angering the Black Wolf.

For now, he just bowed and left. He would observe this being and make further judgements from there. Doing nothing was not an option, but he could stall for a long time so long as he observed the target. One way or another, someone was likely to die from this mission. He just needed to make sure it wasn’t him.