Chương 25: Chapter 24 - True Invisibility

The kitchen was bustling with activity, as they prepared meals for the entire estate staff. About a dozen chefs hurried back and forth between stations, preparing, cooking, and cleaning. The activity came to an abrupt halt as she stepped into the kitchen, and all eyes turned to her. She suddenly felt like she was trespassing or something.

"Oh! Sorry, don't mind me," she blurted out.

"I just wanted to say thanks for breakfast. It was delicious. I didn't mean to interrupt." All of the cooks turned to one specific woman, who must have been the head chef. She looked to be in her forties, and was rather large and plump. A true testament to her own cooking ability. She bowed politely to Kiara, and the rest of the cooks followed suit.

"I'm glad your ladyship was pleased with our efforts," the head chef said slowly, as if she was weighing each word. Kiara flashed her a smile and waved.

"Well, I'll be going. Sorry for intruding." With that, she turned and left, feeling awkward. Every servant she passed bowed as she walked by, and each time it made her more and more uncomfortable. Some of them even glanced at her with fear when they thought she wasn't looking. She was feeling more and more miserable by the minute. She was supposed to play the part of a lady, the head of a powerful merchant family, but she had never felt so alone.

No matter how kindly she treated the estate staff, she doubted they would ever see her as a friend or an equal. To them, she was only their employer, someone in a completely different class of society, someone they couldn't be open and honest with. To be fair, she probably couldn't be open and honest with them either, seeing as she didn't know if any of them were spies. The month she had spent with the travelling caravan had been enjoyable.

Even though people had treated her with respect, it was a friendly 'hey, how are you' kind of respect. Some of the other travellers, and even some of the guards were people she would have called friends. She suddenly missed Hank and Jeff dearly. Once the art supplies arrived, Kiara made her way towards her room. On a whim, she flagged down one of the guards as she walked.

"Hey, who's your guard captain? Who do you report to?"

"That'll be Captain Soren, my lady."

"Good, where can I find him?"

"He'll be out in the guardhouse, my lady."

"Thanks!" She turned and started heading towards the guardhouse, then stopped. Would it be appropriate for her to go to the guardhouse, or should she have someone bring Captain Soren to her, instead? She wished Dustin were here for her to ask. She turned back to the guard.

"Would you be so kind as to go and get him for me? Or would that interfere with your… guarding duties?" The guard bowed politely.

"I am available to do whatever your ladyship requires. I will fetch him at once." A few minutes later, Captain Soren stood in front of her. He was tall and lean, with a bald head and a small hoop earring in his left ear.

"Your ladyship requested my presence?" Kiara nodded.

"What would it take to have a guard stationed outside my bedroom door for today? I'm going to be practicing art in there, and I don't want anyone to disturb me for any reason." Captain Soren nodded sharply.

"Of course, my lady, I'll see to it at once. Will there be anything else?" Hmmm… was there anything else?

"Oh! Who do you report to, Captain Soren?"

"Whoever is willing to pay me, ma'am," Soren chuckled at his own joke.

"In this case, Dustin hired my mercenary unit, and he mentioned that he might be working up a longer term contact for us, or maybe some kind of full time offer as well. Kiara thought about that for a moment. These guards didn't seem all that loyal, but at least they were honest. But she did wonder what would happen if someone else showed up and offered them a large sum of money. Her 'guards' could quickly turn out to be her captors at that point.

She wondered how they could engender feelings of deeper loyalty in the guard staff they hired. Loyalty that transcended financial incentive.

"Thank you," she replied, nodding to Soren.

"That will be all for now. I will wait here until you have a guard ready."

"No need to wait, ma'am." He gestured to the nearest guard.

"Estella, accompany Lady Yountal to her room. You'll be her personal detail for the rest of the day, until she tells you otherwise." Estella bowed, and followed Kiara back to her room.

"Would you like me to accompany you inside your room?" Estella asked when they arrived.

"Or would you prefer me to wait outside the door?"

"Wait outside the door," Kiara instructed.

"Make sure that I'm not disturbed for any reason until I'm done with my art practice." Estella bowed and turned to face away from the door. Kiara went to enter the room, hesitated for a moment, then turned back to face Estella.

"Thanks, Estella, I appreciate your service." Estella simply bowed again. Kiara wondered if saying thanks had accomplished anything. Did the estate staff appreciate her saying thanks, or did they find her behavior unusual, or maybe even feel like she was being disingenuous? She entered her quarters, but left the door ajar enough that she could slip out without opening the door any further. She set up her art equipment in a corner of the room, then went into the bathroom and shut the door.

She activated [Invisibility], but glanced down despairingly at her clothes, which were still completely visible. She wouldn't be able to sneak out of the estate like this. She checked her reward options again. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Reward Points: 1 [Upgrade Stats (tier-based)] cost: 1 point. Gain +135 points to spend on stats [Guaranteed Advancement] cost: 1 point. The normal advancement times for each tier of your class will be capped at 1 year.

Advancements that happen before that are unaffected. [Stat Checker] cost: 1 point. Gain the ability to view other people's stats. [Limit Breaker] cost: 1 point. Gain the ability to upgrade your stats up to double their original MAX value. [Soul Space 2] cost: 1 point. Your soul can function as a spatial storage device, accessible only by you. The space itself will be spherical, with a diameter of 10 feet. Anything placed in the soul space will enter a time stasis.

As a bonus, this space can serve as a coin denomination exchanger for a 5% fee. [Early Personal Aura Negation] cost: 3 points. Others' magical auras will have no effect on you. [Invisibility 2] cost: 1 point. Renders you undetectable by magical sense, aura, domain, or any other type of ability. You will be truly invisible and undetectable. Any items in direct contact with your skin while you are invisible will also turn invisible. Releasing skin contact will remove invisibility from the item.

Touching or directly interacting with another person will remove the invisibility. She shrugged and purchased [Invisibility 2]. She didn't really need any of the other rewards right now, but she did need a way to sneak out of her estate and into Lord Grivalt's. Her clothes immediately disappeared from her view. She noticed that if she focused, she could see the faint shimmery outline of her own body, including her clothes and shoes, which would be helpful for knowing where her own body was at.

She assumed that the shimmer was only visible to herself. She touched one of her hair brushes, and it immediately disappeared from view as well. The same faint shimmer showed her where it was as she held it up in front of her face. Smiling triumphantly, she quietly made her way out of her room to where Estella was standing guard, still facing away from her door. She paused for a moment as she drew near, waiting to see if Estella would notice her. She didn't.

She retrieved her sword from her soul storage, and held it up in front of Estella's face. Kiara could clearly see the shimmery outline of the sword, and the longer she used [Invisibility 2] the more apparent it became to her eyes. Estella, on the other hand, seemed to have no idea that Kiara was there, and didn't react at all to the sword being held a few inches in front of her. Satisfied with her little experiment, Kiara tiptoed away from Estella, and made her way through the estate.

Each time a servant passed, Kiara would flatten herself against the nearest wall, letting the servant pass by unawares. She felt silly sneaking around her own house, but she didn't want anyone to see her leave. Once she was outside, she picked up the pace, and soon she was jogging toward home. Well, to her childhood home. She supposed the estate was her new home now. With her increased Strength and Endurance stats, Kiara made the trip back to her home village in just under twenty minutes.

She was winded, but a few minutes of rest helped her catch her breath. The run was invigorating, and she felt more alive than ever before. She was still completely invisible, of course. She didn't want anyone to see her poking around here. As she reached the village square, a light breeze gently rustled the leaves of the large oak tree adorning the center. Around the tree, a few wooden benches were spaced sporadically, mostly unoccupied.

A few of the villagers moved about in the vicinity, but most were either tending to their farms, or preparing for an early lunch. Kiara only stopped at the village center for a few moments to catch her breath, then made her way to her parents' house. It was empty, and looked as if it hadn't been lived in for some time now. The weeds were long, the garden was unattended, and everything was quiet.

She took a quick look inside, but the house was empty except for a stray cat that must have found its way in through an open window. It was sunbathing lazily on the wooden table in the kitchen, and barely paid Kiara any attention as she came in, other than a flick of the tail and a sudden interest in licking its paw. Seeing the house was empty, Kiara left and made her way toward Lord Grivalt's estate.

It wasn't too far outside the village center, just far enough away to set it apart from the common folk that lived in the village. Lord Grivalt was the only mage in the village, apart from his guards, and as the ruling noble, he'd made a point of avoiding contact with any of the commoners, for as long as Kiara could remember.

She'd never had the opportunity or need to interact with any mages in her roughly twenty years of life as Kiara, and she'd assumed, based on those experiences, that mages were extraordinarily rare. She was learning now that wasn't the case in larger cities. They weren't all that common, even in Easton, but they weren't as rare as she'd once assumed, either.

The mercenary guards Dustin had hired at the estate were all mages, and she'd seen firsthand during the caravan ride north from Horange to Portish that the guards and bandits were all more than mortal. She remembered the guard captain and bandit leader's fight – the raw speed they'd been moving, and the power of the spells they'd been throwing around. Even the tier 1 mages on either side had given them a wide berth.

The heads of the noble and wealthy families in Easton, the ones Dustin was making connections with, were mostly mages, and employed mages as house retainers. As she began moving in those circles, she realized she'd be interacting with even more mages in the future. Her first few interactions with mages had put a sour taste in her mouth, but she'd had pleasant experiences with some since then, too. They weren't all as stuck up as Lord Grivalt. Hank and Jeff, for example, were people she thought of as friends.

She reigned in her thoughts as she arrived at Lord Grivalt's estate. A wrought iron fence separated the estate from the road, while further back on the property the fence gave way to open fields and large trees. There wasn't a clear delineation of the property lines other than the fence and gate near the road. Two guards stood attentively at the gate, which was closed and barred. Kiara skirted around the edge of the property until she reached the more forested area near the back, where no fence barred her entry.

Then she doubled back to the main house, keeping an eye out for guards as she went. There were a few patrolling near the house, but spaced out enough that she easily slipped between them. If her experiment with Estella was any indication, it wasn't like the guards would have noticed her even if she had walked right by them, as long as she had [Invisibility 2] active.

Entering the house itself would be a bit trickier though, seeing as there was a guard stationed at the door, and she would have to open the door to get inside. Due to this, she first made her way around the estate grounds, seeing if she could spot any of her family members among the various staff working the grounds. Some gardeners were tending to bushes on the far side of the house, and as she drew closer, she spotted her father among them.

He looked tired and overworked, but as she glanced around, that seemed to be par for the course around here. All of the gardeners were haggard and had bags under their eyes. A guard stood nearby, shouting harshly at anyone that seemed to be slacking off or taking a break. Kiara's blood boiled as she watched. What she wouldn't give to give that guard a piece of her mind! She forced herself to calm down, since she hadn't seen her mom or either of her siblings yet.

Forcing herself to look away, she went back to the house and waited for the door to open. She didn't have to wait long, as servants periodically made their way in and out of the house. Tiptoeing as quietly as possible, she fell in line behind a small group of servants headed inside, and slipped in before the door shut. Once inside, she crouched in the shadows momentarily, her heart racing.

She was pretty sure no one had noticed anything, but it was still overly exciting sneaking around someone else's house while trying not to be noticed.