Chương 27: Chapter 26 - I'm Not An Assassin

Dustin had yet to give her a reason not to trust him, and he seemed determined to help her rescue her family. Beyond that, she had handed him an immense fortune, and he had stuck around. He could have left, but he didn't. She settled it in her mind. She would trust him. She activated [Invisibility 2] and disappeared. Dustin nodded slowly, then reached out to pass his hand through where she was sitting. He must have thought she was gone gone. His hand bumped her arm, and she immediately re-appeared.

The ability mentioned that touching another person would cancel the effect, but it was good to see it in action. She felt like she understood the limitations a bit better now. That being said, why had she been able to interact with Gabe while remaining invisible? On top of him being able to see her somehow, and knowing that it was actually her, something about that entire situation was odd. Dustin jumped slightly as she re-appeared, then leaned back in his seat and folded his arms.

"I'm not a mage myself, Shian, so I don't know all of the ins and outs of how magic works, but I have interacted with plenty of powerful mages in the past.

"My family employed a number of tier 4 powerhouses as family retainers, and even a few tier 5s. Illusion magic as refined as what you just displayed is… uncommon. I don't know the limits and bounds at play here, but I would hazard a guess that very few tier 3s on the planet can do what you just did, and probably not a large portion of the tier 4s either." She shrugged.

"Would you believe me if I said I'm not a mage?" He snorted.

"Nope!"

"What if I told you that I'm only tier 1?"

"I find that very unlikely," he said with a twinkle in his eye.

"This isn't the first thing I've seen you do that disproves that."

"Oh?" she asked curiously. He nodded.

"Remember when we first met? I watched that noble brat, what was his name? Benji I think? Anyways, I watched him hit you point blank with a spell, and he was a tier 1 mage. It didn't even singe your eyebrows, and I didn't see you use a mana shield.

"I've seen mages duel, and normally a mana shield is visible, even if just barely. Hiding it completely from sight takes incredible skill. And if you didn't use a mana shield, then that would actually be more impressive, as your durability would be on par with a peak tier 4 or tier 5 mage, to tank a spell like that." This was the most Kiara had ever learned about how magic actually worked. She decided to open up a bit more to keep the information flowing. Assuming the World Engine would let her.

Eh, it was worth a shot.

"Well, I am not a mage," she declared proudly.

"I am an anti-mage. A tier 1 anti-mage." There, she'd said it. And the World Engine hadn't struck her down or choked off her sentence like it had at other times previously. Dustin studied her for a bit, chewing on the inside of his lip.

"I'll admit, I've never heard of an anti-image before. What does that mean? Is it like some new branch of magic or something?"

"No," she started, then paused to think about it. The World Engine did technically give her some abilities, so was she doing magic? Maybe, in some fashion?

"Well, I guess I'm not sure," she said.

"The Wor… ackghckgh," her sentence was choked off. Ok, apparently she couldn't say 'World Engine'. Why? She glared in a general upwards direction, hoping the World Engine was listening. Why can't I talk about you? … No response. Oh well. Dustin was looking at her in concern.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Just uh… well, I guess there's some stuff that I can't talk about, as in I'm not allowed to talk about it." He nodded like that was normal, which she found odd. She would have to ask him about that later.

"Anyways," she continued, "I can do some magic-ey type stuff, so maybe it's some kind of new branch of magic, I'm not sure. But normal magic doesn't work on me, hence the class anti-mage."

"Class?" He asked with raised eyebrows.

"Uh, yeah, at least that's what the W…" she stopped herself in time.

"Uh, that's what I heard it called. Most people have the class of mage, and I have the class of anti-mage."

"So is this some kind of assassin magic or something?" he asked.

"You can turn invisible, ignore other mages' spells, that kind of thing?" He looked a bit worried about the prospect.

"I'm not an assassin!" she exclaimed.

"Mmm, then how did you get all of your money?" he asked.

"Your family is poor, indentured servants even, and you say you grew up in a small village nearby. You turned up hundreds of miles from home, carrying more coin on your person than I've ever, and I mean ever, seen one person carry around before. You killed some rich person in Ventalia, didn't you?" If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"I am NOT an assassin," she said, smacking him on the arm.

"Okay, okay, don't kill me," he said, holding his hands up defensively. He was smirking now, with a sparkle in his eye. She just glared at him.

"So, where did the class of anti-mage come from?" he asked, a bit more seriously.

"Apparently, I'm not allowed to talk about it," she said, calming down a little.

"Every time I try, my body seizes up. Let's just say I was given a new class, and a bunch of money to… start fresh." He chuckled.

"You're really not selling me on the whole 'not an assassin' thing. Ok, so you have a bunch of money, you're immune to magic, and you can go invisible. Anything else?"

"I recently received the ability to sense things around me. People, large animals, that sort of thing." Dustin nodded.

"That's a common mage skill, I believe."

"I also have a soul storage space," Kiara added. Dustin tilted his head to the side.

"What does that mean?" She pointed at one of her storage rings.

"Like a storage ring, except I don't need a ring to do it. I can just… store it. In my soul, I guess." He furrowed his eyebrows.

"That one is decidedly not normal. I don't know enough to say for certain if other mages can do that or not, but I've seen plenty of powerful mages wearing storage rings, so it seems unlikely." He took a deep breath before continuing.

"Well, I can't say I fully understand your situation, and you don't seem able to tell me any of the juicy details, but I think I know enough to offer some advice." She nodded eagerly.

"Don't…. tell anyone else about this," he said gently. He scrunched up his face and scratched the back of his head.

"What you're describing sounds… very unusual. I don't like the idea of powerful people finding out about your unique situation. Immune to magic or not, painting a target of that sort on your back would be unwise." She let that thought settle for a bit. She had already arrived at a similar conclusion herself, but it felt good to have explained her situation to someone. To have shared her secrets, and to have someone else who understood some of what she was going through.

"So what are our next steps?" she asked. He nodded, orienting his thoughts back to their immediate future.

"I'll work on spinning up some of the businesses I mentioned earlier, and start getting the name of House Yountal out there. I'll look into setting up a storefront that sells wines specifically, since Lord Grivalt operates in that industry. I suspect that within a few weeks we'll have some business dealings with House Grivalt.

"In the meantime, try to stay out of trouble." He said with a wink.

"We have a small, mostly-empty library here in the house that is in dire need of some books, so I'll have one of the staff see about acquiring some. I can recommend some books on etiquette and social norms amongst the noble class, if you'd be kind enough to read them? I think it would be wise for you to educate yourself somewhat in that area before we begin introducing you to the upper class here in Easton." What's wrong with my etiquette? She wondered to herself. Eh, I guess it won't hurt to read a few books.

"I signed up for a sword training academy here in Easton," she said.

"Classes start on Monday." Dustin nodded, which she took to mean that it must be okay for a lady of her standing to participate in said activity. Good, that was something she was really looking forward to. * The next few weeks passed by uneventfully. Kiara made it a point to jog out to Lord Grivalt's estate once each week to check up on her family. They seemed okay, so she was fine with the slower plan of action, waiting for Dustin to establish contact in a business capacity.

Gabe didn't seem to see through her invisibility apart from that first time she had visited him. Her sword classes started, and she found that Instructor Handel didn't personally teach the beginner class. That being said, the beginner's class covered a lot of the basics that Hank and Jeff had taught her, and she progressed quickly. She quickly fell into a rhythm with her schedule. Her sword class was in the mornings, after breakfast.

She would return home for lunch, then read from the etiquette books that Dustin had recommended for a few hours, before practicing her sword forms and stances until dinner time. After dinner, she would catch up with Dustin, playing the occasional game of cards while they chatted about how things were progressing. Dustin had offered full time positions to Captain Soren's mercenary guard unit, and about half of them had accepted, including both Soren and Estella.

The other half didn't want to be tied down to a single place, which Kiara respected. Once word spread amongst the guards that she had started taking sword classes, she had offered to spar with some of them, but it quickly became apparent that none of them were a match for her. All of the guards were either mortal or tier 1, and none of them could match her speed and strength. Beyond that, none of them had trained as much as her with the sword, so she still beat them when she held herself back to their speed.

She quickly earned their respect, but they eventually stopped sparring with her, preferring instead to train with each other. It did seem like she had lit a fire of some kind under them though, as she often heard them training out in the yard during their breaks. She also spent some time in the kitchens periodically. At first, she had avoided them, not wanting to get in the way of the cooks, but she missed cooking and baking sometimes.

The cooks had assured her that they could make anything she needed, but sometimes it wasn't about the end product, but about the act of cooking and baking. It was nice not having to do it every day, but it also was calming in a way that few other things were. They soon got used to her presence in the kitchen, and would continue their tasks without her feeling awkward for being there. The maids had been cleaning her room at first, but she put a stop to that as well.

She had told them, "I'll clean my own room, you can do the rest of the house. I'm not helpless, you know." Dustin had sat her down and told her that a 'lady of her standing shouldn't be cleaning' or whatever, but keeping her own room tidy helped her feel a sense of fulfillment and order. She would keep doing at least that much, regardless of how it affected her image, and if people thought less of her for it, then that was their problem.

The household got used to her odd quirks, and settled into a rhythm of their own. Her staff relaxed slightly around her, as they were used to seeing her more frequently, which helped her feel more comfortable. That in itself was reward enough for doing things her own way. It had been suffocating having everyone bow all the time and tiptoe whenever she was around, to avoid offending her in some way.

They still bowed politely when she passed, but it was with a friendly smile and eye contact now, instead of feeling like they dreaded her appearance. She noticed that Dustin dropped some of the tight formality as well when they were home. In private, he had been treating her more normally ever since she'd asked him to, but around the staff he had been more precise in his formality at first. That had settled down a bit over the past few weeks though, and it felt nice.

In public, he was still a perfect example of etiquette, which was fine. She did have an image to maintain, after all. The routine was finally broken after a few weeks when a letter arrived. It was addressed to Lady Shian Yountal, and it was from Lord Grivalt.