Chương 31: Zero.

The next day. VANESSA diary Log 31 Today was weapons training. Lining us up, Tarion gave us each a weapon he thought suited us. A rapier for my brother-in-law, who looked at his weapon disappointed. A spear for Charles, for a long-limbed forest dweller, seemed apt. A shield and sword for Jen to learn the basics of attack and defence. And for me, a sword and dagger.

I asked Tarion the reason for his strange choice, and he replied nonchalantly, "While you distract with a sword, a dagger is easy to hide under a dress." From there, he split us up for individual tutoring. My brother-in-law learned the movement quickly, winking at me with over-confidence. Charles surprised Tarion with his light feet. Jen struggled as the weapons were too heavy for her. Gave me a chuckle. The last was me. He held my forearm, his breath hot on my nape.

He bent down low, resting his chest on my back, and I felt his low velvet voice as he taught. His warm bear hand guided my blade slowly on a straw doll, showing me points to attack, such as the neck, the chest, the bowels, and the groin. He stressed stabbing the groin.

"The dead won't need to worry about using it." Then he left, leaving me unsated. My back felt empty, and I missed his touch. I made mistakes and messed up my form, just for a moment more in his arms... Tarion often gazed into the distance, in deep thought. I wondered what troubles plagued his mind. Can I ask? Marriage bonded us, but there was a barrier separating us. Should I pick a rock and shatter it or wait for him to break it down himself?

With extended training done and drenched in sweat, I walked to a bath the maids had arranged for me, and a sore sight came down the corridor. For weeks after the store incident, Caroline evaded me at every chance. Free of her insults, I almost forgot she was still sulking about in the castle. She froze and then continued down the corridor with her chin held high. There is only one reason she would go down here. The Dowager. The former duchess, hiding in her room.

How far she had fallen from her former prideful self. Only the maids and brother-in-law have entered her room as of late. Tarion would sometimes come to the far corner of the castle to peek, always leaving with a small smile on his face. Curiosity got the better of me, and I asked.

"When will you leave?"

"Excuse me~?"

"My mother is safe and out of reach. I won't abide by my father's instructions. So why are you still here? To monitor me?" My sister pursed her lips.

"I see. Then tell him in your report, 'Your strings have been cut.'""He will get tired of you one day and throw you out just like my father did to your bitch of a mother! Maybe he will toss you in one of those brothels to die like your mother deserved!" A circle turned around my heart, and a strange energy flowed from me. All the anger that has been building for years leaked out in flumes of blue. I remembered the dagger hidden on my leg. Coraline stepped back, trembling.

"How…"

"Vanessa!" Jen ran to me, huffing.

"Unrest in the streets of Mouve." Hands on her knees, she huffed.

"By a new gang led by the one they call the Madam." My anger settled. I looked at my quivering sister, imagining how I could have been scared of this garish, simple-minded woman.

"Thank the lands above there are more pressing issues than you." 3 days later. TARION In the dark at night, my two fingers spread dark makeup on my pale, moonlit skin. I pulled a hood over my hair, tied in a bun. I settled into a nostalgic feeling—the jitters before the start of the mission, the tension that weighed me down, the silence that left me alone with my worst thoughts. I checked two daggers on the back of my waist, and black wraps around my hands and forearms were tight and snug.

I addressed my shadows dressed in black like I am.

"Five to ten, lookout. Beatrice and the rest, with me." My locket jingled as I picked a see-through black cloth from my dark doublet's pocket. I tied it around my eyes and allotted points to senses.

"Let's move." I jumped off a ledge of a building four stories high, flipping with heightened grace on top of a lower roof. Umbra footwork softened my fall with mana on my soles, letting a mana essence mist break my fall. My steps are quieter than the night breeze. Feeling like I was wearing pillows, I ran across the rooftops, followed by five others.

"To your positions." And like that, my shadows spread out, with a masked Beatrice stalking behind in her Umbra gear. With bare muscular arms showing, she ran like a stealthy cat approaching her prey. She had been waiting a long time for this. I looked at my pocket watch. Twenty-two hundred hours. A balcony door opened. I took a silent leap from roof to balustrade, and a robed lady met us by the open balcony door.

"Kill them painfully." I entered the room, and a drowsy, pudgy man of wealth sat up on his bed.

"As you wish." I replied. The man noticed me.

"What is the meaning of this—" I grabbed his neck, lifting him so his legs dangled. His robe slipped off in his struggle.

"Ah. Poor girl." The pig turned purple in my hands, and I took my left dagger out with my right hand.

"We need a trademark." This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Get your damn hands off me – AAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhh!!!!" Blood gushed on the floor as my knife hacked at his family pebbles.

"Is this painful enough?" her eyes said no. The pig's squealing was muted as I choked the neck, and I dug my knife from the collar to his bloated belly button. Senses heard bodyguards move behind the door. Firsts and some seconds I can tell from their speed. I would've been surprised if a third were in this building, although upper circles required more marks. The room door flung open. I threw the dying pig to the left on his bed while my dagger made it to a guard's temple.

Flopping back into the candle-lit corridor with a dagger between the guard's nose, I rushed with a punch, pushing the dagger more until a head exploded and the weapon hit a wall.

"You bastard!!" A second guard slashed down and a second dagger from my side blocked. Sparks flew as I redirected the sword with my left hand to my five o'clock. I twisted, crushing organs with a mana-infused spinning backkick. I stabbed the back of the head for good measure, and I retrieved my dagger from the wall. Plonk Where next... My heightened senses do not hear any more guards on their way, and I walk down the corridor to our next targets.

"Beatrice, go right. I will go left." A nod from her, and we go our separate ways. The doors clicked and were left ajar. One by one I enter and leave with my blade bloody. A John came up the stairs after my fifth door and froze at the sight of me.

"Ra... RAVENS!!!" Before he could run, a kunai pushed his head back with a thud. Bring more. And more came. I heard my headmaid cause chaos elsewhere and readied myself. My hue under control, I flipped my blades into a reverse grip and slid under, swiping, cutting into a stomach. I stopped a downward strike before it finished its arc with my left and flipped my right blade, stabbing the horn's man three times before pushing him aside. A stab to my chest from the first was parried to my left.

I stepped inward and jabbed right in the guard's trachea. I pulled the dying to the right and blocked a blade from a second circle with my left. Sword and blade grind, and I let his power win. Off balance, his face fell into my dagger's edge. Mana coated the black weapon, slicing through. First and second circles hesitate. Run. And they did. I take my time down the steps. Bring more! Braver men came forth wanting to test their mettle. I evaded swords moving in slow motion.

Two daggers pierced two guts and kept descending. The smell of iron was strong downstairs as well. Familiar clangs resonate through these soiled halls. My senses heard harder clinks and clangs, and I sprinted. A john at the brothel foyer. A wild-haired mercenary who likes his women young. The fourth circle battered my head maid into the wall.

"Look here, ugly." Like an animal, his ear perked up. He saw me and went into a beastly rage.

"RAAARGH!" The mercenary ran at me with his axe up high. I stepped to the right and let his weapon break the wooden floor. A right cross shattered teeth. The mercenary screamed, his jaw wobbling as he picked up his weapon off the hole he made and slashed at me with anger. I jabbed. His left forearm broke, slowing down his swing. I stepped back, letting the axe cut air. He pressed on, slashing to his right with a blaze of mana. A right straight strike aimed at his heart halted the large mercenary.

A left jab made his nose gush red, and my right joined. My mana shield blocked the splashing blood as my fist exacted punishment at a comfortable rhythm. I stopped when his skull was mush.

"One. Are you well?" I asked. Beatrice slowly stood up, holding her sore back.

"Well enough, Zero. But I could have beaten him on my own." I nodded. I listened again. No whistle. Four other shadows appeared with dark clothes now bloody. One umbra carried the head of the circles that fled and rolled her trophies to me.

"It is done." Success." Impressive..." I and my Beatrice leapt backward from the voice, guarding my vitals instinctively, but then I recognised its strangeness.

"Drac." Sitting by a small bar, with a cup, the foreigner waited. Smilling with his back to us.

"Very impressive but a bit too messy for my taste." I tentatively brought down my guard. A hand obstructed me.

"Zero, he cloaks himself like us, like Umbra. Be careful." I nodded and made my way to the empty bar. I sat next to him, feeling my heart tick too fast. I was stronger than last time. But still felt weak. What a frustrating feeling. I eyed the bottle of nice wine he was drinking, and he shared it with me with an empty cup. I drink, feeling the tension ease away.

"I heard poison wasn't your style." Drac sipped his drink quietly.

"The horn can't get your GU. Deep in the underworld he is, but such connections are out of his scope."

"And I am supposed to believe YOU can give it to me." He probed me.

"Yes. Because I am certain I was poisoned with it." He glanced at me from the corner of his eye.

"Your heart... The Gu", he sat up, placing his cup down.

"Where is it?" Blunt and straight to the point, he asked me.

"Where Davis is. Find him. Bring him here. He knows the location of the GU you seek."

"Done." A mind made up. Drac left his chair. But I had not finished my request.

"- Once he's back", I drank the whole bottle till a few drops were left.

"Become my man. Be my pick to any lock, my dagger at any throat. What do you think?"

"I'm thinking that the mould in your castle has made you cookoo."

"Liu town." His Jian glistened an inch from my eye; mine never left from his. The wine helped.

"WHO TOLD YOU!?" Drac yelled. I could hear Beatrice's mana burn. I waved for her to cease.

"We have been following you since you contacted a friend," I said, tapping my nose.

"Medicine. You reek of it." Liuen Medicine said Bieye.

"You are too healthy. Therefore, it's from someone you visit regularly. Hence, I sent my men to spy on every pharmacy in Osberg." Drac sheathed his sword away but could hide his shame with his mask.

"Drac, shall we talk more?" I motioned Beatrice to get me more wine. Dra c slowly returned to his seat.

"I am chained, caught unawares by a damn noble..." I put my arm around the man I was once scared to death of.

"Don't be dour. You will look back on this and say it's the most important moment of your life! You're not chained; with my help you will fly free. HAHAHAHA!" Drac sighed, looking at Beatrice choosing a wine, and his thumb pointed at me.

"Mould?" Beatrice shrugged. I pretended I was too drunk to notice. 21 days until the ball.