Chapter 73 – One Guard Down

*** Yuki ***

Alzi and Kelly got me put back together quickly; even as a princess back home, I would normally be out for a week with those kinds of injuries. Though that was more for a lesson. There was a time when nobles never had a scratch last for more than a minute. Of course, going their entire childhood without pain caused them to be absolutely useless in a fight. A bit of discomfort, and they would shut down. The first war ended that idea and left us with a method that lets kids understand pain. Some take this a bit too far and forbid them from having any healing magic unless it would cripple or kill them. Mother wasn't that strict with us, but healing was always limited.

Nakuma has handled the majority of the tracking and scouting of the headquarters. We've found that they have eight guards with a strange rotation. With no set hours, it is basically impossible to guess who is going to go on break next. Sometimes, they go on break for only a few minutes. They walk home and then turn around and head back without even going through the door.

That leaves us with only a few options: poison all of them, guess and hope for luck, or try to make a situation happen that will get most of them to leave.

The last option is basically impossible. We don't know what would cause them to leave the headquarters, if there is even a situation that would get the guards to leave. Poisoning all of them will surely get the Queen asking a few too many questions and possibly kicking us out, in addition to the logistical issues.

The poisons would need to be slow-acting, giving them more time to discover the poison. Otherwise, they are more likely to just not work, as natural resistance or healing something else destroys the poison. This leaves us with the only option. Hoping we poison the right guards.

We should be able to poison four of them. The worst-case scenario is that we need to kill four of the guards during the attack. The best case is that we pick the right three, and they all die without us needing to fight them. If I don't get any of the current guards, the plan will be to poison one of the ones on duty, then attack the last two and hope they don't have the last guard on a short break.

I've debated whether we should attack another branch. Will this attack bring the Queen to our doorsteps? Will they add more top-level guards or change the pattern even more?

My hope is that they spread out and try to keep the branches safe, thinking we just want to kill all the branches or don't know about the headquarters somehow.

With that decision made, Nakuma and I are now on the first batch of poisoning. I brew up a very specific poison. The hardest part is getting the life mana for it, but I've got an oversized battery of it with Alzi. Normally, life mages refuse to participate in making poisons. If they're found out, they are often tortured to death. Life is for healing and all that. But Alzi doesn't even know she gave up her mana for this batch. The one good thing about her having no idea how her mana works, I can just use it for whatever I want.

The poison will kill the carrier in one week, give or take a few hours. This is perfect for the first group. The second group will have a more standard poison, one that should kill them in a few hours. We'll give them the poison right before we infiltrate.

All the guards seem to be about the same level, so for the first batch, we're just picking random women to poison, and then again, we'll make a random selection for the last pair.

My target lives on the edge of the noble's district. She has five wives and a good number of maids running around her mansion. Her bedroom is in the exact middle of the building, forcing me to walk through her house a bit before I can hide away in her room and wait for her to sleep.

Getting over her fence is simple. A little invisibility, and I get up to the side of the mansion next to the servant's entrance. There, it's a waiting game for a servant to walk through in a manner I can sneak in behind them. The first few do a good job of closing the door behind them as they leave or enter, but there is always one who is lazy or forgetful.

I do have to worry about wards when I enter. I haven't found any yet while I wait, but I'm not the best at finding them. Nakuma is better at that than me. I can sense the ones made to strengthen the building, keep the weather from damaging the paint, and whatnot, but the true defensive wards are either missing or escape my spying. If I can find the alerting ward, I'll be fine; I should be able to reapply my cloak. I just can't alert them that I'm here.

I have a long wait before another maid comes by to open the door, plenty of time to finally find the alarm ward. It's the standard ward, so I can easily silence it when I enter. Now, I just need a lazy maid to come by.

It doesn't take long for a group of maids to come out, too engrossed in conversation to manually close the door behind them, letting me sneak in.

My cloak skill goes out as I cross the threshold, so I just reapply it, and I start looking for the target's room. I know it's in the middle, and mansions aren't mazes, so it'll be easy to find the general area. The hard part will be checking for the right room. The doors are going to be closed for the most part, and I don't have a great way to check what is inside the room without opening the door.

Hoping for some luck, I look for a laundry room; maybe they are talking about what clothing they need to do and where it is going. The current room is in one corner of the mansion, likely the start of the servant's area. So I head down the hallway listening for any conversations that may hint to the correct room. Being in the servants' section, the hallway is smaller, just enough for two women to walk past side by side, forcing me to control my furry tails.

I make slow work, careful to keep out of the way of any maid who walks through, and stay light on my feet. I pass the kitchen, and the sounds and smell of dinner stream past the damping ward for a few feet. Maids and cooks rushing about getting the extra ingredients from the cellar make it difficult to pass.

Even past the kitchen, I have to dodge the constant stream of servants. The cellar must be on this side of the house. I make it to the laundry room and find it empty. The clothing has already been washed, and now either sits out to dry or is back in the owner's wardrobe.

After that plan failed, I headed up to the second floor. There should only be four rooms without windows. With some luck, one or two wouldn't have a door, letting me narrow my search to a coin toss.

I find a small stairwell on the side of the house letting me skip the main entrance where a few wives are likely sitting. No need to walk into proficient mana users.

On the second floor, I head to the center and find I'm right. There are just two possible rooms for me to choose from. Tired of camping out, I take a risk and open one of the doors, stepping inside when the hallway is empty.

"Dear, are you back already?"

Shit! I quickly put an illusion of the guard on me. The dark room hiding that nobody walked in when the door opened.

"Dear, is something wrong? You said I could sleep in your bed while I'm pregnant, so don't give me the silent treatment over 'invading your space,'" she continues. She likely can't see in the dark, or she would question why her lover appeared in the dark. "Fine, be like that. Do with me as you please. I'll be here sleeping as I wish. You better treat the kids better than you treat me." With that she tucks herself back into the bed.

Well, I guessed the right room, but what do I do about this? I can still poison the guard, but now I've got someone with a memory they shouldn't have. The guard would be paranoid. A single mention of her wife thinking someone was in here when there wasn't should get the entire family a visit to the healer cleansing the poison. The other guards may join as well.

Fuck. Do I just kill the guard and take her place? I think I know all the protocols; I just need to know the schedule, if there is one. Kill her on the way there? Who would I replace then? Oh, Goddess, tell me what to do.

"At least join me. I've left plenty of the bed for you to sleep in, though I wouldn't mind a bit of touching," the woman whispers.

Well, I need to take a few minutes to figure out what to do. I join the woman in bed, careful to stay to the side.

"Please, you used to love me. Why can't you touch me again? Just a hug." Her voice tries to cover the tears falling. Should I comfort someone else's wife? Taking the risk, I move over and wrap her in a hug, finding the woman is well into her pregnancy—likely past her due date. "Thank you, dear."

Ugh, fine girl, your wife will have a chance to live if she takes it. Just don't do anything stupid now.

I stay with the pregnant woman for three hours till the door opens again, and the target walks in.

"Who's there?" the woman calls out.

"Rina, who else would walk into my room?" The new woman comes in.

"That would be me, though I entered a while ago," making my presence known to everyone now. "Now, sit down, girl. We've got a deal to make."

"And if I don't?"

"I'll kill the kid." That statement gets the woman shaking in my arms. My hands were already over her belly, mana circulating.

"And if I don't care about the kid?"

"Then I guess we fight."

She still stands a few feet from the door, the three of us still in the dark.

"Dear? Please, I'm sorry. I didn't know. I love you. Please," the pregnant girl whimpers out.

"Fine. I'll listen for a bit." I got her to walk over to her desk and turn on the light.

I've pulled the pregnant girl into my lap so I can sit up and have a body between me and my target. She's tried a few times to kill me with her magic, but after the third failure, she's calmed down.

"Kitsune. What do you want?"

"Information. Your guild tried to kill a friend of mine. Two friends of mine and I want to know who paid for it and the assassins that carried them out."

"Well, I don't have that information."

"I'm not here for that information. I'm here to assassinate you. The three guards are the only thing stopping me from getting the information I want. You were meant to be poisoned today, but this stupid girl was in your bed, possibly saving your life. So, give me a reason to keep you alive."

"Dear, what is she talking about?"

"I'm a guard for the assassin's guild. If I get you that information, will you leave?"

"How do you get the information?"

"I walk into my work and get it."

"No, you've already shown little care for your wife and children. You can't leave without me having a better way to keep you in line. Plus, I don't feel like the assassin's guild finding me out. So this needs to be permanent."

"You want to make me a slave?"

"Unless you've got another idea, yes. Remember, you were meant to die in a week. I think this is a great trade. I mean, look at your pregnant wife. She is upset, yet she's the reason you get to live. Don't make me kill her kid this late in the pregnancy."

The guard finally looks her wife in the eyes before moving down to her belly, my hands resting on top. Her hands shaking in her lap.

We sit there for a few minutes; the only sound is the woman in my lap crying. The guard stares at the womb, deciding how much she loves her wife. Or maybe she is trying to figure out if she can take me.

"A year. I'll be a slave for a year. After that, the guild will forget about this, and we can all move on."

"Glad to come to an agreement. Now turn around and walk over here so I can put the collar on you."

The woman follows my directions, carefully finding her way to the edge of the bed. I pull out a collar—being a princess of the Kitsune gives you a few perks—and I send it out, letting it wrap around the guard's neck, giving me my first slave.

"Now you said you can get the information without me going in?"

"I said that, but I can't do it."

"Fine, see you in a week. Don't tell anyone about me or what has happened here. Also, be nicer to your wife. I know how grumpy pregnant women can be. Don't make their life harder; the kid does that plenty."