Ch 47 – Finally, my schemes are all coming together! Really, it’s about time something went my way.

I knew I had to move quickly if I wanted to act before Melkar did. Which would be difficult given that Lilis was being more vigilant now than ever. By the next morning’s class, I’d constructed a plan. Unfortunately, it was heavily reliant on others, something I was reluctant to do. But I had little choice.

Lilis raised a brow, when at the beginning of class, I began carefully drawing out several runic circles onto paper.

“What exactly are you doing?”

I frowned, meeting her gaze. “Just because we aren’t going out to deal with this doesn’t mean I don’t plan to ensure our safety to the best of my ability. I’m making sure that I remember how to properly draw these before putting them up in our room. If Melkar and his demon are stupid enough to come after us in our sleep, I’ll make sure they regret it.”

My words were all true, at least from the right perspective. “We” weren’t in fact going out to fight Melkar together. And I was being careful in making sure that I recalled the runes correctly. I was also planning to place a few runes within our dorm room, though the fact that these specific runes weren’t for that was conveniently left unmentioned.

Lilis shrugged before bringing her attention back to the professor’s lecture. For once, I hadn’t the slightest clue what it was about.

On the way out, I bumped into Evara, causing both of us to stumble as we left through the door.

“Sorry!”

Her hands grabbed my own, preventing me from falling, and she gave me a smile somewhere between a smirk and an ecstatic grin. “No no, I should have been watching where I was walking. I suppose my mind was…elsewhere,” she said, suggestively.

The girl gave me a wink when she pulled away, and I rolled my eyes. I couldn’t help the small, satisfied smile of my own that crept onto my face as she walked away with a folded note in hand.

Now I just had to hope she agreed to my offer.

When we went back to the dorm that evening, I did exactly what I’d told Lilis I was planning to do—filling our room with runework. It took hours of work, and I went through quite a bit of chalk. But it would be worth it if Melkar or his new demon showed up. I didn’t trust the academy faculty or staff to keep men out of the women’s dorms. Especially not when a demon was involved.

The next day passed much like the previous, with me drawing out more runes and passing notes between myself and Evara between classes. Things luckily stayed quiet, and both Lilis and I spent little time in the halls. Even our meals were taken to our rooms. Though given that my “meals” were flasks full of blood, that fact had a bigger impact on Lilis than me. The naive woman seemed to think that given enough time, Melkar would give up. I wasn’t so foolish though.

On the fourth night of subterfuge and planning, I knew it was time to finally act. Even this long had been pushing it, but it was important to be meticulous with these things. Especially when I had to act through others.

I took a deep breath and looked over at Lilis, my last and probably most unpredictable obstacle in all of this. My hands clenched into fists as I mentally prepared myself.

This was assured to be the most challenging technique that I’d ever attempted, something that had me more nervous than my impending encounter with Melkar. It required the sort of skill that took years to hone and which was likely impossible to perfect. I’d escaped cells meant to imprison me, survived through days of endless training, and even led a hunt for wyverns. But never had I attempted something so bold as this.

And the worst part was that even if I did everything right, I still wasn’t certain that I would ultimately succeed.

I gulped as Lilis met my eyes. She gave me a curious look with a hint of confusion.

Both of us had just finished getting ready for bed, and my hesitation was clear. A lump formed in my throat. I wasn’t ready for this.

The truth was, though, that I would never be ready. It was now or never.

I took another deep breath and said, “Lilis, I umm—I…”

She tilted her head.

My legs squirmed beneath me. “I need, umm—Iwashopingwecouldhave,” I mumbled and then paused, nearly unable to say the word, “sex.”

“Ruuby,” she teased, her lip curling up into a smirk. “Is a certain little succubus feeling a bit needy?”

I hated this—hated myself for stooping this low. But it was necessary to keep both of us safe. This was at least far better than the alternative: poisoning her drink and placing her into a deep sleep. It would have been easy. Lilis was far too trusting for someone who was part of the Shadow Families. But I wouldn’t do that to her. This was better, no matter how poorly it sat with me.

So I nodded as she sauntered forward.

“I didn’t think you knew how to be this forward,” she teased me once again.

I frowned, giving her a scowl. “Just shut up and kiss me would you?”

Her lips met mine, and then she dragged me off to bed. My goal was to exhaust her enough that she wouldn’t wake up when I snuck out.

It went far better than I could have expected. Lilis was eager to drain the energy from both of us, and after a couple hours of intense exercise, she was sprawled out on the bed, arms wrapped around me. Perhaps the hardest part was slipping from her grasp.

For a long moment, I stood next to the bed, staring at the lightly snoring girl. I hadn’t known I could feel this bad for manipulating someone, minimal as it was. We’d engaged in… sexual activities several times now, and none of them made me feel sick like this one had. Usually they left me with a sense of euphoria, if anything.

I sighed. What’s done was done. It was time to make use of my exhausting efforts. I grabbed my hidden stash of clothes and eased the door open, glancing over at Lilis to make sure she didn’t stir. Luckily, the girl was still snoring.

I eased out into the hall, bare feet gently tapping against the cool stone, only to nearly jump out of my skin as a figure approached from the dark. A sigh of relief rushed through me as I recognized Evara’s familiar face and black hair.

“It’s just you,” I whispered.

“Don’t tell me you’re going out like this.” The woman put a hand to her lips as she eyed my sheer nightgown up and down. I was sure it left little to the imagination.

I held up the bundle of clothes in my hand. “Just turn around so I can change, and make sure no one sees me.” Changing within the room ran the risk of waking Lilis, and luckily the doors were fairly sound proof. I’d made sure of it.

Evara gave an exaggerated bow, arm crossed beneath her. “As you wish, princess.”

I blinked, and my cheeks flushed. After a glare her way, the impudent girl finally turned around, but not before shooting me one of her classic grins.

With a huff, I turned my back to her and began quickly dressing into the clothes that I’d carefully stashed away for this moment. It consisted largely of several things I’d managed to put together from Lilis’s wardrobe, though finding the ones that fit well had been a challenge. Ultimately, I’d managed to put together an outfit that was fairly skin tight, black, and which covered most of my body. It wouldn’t offer much in terms of protection, but it would have to do. At the very least, it would give any attackers little that they could grab hold of, should it come to that. And its skintight nature would hopefully serve as quite the distraction.

What was most unfortunate was the loss of my previous set of knives. Instead, after getting dressed, Evara handed me a simple short sword and a belt to sheath it.

“Well, you certainly look as though you’re ready for a fight,” she commented as I finished strapping the blade to my side.

“Let’s hope so,” I muttered back. “Do you have the other two things?”

She reached into a satchel at her side and pulled out a jar. At first, it appeared to be just filled with a swaying black liquid, but as I peered closer, I could see two tiny eyes blinking open.

“Here, and take some chalk with you as well. I’m sure you’ll need it.”

Evara handed me the jar, along with a small mana crystal, and two sticks of chalk. I tucked them all away into my own small bag strapped across my shoulder.

Then she leaned forward. “And don’t forget just how much you owe me for all this.” Her finger poked into my shoulder. “If you think you can sneak off afterwards and turn yourself human again under my nose before at least talking with me about it, you’d better think again.” I could tell she was only half serious in her comment, but I took it seriously all the same.

“I’ll give you what you were promised,” I responded, brushing her hand away. “I don’t go back on my word.”

I hadn’t had a whole lot to offer the girl, in truth. But she was also one of the few that I could offer anything at all to here at the academy. I also trusted her and Lilis’s other friends far more than anyone else.

It was lucky that she’d agreed to everything I’d asked of her for something as small as a couple nights of pleasure. I could only assume she was doing it out of compassion, as I doubted I would have been so generous. My only other promise was that I would shelter her, should I somehow gain the power to protect her from her family. We both knew just how little such a promise meant when I hadn’t had the strength or influence to do so even before my sudden transformation.

The fact that I was so willing to sell my body for her help was… something I’d been avoiding thinking about.

With everything now exchanged, her side of our deal was done. I took a heavy step forward toward what I hoped wasn’t my impending doom. Then, as an afterthought, I turned back to her.

“Thank you,” I said with a small bow.

Evara smiled, tucking a strand of black hair behind her ear. “Of course.” Then her normal teasing demeanor melted away, her expression becoming uncertain. “You know, I really would have considered doing all this for free. I’d like to think we’ve become friends of a sort.”

“Perhaps so, but nothing is truly free, Evara. And you should be glad to be getting something out of this.”

We’d had this discussion already, and she dropped it, knowing that I wouldn’t change my mind. I could tell that there was something else she wanted to ask and decided to be courteous enough to wait.

After a long moment of hesitation, she said, “Are you sure that you don’t want my help?”

“No, I still need you to cause a distraction for the faculty. And besides,” I straightened my posture, and stared deep into her eyes, a prideful gleam in my own. “This is something I must do alone.”

With that dramatic final comment, I pressed forward at an unhurried stride, brushing past her. It was time I faced my demons and put them down for good.

“You’re incorrigible, you know that?” she said just behind me, completely ruining my dramatic exit.