That night, I put Adoray in the bed again. He wondered how he had been in the bed when I electrically woke him up after the Knight thing, but had learned not to question me. So, if he woke in the middle of the night sometimes and found himself there, he just fell back to sleep after seeing me curled up in a ball on the chair. He did not care that I took the lesser and switch with me like a kind-hearted fellow, no he did not. He pretended he did not see me in the first place.
Maybe I shouldn't have switched with him, or shown kindness at all.
All I was doing was preparing him for when I left. He got used to me being on the chair, waking up less every night as he got used to how comfortable and alluring the bed was again. It practically begged you to stay, sleep more...
That may have sounded weird, but that was just my way of describing that bed. For sure, I would come back again someday just to sleep there.
Later that day, after the Church members were all locked in their inn rooms at Marinette's "The Whistling Bard," I tucked Adoray in after making sure he wasn't faking and left.
I had found a map by pure chance while looking into the restaurant they had dined in hours before, since it doubled as an adventurer hang out spot during the seasons they were most active in Zueltina, fall and winter.
It wasn't too much work to find the Smile islands and use the unit rate measurements in the bottom corner to find out where it was. So, after making sure everything was set, I went back to the crime scene.
The mana stone barrier that had been set up was quickly dismantled by my small fingers twirling the mana flow around a bit so it looked like it malfunctioned, and I entered the scene. It looked the same as two days ago.
Midnight was nearing and it would soon be day three, the time of the exchange. If I was not mistaken, the exchange would take place early in the morning way before dawn, after meeting up at some old port that was there from the time Smile Islands were inhabited by people. Then, we would sail our own ways and never meet again unless fate willed it.
That's not how this night would go down. Or morning, whichever you prefer.
As I walked through, I transformed into Knight and made the ice melt away, turning back into regular colored sea water and pulling Debrah up from its depths.
She had been starving for two days, which made me wonder if she would still be sane after being cramped in such a small place for that time, but she seemed only extremely dehydrated and a tiny bit crazed. Well, beastkin were meant to be durable under pressure, not sane.
"Welcome back to Severo.
Did you enjoy your prologue of the underworld?" Knight asked, a bright smile gracing my now full lips again.
Debrah was simply shivering and gaunt in the ice I had trapped her in, eyes unseeing as her fallen back head looked to the ceiling.
"Hey, are you still alive?" I asked her while floating up to her head, the ribbons on my arms coming alive and my dress billowing as I touched her cheek.
My fingernail scraped her face as I dragged it down, drawing a line of bright red blood. She didn't respond since it was likely not as painful as the rest of it.
"Phooey..." I sighed. "Well, it's not like you're supposed to respond anyway. I guess I'll just get the rest of the answers from that one lad..."
So, I took her and her snow shaved self, dragging the ice block outside and leaving it there. The night made it very cold, so she stopped shivering and just lay there in the ice, numb.
Probably thought she was about to die. Well, at least this will make her reflect on her actions.
Thinking she may just be taken and saved if found, having been wrongly accused, I took some paper I found sitting in the receptionist's desk she worked at and wrote down everything I knew about her. Of course, I reached through a small portal for it.
It took a lot of time to make the handwriting absolutely perfect, and make sure there weren't any spelling mistakes as I wrote this all down in the language of Bytriste, which was international. I didn't know how to write in their language, even though I had been fluently conversing in it all this time. I may be a little genius, but I wasn't that smart.
Once it was done, I coated it with mana like it was laminated and used a black ribbon to tie it to Debrah's face. I guess it would be my calling card, the way I tie that specific ribbon. When I stepped back, it looked like a package you would give someone for Christmas. Too bad they didn't have UPS, I loved the American version of delivery service.
Then, I remembered the path on the map I memorized and took off in the direction of Smile Islands.
I was silent, blending into the night as I rose above the clouds, darting through like a bird of prey on the hunt.
The only thing I was worried about was that I would run of mana very fast at this rate. The counter was running down fairly fast, to the point I was wondering if I would have to sleep on the island for a while.
I'd been expecting that the ship would find a cove and hide. I didn't expect that they would blatantly dock at the old port in plain sight. How stupid. Or are my ways just too cautious for this world?
I flew down into the trees, ignoring the mountains in the background and the old, rundown houses. The island couldn't have been more than eight miles long, five wide. Now that I thought about it, there wasn't anywhere much to hide. The other islands were much, much bigger but they chose this one. I didn't question why.
The pirates, people I had expecting to be like Luffy and crew for some reason, were strolling around blatantly. Looking around for anything they might pillage, the men were digging in the floors of homes, searching for anything that might have been valuable to be left behind. How convenient. I wouldn't have to dig the holes anymore.
They were the noisiest "secret" bunch I'd ever encountered. There were jeers and shouts coming from multiple houses, making me wonder about how quiet it would be once they were all gone.
Oh, I hope you weren't mistaken in thinking they would leave on their ship. No, I mean when I kill them all and use the holes they dug to bury them in the end.
As I walked through the dark greenery, I listened to the animals of the night. There weren't many around, since the island wasn't big enough to house some types, but they were always present. There was a wolf type beast coming down the hill behind me, along with its cub. The birds were sleeping, but the bats were watching me as I floated by. My feet did not touch the ground, since it would make noise. The trees bent away from me as I went forward, rustling only the tiniest bit. I wondered if it was possible that nature could feel what I was and purposefully display its distaste. Worked for Aloire, why not me?
It looked like I was a specter, glowing in the moonlight. The black dress, suit, and veil blended in with the darkness, but the white hair was fantastical and luminescent.
Eventually, I came to the edge of the tree line. Nigh of thirty feet away was the first pillaged house, the men inside coming out while drinking from musty bottles that had been unearthed. None of them look important, I finalized as my ribbons slithered along the ground, leaving me. So they don't need to live anymore.
Around they necks, black snakes seemed to appear. The bottles dropped and they started to rustle with themselves, struggling to breathe. None of them made a sound, the only noise heard from them forever more being the snap of their necks and the thumps of their bodies on the ground.
All that was left of the murder weapon was a beautiful black bow tied around their necks, like they were presents for the next people to find them. They also looked ready to party, with those perfect bow ties.
The first five down, I passed them right by and went further into the village.
This time, I wasn't in the mood to find out which one was willing to speak-I was going straight for the captain...
...the only one who would be left alive tonight.
Maybe.
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When I left the latest scene, there was not a drop of blood anywhere. The only thing that was of concern was that the houses around might break under the weight of men hung on them, having choked to death.
Earlier, I had stood amidst the men without any of them noticing me because of [Existence Negate]. All they knew was that one minute they were getting ready for a campfire, and the next they're choking because a ribbon had looped around their throats and made them defy gravity as they flew for trees and houses, being hung with nothing to help them down. All of them struggled, only a few of them smart enough to stop and accept death after cutting at the unbreakable ribbons with their hidden knives.
There was only one that was spared, a slim and cunning-looking man reduced to sniveling tears and snot running down his face. The reason being: I had just stomped on his special place after he offered to give me a "good time."
How he could even do that while his men were choking to death by my hand, I had no idea. It may've been a trained reaction that he said without much thought. The ribbons strained against the old roofs as the men turned, the wind pushing them a bit. It was an eerie sound for anyone but me.
Like we were in the gallows.
So, I grabbed him by his flaring red pirate costume and lifted him up. He was shorter than me while I was in this form, like a dwarf. I found it intriguing that when he struggled to be put down, he laid a hand on me. I guess, in his current degraded state of mind, he would make such a mistake as to grab my breast.
But I didn't care. So, I squeezed his wrist so hard with a ribbon that snaked off my hand, that it just...fell off. Like tying a dog's tail and letting it fall off after time, even though I wasn't that patient.
"It looks like...even you won't leave here alive," I sighed while putting my hand on my cheek, like it was such a sad thing.
"AGHHHH....AH AHHHHH..." He screamed out into the night suddenly at the loss of his hand, scaring the wild life and making sleeping birds fly out from their trees.
I was kind of hoping that by saying that, he'd plead for his life and offer up some info...nope. He was the weak type, charming and all but easily bending to pain.
So, off with his head.
The body fell to the floor after I released it, thudding heavily. My business done here, I turned away with a sigh and headed towards their ship. I had hung about forty men, insufficient to maintain the large barge they had traveled on. It was likely just a bluff to any coming ships so that they wouldn't be messed with. They didn't have any magicians, so there was no illusion magic to use.
It was not daunting to me as I floated over the water towards it, then went below deck for a little finders keepers.
Piles...piles...so many piles of goods and fine riches that I had to wonder how this ship was still afloat.
There were slats where the moonlight came in, pouring white light onto the piles and illuminating them as if they were precious. Well, they were precious, but it seemed kind of dirty since they were under the care of such filthy men. There was grime coating the walls and dirt on everything as if no water had ever leaked in, washing it once in a while. It seemed as if it had just been let here, stagnant, for hundreds of years...
Hm. Now that I think about it, I did meet a little resistance at the door to the vault.
It was weird since I thought the room was easily accessible, seeing the moonlight coming through so nonchalantly. They would've just been able to pry up the floorboards, there was no need to make a heavily (lightly to me) guarded door when the rest was unprotected.
Hm? There's something coating the wall...
Mana. A very thin layer, so small you wouldn't notice it unless you had used direct mana manipulation like me enough to instinctually notice its presence. Also, the reason it took me so long (a few seconds) to notice it was because after a very long amount of time, it was wearing away and getting weaker.
There was a Sub added to the mana, which was mind blowing for me. I knew you could add Subs to spells but not to mana itself.
The Sub, I could sense from accessing its inner workings while stirring my finger about in the air, was [No Way In, No Way Out]. How that whole phrase like that could be a Sub I had no idea, but it gave me the idea to experiment later. I had been using phrases myself, but they were two word spells that were normal in daily life. I was guessing that if the spell was longer, like those chants other magicians use, it took less mana and didn't require a Sub because the phrase was more..."detailed." The shorter, the more mana it took but the more efficient because it was faster, while the words used the definition and imagination of the caster to come into being.
But either way, if short and nimble phrases like that could produce such an effect just because the mana was worked a little differently, I would for sure try it later.
Either way, since I knew dawn would be coming soon I went around sweeping every valuable thing I could find into my private inter-spacial storage and then took off. For some reason, as I stood over the boat, I decided not to burn it as I had originally planned to do.
No, I did something useless and absolutely stupid.
Can you guess? What I did, that is. And why I deemed all of the actions I had taken since coming onto the boat as useless.
Honestly, I wasn't expecting either. But, it may come in handy someday. You never know...
But it's a pity that I didn't get to use all those holes after all...they were too shallow anyway, and why should I dirty my hands trying to bury them? They already died a dog's death.
For some reason, I felt that this would happen a lot more often in the future.
AN: Thank you for over 10k reads! Not many notifications pop up in my box, besides a few votes, comments, or "something Starlord something just added A Tale of One Deviant to Otome Death by Monika333" (I made that up quite obviously, since y'all seem to love Monika in chapter 1's comments). But for some reason I see the counter for reads going up and I wonder if I have the ghosts of the Smile pirates reading and rereading, besides a few guys who comment and vote from time to time. For instance, WebWeebede or whatever your name is, with the starry eyed profile pic, you know who you are. I know it's only been three months but jeez this story is long. Thanks for your keeping up, although it's probably very confusing...
Also...I rant too much I know...for those of you going back to school this coming August/September I hope you have a lovely transition back. You can never say it too early, we all need luck. I'm writing the school arc right now (yes, it's that far away) and Firea needed it. So did Sherfire...but that's another story (struggle) for another time~