“I-intruder, Sir?” the servant asked with a stammer, looking worriedly at Monty. “Is there perhaps someone else in this room with us?”

  Monty gnced at the servant with a narrowed, dubious gaze. His face spoke neither of his suspicions nor irritation. One could never tell what feelings he held in his heart at any given moment. He leaned forward.

  “S-sir?” the servant felt compelled to ask once more. “Is something the matter, Sir?”

  His eye stayed on the servant for a brief while before wandering to other corners. He turned away from the servant.

  “Is something wrong? Should I call the guards?”

  “No need,” Monty said. “Apologies. It seems to be my mistake. Being in this room by my lonesome self had made my perception quite muddled.”

  “I-I see. Then, perhaps I should return another time to clean this room?”

  “Yes, you do that.”

  The servant bowed and quickly took her leave, pushing the trolley along with her out of the room.

  Once the doors were closed, Monty let out a chuckle. “I know you’re there, intruder. Do you want to come out on your own accord, or should I call the guards and have them root you out?”

  There was only silence.

  “Do you know why I sent the servant out of the room? Because they’re loyal people and loyal people are hard to come by nowadays. Lord Marsh would be severely vexed if one of his servants were to perish as colteral in a fight. He will be greatly crossed with me. Now, you still have a chance. Surrender yourself, or be forced to surrender. Your choice.”

  “What a coincidence,” Erin responded with a bde pressed against the mage’s neck.

  Monty stiffened with a silent shriek as he felt the cold, thin metal lightly pressing against the flesh and skin of his neck. “Oh? A Fox-kin? Why, this is a surprise. Pray tell, what’s a Fae like you doing in the humble abode of a High Lord uninvited?”

  “Are you truly oblivious of my intentions, or are you just pying the fool?”

  Monty snickered. “If I were pying the fool, do you think I would tell you that?”

  “...I suppose you won’t. So, let me just ask you this: where are the secret books of your lord?”

  “Secret books? I’m afraid I do not know what you are asking of me.”

  “Truly?”

  “Truly.”

  “Then, you are of no use to me.”

  Feeling the imminent grasp of death, Monty threw up his hands and shouted. “Wait! Wait! I think I might know what you’re looking for.”

  “Y-yes! Yes! I do! If you would just let me—”

  “No,” Erin said and pressed her bde into the mage’s neck.

  Monty didn’t even understand what had transpired. One moment, he was pleading for his life, and in the next moment, he felt something hot yet cold in his neck, followed by warm liquid trickling down his body. He tried to turn his head, but he had trouble doing so. He tried to speak, and he had the same problem. Before he knew it, his vision was darkening and blurring.

  Erin spared Monty the suffering and sliced his head off completely. “Damn it,” she muttered as his head rolled to her feet. Killing him had not been her initial intention, but her hands were forced. He was casting a spell the moment he raised his hands. If it wasn’t for her affinity with the Spirits, she wouldn’t have known. She saw the Spirits panicking, and she deduced the signs. She took action, one that would surely neutralise the threat and prevent her mission from being compromised. Although, she wasn’t sure if killing the mage was a good idea. If she were in Marsh’s position, she would have a spell that alerts her if the guardian of her archives were killed.

  “No time to lose.”

  The archive was rge, but not rge enough for her to doubt her capability to search the entire room by herself. She had a notion. The servant from before said that Marsh had ordered her to clean this room regurly and thoroughly. She suspected this was to erase traces that might lead to the discovery of his secret stash. This notion enhanced her belief that whatever she was looking for, it was indeed in this room. Time was the main problem right now. The servant from before could return at any moment, and once she did, things would get complicated. She didn’t want to kill the innocent. The servants were innocent, as far as she was concerned.

  Erin looked high and low. She rummaged through every shelf. She shook them all, hoping to find a secret compartment. She put weight into her steps. If there was a discrepancy in the sounds of her steps, it might lead her to the hidden compartment, if there was even one. There were four books that were stored and dispyed in special casing stands. They looked promising, but looks were deceiving. There was nothing of interest.

  “Where could it be?” Erin grumbled. She had looked nearly everywhere in the room. She began to wonder if she had been wrong. Just as the doubt was settling in, an idea struck her mind. The room had not been cleaned recently, though the room looked retively clean as it was, but looks could be deceiving. Trusting herself, she began to closely sniff each and every book. It was not a very bright idea, but it was the only one she had. Not a few minutes in, she stopped at a certain book. Out of all the books she had smelled, this one held the scent of a man’s touch, presumably Marsh.

  Erin pulled out that particur book from the shelf and flipped it open. There was only a brief title on the cover, a log of the guard’s daily patrol. However, within the book was no log of a guard’s patrol. It was a log of numbers.

  Erin’s face brightened with a smile. “Found you,” she cheered softly, yet excitedly. She flipped through the pages some more, and her smile widened. This was indeed what she was looking for, a ledger of Marsh’s illegal dealings. She didn’t know if there was more, but it didn’t matter for now. She had her proof that Marsh was involved in illegal dealings. Now, she simply needed to hand this over to a person of great authority that she could trust, and she knew just the right person.

  As Erin stowed the book away underneath her garments, the room darkened all of a sudden, as if light had been sapped away almost completely.

  “Oh… fuck,” she uttered. No doubt this must be a security measure of sorts. Her vision, which was normally unfettered by the absence of light, was also obscured by the encroaching darkness. This was not a spell cast on the room. It was a spell cast on the intruder. The medium must have been the ledger, Erin figured. Even though she lost her sight to darkness, she still had her sense of touch. She hurriedly reached into her satchel pouch on her belt and pulled out a scroll. She uncurled the scroll and let loose the spell within. In an instant, the darkness in her vision was dispelled.

  Before Erin could celebrate, the doors burst open and a group of guards poured into the room.

  “Bollocks,” Erin cursed and quickly took out another scroll. She faded into the environment the moment the scroll let loose the spell it contained.

  “Seal this room!” commanded the guard standing at the forefront. “No one goes in or out of this room until the intruder is caught!”

  “Yes, sir!” the guards shouted in unison and went about their duties. Two manned the door while the rest searched the room.

  Erin climbed the tallest shelf in the room and perched atop it. She scoured the guards from above, scrutinising their movements and order. On a closer look, these were no simple household guards. They were full-fledged knights. They mobilised immediately when the ledger was taken. They were no slouch. As this was their turf, they would most likely be strengthened by spells enchanted to this very room, or even to the entire mansion. A confrontation with these knights would be the least ideal.

  It didn’t take the knights long before they found the headless corpse of the mage, Monty. They were all shocked at the mage’s death. They argued the strength of the intruder. Monty appeared to be a formidable mage in their eyes, one that wasn’t so easily killed, supposedly.

  Erin felt a little bit at ease hearing the knights. She made the right decision in killing the mage, or else he would have compromised the entire mission, given his supposed strength and ability.

  “We found nothing, Sir,” reyed a knight who had returned from his search.

  “Impossible,” the leader grunted. “The doorframe is enchanted with a detection spell. Our armour is also imbued with the same manner of spell. No one has left this room ever since we came in. The intruder must still be in here.”

  “What about teleportation, Sir?”

  “The entire estate prevents teleportation spell. Double your efforts. The intruder is still here. We will not leave until we find them.”

  The knights argued no more and returned to their search.

  Something the knights said had caught Erin’s interest. The doorframe had a spell that would oust intruders, but it did not oust her when she entered the room. Either because the spell confused her with the servant, or Ruri’s ability was just that potent and effective. “Only one way to find out,” she muttered to herself. She couldn’t just sit here and wait forever. She would be caught eventually if she stayed. She had to make a move.

  Erin climbed down the shelf and slowly snuck her way to the door where the two knights remained guarding. They left a gap between their persons, but not rge enough for a grown person to fit through without brushing past them.

  “Here goes nothing.”

  Erin took a deep breath and walked towards the two knights. Their backs were turned to her. She tapped both of their shoulders at the same time. The two knights turned at the same time to gnce behind and she ceased that split moment to fit herself through them without touching either of them. The doorframe did not sing or glow. She was safe. She refrained from heaving a sigh of relief, but she cheered for herself inwardly.

  Not a few yards away from the archive room and the ledger in her bosom began to glow.

  “Oh, fuck!” Erin shouted silently. She prayed that the ledger wouldn’t just start singing too at any moment now. With no other choice, she bolted for the nearest door before she was seen by any of the servants or guards. The door opened with no resistance, thankfully. She rushed into the room just as a guard emerged from the turn ahead. The door closed before she was seen.

  A moment of silence permeated the vicinity, save for the guards' steadfast steps across the hallway. Once the steps had faded out of earshot, Erin sighed in relief. The book was still glowing.

  “Of course, the book will glow,” Erin grumbled. She was surprised that the book merely glowed and nothing else. Now that she had the time to gather her bearings, she assessed her new surroundings. It was a small room. A closet, of sorts. Most probably for cleaning supplies and such. However, there were no such things in this small room, only a flight of stairs that led underground, presumably to the celr. There was no time for her to be adventurous. She had to leave the estate as soon as possible, but something called out to her. A sense of wonder and curiosity, curiosity that stemmed from the fact that Spirits were flowing into the underground. It was rare for something to captivate the Spirits’ interest and attention this much.

  “What are you hiding, Marsh?” Erin muttered.