Knowledge and Power: Reborn into a society that only values strength.

Mo changed back into her armor, and after getting our story straight we reported our official cover story. Even if they didn't like it… I doubt they'd investigate further… Even if they did, from what I saw no one in the country was really smart enough to figure much out…

After that, I fully explained to Mo everything that happened in private and we started to wrap things up. 'Sense they're all willing to do something like this for me… Should I test how loyal they really are?' "Mo, as head of the family, I have a lot I want you to do… But for now, we should continue as normal with a few exceptions, mainly that you will be uninterrupted while at school, and that they will do fewer assassinations and more reconnaissance. Basically, just investigate and report, then if the king really wants them dead he can just send knights to arrest them. Of course, this increases their chance of escaping, but it also makes it less dangerous for the assassins, who are now far more valuable after several of them died... The guys that do use magic, if possible I want you to have them continue practicing and teach it to everyone else in the family, but don't let anyone find out." Everyone fell silent. 'Let's see how they take this…'

"Isn't magic… Like bad? It caused half our land to sink into the ocean right? And like, I thought that people were executed if they were caught using it." Isy asked, hesitantly.

'I'll have to handle this carefully…' "I was taught the same thing about being a rogue… Minus the land sinking the ocean thing. But yet you and Mo don't seem so bad…" Another silence hung in the air, making me feel like I had to continue. "The way I see it, it's just one more thing they can use to stay alive. And the kind they used can't really do any damage to anything, it just lets them get away from fights when they are outmatched, which would be considered cowardice… But it's better than them dying right?"

She slowly looked at Mo. "Yeah… Better than her dying…"

Bear just raised his hands. "Don't look at me, only nobles aren't allowed to use magic. Sure, people say bad things about you if you do, but it's not like I care about any of that stuff. I've seen a few adventurers use it, I can see how it might be useful."

"Ok… So, Mo… What do you think?"

"I've killed 17 people… I don't think someone using magic would be any worse than that… And… I'm still a little confused… But… Your plan always works out in some way or another… So I'll keep following you…"

'Sometimes I think she puts too much faith in me… Some day… Well… I hope when I finally learn my lesson she isn't the one that gets hurt…'

When we were ready Mo took off, sneaking out of camp without anyone seeing her at a surprisingly fast pace. She wasn't quite as fast as me and her father though.

"Lady Siya, is it ok if I enter?"

'Ah, it's our teacher. Did Kal really come himself? What about class?' I scratched my head, feeling uneasy and double-checking that I was wearing clothes. 'For once I'm not in some kind of embarrassing situation.' "Sure come on in." 'Although, they are a bit big…'

As he walked through I finished pulling my hair back since it had fully dried and used a mirror to tie it up with a thin leather strap. "What do you need? Or are we ready to go back to Kasesh? I'm still a little banged up… But I can ride if–"

"No, no nothing like that. Mostly I just wanted to see if you were ok. I treated your wounds while you were unconscious, you're skin was worn raw around your wrists, and you had two stab wounds… You're legs were burned up past your knee, we had to use up a lot of medicine to hopefully stop the burns from blistering. But… You seem fine?"

'He had to… On my legs? He wasn't the one that changed my clothes too right? I mean… There were girls here… Even if he is the "doctor…"' I felt myself struggling to ask, my head aching slightly. "U-uhm… Yeah, I'm fine…" I muttered, letting my shirt sleeves fall down past my hands and bringing my arms in front of my body, stopping my fingers just under my face refusing to cover it. 'Maybe I just shouldn't ask…'

He turned his eyes to the side, starting to blush slightly himself, taking me from slightly embarrassed, to wanting to run away. 'What's with that reaction? There's no way, right? Was he actually the one to change my clothes and apply the medicine? How far up was I burned! I DON'T EVEN KNOW BECAUSE FRITZ HEALED ME!'

We both awkwardly stood in silence, neither one of us capable of speaking until another knight walked into the tint and I was finally able to let out a sigh of relief. "Lady Siyasavede. Can you confirm that this demon is your kill? We were able to record the events from the manna crystal and they line up with the testimony of the fisherman that helped you get out of the river."

The crystal was big enough that it showed as far back as me flying down the waterfall, but it was thankfully too staticky and jumbled to tell that I used magic. 'I really dodged a bullet there…' "Yeah, that's me…" 'Though it isn't any less embarrassing that I did that…'

He placed the crystal to the side. "So you can't swim well enough to pull yourself out of a river… And you jumped off a waterfall head first into a demon the size of a building?"

"If I say yes… Are you going to yell at me?"

 My teacher snorted, hiding a laugh as he rolled his eyes and shook his head before the man continued as if I hadn't said anything. "How did you end up fighting this monster in the first place? Now that we have its corpse we need an official report." He looked up from his clipboard and paused. "That is if you are up to it…"

Kal nodded. "If you're doing fine that's all that matters. I'll excuse myself now."

'Wait… Ugh… I still need to know what happened while I was unconscious!'

"Lady Siyasavede?"

I groaned. "Sorry… Yeah… Uhm… Let's see, well first the demon kidnapped me. It put me into this weird trance-like state. My memory is all kind of hazy honestly, I walked into the pool, but knowing I couldn't swim somehow knocked me out of the trance and I was still far enough away from the demon that I could get out. Obviously I can't run from a fight though, so that's when I climbed the mountain and cut down the tree to make a weapon big enough to kill it."

He scratched his head with the pin. "I see… Is it possible you were drugged somehow? And possibly taken away by a large man instead? Do you remember riding in a carriage?"

"No, nothing like that. Actually, it's impossible for me to have been drugged in the first place. See my eyes? My dragon's blood makes me immune to stuff like that."

"I see… Do you know what the demon's abilities were? Like, could it use magic of some kind or… I don't know do things normal monsters can't?"

"Uhm… Like I said it's all a bit hazy, like it was controlling me. It made me see things that weren't there. The whole time I was in the trance I thought I was with my guild mates. But thinking about it now… That doesn't make any sense, I mean, Mo went back home with her father right?"

His eyes narrowed. "That can't be right. She was with us the entire time. She was the one that told us to come save you from her father."

"What? But I saw her leave with him. So… Was that just another illusion then?" I meekly lifted a hand to my head, pretending to be confused and sitting down.

He closed his eyes, thinking. "We're farther down the river now… But you fought it much closer to the Alshadora estate… Do you think that could have been another illusion to take us there?"

I stared at him for a moment in silence. 'No way it was that easy… He's basically fooling himself…'

"Sorry, you already said it's all a bit hazy and I'm sure you're tired. I think I have enough for my report. We will also send you a reward once we analyze the manna stone and determine the threat of the demon you killed."

"Oh, nice. I like money." 'I didn't know they paid me for this stuff. Before long I'll have gone from massive debt to the most wealthy family in the nation.'

He turned and left, still racking his brain over the whole situation… I couldn't really blame him though, as the whole thing started with a lie… And really I just kept lying to make it more confusing and hard to follow… Really nothing makes sense, but that's also the only reason why it makes sense. I sighed. 'I'm getting too careless… Not just with the way I fight, but my plans too…' I thought back to when we first made up the plan. 'It was fun though… Well…'