Sacrifice: Time of Mine

Inside Mettany's room, Avion just flashed in less than a second behind Mettany, and that enough to get both her and Tamya's senses tingled right after.

Mettany jerked from her position and dived onto the bed where Avion slept.

Sniff Sniff-!*

"Avion was right here..." she then looked out at the opened window.

"How do you know?" Tamya asked but didn't doubt.

She then stuck her head out and looked around, whispering, "Only Avion has that smell..."

Sniff sniff*

"Hey, that's forbidden!" Mettany saw Tamya's face buried on the bedsheets, desperately snorting in.

"I'm jaf conformin iht, I'm not a shut!"

"Say that after you take your face off my bed, I can't understand what you said with your muffled voice!" Mettany tried to pull Tamya away.

...

[You sneaky snake! You're not a mortal, but an Elementalist! I'm quite sure you have the Idiot Element for trying to deceive us, the Dark-Bladed Shadows!

Do not underestimate us, you snakey sneak! If that's what you want, I have to force you to answer a question!

What are your last words before I kill you in your sleep?

A. Tell my wife I love her.

B. The name of the one who killed me is Mar-... argh... I'm dead

C. Wait, you wouldn't know my great name since I will be killing you in your sleep...

D. Drug me first and when I wake up, torture me before ending my pathetic life.

E. Other:]

While Mettany and Tamya were fighting and hissing at each other, in the stoppage of time, Avion read the letter that was sent to the cell.

He was totally speechless and so, he wanted to meet the writer of the letters by following the guard.

Avion's martial skills are perfect for this kind of scenario since what he studied is literally a book for assassination.

Avion didn't like murder so he made the skills non-lethal, making it weaker except when he tried to assassinate the kings and queens back in Haliviana.

However, being sneaky is one of his best moves. Although it wouldn't work on an alerted Rank Bih and even a sleeping Rank Ey, a Rank Dih like his target now wouldn't notice.

Thus, he didn't even need to stop time to be unnoticeable as he moves. It was as if he was eaten by the darkness or became the shadows themselves.

Fortunately, other prisoners were already asleep while he followed the oblivious and anxious guard.

After many turns and descents, the guard finally stopped at an awkwardly positioned wooden door. Slowly, he weakly knocked on it before opening it.

As soon as he opened it, a woman's voice exploded, "Wait!"

At the same time, three knives came flying out of the door that almost grazed the guards neck and face.

With a frown, Avion stopped time and dropped from the ceiling where the knives were about to hit.

"What? This person has a fast reaction." he was a bit confused. He was certainly sure that the one behind the letters was a mortal. However, only an Elementalist have this reaction speed.

After a pause, Avion jumped and horizontally overpassed the guard to fit in through the small gap of the remaining doorcase.

When he landed, Avion's eyes widened.

"They're... they're bigger than Sheran's... impossible..."

But at the next moment, he focused himself, 'This is because of Edora's a influence... calm down, don't let your little head think, that's not you... maybe.'

"Okay, let's see who she is." Avion observed the woman behind a desk at the back of the room.

The tabletop was a mess since she hit them when she reacted quite quickly.

"Thick thighs, check. Big chest, check. Thin waist, check. Pretty face, check. Long and straight black hair, check." Avion nodded a few times in appreciation.

"This all just mean one thing... she is certainly the writer of that letters!" Avion exclaimed as he looked at the piece of paper on top of her desk.

"You sneaky snake... you're not a mortal blah blah blah..." Avion read and found it the same like the letter he just read.

"No, there's a difference. The choices B and C of the question changed. Seemed like she edited because of an error."

He then saw a few crumpled pieces of paper on the ground.

In the real world, Clangclangclang* Thud*

The sound of knives hitting the ceiling sounded, piercing it instead of bouncing off, before the sound of the guard's knees hit the floor.

Sob...

The guard silently cried with a bead of tear on one eye, "Why is it me who followed this demoness in the darkness? I knew a beautiful woman, who showed out of nowhere, inviting me in the dark is too good to be true."

"Certainly, a super beautiful woman did come out of nowhere and invited you in the dark. That did happen. However, what's too good to be true is that I, the super duper beautiful woman, will stoop so low to do what you think I was about to do." the woman spoke, oozing with confidence and narcissism, as she walked around the guard.

"Hm? I didn't hit it..." the woman frowned and looked around, feeling no presence, "Did I sense wro- huh?!" her head jerked and felt something inside the room.

"Impossible! Who could be so fast and so skilled to hide from the Majestic Marin?" the woman came back inside and inspected before calming down.

"I see, the heavens must be jealous of my perfection that they are trying to deceive my senses. Hmph! There's no way someone can get pass me in the first place..." the woman, Marin fixed the table and sat on it again.

"Hm?" her eyes rolled to the crumpled papers on the ground before sitting down and folded the paper like nothing happened.

"Here, I actually want to correct something. Replace it if Avion Teller is still not in his cell." she handed out.

The guard, who stood in hardship and still will wobbly legs took the paper.

"And the other one?" Marin asked.

The guard understood and took out a paper from his pocket and gave it to her.

It was another piece of paper. When Marin got it, she unhesitatingly crumpled it and threw it away without any care.

The guard nodded and when he got out, Marin stood up, went behind the door, and ordered, "Lock the door."

"W-what?" the guard stuttered.

"Just lock it or if you want you can die."

"Here, Ma'am!"

Clack*!

After the fading footsteps behind the door, Marin widely smiled and spoke, "You think you can hide forever in this room and not be found by me? You're clearly mistaken!"

Meanwhile, outside the door, Avion said, "I can't hide, true, but you can't find me either since I'm not there inside."

Marin's confident smile froze.