Testing My Luck in the New World

The sliver of moon left in the night sky shone a midnight spotlight over the blackened figure of a man at the end of the street. His back submerged in shadows, this man was once a Farmer named George, but now, as he patrolled the silent streets of Villeverdure, he was something else entirely.

Decked out in a full set of leather armor, he carried the deadliest weapon of them all: a torch whose burning flames caused his shadow to flicker as it stretched across the cobblestone. In the hands of a city guard this late at night, it was every bit as dangerous as the sword on his hip.

I watched, hidden behind the corner of a building, legs tensed and ready to pounce as he turned his torch down an alley. Illuminating the gap for only a moment, he continued on down the street. He stopped again a few steps later to repeat the process and I waited patiently for a chance to make my move.

Up above, a sudden gust of wind slammed a loose shutter against its window frame, echoing a wooden clap across the street. Cursing under my breath, I didn't wait to see if George turned before I ducked behind the building.

My heart pounded against my chest for a moment before I spotted Yua hiding behind another building on the other side of the street. Her cat ears were on full alert as she turned just her head in George's direction. Almost as soon as I noticed her, she let her shoulders relax. I peaked out again, only to find George continuing down the street and away from us.

Shaking my head, I let out a breath as the shutter slammed again.

Technically speaking, we weren't doing anything illegal – there was no curfew in effect and being out at night wasn't a crime – but somehow, the idea that we were doing something wrong kept me tense.

This would've been so much easier if we could tell them about our quest. If we were able to search with impunity, we'd have doubled our progress and called it a night. Unfortunately, Giulio being a member of the guards threw a dump truck-full of wrenches on that idea. We had no choice but to be discreet.

"Big Bro," Mana whispered, tugging on my sleeve. She pointed to Yua, who's shaded form looked to be waving us over. "She said it's safe now."

The sky was mostly cloudless, but what was left of the moon couldn't offer up much in the way of light. This should have been a blessing for those wishing to remain unseen, but were at the mercy of the dark. However, the nightvision our dear cat-kin were born with made this fact more of an annoyance than anything. We made our way through the city with Yua scouting ahead of us, whispering directions only Mana could hear and see clearly.

I nodded and we raced across the street. Thoughts of what might happen if we were caught kept my Sneak skill in the forefront of my mind as I moved. Keeping the sounds of my feet at a minimum, I didn't draw a breath until I fell in line behind Yua.

However, said breath stopped in my throat when a hand gripped my shoulder moments before something incredibly soft crashed into my back, knocking me forward a step. With all our daily sparring honing my reflexes, I spun around without a thought and locked my arms around my would-be assailant, but I could do nothing to stop our fall as she collided with me.

As we'd entered a part of the city that had already been paved with cobblestone, falling with the weight of an extra person sparked a dull pain in my ass that somehow caused us both to grunt.

"Shh!" Yua hushed quickly, turning her ears back to the small house we stood, well, sat behind.

"It was an accident," Elane complained before moving my arms off her.

Perhaps, as thanks for cushioning her fall, she said nothing of the handful of her breast I'd accidentally claimed when I caught her and instead helped me up.

"Geez, Husband. I get the outfit, but did you really need to put these things on us? They make it hard to run."

Complaining further, much to Yua's annoyance, Elane pointed to her feet. Since all we had to on us were our sturdy adventuring boots, which were not at all suited for sneaking, I'd used Material Creation to make us all something lighter with the leather I had on hand. Opting to make us something smaller, and sticking to the theme I chose for us, I'd designed our footwear to resemble a more modern approach to ninja tabi. And Elane clearly needed more practice with them.

Quietly grumbling to herself, she leaned a hand on my shoulder as she adjusted her footwear. Trying not to let a smile slip, I supported her back. As she fiddled away, there was nothing I could do to prevent the manlier side of me from noticing how her breasts knocked against her arm as she moved. The sight was enough to wonder if I made the right decision, not in the design of her shoes, but in the rest of her outfit.

I had her ditch her breastplate and wrapped her up in a black skin-tight top and paired it with a dark kimono that reached down to her calves. Normally, this wouldn't have been an issue since the garment's length and style mirrored that of her favorite coat, but without the breastplate protecting her, she'd once again opted for letting her robe drop from her now bare shoulders to wrap it around her breasts.

Again, this wasn't an issue, but the exposure coupled with the return of her golden ponytail gave me the feeling that she somehow stood out too much. But I knew it was all in my head. The streets were empty, after all.

Still, maybe it would have been better to just give her a black shirt and pants.

"Yua," she said, barely containing her frustration enough to keep her voice down. "Can he check this one yet?"

At this, Yua once more turned her attention to the building she'd already been listening to and hummed.

"Hmm… I think so, but…"

She trailed off, brow furrowed as she focused all her attention on the window above us.

Unlike Elane, Yua wore her top properly tied tight around her shoulders and waist, but after some more testing, she'd requested I remove the sleeves so her arms could move freely. Likewise, the wide slits running along the sides of her pants rose precariously high, but said slits only came to be because her thighs accidentally tore her pants when she tested a high-kick.

Each modification we made steadily veered the outfit away from proper ninja gear I intended for her until it became the sort of provocative kunoichi getup a girl might wear if she stared in an anime. Hell, she even ended up showing off more cleavage than Elane typically does. Although, she was at least covering more skin than her usual fighting outfit did.

I'd honestly tried to put function over form in their designs, but these two were too set in their ways.

I sighed and, as if she read my mind, Mana did the same. Squatting in the middle of the alley, she watched Yua with her chin in her palms. Her cheeks were puffed up with a profound boredom.

Contrary to her fellow wives, and somehow to her upbringing, almost her entire body was covered in cloth for once. Where she'd started with a full ninja-style kimono like Elane, her complaints had me cutting it down and down until it resembled something of a cross between a long-sleeved and hooded kimono and a crop top. Much to my surprise, she let me round off the outfit with a pair of short-shorts, but only on the grounds that I let her swap her panties with a pair of black stockings, which I was almost happy to do since agreeing to this demand finally got her to stop squirming as I dressed her.

Thanks to this, our little nudist here actually ended up being the most conservatively dressed out of the three.

"Big Sis, you suck at this," she said without bothering to conceal her voice. The rest of us flinched.

"What are you talking about?"

"You're bad at being sneaky. You always run straight at people to punch them, so I don't think you know what you're doing."

"Mana, now's not the time for…"

"But I'm serious," she continued, ears flicking under her hood. "We both know that none of the humans near us are awake, but you're acting like they're the ones looking for you."

"I'm making sure they're really asleep. If they wake up while we..."

"You're too cautious. It's making you slow. If we were hunting, you would have lost your prey a long time ago."

"Mana, if we get caught, it'd cause a bunch of trouble. We'd never be able to show our faces during the day and searching for the bandits would be harder."

"Eh? Our faces? Aren't these face-panties supposed to hide our faces so that doesn't happen?"

"Pfft!"

As Elane clamped a hand over her mouth to suppress a laugh, Yua and I shook our heads. These "face-panties" Mana spoke of were actually just the plain black face masks I made to cover our faces. However, she was right about their intended use, but then again, so was Yua.

If we were caught lurking about at night, in a place that was known to be harboring bandits, it was too easy to say we'd be the ones accused of being bandits. And I doubted the city guards would be willing to show the same restraint I did earlier.

Plopping a hand on Mana's head, I tussled her hair a bit.

"Yua, I understand your worry, but I think she might be right on this one."

If Mana was skilled enough at this sort of thing to sneak up on other members of the cat-kin of all people, then she was effectively the authority on the subject. Yua'd only taken the lead because her ears are significantly more sensitive.

"It's not like we're going inside, anyways. Taking this too slow is a risk all its own."

It was well past midnight. The longer we were out, the harder it'd be to explain if we were caught.

Yua watched me for a moment, but ultimately relented.

"Fine… This one should be safe, but you only need to check the second floor this time."

I nodded to her and pulled a ladder out of my item box. Leaning it carefully next to the second story window, I climbed up and peered inside the house, only to find that I couldn't see a damn thing.

Clicking my tongue, I took out an empty cup and aimed a cast of Fairy's Light into it. The ball of light that should have brighten half the alley was instead confined and directed by the solid walls of the cup, allowing me to illuminate only what I wanted to see – or so I'd like to say, but the orb floated up out of the cup and came to a rest over my head where it always did. Grumbling, I placed the cup over it and directed its light ahead of me as I climbed up.

I'd done this so many times tonight that it was practically second nature. So, turning the cup to aim this spell-turned-flashlight through the window, I found a bedroom. Slumbering peacefully in bed was a regular, everyday couple.

Quickly pouring through their info boxes, I blocked the light before it could wake them and slid back down to the girls.

"Nothing," I said and they sighed.

As simple a process as it was, this is what we'd been doing all night. Sneaking from shadow to shadow, hiding in alleys, behind bushes or once in the shadows themselves via magic. A guard nearly slipped our notice and was on his way to find us when the girls hurried to claim all the other hiding places. I was left with no choice but to cast the Shadow Cloak spell to hide within the same shadow the guard stepped on.

Thankfully, that was the only close call we've had so far.

Whenever it was safe, Yua'd use her ears to scout the buildings around us to check if anyone was inside and if they were asleep. If they were, I'd peer inside and search for anyone named Lucielle – or for anyone with a Bandit tag.

The problem was that, after hours of searching, we'd found nothing.

Shaking off my complaints, I checked the next couple of houses while the Fairy's Light was active and when it finally faded, I stuffed the ladder and cup back into my item box and pulled out a piece of parchment.

After exploring the city some more as we waited for nightfall, and after Elane's Cartographer abilities kicked in, she was able to put her human-printer abilities to work as she drew us a map of the new Villeverdure.

I'd seen her working in the home office I made her as she fulfilled the occasional map order she picked up on visits to Amoranth, so it was no surprise to see that this map was detailed enough to show the exact location of each and every building in the city.

I spread the map on the ground and, with a quill in one hand and a fireball for light in the other, I drew an X through the last four houses we checked. We all grimaced through our masks at the sheer number of X's on the parchment – which made up about a third of the city now - and I returned it to my item box.

Strictly speaking, this wasn't necessary thanks to my memory, but actually seeing our progress did help keep our spirits from dying out.

We left the alley to find another group of houses to search.

Going off Elane's memory, we sought to check the older parts of the city, then the more well-to-do areas first, but our efforts only earned us more places to mark with an X.

"Maybe it's about time we look into those places," Elane said, crossing her arms.

"You're probably right."

We'd started off tonight by avoiding the more dangerous parts of the city, namely those that still had a significant number of lights, places like the Last Drop that stayed open late into the night, the church which was protected by more guards than any other part of the city and lastly, for obvious reasons, the guard barracks.

We were able to clear the tavern of suspicion by watching the last of its drunken patrons stagger out of the building before it closed for the night. We'd also cleared some of the more heavily lit areas as the night progressed and more people went to bed. The problem lay in the church and the guard barracks, both of which were swarming with guards.

"I was hoping to find, well… you know who by the end of the night. But it's starting to look like this might take a few days."

If only this place didn't expand so much.

"Why should we worry about finishing tonight?" Yua asked. "The people are calm, right? It's possible nobody's been killed in a while. Or they assume the bandits already gave up and left the area."

"Maybe, but Giulio thinks we're here to pick flowers, remember? With a quest that easy, he'd start to suspect us if we stayed too long."

"Oh, that's an easy fix," Elane said, finding a short brick wall to sit on.

Mana was quick to join her in taking a break. She even braved the risk of getting hugged (or groped) and leaned against Elane's arm with a yawn. Her eyes fluttered shut for a moment before Elane continued and her ears flicked to show she was listening.

"You're a man with three wives. If he asks, just say we ladies wanted to do some sight-seeing here before turning in the quest."

"You really think he'd buy that?"

She shrugged. "He has no reason not to. Upsetting three women like that would be a risk no man would take."

He'd be sleeping on the couch for a month.

I pondered this a moment, but ended up shrugging right back. The supposedly fickle heart of women aside, the only one of us I could imagine being interested in sight-seeing was Mana. Elane had already seen it all, more or less, and Yua probably wouldn't ask to stay unless the place could offer her a good fight.

Then again, Giulio doesn't know them like I do.

"That aside," Yua said. "Where to next?"

I took a breath, intending to put some serious thought into my answer, but even I was surprised when it came to me easily.

"The church."

"Hoho? You sure about that? Getting caught snooping into people's homes would probably get you locked up for a few days, but getting caught breaking into church grounds would likely turn the entire city against you. You know, for offending their god, or something."

"True, but back on Earth, it was a common trope in stories for the church to be secret dens of evil. Clean cut and holier than thou on the surface, but run by corrupt, wicked and greedy bastards in the shadows."

"Alex…" Yua started, already sounding exasperated.

"Hey hey. I'm not falling back into video game logic here. What I mean is, the church has enough influence here to keep it guarded even at night. Can you think of a better place for you know who to hide than a heavily guarded church?"

We hadn't spent that much time around the church, but it alone had at least ten guards patrolling the area. While that may not sound like a lot on paper, it was. Prowling the streets tonight taught us that each section of the city was patrolled by only one or two guards. So, in a city where their religion was being actively worshipped by the people, there had to be a reason why the church needed to keep so many of their protectors to itself.

"If that's what you think," Yua started. "Why didn't you try them first?"

"Because it's still a risk."

The number of guards aside, there was still the option to teleport onto the church's roof, but the light of the Dimensional Step spell might draw attention this late at night. We could also slip between the guards after watching for openings in their patrol routes, but that'd take too long.

"And we needed to search for the other bandits, anyways. I do have another idea that wouldn't put any of us at risk, though. Now, come on. Break's over. Let's get going."

"Hoho? What a slave driver," Elane laughed as she stood, dragging Mana back to her feet.

"Uggh. Big Bro, when are we going to sleep?"

"Just hold on a little longer, Mana. We'll call it quits for the night after this."

"Mnmm."

Pausing to rub her eyes, Mana grabbed hold of my hand and leaned into me. I thought to just pick her up and carry her, but I had to keep my arms free in case we were attacked.

With the church's bell tower looming so high over the city, we didn't need directions or a map to find it. And as if this weren't enough, the church took up a whole city block by itself.

Weary of the guards, we moved as close to the church as we could without entering their expansive patrol area. A couple streets over, we ducked into a small alcove created by the underside arch of a tall building and blended into the shadows the best we could.

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Yua and Elane kept watch. Mana, thought, pressed her back against the wall and slid down onto her butt.

After taking a silent moment to make sure we weren't seen or followed, I whispered a question.

"Elane, how far is the church from here?"

"Hmm. Let's see… About three-hundred feet."

"Good."

That was within my limits.

"How's that good?" Yua pressed. "If you don't want to teleport, then what good …"

"It's actually the perfect distance for what I had in mind. Just watch."

Deciding to show off my plan instead of explain it, I knelt between my ladies and held my hand over the cobblestones. A second later, a string of brilliant runic patterns appeared, forming a circle beneath me. Slowly, the innards of the circle sank underground, forming a darkness so deep it made the night sky look pale in comparison. The darkness sank deeper and deeper, deep unto hell itself before something clawed its way out.

Lifting itself out of the hole was a creature whose fur was blacker than the emptiness of space and whose mismatched eyes were wreathed in an eldritch knowledge hitherto unknown to mankind. Its fangs and claws were each as sharp as an assassin's blade as it stretched itself to taste the night air with a yawn that shook the souls of all who heard it.

Sitting at the edge of the rune, its tale deftly avoiding amputation when the hole and its darkness faded, the beast stared up at me as if awaiting the command to rend the souls of each and every one of my enemies and…

"Ooh. It's Lucy!"

Suddenly full of life again, Mana jumped onto her knees and held out her hands towards the cat. Lucy stretched her paws across the cobblestone before she jumped into the cat girl's arms. She allowed herself to be held with ease and, for some reason, I felt disappointed.

"How's Lucy going to help?" Elane asked, squatting to pet the cat's head.

"Hold on. I'm getting to that. Lucy, come here."

Deliberately, I'm positive of this, Lucy turned her head from within Mana's arms to look up at me, but it made no moves to do as I asked until Mana set her at my feet. Lucy scratched the back of her ear with her hind leg and I nodded.

"Good. Good. Now, Lucy, I need you to run to that church over there," I said, pointing to her target. "But make sure you get a good look at everyone you pass, okay? I'll be following you with magic."

Yua and Elane shared a knowing smirk. They understood my plan without needing to have it explained further, while Mana just knelt next to Lucy, watching the cat with her chin in her hands as though she were observing a beautiful spring flower.

Lucy, however, just looked up at me. There was a brief moment where her leg moved and I thought she was going to start towards our goal, but she started grooming herself with her tongue instead.

"Lucy, I know you understand me."

She was my familiar, created via my own Conjure Lesser Familiar spell. Naturally, this meant she understood my orders, but she continued licking herself.

"Come on, Lucy. Let's get moving. We don't have all night."

She paused, looked at me for half a second, then continued licking herself. I palmed my face.

Foolishly, I thought she might actually listen to me if I called upon her as a magical aid instead of as a house pet, but I was sorely mistaken. Maybe we'd have to resort to plan B and risk teleportation after all. Or, maybe, we could lie and say we're thinking about converting to their religion and get ourselves a free tour of the church tomorrow morning.

As I pondered this, however, Mana pressed her hands to the ground and lowered herself, sticking her butt up in the air to meet Lucy eye-to-eye. The cat stared back at the cat girl for a moment or two, stopped licking itself, then shifted back to its normal sitting position. Mana smiled, her tail swishing in unison with the cat's.

"Lucy, could you please do what Big Bro asked? I'm tired, but he won't let me sleep until we're done adventuring for the night."

"…"

Meow.

With that short, unintelligible response, Lucy got up and started walking towards the church. As she slowly put more distance between us, I almost pulled out Mana's status menu to see if she'd gained some sort of Animal Whisperer trait.

"What. Why don't you do it when I… Ughh. Make sure you look at their faces!"

Deciding it best to worry about her lack of obedience later, I aimed my palm at her and cast the Mind Vision spell before she could disappear from sight. After it connected, I closed my eyes and, where I should have only seen the darkness of the insides of my eyelids, instead, my field of view sank low to the ground until it felt like I was hovering only inches off the ground.

My eyes had become one with Lucy's. The world seemed to shake with a casual rhythm as Lucy slowly picked up speed and dashed down the street.

Zipping over gutters, past benches and around the occasional tree or bush, she quickly closed the gap between us and the church with an ease only a creature of the night could. Soon enough, our shared line of sight lifted as Lucy focused on a figure in the distance. Unphased by the sword resting at this person's hip, she continued on until she was close enough to make out his face.

This man, another member of the city guard, looked down at her as she paused, sitting on the curb as if waiting politely for him to pass by first. His info box popped up for me as he passed her by, showing nothing concerning. As if she somehow knew this, Lucy continued down the street as soon as I was done reading.

I smirked and freely accepted the pride I felt for myself in coming up with this idea. Nobody would suspect a cat of criminal wrongdoing. Even if they did, and even if they attacked her, she could just phase back out of existence. It was like having a spy working behind enemy lines, only her life wasn't in any danger. A perfect plan!

Or so I'd have liked to say, until she stopped to sniff a curious wet spot on the ground. It had not rained today, except for on my parade, so I had to sit here and wait until she decided she'd had enough and continued on.

"…"

I could not move the eyes I borrowed; I had no control over them, nor did I over their owner. I could only share in whatever they saw. No more, no less. I was just a simple amusement park goer, strapped into the rollercoaster that was my cat as she padded away along a set of winding tracks she seemed to be making up on the spot.

For an intermediate spell Elane had gathering dust in her library, Mind Vision was actually a little underwhelming. Still, not to look ungrateful, I kept that opinion to myself. It's not like I've had many chances to use it outside of training in the first place.

"So," Elane started, and her voice, smooth as it was, shook me hard enough to almost knock me back onto my ass. She was so close, and yet, the things I was seeing were so far away from her that the separation was jarring. "Did you ever work out how long the spell lasts?"

"For as long as I have the mana or until I open my eyes."

The Mind Vision spell had a surprisingly low cost to activate, but it made up for that by continuing to steadily consume mana for as long as I kept it active. This should have been a huge drain on my supply of magic juice, but my mana regeneration trait worked hard to keep things manageable. Meaning, I really could use it for almost as long as I wanted.

"How did you figure that out? I don't think I ever saw you use that spell before."

"He used it on me and had me stare at my boobies for a while."

"Wow, Alex," Elane snorted a laugh. "Even if it's Kitty, that's a bit much, don't you think?"

"Tch… Would you be complaining if I had her stare at your ass for me instead?"

"No, but now I'm feeling a little resentful that you didn't. It's not nice to play favorites, you know?"

"Um, can we focus please?" Yua chimed. While I could no longer see her, I had no doubt she was keeping her ears on our surroundings. Her diligence shamed me enough to force me to refocus on Lucy's antics.

Finding a path all her own, Lucy ran to the end of the street, turned down another and slipped in between the iron bars of a fence. Unhindered, she dashed through an empty field of dirt that looked to have been freshly flattened for future city development.

Nimbly leaping over the work equipment that had been left out and around excavated piles of dirt, she quickly exited the area. Finding the fence that surrounded the church, she slipped through the first hole that would have her. Finally, she pushed through the leaves of a thick bush before emerging out onto the neatly-cut grass of the church's backyard.

As the dark walls of the church now towered over her, Lucy took several seconds to scan the area before she moved again. Watching how her line of sight jerked from one shady corner of the churchyard to another, I didn't get the impression that she did this out of any sense of diligence. It looked more like she'd heard something move and she wanted to find it.

She dashed again, deeper into the churchyard, suddenly chasing something with a fervor that kept her moving without pause to check for more people. Without anything to focus on, no info box could appear to tell me what she was chasing, so again, I was stuck waiting for her to have her fun.

Suddenly, she changed direction by drawing a large arc with her feet, tricking her prey into running back towards the church, where it ultimately cornered itself between a fence and what looked like a tool shed.

Lucy slowed to a stop and sat there, still as a predator waiting to react to its prey. Through her unwavering eyes, the darkness slowly started to grow thinner, thin enough to see what she'd been chasing as it cowered in the corner.

It was a rat. Not even some sort of fantastical variant of a rodent, just a plain old rat.

Just as I was about to reconsider having Lucy act as my second pair of eyes, a wall of light slowly emerged from the front of the church. Like a bubble made of localized daytime, it continued to push through the darkness to envelope the yard in an orange glow.

Just as intrigued, Lucy winced under the light and shifted her attention from the rat to it without moving. The cat's vision quickly adjusted to this new light, letting me see that it was a torch and the person holding it was still rounding the corner. The cat's chase must have made enough noise for someone to want to check.

Wearing a simple set of iron armor over leather that bulged around the chest and slimmed down to a narrow waistline, this particular guard took the shape of a woman. Lucy focused on her, but the noise whose source the woman managed to find yet mad her shudder. She drew the sword at her hip, aimed it at nothing in particular, then at everything, and still, Lucy did not budge. She just kept watching.

This woman turned, sword at the ready, and shoved the torch in our direction to illuminate the threat she sensed. She spotted my little spy instantly and, as expected, all tension wilted from her shoulders as she sighed.

Where I would have berated myself for getting all worked up over a little cat sneaking up on me, this woman looked over each of her shoulders, then dashed back to the church to hide behind its walls as she peered around the corner she came from.

Apparently finding it safe, she sheathed her sword and shoved a hand into her pocket to rummage about. I made out a grin on her face as she pulled out something that, at a glance, looked like a small knife, but then she knelt onto the grass and held it out towards Lucy.

I watched as Lucy lifted her head higher, watched as her little nostrils flared when she sniffed the air, but I sighed when she then got up and walked over towards the woman. And once Lucy's eyesight focused on the woman's hand, I found that the thing she held was not a dagger, but a piece of jerky.

Without pause or caution, without even taking a moment to sniff the offering again, Lucy bit into the meat and pulled it to the ground, where she started nibbling on it. Smiling contentedly, the woman then began petting Lucy's head as she ate.

"…"

"Alex, why are you making that face?" Yua asked. "You look annoyed."

"Nothing. It's just... Lucy's being Lucy."

My cat, my familiar with which I myself summoned through magic at the cost of my own mana, a being that did not need to eat to survive and whose allegiance should be to me alone… was just bought off with a piece of jerky.

I think… I think I should keep this little detail to myself, or my pride might wither away and never recover.

After an uncomfortable amount of time spent watching Lucy eat as her head was pat, this damn cat finally bothered to look up to meet the woman's eyes properly. Hair the color of night framed the fair features and smooth skin of a young beauty who'd looked like she'd never done a hard day's work in her life. The only mark on her, if you could call it that, was the pair of sharp, dark-rimmed glasses that had at some point slid down to the tip of her nose.

The gentle smile she wore as she knelt to pet Lucy instantly stole away any threat her gear conjured up in my mind, but more than that were the bright purple eyes that gazed upon us with an affection that made my heart skip and my cheeks burn. I couldn't help but make the comparison to the smile Yua showed me the morning after she first accepted me into her bed. It was the first time I really felt any semblance of being whole as a man.

And yet, I had to actively shake my head to rid myself of the idea that this woman's smile was anything of the like. Or that it was aimed at me, for that matter. Her eyes glistened in the fire light until she moved, her chest shifting with a contented sigh. Out here, in the dead of night petting a cat, she looked nothing like a guard and more like a noble woman skipping curfew to play dress up.

Forced to watch her as I was, I refocused on the mission and willed her info box to appear and...

"Hmm?... Well, that's a surprise."

"What is?" Elane said. "First you're all mad at nothing, then you looked so peaceful a second ago that I thought you fell asleep."

"No. I just found who we were looking for."

This bespectacled guard was none other than Lucielle Evans. Only, she held the Farmer and Merchant classes, neither of which were combat related and both of which weren't even level 5. Why she of all people was selected to be one of the church's guards wasn't even something I could guess at.

"Can we hurry up and go talk to her already?" Mana said, sounding impatient as she poked my shoulder.

"No, I don't think so. There may be someone near her. If I randomly show up, she might scream for help."

"How can you be sure?" Yua asked.

"If you were patrolling somewhere late at night and I suddenly appeared behind you when you knew I wasn't there a moment ago, what would you do?"

"Obviously, I'd…"

"Assume you don't know me in this scenario."

"… Then I'd probably hit you."

"Exactly."

Throwing a punch wasn't exactly a scream, but with Yua being Yua, that was a given answer.

Elane huffed. "Well, if going there ourselves is out of the question, then just bring her here."

"That doesn't sound any better, but what choice do I have?"

My options were down to going over there myself and risk her calling for backup or bring her here where we're free of the guards.

Of course, there was the third option of just keeping an eye on her until she called it a night and went home, but that'd take too long. We were already fighting sleep as it was and I didn't want us to be tired if and when a real fight broke out.

I sighed, knowing all my options were likely going to end with me getting yelled at, but I made my choice.

In my mind's eye, or rather in Lucy's eyes, Lucielle was now cooing sweetly as she tickled the underside of the cat's chin. Judging by the low angle I now saw the woman by, I surmised that Lucy had rolled onto her back, so I couldn't see much but Lucielle's face and crotch where she squatted – though the pants she wore kept the sight from being too indecent.

Thankfully, however, I'd gotten a good look at the yard before my familiar betrayed me, so I knew where to direct my next spell.

Blue sparks flickered into existence behind Lucielle, then faded as the spell failed.

The hell?

With an annoyed grunt, I tried again, working hard to imagine the spot behind her where her torch had illuminated the grass and, slowly, slower than usual, my portal took shape. Fortunately for us, the light of said torch overpowered that of my magic, leaving her unawares.

"Could one of you…"

"On it," Elane said, then not a second later, Lucy witnessed her hand reaching through the portal to grab Lucielle by the collar of her breastplate. On the cat's end, Lucielle's eyes widened and she opened her mouth to scream, but she was yanked back through before she could make a sound.

With my eyes still closed to share Lucy's, I quickly lost sight of Lucielle, only to end up hearing her beside me a moment later.

"Ahh! What in the hells are…mmmf?!"

The moment I heard her hit the ground beside me, my connection to Lucy ceased before I could end it. Assuming Lucy had disappeared herself after deciding her work was done, I opened my eyes and cut the portal, only to find Elane covering Lucielle's mouth with a hand as she tried to break free.

"Calm down. We're…"

[New Trait Attained: Dual Casting.]

What? Why now? I've used multiple spells in tandem before, such as shooting out a cast of Rock Throw before following it up with a Dimensional Step. Or, was it because Mind Vision was still active when I cast Dimensional Step?

More importantly, did I just gain a trait by unintentionally/intentionally kidnapping this woman?

Seeing that Lucielle continued to wriggle and writhe in Elane's arms even after learning her lack of strength made escape impossible, I shook my head and put my hands up to show I meant no harm. After confirming with Yua that nobody was listening to us, I spoke.

"Lucielle, please, calm down a second," I said and her eyes widened at the sound of her own name. "We're not your enemies. We're…"

"Ow! Bitch!"

"Die you damned bandits!!"

Before I could finish, Lucielle chomped down hard on Elane's hand. Grunting, Elane yanked her hand away from the woman's teeth and Lucielle took the chance to slip out of her grasp. In a flash, she drew her sword. Pivoting her hips, she slashed her sword through the air in a surprise attack meant to take my head.

Yua lunged to protect me, but there was no need. Compared to both her and Elane, Lucielle was so slow, even more of a novice with a blade than I was, that I reflexively caught her sword out of the air with an Iron Fist-strengthened hand. Her blade struck my glowing palm and a metallic clang sounded in the night.

When she saw that she'd done no damage despite connecting, her eyes widened further, but when I turned her sword to the side and she failed to wrench it free, her face skipped right past turning pale as an almost sickly look wet her eyes.

"Lucielle, we are not your enemy. We're…"

"I-I-I don't know who you're talking about! I'm not Lucielle, I'm Marcy. You got the wrong girl!"

Squinting, I reread her info box just to be safe and confirmed that it indeed read Lucielle Evans. Clearly, she was lying.

What's with everyone using false names here?

"Lucielle, please. I know it's you."

"No, no, no! It's not. It's Marcy. Marcy, I tell you! Y-You can rape me if you must, j-just don't kill me! Please!"

I blinked, turning to Yua, needing confirmation that my ears heard her correctly, but my beloved first wife, who just so happened to be staunchly against one-night stands in any context, sighed deeply.

"Yea, okay. That's not going to happen."

"P-Please don't kill me. Th-The other guards will come running if I…"

"We're from the damn Adventurer's Guild!"

"Wh-What?"

Geez. I this would happen. Choosing to do this somewhere where we were at least a little isolated was the right call, but I should have cut my connection to Lucy and teleported us all somewhere outside the city before grabbing her.

"We're from the guild in Amoranth," I clarified. "We're here to answer your request for help cleaning up some bandits. And we know who you really are."

This time it was her turn to blink, as if she needed a moment to work through what I said. Her chest heaved with a panic that slowly faded as she looked around at us. While our ninja-esque outfits might not have been the greatest of choices when it came to not looking threatening, she quickly noticed that none of us were carrying weapons. I'd actively chosen to leave them in my item box, so that neither my sword nor Elane's axe clanged against anything while we were sneaking around.

When it finally became clear that she wasn't going to try and cleave me in two anymore, I let go of her sword and, with a great deal of hesitation, she returned it to her sheath.

Pressing a hand to her breast, she took a moment to steady her breathing and pushed up her glasses before shooting a glare at me.

"Why didn't you say that sooner? I thought the bandits finally found me."

"I tried to..."

"Whatever," she huffed and, suddenly, the scared woman begging for her life from a moment ago was gone. What replaced her was the sort of stuffy, upturned nose of a noble woman looking down on a dirty peasant.

The change was so jarring that I wasn't sure if I should be happy that she'd trusted what I said, or worried that she'd trusted what I said. Still, at least she made no moves to draw her sword again.

"Well, what is it?" she said, crossing her arms. "Stop looking at my chest and speak. Why are you snatching me up in the middle of the night? I was under the impression my identity was supposed to be a secret."

"It is. Only we know about you. We've been looking for you all night because we really need to talk about what's going on here."

"What about it?"

"How about how nobody in this place seems to give a shit about bandits," Elane said, waving her bit hand. Thankfully, Lucielle didn't draw any blood, not that she looked particularly apologetic over what she did.

At this, Lucielle drew in a deep breath that quickly turned into a sigh.

"I know they don't. But that's the problem... People are being murdered right under our nose and none of these buffoons are aware of it."

"And how's that?" Elane asked. "You'd think they'd notice when someone they know randomly showed up missing."

"Yes, you would think that. I think that. But Villeverdure's become so big that some of the dead haven't been noticed. Or worse, their friends and families assume they just packed up and left. Which is just asinine."

"What do you mean? Them leaving sounds kind of reasonable."

Were it not for Giulio's existence, I might have also discounted her opinion and called her paranoid. The people here were just too casual to be living amongst a band of murderers.

Moreover, like those that didn't want to convert to this new church, there were probably several people that didn't like their once cozy homestead becoming an up incoming trading hub.

"Hardly. I suppose I may have left this out of my guild request, but unlike the others, I know who's been killed. For some reason I haven't been able to figure out yet, the bandits are only killing those in the late stages of middle-age and the elderly. Otherwise known as people who have too much to leave behind or who are too frail to make such a journey."

"Didn't you try telling the others this?"

"Of course not!" she said, clenching her fists to fight back the tears that were now threatening to spill down her cheeks. "I only caught on to what was happening because my father was one of their victims. I watched them kill him! If I tried to ask for help, the bandits would find out and…"

Still glaring, she rubbed at her eyes. Mana cautioned a step towards her and Yua tried to offer a bit of comforting support by placing a hand on her shoulder, but Lucielle brushed it away with a sniffle.

Lucielle took a moment to observe her new surroundings for the first time. She then turned towards the church, sighed and started walking.

"Come with me. We shouldn't be having this conversation outside. We can talk freely back at my house."

Confused by the rapid-fire shifting of her emotions, we followed her without a word.