Ell shook off Selin’s hand, but it didn’t budge. “Let go.”

  Selin was resolute. “No.”

  Varoth looked between them. He hesitated before picking a side. “Your Highness, you not feeling well may be the influence of more than just that thing,” he persuaded her. “A cleanse may make you feel better.”

  “But it will surely make me feel worse,” she countered with a glare. Cleanses were indeed effective at removing any stubborn influence on the body, but the process felt no different from having a thousand ants crawl under your skin while under paralysis. Ilai had undergone it once. The memory alone made Ell’s hair stand on end.

  Experience aside, there was a possibility the cleanse would erase her soul.

  Ell turned to Selin, issuing one last warning. “Let. Go.” The guard’s grip tightened around her wrist. Painfully so.

  Ell suddenly lost control of her body, lips moving against her wishes, her voice harsh and low. “Transcender. Kneel.”

  The twin jade bracelets, one on Selin wrist and the other on Ell’s, emitted a sharp glow. The guard’s grasp loosened, and she dropped down, knees thudding heavily on the ground.

  Varoth made himself scarce, turning away and busying himself with watching midnight dew gather on grass.

  Ell crouched down, speaking with a softer tone, “Satisfied now?”

  Selin’s stubborn air had dissipated. She hummed an agreement.

  Ell sighed as she rose up, undoing the Twin Effect with a simple sentence. “Deactivate Vind.”

  Vind. It appeared as a multi set artefact a few decades ago, capable of tethering master and servant together, preventing insubordination. What made it popular among tethering artifacts was that it could not be activated if the Master was possessed by an Ivaor or under a Puppeteer's control.

  Ell had seen a glimpse of it in Ilai's memory. But as she was not Ilai, she did not dare use it. Impersonator had forced her against her wishes, deeming it something Ilai would do.

  It seemed Impersonator's discription, ‘you are who you possess’, was literal.

  Ten minutes remained until the skill expired. Ell felt thoroughly drained, physically and mentally. She massaged her aching temples. "Give me the chain," she demanded as she extended a hand towards Varoth. This time the handover was not impeded.

  The night blanketed the woods in eerie darkness, various beasts announcing their awakening through piercing shrieks or deep growls. When the three had worn a loop around one of their fingers, Varoth pressed the protruding crown at the top of the timecomp.

  The metal links emitted a green hue. In a blink, they were standing at the gates of a modestly sized mansion. Ell’s limbs were stiff, as if she had been maintaining a specific position for a long time. Although the teleportation process appeared to have taken less than a second, the rapid prompts following their arrival proved otherwise.

  [Impersonator Skill expired. Do you wish to renew?]

  Ell shook her rigid limbs as she took off the ring. The teleportation offered by the timecomp ensured safer travels but did not reduce the transportation time; it merely left people in an intangible form as they were transported. The method was not feasible for longer distances due to the resulting muscle stiffness. All it took was a wrong coordinate for a corpse to be spat out by the space cleaver.

  Ell glanced at the prompt. Even if she wanted to renew, the DVP were already consumed, were they not?

  Another pop-up appeared in response to her thoughts.

  [Deviation Points | 0073]

  [Plot Deviation | 1.5%]

  Ell checked the other metrics.

  [Integration | 002]

  [Stability | 100]

  The numbers had updated in the background without any prompt issued.

  ‘System,’ Ell called as the trio weaved through the garden ‘Can you turn important prompts into verbal notifications instead?’

  If she kept staring at air, she’d reawaken the suspicions about her identity and raise newer doubts about her sanity.

  The system’s reply came quickly. ‘Yes.’

  Ell rubbed her forefinger and thumb together as they crossed the front garden and stood before the front entrance. ‘Is there a limit to renewing skill usage?’

  ‘As long as there are enough stability and deviation points, you may continue to renew.’

  The lack of a cooldown between each skill usage was a relief. Ell appointed another fifteen DVP towards Impersonator.

  The door opened the moment Varoth put his hand on the knob. A woman with a braided bun and a gentle smile appeared behind it, having anticipated their arrival. Above her head hovered a transparent white lock.

  Sonia gave Varoth’s hand a squeeze before addressing the guests. “Your Highness, Selin, it’s been a while.” The corners of her lips dipped as her gaze trailed down their unsightly attire. “You look terrible. Roth did tell me you were feeling a little unwell, but this does not look little at all.”

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Sonia threw a reproaching look towards Varoth as she stepped forward, hands hovering about Ell but never making contact. Her gaze snapped up at a familiar smell. “Your Highness also likes this type of perfume?”

  “It has a pleasant aroma.” Ell appeared sincere in her flattery. “But I have yet to buy any, so Varoth lent me some of his to soothe my nerves earlier. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “No, no, if Your Highness likes it, you can have the whole bottle.” Sonia looked back at Varoth, now surrounded by two well fed children with a 75 hovering over each of their heads. “I can get him another bottle later.”

  “I’m afraid he’d resign directly if I did.” Ell did not miss the glare he’d pointed her way.

  “Oh, he’s not that petty. Right, honey?”

  Varoth’s deadly stare turned into nonchalance, nodding when Sonia looked his way. He gave her a sweet smile. “Of course not.” He looked towards Ell with that same smile. “You can have it, Your Highness.” His words were generous, but his hands were offered to the little boy and girl standing at his knees. They habitually clung to his arms, swinging back and forth as they giggled.

  What was unspoken rung clear.

  Ell laughed lightly. “It’s all right. It really isn’t appropriate; I’ll buy another one later.”

  Sonia didn’t insist, leading them into the warm house. They replaced their muddied shoes with soft slippers before heading in.

  The decorations were modest, leaning towards comfort and practicality over aesthetic. Varoth and the children hung in the foyer while Sonia led the two women upstairs. Selin familiarly headed to the washroom while Ilai was led to a room at the end of a long corridor.

  Sonia ensured Ell did not need her for anything before heading back downstairs.

  Ell pushed the door open. Unlike the simple furnishings of the cozy home, Ilai’s room was an elegant display of luxurious aesthetic, twinkling with gold and silver from the doorways' illumination. When she pulled at the hanging velvet rope to the right of the door, light overflowed from the chandelier swaying overhead and the oil lamps set high on the walls.

  Ell picked comfortable robes from a large wardrobe and headed to the washroom within her quarters.

  After loitering in the bathtub for half an hour, Ell had regained her calm. She returned to the bedroom in thick crimson robes as she watched the deviation points steadily rise. The farce she’d caused tonight was a deviation from the plotline.

  It was fortunate, at least, that she’d unlocked the deviation points and skills earlier than later. She was on a tight deadline.

  A knock came at the door jolting her from her thoughts. “Your Highness,” Varoth’s voice came through, “would you like a briefing before you retire, or should I leave it till tomorrow?”

  The Earl and his son’s matters were not over. The play at the banquet was the set-up, not the conclusion.

  Ell settled into a cushioned chair, added another fifteen minutes to the Impersonator skill, and invited him in.

  The assistant came in hoisting a thick folder in his arms, a freshened up Selin trailing behind. Ell glanced at them lightly, unsurprised by the guard’s presence.

  With Impersonator active, Ilai’s memories and mannerisms came easily to Ell.

  Varoth and Selin sat on the gold-threaded couch opposite to her. After a moment of browsing through her ring storage, Selin pulled out a plain silver cube. She set in on the table before them and pressed on the top side, pushing it down with a click.

  The cube unfolded, casting intangible white threads that outlined the form of a box, extending five meters in length, and engulfing the three people within a glowing net.

  It was a necessary measure to keep away the prying ears.

  There was no shortage of people wanting to bring down the General’s mansion as evidenced by the massacre that befell its residents a month later. Besides, Sonia’s ears were concern enough to take such measures.

  After becoming an Audient at nineteen, Sonia was blessed with attuned hearing. A passive power that drove her to near insanity until she moved away from the bustle of the capital. Blocking her ears was an option given the artifacts available, but it brought about a suffocation not any lesser than sinking into deafening noise.

  At times, her Blessing was little more than a curse.

  Varoth spread various documents on the table, summarizing the events of the night.

  While Ell had been dealing with the Earl and his son, Varoth had been cleaning up the Drain Shops and Bloodforges. They had to wrap things up quickly. Once the Earl was arrested, other nobles coveting his resources were likely to sweep in and take over the operations. Tonight, both sinners and sins had to cleansed.

  Exposing the illegal operations and having the courts handle the case was not an option. Too many nobles benefited off the Blessed trafficking and illegal bloodsmithing. They would be the first to cover up for him.

  However, a public assassination targeting Princess Ilai was not something as easily swept under the rug.

  Ilai’s plan had been thorough. The same Bloodsmith who created the Bell of Blessings borrowing on the blood of unwilling innocents was made to turn it into an explosive device and testify against the Earl and his son. Their flattery was delivered back to them with flair.

  Motive was easy to fabricate: failing to become in-laws with the General’s mansion, and full of resentment against the Princess, the Earl and the Viscount had planned an assassination—only to fall into the mire of their own schemes by coincidence.

  The reasoning was perfectly logical when Kael had three counts of murder against his late wives. It was a pity that despite his proud drunken boasting of the murders, there was no evidence to hold against him.

  But that was all right. Now, there was little to hold of him at all.

  Ell leaned her temple against her fist, a hand to her lips as she yawned. “What of the Bloodsmiths?”

  “We are interrogating them at the moment. Those coerced to work in the Drain Shops will be reassigned to registered Bloodforges. As for those with more dubious intentions, they will pay for their crimes.” Varoth pushed his braids away from his face as he leaned down, arranging the profiles of the Bloodsmiths they’d taken into custody. He snuck a glance at Ell. “We owe the General quite the favour this time.”

  Ell narrowed her eyes at him, brows drawing slightly closer before relaxing. “Protecting the people of Jemlar is what he should do. Besides, we only borrowed a few soldiers. We owe him nothing.”

  Ilai’s relationship with her father had been sour ever since her mother’s death, and his hasty marriage soon after strained it further.

  Varoth snuck a few more glances at Ell as he packed away the reports, wanting to speak up for General Byrun a little more but deciding against it in the end.

  Selin gave the cube another click. The strands of white shrunk back into it as it returned to its original shape. After putting the sound barrier back into storage, Selin leaned back into the couch and folded her arms.

  Varoth paused mid-rise. He quirked an eyebrow. “Not leaving?”

  Ell had already stepped towards the bed but stopped to look back at the seated Selin.

  The guard closed her eyes, voice steady and tone unnegotiable. “Sleeping here.”

  Ell and Varoth exchanged quizzical glances but did not argue. “I’ll head down then,” Varoth bid them farewell as he reached the door.

  With the owner of the house gone, only the princess and her guard remained in the room. Ell’s impersonator skill had run out, and she was not too keen on spending more DVP tonight, so she buried herself into the soft blankets and quickly fell asleep.

  The night deepened as the house fell into a quiet slumber.

  A little before dawn, the peace was interrupted by blessed beasts and crying children.

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