Chapter 220 - A Book Wrapped In Cloth

Episode 213- A book wrapped in cloth

Once Eugene was done with the documents, she headed to the bookshelf and scanned across all of the books without missing a detail. It was only after a while when her eyes caught onto something. The thing that caught her eyes was a book that was slightly pulled out compared to other books. Eugene didn't think for a moment and pulled the book out immediately when her eyes caught onto a wrapped cloth. The shape of the wrapped cloth appeared to be a book, hence she just took it and stuffed it in her jacket. 

Why? Because out of all books, this book was one that was more suspicious than the others and Eugene had no doubt this book was something important. 

But before she left, she took a book from a corner with a lot of dust piled on it,  wrapped it in a similar cloth she found in a closet, and put it back at the place where she found the suspicious book. She made sure to leave no trace, and also made sure that nothing was off even by a single centimeter before she took off to the teleportation room. 

There, she met Pelle who was still hiding in the corner of the room. 

"You are back, Miss." Pelle got up and arrived at Eugene's side quickly. 

Eugene nodded. After that, she reached in for her jacket and pulled a gourd out, and handed it to Pelle. 

Pelle immediately shook her head and refused, "I already have water Miss. Please take it for yourself." 

Eugene ignored Pelle's refusal and insisted hence Pelle had no choice but to take it while thanking Eugene. She was about to put it inside her jacket when she noticed a string handing out of the water gourd, not to mention, the weight of the water gourd feeling a bit off. 

"What is this… Miss?" Pelle hesitantly asked as she played around with the string. 

Eugene smiled curtly when she saw Pelle playing with the string that looked innocent despite being a trigger of horror,  "A bomb."

Pelle stared at the string she was playing with and the water gourd blankly. After a minute, Eugene's words registered on her mind and her hands that played with the string shook. Her voice was shaking as she stared wide-eyed at Eugene, "H, How does Miss have this?" The thing she was holding in her hand was something incredibly illegal in Xenperia! Not to mention, there was no way someone would know the recipe on how to make something like this! If the bandits knew the recipe to make such a thing, Xenperia will be doomed.

Eugene could tell what was on Pelle's mind so she chuckled. Pelle probably thought she took it from the bandits or even stole it from the military. "There were ingredients downstairs so I made it." She said nonchalantly. 

Pelle's eyes were widened even more, "Miss… Miss made it?!" She handled the 'bomb' gourd even more carefully and began to analyze it. It was beyond her how someone not professional could make such a thing. 

Eugene nodded. "It was easy. Just light the string up and throw it far." She pointed to the string and suddenly realized something. This was Pelle's first time using anything black power-related except for the flares. Hence Eugene explained again, "Make sure you throw this at the enemy when you're far away. If not, you'll be caught up in the explosion and the debris."

"Debris?" 

"I put in small pebbles and stones to severely injure the enemies. So if you're not careful, you'll be very hurt." Eugene warned to which Pelle nodded seriously and put the 'bomb' gourd inside her jacket for safety purposes. 

Eugene turned around and began to observe the room in great detail when suddenly a hesitant Pelle called out,  "What of the common citizens downstairs?" 

Eugene stopped strolling around and stared at Pelle straight into her eyes. She knew from the start that Pelle didn't want her to rescue them because there was a very high risk of her exposing herself and possibly putting the base on high alert. 

But of course, what Eugene did was something also pretty alarming in itself, if she was caught, that is. She didn't know exactly whether the bandit would burn into complete ash, but in case he didn't, she took precautions by stuffing the fireplace full with dry tree bark. After that, all she could do is hope for the best where the tree would hide a human being as well as continue to burn for a long time. Long enough for her to leave the base. 

So far, there was no commotion over the bandit not doing his shift. This was something Eugene expected because the other bandits appeared to be afraid of the bandit whom she killed. Or, it might possibly be because her herb was dulling everyone's senses down, making them unable to think or care about their missing comrade. 

But to answer Pelle's question, Eugene simply said two words, "They died."

Eugene turned away before she could see Pelle's shocked reaction.  In Pelle's mind, she thought that Eugene simply was too late to save the common citizens. Never in her whole entire world would she think that the culprit who ended the old couple's life was the person in front of her. But Eugene wasn't going to tell that to anyone anyway. 

It was a pity that there was nowhere to hide in this room but a dark corner. Hence, Eugene had to be innovative and creative for the first time in a long while. She glanced all around the room and found two possible places. The ceiling or the floor. But, hiding under the floor at this moment is simply impossible because they didn't have the right tool to cut through the ground, not to mention, have time to make it flawless. Hence, the last option was the ceiling. 

There was no need to restrain their strength when it came to damaging a wall, hence, Eugene took out her bow and arrow. These arrows were special because they were made by Zene's archery master who added concrete reinforcement into these bows which strengthened the bow to the max. 

WHOOSH WHOOSH!

This means that her arrow could just pierce through anything and everything. Eugene shot two arrows horizontally and embedded them into the wall 5 centimeters away from each other. She then headed to the furthest side of the room and did the same. The reason why she embedded two arrows was, well, to sit. Obviously. Her arrows were strong enough for them to sit on top and this was how Eugene and Pelle took turns to rest. 

Every one hour, the other person will be up, taking a small nap, while the other would be awake guarding the room. They were basically human CCTVS, watching everything in the room from up high. It was an unexpected place to hide and no one would dare think there were enemies hiding above them waiting to kill them.

"Pelle," Eugene whispered from the furthest end of the corner, the furthest from the door. 

"Yes, Miss?" Pelle opened her shut eyes and answered back. 

"They're here," Eugene said with her eyes closed as her ears registered every little sound beyond the room. Due to her deep concentration as all her senses were placed into her ears, she could hear even through the thick walls. What she heard was many footsteps heading to the same place, which was to the entrance of this room. And there was no doubt that all of the bandits in the base were currently on high alert, while they welcomed Euria into the base. 

Pelle raised her guard up immediately while trying to make her presence in the room as small as possible. 

Creak--

The door to the room opened with a creak. This was followed by two people heading inside to the empty room. Because the room was empty, it made the two people realize and their relief could be seen by other comrades who also sighed in relief. 

Following the two bandits, 4 other bandits headed in with torches to light up the room. 

"Huh? It doesn't work." One of the bandits said as he attempted to light up the oil lamp with the torch he held. He stepped back and looked at his other comrade who was standing at the opposite corner while shaking his head. 

"It's humid. There's no window and this room is made to be more isolated than others." Another bandit said as he walked inside the darkroom. What he means by his words was that lighting up torches in this room was sometimes a hit or a miss. 

"This one works." The third guy lit up the torch in the middle which helped brighten up the area, casting a yellow-orange tone to the room.. After that, the first guy who complained that the oil lamp didn't work was also able to light up the middle of the room.