Chapter 147 - A Heartless Woman - III

"Come in." The woman's tone was more arrogant all of a sudden.

Merlin walked into the room, closing the door behind him before approaching. He glanced at the inside of the room, but nothing really caught his eye.

The room consisted of a large desk that was covered in various stacks of paper, a throne-like chair where a certain horrible human being was sitting, as well as two long couches sat beside a long table that had several fresh cups of tea and coffee on it.

"What a surprise, you finally show up after a week." Madame Hartlace ranted, "The oracle promised me that you were the best assassin that money could buy, so why is it that you're here and Elwood Jenmier is still alive?"

"He was there, at the trial, with his stupid smug grin." She continued. "Had I not been prepared with a backup plan, I would have been executed."

The woman picked up a paperweight and threw it at Merlin, who stepped aside and let it fly past him, shattering against the door.

"Are you even listening to me, you useless mongrel." She swore, "Go do your damn job."

Merlin silently took a few steps forward, which caused the woman's eyes to widen. A nervous expression covered her face as Merlin approached.

Merlin was more focused on the fact that Madame Hartlace was considered evil by the system, he felt relieved knowing that he didn't have to escape from the city after finishing this job.

"You wouldn't." She nervously muttered as Merlin walked closer to her desk.

Merlin noticed a strange ring on the woman's fingers, it stood out from the rest of the rings covering her fingers as it was the least gaudy looking.

"Even if the courts don't find you guilty..." Merlin taunted as he stopped at the other end of the desk. "I do."

Madame Hartlace seemed terrified at first, but then she found that something seemed off, the voice was different.

"Wait... Who are yo--" Madame Hartlace started screaming out, as Merlin lunged over the desk. Her screaming was cut short due to the serrated edge of the blade tearing through her neck.

"They call me ghost." Merlin taunted as he plunged the dagger into the woman's heart.

Merlin grabbed the woman's hand, noticing that the ring he noticed before was the only one glowing in such a way that it was clearly an item he could take.

He struggled for a moment trying to force the abundance of rings off the woman's fingers, but he eventually managed without having to cut her fingers off.

「You have completed the quest, "Cutting off the spider's legs: Madame Hartlace", rewards have been delivered.」

Merlin checked the ring's stats and an information window appeared before him.

┌───────────────────

[Ring of the Undetectable. (Rare)]

A magic ring covered in strange magical runes. It seems to protect its wearer from attempts of divination.

• Protection from divination magic.

└───────────────────

"Well that's perfect." He muttered to himself while putting the ring on.

As Merlin equipped the ring, he felt a strange warmth surrounding him for a moment before it vanished.

As he stood up from the corpse there was a knock on the door.

"Madame, is everything alright in there?" A muffled voice came through. It seemed as though a maid had heard the screams and thought something bad had happened.

Merlin walked over towards the door, the maid seemed to become more worried as she was now banging on the door harder.

"Madame, I'm coming in." She yelled out.

As Merlin got close to the door, it swung open, and a young maid was standing before him. She stared up at Merlin and her face immediately went pale.

'Oh great.' Merlin thought to himself. 'Well, she's going to scream the second she notices. What do I do...'

The older maid and several of the men that Madame Hartlace was meeting with only moments ago had returned due to the commotion.

'Well, lets cause an issue for Kilo and then vanish.' He came up with a plan at the last minute.

Merlin leaned in and whispered in the ear of the young maid as he walked past her. "The oracle sends her regards."

He quickly started walking towards the exit, and as he made his way to the bottom of the stairs, he heard a loud ear-piercing scream.

Several more screams followed, and then there was a whole lot of shouting as the men basically roared for Merlin to be seized while they charged down the stairs.

'Well, I should keep in character for a little bit longer.' Merlin thought to himself, 'Ghostsaw... He was rather arrogant wasn't he?'

Merlin opened the door and quickly stepped outside, he arrogantly waved goodbye to his pursuers within the building as he chanted the skill belonging to his new dagger. "Phantom Step."

The men chasing him witnessed Merlin's body quickly fade away, they charged out of the building hoping to catch him, but there was no trace of Merlin remaining.

Merlin made his way down the same street he entered from, although he did briefly glance at the crowd that were now staring at Madame Hartlace's minions who were making a scene.

He made his way into the spot he changed in previously by the time the invisibility wore off, and without a moment of hesitation he quickly changed his outfit to his usual clothes, throwing the mask, dagger and outfit in his inventory.

Merlin took the long way around, but eventually made his way back towards the temple. He avoided stepping out onto the street that was full of the minions he just taunted, just in case they picked a fight with him for whatever reason.

It was his usual state of being overcautious after an assassination, but it had kept him safe up until this point so he continued doing so. Nothing seemed to have gone wrong, so Merlin began making his way back towards the slums to report his success and get a new task.. He eventually took his cloak and daggers out of his inventory and equipped them once more.