Chapter 210

Some decisions were difficult, requiring hours of deliberate consideration, measuring every single advantage and disadvantage to give a nuanced and careful decision.

Some were not.

Luckily for me, watching a beautiful yet exhausted princess saunter toward the nearest pillow in a room blanketed by her own mana, enough to blind her to any kind of spell, firmly belonged to the letter category.

Especially since she sat down on the same pillow that I had been occupying moments ago. And, considering the amount of time I had spent on that pillow testing the limits of her puppets’ endurance, I wasn’t willing to write it off as accidental.

She was quick to confirm that when, rather than closing her eyes to sleep, to address her exhaustion, she parted her legs and placed her fingers on her panties, doing a familiar circular movement to address the aftereffects of her little subterfuge.

Though, considering the speed her fingers worked, I realized that I might have overdone the teasing aspect of my little trick a bit — or, misread her sensitivity to the pleasure.

Or, more accurately, I had forgotten it under the heat of the moment, I realized. After all, in the previous encounter I had with Delia, when I had first discovered her subterfuge, she was not using a puppet but was there physically under a disguise, and it didn’t take much to take her down then.

And that time, she had her fake skills to help.

I slipped through the wards and walked into the room once more, relying on the excessive mana that still filled the room to make my approach even more unnoticeable as I slowly closed in the distance.

The thick blanket of mana helped me adjust my clothing, and soon, my clothes turned into a long, oppressive robe, one that was designed in the exact style the headmistress wore in her attempt to look like a dark abomination, though with three differences.

The robe is way gray rather than black. I didn’t copy her fake hunchback. And most importantly, I didn’t copy the oppressive fake aura of her that had first made me mark her as a potential undead.

No need to kill the mood.

Still, the costume was a good choice to give the best of both words. It would allow me to confront the princess — which was a viable strategy now that I had a reasonable understanding of her capabilities and limitations — but also, depending on how our discussion developed, it gave me the chance to keep my other personality intact.

There was no harm in insurance.

“I hope I’m not interrupting,” I said as I stood directly in front of her, letting the illusion slowly disappear and revealing myself.

She said nothing, just freezing as she looked at me, fear in her eyes. I realized my mistake a moment later. She had clearly mistaken me for an assassin, which was a big problem considering her position.

I fixed that misunderstanding, but not before letting that moment stretch for a couple seconds, letting her taste the fear, not reacting immediately. Even her mana was immobile. “I’m here about the headmistress,” I said, using a different, calmer tone than my earlier speech.

A small adjustment in cadence and tone, and it was impossible for her to realize we were the same person.

“The headmistress sent you,” she said in an attempt to get herself some time. To her credit, despite the earlier scare, she managed to deliver those words with an impressive calm tone. If closed my eyes, I wouldn’t have guessed they came from a half-naked princess that just went through an assassination scare.

I had to admit, she had strong nerves, enough to push the fear back easily. That would have made me more annoyed if I was planning to rely on fear to unbalance her.

Luckily, she had already given me a much better tool to tease and manipulate her. “No, that implies I’m her junior,” I said even as I waved my hand and magically dragged a chair, enjoying the way she tensed even more. Not because of the spell itself, as it was simple enough for someone with just a novice Arcana capabilities to achieve, especially not under her wards. “I’m just here to talk about her.”

But doing so without leaking even the slightest bit of mana was more impressive, reinforcing the intimidating aura of my current disguise.

Not all threats need to be delivered directly.

As she tried to stand up, I gestured for her to stop, moving away from the intimidation to other aspects. “Please, don’t stop in my account. Interrupting you is rude enough.”

“N-not a problem,” she stammered, her earlier confidence suddenly staggering as I turned my attention to her carnal nature as she repositioned herself, closing her legs to hide the most revealing aspect of her clothing, but noticing my teasing smile, she stopped her attempts to fix her clothing, thinking that I wanted to leverage her dressing process to weaken her position.

Strength: 46 Charisma: 63

Precision: 40 Perception: 42

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 7334 / 7334 Mana: 9000 / 9000 ]

SKILLS

Grandmaster Tantric [114/140]

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [100/100]

Master Craft [85/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (0/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Titania - Level 35/38]

[Cornelia - Level 22/26]

[Helga - Level 22/26]

[Marianne - Level 21/29]