Chapter 172: Touch It

“I—I’m not…” Salomea stuttered. “I just…”

“No!” I said and ran over to her. She probably thought I meant her, because she had cried and wiped snot on me just hours ago.

She closed her eyes and covered her ears and bent a little. Why she did that I do not know. Perhaps she had super hearing and everything I said sounded super loud to her.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” I whispered, coming from a place of love and understanding. Obviously I didn’t want to hurt her hyper sensitive eardrums, so I was extra careful.

“That the scary assassin?” Bogumir asked, looking unimpressed.

Salomea opened one eye and looked like she was about to say something.

“Shush!” I said to Bogumir, but Salomea clearly thought I meant her because she quickly closed her eye again as well as her mouth. She had also started to shake a little.

I grabbed her shoulders in the hopes of calming her down a little. Instead of being calmed like a normal person, she whimpered. Why wasn’t it working? Why was it all going wrong? I shook her a little, hoping she’d snap out of it, but that only made the whimpering worse. At that moment I realized I should probably call in reinforcements.

I gestured to Kasia. “Come over here, please. You have to help me! I think she’s broken!”

Kasia shook her head, then slowly got up and walked over. “You should probably stop shaking her.”

“Right. Sorry about that, Salomea, I was just trying to calm you down.”

She opened her eyes and glanced at me. “You’re not going to kill me?”

Kasia turned to me with a look of disapproval. “What did you do to her?”

“I didn’t do anything!” I protested.

“Why are you feeling sorry for the assassin?” Bogumir asked. “Who cares what she did to her?”

Somehow I had kind of forgotten she was probably an assassin sent to kill me. She didn’t look that scary in the first place, and all that crying didn’t make her look any more intimidating. Maybe that was her game, though. It would be genius. Pretend to be weak and scared, but actually be a cold-blooded killer. No one would ever see her coming, not even me.

I squinted at her, hoping to pierce through her clever ruse, but she really did look scared. [Mēnē’s Watchful Eye] also made it apparent that she was not about to kill me, it looked like her mana was trying to escape from me. Maybe Banda Masvih wasn’t as scary as everyone thought they were, or maybe they didn’t think I was as scary as everyone thought I was, and that’s why they sent some low level scaredy cat to fetch me.

“She doesn’t look like an assassin,” Kasia said.

I poked Salomea’s forehead. “That’s what she wants you to think. That’s why she’s so good at it.”

Though every Class could probably be an assassin, I figured I might as well sort of confirm it by casting [Soul Index] to see what she was working with, so I did.

[Shadow Initiate]

Status: Terrified

“Aha!” I said. “She’s a [Shadow Initiate], that totally sounds assassiny, doesn’t it?”

“Just an initiate, though,” Bogumir said. “So probably not a very good one. Definitely not a high level one.”

I shook my head in disappointment. “I have to say, I’m almost insulted that they’d send a low level assassin to kill me.”

“They didn’t!” Salomea said. “Like I said before, I was just supposed to check what happened and recover the fee. And that’s not why I’m here now!”

“I don’t buy it,” Bogumir said. “She’s just saying that so you won’t kill her. Why else would she sneak up on us like that?”

“I wasn’t—”

Vitek raised his hand. “I think she speaks the truth.”

I frowned. “Really? How can you tell?”

“I’ve seen a lot of liars.” He gave a faint smile. “She doesn’t look like one of them. Perhaps you could listen to what she has to say before condemning her to death.”

“She’s still a criminal,” Bogumir protested.

“So is Hecate, and so are all of you for helping her. Even you, Bogumir.”

That gave Bogumir some pause. He seemed to mull it over in his little head for a bit, then shrugged and nodded in agreement. “Fair.”

“So why are you here?” I asked Salomea.

“Because you asked me to arrange a meeting between mayor Aurelia and Palets.”

I did ask her that. Wow. I was a total dick. Silesia was wearing me down. Maybe there was just something in the water or in the air that made people dickish and inconsiderate, and it had finally started to affect me as well.

“Right.” I coughed into my fist. “I am so sorry. I totally forgot I told you that. Thank you. How did you do that so fast, though? Do you guys have some hidden hideout under the town or something? Or can you run super fast? Can you fly?”

Salomea looked bewildered. “I… thank you? No I can’t fly or run super fast.”

“So how, then?”

She held out a small crystal. “Teleportation crystal.”

Vasil hopped closer. “Hmm. Single use. Expensive. Though Banda Masvih probably creates their own.”

She didn’t respond to that, probably because Vasil spoke froggese, and she probably didn’t have [Omniglot]. She frowned at him for a second, then turned back to me. “Palets will meet the mayor tomorrow at noon. She must come alone. Here.” She put the crystal in my hand. “All she has to do is crush it, and she will be taken to the location.”

“Alone?” Aurelia said. “Smells like a trap. Who’s to say it won’t teleport me into a pool of acid?”

“And who is this Palets?” I asked.

“You asked for a meeting with my boss,” Salomea answered. “He is my boss.”

“Is he the leader of Banda Masvih in this region?”

She hesitated. “No. But he is my boss.”

I thought about asking her if he was mad about what happened to Hanka and her crew, but decided against it. He was probably at least a little annoyed. But if he killed Aurelia he’d have to wait for a new mayor to get money, and if I was lucky he was at least a little bit afraid of me. And obviously he couldn’t kill Aurelia, because she was me, but he didn’t know that.

I leaned and glanced behind Salomea to see if she’d brought a new night robe—she hadn’t. Maybe Palets wanted to give it to me personally. Maybe that was his way of apologizing. Then again, it was my night robe, not Aurelia’s, and I wasn’t invited. Did they really think they could ruin my stuff and get away with it?

“Hey,” I said, grabbing Salomea by the wrist. “Where’s my new night robe?”

Her face turned pale. “I—I… forgot.”

“You forgot?” I gasped, clutching my heart. “You FORGOT? Are you trying to KILL me? Do you want me to sleep NAKED?!” I mean, I slept naked all the time, but after having slept in a robe that felt like clouds, I wasn’t sure if I could ever go back. Surely she must understand that. Surely she must understand the injustice she’d committed against me. She might as well have actually tried to assassinate me.

Salomea looked like she was about to pass out, her mouth opening and closing as her eyes frantically darted between the door and me.

“Hecate,” Kasia said, putting a hand on my arm. “I’m sure she will mention it to her boss.”

“I will!” Salomea said. “I will tell Palets, I swear! I will bring you ten robes!”

“Ten? TEN?” I shouted. “They better be as soft as this one. Touch it.”

“N-no, I—”

“TOUCH IT! FEEL THE CLOUDS!”

Salomea closed her eyes, but reached out with two trembling fingers. She still didn’t reach far enough to actually touch the fabric, so I grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand into my robe so she could feel it.

“See?!” I demanded, leaning in close. “Feels like actual clouds, right?”

“It’s very soft,” Salomea whimpered. “Extremely soft. I will tell Palets! Ten cloud robes! I swear on my life!”

“Good,” I said, dropping my hands and flashing her a warm smile. “Love and understanding.”

Kasia frowned at me. “What part of that was love and understanding?”

“All of it? I love this robe, and she understands that she must give me a new one.”

Kasia sighed, then shook her head, but couldn’t stop herself from chuckling a bit. She gave Salomea an empathetic look. “I hope you understand that you must keep your word now. She’s not going to let this go until you hand her those ten robes.”

“Yeah,” Bogumir chimed in. “And we’re going to have to hear about these fucking robes until you do. So please, I beg you, bring them as soon as you can.”

“I’m totally not like that,” I mumbled. “Anyway, was there anything else?”

“That was all,” Salomea said. “Noon tomorrow. The mayor must come alone.”

“Make sure you don’t forget about the—” I started, but before I could say anything else she grabbed another crystal and shattered it between her fingers. In an instant she was gone.

“Well, that was a bit rude,” I said, taken aback. “She didn’t even say goodbye. And I hope she won’t forget about those robes. She’ll remember, right, guys?”

Vitek burst out laughing. Nobody else said anything.