"And how will you use me?" The assassin asks and Evelyn smiles.

"Hmm… how about you become a spy for us?"

​​

"What? You'll trust me with that?" The man winched at the pain as he moved his body because of the frustration.

"Oh no… I don't have the time to trust someone who wanted to kill me just a few minutes ago. We will have another contract… using black magic of course."

"Ha-hahaha!" The assassins laugh.

The brows of the people behind Evelyn started to narrow and become a frown from the conversation that the two were having.

"And what's the difference between you and them? Both of you are just using me."

"That's right… I'll use you so, why don't you use me too?"

His brows twitch. Evelyn continued.

"Use me to gain freedom… you're young and assassination really isn't a job for a young man like you. I'll give you freedom in exchange for spying them. I know you can do that."

The assassin pondered for a while before he asked again.

"Are you sure that you can erase this?"

Cassandra stepped in that time. Evelyn already called her using one of the maids that she encountered before she reached the basement earlier.

"I can erase the spell…"

"Yes… she can."

Evelyn looked at Cassandra and smiled.

"So, what do you think?"

"Okay… I'll do what you say. I'm also sick of them."

"Great!"

Evelyn leaves the process of having another contract with Cassandra using her black magic as a witch. Gab, who saw Cassandra's magic for the first time have his golden eyes wide open.

The contracts are successful and the man can't utter a word or think about exposing them as the side effect is him falling asleep whenever he thought about committing betrayal towards them.

The more he thought about exposing them the longer he sleeps. And one day he'll die because of it. The effects of the curse of Oath were also altered and rewrite and now used as the mark for the contract.

"I didn't know that something like this existed…" The assassin said.

"Be thankful that Evelyn still needs you and if ever you thought about betraying her the punishment is just sleeping… Of course, the span of your sleep can be like the fairy tale of sleeping beauty, it can take years for you to wake up… or not." Cassandra explained.

She wanted to be more severe on doing the punishment of contract but she knew that it would give her a consequence.

They change their meeting to one of the parlors inside the mansion with the assassin in tow, while Gil and Chrisfold are guarding him.

"Alright, let's discuss your first mission for me." Evelyn said.

"I'm sure Elise has taken this measure because if both of you survived and I died then she would think that I'm just a naive girl from the neighboring kingdom that came in this country." she continued.

"So, what's your plan?" Gab asks and Evelyn turns her head to him.

"Simple, this man would tell his master that he gravely injured me and I would have time to infiltrate the temple."

The shock expressions of the people inside the room are what she saw.

"Don't worry, as long as you have proof that you injured me that stupid Saint will believe you."

"But not the Pope…" Chrisfold butt in.

"That's right… but it would give us time to attack them from the inside and cut the black mana in the statues that they distributed in the masses."

The assassin who's still between Gil and Chrisfold have his eyes wide open.

'How did she know about the statues?' he thought and Evelyn saw his disturbed look.

"Don't you think that if I knew you have the Curse of Oath, I should also know about the black mana statues…" She then smiled at him.

The assassin felt shiver. The young lady in front of her seemed to know every move that the Saint would do, she also knew about their plan about charming the citizens' minds.

'How far does this woman know?' he wanted to ask but refrained from it.

He then heard her again.

"What's your name by the way?"

"... Nine."

"That's how they give names based on the time you get to become an assassin… I was nine when they trained me to become an assassin."

"Is that so…Then, Nine, do your best to have that freedom"

Nine smirk and Evelyn smiled.

The meeting finished and everyone got back to their own rooms. The assassin also left, for him to do his first task to divert Elise's attention and let her guard down.

Meanwhile, Evelyn can't sleep. The sun has already shone and the birds have already started to sing. For the whole night after what happened in their house, she was thinking why her idiot brother would take Elise to her shop.

And in the first place, why would he be together with the woman who has poisoned their father. Crown Prince Edickart already gave them the reports during the little tea time that happened before.

So, Evelyn doesn't get why her brother would do that.

"And it's either he wanted to know my reaction or what Elise would react if she saw someone who looks exactly like his sister… either way, how stupid can he be?!"

She felt frustrated again because of her brother.

"I need to sneak into the mansion… I need to talk to my father."

Evelyn decided that she needed help as much as possible.

'If he has an ounce of remorse for neglecting me then he should cooperate for the sake of mother's peace.' she thought.

***

The mansion was quiet and most of the employees didn't know what happened in the middle of the night. And one of the owners of the house gathered them in the hall.

"I have bad news, my sister has been injured by an assassin." Chrisfold explained with a gloomy face.

Mumbles and murmurs of the few employees that they hired are what echoed inside the hall.

Evelyn was the one to make Chrisfold do this, he remembered what she said last night.

"It would be better if we make rumors of what happened tonight and let the gossip reach Elise's ears and the Pope. That way we could help Nine's alibi be justified."

And that's what they are doing right now. They hired doctors and bribed them if someone asked them to just tell that Adelyn was gravely injured and needed some time to recuperate.

That would give them the excuse of Evelyn planning behind the scenes and also making the pope and Elise guards down.

Not long after that day, the rumor reach Cabel's Night Guild.

"Guild master, we have obtained information about Lady Adelyn." One of the shadow nights said as he appeared in front of him.

"What happened?" The cold rushed to Cabel's head and felt that he would go numb as the anxiety hit him.

The shadow knight gulped down and continued his report.

"Lady Adelyn was said to have been gravely injured by an assassin last night. We are trying to find the culprit but one of them has already died in the hands of her company… while the other escaped."

Cabel felt his whole body swallowed by darkness. He doesn't want this feeling again to seep through his veins, so he immediately storms out of his office and rips a scroll where the coordinates are Evelyn's room.

Swooooosh!

He teleported in the room and a shocked Evelyn was what welcomed him. She was in her black clothes and was readying herself to sneak in the Emsworth mansion when a circle of light beams inside her room.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

However, Cabel has already run like a bull and hugged Evelyn. He was shocked that he got news of Evelyn being injured by an assassin and his wits just told him to leave everything and be by her side.

"I thought… I thought you got hurt again. I thought that you would leave me again."

Evelyn's breath shortened as his embrace was tight. She then remembered that she ordered Chrisfold to let the maids spread the rumor. Evelyn just didn't know that Cabel who was in the Sigrid Dukedom would appear in her room.

'He uses a teleportation scroll that costs a fortune so that he can arrive much faster.'

Reaching her arms to him, Evelyn also hugged him to make him feel secured that she's fine. Evelyn didn't know that the effect of her missing for four years and faking her death would gravely affect Cabel like this.

Evelyn mumbles.

"I'm alright… I didn't get hurt. Don't worry.'

Cabel stepped back and he observed her. He figured that she's really not hurt but the odd appearance was what he noticed.

"If you're not hurt what was that about the rumor and… what are you wearing?" Cabel asked.

Evelyn immediately let Cabel calm down and let him sit on the sofa in her room. She then started to explain what happened...

"...also, I'm about to sneak into Duke Keene's house. I need to know if he's okay after what Elise did."

Cabel's ruby eyes sharply and dimly glow.

'That girl again! I really need to dispose of her.' Cabel thought.

"I'll go with you…!" He said.

"What?!" Evelyn was shocked. She assumed that after she explained what happened Cabel would leave her house.

"I will go with you… I don't think I can send you there when I knew that someone was there to get your life!"

Cabel swiftly tucked a piece of her hair in Evelyn's ear. He then looked at the woman he loved affectionately and said,

"I won't let anyone harm you…"