By the second day, people had started to arrive at the village. Curiosity was palpable in the air, looking at the residents who poked their heads through the windows, stared from the stalls of the market, or watched with disdain from the roofs.

The one to receive the newcomers was Thom. Happiness showed on his face as he shook the hand of the people arriving, recognizing their faces as the ones he had saved that day on the bridge. After making sure that Argrand had not hurt them before bringing them into Seashore, he gave them a short explanation.

"You're safe here. I freed you, but the condition was that you'd come to this village. Excuse me if it seemed like you were being abducted."

The newcomers took the notice fairly well, probably thanks to the charisma they felt in Thom's words.

After a brief introduction to the village, they were given the information that their households were still in progress of construction. Although disheartened looks popped all around, Thom couldn't do anything but swallow his emotions and press on with the explanation.

They were guided towards a small place where tents had already been prepared, supplies and food included for the days they would have to wait sitting.

Before everyone settled and chose a tent for themselves, Thom sought a familiar face between the people and pulled the robes of an old man as if trying to call his attention.

"Old man Lourgh, I see you're well."

"Boy. You've fixed that speech of yours." Lourgh smiled. "Seems like you've got a whole operation goin' on here. I honestly didn't expect any conversations with Argrand to work, but it seems I was wrong as I could be. Did you need anything from these old bones of mine?"

"Well, can I go straight to the point, Lourgh?"

"Of course."

"Alright." Thom nodded. "Will you act as chieftain of this village from now on?"

"Oh, dear. When you said you were going straight to the point you were not kidding. Chieftain, you say... What an odd opportunity." Lourgh raised his eyebrows and pressed on his chin. "Is there any issue with handling this area?"

"To be honest, both Suu and I have to leave in a few days. We can't stay long, but I also don't want to leave this place in the wrong hands. You sound like a level-headed guy, so it seemed like the perfect choice. Of course, I will give you a salary, and I will leave a course-of-action plan written for you. The money isn't an issue either." He smiled. "I just need someone to act as head while we're gone."

"So the replacement of a lord that serves under Argrand..." Lourgh chuckled hoarsely as if mocking himself. "The way life works is truly a mystery."

"Are you interested?" Thom pushed forward with his question, rather impatient to get an answer.

"At my age, there are not many things I can keep myself occupied with. This will be a great opportunity to get rid of some boredom and burn some time. You have my word boy, I'll make this village look like an expensive teapot if you leave me in charge."

"Excellent!" Thom pumped his fist in the air with excitement. "Then I gotta tell you how things will work while we're gone. Would you like to come with me to the manor? I'll show you the office and everything, it's so cool! Ah, and I'll also leave the address from which I'll be sending letters for you, and..."

As they walked away from the tents and the people, their voices turned muffled by distance. Suu stayed behind as she looked at Thom's back, excitement and content replacing his usual sulking visage.

She didn't want to tear that happiness apart. At the same time, she wanted to make that girl smile when she thought of her dad. Rii's tears were still floating in her mind after the last day's encounter, and she was sure she wouldn't shake them off in a long time. However, if getting rid of the baron helped her and everyone else, she was committed to making it come true.

Following Thom's plan, the baron would hopefully be taken care of within two days. With the Ring of Honeyed Words in her finger and the Cloak of Indifference that Thom had given her, that should be an easy enough job. However, she still needed to give it her all.

The ring would be an item that she would most certainly need to keep throughout the operation, but the cloak was something that was meant to be handed over. The plan included the knight killing the baron and then escaping the castle undetected, after all. That meant that even if he was seen, he needed to not be recognized as a knight under the baron's work.

Since the most important information she had about the knight— aside from the precious piece of intel that would make him fall into her hands— was that he went to church every middle of the week with his family, then her next target would be the church.

"Sigh..."

Suu turned around and headed for the plaza, tossing her thoughts aside. She would worry about those matters the following day, the day in which the Predsman family went to the city for church.

"Neigh!"

As soon as the sun started to rise over the horizon of the next day, Suu started to ready her horse. Saddle and bridle ready, she hopped on its loin and pushed back her own hair as if trying to brush aside her worries.

If she wasn't mistaken, it was about one hour before the predsman family grabbed their own carriage and hit the road toward the city. If she managed to get there before them, she would probably get a good advantage that would allow her to skillfully execute Thom's plan, and even do a little extra.

That was, only if she got there an hour earlier, taking into account that the ride from Seashore to Saltbide's capital city was around four hours in length. However, she had a plan to get there even faster than what Thom had predicted her to.

In the little time that Suu had spent traveling around with Thom and doing quests, she had managed to learn a thing or two about magic and magic energy. Now, she was planning to put that knowledge into use, especially because the whole operation depended on whether or not she could utilize her magic energy in the way Thom had instructed her to.

For instance, she had discovered that mages were extremely sparse. If you had a village with a thousand people in it, chances were that you wouldn't get to find one even if you waited for a few generations. Even in big cities like Pontya, the number of mages only amounted to a few dozens, and they all belonged to the army.

Also, having the ability to control magic was one thing, but being able to effectively use it was something else entirely. For example, the chief guard, Chamgue, who dedicated his life to the ways of a warrior, but happened to have talent in magic. He had enough to blast even a first-tier spell and several cero-tier spells, but that was about it. And, after using them, he would probably have to wait several hours before doing so again.

This was because a normal human did not have a high magic capacity.

As far as Suu was concerned, her magic energy was high even between very talented mages and sorcerers. Her twenty kilograms of magic essence—or thirty-two estones if it was measured with the elven unit for magic weight— were several notches above that of a regular human magic caster. Of course, she had obtained the skill [Magic Abundace] that doubled the capacity of her magic energy, but it was high even to begin with.

Examining people in bars and streets, Suu had determined that the usual measure for magic energy in a human adult was of 0.3 estones— if they did not have any children. If one looked at families walking in the streets, the estones that the mother and father boasted of was reversely proportional to the number of children they had.

Maybe it was because of this that people of this world only had two or three children, when back in her world even the farming families had a dozen or so kids. She didn't know what the relation between kids and magic energy was, but she was eager to ask around once this mission was over.

She hadn't had the opportunity to check on an advanced magic caster's measuring either, but the readings from the two people able to use magic that she had found across the way weren't really spectacular, no more than one estone each. This was especially low if you took into account that a first-tier spell took about 0.7-0.8 estones to cast, a second-tier cost close to 1.5 estones, and a third-tier spell was about 2-2.3 estones depending on which one it was.

This was if you took your time to sing a chant every time you cast a spell, which took from ten to fifteen seconds. For Suu, this was embarrassing and a waste of time.

The skill [Shortcut Casting] allowed her to cast spells without chanting, only having to say its name out loud. This would increase the cost of the spell 1.5 times higher it's original consumption, however.

"I think I can afford that though."

She smiled, placing her hand on the horse's back, ready to cast a third-tier spell. The thin conduits in her body vibrated as she concentrated the movement of essence towards her palm, gathering like a bubbling teapot about to burst.

"[Haste]." Suu whispered.

Her magic energy quickly seeped into the horse's hide and wrapped around the animal's legs. The beast neighed as it felt the new power coursing throughout its body, and started to furiously stomp on the ground.

This spell in particular cost her 3 estones to cast without a chant. However, thanks to [Superior Magic Energy Absorption III] which made her gather 3% of her total per minute, and the fact that the spell wore off every ten minutes, she did not need to worry about it.

She quickly advanced through the prairies and roads of Saltbide until she reached the city, at which point she was two hours and a half early. She left the horse at a stable and paid the toll, meandering her way inside without any worry and a pretty content smile of having done a good job.

"Alright! I have two hours and a half to do a good job, so I should take this opportunity and not get distracted by any means!" A gleaming smile shone on her face as she pumped her fist to the air, ready for a victory to land on her hands.

Later, she got distracted.

"Oh my gods, is this a dish of Saltbide? It tastes amazing! Could you give me the ingredients? Hm? Why not?! Do you want to get beaten up to death?! Hey, come here, why are you running from me? Tell me how you made this sauce, this shit's good my friend! Heyy!"

She prosecuted an innocent street vendor down the alley until the man gave her a recipe.

"Kid! Are you lost? Oh, poor you. Don't worry, I shall help you get home if your parents give me something in exchange! Especially food. Do you know how much energy I consume a day moving 20 extra kilos of weird funky majirical substance around?!"

She got a crying kid to her house and extorted her parents until she got a pound of sausages in exchange.

"Hey, lady! Is that your cat? Do you need me to put it down from the tree? Alright, let me just—"

She chopped down a tree and ended up having to bribe the guards.

"Shit, I lost around two hours on that crap! Ah! There you go, there's the church! Damn, it's flamboyant enough, how did I miss it?!"

She ran up a flight of white-stone stairs and ran past a plaza, heading directly for the tall wooden door at the colored glass building at the very center of it. She slammed the door against the inside of the wall, making the servants and the priestess throw their things to the ground in fright.

"I'm here, bitches!"

"Dear mother!" The priestess shrieked.

The servants didn't seem to notice, but the priestess certainly did so, that Suu was purposely letting go of her magic energy residue everywhere, making the priestess immediately panic. Suu saw the woman hurriedly run down the altar to pull her by the arm, action after which she was taken to a silent corner of the building.

"I, I am deeply sorry, but my lady, could you control your magic emission? Those gifted by the gods are very sensitive to magic energy, and I know it is only me right now, but if it is not too much to ask, could you please cover your emission before someone else discovers you?!"

"Ehhhh." Suu simply answered with a dead-fish look, turning her neck around. "Alright, if you ask me like that, I guess I can do that, priestess."

Of course, she already knew that people able to channel miracles were just as sensitive to magic as magic casters, since Valta had told Thom this fact, and Thom had included it in the plan.

Suu used her skill [Hide Magic Energy] after the priestess had asked her, and the color slowly returned to the woman's face as the oppression from Suu's power dwindled. The woman sighed and cleaned the sweat pouring from her forehead.

"Alright, alright. I am sure that there is a reason why... why someone of such high power has decided to enter into this church, so, eh, my lady, what is it that you need my humble assistance with?" The priestess nervously laughed as she spoke, rubbing her hands against each other.

"Hm. Is there a confession stall here?" Suu tilted her body to the right, seeing the one-door booth standing at a far corner of the church with an oblivious smile on her face.

"Of, of course. Did you come here to tell something to our dear mother Feriphia?"

"Ayeee, that's right~." She nodded. "Why is there only one door tho?"

"O-Oh, that is because that door is only for people looking to confess themselves. The door for the priestess' side is somewhere else, my lady." The woman bowed slightly as she said that, pointing to another entrance a few feet away from the confessing booth.

"Heeh. Alright. Do you have time right now for a confession, priestess?"

"But of course! Please, go into the stall, by any means!"

The priestess hurriedly lifted her dress and ran towards the door on the side. She opened it as Suu was passing by, and took her enough time to close it to let the black-haired girl see a small desk, a few books, and a couple of shelves.

crack

The woman was about to close the door of the room in a hurry, but she heard a sudden crack. She was bewildered at first, but then saw four fingers between the door and the wooden frame. Much to her horror, she noticed that the door was stopped by Suu's fingers, and that the cracking sound came from the breaking door and not from her bones.

"M-My lady? Is, is there a problem here?"

Creeeeeek

The woman tried to fight against Suu's strength, but it quickly proved to be a useless effort. Suu snickered and laughed as she opened the door without even trying, the priestess getting paper-white while seeing the small woman entering her office without permission or reason, just as if she was strolling inside her own house.

"What are you doing, my lady?! Is there anything I can help you with?!"

"Indeed. For example, it would be really useful right now if you took a quick [Nap]!"

With a puff of her hand, the priestess' body bent backward and slugged over the desk. Snoring quickly started to come from her mouth, before she slipped from the desk and fell face flat on the floor.

"Aight, that's effective. Good thing, because I had not tried that spell before!" She said, taking off the Cloak of Indifference from her head.

Suu closed the door and then proceeded to commit sacrilege by stripping the priestess completely naked. She then further accented her sin by putting on the sanctified robe, grabbing the scepter from the unconscious priestess's hands, and dragging the woman's naked body towards the door on the left side of the room.

Suu opened the door and confirmed that the door indeed led towards the confession stall.

She threw the woman's body inside without any care, sat on the bench, and pressed her boots against the woman's face as if to add insult to injury. She checked her magic energy to make sure that she had enough to put the woman to sleep every ten minutes and confirmed that, indeed, even if she did not have it, her magic regeneration was quicker than what she could spend to cast it.

"Alright, I'm all set then."

The only thing left was waiting, which she did not care much for. She simply stood there and cast the spell on the priestess every now and then, but figured after a while that it was also necessary to gag the woman, so she did.

Soon, she started to feel the aura of people bustling inside the church, so she quickly hid her own just as she had been doing with her magic energy. Then, someone got closer to the booth and knocked on the door, asking if everything was okay.

Since she knew her voice-acting skills weren't exactly the best, she used a minor illusion instead. This was a cero-tier spell and did not consume much magic energy, so she used it without sparing a bit on it.

"Servant, please tell the people to come into the booth, that is if they have any sins that they wish to talk about to dear mother Feriphia. Do not worry about the lady that came in before, she has left already."

"Eh...? I could swear she hadn't left. But it is okay, priestess." The girl on the other side seemed to turn around and raise her voice to the line of people waiting for a confession. "The priestess says that you can enter! Please, in a line!"

Suu relaxed her tense nerves and smiled after she confirmed that her impression of the priestess was good, a hint of pride creeping up to her gut. However, her self-appreciation ended soon when she heard the door on the other side of the stall clacker, and the small voice of someone ringed in her ears. It seemed familiar at first, but as soon as the door closed and the other person spoke, she was pretty sure of who it was.

"Good morning... Miss Priestess."

"Ah... Good morning."

Although there was a wooden wall separating the both of them, leaving only a small metal sheet with holes poked through it in the center for communication, Suu did not need to see the face of whoever was speaking to identify them.

It was, without a doubt, the voice of that girl she had talked to not long ago beside the river, and who had set the plan in motion. Suu couldn't help herself and let go of a vicious smile, thinking about how lucky she had been. Originally, she had thought boredom would take over as she listened to other prayers and confessions, waiting for her target to appear. She hadn't counted, however, with the fact that the Predsman family seemed to be extremely punctual.

The voice spoke again, and Suu perked up her ears to closely listen to it.

"Different to the other days, uhm... Today, there is something that I wish to confess." Rii said from the other side of the stall.