I reached the 'de Hollybrun residence in 6-7 minutes. It was enclosed by a four meters high wall that I escalated almost in one go.

I waited to get the moment when the guards looked the other way, ran, and stepped against the wall to reach the top with my hands. An easy exercise for Cala.

I had already seen the bolt line on the top of the wall and placed my fingers between them. I would not get wounded from a couple of bolts; my skin is more durable than that, plus I had my gloves on, but what kind of assassin would I be to grasp on those spikes? Now really? That was a trap for petty low-level thieves.

I lifted myself on my hands to watch inside the yard and used my > spell. That allowed me to study the garden. As I saw no dogs or guards inside it, I checked again that nobody was looking in this direction, moved over the wall, and then slipped inside the garden.

I stayed unmoved and observed the surroundings, then ran fast and noiselessly through the garden to reach the castle's wall.

That took only a few seconds. Now I started to escalate the wall in a corner that was partially hiding me, precisely as described. The logistics preparations were good; the guild had some competent people in this town.

I arrived soon at the second floor and entered the room through an open window. I did not even have to break it as I expected. Karma or maybe only bad luck made a poor housemaid enter the room. The moment she saw me, she dropped the draperies she had in her hands and wanted to scream.

Before a sound escaped her throat, my dagger was in her heart. She dropped like a log almost without being able to spell a sound, but just a croaked breath, whilst I caught her in the air to attenuate the fall. Not for her sake, but for the noise...

Our eyes met as I put my hand over her mouth.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

...

I know it is a game, but this blood spilling over her blouse, those eyes looking into my eyes with the light paling in them... It is not something easy to digest.

As she was lying on the floor, I took a healing potion and let a drop fall over the wound. Just a drop; more was not needed. It was not too late as a shudder passed her body as I removed the dagger.

I need more than a whole potion for me, and just a drop is enough for such a low-level girl...

I took the other dagger I had prepared with the paralyzing venom and stabbed her at a non-lethal point. I watched her twitch, then remain immobile.

What's wrong with me? I stayed another second to think. No, there is nothing wrong; she is just a poor servant from one of the villages working to earn an honest silver. What am I to end her life like this? Let her have another chance.

I dragged her into a corner and hid her under the draperies she had brought. I checked the new wound to ensure she would not lose too much blood. Even if she could not see me, I had the feeling her eyes were following me. I had to shake my head.

Concentrate, Cala, on your work, concentrate!

I put fresh paralyzing venom on both daggers. That should work now.

I heard voices, so I navigated slowly, entering with precaution the next room. This room was empty; the voices were coming from another room, with the door in between half-open. I walked with easy steps, not a sound, not a creak to be heard >.

I slipped carefully behind that door and spied through the crack.

The logistic was again perfect; this was clearly the apartment where the daughter lived, and the voice belonged probably to her.

Oh, what a naughty, arrogant bitch we had there!

She was yelling at one girl who did something not to her likeness. The girl was crying, and the bitch was screaming. There was another girl in the room and one guard.

I waited.

I had a limited time to act, and I worsened the situation through my actions. I should have killed the other housemaid. Now she was a ticking time bomb with a 30 minutes delay. I should have stored her in a better place. Now she was lying in a corner covered by a couple of draperies. Too easy to be found.

I sighed, nerved by my incompetence.

Another woman entered the room with Thiara. I heard screams again. Oh, dear!

Now the crying housemaid came my way with the other in tow. Or maybe escorting her? They entered the room but did not see me and went out to the other room with the 'sleeping' housemaid. Oh fuck. If they find her, I'll have the whole residence looking for me.

The woman who had entered the room shortly before went out the other door, and a man with a carpet entered.

This is my moment.

I watched carefully through the door: there were only three of them Thiara, her bodyguard, and the carpet deliverer.

I entered the room silently. A shadow entered the room. They could not hear me, but a high-level priest would have felt me.

The man was just unrolling the carpet whilst the young lady Thiara and the guardsman were looking at him.

I heard a very angry Thiara:

“What's this insult of a carpet?!”

Being the daughter of the region's highest lord, she was used to receiving presents. Expensive presents.

Before she finished, the guardsman was down, the carpet-man was down, and she was in my hands.

> stab, stab, catch. As simple as that. Even though speed was overkill, there was no need for super speed here.

The delivery required her to sleep, so I decided to do it now. I made her smell a prepared handkerchief.

She was sweet-looking. She must have some elf blood in her veins; her pointy ears were cutting through her green mane on the sides. Not like your typical elf's vertical ears but horizontal, which made her even cuter. Her eyes were also green, a deep green mixed with almost golden striations. Her small hands were trying to grasp mine away. Her bosom repeatedly lifted and dropped as she breathed panic-stricken, her legs erupted from under her robe as she tried desperately to run, and then she fell soft in my hands. Only a couple of seconds of struggle.

I let her slip to the ground. It is crucial now that I do not clean my nose with this handkerchief. I chuckled at the idea. I can be stupid sometimes.

I let a drop of healing potion on the guard's wound and the carpet delivery guy's, rolled the young lady inside the carpet, and dressed the trousers and jacket of the carpet deliverer over mine. A balloon inflated in seconds made me have a big belly.

Five minutes later, I was ready. Any moment somebody might come in or the other girl may be discovered. Then all hell breaks loose.

All I had to do now was slap a beard on my face to look like the carpet deliverer when the door opened.

It was again the same woman that was inside before. I was just showing her my posterior faking that I was working with the carpet, pushing the beard with the pre-prepared mask over my face as fast as I could. It was a low-quality mask, but it should do if adequately strapped.

“What are you doing here? Where is lady Thiara?”

Good that I've pulled the guardsman and the carpet delivery guy into a corner.

I turned and spoke with the head low:

“Lady Thiara did not like the carpet; I must bring it back from where it came.”

She chuckled:

“Oh, good. Follow me!”

I lifted the carpet, and she escorted me out of the palace. She just glanced towards the other door, where she supposed lady Thiara was. If she had checked behind the curtains in the book area, she would have found the guard and the carpet deliverer, but that was obviously above her paygrade… and would have meant her probable death sentence. Ahm, potential paralysis, as I was somehow unwilling to kill today.

I did not run but kept a steady pace outside the residence. As I went behind the first corner of the street, a dark carriage was waiting for me.

I felt a kind of gleeful satisfaction. That pesky self-important asshole beauty was now nothing more but a package to be delivered. 'Sic transit gloria mundi': yesterday a star today a fleck on a carpet.

I looked at the coach's master.

“Delivery for Mrs Kron?”

He turned and looked at me as I spoke, and a shiver ran down my spine. He was looking like some kind of mummified pseudo-zombie.

OK, that look tempered a little my satisfied grin.

His eyes ran from me to the carpet and then back to me as he spoke coldly:

“Oh yes. Be so kind and put it there in the trunk.”

A very polite mummified pseudo-zombie. I raised my brows.

“I expect payment.”

He entered the coach, and I followed. He nodded, continuing to speak low voice with his nonchalant, neutral, almost mockingly polite tone:

“But of course, miss, of course. Payment is inside that black sachet over there! Please help yourself.”

He had no trouble recognizing that I was a girl under that disguise. That was a bit disappointing; I thought I was better at masquerading as the fat delivery man. He pointed towards a sachet on the only sitting bank inside the coach. I grasped it and checked.

“Do you want to unfold it?” I wondered as he took the end of the carpet.

He did just that, and she came rolling out, hitting the trunk, still sleeping.

He nodded.

“Wonderful. Thank you very much, missy, for your delivery!”

He opened a kind of coffin under the bench, where he pushed her relatively unceremoniously. OK, she was behaving like an arrogant bitch before, but this was a bit of extreme punishment for that. I hope she will survive without brain damage in that vampire-quality casket. Can you say karma? Oh well, for me, it was a job. My gleeful satisfaction from before was now downgraded to the satisfaction of a completed job when even that.

The sachet contained a small black wood figurine of a cat. He had received it from the guild when he put up the money for the reward to be used as acknowledgement I delivered.

I undressed the trousers and jacket of the carpet deliverer rapidly, and he threw them in the same trunk before closing it. There was some magic fueled there, as the chest closed too perfectly for the eye to see it even existed. He rolled the carpet back whilst I removed my beard and mask and put them in my inventory box.

In the next moment, I was out of the coach with the black sachet in my hand when the alarm horns were blasted at full power at the residence behind the corner.

Another moment later, the coach was already disappearing from my sight.

I walked towards the assassins' headquarters to get my reward. I wonder who could have been the mysterious quest giver?

Interesting; usually, I feel good after completing an action that is executed almost flawlessly. True, this was not a very difficult action; however, I did my part almost perfectly. I also had luck on my side, yet I was not as satisfied as I used to be. As I should be.

I let the guild receptionist count the money. It was a situation of confidence between the guild and me.

The guild kept ten per cent for the guild costs, but they have earned their part: the logistics had been flawless. The description of the poor bloke delivering the carpet was also spot on, and the mask was good enough. The reception for my 'package' was there waiting for delivery. Four hundred fifty gold easily won in one hour, fifty gold for the guild.

Once finished, I went to the market to meet Alice. There was a commotion in the market. A woman was crying desperately on her knees on the cold quadratic stones that paved the market.

She seemed to be some high…

Oh fuck. Just a glance was enough. That was Thiara's mother. Same hair colour, same cheeky ears, same face but older. Did she already learn about Thiara?

Suddenly the four hundred fifty gold pieces were weighing heavily on me.