Lilly carefully snuck throughout the castles corridors searching for anything that might give her some information about magic or the world they had been summoned to, she had been searching for one hour and was just about to give up when she noticed a young girl sitting in an adjoining garden courtyard.

The girl was overly beautiful with pure white skin and jet black hair, however it was not the girl specifically who intrigued her but rather the Shadow watching the girl. Quietly as a mouse Lilly approached the Shadow, as soon as she was in touching distance she reached out a hand grabbing the shadows arm.

The Shadow, now clearly a man, let out a gasp and turned to look at her "be quiet," said Lilly raising one of the knives she had brought with her to his throat before he could turn round and see her "I'm not here to hurt you nor the girl over there, I just want information."

The man nodded but stayed silent afterall if he couldn't detect her what hope did the girl have? And besides there wasn't much he could do with a dagger to his throat, "What do you want to know?" he asked his eyes still watching the girl.

"I want to know about this world, as well as about the war." the man paused to consider the strange question then let out a gasp of realisation "you, your one of the summoned heroes aren't you?"

"Answer the question." said Lilly in a cold voice neither confirming nor denying his statement. "This world is called Aegis it is made up of two continents the demon continent and the human continent. Last year the demons invaded the border counties wrecking havoc however none of the nobles care as long as they don't have to fight, they are happy sending innocent commoners with no experience to their deaths."

The man let out a deep sigh to quell his anger still watching the young girl "however war is no longer profitable for the nobles so they wish to end the war by making you do the dirty work for them." Lilly nodded thinking over what she had just heard "Is there anywhere the heroes could escape to that the the nobles and royalty couldn't interfere?"

The man nodded slowly "if they joined an adventurers guild, it is technically out of the nobles duristriction, the assassins guild also looks after their own." Lilly smiled pleased at the idea of an assassins guild in the country "thank you that is all, as a thank you for your help I will inform you that over in the West Wing of the courtyard there is currently an assassin aiming for, the girl who I believe to be the princess's life.

The man stared in shock at the west Wing and realised she was right, quickly rushing over and dealing with the assassin he turned to look aback only to find the mysterious hero to be gone. Shrugging his shoulders he went back to observing the girl who was indeed the princess, unfortunately for the man he didn't notice that during the conversation his keys had gone missing.

Smiling back in her room Lilly started to think through plans, if she could get Will to assume a leadership position and lead all the useless students into becoming adventurers then they'd be safe from the king and the war, all they needed were weapons and funds and she knew exactly how to get them, Lilly smiled she had come across the treasury earlier during her wonderings and had decided it was time to pay it a little visit.

The next morning panic ran throughout the castle, it appeared that late last night an unknown assailant had secretly stolen the keys to the royal treasury and had cleaned half the place out leaving behind a note saying I will not forgive nor forget -Arachne

Although the meaning was unclear one thing was for sure, an unknown thief had stolen half the treasure in the treasury, in a furious rage the king sent out all of the remaining guards to capture the thief whatever it took and as such all the heroes were to be confined to their rooms until the crisis was over, well that was the plan anyway.

Once all the guards had left Lilly quickly put on a disguise she had "acquired" the previous night and went to find Will. After quickly finding Will's room due to memorising the location Lilly picked the lock on the door and took walked in.

Will was sitting on the floor doing sit ups when he turned to look at her "What are you doing here? Who are you?" said Will as he stumbled backwards to his feet "I'm a friend," said Lilly in a deeper and more masculine voice "in truth the king had planned to use you and the people in your group as sacrafices to gain more magical power so you must escape before it is to late."

Will looked at her in shock "Who are you and how would you know this?" asked Will looking worried bit still suspicious "I'm a thief who's got a grudge against the nobility, the reason I know all this is because I was scouting out the castle yesterday and heard the king and the Duke talking."

Lilly stopped talking and prayed that he accepted this made up backstory, apparently he did as he started nodding "Ok I believe you, but say we escape where do we go from there we have no money no family no knowledge. How the hell are we meant to survive?"

Lilly smiled she had hoped he would ask this "I'm going to give you the funds I stole yesterday from the treasury as soon as you leave you need to use these funds to register as an adventurer as it is an independent organisation free from the nobility, there's also enough money for lodgings and food for a while though I'd suggest you find a house and live together to be safe."

Will nodded "Thank you for the warning, may I ask your name?" Lilly paused then decided to give the name she signed on the note in the treasurey "Arachne. And anyway I have to leave if you are going to leave do it now while the guards are out looking for me and only take the students in your group, the other group will be treated well for their talent."

Will nodded, if given the option he would have tried to bring both groups with him, however even he saw the necesity of getting the less talented group out of the castle. "Ok," said Lilly "go downstairs into the room with the crystal pillar, I will send the rest of your group down shortly. I have already left a variety of armour and weapons in the room as well as the money I stole however you must make haste."

Will nodded and headed off towards the room while Lilly promptly knocked on everyoneelses door conveying the same message she'd told Will. Once she'd made sure she'd got everyone she headed back to the room to see the entire group dressed with armour and swords by there sides.

"Ok," said Lilly her voice still lowered "I'm going to send someone with you to make sure you get to the adventurers guild safely, can the Shadow from last night please come out of hiding." the other students looked around confused but sure enough the Shadow man from yesterday descended from the ceiling.

"Damn," he Spat out "How did you know I was there?" under her disguise Lilly smiled "there was an extra person breathing in the room, plus I assumed after yesterday you would be interested enough to check out the heroes. So how about it, will you help these guys?"

The Shadow man nodded "Ok, I don't approve of what the nobility did anyway." Lilly nodded gratefully then turned to adress the students "follow this man to the guild and then register as adventurers, after that purchase a safe house for you all to stay in, I wish you the best of luck at surviving."

After saying this Lilly walked off without a word, she didn't really care what happened to her classmates from here on out but felt better knowing they weren't going to be killed and drained for the magic they couldn't use. Anyway she had bigger things to worry about and a demon king to visit.