Towards the end of June, Silvland's representatives and Adventurers returned...thankfully, the asshole prince didn't come this time.
I was called over to the Ragiu mansion, where they were holding a meeting. I was a bit surprised to be included, though I guess at this point, I really shouldn't be.
There weren't many people, just a small group, including Erhtaph, Misen, Headmaster Raedal Yiserir, Elolina, Princess Agatha Silvland, the other Silvland representative who had also come last time Labo Haage, Naro Soment, one other Silvland Adventurer, and yours truly.
They had kept the group as small as possible in order to prevent this discussion from being leaked...it might be being a bit overly cautious, but it definitely wasn't a bad idea. Also, the decisions made in this meeting would be kept from the kings of both nations, this was to be a secret operation, so the less people that knew about it, the better.
After I'd given my advice to Naro the last time they were here, Silvland had started covertly investigating spies, and...they had found a whole lot of them. And they had been unable to get any significant information out of them, nor were they able to use them as double agents. Most of the spies they found had been embedded with Blood Crystals, opting for suicide bombing the instant they were discovered.
And so, Silvland had come up with a certain proposal...
"We would like to send a small team, of about four or five, to infiltrate The Empire for two or three weeks to gather information...at present, we know far too little about them," Said the princess.
Wow, that was a pretty risky idea, but I could see where she was coming from...we knew practically nothing of value about The Empire besides the names of two of their Retribution Tier members and the name of their leader.
"Hm, indeed...that may be a necessary measure. Do you have a plan on how to go about infiltrating?" Inquired Erhtaph, after thinking it over.
She shook her head.
"No, not yet. For one thing, Adventurers with the skillset to be able to infiltrate the enemy as a spy and not blow their cover are rare...it is not something that they are trained to do."
True, in the Academy, Student Adventurers were primarily trained for the purposes of killing monsters, gathering resources and guarding or escorting clients. And given that this world had gone a long time without any wars, it was unlikely that the five nations had trained and sent spies to the other countries.
According to Silvland's reports, The Empire had sent out quite a number of spies, however, they weren't exactly well trained...I could say the same about the two spies that I encountered here, and given that they seemed to have known absolutely nothing about The Empire, they were expendable pawns.
Back to the matter at hand, an infiltration mission would be pointless unless you actually sent someone who was competent enough to pull it off- okay, I think I see why I was called to this meeting.
Okay, even if they could assemble a group skilled enough to successfully pull this off, the big question was how to go about infiltrating The Empire...I doubt they just took in volunteers without question, and they already knew my face.
"Have you sent anyone to scout out The Empire?" Asked the headmaster.
"Yes, we have," Nodded the princess, "However, of the five scouts we sent, only one returned alive, though he was quite severely injured."
She explained what the scout had found. The first scout they sent hadn't returned, this had been the second scout.
Using Flight and an invisibility spell, the scout had seen the layout of The Empire, it had built itself in place of where Goldway had been within a wall in the shape of a square, which had a further four inner walls. The scout had flown down lower to get a closer look, the outermost section had the most people, they were performing tasks such as forging weapons, gathering resources and doing whatever they were told. Their living quarters had been on the shabby side...they were presumably the Pawn Tier.
The second outermost section had better living quarters, and had less people than the outermost section. They had slightly better equipment, and while they also did as they were told by the inner sections, they were in charge of leading the members in the outermost section...most likely the Lapdog Tier.
The third section was entirely taken up by a large building with no windows...I would imagine that's where the Research Tier was.
The second innermost section had six large mansions spread out across it...the Retribution Tier.
And the innermost section had a castle, no doubt where the leader of The Empire, Tirayze Valaque, was residing.
The scout had then pushed his luck and tried to get even closer, but the invisibility barrier shimmered as he descended too quickly, and he was spotted and forced to flee. He managed to escape, but got badly injured in the process. He died shortly after making it back to Silvland, his injuries had gotten severely infected on the journey back, and they were too far gone for healing spells to work. After that, they sent three more scouts, but none of them returned.
That probably meant they had placed a bunch of members from their Lapdog and Pawn Tiers around the areas surrounding The Empire.
Getting past something like that without being noticed would be really difficult, even for me. And even if we did, would we be able to get into even the outermost section within the outer wall? I doubt we'd find anything useful in the Pawn or Lapdog Tiers, the most likely place to have useful information would be the Research Tier...which meant that we'd essentially have to infiltrate halfway through to the middle of The Empire. There's no way we could sneak our way in that far.
I mean, it's not like we could just walk in and pretend that we're supposed to be there- an idea hit me like a truck as that thought crossed my mind...hey, this could...this could really work.
I closed my eyes and went through it in my head as everyone began debating how to move forward. I came across a hole in my idea, before brainstorming up a solution in the form of a spell, though that would depend on if Elina could make it...based on past results though, it's definitely possible.
I thought it over one more time, looking for any holes or problems in it...and found none. Yeah, this could definitely work...
"I've got an idea," I interrupted their fruitless debate.
They all turned their attention towards me curiously.
"Well, what is it?" Inquired Erhtaph.
I nodded and started...
"First off, we'll need something from you, Eloli. Could you make a spell that lets someone take on the appearance of another? Let me clarify. Assuming it's a two scroll spell, let's call them Scroll A and Scroll B, and for an example scenario, let's say person X wants to look like person Y. Using this spell, X could knock Y unconscious, and then use Scroll A to 'copy' their appearance by pressing it against Y and activating it. Once that's done, X presses Scroll B against himself and activates it...the result being that X will copy Y's physical appearance, becoming a lookalike imposter. Oh, actually make it a three spell scroll, the third scroll would be used to return X to his original appearance. Think you could make something like that?"
She mulled it over carefully after I finished explaining, while everyone else stared at me with intrigued and curious expressions...come on, hurry up and answer, Eloli...this is kinda awkward.
She finally opened her eyes and...nodded.
"That should be possible, yes. Spells that change one's physical appearance are not common, but they do exist...an example you will be familiar with, the 'Rewind' spell, as you call it, physically shrunk your body upon activation."
"...did you have to bring that up?"
But she was right, if that spell could shrink my body, then appearance or body-altering spells were definitely a possibility.
"How would you use this spell for infiltration?" The princess asked.
"Simple...the team that goes to infiltrate The Empire takes out a group of those white-robes patrolling the surrounding areas, copies their appearances, hide the bodies after stealing their outfits and any equipment, and then...just stroll in through the walls calmly."
"There is one problem...body altering spells put a large strain on a person's body. Even using strength and speed boost spells frequently will have detrimental effects on the body, entirely changing a person's physical appearance will have some relatively significant side effects, especially if they remain in the transformed state for long. In fact, I would have never activated the 'Rewind' spell on you if I didn't know about your healing ability."
Wait, what? Was she saying that the Rewind spell would have left me with negative physical side effects if I didn't have my Healing Factor?
"...I'm sorry, what? Run that by me again...you're kinda starting to piss me off, you little loli bitc-."
"Ahem, back to the matter of hand," Interrupted Erhtaph before we began verbally sparring, "Miss Fenegus, would you be able to make the spell so that it changes the user's appearance without putting too strong a strain on the body? For instance, making it so that it copies another's outward appearance onto the user without changing much about their internal structure?"
She replied after thinking it over.
"Yes, that should not be a problem...however, that will only work if copying the appearance of someone who is of a similar height and build to the user. Someone slightly larger ought to be fine as well. However, copying the appearance of someone smaller would be impossible without significant detrimental effects to the user's physiology...well, unless that user is Kuro. Copying the appearance of someone of the opposite gender would also be highly risky," Elina explained, her brows furrowed as she thought it through, "I shall do the best I can, but completely erasing any detrimental side effects will be impossible."
"Very well, we shall proceed on the assumption that the spell will be made...now we must decide on how many we should send to infiltrate The Empire," Replied Erhtaph, the others nodding in agreement as they began discussing it.
Okay, so...I'll assume that means they had decided that my plan was what they were going with. It took a while for them to agree on how many people to send, as each had differing opinions.
"Would it not be best to send as many as we can, casting a wider net, so to speak," Suggested Labo Haage, the balding Silvland representative.
That was a terrible idea, if a lot of people were sent, then the chances of them being discovered was higher, and if multiple spies were discovered, The Empire would only further tighten its security.
"I believe a small group would be best...maybe four people. Any more than that and you run the risk of ruining the whole operation," Chimed in Misen.
Oh, I'd kinda forgotten he was here. He did look a bit uncomfortable, but considering everything that had happened over the last year or so, he had probably begun to feel used to getting saddled with responsibility. I reluctantly voiced my agreement.
"He's right, I would also suggest sending no more than four people. Besides, the larger the team that gets sent, the harder it'll be to remain unspotted, which'll consequently make it harder to sneak up to the white-robes and knock them out in order to copy their appearance. Copying the appearance of a member of the Research Tier would be ideal, but it's most likely going to be members of the Pawn and Lapdog Tiers that the team would run into first. And don't forget, you'd need to find someone of the same gender and similar or larger build, that will be tough if there's too many people in the infiltration team."
After a little further discussion after taking in my feedback, they came to a decision. They'd be sending four people as per my suggestion, two from each nation, to infiltrate and gather information for two weeks before returning. Erhtaph then spoke up...
"For the two from the Rustlands...I would like to nominate Kuro and..."
"Sure, count me in," I replied affirmatively.
A mission like this is right up my alley...it's been a long time since I've been on an infiltration mission, and I was definitely looking forward to it. Two weeks was a fair bit of time, but setting aside my sense of excitement and anticipation...this was a pretty important operation, and I doubt there's anyone in this world more suited than me to this kind of task.
Erhtaph then named his second nomination...
"...Misen."
"N-no!" He blurted out immediately in horror, standing up with a start, "Er, I-I mean, surely there's someone better than me for this job, father."
Hm, as much as I hated to admit it...from everyone I knew in the Rustlands, he was probably the best option after me, he had a real deceptive streak, not to mention that he had a bit of experience from shadowing me during some of my missions. True, most of those had turned out to be false alarms, but still.
Erhtaph ignored him and carried on discussing the plan, as Misen slumped back into his chair with a look of defeat and horror. About an hour later, the plan was finalized.
Tomorrow, the Silvland group would be heading back to their country, Misen and I would make our way there a week from now. And one other person...
"Oh, as for the two that Silvland will be sending...let me introduce our newest S-Rank, Les Jeule," Princess Agatha introduced the other Silvland Adventurer who was here.
He nodded politely as she introduced him. He looked a bit older than me, had straight, dark brown hair which covered his forehead and eyebrows, one blue and one green eye, and a somewhat blank expression. No noticeable physical mutations.
"He was one of two Adventurers who played a big role in investigating the Empire spies who had infiltrated Silvland...the other of the two will be the second to join you in this operation."
Right, so like I said, the rest of the Silvland group would head back tomorrow while Les would stay back. Elina would begin working on the appearance copying spell in the meantime, and I was to teach Misen and Les any stealth or bluffing skills that'd be useful to have. By the end of the week, we'd depart to Silvland, but we wouldn't enter the country. Given the number of spies that had been found in Silvland, it was too risky, it might tip them off to what we were up to.
The Empire was to the west of Silvland, so when we near Silvland, we'll head around the walls till we're ahead of their west gate, where we'd meet up with the fourth member of the team for this operation. After that, we would make our way to The Empire.
The scout who had successfully made it back, before dying soon after, had set teleportation points all the way upto the halfway point between Silvland and The Valaque Empire, so we could cover half the distance in a matter of minutes, and then we'd have to walk the rest of the way.
The problem was that the area between Silvland and The Empire was mostly grassy plains, there were some groves, caves and small forests here and there, but for the most part it was wide, open spaces. I suggested that we should opt for invisibility and soundproof barriers, while using Lightning Sensory Field to scan for enemies.
We could also use this stealth barrier combo to sneak upto white-robes who were out of the line of sight of others and drag them into the barrier combo and kill them before copying their appearance. I suggested using the Store part of the Store and Extract spell to hide the bodies once we've taken on their appearances.
Ideally, we would first need to interrogate them to find out which tier they're a part of and what their role is, that'll make a huge difference when it comes to the actual infiltration part. If we didn't know anything about the person each of us would be posing as, then we would almost definitely make a bunch of mistakes when we get in through The Empire walls, which would only serve to attract attention and suspicion.
I made sure to clearly relay all of that, we had to make sure we were all on the same page regarding this. A high risk operation like this couldn't afford to be handled carelessly.
After we infiltrate The Empire successfully, we would need to gather as much information as possible without drawing any attention. And most importantly...
"Once we've infiltrated- no, once we each have copied one of their appearances, it's more than likely that we'll each end up posing as people in different roles. During the two weeks we spend in The Empire, we should avoid making contact with each other unless it's absolutely unavoidable, we can't afford to act suspiciously in the slightest. Then there's the end of the mission. Counting the day we enter The Empire as Day One, all four of us should leave at the first opportunity we get on Day Fourteen...we can set up a safe rendevous point to meet up, after which we can return to our normal appearances and head back to Silvland. Oh, and be prepared to witness some truly fucked up sights, especially if you end up infiltrating the Research Tier...human experimentation is not a pretty sight, but try not to let your horror or disgust show...that'd definitely be suspicious. One more thing...once we've infiltrated the place, it's every man for himself...if one of us is about to go down, the others must not help them...it's harsh, but that's just the nature of a mission like this."
Naturally, we were all told not to divulge the details of this mission to anyone. As the meeting wrapped up, we all split up after I agreed to train Misen and Les in stealth skills in the Goblin cave each day before we depart. Les would be staying at an inn to avoid drawing any attention. Misen was pretty depressed about the whole thing.
As I began to head home, Naro called out to me. I greeted him and we spoke for a bit, he mainly wanted to inform me about the forth member of the team.
"The fourth member, Selesa Jeule, is kind of a handful. She's like us, retained her memories of her previous life. She's Les's older sister, and was a mystery novel geek in her old life...she even insists on being called Sherla, a variation on Sherlock, though no one actually calls her that...her personality can be a bit tough to deal with, thought I should let you know."
"Uh...when you say tough to deal with, are you talking that asshole prince-level tough to deal with, or...?"
"Oh, no, she's not nearly all that bad! For one thing, since she has her old memories she isn't religious in the slightest, she's just kinda...a pain would be the best way to describe her, though she's reliable enough when it counts. Well, I suppose you'll see soon enough."
...
I got back to my apartment, where Persia was half asleep on the bed. She sat up and rubbed her eyes as her tail slowly swayed and her ears twitched, letting out a yawn.
"Hey, Kitty Cat...you're looking as adorable as ever," I remarked, walking over to her and stroking her head.
"Hey, Kuro. How did your meeting go?" She replied with a sleepy smile, purring slightly as I stroked her head.
"Well, about that..."
I explained to her briefly that I'd have to leave at the end of the week on a mission and won't be back for nearly a month. I didn't get into the specifics since I didn't want to worry her. When I finished explaining, she still looked pretty worried though...well, I guess not going into the specifics made it obvious that what I was doing was going to be dangerous.
"Whatever it is that you'll be doing...please be careful, Kuro. I'll kill you if you don't come back alive," She said with a worried expression after I finished explaining.
"Hey, don't worry...I promise I'll come back safely. Heh, hope I didn't set off a death flag," I replied with a soft smile, hugging her gently.
"I'm serious okay...be really careful. Also...I'm gonna miss you a lot," She whispered, intertwining her fingers with mine.
"I'll miss you too, Persia...I'm gonna miss you like crazy," I responded softly, kissing her forehead.
...
Over the next few days, I was pretty busy.
Each evening for about three hours, I taught Misen and Les some basic stealth skills, as well as how to maintain temperament and calm. Les already had some decent skills in that department, and Misen was quick to pick them up.
Les had Water Magic and a falcon Anima, which gave him really good eyesight. He had decent output, but couldn't control water that was further from five meters away from him. He fought using rapid compressed water blades and whips in close range, and he had good combat skills with decent agility and superhuman reaction time.
Misen could use Lightning Boost at x4 now, and he had a new weapon, a blue crystal dagger, made of the same material as the spear he lost in Goldway. The material was called Lightning Crystal, it worked similarly to Lightning Magic users to the way Fire Steel worked for Fire Magic users, it depended on the user's compatability.
If the user is compatible, using Stream on it would amplify their lightning. Unlike Fire Steel, other lightning users could use the Lightning Crystal weapon, but it wouldn't be as effective as it would in its main user's hands. His dagger was made using a leftover shard of the crystal that was used to make the blade of his old spear.
Elina took three days to make the spell, making four sets of what I'm calling the Appearance Copy and Paste spell, one set for each member of this operation, as well as an additional scroll for undoing to spell and returning the user to their original appearance, for a total of nine scrolls.
I also told the rest of Group D that I'd be away for a while, and gave Mika a training regiment to follow, as well as asking Rai to continue training her in Lightning Boost. The headmaster said he would take care of my absence from Academy classes, so I didn't have to worry on that front. The days continued to tick over...
...
Before I knew it, it was the night before the morning of departure. I finished taking a shower and flopped onto my bed with a sigh. Tomorrow morning I'll depart, but the main infiltration part of this mission won't begin until we've gone through close to a couple of weeks of traveling. This was going to be a fairly long assignment.
I was snapped out of my line of thought as Persia pounced on top of me and kissed me, running her hand through my hair.
"Mm, what's gotten into you, Cat in Heat, you're awfully enthusiastic tonight," I smirked, my hands going down to her butt as she gave me a seductive look.
"What are you talking about, I won't see you for a month...so I'm going to squeeze in a month's worth of nights into tonight, 'kay?" She replied with a wink, as she slowly ran her hand down my chest and abdomen before settling on my crotch.
"Well, when you put it that way...how can I resist?" I grinned, taking off her top and firmly fondling her boobs while kissing her neck.
She let out a soft moan before taking off my clothes and running her hands all over my body. I then wrapped my arms around her and flipped us over so that I was on top, before kissing her passionately, caressing her lips with mine, before she rubbed her tongue against my lower lip, and we kissed more deeply. She ran her hands across my back, as I massaged and stroked her hips, lowering my body onto hers.
"Mm, I love you, Kuro," She whispered tenderly, as she wrapp her arms around my shoulders.
"I love you too, Persia," I replied gently, cupping her cheek in my palm.
She wrapped her legs around me as I ran my hands all over her body and kissed her neck, before slowly going lower and lower.
It was several hours before we finally went to sleep...
...
The next morning, after I let her know that I was going, I headed out to the north gate around 8 AM, the other two were already waiting there.
"Hey, it's about time you showed up, you little-!" Snapped Misen irritably.
"Actually, I'm right on time. I know you're frustrated at being included in this mission, but don't take that out on me," I replied, before turning to Les, "If I kept you waiting, my bad."
He shook his head in reply.
"No, I just got here a few minutes ago."
"Well, anyway...let's get moving."
The two of them nodded and followed after me as I headed for the gates. The first step of this mission was about to begin...
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