Mistress Of The Evil Forest

Case 37: Planning forward.

The next morning, in Chloe's bedroom.

It's not actually just Chloe's bedroom, by the way. My bed is in here too, although I don't even sleep here, Peln does, and she doesn't even sleep. 

Either way, today is a Sunday, which means there is no class. Nydia got a vacation as well.

''As expected, they're going to dispatch the imperial knights here.''

Chloe sips her tea calmly while looking at the newspaper. By the way, I read an article yesterday that called me a 'sassy maid'. Unbelievable.

''Mhm...''

Sitting next to Chloe, I toss a piece of her puff creams into my mouth angrily.

Wait, this is pretty good...

Nevertheless, former professor Johnathan's death yesterday shook the academy. Not only is there someone strong enough to completely oppress a seasoned fighter at level 40, this is based on the traumatized signs on the body, but it's also revealed that the beloved professor is an imposter.

This incident also marks a breaking point in which the imperial family is basically forced to dispatch their knights to the academy after three consecutive cases relating to demons happened in the span of a single month.

The academy coin is rapidly declining. And it's only going to get worse in the future. Gradually, the fear will spread out of the academy, and in the end, the whole world will have to worry about demons—was what Chloe said.

Fear often makes people weak.

So to give them some hope, we need someone to become the leading figure, the symbol of light. Someone who can fight directly with the demons and convincingly defeat them every time—is the excuse, pretty much.

In the game, the player as Claire took this role, but here, I have decided to do it instead.

Why? Beating demons gives me lots of experience, that's why. I don't really care about the people.

Of course, we do intend to raise Claire to help us as well, mostly because why would we not want to, right?

''Hm, it's 10 A.M. already.'' Chloe puts down the newspaper. ''Let's go. It's time to find your equipment.''

''Alright.''

As we walk out of the dormitory, I can feel the surrounding atmosphere is much more gloomier than usual. Students and staff members alike walk around with worried expressions. Through my enhanced hearing, I can pick up their doubts and criticisms against the academy.

Understandable, since not counting the demon at the opening ceremony, there are two incidents involving the cult. They are skeptical about the academy's security.

''What was the item used for in the game, by the way?'' I ask.

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''Well, It can pretty much hide all of your features, so in the game, it was mostly used for committing crimes, which could go either way, honestly.'' Chloe replies. 

So to explain what Chloe just said, we would first have to talk about a certain demon who will appear in the future—Ragna the Reaper.

Ragna allegedly has an ability to instantly kill someone who meets these two requirements:

Firstly, it has to have seen the person's face directly and know their full name.

Secondly, the person must be someone who has a bad reputation beyond a certain threshold.

It's basically a Kira, but a little bit worse.

The thing about this demon is that it can disguise itself as a human, and it will always appear as an influential person to help with the second condition of its skill. We can't even preemptively defeat the demon because it disguised itself as a different person in each playthrough of the game.

Anyway, as Chloe just said, in the game, the player could use the mask to hide their identity when committing crimes, but if you let Ragna know what you did, you would most likely be accused and killed off immediately. Risky.

For me, I would have to eventually include my subordinates in fights with demons, and let's just say... Their appearances do not exactly inspire friendliness to most people. I could easily be portrayed as being on the 'bad' side and be killed off.

Now, I do have a final safeguard, that being my unrevealed family name, but I won't even risk not hiding my identity.

While I'm thinking that, it seems like we've arrived at the location.

In front of us is a cozy-looking shop with a sign that says 'White Turtle's Café' on it. Chloe opens the door and walks in with me following her. 

''W-Welcome to our shop!''

The attendant looks quite nervous after seeing Chloe, but we ignore that and go to table number 13 specifically. The table is located at a corner of the café, quite inconspicuous, I'd say.

After sitting down and placing some random order, Chloe looks around a bit before putting her hand on the wall under the table in search of something.

click—!

''Oh, there we go.''

A small cabinet is hidden inside the wall. Chloe slowly pulls the door open, revealing a stand with a full mask on it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Mask of Fleeting Silhouette

Significantly hinder the ability to perceive the user's
appearance when equipped.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

''Woah...''

''Beautiful, right?''

''Yeah.''

The mask itself has no holes for the eyes and nose, and no bump either, but it is extremely captivating. After all, on the dark background of the mask, the Milky Way can be seen swirling around, composed of millions of stars shining brilliantly.

''Now... Shit, I forgot to bring something to hide it...!'' Chloe darts her eyes around. I follow her gaze to see the attendant earlier is now bringing our drinks. ''She's coming...! Where can we hide it-''

I swiftly take the mask and close the cabinet before sandwiching it between my legs. My skirt should be able to hide it well enough.

''Here is your order, please enjoy.''

The attendant puts the drinks on the table and leaves.

'''' ... ''''

''I should've bought [Inventory] sooner...'' Chloe signs. ''I was too focused on leveling my attacking skills.''

''How many skill points do you have?''

''Three.''

''Whoops. I should probably buy it too... But I only have nine.''

Inventory sounds great, but I still want to be careful and leave six skill points for emergencies.

''Well, we're done with this either way.''

After finishing the drink, we wrapped the mask inside Chloe's jacket and brought it back to her room.

''I'll go ahead and bring this one to my main body.'' 

''Wait.''

''...?''

Chloe takes out the mask with a dead serious expression, then—

sniff—! sniff—!

''Hah... This is the scent of her thighs...!''

''You...''

Stop! Don't lick it, you'll ruin the pretty design...!!

''Hah...''

''Lady Aurora?''

''What's wrong, Aurora?''

These siblings really love reading, huh. They're still up. Smiley is sleeping as usual, and Mister Slen is nowhere to be found. Hm? Ariel ate quite a lot of my potato chips... Well.

''Nothing, I just got this mask.'' 

I walk to the table and place the mask down.

''Woah, pretty!''

''Hm...''

The undead siblings examine the mask closely.

''...Skely.''

''Yes?''

''What's the progress right now?''

''Leaving out a few hordes for your siblings, I think we're about to finish this whole region.''

''Good.''

For the past two months, we've been cleaning out monsters in West Zircon relentlessly. After all that time and effort, this part of the forest is finally entirely ours.

But it's not enough. To comfortably defeat demons, I need to level up further and gain more followers. It's not like I desperately want to unlock more horror entities or anything, alright?

Either way, our next target to conquer will be North Zircon, which, according to our information, is the territory of the weakest ruler among the remaining three.

But after seeing the status screen of the ruler documented in a book, I feel like we can't quite defeat it yet. So paradoxically, I want to level up some more by killing another demon, who will appear very shortly.

Skipping ⌈Arc 2, Chapter 1, Hidden in plain sight⌋, it's time to step into ⌈Arc 2, Chapter 2, Joint practical class⌋.