15.6

Eve waited patiently as the butler Ralph flowed into his first strike. She was in no hurry to demonstrate her full capabilities in anything, for now. Casually deflecting blows with the flat of her blade caused the older man to raise one eyebrow.

Assured by her demonstrated skill, Eve’s opponent began to flow into combination strikes at a faster pace. The spry elderly butler was attempting to open a gap in her defenses by chaining together blows in order to pull her out of position. It was impressive, for a mortal.

The strategy would probably be something that might work against a weaker swordswoman, but the fact that her sword was literally Weightless easily blunted the strategy. Her speed rose to match the butler with a complete lack of suspense. Each of the onlookers was impressed in their own way as Eve could hear.

“She’s not even making an effort.” Professor Swift noted. His exotic robes swished as he pulled a small silver flask out to take a sip before hiding it once more.

“Not only that, do you see how she’s learning the attacker’s style?” Professor Bloodwood replied. His own robes made no sound as he pulled a bar of tiny foil chocolate from them to devour. Not seeing a trash can around, Bloodwood simply shifted the metal wrapper into a thin square before dropping it in a belt pouch.

Huh. I guess recycling would be much easier in a world with magic. Eve thought as she shifted her attention fully back to the duel.

When pure swordsmanship wasn’t enough, Ralph started to add earth-flavored mana into his strikes. The attacks carrying such additional earthen mana had a ‘heavier’ aspect to them, but Weightless countered by its very nature.

Eve got an excellent look at the level of use a spell-sword type might have in Aiqen. The butler, Ralph, went through three different forms of mana attempting to defeat her.

Earth mana was used for heavier strikes and weighted blows that attempted to push her out of the circle. It wasn’t effective due to her sword’s enchanted power. However, she had little doubt a normal blade would have shattered without the mana to counter the blows.

When earth appeared to have no effect, Ralph immediately switched to shadow mana. An orb of absolute darkness stole the sight of everyone, both within and without. Eve had to rely completely on her Witch’s Dust sensing air currents, and her ears to fight within. Had the circle been larger, it might actually have made her lose. Fortunately, she was able to counter all of the strikes although it was a close call more than once.

After shadow mana didn’t do the trick, the butler dispelled the orb revealing a wretched appearance. Eve looked as if she hadn’t even started fighting yet, while Ralph appeared as if he’d been running a heavy marathon for the past several hours.

“Ralph, there’s no need to push this further is there? I’m certain Eve has met the high standards required to keep me safe, right?” Charlotte said. Her expression was calm as if she was discussing the weather.

“I doubt an Othuven royal knight could do better to guard Lady Charlotte,” Justin said.

“Even if that may be true, this old man will continue his test,” Ralph said sheathing his sword and taking a draw stance.

The flood of water mana that flowed into the sheath gave Eve a good idea of what was about to happen. In a flash, Ralph whipped out his sword creating a stream of thin pressure-imbued water. The attack flowed without pause acting like a water-cutter stream of liquid. Eve allowed the attack to strike her Witch’s Dust whereupon the force behind the blow was utterly dissipated.

“Dangerous!” Eve said with a devilish grin. “However, it’s my turn now. Pure defense doesn’t win after all.”

Eve started testing the waters with simple strikes targeting the weak points in the butler’s school of swordsmanship. When she had been on defense, Eve had kept her movements to the bare minimum. As she flowed into a more aggressive stance her speed gradually ramped up.

Just like the spry old butler, Eve began to mix mana into her strikes. She let earth mana flood into her sword using the enchanting runes as temporary anchors for the energy. Ralph’s own skill was superb, allowing him to block her blows with a minimal expenditure of power.

Even though the butler was older, his mana control approached levels that impressed Eve. She shifted to using shadow mana, mimicking the moves she had seen already. Her silver eyes didn’t miss the grimace the butler had as he realized she was duplicating his own moves.

Sheathing her sword, Eve began to dodge even as she built pressure with water mana in the sheath. It was a clear signal that if the butler continued, things could get rather messy.

Ralph stopped attacking and moved to salute Eve, “I am certain the young mistress will be safe in your hands.” His sword flickered out of existence. Eve didn’t miss the flash that light a ruby signet gave off on the butler’s hand. She also could see the tension leave the butler’s body as she cast the water mana within her blade into the air to disperse it.

He decided not to call my bluff. Eve thought. This is great because I doubt murdering someone Charlotte considers real family would go well.

Even if the girl was willing to kill her own family members to rise in rank, that didn’t mean she had no one to care about. Eve was certain the old butler Ralph was more than a mere doorman to Charlotte. She treated him far better than anyone other than Justin to start, and the younger girl had even taken the effort to end the fight early. A glance at the physically exhausted older man revealed to Eve that pride was probably the only thing keeping him upright.

Professor Swift pushed an energizing burst of wind on Ralph allowing him to recover a decent chunk of stamina and dignity. Professor Bloodwood went even further increasing the oxygenation levels of the older man, while also easing the burden on his heart.

As a result, Ralph had no difficulties escorting them within the mansion to their separate rooms. Charlotte played the gracious host, ensuring that Justin, Swift, and Bloodwood lacked for nothing. Eve had an amused expression as both of the professor’s eyes lit up when the personal maids assigned to them were introduced. Justin’s own expression didn’t even flicker, although he did direct a rather meaningful glance at Charlotte.

The oldest ways of gathering information work no matter the universe. Eve thought. Charlotte likely already understands these two are here to help only until the two children are expendable.

Eve took the meal provided in her room in stride. Using the partial block of cheese that came with the meal, she successfully lured a small starving mouse into her clutches. The mouse almost had a heart attack as she used her bracelet of animal communication to talk to it. With minimal questioning, she was able to ascertain several interesting things for merely the prices of a few cubes of cheese.

After learning everything she could from the mouse, Eve duplicated the same trick using her bread. A small sparrow took the bait, but this time it wasn’t able to survive the shock of contact and died. Using her Witch’s Dust, Eve cleaned up the mess and tried again. Sparrows unfortunately appeared to be much worse than mice. It took her almost the entire loaf of bread before finding a bird that didn’t die.

Grumbling, she made her intentions clear, finally managing to successfully move her way up the aerial food chain. Almost two hours after she’d started, when the sun had sunken behind the horizon, Eve finished. She now had a clear understanding of where the best bank to rob was. There were three banks, an oddity that was due to the College’s existence. The first two weren’t viable targets. Of the two targets that she chose not to strike, one was a royal bank branch, while the other was a personal repository of the College’s alumni.

The final bank was something that almost every merchant used and was thus a far softer target to strike. Although she had Charlotte, and the younger girl was monied, Eve didn’t want to depend on her for everything. Charlotte’s wealth was tied to the Zienfer family. If there was a problem in the future, it might be tied up and unavailable for an extended period of time.

Eve wanted to make sure that even if the sky fell, she would have a pillar of wealth big enough to prop it up. It was merely a redistribution of wealth from the ultra-wealthy merchant class, into her personal pockets. She felt it was far superior to some brutal individuals that would harvest lives like wheat.

Instead, I harvest golden crops that are renewable. Eve thought. Totally justified! Besides, if this minor bank branch has all of a merchant’s wealth, they deserve to lose everything. No one with even the slightest skill in trading would put all the eggs in one basket.

Convincing herself of the rationale wasn’t hard. Eve let the time pass until the moon overhead had reached the zenith. As she departed from the mansion, her eyes rolled hearing the sounds of effort still ongoing in the Professor’s rooms. They were still deeply fighting, and by the sound of it, more than one maid was now involved.

Exiting the mansion was child’s play, as she used her rings to deaden the sound of steps, and provide vision around corners. The bracelet bent the minimal amount of moonlight causing her form to be indistinguishable from shadows. It wasn’t true invisibility, but Eve also didn’t have the fine control from being Tier Six either. Some visual stealth was better than none at all.

Moving across the rooftops of the large town Eve kept her senses open taking care to avoid feline felons. The fact that there were seven crimes ongoing that she had to dodge before reaching the bank brought a smile to her face. The more people that were out and about at this hour, the better the pool of suspects would be muddled.

What is a criminal going to say? Eve thought. Officer, I was out robbing another house, but no I didn’t rob the bank, honest! Yeah, that will go really well for whoever is given up as a scapegoat.

Eve had no doubt the College could easily spare some truth-seeking types to verify suspects. She didn’t worry though, the day she couldn’t twist words to prove innocence was the day she suicided back to the Prison Plane. In the shadows outside the merchant bank, Eve used another few chunks of cheese to purchase information on the interior. Few mages would understand when building their wards, that animals were easily able to sense the play of mystical energies. While the animal might not understand exactly what the energies did, they did know to avoid them.

With the information provided Eve was actually rather shocked. Apparently, the magic users who had been employed to build the protections for this bank were shameless sub-contractors. They had built protections into the walls, but only certain walls, and only certain floors. She suspected the ingenious builders had a plan to return at some point to do exactly what she was doing tonight.

Eve moved to a specific location along the bank's west wall before using the Earth ring to drop into the ground beneath her. Unlike when she was putting earth mana into her sword, the manipulation of pure earth with the ring’s assistance was easier than breathing. Moving below the bank, she rose up into a room that had no floor trigger traps. From there it was the work of moving through a few un-warded walls until she was inside the Vault proper.

While every portion of the Vault was trapped, the floor actually had a section with no wards. She rose up through it before floating into the Air using her ring. The air of the Vault bore no traps, a major oversight she easily exploited. Flying along with the safe-deposit boxes from the top to the bottom, Eve pulled them directly into her bastardized version of Storage with a touch. The three-pillar of silver bars, two of gold, and one of platinum joined the safe-deposit boxes in her personal space. A quick check once the boxes were in Storage had her toss anything that showed a flash of mana out to float in the air.

Once everything was finished, Eve used the ability of her boots to quickly escape. She hadn’t been able to use them entering because the boots required her to ‘know’ where she wanted to go first or be somewhere in the line of sight. After cloaking herself in shadow she moved to a nearby rooftop before releasing her hold on the floating items with a gasp. The draw on her Shroud had been massive, but barely within limits.

Eve didn’t stick around to watch the mana alarms go off. Whoever was brought in to solve this case would quickly discover the flawed warding system with even the slightest ability to examine it. By the time anyone realized the people who had warded the bank weren’t the prime suspects Eve planned on being well on her way to the Zienfer’s ancestral lands. Even if there was some way to track her there, no law enforcement agency would be able to enter without first clearing the way. Dukes had the right of high and low justice upon their lands, and they would loathe giving that right up without substantial benefits provided beforehand.

I mean the chance of being caught is minimal, but there is the possibility of some type of clairvoyant or psychometrist. Eve thought as she moved swiftly back to the mansion. I can’t be certain they won’t see through me at this Tier.

Even then, any power able to see her would also see how effortless Eve’s actions had been. Unless they were completely insane, they would most definitely weigh the cost of offending her over providing assistance. That was without taking in the merchant’s own level of goodwill. There was no way they had amassed a stack of platinum without some type of shady feces being involved.

These are all problems for future Eve. Eve thought. I, Present Eve, can be content counting the loot and allocating its future expenditure!

Returning to the mansion was a breeze even with the guard’s patrols swarming like ants through the streets. She managed to make it inside Charlotte’s residence without incident only pausing as she saw the butler Ralph facing away from the door.

“Strange, my sources indicate that the merchant’s bank was robbed merely half an hour ago.” Ralph said without turning to look at her he continued, “Luckily, I can say with absolute truth that I didn’t see anyone enter or exit the residence tonight. How fortunate that the bank that Mr. Justin and the mistress owed quite a few loans to will most likely dissolve. Such a tragedy, such a horrible accident.” Eve watched the older man depart with a bright smile on his face.

Eve rolled her eyes and floated soundlessly off to bed.