5 No Trust

Ch 5

POV Charlotte

"Halt! Give your reason for entry."

I pulled on the reins of the horse to stop it.

"I want to enter the Greenwich Institute."

"Name"

"Charlotte"

"Here is your one-time permit. Don't lose it." The guard said as he handed me a slip of paper.

Finally. After three days of continuously rushing on a horse, I had reached Cordon. As I passed through the gates of the city I felt an aura trying to inspect me, however as soon as that happened a ring on my right hand also activated and the aura just swept over me.

Thank god it worked. I sighed in relief after a few minutes, it seemed like nobody noticed that I bypassed the security. The ring was an artifact given to me by father for this mission. This was a one of a kind artifact that our family possessed. It suppressed my aura by one level so that people didn't know that I was a 4th refinement Weapon Specialist.

Since it was already evening, I directly went to the biggest tavern in town to gather data about the Institute and the Carnel Imperial family.

"Miss, you are the second one to ask me the same question today."

I was taken aback at that. Are there others interested in the Carnel Imperial family here? But seeing that the political situation is strained, it isn't that surprising.

"Who was the other person that asked you?" I asked just in case to keep an eye out.

"It's that person." He said pointing a finger towards a corner.

As I looked where his finger pointed I saw a man in a black cloak drinking in the corner. He was looking at me. Not only that, he seemed to know that we were talking about him.

My caution backfired on me. I didn't mean to expose myself so early. What if he turns out to be an enemy?

Now that he already saw me, I directly walked up to his table and took a seat.

"Waiter bring another drink for the lady." He shouted at the worker.

Since he was wearing a hood, his face was hidden. However from his voice, and the little bits which I could see, he seemed to be rather handsome.

Although the beer arrived at the table I didn't dare to touch it. It could have been poisoned or drugged for all I knew.

However, it seemed like he didn't mind me not drinking.

"Name"

"Why should I answer first?"

"I bought you a drink."

A drink that I don't dare to drink.

"Claudia. You?"

"Clarke"

"You are lying."

"So are you."

"…"

I wasn't able to make out his expression but I was sure he was smiling.

"Forget about that. Tell me why you are asking about the Carnel Imperial Family?"

He really went straight to the point.

"I heard the Third Prince would be attending the Institute from this year, since I had never seen him I wanted to make sure I don't offend him somehow."

I was trying to make him believe that I was more interested in the Third Prince rather than the Second Prince, but for some reason when I said that, I felt his body tense up for a second.

"Oh. So, you will be attending the institute as well?"

"Correct"

"Then I am looking forward to working together with you sometime."

As expected. He is also here to enter the institute.

"I don't trust you."

"Then don't. I don't trust you either."

"Good then."

I got up to leave. However, before I could do so he called out to me again.

"Even if we don't trust each other, I still hope to work together." While saying that he picked up the mug of beer he bought for me and drank from it.

** ** **

POV Krauss

She left.

Is it an assassin sent by Helen? Or just a coincidence?

Judging from how she didn't know my voice or face, she is unlikely to be one of her private rats. She still might be a contracted killer though.

After a few moments of thinking about it, I decided to follow her.

"Quieten~. Weak Aura~. Disfigurate~"

I cast a few spells in quick succession to disguise my looks and aura level before going after her.

As I followed her weaving through the alleyways, I realized that I wasn't the only one following her. Few other half drunks were also behind her.

After a few more turns it seems they lost their patience and decided to confront her. I went on the roof of the nearby building to keep an eye of the situation.

"Extend Hearing~, Hawk Vision~"

After casting these surveillance spells, I could see and hear everything in the area.

"Lady even if you are a 3rd refinement High Warrior don't you think you are too overconfident about your own strength? Walking around alone so late at night."

"…"

Seeing her not respond the man became even happier. Although the man was also a 3rd refinement High Warrior his aura felt somewhat hollow, probably the result of consuming pills.

"How is it? Are you scared? Don't worry you won't escape from us tonight."

"I didn't think Cordon would have wretches like you."

"That might be true in the city, but right now you are in the slums. Even the great institute doesn't give a shit about this place. So, forget about leaving this place."

With a signal, all those men pounced on her at once. However, instead of attacking them as I expected, she started running away.

After running around for a few minutes, I realized what she was doing. She was slowly moving towards the city area. If she really was a skilled enough assassin to come after me, she should be able to kill these idiots with ease. Was her asking those questions really just a coincidence? I asked myself again.

After another ten minutes she managed to get out of the slums unscathed and the thugs following her had no choice but to stop.

Although, I did feel she was stronger than the idiots following her, it wasn't anything special.

I lost all interest in her after I saw her check in at a random inn for the night. As I was standing on the roof of the inn I was internally debating on whether to put a mark on her. If I did that I would be able to keep track of all her movements within a certain radius. However, in the end I decided not to. Clearly, she didn't seem like a person who had consumed pills. For a young girl to have reached the 3rd refinement before even entering the Institute clearly meant that she was from a prominent family. In such a case there was a high chance for some sort of higher-level guardian to be around to protect her. Right now, I hadn't even entered the academy and didn't want to make any enemies.

Now cautious of an expert of at least the 4th refinement watching my moves, I decided to escape as cleanly as possible. After cancelling the previous surveillance spells, I cast three more non-elemental spells at the same time."

"Body double~. Aura Lock~. Aura Enhancement~."

I created a clone, hid my own aura, and increased the clone's aura to make it appear as the real body. Then leaving the clone on the roof, I slowly sneaked to a few blocks away. This was the maximum distance I could control my clone. Then in one single instant, I cancelled all of them except Aura lock and cast another spell,

"Fleetfoot~"

I ran as fast as I could away from the inn. I didn't go towards my manor as I might have been followed. Only when I didn't sense anybody after fifteen minutes I could breathe a sigh of relief. Since it was already very late, in the end I decided to spend the night in another inn that was nearby.

** ** **

POV Charlotte

Soon after I left the inn I felt several presences following me. Even when those thugs were trying to catch me I could feel another presence in the shadows. I even felt that the thugs were a trap to make me expose my power. That is why I didn't dare to expose my 4th refinement power. I just ran away while using less than a fifth of my energy. As I suspected, the person following me came all the way to the inn I was staying at. I was planning to make the first move and use my combat arts at full power to directly kill him as soon as possible, but that would have only attracted even stronger people here. As I was debating on what to do, the presence on the roof vanished without a trace.

The sudden disappearance completely freaked me out. Even a 5th refinement Weapon Expert assassin shouldn't be able to completely vanish in front of me. Was it someone related to the person I met in the bar? Since my location was known I quickly decided to change inns.

"<Night Walker> <Shadow's Blessing> <Hidden Figure>"

I even activated 4th refinement combat arts to hide myself and ran out into the night through the window.

Only after I reached locked the doors to my new room in a different inn did I finally feel safe.