Chapter 53

Kyon closed the last book on formations with a slam, visibly satisfied. He returned to his nook behind the bushes in the dark of the night. Fortunately, the servants did not dare to disobey the instructions of the lady's new girlfriend, that is Marina. No one approached the boy's shelter.

The next night he went on the prowl armed with the bread that Marina had brought. A flock of pencil-necked swans lived in the picturesque pond. Kyon lured one of those beauties away from its kin with a piece of bread. According to the guidance of the Pithecanthropus ancestors, he stunned the winged creature with a stone, straight on its silly little head. Then he disappeared in his dear bushes, holding the limp carcass like a fox who had stolen a fat rooster on the farm.

The execution continued in the hide. With the help of Synergy, Kyon cut the nerve in the bird's vocal cords to keep its beak shut and paralyzed the bird's muscular system. Now the swan could only turn its head. An ideal testee. Of course, he was going to get the bird back to the pond safe and sound. He was no slaughterer, and the swan wasn't Juno.

The white-winged bird awoke, its eyes opened in dismay: the body didn't move, the throat didn't quack! The poor fellow desperately twirled its head trying to escape, all to no avail.

Kyon focused. He put his finger on the bird's forehead and tried to create a slot using pure energy. It was not as easy as he had hoped...

Kyon needed a special tool to create it faster and easier. He was going to fail if he did it manually, on the spot. He had to study and master the necessary skill. Ideally, it would take him at least three months of tireless training to develop it.

Kyon tried once, twice, the third time... At his hundredth attempt, he lost it and cursed his clumsiness. At his five hundredth attenpt, he was so nervous he wanted to beat his head against the wall or a tree to stimulate mental activity. Kyon had failed two thousand times to create a slot. He had no instructions on how to do it. All he had was an idea that the slot was created with energy and it should keep a formation consistently and for a long time.

It was his 3000-th attempt when he succeeded at last! The empty sphere inside the bird's head seemed to hold together and didn't collapse. Kyon tried to apply a primitive formation, but it successfully dispelled. The swan, tired of resisting, opened its beak in a silent "quack." Kyon could swear the bird was mocking him.

It took him three days to fine-tune the slot where the energy would hold together permanently. Compared to other mortals, the result of his efforts exceeded all the expectations in terms of time and quality. He wished he could show off his talents, but there was no one interested.

The first step was completed. It was time to start long-term experiments with formations to refine the one that would meet his requirements.

Kyon had enough of his life as a ghost of the mansion. That's how he called himself because none of the inhabitants could see or hear him and yet, he existed. Marina once called him a scarecrow behind the bushes, which didn't correspond to his gloomy and mysterious image of a ghost and was rather offensive.

It took him another three days to design and work out the plan of action and, most importantly, practice on the swan. Kyon had reached the 4th stage of the base phase. It was perfect timing. The chances of success increased, starting with this level. Ideally, he shouldn't rush and keep improving himself for six months or so. However, he was under suspicion that he did not have so much time to start with. The bushes would eventually grow back, and someone would come to trim them.

Besides, Kyon knew that the cultivation rate slowed down closer to the peaking stages. He did no exercises, which meant that his cultivation would be as slow as a snail by the end of the stage.

The next evening, Kyon finally understood how to put the formation into the slot. He had to apply the code that he had written and optimized, pondering over each line a hundred times. He could not even imagine the rank of his formation. It must be an "S" or maybe an "SS" if such rank existed at all. His formation was no doubt legendary because it contained all his skills from a high-tech world.

Kyon finally did it the next day. His formation worked smoothly, flawlessly! Probably. He hadn't tested it yet. Anyway, it was applied without errors.

His formation should work properly according to the laws of formacy if not, there was not a bit of logic in this world, and his Synergy was a stupid chicken unable to put two and two together. He had checked the code with Synergy a thousand times, optimizing it to one hundred percent. It was time to move on to the execution of the plan.

In the evening, Marina sat on the bench with a book in her hands. It was a standard conspiracy to communicate with her "invisible" friend in the bushes.

«Do you want to kill lady Juno for what she did to you? I... I won't let you! She's my friend!» - Marina exclaimed in a low voice at Kyon's statement that he was intending to enter Juno's room.

«I am not going to kill her. I swear. I'll just fix her a bit to stop being the scarecrow behind the bushes. I won't hurt her. She will stay your friend. Do you believe me?» - Kyon looked deep into her eyes.

Marina hesitated, frowned, sighed. Finally, she replied:

«I... I do not know... She did such unspeakable things to you. I would have been terrified in your place. You are not going to do anything to her, are you?»

«Marina, I swear I am not going to cripple her, let alone kill her. I can no longer live in the bushes. I was not born for this.»

«I see... Kyon, I believe you... Alright, I will help you. But promise you won't fool me.»

Kyon willingly gave her his "honest" and "sincere" word. She agreed amazingly quickly. He could keep persuading her for days to get what he wanted.

Marina calmed down and won round her conscience. She had become attached to the boy so much that she could not sleep at night, thinking and worrying about his wretched fate of the ghost of the mansion. Of course, she would help him, or she risked disappointing herself for not understanding and helping out a good person.

When Marina agreed to participate in sabotage, Kyon explained to her what he needed in detail. He knew that he was taking advantage of being her friend. It's fair to say that he used her just as he did with Martha. But it was the only way out. Anyway, he would make it up to her, he had already started thinking about how to do it. As for Juno, it was a matter of life and death. It was high time to deal with her, or they might accidentally find him anytime soon.

The night X had come.

Kyon got into the mansion, silently climbed upstairs and hid behind the corner.

After a while, the door in Juno's bedroom opened. The cute angel in a gray nightie headed for the bathroom, still fast asleep. In the evening, Marina had an idea to play cards with her. After each game, the loser had to drink a glass of juice.

Kyon saw the graceful figure disappear and pleaded: {Hurry up!} As soon as he was out of Juno's sight, he darted to her room, putting his fingers through the split in the door at the very last moment. Another second of delay and the door would be closed. Only a special formation could open it again. Kyon heaved a sigh of relief. Behold, he entered the sanctum sanctorum of the local demoness.

The room was spacious, taking into account the accumulation of the entire army of soft pillows and pads. Apparently, they served as a substitute for fluffy toy animals that Juno was so afraid of. Every detail of the interior showed an excellent taste, softness, and tenderness. A pleasant aroma was in the air: a mix of shampoo, perfume, and some sweets. Jean might have given his life to spend a night here, even on his own.

All in all, there was little furniture inside apart from the piles of pillows. There was a large soft bed in the corner, a wardrobe, a cupboard, several chairs, and a table. There was nowhere to hide except, perhaps, the standard option. Kyon heaved a deep sigh and crawled under the bed in the hope there was no dust or spiders. One monster in the room was quite enough for him. He wished he could twist this "monster" into a corkscrew. The little scum made his life impossible. She tried to kill him. In fact, she did. His persistence had overpowered all her diligent attempts.

Soon the door opened. A pair of slender bare legs in soft slippers with ears caught Kyon's eye. The bed creaked. The slippers reluctantly fell off the skinny feet. Juno crawled under the covers and snuffled.

Kyon waited for another half an hour, just to be on the safe side. Then he rolled out of his refuge, removed a cobweb from his hair in disgust, and hovered over the young lady like a god of death, except that his eyes were not glowing red and there were no horns under his hair. His mind was absorbed with bloodlust for this particular girl. Unfortunately, he had to suppress his ruthless impulses. He could not physically harm Juno because his life would be interrupted right after that. Kyon had to apply the formation and follow the plan.

He slowly held out a finger when, all of a sudden, Juno frowned and turned over.

Kyon went splat on the floor, thunderstruck. Fortunately, the whole room was covered with soft carpets, so his sudden landing was noiseless. Juno's sensitivity and intuitive vigilance were really impressive.

Another ten minutes, and he hovered over her again, trying to touch the back of her head and pour in some Synergy to contribute to a more sound sleep. But Juno frowned again, turned over and opened her hazy eyes.

Kyon took a plank position at once and rolled under the bed like an egg roll, nearly having a heart attack on the way. What a lucky devil she was!

The unsuspecting girl let down her legs from the bed and fumbled them in search of the slippers. She couldn't find them as Kyon had scattered them around the room while doing his equilibristic tricks. Juno had to drag her bare feet to the bathroom.

{Marina... It was too much! Now she takes trips to the toilet every five minutes!}