Spy

Shuffle-!

Sneak-!

Glance-!

Repeating this set of movements constantly, Lucia spied on the infiltrator from a distance.

Recently she had discovered who the vampire she had been assigned to expel was, however, she became vexed when she came to know that this vampire was seemingly intimately associated with another person she had her eye on, Isaac Moreau.

Sighing lightly in frustration, she continued to tail them from a distance as they made their way out of the elevators.

She had so far seen no evidence to prove that Isaac was colluding with the vampires, however, she couldn't rule out the possibility that the son of the Duke of Aspon was collaborating with those evil creatures.

Although his parents were dead, his family name and connections as well as their accumulated wealth would provide Isaac with tremendous influence once he grew up and was able to utilize it, that was of course assuming he became strong enough to protect it from those who sought to finish off the great family name for good.

Therefore she had to keep a close eye on both of them in order to fulfill her mission, due to Isaac being in her class whereas Vera was a year above her, it was far easier to keep an eye on Isaac and from there keep a closer eye on Vera.

So, for the sake of her mission, she would endeavor to get as close as possible to Isaac in order to fully assess the situation, even if it meant entering a relationship with him or in the worst case, eliminating him.

Such was the life of a spy, even a princess such as her had to follow through with whatever was necessary to achieve her goal as she had volunteered for it.

Out of all her siblings, she had volunteered to become a spy like her mother was in her youth.

The reason she had done so was to gain an advantage over her siblings in the competition for the throne.

If her mother saw that she was following in her footsteps and was willing to go to any lengths necessary to accomplish the mission, surely she would favor her for the rights to succession over her incompetent siblings.

That was not to say there weren't any other siblings of hers who weren't worthy, however, she had to go to any measures no matter how drastic in order to secure her position or face the threat of being eliminated by one of her siblings for the sake of the throne.

When it came to this, even the righteous elves were seemingly not so different from humans and would commit despicable acts for the sake of power.

It seems the sin of greed was not only an attribute of the human race, it was something Lucia found distasteful.

Since she was young she had grown up being indoctrinated with the belief that Elves were above the other races, most especially humans.

Humans were filthy and despicable creatures that would commit heinous acts such as genocide simply to preserve their power.

However, with time Lucia realized this was not just the case for humans.

All of the races were plagued with these sins, they were simply erased from history in order to give themselves a feeling of superiority.

And it was because of this air of superiority that humans detested the other races, because in their weakest and most critical moments the other races would not come to their aid.

That was why Lucia had been sent to Rosaria Academy, as a way to begin opening up relations between Elfheim and the Alliance.

Due to the recent escalating tensions in the Land Between, which separated the Kingdom of Elfheim from the Thenition Theocracy and acted as a stop-gap and a no go zone for their militaries, the Queen of Elfheim had been forced to begin attempting to form a relationship with the Alliance in the event that a new holy war would break out between the two powerhouses.

The success of Lucia's mission would directly affect the situation of the Kingdom and therefore she had to go to any lengths necessary.

Noticing something out of the corner of her eye, she stepped away from the crowd while keeping her eyes on the two.

Heading over to a slightly secluded spot, she stopped next to a hooded figure.

Her face quickly became a cold mask of indifference as she gazed at the figure next to her.

"Your highness." the figure bowed their head a fraction, causing Lucia's brow to twitch.

"What is it?" she asked impatiently, afraid of losing her targets.

The figure wordlessly handed her a letter branded with the seal of the Dokkalfar, the Elven Intelligence Unit.

Glancing once more at the figure as they slinked away into the shadows, she quickly thumbed open the sealed letter with her slender fingers.

As her eyes roamed the ancient-looking page, her expression turned grim and her nostrils flared.

After finishing reading, she pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed in frustration.

The situation had just gotten a lot more complicated.

Folding the paper in her hands in half, she watched as it burnt away into ashes before disappearing completely not leaving any traces behind.

Gathering her energy she began following after the two who had wandered off into the distance.

***

"Ooh!"

"Ah!!"

I grumbled silently as Vera approached the window of another shop.

This must have been the 20th shop today and she still had so much enthusiasm.

It was like the girl was high on sugar from the coffee she bought this morning.

Now one would think that there wouldn't be much sugar in coffee, but no they would be wrong.

I had personally witnessed the humanitarian crime that she had committed by pouring an absurd amount of sugar in her coffee, I didn't even drink coffee and I knew it was messed up.

I gazed at the shop window that had caught her attention as we walked down the street, the glass was covered in thick frosting that seemed to be melting under the heat of the sun.

On top of that, there were several cupcakes lined up along the counter, each decorated differently with intricate decorations that looked almost too pretty to eat.

Looking back at me with a smile, she pointed toward the sign outside of the shop.

'Sweet Tooth.'

How could anyone resist something named 'sweet tooth?' I thought to myself sarcastically.

With a sigh, I followed Vera inside where she immediately headed straight to the counter.

"One of everything please!" she practically squealed.

Although her excitement seemed to ooze out of her, I was quite suspicious of this behavior as I wasn't aware any creature could possibly be able to feel joy in their miserable lives.

Even though I had my doubts about this whole thing, I decided to play along with it anyway so as to figure out her true objective.

After she paid for everything, she handed me the bag filled with cupcakes as she grabbed my hand and dragged me forward.

We then proceeded to walk down the road, passing by several other shops.

Each of them had something unique about them that made it stand out from the rest.

There was a shop that sold talismans, a shop selling weapons, a shop that specialized in clothing, a shop that sold books, and a shop that sold potions.

They were all filled with people shopping for various things.

As she detached from my arm and began looking at another shop window, I felt a jolt as someone bumped into me.

Turning my head to apologize, I noticed that I couldn't see the figure's face as they had a hoodie that covered it completely.

The figure quickly bowed before deftly weaving through the crowds and disappearing.

As the person disappeared, I let out a long sigh.

However, I quickly noticed something was wrong as I began to feel a pulsing feeling from my left pocket.

Sticking my hand in my pocket, I felt what appeared to be a slip of parchment and pulled it out.

It was a piece of yellowed paper that appeared to be falling apart.

Scrawled on it were a few words written in what appeared to be Moonshine.

Moonshine was a type of ink that would disappear after a certain amount of time from when the parchment was exposed to the air.

Reading the contents written on the parchment, I blinked in surprise before quickly folding it and shoving it into my pocket.

'How interesting...'

A foreign thought seemed to emerge from my subconscious as I contemplated over this letter.

This could be either an opportunity or a red flag.

I was unsure which, because of the precariousness of the words I could not take it lightly.

On the yellowed parchment were written the words,

'To Thou whom seeks the darkness, the darkness will find thee'

This was a letter that could seal my fate.

If I did not answer properly it could mean the end of my life.

This letter was an invitation.

An invitation from one of the most dangerous organizations in the world.

'Nightfall', the Alliance's Spy Order.