Chapter 185 Chapter 186 Murder (Part 1)
“Has she escaped?”
The tanned ship mage’s voice thundered; it was he who had blown the door apart with a storm spell.
“No.” Young Master Is pondered, “When I just burst into the mansion, I could still hear her voice and footsteps, disappearing into the garden. She didn’t have time to escape.”
“Let’s go, we’ll search the garden.” As soon as the ship mage spoke, he suddenly remembered something, “You’re familiar with this place?”
“Yes, I often come here as a guest.” Young Master Is picked up cat fur and turned to leave with the ship mage.
“Meow~~.”
A scrawny orange cat quietly peeked out from behind a toppled cabinet and stealthily jumped off the windowsill.
At the same time.
On the wall, the invisible Jima had just climbed up. Out of caution, she had used a hidden illusion spell when preparing to climb the wall, so no one noticed her.
“My gosh, this wall is so high.” As Jima took a breath, she saw Young Master Is and the ship mage rushing toward the back garden.
Young Master Is opened his mouth and unleashed a powerful voice: “Succubus! Do you think you can run away? I know you’re here. If you come out voluntarily, it will be easier on you; otherwise, just wait to be tied to a pillar and burned by Van Helsing.”
The sound was so loud it felt as if someone were shouting at you through a loudspeaker. There was a kind of magic in the voice that made anyone who felt anxious want to confess to escape the torment of fear.
Jima remained unfazed, staring at Is. Her mental fortitude was strong; she felt no anxiety at all, her mind racing quickly.
That loud shout clearly used extraordinary abilities. Is’s extraordinary power must be related to sound…….
Jima then recalled a legend, information related to Is. It was said that a reserved young lady detested Is and feared falling under the spell of his charming voice. However, at a banquet she could not refuse Is’s presence.
So she had her equally displeased parents lock her in the deepest room of a tall building, covering her head with winter blankets and pillows.
But even then, when Is recited love poems from below the building, she heard it clearly from under the covers and eventually pushed her parents aside to run to Is. The next day, a dress was found in Is’s room.
That dog’s ability was apparently related to sound; it must be the “Bard” that the king was familiar with… wait, what was the bard’s extraordinary ability?
The personal information system interface popped up again, and Jima navigated the text area skillfully, using the search function to find the relevant text. She looked at the last edited time—fifty-six years ago.
She opened the text content:
“Damn! This poet dares to steal my woman. He’s a poet, but why is he so shameless? I’m a rank higher than him; why did it take me twenty minutes to defeat him? Next time I should ambush him, poets seem to have weak defenses against ambushes. Annoying, castrated!”
“I interrogated and summarized some of his extraordinary abilities as follows:”
“Manipulating sound, and able to influence people’s emotions through song—he kept singing courage songs, making my fear never stack up….”
“Naturally, as long as he wants, he can hear sounds from far away and manipulate sound waves to attack…..”
“Next time I should still ambush; if I fight him head on, remember to guard my ears. My ears hurt like hell, but thankfully his woman’s figure is quite nice.”
So it turned out that my escape route was exposed by sound. This means he only roughly knows my location; if I jump over the wall to escape, it would instead reveal my whereabouts.
Jima shifted her position comfortably, sitting on the wall with her legs dangling, staring at Young Master Is not too far away.
At that moment, a series of disordered footsteps came from afar.
Jima turned her head and saw a group of soldiers rushing over, looking hurried.
Someone shouted, “Hurry! Surround this area!”
“We’re going for a direct confrontation.” Jima’s golden eyes looked emotionlessly at Young Master Is, who was whispering to the ship mage about how to start the search.
It was clear that when the soldiers charged into the mansion to search, Jima would be close to being exposed.
Jima’s hand moved to her waist where a reddish-brown potion was tucked, a “sleep potion” distilled from a lamprey, which could induce sleep for a short period when consumed.
As long as she drank it, she could enter the dream realm, find anyone’s dream, and achieve her purpose of teleportation. However, the side effect was that after teleporting, the potion’s effect on her body would take hold, and she would likely fall into a deep sleep, unconscious.
After weighing the pros and cons, Jima relaxed her grip. Suddenly, she smacked her thigh and said, “Why do I need to drink the potion? I can just open the dream palace directly, jump into the dream, and find a dream for dream jumping!”
She raised her hand and began to tear open the barrier to the dream realm.
The ship mage and Young Master Is had already started searching the back garden. The ship mage happened to walk toward the hidden illusion barrier and shouted, “You must be hiding in the bushes at the base of the wall; where else can you hide?”
Jima quickly tightened the edges of the hidden illusion barrier, barely brushing against her legs.
“Wind!”
The ship mage suddenly stopped, raising a hand toward the bushes.
A gust of wind blew toward the bushes, bending the branches and leaves, while the greenery swayed in the wind. The updraft also lifted Jima’s skirt, causing it to slap her face. Fortunately, she was sitting on the wall and didn’t expose herself, but she instinctively clamped her legs together, one hand pressing down on her skirt.
After a short while, the wind died down.
Jima adjusted her hair that had blown to her face and looked down to see a ship mage’s shiny bald head right beneath her.
“Not in the bushes?”
Jima resisted the temptation to jump down and stomp on that shiny head like a black egg. Silently, she opened her blacklist and created a new text titled “Ship Mage Blowing My Skirt, Find a Way to Deal with Him.”
Against all odds, although the ship mage’s bald part entered the hidden serene barrier, he still didn’t notice the slender legs just a meter away from him. He stood up and moved to another area to search.
A gray-black swirling entrance opened, leading directly to the dream palace.
Just as Jima stood up to leap into the dream palace,
“Meow! Meow! Meow!”
A few piercing meows rang out, and Jima, inexplicably curious, turned her head. Just in time, she saw Young Master Is holding the hind legs of a thin orange cat, pulling it into his arms. The orange cat, like a rabid dog, was clawing and biting at Is with its front paws.
Young Master Is clutched the scruff of its neck, lifting the cat while saying, “It’s the first time I’ve seen such a skinny orange cat. You must be something special, always watching me, thinking I wouldn’t know? Are you looking for your owner?”
“Meow! Meow!”
Is that Lily? The potion worked; she became a cat?
Jima turned away, glancing at the entrance to the dream palace.
This has nothing to do with me; it’s her fault for being caught, and besides, it might not even be her. Moreover, I can’t risk being captured over such a trivial matter. After all, she is just a miscellaneous maid, and there are many such maids in the world.
As Jima pondered, she leaped into the dream palace.
The entrance was somewhat high, and Jima landed on the backpack that Liansie had packed. She stood up and checked the backpack; the straps were tied tightly, and no clothes were sticking out.
The area around the entrance was piled with various items.
Jima had no interest in checking how damaged they were. She walked to the shade of a tree, raised her hand to conjure a reclining chair beneath her, and lay down to contemplate the current situation.
Jenna was already in a rampaging state, but she would eventually recover, or be captured and recover. At that time, that stubborn, big-chested woman would definitely team up with Is to recreate the truth from back then.
Damn, another poet stealing my woman.
The situation was dire.
If I want to fight back, I can gradually dismantle the social order of Marlin City as leverage to coerce Is into abandoning and destroying “the recreation of the truth from back then”—I have no idea what that even is. This way, even if Jenna feels guilty, she won’t be able to be coerced by Is.
The events of the past would become a case of “Rashomon,” where everyone has their own reasons.
That’s the safest way.
Jima stood up, preparing to enter the dream and escape. She kicked Liansie’s packed backpack under her foot.
Without a second glance, Jima kicked it away.
She took a step, then another, yet she did not arrive at the dream realm but clapped her hands, saying, “I got it! There’s an even better way.”
It was simple—kill Is.
Although it risked backfiring and truly did not align with her life creed—“Gold is valuable, beauty is more precious, but for the sake of my life, both can be thrown away.”
But still, she was a former Demon Lord. If I can’t handle a hero, can I not deal with a poet?
Besides, killing is precisely what I used to excel at, right?
Jima bent down, rummaging through her potion box for some usable magical potions to strap to her waist.
Half a minute later, fully armed, Jima arrived at the entrance, looked at the scene behind it, hesitated momentarily, and reflected on whether she was being too impulsive.
With a curse, she said, “Dare to steal my cat, your ashes will be scattered!”
Having cursed, she gained confidence. She slapped the silver ring on her arm, recited the incantation to dispel her disguise, revealing pitch-black horns, her small wings emerging from cuts in her clothing, and a flesh-colored tail slipping out from a special opening in her skirt.
The succubus girl brandished a steel crossbow, leaped into the gray-black swirling entrance, returned to reality, and landed steadily on the wall.
Just in time, she saw Young Master Is tossing the scrawny orange cat into a cloth bag and handing it to a soldier.
Jima quickly organized an ambush plan in her mind and looked down.
The soldiers in the garden were slowly stabbing the grass with their knives, seemingly convinced that Jima would dig a hole in the ground and disguise herself with turf. Jima stowed her steel crossbow, took out a flask of oil, spread her wings, and jumped off the wall, carefully placing the oil in the bushes.
The soldiers didn’t notice her at all.
Jima glanced back at the hidden illusion barrier; if she stepped out, it would surely let Is hear her voice, and flying would do the same.
Is isn’t a computer; he wouldn’t come running into a trap just because he revealed himself.
It would definitely be the small soldiers who stepped on the landmine.
Jima looked at a small soldier carrying a bag that was continuously stirring; the bag contained her cat.
There’s a way.
Jima spread her wings, flapped them once, jumped, and lightly landed on the wall, her golden eyes fixated on the small soldier, who was moving away from Is.
Pulling someone into a dream and forcing them to dream also allows for dream jumping.
Jima’s eyes deepened as she forcibly pulled the small soldier into the dream realm…..
