Kitsune in the Shadows

Chapter 93 – The Vampire and The Cloak

[Cattleya POV]

“I knew I could do it,” I just could not stop myself from talking under my breath, even as the rain started to come down on top of me.

Mother thought that I could not manage, but she could not have been more wrong.

…

Even if I failed the first time… This time, I have a secret weapon.

A new set of eyes.

It did not take long for me to arrive at the wall surrounding the town… well, calling it a wall was certainly generous; in reality, it was much closer to a humble fence. More just to give the idea of safety without providing any tangible defence, if anything.

In no more than a single leap, I jumped up onto the wall before hopping off on the other side and immediately making my way into the forest. In the back of my mind, I was hoping to take the chance to grab a quick drink, but as I made my way through, there simply were not any animals around.

It was a shame, to be sure, but thankfully, I had a stockpile that would last me more than a few days after those wolves provided me with a generous donation, even if it was not of the highest quality. I do not have the chance to be picky; as for human territory, what they provided me with may as well have been a gourmet meal with just how little mana everything has. That being said… I would have preferred an animal with some more… palatable meat, even if not as dense in mana. No matter how desperate I was, I couldn’t bring myself to eat that; a lady has to have standards.

In my disappointment, I decided that it would be better to hurry towards my hideout in order to get out of the rain. There was not any issue with being out in the rain per se, but it certainly was not the most pleasant way to spend the day if I had any choice in the matter. So, if I did not have to, then I would not subject myself to it.

My hideout quickly came into view, hidden in amongst the trees; on the outside, it looked to be nothing more than an old, dilapidated shack that had long been left to the land, but little would people know that on the inside, it was…

…

…

I just picked up the pace and got inside without wasting any more time. Thankfully, the roof was more than capable of keeping the inside dry.

As soon as I was comfortably inside, I reached to remove my coat; however, my hand ended up gasping onto something I was not expecting.

“What?”

As I looked down, I saw an unfamiliar cloak that was draped over my shoulders.

…

…

“Of course!” I shouted as I eventually recalled where the cloak had come from, “It is only proper manners for me to wash this before I return it. It must have just slipped my mind.”

I do not know why I spoke out loud at that moment, but it seemed to quell whatever I was feeling inside my chest, so the was no need for me to concern myself with it any longer than that.

But still, before doing anything else, I made sure to hang the cloak up somewhere to give it a chance to dry.

I need to remember to get this cleaned before meeting the two of them.

The rain and wind were particularly relentless, beating hard on the roof or howling through the ‘windows’ as they pleased. It was far from an ideal environment, but it didn’t need to be; all it needed to be was safe. It had now been more than a month since that precious shipment was unfairly taken away from me, but this hideout had stood strong the whole time, and there was truly nothing more I could ask of it.

Just three more weeks…

And now I have exactly what I need to make sure it does not happen again.

This time, I will not fail.

I pulled out my many stacks of notes and laid them out carefully on the table. With the new information I gained from that kitsune, Kierra, I just know that I will be able to figure this out once and for all.

The first sheet was a large map of the dock covered in a litany of red crosses and arrows showing the routes and final resting points of all the ships that had crashed since that day I was humiliated. It was an undertaking that took much effort yet produced little to no results. There was simply no pattern to where the ships crashed or even where they came from; the only correlation was that they were all somewhat close to land, whether it was a pier or the shore.

The next few sheets detailed the expected contents of the ships, what cargo in specific was missing, as well as the manner in which each of them crashed. Almost all of them ran aground in some way, and all of those ships were carrying either food or artefacts. It made some sense at a surface level; someone was targeting ships carrying artefacts, and that was why they all crashed close to land, so it was possible to move the cargo easily. But that would not explain why food was also a common target, sometimes the only target involved. And all of that is not even considering the fact that I have not once seen the cargo leave the ships in any way, be that from someone removing it or it falling into the water.

I had once suspected the workers who would help unload the cargo from the crashed ships, at least from those that were easily recoverable. A group of people who may be in need of the money that would come from selling an artefact or a large amount of food to feed a family, but in my time watching them, I have seen no fowl play.

I pulled out a new sheet of paper and started recording the details of the day’s encounter. Unfortunately, I was not able to record the cargo on board yet, but I should be able to get that information in the coming days without any issue.

Once my notes were done, I left a new cross on the map and brought out yet another sheet of paper. However, this one was going to be a little different to those that came before.

‘An Illusion,’ I wrote at the top of the page. No matter how I thought about what I had been told, it was the only explanation that had some amount of sense behind it in my mind. If, from where I was watching, I was seeing something that was not really there, then it would only make sense for the sailors to also be subject to it.

At that moment, I remembered another set of notes I had compiled, and in a hurry, I pulled them out, laying them out on the table with the rest. They were a record of accounts from the sailors. I had initially decided that they were not worth much thought, as the testimonies made little to no sense when you put them together. Any two sailors on the same ship would say that they had seen something completely different, often resorting to blaming each other for what happened. It was impossible for me to know if they were telling the truth or trying to save their jobs.

“But if there is an illusion at play…”

I looked back at the blank page I had titled, ready to start putting the pieces together, yet I just could not. The basis of this idea relies on the sole testimony of Kierra, but I didn’t know if it was trustworthy.

Seeing a kitsune wandering around the world is incredibly rare; wherever one appears, rumours are bound to follow. Yet somehow, I have heard nothing about a kitsune with white hair, never mind her being in the human territory. Now, I was not able to see her tails, but if I had to guess, she must only have one. If she had any more, I would definitely have heard at least a whisper about her, even if not in these parts.

Elenia was very inviting towards her… So there must be something more to her; the very blood flowing through my body was telling me so. She must have been lying about something. Even Ava, who follows her around… She reminds me of Aspen, someone there with the explicit purpose of protecting her. Whenever I try to talk to Kierra, she steps in as if there is something she does not want me to find out. That is not even considering the absurd quantity of mana Kierra is using at all times; she might be able to hide it in a land with few mages, but not from me.

…

I should have gone in with them.

…

No, I couldn’t… That would be a step too far.

The home is special…

I know that.

…

“Stop worrying about all that. You already have a deal with them. All you need to do is be ready to give a lesson tomorrow morning.”

I stacked up all the notes I had previously laid out on the table and set them aside before pulling out a new blank sheet in order to try to put together a lesson plan.

“I need to make a good impression after all.”

However, writing a lesson plan turned out to be a little more difficult than I had expected. I had been taught before, yet I never had to teach anyone. All the information I needed was inside my head, but putting it to paper was an entirely different story.

After only a brief moment of hesitation, I decided that the best thing to do would be to just start writing whatever came to mind when it came to the basics of magic. The actual content of the lesson likely did not matter, as I suspected that Kierra already had a basis in magic and was just entertaining my offer of a lesson because…

…

“Why… did she accept?” My pencil fell to the table as the question came over me.

If she was lying about not knowing what magic she could use… why would she agree to a lesson where I could easily find out?

If she really did not want anyone to know, then this does not make any sense.

…

…

Maybe not everything is a lie… Or maybe she already knows exactly what I am looking for!

What if her magic has nothing to do with what she can see? She could be intentionally leading me towards a dead end… but why?

…

She even agreed to watch the ships with me in return…

…

Something here must be wrong.

…

I once again picked up the pencil but decided to pull out a new piece of paper and start the lesson plan from the beginning. This time, specifically trying to recall when I was first introduced to magic many years ago and put that experience into writing… with more than a few improvements included.

Maybe she is testing me.

That would make sense.

She wants to see what I know and will use that to decide how she should continue.

…

Well, little does she know, her adorable test is nothing compared to what I have been put through.