[Big Thanks to RolaySaltT20]
“I… didn’t expect you to be able to tell…” Flora said softly.
Theron frowned. He could tell that the little girl in front of him was a bit shaken as well, but when he thought about it, maybe she was right to be.
Very few people saw the world like he did, and the odds of her being exposed were low. Maybe when she used Flora’s voice, even that was still her trying to set him up.
He thought that in her panic, she had accidentally used her real voice. But maybe she had purposely chosen it.
Theron wasn’t someone who was fooled easily, but this little girl… at this point, she had practically had him wrapped around her finger. He had exposed everything about himself without even knowing.
“Who are you?” Theron asked for the second time.
Flora took a breath and exhaled. “I’m Sadie… and I’m Flora.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
Honestly speaking, Theron didn’t know much about Flora. He hardly interacted with her. Though she was likely missing that day in class as well, he hadn’t even bothered to note it.
But that also went to show just how perfect Sadie’s disguise was, and it was also the reason why right now, as she admitted his deductions were correct, he could only really see her as Little Sadie.
As much as Sadie was fidgeting, Theron was trying to adjust his state of mind.
Ultimately, this was happening because he had made a mistake. At the end of the day, as intelligent as he was, his worldly experience was lacking. He had made such a big mistake without realizing it. If Sadie was a threat to him, and wanted to deal with him, he was all but finished.
Realizing that he was likely even closer to death now than Sadie had been moments ago, he was having a hard time calming down.
This wasn’t the usual for him. He might be just 14 years old, but he had always been calm beyond his years. This was entirely uncommon for him.
But then Sadie began to speak.
Something in her voice changed again, and this time, Theron was certain that it was her real voice. It sounded so… sweet.
He shook his head, snapping out of it as he forced himself to focus and look at her.
“I am a Nightingale. My affinity is Dark Mana, and my unique bloodline ability allows me to split my shadows into different people.”
Theron’s pupils trembled.
Nightingale.
The most powerful family of the Province.
The ruling Clan and the Imperial Family.
The helm of everything that was Thistle Brook City. No describing them like that was a disservice.
Thistle Brook City was just one of the mere ten largest cities in the Province, still far inferior to the Imperial Capital.
Theron took a breath. Indeed, this time… he had really stepped in it.
He had thought long and hard about who might have been the one to destroy his small little town and kill his family, and he had no leads at all. His main goal in joining the assassin’s guild was to gather information, but there was a reason he became an Imperial Scholar too.
Part of that reason was in order to have an extra identity that could hide his actions in the dark. But there was another…
To eventually get close to the Nightingale Clan.
He had thought about what it might mean for a person to get away with such a thing. As small as their town was, it was still in the territory of the Nightingale Clan. They couldn’t possibly get away with such a thing if it wasn’t for the implicit acceptance or the willful ignorance of the Imperial Clan.
One way or another, the odds that the Nightingale Clan knew who erased his family from the world were high, so high that Theron was willing to do anything to worm his way to the Imperial Capital.
However, he also knew that if there was willful ignorance or implicit acceptance, then there were good odds that someone in the Nightingale Clan was keeping an eye on him. It was why he wanted to perform well in the Imperial Academy, but not well enough that he would truly raise alarm bells.
At his current pace, he was well on his way to accomplishing this.
Until now.
A single mistake, one careless misstep, and plans he had set out for decades ahead had all gone up in smoke.
Theron’s hands trembled, and the side of his blade cut into the fabric on Sadie’s cloak.
He didn’t seem to notice.
Did they know already? Had she told them everything about him? Would it even make a difference for him to kill her right now, or would that just ensure that the Nightingale Clan would send out some Gold Mancer to wipe him out like his family had been?
Did they even care about him so much, or was he just an ant in their eyes?
A suffocating, choking feeling was rushing up Theron’s throat.
And then it was gone.
His eyes became so steely cold that the temperature in the air seemed to drop. He didn’t notice, but a frosty breath came from his lips, only to be sucked right into the necklace now hovering around his neck.
He attacked without hesitation.
His blades crossed, slashing across Sadie’s neck.
They passed right through, the strength of Theron’s attack coming so forcefully and powerfully that even the tree she leaned against was half severed.
But Theron felt it immediately.
It was too light.
Sadie dispersed into a fluttering fog of darkness, vanishing and appearing again in two forms that slammed into one a distance away. She seemed a bit disoriented.
Theron, if he was surprised, didn’t show it in the slightest. The water sphere to his back had already split into three, one remaining behind him and the others having long gone to the left and right.
Sadie had only just appeared and reformed into a single little girl when a rain of [Water Bullets] pierced through her from all sides.