The purple-haired assassin was done cleaning up the Martello mess and was about to head back to base. Just when she was on her way to check out of the hotel she was staying at, she heard the familiar screech of her Master’s hawk. She stepped out of the hotel and looked up to find the large dark-brown hawk circling above her. With a single whistle, the bird dived down and landed on Michelle’s shoulder. New orders? Michelle held the bird and plucked the roll of paper tied to it’s legs. The trained bird flew away immediately, realizing his job there was done.

Michelle unrolled the small piece of parchment to read what was inside. The text inside was ciphered with the unique key Benjamin and Michelle shared. She had become fluent in decoding it over the years and therefore, could read it immediately:

Stay. Help Martello overthrow Tessio.

Crumpling the parchment in her fist, she sent a small burst of magic through her hand and the wind shred it into several tiny pieces instantly. Michelle couldn’t understand her master’s plans anymore. This will stir up Oak town’s crime base, big time. They will be attracting the attention of not only the Tessios, but also the members of the Phantom Lord guild. The assassin had no clue why her master would want that; but she was not going to bother wondering anymore. She will be informed when she needs to be. Until then, it was time to simply follow orders.

The Martello mansion was not far from where she stayed. So, she was there in less than fifteen minutes from when she received the message. It would seem the Martellos have received information of her arrival, because the gates opened right after she arrived and one of the goons welcomed her in. “We were expecting you Miss Hunter,” he said before leading her in. In just ten minutes, she was back outside the mansion, with a map and a job to do. Steal the jewels and then burn it down. Goon work again. Michelle was getting annoyed at the kind of work she had to do; she did not train for such petty crimes. She felt one of her twelve-year-old students could pull these off without raising an alarm. The young woman took a deep breath. Maybe this is a test for my patience she told herself, before heading towards Tessio’s cash house.

The walk to the cash house was longer than she expected. Besides, the place was far from the urban region and the traffic on the streets declined proportionally; so, Michelle did not want to announce her arrival in case the guards of the target building were too vigilant. Surprisingly, however, the house gates had only two guards. For a place with so much wealth, it sure has some lousy security. Michelle had done this several times before for her to be nervous. She hid behind a tree that was about three meters away from the gates, held her left hand in front and made the required hand sign for Trick. And then, she stomped her right foot hard from where she stood.

525/1000

Thanks to her Trick spell, the guards heard the foot stomp from the direction opposite to where she was, and both would open the gates, leave it open, and run the wrong way trying to find out what caused the noise. Michelle was more than happy to take this opportunity to slide herself through the open gates and into the building without giving the guards the slightest clue.

Once inside, the next task was to go through the main door; obviously; it was locked. She knew she could simply kick the door down, but that would definitely mean she will gain the attention of the guards who were on their way back now, having given up on trying to find the source of the stomping. So, instead, Michelle decided to go around the house and try to get in from the back door. And just as she suspected, the back door was unguarded. She tip-toed towards the door, and looked around to see if there was any way to enter without making much noise. There was a window right next to the door that was slightly ajar; however, this window had a grill and did not have enough space for Michelle to enter. Nevertheless, that slight opportunity was enough for her to take advantage of. Michelle pushed the window open, put her hand through the grill and aimed her fist towards the back door’s lever inside. With a gentle punch to the air, she used Pound, and a wind bullet travelled from her fist, straight towards the lever. The bullet hit the lever and the door opened, and she was in. This was surely less noisy than if I had to kick the damn thing down.

Now that the most difficult part was done, the next objective was to figure out where the jewels were hidden. The entire house was a riddled with goods of all kinds; Michelle was sure none of it was earned from honest work. She walked to the front door and looked through the keyhole to ensure if the guards were still at the gates. The two dummies had no clue what had transpired and were sitting near the gate, guffawing over stupid jokes. Michelle began searching fast, yet quiet. From the cupboards to hollow kitchen counters, she found many valuables, but not the one that she was looking for. Finally, after almost twenty minutes, she stumbled upon the fake tile in the corner of one of the bedrooms. Aha! Someone had done a shoddy job of placing the tiles back and that gave the secret location away.

Michelle carefully pulled the tile from its position and grabbed the bag underneath. Just as she expected, the bag contained the jewels she was here for. She pocketed the bag and headed towards the kitchen; it was time to burn the place down. She picked up the huge can of kerosene in the kitchen, and doused the entire place with it. Then, she grabbed the matchbox and left the building through the back door. Once outside and a fair distance away, she lit the match stick and threw it in through the open window. In less than a minute, the entire building was on fire. The two clueless guards finally caught on, but it was already too late. Michelle was sure by the time they bring the fire brigade in, most valuable stuff will be burned down. She jumped over the wall on the back and went around the compound to reach the main road; and that’s where she saw one of Martello’s men walk towards her. She pulled the jewel bag out of her pocket and sneakily handed it to the man as he walked past her.

1214/1000
-Exit-