The wicked assassin materialized from a magic circle that opened in the backseat.
"Hi, summoner," Albedo said with a grin, and her tail wiggling behind her as she arrived.
[Bond Skill Active]
The windows of the car were rolled up to the max and tinted dark enough that no one outside could see Albedo materialize in the backseat.
Eduardo’s eyes widened as he caught sight of the summon in the rearview mirror. "You’re a summoner, Master Ethan?"
"I’ll tell you about it later," Ethan said quickly. "But right now, hand one of those notes. And I hope you have a pen, Eduardo."
Eduardo nodded and reached toward the glove compartnt below the dashboard. He opened it and pulled out a fountain pen, handing it back to Ethan.
Ethan wrote again on the promissory note, signing in all the right places. But this ti, he changed the figures to only two gold grits.
"Now that’s a fair price," he said with a grin.
Then he turned toward Albedo.
"You know what to do, demon," Ethan said, handing the note to her.
The Bond skill had already shared their thoughts, along with Ethan’s instructions.
Albedo licked her lips and grinned widely "Yeah."
She vanished into Stealth mode. A mont later, the car door on her side opened and closed by itself, as though moved by an invisible hand.
The vintage car started moving forward as Albedo made her way back toward the betting house on foot.
When she reached the entrance, her form beca visible again.
The two werewolf guards out front imdiately stirred up as their postures shifted into sothing aggressive.
But before they could say a word or act, Albedo activated her skill.
[Charm]
The sudden aggression on their faces lted away into pure sheepishness. Their eyes glazed over, and they stared at her with utterly infatuated expressions, following her inside without a single word of protest.
She walked into the main room where Dennis and Harold were seated. Both n stood abruptly at the sight of a demon appearing out of nowhere.
But just as quickly, the effect of her Charm skill took hold.
Albedo walked closer to Harold, whose cheeks had turned bright red. His expression was utterly sheepish, like a lovesick puppy.
She reached out, gently holding his jaw with one hand, and leaned in close as though she were about to kiss him.
The sound of voice went into a low, teasing purr. "Aww, my sweet, sweet boy. Why don’t you let pass through?"
Harold nodded so many tis in rapid succession he looked like a bobblehead.
Albedo smiled deviously and released his face, walking toward the doorway that led upstairs.
She paused at the threshold and turned back toward the werewolves, all of whom were following and staring at her with love-stricken eyes.
"Why don’t you fine n wait for mommy here, okay?" she said sweetly.
They all nodded enthusiastically, standing perfectly still like obedient statues as she ascended the stairs.
She reached the second floor and walked right into Jan’s office. The door was still open since Ethan and Eduardo had left.
Jan turned abruptly. "What the..."
But those were the last words he managed to utter before Albedo’s Charm took hold.
She walked over to him casually, reached into his pocket, pulled out the bill note, and replaced it with the new one Ethan had given her in the car.
Werewolves were generally weak to spells or effects that warped their minds. And Albedo, now an Elite-class summon, had a Charm skill potent enough to work effortlessly on the simple-natured brutes of the Le Gris family.
She tapped Jan on the nose playfully, grinned, then vanished in a burst of smoke.
She reappeared in the backseat of Ethan’s car, which was parked in a blind spot near the building but still within her teleportation range.
Eduardo imdiately shifted the car into gear and drove off.
Back inside the betting house, the Le Gris n slowly regained their senses, shaking their heads as though waking from a strange dream.
Dennis blinked and looked around. "Did... did we just..."
Harold rubbed his face, looking utterly confused. "I think I just... waited for soone?"
One of the guards outside scratched his head. "Was there a lady here?"
The other guard stared blankly ahead. "I don’t know, but I think I’m in love."
They all looked at each other with matching expressions of bewildernt, as though wondering if they’d collectively hallucinated the entire thing.
Jan, anwhile, was entirely unsure of what had just happened. His mory of the last few monts was foggy, like trying to recall a dream. There was sothing about a demon... reaching into his pocket?
His eyes widened in sudden panic. He shoved his hand into his coat pocket and pulled out the check.
He unfolded it, his eyes scanning the numbers.
Two gold grits.
His face went pale. "No... no... nooooo!"
Back in the car, Ethan had a grin on his face as he tore up the note with two hundred thousand gold grits written on it and casually tossed the pieces out the window, watching them scatter into the street.
"You’ve done well, Albedo," Ethan said.
"I had fun doing that," she replied in an amused tone. It reminded her of her old life as a thief and assassin. This had been her favorite tactic in situations exactly like this.
Ethan turned toward Eduardo. "If we’d gone with killing that fool, we truly would’ve had all of Le Gris on us. And there’s only , you, and Francesca making up the Stark family. But with this? I’m very much certain all of Le Gris won’t co after us for playing a simple con. Which only leaves us with one runt Le Gris enemy. Jan."
Eduardo smiled. "That was smart. You impress , Master Ethan."
Ethan smiled back, then opened up the grimoire and flipped through the pages.
"Hm..." he muttered.
Thanks to his recent lessons with Bettie, he imdiately recognized that most of the spells he was looking at were high-tiered ones.
And as a caster with S-tier talent level, he realized their difficulty. But he also knew he could learn and master them with enough ti.
After a drive of almost an hour, they returned to the manor with the book. By this ti, Albedo was no longer active.
"I didn’t think you guys would so easily get this book from Jan," Valerie said, turning it over in her hands as though inspecting it for authenticity.
"Confirm that the spell you need for the unsealing is in there," Ethan said, "and let know when you’ll be ready to cast it."
Valerie turned and nodded at him before taking a seat and flipping through the pages of the grimoire.
Ethan remained standing with his arms crossed while watching her carefully.
She stopped at a certain page and traced her fingers over the arcane symbols inscribed there. "Yes. This is the spell. It’s in here."
Ethan nodded. "So?"
Valerie looked at the pages thoughtfully. "Hm... I’ll be ready to cast the spell by nightfall."
"By nightfall?" Ethan repeated.
She turned to look at him. "Yes, by nightfall. The earlier the better, no?"
Ethan stared at her for a mont, then nodded before turning away.
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