Afternoon has passed and oppressive in the sky, beating down on the arid landscape as the carriage finally slowed to a rhythmic crawl. Before us loomed the iron-wrought gates of Tata. Even from a distance, the air felt different, thick, greasy, and tainted with the metallic scent of unrestrained greed. There was no welcoming breeze here, only the suffocating aura of a city that had traded its soul for coin.
I've been here after I slained the spider queen, right after I stumbled Mya, who was been caught in the rusty bear trap. I've been there to see the reality of these town walls.
"Just by smelling the air makes me puke." I muttered to Plasma
"Roxy, you seems quite a lot of enemies you have there, as it suggests, your revenge arc."
The walls were patrolled by men in mismatched armor, all bearing the scorched-earth insignia of the Bronze Coin. They lounged like predators, watching the road for their next meal.
"They've reinforced the perimeter, with the Bronze Coin using this as their primary base of operations, the city has become a fortress. They don't just want your money; they want to make sure you know they own the ground you walk on."
Harold whispered, his eyes half-awake, peeking through the curtain, his face pale.
"Ugh, the smell of my foes."
The carriage jolted to a halt at the toll booth. A guard with a jagged scar running across his nose leaned into the window, resting a hand on the hilt of a rusted broadsword.
"Toll for entry, Fifty silver coins."
My breath hitched.
"Fifty silver!? That's nearly a month's wages for a commoner! The inflation in this place is a death sentence."
When I first arrived in Tata, there was not a single penny from these gates. It is only allowed in districts, not on gates. Worse, it's inflation is so overpriced that I would compare it in today's inflammation on Earth.
Suddenly, Mochi muttered, his voice dangerously low.
"Pay it, Roxy, arguing with the gatekeepers is the fastest way to a dungeon we won't escape from."
Harold reluctantly counted out the coins, his fingers trembling as he handed over the silver. The guard smirked, biting one of the coins before waving us through. The gates groaned open, revealing the sprawling, chaotic heart of the Merchant District.
"Here, one hundred and fifty silver coins, consider it fully paid."
"Ugh… come on in, ya filthy bastard."
Then the gatekeeper suddenly shifted his gaze toward Mochi, who was a demi-human riding in the carriage, he began replied.
"Ey you, yes you ya filthy cunt? Ya dare direspecting the Luminous Knight just by wearing that uniform of yours. Ya demi-human!"
Mochi, who heard all the communion, suddenly angered in rage. He even bit his tounge to add up dramatic effect.
Harold who saw this, tried to calm Mochi and yet, he calmed down. He didn't try to destroy the plan of his own, so he calmed down and let a discerning glare onto the gatekeeper.
After that, the carriage went inside the town, and soon enough, it changed from my previous visit.
"What happened to the scenery here?" I asked
"Ever since the Bronze Coin took control of the town, everything changed drastically. The inflation, the scenery and especially, the people."
Tata was a sensory overload of wealth and misery. The streets were packed tight with colorful stalls, silk banners, and exotic spices, creating a facade of prosperity. But beneath the glittering surface, the rot was visible. For every merchant shouting prices, there were ten armed thugs lurking in the shadows, and for every gold coin exchanged, a shadow of fear followed.
As we stepped out of the carriage and dismissed the driver, the reality of Mochi's warning hit us like a physical blow.
In the center of the plaza, chained to cold stone pillars, were the victims of Bernard Callus's "new order." They were young men and women, dressed in rags that left nothing to the imagination, their eyes hollowed out by trauma.
They were the luxuries of Tata… human beings reduced to commodities for the pleasure of the Bronze Coin and the corrupt nobility.
I felt the air around Mochi turn cold. His fur stood on end, and his hand moved toward the hilt of his Luminous blade, his teeth gritted so hard I could hear the enamel crack.
"Stay your hand!? If you draw steel now, we're all dead before sunset. We can't help them if we're swinging from a gallows. Don't blow our cover." Harold hissed, grabbing Mochi's shoulder.
Mochi trembled, a low growl vibrating in his chest, but he eventually slumped his shoulders, forcing a terrifyingly calm mask over his face. He looked around at the familiar alleyways and the crumbling architecture of his childhood, a pang of bitter nostalgia washing over him. This was his home, and it had been turned into a slaughterhouse.
Mochi whispered, staring at a dry, cracked basin where children used to play.
"I remember this fountain, it used to run with clear water. Now it's just a pit for trash."
We moved quickly through the crowded streets, avoiding the gaze of the patrolling mercenaries until we found a nondescript inn tucked away in a side alley.
"Well, this is the place we were staying in the night." I said
It was called The Iron Ledger, a fitting name for a city built on debt.
We booked a room, the floorboards creaking as we ascended to the second floor. As soon as the door clicked shut and the bolt was slid home, the tension in the room snapped.
I dropped my backpack onto the bed, the heavy velvet of Dominik's suit inside shifting with a muffled thud. I looked at Mochi, who was staring out the window at the slave market in the distance, and then at Harold, who was frantically checking his pockets as if expecting his last few coins to vanish.
"We're here, we have the room, we have the disguises, and we have the motive. Now, we wait for the cover of darkness to begin the hunt."
The room was dim, lit only by a flickering candle as we huddled around a small wooden table. The air was thick with the scent of old dust and the distant, haunting sounds of the city outside. I laid out the map of the castle, its jagged spires visible even from our window.
Then I made the plan.
"Here's the play, Mochi, you're the most agile. You'll be our ghost. You need to find a way into the servant passages.
Then, I looked and shifted my gaze to Harold, from which is adjusting his lens in his binoculars.
"Harold, you're on the eye. This inn has the highest vantage point in the district. Use your binoculars and your farsight skill to track the guard rotations and call out any movement via the earpieces."
Harold nodded, already adjusting his lens and his farsight skill.
"I can see the main gate and the western battlements from here. I'll be your guardian angel, just a very grumpy one."
Mochi, however, looked skeptical. He pointed at the primary keep on the map.
"Roxy, it's impossible. Callus has sensors and elite guards at every bottleneck. Even if I get in, you'll be spotted the second you step into a lit corridor. You don't have the stealth for this."
I looked at them both, a cold smirk crossing my face.
"I don't need stealth when I can become the scenery."
After that, I activated my shapeshifting skill.
[Analyzing genetic data... 100% match found in blood reservoir. Commencing Morphological Shift.]
Before they could ask, I closed my eyes. The familiar prickle of mana surged. My frame softened, my height dropped, and the scars on my face vanished into smooth, porcelain skin. When I opened my eyes, Miera's face looked back at them.
[Visual confirmation: 100% accuracy. Heart rate, scent, and vocal cords successfully calibrated. Successfully shapeshifted into Miera Amber]
Mochi fell back against the wall, his fur standing on end.
"What... what magic is this? Roxy?"
"It's a gift from the manor, I can rewrite my flesh. I was going to go in as Dominik, but Mochi is right, if the real Dominik is inside, the game is over before it begins."
I shifted back on another plan.
"New plan. I won't be the master. I'll be the invisible help. I'll infiltrate as one of the castle maids. No one looks at the girls cleaning the floors. They're part of the furniture."
Mochi crossed his arms, his expression grim.
"To make the disguise perfect, you need more than just a memory of a face. You said your ability works through essence."
"I need their blood, just a drop. If I can get close enough to a castle maid during their shift change in the lower town, I can take her place. Once I'm inside, I can unlock the side gate for you, Mochi."
The opportunity presented itself sooner than expected. While descending the back stairs of the inn to head toward the market, I spotted a woman hurrying through the service entrance.
"Bingo!"
Then Mochi stopped me and gave me needle. Then he explains in fast and simple.
"Roxy, this needle knocks out the girl. Use it at your own will."
She wore the distinct, muted grey and white uniform of the Callus estate, a castle maid. She looked exhausted, likely stopping at the inn to pick up a private delivery for one of the high-ranking officers.
I slipped out of the room, moving like a phantom through the narrow, dim corridors of The Iron Ledger. I didn't have to go far. Luck, or perhaps a lingering curse was on my side.
In the communal wash area at the end of the hall, a young woman was hunched over a basin, scrubbing the grime of the castle floors from her apron. She wore the official crest of the Callus household, a bronze coin gripped by a skeletal hand.
I approached from the shadows. Before she could scream, my hand moved with terrifying precision, pinning her against the wall while my other hand muffled her cries.
"Don't fight, I just need a moment of your time."
I hissed, the cold metal of my prosthetic thumb pressing against her pulse.
With a small, concealed needle, I pricked her finger. Just a single, tiny drop of crimson bubbled to the surface. I pressed it against my tongue. The taste was metallic and sharp, sending a jolt of raw data through my nervous system.
[DNA copied, you can shapeshift into Clara Becker]
Suddenly, Clara spoke up
"Please… I... I just started last week. I have a family in the slums..."
"Quiet, Clara, you're going to take a very long nap in the storage closet. When you wake up, it'll all be over."
After that, the needle that I pricked earlier worked. She was knocked out instantly and was fallen into unconscious.
I carried Clara into the inn not to arouse suspicion, she is a black-haired lady, a youthful girl with pale skin. And yet, she's malnourised
Minutes later, I stepped back into our room, clutching Clara off and placed it in a nearby bed. I glanced at Harold and asks a favor.
"Hey Harold, protect this girl at all costs. I will strip her and we will swap clothes from now."
I was breathing heavily, the DNA of the girl currently bound and gagged in the bed beginning to rewrite the blueprints of my own skin. I stripped the maid easily and dropped the maid's uniform onto the bed, a simple grey dress with a white apron, far too clean for the blood that was about to be spilled.
"It's done, I've finished acquiring her DNA."
Harold checked his binoculars, his knuckles white.
"Midnight is in four hours. The moon will be obscured by the smog from the royal district. That's our window."
Mochi looked at me, his eyes searching my face as it began to ripple and change.
"Clara Becker," he read from the stolen tag.
"She's a nobody in that castle, Roxy. That's why she's perfect. Just remember... the moment you step through those gates, you aren't a gold-ranked adventurer. You're a ghost in a grey dress."
I looked at my reflection in the cracked mirror of the inn. My scars were fading, my eye was returning, and the hero was being buried under the face of a simple maid.
"At midnight, The maid is going to let the monsters in."
The clock on the plaza tower chimed once. The countdown to the fall of Tata had begun.