The sun climbed high over the jagged peaks of Tata, but its warmth couldn't pierce the suffocating tension that had settled over the streets. The town had transformed overnight into a fortress. Heavy iron gates that usually stood open for trade were now slammed shut and barred with thick timber. Sentries in the dark livery of the Bronze Coin stood shoulder-to-shoulder at every exit, their crossbows leveled at anyone who ventured too close to the perimeter.
Inside our cramped room at the inn, the air was thick with the scent of cheap ale and the copper tang of my own drying blood. I peeled back the moth-eaten curtain just enough to peer into the square below.
The town crier wasn't announcing the weather today. Instead, he was slapping parchment onto the stone walls with aggressive, wet thuds. A crowd had gathered, whispering in hushed, terrified tones. I didn't need to go outside to know what those posters looked like.
The first was the face of Clara, the weary, invisible maid. The second was Elodie Petit, her expression frozen in the haughty arrogance I had mimicked so perfectly. They were hunting ghosts. They didn't know my name, my face, or my true nature, but they knew someone had infiltrated the inner sanctum, and they were tearing the town apart to find the women responsible.
But the third poster was the real problem.
Unlike my shifting identities, Mochi's face was rendered in terrifyingly sharp detail. His golden feline features and the distinct markings of a Luminous Knight were unmistakable. He sat at the small wooden table in the corner, his silver armor hidden under a tattered traveler's cloak, his tail twitching with a restless, violent energy.
"They've closed the trap, Roxy. They aren't just looking for a thief anymore. Dominik wants blood, and he knows exactly what kind of blood I have."
Harold paced the small strip of floorboards between us, his usual nervous energy replaced by a cold, calculating focus.
"They're conducting door-to-door searches starting at noon. With those posters circulating, we can't walk ten feet without someone recognizing the hero of Town Allure. We're pinned down in a town that's effectively become our cage."
I looked at my hands, now back to their original form, though bruised and shaking from the mana exhaustion. We were stuck. No gates, no exits, and the entire weight of the Bronze Coin was about to descend on this inn.
I turned away from the window, my eyes meeting Mochi's. We had survived the fall, the fire, and the monster in the manor, but escaping a locked town with a price on our heads was a different kind of war.
"Then we stop being the prey, If we can't leave Tata undetected, we make them regret ever locking the doors."
The atmosphere in the room shifted from cold calculation to frantic desperation as a muffled thud came from the corner closet. The door creaked open, and the real Clara stumbled out, shivering in the black tactical attire I had forced her into when I took her dress.
I unlocked the door, and the maid stumbled out, blinking against the morning light. She looked down at the black leather and cloth she was wearing, my attire and then up at me, her eyes widening with a mix of terror and fury.
"You! Girl in an eyepatch! You ruined my life! I was just a maid trying to survive the night shift. When I return to the manor in these clothes, with my uniform gone... they'll skin me alive!"
I didn't argue. Instead, I picked up one of the damp wanted posters Harold had brought in and held it up to her face. Clara's breath hitched. There was her own face, labeled as a high-priority saboteur of the Bronze Coin.
Her face went from flushed to a deathly, chalky pale.
"What have you done, young lady? My five kids... they have no one else. If I'm a criminal, they'll starve in the gutters."
A sharp pang of guilt, cold and heavy, settled in my chest. But looking at this woman, I realized I had used her life as a disposable tool. I walked up to her, placing a hand on her shoulder, not with the grip of a predator, but with the sincerity of someone who owed a debt.
"I am sorry, Clara, I caused this trouble, but I won't let it be your end. I promise you, I will get you out of this town, and I will make sure your children are safe."
I turned to the others, my mind racing to adapt.
"Harold, you said they're conducting door-to-door searches at noon, right?"
Harold nodded grimly.
"Within the hour. They're starting at the town square and moving outward. This inn is a prime target."
"New plan, We can't hit the manor in broad daylight anyway. We wait for midnight to finish the mission, but right now, we have to move. I'm leading Clara back to the slums, it's the only place she can hide where the neighbors might actually protect her. Mochi, you're coming with us."
Mochi tilted his head.
"Me? I'm a walking target, Roxy."
"Exactly, If you stay here, this inn becomes a trap. If you're on the move with us, we can use the back alleys. Besides, if we run into a patrol, I'll need your steel to ensure Clara doesn't get caught in the crossfire."
I grabbed a spare traveler's cloak and a heavy cloth mask, handing them to Clara. She put them on with shaking hands, her fear replaced by a desperate hope.
"Stay low, stay silent," I whispered to her.
The three of us slipped out the back window of the inn, dropping into the shadows of the narrow alleyway just as the first heavy rhythmic stomps of the Bronze Coin's search party echoed from the main street.
"Moving through the chaos is better than waiting for it to find us, Nice work, Roxy. You have a brilliant mind. I knew there was a reason you were Elias's little sister."
The air in the slum district was thick with the smell of coal smoke and desperation. We moved like shadows through the back alleyways, Clara trembling between Mochi and me. But as we reached the central plaza of the lower district, the path was blocked by a wall of people.
They weren't just passing through, they were chanting. A rhythmic, ugly sound that made the hair on my neck stand up. In the center of the square stood a tall, wooden structure that hadn't been there yesterday, a guillotine, its blade gleaming with a cold, predatory light under the midday sun.
Bound and kneeling on the platform was the real Elodie Petit.
Her golden hair was matted with filth, and her pristine uniform was torn to shreds. She looked nothing like the icy woman I had mimicked, she looked like a broken child.
"I didn't do it! I swear by the gods, I was in the hallway and then... everything went black! One of the maids, Clara, she attacked me! She bit me! I am a loyal servant of the Callus family!"
The executioner, a massive man with a face hidden by a leather hood, stepped forward and spat directly into her face. He grabbed her by the hair, forcing her head down toward the wooden block.
"Shut your lying mouth, you noble-wannabe traitor! We found the ID on the floor where the hero stood. You handed over the keys to the master's bedroom, didn't you? How much did they pay you to sell out your master, you greedy rat? Or did you just enjoy the taste of betrayal?"
"I'm telling the truth! Check my arm! The bite marks…!"
"Liar!"
A old man from the crowd screamed, throwing a rotten piece of fruit that burst against her shoulder.
"Traitor! You live in luxury while we starve, and then you bring that flea curse into our town? Die like the dog you are!"
I stood frozen in the shadow of a nearby tenement, my stomach churning. I had eaten Dominik's blood to survive, I had healed my broken bones, but I couldn't heal the sight in front of me. I hadn't just stolen her face, I had handed her a death sentence. Every word she spoke was the truth, but I had made the truth look like a lie.
"Roxy, don't look," Mochi whispered,
Mochi hand gripping my shoulder so hard his claws nipped the fabric of my cloak. His eyes were wide, fixed on the platform in pure, silent shock.
"It's my fault, I ruined her. I took her life before they even touched her."
The executioner gave a cruel, toothless grin to the cheering crowd.
"Last words for a traitor? No? Good. Let's see if your head rolls as easily as your loyalty!"
He yanked the release rope.
The heavy blade fell with a terrifying, metallic shing. There was a sickening thud, and then a silence so absolute it felt like the world had stopped breathing. The head of Elodie Petit was gone in a clean, clinical flash of steel.
I doubled over, clutching my stomach as if Dominik had punched me again. The guilt was a physical weight, a dark tide rising in my throat. I had wanted to hurt Dominik, but I had destroyed an innocent woman who was just doing her job.
Mochi pulled me back into the shadows as the crowd erupted into a fresh wave of bloodthirsty cheers. He forced me to look at him, his amber eyes intense.
"Listen to me, Roxy, you didn't pull that rope. You didn't put her on that stage. Dominik did. He knew she was innocent, and he killed her anyway just to send us a message. This isn't your fault, it's his. And we are going to make him pay for every drop of blood he spilled today."
I looked back at the guillotine, my vision blurring. I wasn't just the hero anymore. I was a monster who left a trail of ghosts behind her.
"Midnight, at midnight, the manor burns."