Secret Agent Chapter 068 - Bluff (Patreon)

Zack Adder trusted his gut and his [Paranoia] and took the sinister path.

He shuffled on trembling legs, acting like several other men nearby in their thirties and forties, and made his way to the gate on the left.

He could vaguely see the Blue team strategy, here.

It was a funnel of some kind.

Traps within traps.

Bags littered the ground now as people cast aside their belongings to go through the faster, apparently less secure checks at the wide center gate.

That was the first trap.

Those were exactly the people who would be subject to extra scrutiny, once they were seen ditching their bags.

That said, for those people, it didn’t matter.

They had nothing to hide, and so the extra scrutiny was meaningless; they just wanted to get back into the city as fast as they could.

From the Blue team’s perspective, if Zack were there with a bag, he would ditch it and go through the easy center gate. If he wasn’t there with a bag, he would also go through the easy center gate, and avoid more thorough checks.

Additionally, people who had known him well at the Castle were stationed visibly on the side gates.

On the one side, the Church side, there was Maria, the woman who had tried to poison him and before that had harassed him, making no secret of her dislike for him.

She was Zack Adder repellent.

But that was also the side where the cardinal had been, probably [Appraising] anyone who passed through.

Because Zack Adder had the [Otherworlder] title.

On the other side was everyone else at the Castle who had interacted with Zack. The maids and knights he had spent time with, including the one he had spent the most time with: Barclay, his personal [Trainer].

If Zack Adder were trying to avoid detection, he would go through the center gate.

It was wide, there were less security checks, and Zack didn’t recognize anyone stationed there.

But it reeked of danger.

So Zack got in line for the left side gate, ready to present his bag of rocks for inspection.

Why hadn’t Jack discarded it to get out faster?

Easy: the bag was a gift from a close friend. He couldn’t look his friend in the eye if he just tossed it the day after he got it.

Why did Jack have a bag of rocks?

His sling training. For which he had received a token.

And what if they saw through his [Disguise]? Or if there was a clergyman in there [Appraising] everyone who fit Zack Adder’s profile?

Then that was that.

He could try to fight and flee, or feign surrender and try to escape at the next opportunity.

SERE training ended the same way.

Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape.

After the trainee had evaded for some period of time, the trainers started cheating. Inevitably, the trainee was caught and the training moved onto the resistance portion.

After that came escape.

Zack committed himself and focused on putting on the performance of his life.

Jack Werdruf.

Aspiring actor who accidentally tamed a familiar and was forced into the Adventurer’s Guild.

Got wrapped up in the emergency and decided to come to training today in hopes of getting some real skills.

Underneath the mask of the actor/adventurer, Zack Adder steeled himself.

He might have to take a life.

He might have to take several lives in the next few minutes, of people he had known.

That would bring heat down on the theater, but the only person who knew even part of his real identity was the Director; if anyone could feign ignorance, it was him.

And unlike when he had fled the Castle after the attempted poisoning, Zack had [Skills] now.

He even had armor and some weapons.

He could flee the city entirely and make his way out of the Kingdom, over the mountain range to the west.

The only thing that held him back was Sienna.

If he at all could, he would swing by Vlad’s apartment and get her.

If not, he would send word to Vlad somehow…

His throat spasmed and it was all he could do to [Act] as though he was fine.

Leaving Sienna?

He shifted his thoughts.

Escape, hide, retrieve Sienna, then flee.

Riskier, but he couldn’t leave her behind.

The hardest part was going to be fleeing the inspection, anyway.

[Calm Down].

First things first.

He reached the front of the line and his [Paranoia] spiked as the maids and knights looked him up and down.

And they saw a rough, scarred, middle aged adventurer with dark skin, dark brown hair, wearing new and unblemished leather armor, with a dagger and bag on his hips.

“Name?” Emma asked. Abigail held in her hands several large sheets of parchment.

“Jack,” he rasped in reply. His voice was still shot, but there was no point in faking his voice more than that.

He could feel eyes on himself that he couldn’t see.

He noticed Barclay twitched when he heard Zack give his fake name.

“Are you a member of any Guild?”

“Adventurer’s,” he answered hoarsely, and coughed.

Abigail looked up from her parchments with concern in her eyes.

“Are you unwell?” she asked.

“I just lost me voice,” Zack replied. “I’m alright.”

Emma resumed the standard questioning. “Did you earn any tokens?”

Zack noted that Abigail was looking at just one spot on the parchment now, eyes no longer scanning.

“Yeh, two of ‘em.” He pulled them out of his pocket and handed them over.

Barclay seemed to relax slightly.

Emma took the tokens and read them aloud while the knights watched him closely. “Light armor and… slinging?” She looked up at him questioningly.

“Aye,” Zack replied simply.

Jack Werdruf wasn’t worried about anyone knowing his skills.

“Did you steal the book?” the Knight Quillon demanded from the side, trying to throw him off balance.

“Eh?” Zack feigned a bit of confusion. “No, I didn’t steal no books.”

“Then you won’t mind if we search your bag,” Quillon said.

Zack coughed to clear his throat, then detached the bag from his belt and extended it toward the knight.

“Go ahead.”

Instead it was a maid who reached over and took the bag, her arms dipping as she struggled with the unexpected weight. She set it on a side table with a clatter and opened it near another knight, and they both peered in.

“Rocks?”

“I brought those in with me,” Zack rasped insistently.

Barclay finished up with his own interrogation of another man Zack Adder’s age and size, and looked over at the [Disguised] [Otherworlder]. “Why would you carry a bag of rocks?” he asked incredulously, scrutinizing the man.

Before Zack could answer, a woman stepped forward out of the shadows in which she had been hidden.

“For his sling,” Elizabeth Hawkeye explained.

Zack bowed incorrectly the same way he had that morning, with his hand on his abdomen. “Lady Hawkeye,” he hoarsely greeted her.

“Jack,” she greeted him. Then she narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you planning to go hunting soon?”

Zack nodded. “Tomorrow,” he rasped.

Elizabeth pursed her lips. “Ensure you get your throat healed before you do; being unable to yell in the forest means being unable to call for help. It could be your death.”

Zack dipped his head.

“Yes, Lady Hawkeye.”

“Good.”

Barclay walked over to the bag of rocks, stirred them around looking for anything else in the bag, and then handed it to Zack.

“Did you do any other training today, Jack?”

There was a hint of suspicion in his voice.

“Aye, didn’t get tokens though,” Zack rasped. “Unarmored, and then the lines for spear and sword were,” he paused to cough, “too long. And first aid, but I didn’t get a chance to try to get the token.”

Elizabeth nodded, pleased with Zack’s choices.

She didn’t want her juniors going out recklessly into the forest and getting hurt.

Barclay looked at Abigail, who met his gaze and nodded.

It matched what was written on the parchment.

“Alright, be careful out there, [Adventurer],” Barclay said, dismissing Zack. “Bring in the next few,” he directed the maids.

“Good luck, Jack,”

“Thanks, and you as well, Lady Hawkeye,” Zack answered dipping his head once more and walking away.

As soon as he was through the gate, his [Acting] was put to one last test.

Standing ready just out of sight on the other side of the wall was Rosimund, the [Guide]. The highest level Knight in the Kingdom.

But Jack Werdruf, the adventurer, didn’t notice. He just continued on his way into the city, the sun long since set behind him while he had been waiting in line.

It wasn’t over yet.

His [Paranoia] was still burning.

He casually made his way into the city and stopped at a shop nearly about to close.

“Ye got anything for a sore throat?” he rasped.

The price was significantly higher than it would have been at Gretchen’s, or anywhere else in Apothecary Row, but he paid the ten lindra and took the single dose of potion the shopkeeper had poured out for him.

“Ah, ahh,” he said, voice still scratchy.

“It’ll take a few hours for the potion to take full effect,” the shopkeeper advised.

“Hmph, fine,” Zack grumbled and exited.

His [Paranoia] finally started fading. And by the time he arrived back at Vlad’s apartment, it had fully subsided.

He had made it out.

***

Ruby sipped her tea, as relaxed as she could be away from her true home. Despite the crude accommodations atop the city wall, the air was cool and pleasant, and her thoughts were filled with further experiments to conduct. The drastic increase in her level had massively expanded the scale of the magic she could perform.

Perhaps she could convince Bradley and Rosimund to take a detour by the Magic Academy on their way out west.

***

Maria ground her teeth, though she knew it was bad and she would have to pray for minor healing later that night. Her loss of influence over the [Party] was galling, and now she, the Church’s direct representative, was essentially an equal with an orphan and a brute. This was all that [Otherworlder]’s fault. First he fled, then he had the audacity to remain hidden.

She half-suspected he really was working with the demons, and they had spirited him away. He was surely too stupid to actually evade detection for so long.

The brute, Su, stood ready to grapple him if Cardinal Antoine discovered him, but it was all for naught. Simply another day wasted before the [Hero’s Journey] could properly begin.

***

Anastasia [Stifled] her growing anxiety.

She was [Hiding] in the main gate between the city and the Campus Martialus, scrutinizing everyone who passed through with all her senses. Guards hauled any man who could possibly be the target out of line and to the side, frisking them for hidden weapons conveniently close to where Anastasia was hiding, giving her a chance to assess them even more closely.

She hadn’t caught his scent all day.

He wasn’t here.

There was simply no sign of the target, and there hadn’t been all day, even as she moved in stealth up and down the lines of people leaving.

The sun set, and [Hiding] grew easier. Torchlight inside the gate deepened the shadows in which she hid, and her heart fell.

The last of the attendees of the Training Day passed through the gate.

She had missed her last chance to make up for her prior failure.

Fortunately, her master was not upset.

“This simply means Zack Adder has indeed fled the city,” Cardinal Antoine said, apparently to no one. “Continue to protect the [Hero] and aid him on his [Journey] as a member of the [Party].”

Anastasia nodded, knowing that Cardinal Antoine could see her, and stealthily made her way back to the Castle. Only her master had known she was here today.

“I know that!” Anastasia overheard the [Priestess] snap.

***

Bradley genuflected before the two men seated on thrones several steps above him.

To the left, the King.

To the right, the Pope.

The two leaders, worldly and spiritual, of the Kingdom of Forti.

“It is good to see you fully recovered,” the Pope said in his soft, high pitched voice.

He was an old, old man. One could even say decrepit. His eyes sank deep in their sockets, and his skin was all wrinkles, though perfectly unblemished. With no one else in attendance, Bradley could finally see him without the cloth partitions he typically sat behind.

Bradley understood. It was probably a bit embarrassing to look like that.

The King nodded. “Indeed. Are you prepared to set out on your [Journey]?”

“Yes, King Onyx,” Bradley replied firmly.

He had gotten a good number of levels, trained his skills up, and he had worked on his coordination with the rest of his [Party].

He was ready to go.

Not only for his divine quest straight from the Goddess Arianna, but also…

Zack had been taken over a month ago. Captive that whole time.

“If ever you need aid, seek out the True Church of the Goddess. Beware the false churches,” the Pope advised helpfully.

“Of course, your Excellency.”

“Beware as well the treachery of the lesser kingdoms,” the King added. “Though they are human, that does not mean they are trustworthy.”

Bradley nodded. “I’ll be careful.”

The two leaders smiled. “Good,” the King said. “There will be a ceremony in the Grand Cathedral to present you to the people two days hence, and you will set off from there.”

“May the grace of the Goddess Arianna be with you,” the Pope raised a trembling hand a few inches, and a light shone down on Bradley.

Bradley rose and returned to his room in the Castle, past numerous guard knights and maids ready to attend to his every need.

“Eleanor,” he called to the head maid, who bowed in response. “We depart two days hence; ensure my things are packed and ready to go by then.” Bradley would be working to expand his mana pool and train his [Magic Control] skill as much as possible in the next two days, following the exercises Ruby had taught him.

Eleanor smiled with a twinkle in her eye. “Of course, Sir [Hero].”