NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 36
The girl watched everything.
The newbie knight, whom the Empress had commanded to monitor every move, witnessed the scene of a sparring match where he toyed with another knight commander.
Despite being a newly joined knight, he seemed unfazed after defeating a knight commander serving the Empress, almost as if it were only natural.
She watched his clean attack movements without a hitch, his defense effortlessly repelling every incoming strike, and his fluid continuous motion.
And the Empress watched all of this too.
“……Have you verified everything, Your Highness?”
Perched in a tree overlooking the training ground, a girl wearing a black hood and black leather clothing mumbled to the air.
Blink, her eyes blinked involuntarily. The girl nodded as if she understood.
From beneath her eyelids, a pair of sharp golden eyes glimmered.
Bowing her head politely toward the empty air, she dipped further as if someone had commanded her.
“Yes. I understand, Your Highness. I will follow Your will.”
This time, the girl blinked with her own intention. When her eyes opened again, the spot where the golden pupils had been was empty.
Literally, it meant that there was nothing where her pupils should have been. Only two black empty sockets, sending chills down one’s spine, were visible.
Despite not being able to see in front of her, the girl began to descend the tree slowly, stepping carefully on and grabbing branches with familiar hand and foot movements.
There were no wasted motions, no missteps. It seemed almost more stable than an ordinary person with two eyes.
Before long, the girl, who landed softly on the ground, quietly lowered her posture. Then she stopped moving and listened to the sounds around her.
The sound of wind rushing between the trees. The sound of fallen leaves rustling. The sound of branches swaying back and forth. The sound of her own breathing.
No sounds of other humans could be heard.
She was relieved this time to not have to deal with witnesses. The girl thought this as she prepared to draw her weapon if necessary and tucked the dagger she had hidden beneath her wrist into her waist.
Her outfit was quite bizarre. She wore a black hood drawn low over her upper body and tight-fitting black leather armor.
Her lower half sported leather pants that were so short they barely passed for underwear, clinging to her in a way that exposed the curve of her hips.
Despite not wearing shoes, her feet were remarkably clean.
‘No people… still none.’
After confirming with sound that no one was around, the girl unclasped her necklace, holding it in her hand. It was an artifact given to her by the Empress.
Her current clothing began to change. The sleek luxurious fabric of the hood and leather armor, and pants disappeared. In their place, dirty rags appeared.
As the hood disappeared, her hair, hidden within, cascaded out. Shoulder-length black hair contrasted sharply with her fair skin, swaying gently near her neck.
The girl was naked.
Her modest chest, collarbone, toned abdomen, soft-looking sides, and slender thighs were all exposed, yet there was no hint of embarrassment on her face.
She pressed a nearby stone onto the rags and threw herself on the dirt floor, rolling around vigorously to cover herself in dust. Dirt and sand clung to her.
After rolling for a while, she pushed herself up. The usual neat appearance of the girl had vanished, replaced by a dirty girl with disheveled hair covered in dust.
‘Gotta work on my disguise too.’
In a flash, the girl took the rags she had pinned with a stone and rolled it ruthlessly into the dirt. By the time she finished, the rags looked barely different from tatters.
She wrapped it around her body. Covering her thighs, waist, chest, arms, and shoulders. The last bit was wound around her head to cover her face and hair.
‘Perfect.’
Though she couldn’t see directly, the girl reassured herself that her appearance would resemble that of a street beggar.
True to her confidence, the girl now looked indistinguishable from such individuals.
It was unimaginable that just moments ago, she had donned high-quality leather clothing with beauty that couldn’t be concealed, while hiding nearby.
The one difference was that in this dusty beggar guise, her characteristically pretty features could not be entirely hidden.
The girl searched her surroundings until she found a stick of suitable thickness and length, snapping it off and waving it around in the air. This stick would suffice as a makeshift cane.
In truth, she could walk around just fine without it, but to accomplish what she needed to do now, she had to appear as an ordinary blind person.
‘The Empress’s last command was… to observe that newbie knight closely without revealing my identity by any means.’
After all, the Golden Knight was bait. There was no way they would actually place such a fool in the surveillance position. He seemed thrilled to think he was on an important assignment, but the Empress had never expected much.
Just one thing. She believed if she sent him to the Silver Dawn Knights, he wouldn’t be able to resist picking a fight with the newbie, and the Empress’s estimation was spot on.
Thanks to that, she could keep a closer eye on the newbie knight’s skills, so her task was essentially complete.
With part of the rags left to cover her lower face, the girl grasped a small wooden bowl in one hand and began to stumble forward, intentionally using the cane as support.
Exiting the small forest within the city, she followed the route she had memorized while perched in the tree and carefully entered a narrow alleyway. She could hear whispers around her as people observed such a girl.
Of course, she didn’t care at all. After all, she had come down like this to be looked at.
‘Here it is.’
Stopping at the end of the alley, the girl leaned against the wall and crouched down, pulling her knees tight against her chest and placing the wooden bowl before her.
She looked like a perfect beggar, but, of course, that wasn’t her intended purpose.
‘Those knight commanders pass here regularly.’
This conclusion was drawn over two days of observing the entire city with her ‘eye.’ The patrolling knight commanders always followed the same route. And the road right next to this spot was part of that route.
Having started their patrol not long ago, they would surely pass this way soon. The girl lowered her head, feeling the tremors of the ground each time people took steps.
She had deliberately chosen a place with the least foot traffic. Aside from a few beggars, there were hardly any people passing by this area.
The dimensions of their footsteps and voices were already memorized. Now all that was left was to wait.
‘…….’
How long had she been waiting, burying her face between her knees and feeling the tremors of the ground? Finally, a familiar voice echoed from a distance.
The girl pricked up her ears, listening attentively. It was a cold voice and a calm voice.
‘On the right is Iris. On the left is Erica.’
Finally, having identified them, the girl quietly raised herself up. One hand held the cane, while the other held the empty wooden bowl.
In that state, she quietly pressed against the wall, waiting for the knight commanders to approach. Just before Iris and Erica passed the alley, she hopped forward.
“Eek!”
And, she collided dramatically with Erica, purposely rolling on the ground. While rolling, she broke the cane and didn’t forget to send the wooden bowl flying off into the distance.
“Oh, what was that—”
“I-I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! Please forgive me! I’m so sorry!”
Before Erica could grasp the situation, the girl lay flat on the ground, bowing her head and trembling, trying her best to look pitiful.
Seeing the girl trembling like a aspen tree, Erica froze, and Iris, who had scrambled back to retrieve the bowl, was similarly halted.
“Uh… you really don’t have to tremble like that. I don’t have any plans on doing anything.”
Erica spoke cautiously.
The girl looked up with a tearful expression. The sight of her face, with only two empty black sockets where her eyes should be, made Erica and Iris shudder.
“I-I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I… I haven’t eaten anything for days, and I’m so hungry…”
Erica and Iris exchanged glances, troubled by the situation. It was a girl without eyes. Naturally, they should have detected and avoided her first; it was blatantly their mistake.
“What should we do, Iris?”
“I dunno… It seems like it’s our fault, so we should help her.”
“Should we take her to the castle? Since she said she hadn’t eaten in days, let’s fill her stomach at the dining hall.”
“That seems best. I’ll finish my patrol elsewhere. Erica, take this girl to the castle.”
“Understood, Iris. Um… Miss? Can you stand up?”
Hearing them say they would take her to the castle, the girl lowered her head to avoid being seen and turned up the corners of her mouth.
Erica and Iris, shocked by her outward appearance, and distracted by how pitiful and subservient she acted, failed to notice one fact.
No matter how unexpectedly she had popped up, Erica would never be someone who would collide with a beggar. If she had truly been an ordinary beggar, Erica would have noticed and easily sidestepped her.
The reason this incident occurred was that the girl had approached them quickly and stealthily enough to evade their instincts.
They did not realize.