“Red Snow? What got into you to jump over there like that?”

  “Did you two fools not notice the two purple eyes staring at our meeting? How the hell did they disappear so quickly?”

  Denaiel was confused, not just because the eyes were nowhere to be seen in such a short amount of time, but because he had uncharacteristically hesitated for a few moments before jumping up to confront what he believed was an enemy.

  He looked around, spreading his mana senses and even manifesting simple spells to check for an invisible person. He still found absolutely nothing despite knowing very well that he had not been mistaken.

  “Next time, instead of having your goons stand behind you, have them patrol the surroundings”

  Eventually, he gave up and leapt back down.

  “Would it not be best to change location altogether, if there actually was something and you aren’t senile”

  “Silence. Do you know how expensive it is to set up a teleportation array? Do you know how expensive it is to make it so that a teleportation can not only go back and forth, but also go back and forth between three different, separate locations? All that, coupled with the greatest stealth array possible, so that the mana fluctuations don’t give its position away? Do you have any idea?”

  “No. No, you do not, you little fools. So all of you and I will stay here until we find that purple-eyed rat, understood? If words come out of this place, everything will come crashing down. It isn’t just expensive to set up. It requires experts and a lot of care since we are in foreign territory as well. My Lord will not be willing to install another one of these”

  “Gods, you are always so dramatic, Red Snow. My boys and I didn’t smell or hear anything, and you know we have sharp senses as beastfolks. Are you sure you didn’t hallucinate? You’ve seen a lot, I wouldn’t be surprised if you see murder every time you blink”

  “Stop trying to diagnose me and search. I saw purple eyes”

  The faux-noble stretched his arms, making his elbow articulations pop.

  “Alright, alright… This better not make me late, I promised my wife to take her out to dinner”

  “Motherfucker is so inconsistent that he doesn’t even hide his beastfolk wife…”

  “Go die, Fox”

  “I would gladly do that instead of standing in your presence”

  Red Snow didn’t even bother to say anything else at this point and just jumped back up to where he had spotted something suspicious. He stood exactly where the owner of the eyes would have been, trying to imagine what sort of movement would make the most sense for someone crouching behind a stone to be able to disappear from the area so swiftly.

  He could chalk up the lack of sound to some enchanted equipment. Noise-reducing enchantments were rather common, and if he couldn’t sense any residuals, then it just meant the purple-eyed watcher was capable of stealth to a rather accomplished degree.

  “...I don’t get it”

  He muttered under his breath. Tracking down spies and striking assassins down was a common activity for him. His Lord was a man despised by many, so usually, finding a trace to follow was easy, but right now… Try as he might, he did detect the presence of several clues indicating that someone had been there, but none of them actually showed where that person had gone.

  Either they had used some sort of stealth ability to disappear, had had a way to swiftly go away without a sound… Or they were still close by and simply invisible, or otherwise hard to notice.

  For example, if the purple-eyed individual was from a certain species, then they might have been able to hide in a thin space in between rocks.

  With a simple spell, he lifted all of the pebbles first, sending them all away into the distance, then the rocks, and then the boulders… Nothing.

  He used the pebbles and stones to once again check for an invisible presence, making them spin around the area–They bumped into nothing.

  Denaiel frowned. His clear-blue eyes glanced around the perimeter. Surely, he wasn’t dealing with an enemy that could turn invisible and incorporeal… That would be a bit much–Though such an individual would definitely make for an excellent agent… He doubted the existence of such an asset.

  Considering that he was within Rootiska, it was more likely to be someone from this country rather than Heldinot. Thinking deeply, he could think of several instances during the last few years where the existence of such a useful agent could have greatly aided the crown of Rootiska… He did not believe that such a person existed… Something else was up here.

  After an hour of searching, nothing was found.

  The two ‘allies’ were starting to get genuinely annoying by then. Red Snow had to give up as well. On several occasions, he definitely sensed a presence lurking around, but when he rushed over, there was nothing to be seen.

  “My Lord will be displeased to hear of this”

  “You could just not tell him, you know?”

  “Blasphemy”

  Everyone soon disappeared from the area after heading into a hidden cave tucked behind the very same rock Red Snow had been hiding behind earlier.

  Soon after everyone had left, a small figure came wobbling its way over…

  ___

  Well, well, well… My quick thinking really outdid them all, heh?

  Though… That bastard had still come awfully close to finding me on several occasions. His senses were definitely way too sharp–Had he caught me, I would have probably been erased from existence.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  To get myself out of this bad situation, I had first poured a ludicrous amount of negative emotions into ‘Embodiment Of Negativity’ to momentarily make Red Snow hesitant and give myself barely enough time to transform into my ‘Plush Form’.

  But since I was way too slow as a little plush, Elowen had to momentarily phase out of the ground to grab and throw me away. Since I was so soft, it made no sound as I bounced against rocks and then started waddling away with my minuscule legs.

  As stated in the description of the ‘Passive State’, even masters could barely tell me apart from an inanimate item, allowing me to go undetected. Still, that guy had still sensed me when I was moving at times, forcing me to enter short periods of dormancy to shake him off.

  They should have called him Bloodhound instead of Red Snow.

  Now though…

  Now that I am left alone, should I try to use that teleportation array they mentioned? It could definitely get me far away from my stalker, and if it is as ‘well-concealed’ as that guy claimed it was, then SHLAD might just lose my track completely, not find the teleporter, and be forced to find a way to get close enough to me again to get a good idea of my position…

  Remaining in ‘Plush Form’, I made my way over to the place they had all headed to. I found myself faced with a rocky wall that looked perfectly natural, and as I tried to touch it, I could have sworn that it was solid. I knew better, however, and kept pushing, eventually going right through.

  Nara. I share many things with undeads, right? Am I supposed to share their near immunity to illusions and such?

  Technically, although you do possess a living mind, illusions should still be largely ineffective. However, this isn’t an illusion that tricks the mind. It is an illusion that projects a false image. A false array of sensations

  The wall you walked through does exist in a sense, even those immune to illusions would see it, because it isn’t something that targets them

  I see. That’s good to know, it means SHLAD will be affected as well… The real question is whether or not I can figure out how to make this thing work.

  The small cavern was illuminated by the soft radiance of the complex array before me. At a glance, I could tell that this thing was indeed very expensive and complicated, just as Red Snow had claimed.

  Not that there were simplistic teleportation arrays… I believe those things were typically either temporary or just one-way. So this thing had to have cost quite a penny. There were many mana crystals, which had been carved into specific shapes, and adorned with what I guessed were either runes or sigils–Not that I actually know the difference–But I would guess that there were both.

  When it came to things like this, it was actually common practice to do what was called ‘stacking’. As in, stacking several areas of craftsmanship and ways of power on top of each other to achieve the right result.

  That was because otherwise, it would require a level of expertise far too great.

  Anything was technically possible as long as you were good enough. There were plenty of stories of mages achieving teleportation using an element that definitely had nothing to do with it, for example.

  The majority of people, even those hailed as ‘masters’, weren’t that good in even their main field of expertise. So they had to use stacking to cover their weak points. A bit like using ropes to keep a house from going down because you weren’t good enough of an architect to make it stand on its own.

  …I had graduated into what could be called a proper curse slinger, but my ways were unique. My knowledge of more regular magic and other ways of power was purely theoretical.

  Even then, I hardly knew what I was looking at… I think this thing was made of intertwined magic circles–The written-on-the-ground kind, not the floaty-spell kind–Accompanied by runes, sigils, and whatever other magical symbols available.

  I was fairly certain that some enchanting had been used as well, and of course, the crystals to power this thing up made it an array, which is different from a magic circle. I still don’t know why that is.

  Nara… Do you think you can help me with this?

  My little sister took a few seconds to respond.

  I got it

  You got what?

  Oh! Sorry, I was focusing on the teleportation array… It uses a complete code mechanism to be activated. One code to enter it, one code to activate it, and one code to choose your destination

  That’s… Quite convoluted.

  It’s fine, I solved the cyphers, these amateurs weren’t even using cypher stacking!

  …As in all of them?

  Yes. It took me a little while to figure out keywords for some of them. Caesar cypher is trivially simple, but Vinegère cypher can be a bit tricky to figure out sometimes, but it seems like they underestimated the thinking capabilities of a second-generation system like me

  Mmh…

  Don’t worry about it. You probably don’t get what I am talking about because the terms for these cyphers aren’t the same in this world as the ones I am using

  I have been meaning to ask, but why do you pull words and knowledge from another world, exactly?

  Well, I have access to it since part of the in-built system pulls information from other worlds. I quite like spending some time learning things over there, this includes these cyphers

  In any case, where would you like to go?

  That was a good question… Do you know where this teleporter can take us exactly?

  I can only know the distance they will make us travel… I’ll put up the numbers in a written format for you

  I stared at the panel Nara showed me.

  If I wasn’t mistaken, the shortest distance was surely the faux-noble’s destination since his group should be hiding in Rootiska. The second shortest would be the fox’s destination, since his pack should be situated in Heldinot, and the longest by a large amount should be Red Snow’s destination, in Beelmart.

  Thinking logically, while further away, the ‘exit’ of the teleportation array in Beelmart would probably be inside some secure location, like the royal palace, considering that this whole operation was their idea and that a close confidant of their king was serving as representative.

  So going to this one would be a big fat no. I would just find myself in a country’s most secure location. A country that was known to wage war as often as they could, even if they hadn’t been able to fight a war in a long time, I was still certain that their culture promoted strength. The number of knights they had was probably ridiculous.

  Also, Red Snow was clearly strong. I would rather not be within his vicinity.

  As for the other two… Neither of them had seemed very dangerous. The faux-noble’s group had looked more organised and ‘official’, but a group of beastfolk was unpredictable. They could have a freaking elephantfolk or rhinofolk on the extreme end of the beastfolk spectrum guarding the teleporter.

  With a bunch of humans, it was easier to have a better idea of how strong they would be on average.

  Judging by the distance, though… The humans of the meeting weren’t too close to a border, so I wouldn't be able to easily get into another country if I teleported there…

  If you maintain your ‘Plush Form’ as you teleport, I believe that the energy it will use to transport you will be minimal–If you enter a momentary instant of dormancy as it is activated, I believe that it will be akin to moving an inanimate object

  You think I could use the teleporter without the people on the other side actually noticing that it activated?

  Precisely

  I suppose it is worth a shot… Let me hide a plush somewhere in here, just in case… Hopefully, my warping range is large enough to take me across entire countries.

  Let’s pay a visit to those beastfolks.