Mary had just started working at the palace a month ago. Now usually Mary would have been dusting the furniture at this time of day, but today, much to her annoyance, she had been given an additional assignment as well.
Her task?
She was to periodically check in on the "important scarred man", and report his condition to the head maid.
Though slightly tedious, the bonus of 1 silver to her monthly wage was more than enough to sway young Mary's heart.
Mary quietly opened the door and stepped into the room. Her eyes slowly panned across the room to find the man she was assigned to checkup on.
Walking closer, Mary arrived at the foot of the bed. She was about to use [Analyse] on him; a rather common skill that would help her in analysing the man's condition.
Though it was at that very moment that Cage decided to open his eyes. His "disoriented" eyes peered into Mary's, stunning her in place.
Though his body looked utterly wretched, his violet eyes with hints of ashy-grey hidden within them had a beauty that demanded one's attention. The beauty of his eyes, which for some reason seemed to have become slightly mesmerising, was enough to leave poor Mary stunned speechless.
All the more curious, Mary walked even closer and noticed that his eyes were looking at her. It was then that she realised, that his cracked and chapped lips were slightly moving.
"s-so…rrr-re…rey"
"I beg your pardon?"
"ss..so…sorreeee…ey"
Walking even closer, Mary reached the side of his bed. She then bent her head down with her ear near his mouth in hopes of understanding what he was mumbling.
"Mianhae." (I'm sorry)
Was all Mary heard, before Cage awkwardly smashed his fist right into her temple. As a newly recruited maid, Mary never really considered training/leveling too seriously. Most wouldn't as it requires time, effort, and HUGE amount of resources.
Only personal servants and other rare cases would bother.
With a *THUD*, Mary fell onto her back as she fell backwards away from the bed.
Nimbly jumping out of bed, Cage immediately proceeded to strip, all the way down to his underwear. He then immediately started to strip Mary too of her uniform.
He then swiftly put on the maid outfit and grabbed the scissors Mary had brought with her in case she had to redo his bandages.
Looking at her short pixie haircut, Cage smiled in relief. He was honestly sick of his long hair, and so he was truly grateful it was this particular maid who came to check on him.
She was also luckily pretty tall, as she was only a few inches shorter than Cage's 180cm. Though this could be due to the infamous; "short king" first prince's unique taste in women.
As the room he was occupying was originally a guest room, a makeup mirror was also provided.
Gradually his ashy-black locks of hair slowly fell, covering the floor. After a quick 5 minutes of cutting, Cage finally looked decent.
Opening the drawers of the small desk, he found some simple makeup products. Carefully, while occasionally glancing at Mary, he transformed himself from the repulsive "scarred man" to a slightly charming maid.
The many scars slowly started to fade away as he activated [Soul Manipulation]. Jinx had explained a lot about the soul while he(and by proxy her too) had been imprisoned, to relieve their boredom.
So slight alterations weren't too difficult for him to achieve. His eyes slowly turned light brown as his hair turned blonde, matching Mary's in appearance.
He now truly did appear like a female, albeit a flat one. Mary wasn't flat by any means, but they weren't very obvious either which worked well for his current situation.
Glancing around the room one last time, Cage pocketed the scissors and quickly wore Mary's shoes. They were too tight for him as expected, but he had no time to look for another. He had already disposed of his cut hair by throwing it all into the fireplace.
Cage too was being treated as an important guest by the Prince, as were the rest of the otherworlders.
Cage slowly opened the window and looked down. The cold winds of winter blew harshly against his face.
There was no time to search for a coat, as he wasn't provided one.
A drop from the second floor is nothing compared to one from the 50th floor, right?
"Ah f*ck me."
Making sure that no one was watching, Cage dropped down from the window.
He soon came to learn about one of the many difficulties maids and even any woman for that matter who wore a skirts, would always have to worry about.
"Ahhh, cold, cold, cold!"
Luckily, nobody was there to witness such a scene or they would've seen a "woman" flashing them midair.
Cage landed gracefully. With practised ease, he rolled once to break his fall and immediately got up and dusted the snow that hung on his clothes.
He then started to walk exactly like the maids he had seen before. Cage went around the palace by discretely following another maid.
There he finally spotted the servant's entrance. Guards patrolled the area as it was one of the few entrances to the palace grounds.
He nonchalantly walked towards the gate. As soon as he arrived near the exit/entrance, one of the guards blocked his way.
"Where are you off to, little girl?"
Cage kept mute as he pointed at the pastry basket and displayed a helpless smile.
"Well, I'll be damned. Carry on then. Wouldn't want to keep his majesty waiting, now would we?"
The guard waved his hand dismissively. Bowing his head in gratitude, Cage quickly passed through the exit. He had no idea what the guard just said but it didn't seem like anything important anyways.
'I really need to find a way to learn to speak their language."
Cage quietly entered an alleyway. A few moments later he emerged from the other side, his hair now brick red and his eyes a darker shade of brown.
As he walked by a street vendor, he snagged a shirt, pants and even a heavy cloak without alerting the busy vendors who were attending to a couple of customers and hawking their wares.
Cage immediately changed into the simple white shirt, brown pants and grey cloak as soon as he entered the closest alleyway.
Thought his time there was a drunkard who tried to cop a feel, which Cage calmly dealt with by promptly knocking him unconscious.
Using a relatively clean patch of snow, Cage carefully washed away his Make-up, instantly turning him from a cute girl to a charming young man with red hair and dark brown eyes.
Cage started to climb a two-story building nearby. The loose mortar made his job a lot easier than it would've been especially in the bitter cold.
When he reached the top, he started to look for the nearest exit to the city. His breath, white from the cold, drifted past his pale lips.
"Ah, there you are!"
At the moment, Cage's number one priority was to leave the capital city as soon as possible. It wouldn't be long before they realised he was gone, and he knew that against any one of the regular guards, let alone one from the ROYAL guards, he had no fighting chance whatsoever.
Cage dropped drown from the building and into a small alleyway between the building and the adjacent one. And of course nobody was there to witness any of this, Cage made sure of it.
Pulling up the hood of his cloak, Cage slowly merged with the crowd as he moved towards the exit which was easy enough to find from atop the building he had just dropped down from.
Along the way, he was able to snag a pouch from a random noble, an apple, a pair of gloves, and finally a hip-flask filled with water from some other seemingly rich fellows. He also changed out of his shoes. His feet now had a pair of beautiful black leather boots that he snagged from the outside of a monastery.
"Ahh. Proper clothing is the best. Even kids back home would have to acknowledge my drip! Though I think I should stop stealing for now…"
Cage could be seen grinning like a Cheshire cat under his cowl as he admired his loot. It seemed like footwear wasn't allowed inside the monastery. He truly admired whoever came up with that rule.
And like that he casually walked out of the city. Tariffs were required to be paid when entering only. Exiting was free.
As soon as Cage crossed the 100-meter mark from the city, alarms started to go off like crazy throughout the city.
Immediately, the guards in practised coordination dropped the portcullis with a THUD! A lilac-coloured translucent barrier soon followed after a small five-second delay.
The shouts of soldiers and civilians alike wove together to form a symphony of chaos.
While the whole royal capital was in turmoil, Cage could be seen carelessly walking through the woods, away from the main road.