Alisa went back to the tent she was staying to get what she needed. She didn't have that many personal items on her anyway so she could only pick up the old rusty dagger that had been with her for so long as far as she could remember, and a rope. As she was rummaging through her almost empty military bag, she suddenly grabbed something thin like a stick. Confused, she took it out and saw a weird-looking light blue stick with the size of a pen.
"What is this? Somehow, it looks familiar and eerie..." She muttered under her breath softly as she examined it.
She kept on staring at it when a sudden sharp pang of pain that lasted only for a split second invaded her mind which made her flinched and groaned. She finally remembered! This was a retractable weapon she was always using in her previous life to reap the lives of her targets. It was made of special ores from The Beyond, paired together with the concept of the divergent laws. When it was retracted, it only looked like a harmless light blue pen with weird runes carved into it. However, when she would channel her inner force to it, the pen would transform into a bone-chilling scythe with intricate patterns of runes carved on it. She could feel the weight of it, having killed countless people in the past.
'How did this thing get here? This is supposed to be a reincarnation, right?' She frowned as she silently thought about it.
No matter what she thought of, she couldn't find any good answers. It could be that a deity heard her wishes and decided to send this thing with her so she could protect her life this time and live according to her wishes, but she wondered if gods really existed. Not wanting to have a headache in overthinking about meaningless things, she shoved it in her mind and stuffed the stick inside the small pouch and hung it on her waist. She didn't want to carry such a large military bag since it would slow her down.
Once she was done, she stood up and was about to go out when she kept on noticing weird stares from her squad. She raised her eyebrows at them and they immediately turned away. Before she even arrived at the tent, Alisa had received countless of stares from the other soldiers on the way. Now that she was here, her fellow squad members were also looking at her the same way as them. What was going on? She frowned and wanted to ask them, but they also seem to avoid her. She clearly saw disgust written on their faces.
'Whatever. It's not my concern. It's just probably because I am woman.'
She headed out and accidentally bumped into Grunt, who was coming from outside the tent. It was too late to evade, so she crashed unto him and slight bump on her forehead formed.
"Watch where you are going, will you?" Alisa expressed in groaning voice. She rubbed the swollen area, hoping that it wasn't too big.
"Greenhorn?"
"Oh, it's you." She plainly replied as she stood up and wiped the dusts clinging on her military uniform.
"Come here with me for a second." Grunt took her arm and dragged her in a nearby corner between the tent.
"What do you think you're doing?" She glared at him coldly.
"Oh, come on. You don't have to give me the cold treatment. Remember that I saved your life multiple times." He complained and pretended to look hurt.
Alisa was slightly embarrassed. He had indeed saved her on multiple occasions when she still hadn't reincarnated in this life. How pitiful and clumsy could her counterpart be? She remembered the times she messed up during one of the clashes with an enemy soldier in this war and almost died. If not for this young man in front of her, her neck would have tasted the cold, metallic blade of the enemy's sword and there would be no hope for her to reincarnate in this world.
"S-sorry. Thank you for saving me that time." She slightly bowed down her head with a slight blush on her cheeks. She reluctantly did it, but she had to. She wished she could find a hole to bury herself into it. The pride she carried as a master assassin felt to distant now and she was reduced to this pitiful appearance.
"Anyway, what's up with you and the marshal?"
"Huh?" She tilted her head, trying to understand what he was getting at.
"Didn't you hear the rumors? It's already circulating in the whole army. They said you had a spar with the marshal and your skills are on par with his. They also said that you are his secret mistress or lover. Is it true?" He grabbed her shoulders and asked anxiously.
"Let go of me! Why are you even looking so anxious like that?" She shook her hands off and took a step back. Seriously, he was gripping her so hard that she felt her bones trembled. She was still slightly malnourished due to the lack of proper meals so her bones were kind of weaker. She really had to acquire more resources so she could live a carefree life with no one to order her what to do in her every move.
Then she added. "Where in the world did you even get those rumors? Obviously, it isn't true! How could I become his mistress? He is royalty and we're just a bunch of lowly commoners. You people love to gossip so much. Anyway, I'm off now."
He was bewildered by her response. Was this really the same person who he had saved many times? Not to mention that ever since she had revealed herself as a woman, her whole demeanor changed like taking a hundred-eighty-degree turn. He could only watch her go away as she disappeared from his sight.
After some period of walking, Alisa finally arrived in front of the gates. He could see Leon standing there together with two more people. She knew that the two were his generals who commanded the fourth and fifth battalion.
"You're finally here." Leon plainly said. He looked at her and only saw a small pouch tightly bound to her waist. He frowned. "Is that the only thing you're going to carry? Don't you have more things with you?"
"Well, sorry for being so poor, Your Highness. I can't afford many things unlike you." Alisa sarcastically said with a grumpy face.
His eyelids twitched in annoyance. This girl wasn't pulling her punches at all when interacting with him. Everyone would revere him wherever he went and yet, this woman had the audacity to be rude and informal with him. However, he didn't pursue it further and just sighed defeatedly. The two generals were trying their best to prevent themselves from bursting out into laughter as they watched their slight exchange of words. He glared at them coldly which made them stop. Then one of the generals, Timothy, jokingly said as he patted his shoulder.
"Your Highness, she's really a unique one, eh? Where did you find this girl?"
"Enough with the chatter. Let's go." He ignored their teasing and walked away. This was the first time he was being treated like this. But... it didn't feel so bad at all. It was kind of refreshing. Without realizing it, a slight smile escaped from his lips as he thought about her.
They didn't bother taking transportation as it would only make them easily spotted by the watchguards on the walls of the sealed city of Duskhaven. It took them almost three hours before they could reach the foot of the walls built by the Chalandrian army that occupied the city. Leon then discussed the plan with them. In order for them to climb, they had to use a special martial skill called Shadowskip in order to climb the walls without using any ropes.
"What's that?" Alisa asked.
The others were shocked. She was a very good fighter and yet she didn't know what shadowskip was? Leon frowned and felt a headache as he didn't see it coming. He felt slightly disappointed at her. It was the other general, Ferrid, who explained to her.
"Young girl, shadowskip is a basic martial arts skill that would allow you to leap higher than an average human by focusing your inner energy in your foot. Do you know what inner energy is?"
She nodded. "So, it's just a means of climbing the walls with ease, right?"
"Yes. But you don't know how to use it. How could you?"
Alisa tried feeling the inner energy in her body. Surprisingly, she also had ample amount of inner energy just like in her previous life. It looked like she was allowed to carry over two things. The first one was her personal weapon while the other one was the cultivated inner energy throughout her entire life before she was eventually killed by the government's sinister plots. Although her martial arts skill, Wolfsbane's Gift, was totally different from the martial arts of this world, it didn't mean hers was inferior to their own. However, she didn't want to explain things as it was way too lengthy and she would like to keep her aces hidden as much as possible.
"I have my own methods. Let's hurry up already."
"Alright, if you say so. Just say if it's too hard and I'll carry you in." Ferrid ended with a sigh.
The guards were patrolling on the top of the walls but they didn't notice the three just below them. As the three men focused their inner energy on their foot, they silently jumped and propelled themselves to the air, passing the seven-meter wall with ease. The guards were startled by the emergence of the three men. They hurriedly draw their swords, but it was too late. Leon and the two were faster and swung their sword, severing their heads from their necks.
Meanwhile, Alisa was still on the foot of the wall. She wasn't in a hurry and took her sweet time to watch them fight. She was impressed. It seemed like the infernal monarch lived up to his title, after all. When they fought earlier, he had indeed gone easy on her. It was a little infuriating and it wounded her pride. She sneered inwardly and thought. 'I would like to see how you would stare at me gaping when you see my beautiful martial skills.'
Then, with a slight bending of her knees to prepare herself, she jumped and fluttered in the air gracefully as if she was weightless. Her movements were fluid and silent, not making a single sound while she was continuously propelling upward quickly. As she reached the top of the walls, her speed descended drastically until she finally stopped once she stepped on the cold, hard brick. A watchguard rushed towards her with a sword and swung it at her. Without even using anything, she lifted her skinny hand and grabbed the edge of the blade. The guard was horrified, but his fear didn't last long. Alisa gripped so hard that the blade broke into pieces. Her other hand shot forward and ripped out the guard's throat, blood gushing out like a fountain from his throat.
The three men who had seen it felt chills creeping down their spine. This was the first time they had witnessed a woman ripped someone's throat. It was so brutal. She was so strong that she didn't even need a weapon. Who in the world was she? Leon was now having doubts whether she was an ally or not. If possible, he didn't want to make enemies with her.
"So... shall we go now?"
The trace of nauseating killing intent from her was gone. Instead, it was replaced by a faint smile. The soft rays of moon beams brightened her face and making her feel almost like an ethereal fairy who had descended from the heavens, if only not for the dirt on her clothes and face as well as the stains of blood from the guard earlier which totally ruined the wonderful image and made it gory.