Harem System In A fantasy World

The cloaked woman stopped near the center.

Cain entered a moment later. Vivian remained near the mouth of the passage, cutting off the only visible escape route.

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

The woman slowly turned, and the hood still concealed most of her features, though a few strands of black hair fell across her tanned cheek.

"You have been following me for six streets," she said calmly, facing her two pursuers.

Cain gave her an easy smile. "And here I thought we were being subtle."

"You were."

"Then how did you notice?"

The woman’s lips curled faintly.

"You smell like smoke."

Cain glanced down at the extinguished cigar between his fingers.

"That is disappointing."

Vivian stepped further into the courtyard, though she kept herself well positioned, making sure that this escape route was still secured.

"Remove your hood."

The woman’s attention moved towards her.

"And why would I do that?"

"Because if you are who we believe you are, running will only make this more difficult."

A quiet laugh escaped from beneath the hood.

"Who do you believe I am?"

Cain folded his arms beneath his broad chest, eyeing the cloaked woman warily.

"Zenovia."

The courtyard fell silent. The woman did not move, but the faint smile on her lips disappeared.

Vivian’s sharp eyes caught the subtle change immediately.

"So you recognize the name." Vivian’s hand drifted towards the dagger concealed beneath her sleeve, just keeping it close.

"Remove the hood."

The woman remained still for several seconds before finally raising one hand. Her tanned fingers caught the edge of the fabric.

Cain’s body tensed.

Vivian quietly gathered mana around her feet, preparing to move the moment the woman attempted anything.

The hood slipped backward.

Long black hair spilled across the woman’s shoulders, revealing a beautiful face with sharp features and deep violet eyes.

Her fluffy black cat ears twitched subtly above her hair, having been freed from the confines of the hood.

Cain frowned.

It was not Zenovia.

At least, not the Zenovia he remembered.

The tan of her skin and the color of her eyes were still the same, but the shape of her face and colour of her hair were very different.

Although her figure was almost identical, there were several subtle differences he should have noticed earlier, the most prominent being that she looked much older.

Could she simply be another beastwoman who happened to share a few similar features with their runaway assassin?

Was he mistaken?

’No, it can’t be...’

There was no way two women would share not only the same features, but also the same measurements, so chances were high that she was disguising herself.

The woman looked between them. "Well... I take it from your reactions that I am not who you thought I was? Disappointed?"

Cain studied her carefully, keeping his thoughts to himself for now, at least until they could assert a few things.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"That seems like a strange question to ask after following someone across half the district."

Vivian did not lower her guard. "Your appearance has been altered."

The woman’s eyes narrowed slightly. "What makes you think that?"

"The mana around your face is distorted." Cain glanced back towards Vivian before looking back toward the woman.

He had not noticed anything, but Vivian’s own words confirmed what he had already suspected.

Vivian’s senses had always been far more refined when it came to disguises and concealment.

The woman released a quiet sigh.

"So troublesome." A pulse of mana spread across her face.

Her features rippled briefly before settling into another appearance.

Her hair changed into its beautiful two-toned purple color, and shockingly enough, her true face was even more beautiful than Cain remembered.

Cain’s expression brightened up, realizing that he had been right after all.

"So, you are Zenovia." Despite the striking beauty of her true appearance, there was no mistaking her now.

Zenovia smiled. "Yours truly."

She looked between the two of them. "So, what do you intend to do now?" Her tone was far too calm.

She did not seem the least bit concerned by the fact that she had apparently been cornered. "Is this the part where you kill me?" she asked.

"Do not worry. We will make it swift and painless," Cain replied as she unsheathed his crooked dagger.

He would never risk his life by doing anything other than what the guild required, especially with Vivian here to witness it.

"I am sorry to disappoint you, but I do not intend to die here today," Zenovia said calmly.

Vivian and Cain’s eyes narrowed, Vivian’s more than his. Where was all this confidence coming from?

"You are only an Advanced Mage facing two High Mages," Vivian said. "I will admit that you are talented, but are you not being delusional if you believe you can defeat both of us and leave here alive?"

"And why are you so certain that I am only an Advanced Mage?" Zenovia asked lightly.

Vivian frowned and immediately extended her perception towards Zenovia’s mana core. What she discovered left her completely stunned.

"How?" she muttered.

Zenovia was a High Mage, just like the two of them!

Although the slight instability surrounding the compressed mana within her core revealed that she had only broken through recently, the notion was still ridiculous.

Cain appeared to have realized the same thing, and the shock on his face was impossible to hide.

Vivian’s thoughts began racing.

This meant Zenovia was even more talented than they had previously believed, but would that change anything?

That was the most important question.

Under ordinary circumstances, the answer would have been no, but this situation was anything but ordinary.

In truth, Vivian was tempted to detain Zenovia instead of killing her, but there was probably no chance she would agree to something like that willingly.

Vivian could not guarantee her safety or promise that the guild would forgive her supposed failure. She did not possess the authority to make such a decision.

So her gamble could end up resulting in Zenovia’s death anyway.

However, the fact that Zenovia had reached the High Mage Stage placed her on a similar level of talent as the very same heretic they had been ordered to recruit.

Even he was not guaranteed to reach the High Mage Stage at Zenovia’s age.

If the master was willing to overlook Elion’s circumstances in favor of recruiting him, then who was to say he could not do the same for Zenovia?

Honestly, no one truly understood how the old man made his decisions.

The best way to describe him would be eccentric, but even that was putting it lightly. The man rarely spoke plainly, and most of the things he did never seemed to make any sense.

’What should I do?’ Vivian wondered with a frown. The situation was delicate.

Her judgment told her to take Zenovia alive, or at the very least allow her to leave and report the situation before deciding how to proceed.

However, Zenovia had already evaded the guild’s entire intelligence network for two months. Who knew when they would find her again?

That meant there was only one reasonable option.

They would have to take her alive by force.

’We will provoke a confrontation and pretend that we intend to kill her. I will use the paralysis poison on my dagger to render her unconscious.’

Having made her decision, Vivian signaled to Cain using a series of subtle hand gestures from Zenovia’s blind spot.

The small nod he gave her showed that he understood. And so, they put the plan into motion.

"Impressive," Vivian said, nodding in approval. "But you only just broke through. We both know that you cannot defeat both of us."

Zenovia tilted her head slightly. "I do not know about that. I feel as though I can." The two assassins narrowed their eyes.

"You are bluffing," Cain accused.

"Come at me, then," Zenovia replied calmly.

"You do not intend to make this easy, do you?" Vivian asked.

Zenovia merely shrugged.

"I know how the guild operates. The only way this ends is with either me dead or the two of you dead. I expect nothing less from the guild."

Vivian nodded.

"Very pragmatic. I see." She drew her dagger, walking forward to stand beside Cain. "Just know that I hold nothing against you."

Zenovia smiled kindly, though there was nothing kind about the expression. "Likewise," she said casually.

Just as they prepared to dash towards one another, the silence of the gloomy courtyard beneath the canopy of enormous trees was suddenly broken by a set of leisurely footsteps approaching from the entrance.

All three assassins turned towards the newcomers with frowns upon their faces, each of them wondering where these people had come from.

It was almost as though they had appeared out of nowhere before casually walking into the secluded courtyard.

However, a face none of them could have expected to see at that moment soon came into view, accompanied by a pair of extraordinarily beautiful women walking just a step behind him.

Yet it was the young man’s eyes that immediately drew the attention of all three assassins.

The sight of those mismatched pupils sent them into a stunned trance.

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