The Discarded Son's Skill Market

Zaid went into the bathroom and spent a few minutes inside. Although he wasn’t really doing anything.

’Luckily for me, this is a temple built many years ago, when technology didn’t exist. Although it’s been modernized recently, in the end it’s just a renovation of something old. It has security vulnerabilities,’ he thought.

He had managed to outwit the high-tech automated mechanisms of that massive fortress in the middle of nowhere; naturally, for him, outwitting the defenses of this place was child’s play.

Furthermore, Valia was awake. Both of their senses were far superior to those of any human in the kingdom—especially hers—and she mentally conveyed to him everything he needed to do to evade detection by someone as powerful as Cardinal Marcellus.

He moved nimbly and escaped through a small window that he barely fit through. Thanks to the darkness outside, no one noticed a small body hanging from one of the temple’s windows.

But Zaid’s eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness; thanks to his heightened senses, he could see just as clearly as if it were daytime.

If he fell, he would tumble down the mountainside and surely kill himself. He scanned the entire wall but didn’t see much to hold onto near him, so he stuck to the original plan.

He jumped toward the windows of other bathrooms and then to the window closest to a storage room further ahead.

Once there, he forcefully opened it and stepped through to the other side.

The warehouse was filled with all kinds of clothes and garments. He frowned as soon as he arrived.

’Why do I have to run away from such kind people? I must go back...’ he thought.

However, his body wouldn’t move. Not because he didn’t want to, but because he felt a powerful jolt to his spirit that prevented him from moving.

Valia realized that wasn’t enough, so she frowned and gave him another jolt... it wasn’t until the third one that Zaid came to his senses again.

’Are your memories being erased?’ she asked curiously. She wasn’t affected by that; her problem was a weakness of spirit that had nothing to do with these people.

Zaid nodded. ’Well, I could handle it on my own for a while. The problem is that it would be really difficult for me to infiltrate if I were alone. It’s as if something were robbing me of my memories.’

’Hmm, I see,’ Valia nodded, but said nothing. She fell deep in thought.

Zaid sighed. He took out the piece of paper he had written on and read it carefully to remember everything. What was happening to him was so strange that he couldn’t explain it.

After reading, he turned and looked at the uniforms of the guards, servants, and others. He grabbed the guards’ uniforms and put them on over the clothes he was currently wearing.

Finally, he peeked out the door and, after making sure he was relatively far from Marcellus, slipped away in the opposite direction, making good use of the guards’ caps to blend in throughout the temple.

-

Cardinal Marcellus frowned as the minutes passed and no one came out. In fact, what had happened to that boy’s aura?

’Did he die?’ he thought, and walked over to the door to knock.

"Young man, are you all right?" he asked...

Silence.

"Did something happen?"

Silence.

He asked several questions and scanned the bathroom with his sense. He couldn’t use it as freely here, but it would work well enough to survey such a small room.

He flung the door open after confirming there was no sign of heat inside.

’Did he escape?’ His eyes widened in shock as he looked at the window. It was half-open...

He had actually escaped through something so small.

’How is that possible?’ His body shook.

Someone had escaped under the influence of the Seventh Night and his own power...

Cardinal Marcellus spun around violently and took two long strides out of the bathroom.

"Cardinal Marcellus, it’s an honor to see you just before the ritual begins." A rather imposing man from the local guard, followed by others, addressed him.

"Third Commander, it’s good to see you," said Cardinal Marcellus when he saw him.

"Is there anything I can do for you, Cardinal?" The commander smiled calmly.

"Find the guest of honor." The expression on Cardinal Marcellus’s face as he said this was somber.

He didn’t want to lose his composure, but had he just been mocked? Him, Cardinal Marcellus?

One of the most powerful men in the kingdom, renowned even beyond its borders.

"Oh, do you mean the Greater Sacrifice? I’ll go get him from his room—he must be there!" exclaimed the commander, clearly in high spirits.

The Cardinal, however, frowned. "Don’t look for him there. He’s not there."

"Huh?"

"...He was with me just a moment ago, and he slipped away from me," he whispered sheepishly... It had been a long time since he’d felt that way.

The commander blinked several times, perplexed. But after a few seconds of silence, he felt anger rising in his throat, though he managed to suppress it.

"Don’t worry, Cardinal. The Strangers are quite cunning and use dirty tricks; he surely used one like that to escape. I’ll reinforce the entrances and exits and search for him thoroughly. In any case..." The commander smiled coldly. "Your wife is with us."

The Cardinal nodded. "Look for him; he can’t have gone very far. I’ll go try to figure out where he is."

--

Far from there, Zaid managed to sneak his way through the entire Temple until he reached the basement. When he arrived, he noticed there was a fairly large number of guards dressed similarly to him.

"Oh, it’s you, Robert. I thought you’d be in the bathroom a little longer, but it’s good to have you here. We were told there’s a bastard trying to escape, and no one knows where he is. Didn’t you see him on your way here?"

Robert... or rather, Zaid disguised as Robert, shook his head. "The Cardinal sent me to check that the captives hadn’t escaped as well." His voice sounded slightly hoarse.

"Robert, are you okay?" The man who greeted him asked in surprise upon hearing his hoarse voice.

"Don’t ask... it embarrasses me," Robert sighed.

It took the man standing in front of him a few seconds to understand, until he burst out laughing. "That’s why I’m telling you that you have to trust more... The goddess can perform miracles, but if you doubt her, she’ll bring your illness back. Tsk, tsk, you’ve been at this for three weeks now."

"Forget about it." Robert sighed...

Inside, Zaid—who didn’t have the slightest idea what this guy was talking about—was eternally grateful that he’d managed to make his voice sound hoarse.

It was like a gift from heaven!

’You should thank me!’ Valia exclaimed from inside, clearly amused. It was her idea to make his voice sound hoarse.

"Sigh, well, you’ll learn. All right, Robert, did the Cardinal send you?" The man pulled out a document and checked when it had last been verified. "It certainly needs to be verified again. It was verified 30 minutes ago, and there are only 5 minutes left before it starts..." The man nodded, marked the folder, and handed it to his colleague before telling Robert to follow him inside.

"The Cardinal is really careful when it comes to this, don’t you think? Even though you weren’t there during the last Seventh Night, it was just like this time. That’s why he’s managed to rise so high." The man smiled. He opened and closed the doors in front of him, and a bone-chilling cold swept toward them.

’It’s a really deep, damp prison.’ Zaid frowned.

There were no other guards around; the guards were the bars themselves, which neutralized the system’s abilities and much of a person’s strength.

Zaid saw people he didn’t recognize. So he kept walking.

The man in front of him was strong—Rank C, no doubt. Killing him was impossible for Zaid. So for a while, he wondered what to do.

It wasn’t until he reached the end that he spotted his companions.

’Even Mr. Khan is there.’ Zaid was surprised. Who would dare to kidnap someone so powerful?

He kept searching until the very end...

’Alice isn’t here.’ Zaid clenched his fists in fury beneath his baggy clothes.

"Phew, looks like they’re all here. Only the bastard who escaped is missing." The man smiled. At a brisk pace, it took them two minutes to cross the entire prison.

"Let’s go back. We won’t be the ones here when the ritual begins. We have to go upstairs..."

He hadn’t finished speaking when sharp claws flashed before his eyes and struck him in the face.

He felt dizzy, but the pain of two daggers piercing his flesh jolted him awake.

His body flew backward and slammed into the wall.

"You... Robert, do you want to die?!" the man roared when he noticed the two daggers in his companion’s hands.

However, he suddenly remembered that his companion didn’t use daggers... And then he looked at the black cat flying behind his "companion."

A black cat... It reminded him of the description of the man he was supposed to find. He was surprised that a cat could even fly, but that was the least of his concerns!

"You... aren’t Robert."

Zaid smiled and pulled off his hood, leaving only his Gio mask in place. "Of course not."

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