Aultcray was more impressive than the novels had implied.
Jessica walked around the room. Careful to avoid stepping on the remnants of the massive bed that the King and Queen shared. Feathers, wooden shards and shredded and burnt cloth filled the room. Three bodies. All of them human. Neither were recognizable at a glance.
The scars on the walls, screaming of air blasts and fire told a story of two decently powerful mages fighting her father. It didn't make sense without Jessica's knowledge that he couldn't use the Cane.
The Cane Hero would have made short work of these fools. Not commit to a mutual kill.
Even Aultcray was impossible to identify easily. Only more than a decade's worth of memory regarding the man and the small amount of clothing on his body made it possible to tell.
"How was nothing heard or sensed?" she asked, turning to the Captain standing stiffly at the entrance to the chamber, "This was not a trivial battle."
The man knelt, uncomfortable as he was doing so in full plate armour, "I do not know, Princess." he said, "Please forgive me."
Malty stared at him, tempted to scream at the fool, and have him executed. "Your apology is worthless," she said, "What I need from you, Captain Anderson, are answers. I assume that the Royal Guard is not incompetent which means that they had some means of concealing this battle. Find out all you can. I expect a report within a day."
Anderson, the Captain of her father's guard, looked up and met her eyes, surprise written there. He nodded swiftly and stood up. A deep bow later he turned around and escaped her presence. Malty smirked at his fear before killing her amusement and turning to the nun who had been waiting in the corner.
"Please get him ready for the funeral," she said.
The woman clutched the rosary in her hand and nodded. A knight, one of her guards, studied the bodies of her father's assassins. Malty turned to him. "Send them to the Royal Mages. I want to know everything about these two. Isolate the room for their study as well. I expect preliminary results by tomorrow."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Jessica walked out of the chambers, mind whirring, as possibilities sparked. Her guards clanked behind her. There were a lot of people with excellent reasons to kill Aultcray. He had summoned the Four Heroes last week. Was a pillar of House Melromarc's powerbase and had slaughtered tens of thousands of demi-humans during the Siltvelt-Melromarc wars. Human assassins meant nothing except that whoever wanted him killed could hire some pretty good killers.
Jessica turned to face her bodyguards abruptly. "Bring the Shield Hero here," she said, "Ask politely and if that fails to bring him by force. There might be companions. Make sure to bring them in as well if possible. Take a reasonable force and expect a fight. Remember, I want them alive."
The knight looked stunned but nodded after a glare was sent his way. He quickly barked orders and mustered some soldiers. The head of her shields was a reasonably high ranking nobleman. He'd be able to muster some people.
If Siltvelt was behind this she expected that Naofumi was either already gone or about to leave. If by some chance, they were still here then she was certain that she wouldn't be seeing these knights again. Most of them were below level 40.
Jessica couldn't bring up any pity for them if that occurred.
These fools had killed a great many people on Malty's whims.
The knights scattered leaving on a token force with her. Jessica clutched her Cane hard. Reached her father's study and walked in. The smell of oak and the tangy scent of oranges that her father loved filled it.
Malty had spent many days here with her father. Whenever the first princess failed at something or angered Mirellia, father and daughter would spend some time here. Back when Malty had been something more innocent. Before Mirellia had shattered her dreams of being Queen by choosing a six-year-old.
"Stay here," she commanded and slammed the door shut, letting her memories of Malty fall to the side.
Jessica shivered at how easy it was to act like that Bitch. To pull on her memories and use them. It made something she had not wanted to think about clear. She was not just Jessica or Malty. Whatever she was, was something new, twisted. Or perhaps she was Malty with Jessica's memories or Jessica with Malty's.
It was impossible to say. She could only hope that Medea either didn't exist or was inactive for now.
Jessica studied the Cane in her hand. A series of thoughts had it warp from one form to another in flashes of pale blue light. Each form was something she knew intimately without even opening the status screen. Some forms were locked away due to her low level.
Most she could wield with ease.
She stopped at a form that boosted her water affinity, something the original Malty had lacked utterly and made spell casting a bit easier.
Jessica thought of producing a small ball of water. No chant. No focus on her mana. Nothing. She had expected nothing.
But it worked.
A small, half-meter diameter, orb floated right above her. It looked like normal water. Hell, it was normal...except for the fact that she had somehow summoned it from nowhere and was keeping it afloat.
A thought dispelled the mana created water. Jessica shook when it vanished without a trace. Magic. Something she had not dared to imagine. Something impossible.
And that was the least of what she could do.
Jessica scanned her room. Found several priceless artefacts. Things her father valued. Malty cared little for them. She had never spared them a thought and had found her father's stories about them boring.
The woman inside her body, however, knew that they were excellent for testing her weapon's power up methods.
The businesswoman's memories were far from perfect but she remembered enough. Materials were absorbed, forms enhanced and mastered, stat boosts and skills gained within short minutes. It took her ransacking the room but by the end of half an hour she had tested out every single power-up method she had known from the Four Legendary Heroes and the one the Cane's help menu provided.
She cast the same water spell again.
The orb was massive. Filling almost the entire room and she could do it a hundred times if she needed to. The woman dismissed the ball of water. Stared across the formerly elegant room that had been ransacked.
Jessica laughed. Loud and without restraint. This Cane was probably what trapped her in this body.
It was fitting that it gave her enough power to survive.
