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Chapter 15: The Chance

Two Months Later:

"Watch out!"

Eirlet huffs out a breath as he narrowly pulls Lowry to the side, just dodging the large -Boom- palms slamming into the ground.

"It's down for now, get us out of here!" Isla shouts into his ear, making him wince slightly but not complaining given he's trying to do exactly as she said.

He snaps the reins once, pushing Lowry to his limit to escape the disoriented titan.

'Why didn't I bring my ODM gear? Oh right, cause I'm a paranoid dumbass,' he berates himself, gaining a scowl once he doesn't see any sort of cover in sight, just an ever-expanding meadow.

They keep up the pace for the next few minutes, the titan, fortunately, forgetting about the two of them once it stood up, walking away in a random direction.

Once he's sure there aren't any titans in sight, he lets Lowry slow himself into a more manageable pace, one which is still as fast as a normal horse's gallop. Guiding Lowry with a single hand, Eirlet signs to his passenger behind him, "You get what you wanted?"

Although he doesn't turn to look, Eirlet can tell how happy she is by the excitement in her voice, "Oh yeah! I don't know who the hell that was but they were loaded! We have to go back next time, there's still a bunch of rooms we didn't check. Hell, the military gear on the bodies are worth a pretty penny!"

Eirlet nods at that, 'Everything there would be enough to set me up for the next year or two, with that I can get better information than I can right now.'

Gazing around the meadow, Eirlet's eyes narrow on a dark shape a ways away on the ground, unmoving but out of place compared to the green grass around it. Pulling the reins to the side, he directs Lowry towards the shape, grimacing once he catches whiff of a rotten scent as they near.

"Aw hell, is that a death ball?" Isla says with some disgust.

Stopping a few meters away, he nods, gazing upon the congealed ball of blood and corpses, most stripped of flesh down to the bone from decomposition, all except for one.

"Seems we found Lewis" he signs to Isla who queasily looks away after a second, himself dragging his gaze away from the rotten face of a man he's seen for the past year.

Not wanting to stay around the ball of corpses for long, and not wanting to deal with Isla vomiting, he pushes Lowry to gallop away.

The silence doesn't stay long as they meet another titan on their way back, fortunately not an abnormal so they easily outpaced it but it was enough to get their previous encounter out of their minds.

They reach the wall and soon, the elevator without issue, and fortunately not needing to wait long before they're pulled up with the rest of their fellows.

'Seems no one died this time,' Eirlet observes, looking over familiar faces all accounted for, nearly all sporting brand new clothing and gear, a vast difference compared to when they started dirt poor, some even having horses like them, though common bred.

"I will be missing the next run," he signs to Isla.

"Oh… well that sucks, but the place is pretty far out so we can head there anytime," she responds with a small frown.

He raises an eyebrow, 'She's never been mad before…'

He shoves his elbow back into her stomach, making her let out a huff of breath in pain, "Hey!"

"What is wrong?"

Turning around at her silence, he waits for her to answer as she bites her lips in thought.

"I… have a bit of a debt built up," she grudgingly says, just loud enough for him to hear.

Both of his eyebrows shoot up at that, "You are not someone who would do that."

"I'm not, it's just… I was pretty desperate after the wall fell and I needed some way to keep myself up. One thing led to another and I found some people willing to help me out, for a price."

She squeezes his sides a little, "I did some odd jobs, but the interest kept piling up, so once this came up I went for it. It was this or I'd be sent to Aurum to 'work'."

She sighs before looking at him with a bright smile, " I want the next run to be my final one, to finish this and try to start fresh. You've helped me out a lot, more than you know, and know that if you ever need anything, anything at all, I'll be in your corner." She finishes with a tight hug.

Eirlet doesn't react, still in shock at the story she just blasted at him, the last bit and the hug. After a few seconds, he slowly brings a hand up and awkwardly pats her on the back and she lets go after a few more seconds with a small grin.

He regrets the warmth leaving him after she ended it but focuses once they reach the top to transfer over to the next elevator.

"Oh yeah, keep an eye on your mail, you may or may not be getting something important sooner or later," she says cryptically.

Eirlet cocks his head at her as she gets off Lowry, trying to think of what but nothing comes to mind. Isla herself ignores his questions with a slight smile and skips off with a wave, leaving Eirlet confused and a little annoyed.

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Six Days Later:

Eirlet silently pulls himself back up just as two men walk down the hall below, a lantern held by one along with the muskets strapped around their shoulders. He waits until the light from the lantern fades away around the corner before dropping down from the rafters, the plush carpet below dampening the sound of his fall.

Turning to the only door present within the hall, he swiftly picks the lock and shuts the door behind him, revealing an opulent office, 'Just like every other rich person.'

Knowing where he needs to look, he goes around the large wooden desk and pushes the chair away from its place before crouching down into the gap for one's legs. Running a hand along the hardwood, he places a slight amount of pressure as he does so until he finds two spots that give in. Placing both hands on those areas, he pushes down and forward, the wood giving easily enough as it slides out from the floor.

Putting the cover to the side Eirlet immediately gets to work on the pages and letters within, all seemingly harmless with letters that seem personal and official paperwork on taxes and such, 'But these are far from harmless,' he muses as he starts jotting down in his own notebook keywords. Names, locations, number of 'merchandise', money, anything that seems remotely important.

Reading another letter, he pauses as he notices the context, 'It has been long since we have met my friend, many of the family are worried about your well-being. Hence I implore you to attend the reunion, it will do well to ease the worries of our elders.'

'Reunion?' Eirlet frowns, shifting through the letters he had gone through, he quickly skims through the one that had the same word within.

'The turn to the month of flowers. That's in two days.'

He knows that none of these letters would be placed so hiddenly if they were just personal, 'No, this might be what I need. The Rosewald family is just made up of the head and his wife, the 'family' might be those part of the Umbrella, the elders could even be some of those higher up in the organization.'

Now with a timeline in his head, Eirlet throws the rest of the letters back into the cubby. Sliding the panel back into place, he pauses as he hears footsteps near the door. Slowly pushing the chair back, he hides around the corner of the desk and watches as a light nears the door, but soon vanishes without stopping.

Letting out a breath, Eirlet turns back to the wall behind the desk, a majority of it made of windows, 'They sure do love their windows.'

Noticing no way to open these ones, instead, he brings his eyes higher up to the ceiling where a skylight filters moonlight down into the dim office. Heading to the ladder present for the multiple levels of shelves for books, he picks it up and places it near the center of the wall.

It doesn't take much for him to scale the skylight, especially since the rafter holding up the large chandelier was in easy reach from the ladder, getting him close enough to unlock and push open the window with his bow.

Looping it back behind him, Eirlet crouches down before jumping high up, easily grabbing hold of the edge and pulling himself through the gap. Closing it behind him, he crosses the roof to the side of the mansion and peeks his head over the edge down to the street beyond the fenced-off property.

Many people were still milling around the area, bystanders looking on from their houses, MPs keeping those at the ends of the streets away whilst talking to a group of people who look barely in control of lashing out to one another. Within the property itself, two groups of guards talk amongst each other as they watch the street, particularly the pile-up of carriages and carts blocking nearly the whole width of the street.

"And I keep telling you! Some brat threw something that let off these little explosions! Ol' Nessie is scared out of her wits!" An older man says passionately to an MP as he pats a horse that nervously stays in place.

Pop

A singular small explosive goes off in the street, letting off a small crack and smoke but it's enough to send the horses into anarchy.

"Not again! Nessie! Come back!" The old man yells as his horse neighs wildly and breaks free of his grasp, galloping down the street along with a few of its brethren who also got loose.

As horses and their owners run around with MPs trying to keep the order and save the bystanders from stampeding horses, Eirlet takes the distraction of the guards below to head a little further away and jump onto a tree, one large enough to handle his weight and get himself over the fence.

None noticed the shaking of the tree as a body clambers down it, nor as a young teen drops onto the street below and grabs a bundle of bread heaved over his back.

Flowing into the chaos of the fleeing crowd he casually splits off from the terrified crowd and into an alley, soon far away from the mansion and now near the marketplace of the capital, though one with few shops open given the time of night.

He walks into one such place, a small restaurant seemingly run by the rather large man behind the counter lazily reading a book. Passing the trio sitting at the only occupied table with a nod, he swings himself around the counter and into the back, the man barely giving him a glance before looking back down to his book.

Heading up the stairs present in the kitchen, he enters one of the two doors available into a near barren room, filled with only a bed and a table. Dropping his pack, Eirlet throws his notebook with the other three on the table, some opened and filled with writing and others stuffed with pieces of paper.

Flopping down onto the bed, Eirlet shuts his eyes with a groan, 'Just two more days and I can be out of this hell hole.'

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The Next Day:

Eirlet looks through the window of a shop, munching on a piece of bread he tore off a loaf he's been carrying around as he seemingly gazes at the antiques held within. In actuality however, Eirlet was peering at the buildings behind him using the reflection of the mirror, getting a clear look of the other side of the street along with the carriage that just pulled to a stop in front of it.

Eirlet takes another bite as a man wearing a top hat steps out of his carriage, a cane with a golden handle in hand as he straightens out his lanky body. Tossing the rest of the loaf in his mouth, he crosses the street as the man enters the building, the door swinging open after a single knock.

He passes by the carriage and goes into the passageway leading to the courtyard of the buildings on the block. People don't linger long around the courtyard as Eirlet loiters in the shadow of a tree near the back of the building, and once he sees no one entering, he gets to work.

Turning around, Eirlet leaps up and grabs hold of a branch, using it to pull himself up as he starts climbing up the tree, taking care to keep the branches from shaking too much. He pulls himself nearly the whole way up the tree, about three stories in the air before he stops. Shifting himself around, Eirlet peers through the leaves blocking both himself and his vision and into the window a short distance away.

He could only see a portion of the room but enough to get a good idea of the operation happening here. On a table he could see stacks of coins littering the table, mainly gold with a few silver, looking like quite a fortune. Standing right beside the table he could see two people, a man wearing formal slacks along with a puffy dress shirt, quite nervously standing in front of the man with a top hat with his head down as the noble-looking man calmly speaks to him.

'Hmm… looks like something happened since last week, Renbolt wasn't nearly as-' Eirlet cuts his thoughts off as he sees the man strike the accountant in the face with his cane handle first, dropping him to the ground.

Renbolt keeps talking to the downed man with a slight twinge of annoyance on his face before eventually turning to leave. Eirlet squeezes himself further away from the window as the man stumbles to his feet, holding a hand on his jaw with his lip bleeding blood down his chin.

He watches as the man slumps into his seat, blankly looking at the coins on his desk before slamming a fist down on the table, collapsing some of the stacks.

"Dammit!" Eirlet could faintly hear his yell through the glass.

Silently, he slips himself down the tree and lands on his feet before slipping away from the area before he gets caught. Opening a notebook as he walks down a street filled with shops showcasing very expensive amenities, he writes down what he saw.

'Lambont Revlo, in charge of the accounts of sales to nobles within Yarckel. Possible avenue for more information or turncoat.' He writes as he dodges past a couple walking arm in arm, 'Difference in attitude from Viscount Marcel Renbolt compared to a week ago, a possible problem which occurred and may be advantageous.'

Eirlet continues to write down some thoughts before closing his notebook as he comes upon his next destination. Looking up at the tower dwarfing every single other building within the district, he watches as various Garrison soldiers mill around the military HQ and supply depot.

Not noticing the person he's looking for, he backtracks through a few streets before walking up to a door and knocking on it. After a few seconds, he could hear shuffling coming from beyond the door before it opens up, revealing an old man wearing oil-covered clothes.

"Ah, ya here to bird watch again lad?" He speaks with a slight accent as he wipes his blackened hands on a piece of cloth and steps back.

With a nod to the man, Eirlet steps past him and into the tower, revealing a workshop on the ground floor with various tools and equipment laying about, ranging from clocks to even guns.

Ignoring the workshop as the old man heads back to work, Eirlet climbs up the stairs circling the walls of the building, soon reaching the uppermost portion. Walking past the boxes and furniture stacked around, Eirlet approaches one of the large windows and pulls out a pair of binoculars.

Looking through the binoculars, Eirlet aims at the decently close HQ, dragging his gaze around the front of the building before locking on a window, on the second 'block' of the building.

Within, he sees a man sitting at a table with his back facing the window, seemingly reading over documents given the pages he shuffles around, 'So the meeting hasn't started yet.'

Not knowing how long it would take, Eirlet drags over a dusty chair and gets comfortable. Occasionally peering through the binoculars, Eirlet waits and watches as the commander goes through document after document, only broken when soldiers come in to report or hand over even more documents.

Needless to say, Eirlet was bored, but he had to wait and so after two hours of sitting around, the meeting he knows little about comes around as he notices three carriages come to a stop in front of the military building.

Eirlet watches as Renbolt steps down from his carriage and hurries to the one in the center of the procession, standing to the side as the driver -one wearing a Garrison jacket and ODM gear- opens the door, letting the woman step out. Eirlet only catches a glimpse of her yellow dress as she, the Viscount and two Garrison soldiers -presumably her guards- walk through the double doors leading to within the building, trailing respectively behind the lady.

Dragging his gaze back to the office, he sees the commander cleaning his table and sending the last of his documents with his secretary and by then, the door to his office opens, revealing the procession.

The commander immediately walks around the table and greets the two, the middle-aged lady -wearing a fair amount of makeup and a quite expensive-looking dress- with a kiss to the hand, and the Viscount with a shallow bow, getting one in return.

'So Lady Adelaide is part of the Umbrella leadership as well,' Eirlet watches as she lifts a fan in her hand, 'Where'd she get that?', and covers her smile at the commander's words as they sit on the couches within.

He opens his notebook once more as the three continue to chat with the Viscount and commander talking the most and Adelaide interjecting minimally, though clearly getting their whole attention with every word, 'Lady Adelaide Litzen, wife of Marquis Geoffery Litzen who is in charge of the citizens based in western Sina. High probability of being part of the Umbrella and if she is then so is her husband, possibly acting as his representative and is in contact with Viscount Renbolt and Commander Lewis of Yarckel.'

Eirlet's eyes gaze down back to the carriages where he can see the last of them being loaded with crates of gear, none of which he can see but he can guess what they are, 'The commander is a bribed supplier of military gear, ranging from guns to ODM gear along with providing soldiers as personal guards.'

Seen enough, Eirlet tucks his notebook away and slips down the tower, leaving a silver on one of the old tinkerer's tables who doesn't notice him, invested in his work and letting Eirlet silently slip away.

Eirlet thinks as he slips into his room, 'The structure of the Umbrella is flimsier than I thought if this is considered their second stronghold,' he tosses himself on his bed and gazes at the ceiling, 'The Marquis are clearly at the top, with Earl's seemingly acting as drop off or resting points to transport whatever cargo their carrying, both use the many Viscount's who lost their land in Rose to do their dirty work. Everyone from the top has blackmail on those below so none can act out of turn without being ganged up on, and with commander's under their thumb, they can get charged with nearly anything under the law before they could spill.'

He turns himself to the side, 'But their lower-level men are the weak points, nearly all of them are scum, opportunists or both, it wouldn't take much to split them but the nobles would just throw coin until greed overcomes their rationality. Those that can't are likely blackmailed or just taken care of in 'random' bandit attacks outside the districts.'

Eirlet shuts his eyes as he hears everything quiet from the floor below, 'Tomorrow, a lot of nobles based around here should be there, the names should be enough for Sherbolt and that'll be enough coin saved to start planning to head back out, back home.'

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The Next Day:

Eirlet makes sure his mask is in place before he peaks around the tree, eyeing past the metal fence barring his way and towards the front of the lit-up mansion. He could see more than a dozen carriages already parked to the side of the manor, each more opulent than the last, with even more making their way down the long driveway.

Moving his gaze past the Rosewald couple he followed a few kilometres outside of Yarckel and into wall Sina, he notes the various nobles he's investigated the past few days along with many more he didn't even hear about from locals or his own look into noble correspondences.

Eirlet watches as Commander Lewis walks into the mansion, wearing a more formal officer's uniform, laughing with a lady intertwined with his arm and another man wearing the same exact uniform, 'Another commander? Hmm… might be from Krolva but if he's from another district then that's a problem.'

Looking away he looks to the side of the mansion, watching two-man patrols move back and forth along each fence with a guard dog, all armed with muskets, though he eyes about three of them with swords, swords seemingly brought out from a history book.

'I didn't think they made any swords other than flesh-cutting ones,' Eirlet eyes one of the men with a sword near the front gate, directing the other guards to different carriages, 'So the ones with swords are the leaders. If they have them then they know how to use them, which means they're veterans and now I gotta watch out for proper ODM users.'

Slinking a bit further away from the fence as he sees one of the patrols come back around, he waits for them to pass before heading further down the side of the property, where he comes across a vibrant garden beyond the fence.

'Got my entrance,' moving even further away, Eirlet finds himself a fallen log where he unclips his ODM and lays it behind the log.

Approaching the clearing between the treeline and the fence, Eirlet looks down at the patrol who look to be making their way back. Right as they pass, the dog not even noticing him, he makes sure his quiver is fastened tight around him before he leans forward and pushes off into a sprint, clearing the clearing in five lunges he leaps onto the fence, grabbing onto the mass of vines growing on it and climbing himself up and around.

Landing in a crouch, Eirlet looks around the garden, walled in the shape of a square with large hedges acting as barriers and the interior covered in shorter hedges, bushels of trees and the exquisitely crafted fountain acting as the centrepiece, 'Damn, whoever lives here has good taste.'

Staying low so that he can at least be partially covered by the flowers, he slowly makes his way to the side of the mansion, thankfully seeing no one on the hanging balcony looking over the garden.

Reaching the double doors leading to within the building. Eirlet curses as the door doesn't budge, and with no keyhole in the door, he curses even more, 'Must only open from within.'

Backing up, he decides to find another way in. Planting his feet down, he gets as much traction as he can before pushing off into a run, getting closer and closer to the solid wall of the mansion before he pushes off the ground. Planting a foot on the wall, Eirlet rapidly moves his feet up the wall, stepping three times before pushing himself off the wall and grabbing onto the balcony.

Grunting in effort, held up only by his fingers, he slowly pulls himself up, getting his elbows above the lip of the floor.

Click

Two figures push open the balcony door, both arm in arm, mumbling to one another and giggling all the while. Eirlet breathes out a shaky breath as he once again hangs by his fingers, listening intently to the young-sounding couple as they start getting… comfortable.

'What the hell are they even doing here? Parents couldn't afford a nanny?'

Knowing the two won't be leaving quick enough, Eirlet waits until the two stop talking and start getting their romance on before he speaks over the edge of the floor. Seeing the two more engrossed in one another than their surroundings and facing the garden, Eirlet risks getting himself up and out of there.

Quietly pulling himself up, he lightly steps himself into the mansion, thanking whoever does maintenance on the doors as it doesn't make a sound as it swings shut behind him just as the two push themselves down onto the bench.

Sighing in relief at both escaping that and getting inside, Eirlet quickly pulls his mind back into focus as he looks down the hall he's in, one looking exactly like all the other noble mansions he's been in. Plush carpet, expensive-looking paintings and busts of various people lining the walls, typical noble stuff.

'Don't know exactly what I'm looking for, best bet is to find a noble part of the Umbrella or a servant… whichever I find first.'

Plan in place, Eirlet starts his trek through the mansion, passing by numerous rooms, many just guest rooms or various other rooms nobles deem important to have. But he knows he's getting closer to the ballroom as the sound of music and chatter starts getting louder and louder.

As he peeks behind a corner where he hears voices coming from, he quickly brings his head back, 'Shit, they like staying in groups,' down the hall he could hear the numerous nobles talking and laughing with one another in a lounge type room, with even more talking in the hall.

Knowing he won't be able to get anything from them, he backs up and heads back the way he came, 'Okay, plan A is a no go, now let's try plan B.'

Heading down a staircase he'd seen earlier, Eirlet starts towards the rear of the building where he saw many servants and chefs moving back and forth from the storehouse, likely where the kitchen is and where the heads of various employees are right now.

Stepping on the landing between the floors, Eirlet quickly backtracks to hide behind the stairs as he hears the sound of voices approaching from around the corner.

"...then don't bring anything from the basement cellar, the lord and lady said nothing there is to be touched, even if their cohorts go through the ones in storage." He hears an older-sounding man say sternly.

"Yes Mr. Holmes," a young woman deferentially replies.

Hearing both turn down the hall in front of the stairs, Eirlet peeks his head around and sees a gray-haired man dressed formally with coattails trailing behind him, white gloves pushing a metal cart full of pastries, wine and food. He raises an eyebrow when he sees a maid pushing another cart full of wine around a corner where he roughly thinks the ballroom is, whilst the man continues down the hall, away from the party.

'Seems I found the head butler.'

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, he peeks around the corner where the two employees came from where he sees a waiter with an empty tray head into a bustling room, likely the kitchen.

No one in sight, Eirlet prances down the hall, following behind the butler out of sight as they head down the very long hallway. Hiding behind a suit of olden metal armour, Eirlet watches as the butler stops in front of two large doors, reaching all the way to the ceiling before he opens them and enters with his cart, shutting the doors behind him.

With his senses on high alert, he quietly approaches the door and puts his ear near it whilst keeping an eye and ear to his surroundings.

"...we are progressing on schedule with minimal suspicion, none have the full scope of what is happening as of yet." He hears a muffled voice say through the door, though male.

"But that is not why we are here Marquis, my superior is… concerned, about the various tasks you have had the organization do, many quite questionable to us." A dull female voice responds to the Marquis.

"They are of no concern to you Lieutenant, you should be grateful that I even deign to push resources into this farce of a search for a man that likely died outside the walls."

"The only reason you even have these resources is because of us, so I would take care in what you say, else…"

Eirlet pulls away before he could hear the rest of the sentence, hearing voices coming from down the hall he quickly turns and slips into a room next to the one he was listening into.

Looking around the small guest room, Eirlet makes a beeline to the wall separating the two rooms and strains his ears, hoping to hear more, 'Damnit, it's too thick, everything is muffled.'

Sighing in annoyance, Eirlet creeps back beside the door he entered from and waits, listening as two people -guards from the sound of it- walk past the room.

Waiting until he hears both voices peter away to silence, he reaches a hand for the doorknob but freezes as a scream cuts through the air from the adjacent room, dulled immensely by the walls but loud enough for him to catch before abruptly cutting off.

Cursing in his mind, Eirlet pulls his hand back and reaches for the knife behind his back, brandishing it as he heads for the wall and strains his ears for any sound from the room.

"...oh well, we'll get another."

Eirlet freezes as he hears a new voice speak, a voice he's intimately familiar with. His eyes widen, his mind jumping back into the past as his thoughts get foggier by the second.

"Ahh damn. Sorry kid but your Dad did good work on me so you'll have to deal with it," his breath quickens as he feels the phantom pain on his neck, "Well no matter, you'll be dead either way."

He could feel his hand tightening around the handle, so tight he's almost certain it could break but he couldn't care less. Leaping into action, Eirlet slams the door to the room open, shoving it so hard that part of the doorframe splinters itself. Slamming a foot onto the ground, he turns to the double door and grabs onto the handles and pushes, but feels nothing give.

The handles jiggle but they don't move, so he doesn't waste any time in backstepping and ramming his shoulder into the door where he hears a crack. Slamming his shoulder a few more times, he feels the door giving more and more before he stops and slams a boot into the seams of the heavy doors, resulting in a shattered lock and the doors slamming inwards and onto the walls.

Eirlet enters the room, knife ready but the haze on his mind clears a little as he looks around in confusion, the room is windowless with only a chandelier above giving off light in the room. The only piece of furniture is the long dining table with more than a dozen chairs, extending all the way to the other side of the room where at the head, a corpse lies, slumped over onto the table face first.

Tentatively stepping further in, he glances around but sees no one within the room nor any way to exit the featureless room, no windows and no other door. Stepping closer to the body, Eirlet comes to a stop right before it, looking down and noticing the other corpse laying on the floor in a pool of his own blood with his face frozen in shock and fear, 'The butler was the one that screamed.'

Leaving the two bodies for now, Eirlet quickly starts to run his hands over the walls of the room, looking for anything that could give away a secret entrance, 'There has to be something here, no one can just disappear!' He frantically goes around the room, knowing he doesn't have much time before people come down the hallway or the killer gets away.

Finding nothing, Eirlet slams a fist on the wall, 'Damnit! Damnit! DAMNIT!' With each curse, he punches the wall, each with his full strength where on the last he leaves a stain of blood on it.

Breathing deeply, Eirlet focuses his mind as he approaches the well-dressed Marquis and starts searching him, finding nothing within the man's pockets to give away who he was meeting with.

Eirlet ducks down and starts searching the pockets of the butler, speeding his search up as he hears voices coming from the hall and from the sound of it, saw the broken door.

Turning the body over as footsteps come closer and more voices join the first, Eirlet pulls an envelope from the inner pocket on his vest, the paper slightly soaked in blood. Hoping it's something, Eirlet jams it into a pocket before sheathing his knife and pulling out his bow as he sees two people come to a stop in front of the door.

"What the- my Lord!" One of them exclaims in fright, eyes locking onto the body.

Eirlet leaps himself up onto the table and runs down its length, the two moving their wide eyes away from the body and to him.

"HELP! INTRU-" his yell for help is cut off as Eirlet launches himself from the table and slams a foot into both of their chests, slamming them down to the ground.

"Ooof!" They gasp as Eirlet springs off their bodies, leaving them withering on the ground as he sprints down the hall he came from.

Soon enough he hears exclamations coming from behind him, the two victims yelling as more footsteps trample their way.

Approaching the steps, two guards run down from the kitchen, stopping in front of the staircase with their muskets ready in their hands.

"Stop!" One yells as they both aim their muskets at him.

Widening his eyes, Eirlet doesn't stop as he takes a leap to the side, just dodging -Bang- a bullet from the man as it whizzes past him and down the hall. Ignoring the screams from behind, Eirlet slams his back into a statue, pulling an arrow from his quiver as another -Bang- bullet takes a piece off the marble

Twisting around the statue, Eirlet pulls his arm back and releases two arrows in quick succession, both -thunk thunk- landing straight in the hearts of the guards, both dead before they reach the ground.

Sprinting past them, and the mass of guards coming from down the kitchen, Eirlet scrambles up the stairs, taking two steps at a time. Reaching the landing, he grabs onto the railing and pivots himself around to the next flight of steps where from the second floor he could hear even more footsteps.

Halfway up, Eirlet sees the tip of a gun peeking out from the lip of the floor, the guard holding it soon following but before he could even register the intruder, Eirlet swings his bow straight at the man's face, knocking it into him with a satisfying -Crack-.

The man is stunned but not downed, so Eirlet stays low as he comes up the steps and reaches a hand up and grabs a fistful of the man's shirt before pulling him down. Eirlet starts his sprint on the second floor, ignoring as the man tumbles down the staircase and crashes into another person coming up.

'Okay, just need to make it to my gear and I can get the hell out of here.'

Bang Bang

Gunshots ring out behind him as bullets whiz by him, ducking down and keeping as small as a target he plants a foot down in front of him to slow down as he comes upon another hall, immediately turning into it as another barrage comes down the hall.

Putting as much speed into his strides, he pushes himself down the hall where he can see nobles milling about who yelp in surprise as he sprints past them.

Bang

A single shot rings out and that's enough for the hallway to delve into chaos, lords and ladies pushing and shoving as they run around to escape the firefight and into the side rooms.

"Damnit! Don't shoot them!" He can faintly hear someone yell from behind.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Eirlet pushes past the gaggle of nobles and comes upon an intersection. Turning to the left to head back to the gardens, he immediately ducks down as a blade flashes in the candlelight, passing by where his neck would've been a moment ago.

Rolling backwards, he dodges the subsequent vertical strike and the blade strikes the ground, cutting into the floor below as Eirlet gets to his feet.

He gets a good look at the guard, big and heavily muscled with scars to show that he knows how to fight, "Where are you gonna go now boy," He says with a grin, hefting the blade into his hands.

Eirlet doesn't give him a moment, spinning on his heel, Eirlet heads down the opposite hall, leaving the man to gawk in surprise, "Hey! Come fight me like a man!"

As he hears the man's heavy footsteps come in pursuit, he pushes past even more nobles who gasp in fright as they allow the two to pass.

By now Eirlet could hear the music from the ballroom getting even louder, and soon enough, he turned into a hall where ahead he could see nobles chatting with drinks in their hand, standing by a railing that led into a large open room.

Ahead along with the nobles he could see two guards standing at the end of the hall, stoically looking over the hall from their vantage point with swords on their waists.

"You two! Stop him!" The man that's chasing him yells out, startling the two guards to turn and look at them.

Eirlet curses as the two readily spring into action, drawing their swords which gain the attention of the rest of the nobles as they gasp and move away, giving the three a clear view of each other.

Step after step, Eirlet gets closer and the two brandish their swords with both hands, ready to intercept and dice him. Passing by a table, Eirlet hooks the curved end of his bow into an expensive-looking vase's handle and with a twist, launches it at one of the men.

The man squawks in surprise as he raises his arms to cover his head as it slams into him. The man stumbles back, his guard broken and his companion moves forward to cover for him, swinging his blade diagonally.

Not enough space to dodge, Eirlet brings his bow up, 'Please don't be a scam,' he prays as the blade meets the bow… and scrapes along the edge of it, redirecting the blow to the side.

Pulling his bow back up, he swings it up and cracks it into the man's jaw, this time hard enough that he saw a tooth launch from his mouth.

As the man drops to the ground, Eirlet leaps himself over the body and passes by the other guard, giving another swing to the side of the man's head, dropping him like a sack of potatoes.

Jogging to the floor looking over the ballroom, Eirlet rapidly looks around as guests step away from him, more from the floor looking up from their food, which soon devolves to everyone stopping what their doing as the guards lining the walls of the room spring into action.

"Freeze!" A guard yells from his left. Looking around, Eirlet could see that he's surrounded by guards coming from all three sides.

As guards close in on his position, Eirlet looks across to the other side of the second floor, where the guards are pulling from their position and towards him. Slinging his bow, Eirlet takes two steps back before putting as much strength as he could into his steps, taking three before he jumps and plants a foot on the railing and leaps.

He could feel the hands of a guard graze by his feet as he goes airborne, flying above the incredulous guests before his hands grab onto the edge of the large chandelier hanging above the room.

Gasps and screams ring out below as the chandelier shakes, the guards behind dumbfounded as the chandelier swings back and forth. Taking a breath, Eirlet swings his legs, putting more momentum into his swings as small candles start falling to the ground below.

Yelps ring out as people run away from the burning wax and by the time he gains enough momentum, the massive doors of the front entrance burst open, revealing a mass of guards, armed with guns, swords, dogs and he even spots three with ODM gear.

"There!" One of the men in the lead wearing ODM gear points up at him, letting the ones with muskets raise their guns up at him.

At the peak of his swing, Eirlet releases his grip, flinging him across the rest of the ballroom just as the chandelier comes under a hail of bullets, utterly destroying it. As shards of glass, candles and metal fall below, raining upon the guests and thereby throwing the room into chaos as everyone tries to escape, Eirlet grunts as he grabs the edge of the railing, just making it.

With a heave, Eirlet pulls himself up over the railing, the guards on the second floor starting their chase to his position and the new guards either following by heading up the main staircase or reloading.

Crack crack

Eirlet's eyes widen as two grapples latch onto the ceiling above him and rather than wait, he turns and sprints down the hall just as the user pulls himself level with the second floor. Senses blaring alarms at him, Eirlet rolls himself to the side, just letting the grapples miss where his torso would've been and instead letting it latch onto the wall on the other end of the hall.

Swinging his bow off, Eirlet just parries one of the swords coming at him as the man zips past but not the other as it leaves a shallow line across his side. Hissing from pain, Eirlet doesn't let the small injury slow him down as he swiftly lets loose an arrow at the man's back, landing it straight in his spine as he slams both feet on the wall, letting loose a wheezing gasp as it pierces through his body.

Bounding down the hall, Eirlet takes a right, leaving the dying man hanging on the wall as he hears the sound of his pursuers close behind, along with the sound of more ODM gear.

Eirlet's ears prick up as he hears the sound of an animal approaching fast. Quickly spinning around and dropping to the ground, Eirlet lets loose an arrow into the mouth of the leaping canine, piercing it through the roof of its mouth and to its brain, letting the body flop on top of him.

Shoving off the dead animal, Eirlet swings his bow at the second dog, striking it straight in the jaw, not enough to kill it but enough for it to run away with its tail between its legs.

Heading down the hall, Eirlet takes another right, now heading back the exact same way he just came but where he needs to go to escape safely.

As his feet pound on the padded floor, the floor now cleared of any nobles, he sees a door just in front of him slam open towards him. Before whoever on the other side could even fully cross it, Eirlet body slams shoulder first into it, slamming it back the other way and straight into whoever was going through.

The man yells a curse as he hears a body hit the ground, but fortunately it was a guard, and so they dropped their musket as they got hit which Eirlet scoops right up.

"He's over here!"

Bang Bang

Ducking low, Eirlet zig zags through the hall as he hopes to dodge the bullets whizzing down, some unfortunately grazing him but thankfully none hitting him full on.

Reaching another intersection -'How many hallways are there?'- Eirlet's forced to come to a stop as he looks down the right hall, where he needs to go, where four guards are charging down upon seeing him, all armed with swords while the left holds the same but with five.

Abruptly the gunshots stop and in their place comes the familiar sound of ODM gear. Spinning around, Eirlet goes onto one knee as he quickly takes aim at the rapidly moving figures coming down the hall, moving from wall to wall like spiders.

Not rushing it, Eirlet waits, not caring of those starting to surround him. Taking a breath, Eirlet -Bang- releases his shot.

Ping

The shot hits no one, but it does hit the gas canister attached to the leading ODM user and apparent leader, seeing the look on the man's face, Eirlet knows the man knows what's about to happen.

The sheer pressure within the canister is massive, massive enough to accelerate a human's body exponentially, which unbalances the man to go into a spin and even as he tries to correct it, he slams into his companion's wires, getting tangled up in it and forcing them both to go down hard. As that happens, the gas from the canister releases smoke into the air, quickly filling the hall and washing over both Eirlet and the approaching guards.

The guards cough and hack up a lung as they try to wave the smoke away from their faces, the distraction letting Eirlet slip in between the guards, leaving them behind as they try to figure out where he went.

'Take a left and -There!' Eirlet slides to a stop and pushes himself down the last stretch as he hears voices rapidly approaching him.

Bang

Slamming into the doors with his shoulder, the doors fly open, revealing the balcony he first entered from. Ignoring the two startled nobles that fall off their bench, Eirlet runs up to them and leaps, pushing off the bench as a launch pad and over the railing.

Thud

Grunting as he rolls onto the ground, he ignores the sound of dogs barking from either side of him and runs for the wall, leaping up high and pulling himself over just as the dogs reach him, just barely missing his feet with the snap of their jaws,

Sweating, Eirlet crosses the clearing and into the treeline, none too late as the patrolling guards push their guns through the fence and -Bang Bang Bang- shoot at him. Luckily the trees and foliage block him enough that none land.

Weaving between the familiar trees, Eirlet leaps over the dead log and sits behind it, pressing his back into it as he takes slow breaths. Pricking his ears, he listens to the forest, not hearing any followers.

'Not for long.'

Grabbing his gear, Eirlet does his best to latch on the familiar weapon quickly. As he pulls on the last few buckles, the familiar sound -Ppshh- of gas rings out into the now silent forest.

Ducking behind the log, he brings his bow back around and quickly nocks an arrow, barely waiting a second before he releases into a gap between two trees where a figure pulls herself into view.

Thunk

"Gurk-" The arrow pierces right through her abdomen.

Crack

Her grunt of pain cuts off as she slams into the trunk of a tree, body folding around it but not dead by the slow speed she was going at due to the darkness. What does kill her is the sharp end of a branch piercing her chest, holding her up as she dyes the tree trunk red by the river of blood pouring out of her.

'If they sent one, there'll be more on the way,' ignoring the bleeding corpse, he slings his bow back over and tightens the last straps as he hears the sound of about five different gas releases cut through the silence of the forest, rapidly approaching his position.

Shooting off a wire, he quickly escapes the area, going faster than he's comfortable with during the night but the bright moonlight wanes some of his worries.

'Just gotta hope they'll be smarter than me and not try to book it through the trees.'

"Sonya!" A cry rings out behind him, making him grimace behind his scarf as a few seconds later, he hears a rapid symphony of gas.

'Shit,' he clicks his trigger as he releases even more gas, shooting off into the forest.