It was her first time properly outside. Past the barrier that isolated the mansion and its surrounding area from the rest of the continent.
This endless, dark and necrotic desert. It spread far into the distance, certainly further past even the distant horizon.
Fragments of marrow and undead bones scattered the dark grey sand beneath her feet.
Kumi crouched down, wiping away the first layer of sand with her feet. Beneath, just more sand.
'What did I expect?'
The ground here, covered in sand. The air, cursed with unnatural Blight.
Yet the sky. The sky was expansive and clear. Nearly no clouds lingered above and the countless unmoving and shining stars of night complemented well the large silver moon.
Nothing blocked the view above, the cosmos was there to be seen after all.
Kumi's eyes fell down on to the encampment.
'Hilde's scouts brought me this far. They'll remain a good distance away but they will keep watch. If nothing goes wrong and I follow the plan, this should be simple.'
Kumi took in a deep breath.
In preparation for this mission, Ayaka had given her some high quality knives to use. Two basic normal ones and two additional ones for throwing.
The ones meant for throwing had runes for fire. They were only meant to be used as a signal for the scouts.
Kumi's hair was hidden away behind the hood of her new outfit. Specifically created for night missions, it was coloured the same dark grey as the sand beneath with sections of it coloured black.
'It's fine.'
Kumi reassured herself and moved out, activating {Residue Reduction}.
The terrain surrounding the encampment was clear. There were very few large bone fragments and rocks to hide behind when approaching.
Thankfully, the night watch seemed lousy and there was a trail of small hiding spots leading straight to the edge of the camp.
It was in a moment like this where Kumi thanked herself for being short.
It didn't take much effort to reach the edge of the camp. The only issue Kumi had to deal with was the continuous de- and reactivation of her stealth skill since the secondary effect only activated once the skill itself was used, it wasn't a continuous effect.
The camp had one semi-large tent at the centre top edge, two very large tents on one side a few stalls and storage tents on the other side and a few campfires and seating areas in the centre.
Kumi disregarded the question of how they managed to drag all of these things here with no visible mode of transport, as she sneaked around the back of the storage tent.
'I don't see anyone in the vicinity of these storage tents. I don't hear anyone either.'
Deeming it clear, she crouched down and tore a small hole in the tent with her knife before climbing through.
Upon entering the tent, she again de- and re-activated {Residue Reduction}. With its high level, something as small as a hole in a tent should easily be patched up.
And it was. Mostly patched up, that is.
Kumi wanted to click her tongue as her entrance wasn't perfect but refrained. Turning to face the inside of the storage tent, she turned the corner around a barrel as her eyes landed on one of the people on night watch.
The man had a cigarette burning between his lips as he was pissing in the corner of the tent, onto a small wooden box.
Kumi paused for a second before slowly backing up so that the man couldn't turn his head and see her.
The man let out a sigh as he pulled up his pants and yawned.
Then, as if his peripheral vision were on some kind of outrageous level, or simply due to luck, he turned his head as his eyes met Kumi's straight on.
Kumi hesitated for only a moment.
She made her move a second before she noticed the man take in a deep breath.
Kumi pounced onto him, grabbing him by the jaw and slamming him against the ground before he could alert anyone or react to her attack in any way.
She shoved her arm in his mouth as she took out a dagger and immediately impaled him through the side of his neck.
Still, this scuffle created enough sound for another night watch guard to notice.
'Shit. Sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you.'
Kumi thought to herself as she glanced out the storage tent.
"Hey, Ty? Are you doing what I think you're doing? I saw you go in there, you know?"
The guard asked out loud as he approached.
'Damn. Damn it. Shit.'
Kumi couldn't let the body be discovered.
Yet if the body was hidden or missing, that would be just as bad.
Her mind in stressed silence, Kumi was thinking.
'Screw it. Let's try it.'
Kumi picked up the body by its jaw, the pants around the waist still loose. She again used {Residue Reduction} to get rid of the blood and cigarette traces that covered the ground.
'Again, sorry. This is so damn embarrassing.'
Kumi walked backwards into the corner, holding up the corpse as best as she could, trying not to fall down.
There was no direct light in the storage tent so she could blend in well.
'It has to be the corner he just used too... ugghhh. gross.'
Kumi stood on the tips of her toes, holding the corpse as straight as possible while kicking his legs into place so it would look like it was naturally standing.
'One more detail...'
With her other hand, that wasn't holding up the corpse, she grabbed both of his hands and crossed them in front of his waist.
She held the hands in place, stopping them from hanging from his side by raising her knee.
A small lantern entered the tent first followed by the other guard.
Trying to muffle his laugh, he snickered before whispering.
"Pfft. I knew it, Ty. I won't snitch, that loser deserves to have some piss for breakfast. Keep it down though, asshat. Doing it too often will have all us on night watch punished."
'In a normal interaction, at this point, he would expect an answer of sorts. But he can't talk because he has a hole in his neck.'
"Ty? You good?"
'How would Vaeril answer...?'
Kumi thought of the only person who she believed would honestly find himself in such a situation or similar.
Kumi grabbed one of the corpse's hands and carefully curved its fingers, holding on tight to it as best as possible.
Hiding her arm behind the corpse's she raised its hand to the side, showing a middle finger towards the other guard.
"Ah, right, right. I'll keep quiet. Be sure to piss in his bread too, hehe."
The man then glanced outside the tent, scanning the area to make sure no one was watching, before leaving the tent with a whistle.
'Holy... Holy shit that worked...'
Quietly and slowly, Kumi placed down the corpse and dragged it behind the storage barrels, opening the hole to the tent back up and dumping him behind it.
'I'll cover you back up too, little guy. Sorry, again.'
Kumi mentally commented as she pulled up the corpse's pants fully before again closing the hole to the tent.
'They only keep watch inside the camp, not stepping foot outside to look search behind the tents. So for the time being, it should be fine.'
Kumi glanced out of the storage tent, again in stealth mode, she entered the next storage tent besides her, making her way towards the leader's tent at the top centre of the camp.