Ruth Dravencourt followed behind the Vales; she was intrigued by the youngest Vale's insights for the trial. According to the intelligence reports she studied about the noble houses, the Vales were the easiest to manipulate using honor, valor and emotions.
The youngest heir to the Vale was Ethan Vale. The report on him said the kid was totally useless. He did not train and could not use any magic even at the age of ten. More interested in making toys than studying. A total waste.
But what she saw from the start of the trial was totally different. Even her father was flabbergasted when both the Vale sons passed the trial for knowledge, and the "so-called waste" even secured the third position.
And today, when Ethan stopped his brother from jumping inside the maze, even came up with a strategy to pass the trial, Ruth's curiosity won. She had to follow Ethan and watch him closely.
"Let's see what you can do little Vale!" Ruth walked into the maze, but the light and shadows moved inside the maze in a weird manner. After one left turn, all three from the Vale household disappeared from sight. Then there was a low hum, and the walls shimmered and vanished.
Ruth found herself standing in Dravencourt's council room. Shadowy figures surrounded her from dark corners. The very shadows seem to come alive.
A raspy voice called out to her," Ruth Dravencourt, you failed the mission. You not only got exposed, you even let your men die for nothing."
Ruth clutched her fists, it was her first time taking a big mission to prove her worth in the family. She was in command of a new team, their mission was to find the nobles connected to a trafficking network.
But one of her team members actually got exposed. The noble house arrested the member and tortured him for information.
Ruth had two options, either rescue her team member and jeopardize the whole mission, or leave the man behind and complete the mission. She chose neither.
Ruth directly went to the noble's house and declared their background. She hoped the noble will collapse hearing the duke family's name, and release their people, but everything went wrong.
The small noble actually had a Rank b super from an enemy nation hiding in their house, who went ballistic, thinking the Dravencourt had found out about him, and they were there to eliminate him.
The simple, get in, announce your name, take your man from the trembling captors, get out operation became a tragic fight. Ruth lost almost her whole team. Her family never blamed her for the failure but it became her nightmare.
Now facing the same illusions, her heart beating faster, even though she knew it was all fake.
She wanted to go back in time and change things, but it was impossible. As the accusing voices came closer and closer, Ruth's emotions became more turbulent.
But something changed in the illusions… the voices became broken, statics…. The world began to collapse on its own.
Ruth looked around curiously, when the floor of the council room changed to something black, smooth but not like marble. There were strange colorful metallic beasts with humans inside. They all started making loud sounds around her.
A man in a black neat dress, with dark spectacles, holds her hand and pulls her from the smooth road, near a gigantic structure.
"What is wrong with you? Stop spacing out agent Ruth, we need you to go in that hotel and save the president."
She blinked, adjusting.
"This is not Solaris…"
A voice came out from a small instrument inside her ear:
AGENT RUTH.
PREVENT THE ASSASSINATION.
DO NOT ALARM THE CROWD.
"Where am I? And what is a president?"
...…..
Marine Arkwright looked at the half depleted magic crystals in the instrument powering the "maze of the stars". When they tested the maze back in academy it took almost a full month to deplete the magic crystals to this level, and that was with senior researchers, professors doing the testing.
Their life experiences were vast, the mechanism could create many illusions based on their subconscious mind. But what is up with these children? How are they creating more complex illusions than old foggies in their sixties?
"I have to report these to my father. At this rate we might not even have enough magic crystals to power this maze anymore." Marine instructed one of her student to keep a tab on the magic crystals and run off to find Benedict.
...
Meanwhile, Ruth Dravencourt has gathered enough knowledge to figure out the scenario.
There is this fat guy, who is given the title of President, will be giving a public speech in a hotel. Some terrorist organization has sent assassins to infiltrate the venue. Their target, the President.
Ruth is one of the "highly trained" super agents of a secret spy agency that works outside the legal boundaries to protect the order in the world. Her mission this time is to protect the President fella.
Ruth tucked herself into a quiet corner and observed.
A tall, fat man in a suit stood on a raised platform, waving to the people.
Around him stood guards with stiff postures and watchful eyes.
The crowd was cheerful, unaware of the danger circling them.
But her trained eyes noticed,
Some guards kept checking certain corners repeatedly.
Others scanned the crowd with nervous glances.
And more stood near the exits, muscles tight, ready.
Ruth drifted closer to a pair of guards, pretending to admire the decorations.
They whispered:
"Assassins are confirmed. Stay sharp."
"We can't cancel the speech now."
"Evacuating this many civilians would cause a stampede."
Ruth's eyes narrowed.
So that was the situation.
Assassins in the crowd…
A leader on stage…
And panic would kill more people than the enemy could.
She thought to herself:
This illusion wants me to protect him quietly. No chaos. No shouting. No mistakes.
Ruth looked up at the stage again.
The President, she still didn't understand what that meant, but he was clearly important.
She slipped along the wall, shadows gliding behind her like tame smoke.
She listened.
A woman adjusting the lights said: "No breaks in the program. Keep rolling."
She read lips in the crowd:
"They said security caught a guy yesterday…"
"Why so many guards today?"
Everything pointed to the same conclusion:
The threat is real.
But they cannot risk the crowd finding out.
Ruth sighed softly.
"Such an inefficient illusion."
Still… she understood. Then the hunt began.
Ruth let her shadow magic seep across the floor, thin and quiet as mist.
She pushed it under tables, behind equipment, up the pillars…
Searching.
Shadows tell stories.
She felt one spot where her darkness bent unnaturally, as if touching another hidden form.
A figure on a balcony, too still, too focused.
A hand hidden inside a jacket.
Another near a window, pacing, waiting for a signal.
And one pretending to fix a camera, staring at the stage too intently.
Three assassins.
Three points of danger.
Ruth whispered calmly:
"Found you."
She tugged lightly on the shadow beneath the stage lights.
A small flicker, enough to draw eyes upward.
Guards noticed movement at the balcony. Their gaze sharpened.
A command barked quietly.
Ruth then guided another flicker across the window frame.
A reflection glinted. the second assassin pulled back.
Security moved, fast and precise.
The third tried to escape through a staff door, but Ruth's shadow grabbed the doorknob, freezing it in place.
Guards rushed in and tackled him before he could flee.
All three taken.
No one screamed.
No one noticed danger had ever been there.
The man on stage kept smiling brightly, looking absurdly proud of his terrible hairstyle.
The crowd cheered.
The world sighed in relief.
Ruth simply stepped back into the darker corner and let the false figures fade.
The bright world dissolved like smoke in sunlight.
She stood again within the Maze of Stars. The illusions confused her, as it could not be from her memories. Looking at the cold walls, she felt uncomfortable and she pulled her cloak closer to her. Her shadow expanded and embraced her body.
Tap..tap….tap… someone came running from the corner, Ruth looked ahead, a head peaked out from behind the wall.
"Ethan Vale?"..
...
Ethan stared at the dark figure that looked like the grim reaper. Then it spoke his name.
"Oh hello! Esteemed grim reaper, I did not know this world has real reapers. Are you here to collect the souls?"
The figure did not reply and walked towards him slowly, and removed the hood.
"Greetings, Ethan Vale, I am Ruth Dravencourt," Ruth stared at him, baffled. "And I do not collect souls. At least not today."
Ethan deadened at the girl around half a foot taller than him, with a gothic style dress. Dravencourt? Isn't that one of the Ducal houses? With Aimi's confirmation, he also greeted the girl with his practised speech for noble people.
"Lady, have you seen a kid with stupid face and golden hair, or a girl with two ponytails?"
After clarifying about what a grim reaper is Ethan asked Ruth if she came across Kael and Temari. But unfortunately Ruth did not came across any of them.
Both decided to proceed farther together when the humming sound came again and the walls shimmered with light.