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"Ugh, what a mess." Emilia frowned in disgust as she used the dead girl's clothes to wipe off her hand as best as she could before making her way out of the alley.
Usually, she would have been a lot 'cleaner', but something about this girl ended up rubbing her in a very, very wrong way.
Emilia didn't feel like dwelling on it too much though, and instead focused on her skill instead.
'Huh, so the mark vanishes the moment the 'target' dies… neat. I suppose this can be used to confirm if the target is dead already or not.' She hummed thoughtfully.
It might not be very useful in this case, given that a regular human couldn't possibly live when their heart was torn out of their chest, but against more 'sturdy' opponents she might face in the future, Emilia felt that it might be quite useful.
Cynthia interrupted her thoughts with a cough. "Just so you know, the mark is placed on the body, not the soul."
Emilia frowned. 'I see… should I be worried?'
"Not really, no. Most people die when they're killed."
Emilia felt like she was missing a huge opportunity by not teasing her partner on that point, but she still resisted the urge to interrupt her.
"Only a few can survive long enough with just their souls alone to find another body. There shouldn't be anyone like that in such a low-level world, at least."
'That's good to know.' Emilia smiled.
At the same time, however, she couldn't help but be a little worried about her future. 'So I might face opponents who don't just die when they're killed, huh? That will definitely be annoying. But then again… there has to be a way to destroy someone's soul, too. No one is truly immortal, after all.'
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With her two new abilities and a vastly improved physique, Emilia knew it would be much easier now to get rid of all of her targets than she had ever expected.
Of course, the crimson-haired girl still wouldn't be stupid enough to carelessly startle the snakes in advance. Otherwise, she wouldn't have bothered 'remodeling' the crime scene she left behind to make it appear more normal.
It was still bad enough to give most people nightmares, but Emilia felt like it should be passable as 'particularly vengeful rival gangster's revenge' now, and given the poor condition of that area… maybe no one would bother to even look into it too deeply.
Plus, given that her target had already lost his former position, Emilia felt that she shouldn't encounter as much trouble as she could have if he had still been in office.
Of course, even if that had been the case, with no one being wary of her ability to transform into whoever she wanted, infiltrating almost any place in the world was a trivial matter, as far as Emilia was concerned.
"Let's see now, based on the intel from Noelle, that girl should be staying… there, right?"
Emilia didn't break her stride as she made a note of the place, and it was only a few minutes later that she returned with a bouquet of roses, making sure to stay out of sight of the only two cameras in the area.
It might be unnecessary, but being a little more cautious never hurt.
Luckily, with her ability to sense things in the area around herself using chaos energy, such annoyances were quite easy to spot and avoid.
An hour or so later, the owner of the house returned, looking quite despondent and glum as she threw her purse at the sofa while grumbling.
"Stupid idiot… what does he mean that I can't have as much fun as before and have to keep a low profile? What about the promise of never letting me be wronged even if I couldn't be his official wife? Liar! Pig!"
She kicked the big teddy in the corner of the room as if to vent her fury, and while Emilia found it quite cute, she didn't let her wandering thoughts distract her from her goals.
Changing into the form of her 'target', Emilia waited patiently for about an hour as the woman slowly went about her day, and then decided to nap on her couch.
Once Emilia was sure that the time was right, she took out the bouquet of roses from the cabinet she had stuffed them in, made her way to the front door, and stepped outside before gently knocking.
Having just decided to take a nap, the woman was easily startled out of her sleep as she made her way to the door in confusion. "Who could be here at this hour? Don't tell me the stupid idiot decided to appease me with those stupid roses again? Does he really think such a stupid tactic will work on me—?!"
She immediately choked on her complaints the moment she opened the door, and her face instantly flushed with embarrassment. 'H-He didn't hear what I was saying, did he?!'
Of course, Emilia wasn't there to embarrass her, and just gently smiled. "Why, not happy with my surprise?"
The lady stuttered for a while in shock and embarrassment before she managed to regain her composure, then quickly invited her 'lover' in.
In her flustered state, she didn't even notice the strange absence of bodyguards with the man. After all, even if they never entered the house itself, two of them usually always stood guard outside whenever her 'lover' visited her.
Emilia keenly observed the way the woman spoke to her 'lover' and her mannerisms as she followed her to the living room. Then, the lady went to brew some green tea.
'Quite standard… I shouldn't have made him suspicious even if I didn't bother with this step.' She thought confidently.
The lady returned with two cups of green tea, and Emilia mentally compared its quality to the one she usually served to her girlfriends, and found it quite lacking, though she didn't let that show on her face.
Soon enough, the woman by her side started getting 'coquettish', and Emilia felt like she'd seen and heard enough.
Obviously, knocking out a defenseless lady like this one was easier than breathing for Emilia, and the woman fainted without even realizing that something wasn't right with her 'lover'.
After tying up her victim and stuffing her mouth with some clean cloth in the closet, Emilia nodded in satisfaction. 'Now… we wait.'
"You wait, then, I'll just go sleep."
Obviously, her partner wasn't particularly pleased with her 'wasting time' dealing with what she considered to be people who would soon become completely irrelevant to them, but Emilia was just grateful that Cynthia didn't insist on leaving as soon as possible, and allowed her to tie these 'loose ends' in peace.
After all, if she did… the crimson-haired girl knew she couldn't really resist her requests too strongly. Cynthia was her savior, after all.
Shaking off her straying thoughts, the crimson-haired girl quickly changed into the form of the young woman she had tied up.
Checking herself out in the mirror, she had to admit, this woman wasn't the prettiest lover of the most powerful man in this country without reason.
With her sharp gray eyes, flawless skin, rather 'bombastic' figure, and gorgeously curled brunette hair… it was no wonder that she could live a life of luxury without ever needing to lift a finger.
Of course, it still wouldn't be worth it to replace one of the images in her 'stacks', since this form wouldn't be very useful after she was done with her first target.
But before that man came around… there was another annoyance bothering her outside.
Emilia frowned. 'Sneaking around like that… he must either be a stalker of this lady, or… someone from that man's side?'
As expected, even if this was a 'hidden' affair that very few people knew of, the lover of someone who used to hold so much power would definitely not be completely unprotected.
She'd made sure to time her 'entry' in a way so that he couldn't see it, but the man seemed to have had some 'bad premonition', and kept trying to look through the windows.
The crimson-haired girl hummed thoughtfully. 'I can't just get rid of him… it might alarm the others if they're regularly checking on his presence.'
She 'worriedly' made her way towards one of the windows before looking out suspiciously. "I-I felt like someone was trying to snoop in… I-Is there some creep nearby…? N-No way, s-should I call the police… or him?"
Her words both assured and alarmed the man assigned to protect her, and he realized that he'd been too anxious.
Emilia slammed the window shut like a frightened little girl before giggling. 'Heh, look at him run away. He'll probably only dare watch from afar for a while.'
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This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢