A Small Twist – 3

The girl watched everything.

She watched the scene where the new knight, whom the Emperor had ordered to monitor his every move, unilaterally toyed with his opponent in a spar against another Knight Commander.

She watched him act as if nothing had happened, as if it were natural, despite being a new recruit who had just joined and defeating a Knight Commander who served His Majesty the Emperor.

She watched his clean attack movements, without a single wasted motion, his defensive movements that repelled all incoming attacks, and his fluid, continuous movements.

And the Emperor also watched all of it.

“……Have you confirmed everything, Your Majesty?”

On a tree overlooking the training ground, the girl, wearing a black hood over her upper body and black leather clothes underneath, muttered into the air.

Blink. Her eyes blinked once, independently of her will. The girl nodded as if she understood.

Beneath her eyelids, a pair of sharp, golden eyes glowed.

The girl bowed her head towards the empty air, showing courtesy, then, as if someone had given her an order, she bowed her head even deeper.

“Yes. I understand, Your Majesty. I will obey Your Majesty’s will.”

This time, the girl blinked her eyes of her own will. When her eyes opened again, the place where her golden eyes had been was empty.

Literally, it meant that nothing existed where her eyes should have been. Only two empty, black eye sockets, chilling to behold, were hollowed out.

Despite being unable to see anything in front of her, the girl slowly began to descend the tree, stepping on and grasping each branch with familiar hand and foot movements.

There were no fumbled hand movements or missteps. Her movements seemed even more stable than those of a person with ordinary sight.

Before long, the girl, who had lightly landed on the ground, quietly lowered her posture. And, having stopped moving, she listened intently to the sounds around her.

The sound of wind swirling through the trees. The rustling of fallen leaves. The swaying of branches. The sound of the girl herself inhaling and exhaling.

No other human sounds were heard.

It was fortunate that there was no need to deal with witnesses this time. Thinking so, the girl prepared to draw it if necessary, and carefully put away the dagger she had hidden beneath her wrist, tucking it into her waistband.

The girl’s attire was extremely bizarre. She wore a black hood pulled deep over her head, covering her upper body, and a tight-fitting black leather armor as her top.

For her bottom, she wore tight-fitting leather shorts shorter than men’s boxer briefs, making it impossible to tell if they were underwear or pants, and revealing the line of her hips.

Although she was clearly not wearing shoes, her feet were strangely clean.

‘No one…… still.’

The girl, having confirmed once again by sound that there was no one around, took off her necklace, held it in her hand, and activated it. It was an artifact given to her by His Majesty the Emperor.

The clothes she was wearing began to change. The hood, leather armor, and leather shorts, which had felt like clean, high-quality fabric, disappeared. Instead, a tattered and very dirty piece of cloth appeared.

As the hood disappeared, the hair neatly hidden within it blossomed forth. Contrasting with her fair skin, black hair, just long enough to reach her shoulders, swayed around her neck.

The girl was naked.

Her modest chest, collarbone line, firm abdomen, seemingly soft sides, and the intimate parts of a woman, along with her slender, extended thighs, were all fully exposed, yet there was no trace of embarrassment on her face.

The girl temporarily pressed down the piece of cloth with a stone lying nearby, then threw herself onto the dirt ground and rolled vigorously, covering her entire body in dust. Dirt and sand clung to her.

After rolling around for a long time, she got up. The clean appearance of the girl from just moments ago was gone, her hair was disheveled, and all that remained was a dirty girl covered head to toe in dirt and dust.

‘I need to work on the clothes too.’

The girl, who had instantly turned into a beggar, picked up the piece of cloth she had pressed down with a stone and mercilessly rolled it on the dirt ground. When she finished her work, the piece of cloth had become nothing short of a rag.

She wrapped it around her body. It covered her thighs, her waist, her chest, arms, and shoulders. The last remaining part she wrapped around her head, concealing her face and hair.

‘Perfect.’

Although she couldn’t see it with her own eyes, the girl inwardly assured herself that her appearance would be no different from a street beggar.

True to her confidence, the girl’s current appearance was indistinguishable from that type of person.

Just moments ago, she had been wearing top-quality leather clothes and flaunting a beauty that couldn’t possibly be hidden, but now her appearance was such that one couldn’t even imagine her having been monitoring someone.

The only difference, perhaps, was that even in this beggar-like state, covered in dirt and dust, her uniquely beautiful features couldn’t be properly hidden.

The girl searched her surroundings and snapped off a branch of suitable thickness and length. Then she swung it around in the air. This branch seemed sufficient for use as a cane.

In truth, even without such a thing, she could walk around like an ordinary person without any trouble, but for what she was about to do, she absolutely had to appear as a normal blind person.

‘The last order His Majesty gave was…… to observe the new knight up close, by any means necessary, without revealing my identity.’

The golden knight was a decoy anyway. There was no way such an idiot would truly be placed in a surveillance role, was there? He seemed excited, thinking he had been given an important task, but His Majesty hadn’t even had any expectations anyway.

Just one thing. He believed that if he sent him to the Silver Dawn Knights, he wouldn’t be able to overcome his own personality and would pick a fight with the new recruit, and the Emperor’s prediction was accurate.

Thanks to that, she was able to observe the new knight’s skills even more clearly, so her task was essentially complete.

The girl, who had covered even the lower half of her face with the remaining cloth, holding a small wooden bowl in one hand, deliberately used her cane to stumble forward, beginning to move ahead.

She exited the small forest within the city, and slowly entered an alleyway, following the path she had memorized while in the tree. She heard whispers from people around her who saw her.

Of course, she didn’t care at all. Because she had come down like this precisely to be looked at with such eyes.

‘This is it.’

The girl stopped at the end of an alleyway, leaned her back against the wall, and crouched down on the ground. She drew her knees tightly to her chest, and placed the wooden bowl in front of her.

It was an appearance that would perfectly convince anyone she was a beggar asking for money, but of course, she hadn’t come for the purpose of actually begging.

‘Those Knight Commanders pass by here regularly.’

This was the conclusion she had reached after observing the entire city for two days, “borrowing” her eyes. The Knight Commanders patrolling the city always took the same route. And the path right next to this one was that route.

Since they had started their patrol a little while ago, they would pass by here soon. The girl, with her head bowed low, felt the faint vibrations of the ground whenever people took a step.

She deliberately chose a place where the fewest people passed by. Except for a few beggars, there were almost no people passing through this area.

She had already memorized their footsteps and voices. Now, all that remained was to wait.

‘…….’

Burying her face between her knees and waiting, feeling only the vibrations of the ground, how much time had passed, when finally, from afar, the voices she remembered came to her ears.

The girl pricked up her ears even more, listening carefully to the voices. It was a cold voice and a calm voice.

‘Iris is on the right. Erica is on the left.’

The girl, having finally identified them, quietly stood up. She held her cane in one hand, and the empty wooden bowl in the other.

In that state, quietly pressed against the wall, the girl waited for the Knight Commanders to approach, then, just before Iris and Erica passed the alley, she suddenly leaped out in front of them.

“Kyaat!”

And, grandly colliding with Erica, she deliberately rolled on the ground. As she rolled, she broke her cane, and didn’t forget to send the wooden bowl flying far away.

“Huh, huh? What was that justㅡ”

“I-I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Please forgive me! I’m sorry!”

Before Erica could even grasp the situation, to make herself look as pitiful as possible, the girl prostrated herself on the ground, bowed her head, and trembled violently.

Erica, seeing the girl bowing her head and trembling like an aspen leaf, froze on the spot, and Iris, who had picked up the wooden bowl that had rolled some distance away, also froze.

“Um…… it’s okay, you don’t have to tremble like that. I have no intention of doing anything.”

Erica said cautiously.

The girl lifted her head with a tearful expression. Erica and Iris flinched when they saw her face, which had only two empty black holes where her eyes should have been.

“I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Th-that, because I haven’t eaten anything for days, because I’m hungry…….”

Erica and Iris looked at each other, appearing troubled. She was a girl who couldn’t even see. Naturally, Erica or Iris should have noticed her first and avoided her. It was clearly their mistake.

“……What should we do, Iris?”

“I’m not sure either…… First of all, it’s our fault, so it seems we should help her.”

“Then, should we take her to the castle? Since she said she hasn’t eaten anything for days, let’s tell her to fill her stomach at the dining hall first.”

“That would be the best option. I will finish patrolling the remaining area. Erica, you take this girl to the castle.”

“I understand, Iris. Uh…… Miss Girl? Can you stand up?”

The girl, who heard that she would be taken to the castle, bowed her head deeply and curled up the corners of her mouth so that the two wouldn’t see.

Both Erica and Iris. Shocked by her appearance, and because the girl apologized so pitifully and obsequiously, they were so preoccupied with comforting her that there was one fact they failed to notice.

The fact that Erica was not someone who would ever collide with a mere beggar, no matter how suddenly she had jumped out. The fact that if she had been an ordinary beggar, Erica would have noticed her first and could have easily stepped aside.

The fact that the girl in front of them had approached so quickly and stealthily that even their instincts couldn’t detect her, and that was why this incident had occurred.

The two of them failed to notice.