Controlling Familiars, letting them become your eyes and your sword—this kind of setup is usually pretty cool.
From tiny bugs to seductive succubi or Hellfire, or even adorable Gem Beasts, there’s always one that suits you.
Lita also wanted to keep a few Familiars for herself, not for long, just enough to monitor Dorothy’s movements and give herself the chance to rummage through her room for the record stone.
Even if she couldn’t find the record stone, as long as she could find some evidence unfavorable to Dorothy, Lita could report to Cecilia first and ask for forgiveness later.
After all, Dorothy wasn’t a good person. As long as she was driven out, Lita’s own status would be more or less secured.
But after chatting with Promi, Lita realized two blind spots she’d encountered.
The first was that, even if she summoned a Familiar, she probably wouldn’t be able to hide it from Dorothy. Instead, Dorothy might discover it, and then the whole plan would be exposed, which would only delay Cecilia’s matters.
The second was, if she wanted to control small animals to act as her spies, there was no need to use Familiars at all.
After all, she was a succubus! She had Enchantment Magic that could charm other creatures—even a giant tundra wolf had fallen under her control, so what’s a few small animals?
So the question arose: what kind of small animal should she go for?
Bugs were out of the question! Pretty girls and bugs are sworn enemies!
Even if she hadn’t been a pretty girl before, and her current behavior was hardly ladylike, Lita knew she was cute.
As for birds, though they were suitable, having a few birds flapping about all day would make anyone suspicious.
After thinking it over, Lita decided that Rats were the most appropriate option.
Huh? Rats aren’t cute either? Well, is there a better choice? Anyway, it’s decided! City Rats, you’re up!
If you want to feast on the city’s delicious cuisine, then bear the risk obediently!
Alright, next question—where to catch Rats?
In the Sewer? In the ditches? Beside the trash cans? In the fields?
Lita didn’t know much about Rats’ habits and had barely seen a nest, except for occasionally watching Rat extermination clips.
There were those who used smoke, those who brought in dogs, those who used blow darts, and even those who set up huge arrays of Rat traps—a hundred flowers blooming, but none of it was any help to her.
But since she had a mouth, she could just ask.
“The thing is, my leather armor got chewed up by Rats. Where might I find some Rats?” Lita casually made up an excuse and asked around with the others when she returned to the lord’s manor.
A soldier replied, “If they can chew through leather armor, those Rats have some serious teeth!”
A maid responded, “Lady Lita, didn’t you come back without any clothes? Which leather armor got chewed up?”
When she ran into Maggie in the corridor, Maggie was even angrier: “What? There are Rats here? How does that old fool manage his house? I’ll go settle the score with him!”
Lita had to pull Maggie back, saying, “Let it go, let it go, there’s been too much happening in the city lately—maybe Lord Angus can’t handle everything himself,” only then did Maggie drop it.
“If he doesn’t know, the servants should! If the servants know, they should deal with it! So slack! In the army, nothing like this would happen!”
Maggie crossed her arms, still fuming, and seemed to have given up on confronting Angus, but Lita wasn’t sure if she’d go after the other servants instead.
Since it was her nonsense that started this, it wouldn’t be right to let others get scolded, so Lita continued to help calm things down.
“This isn’t the barracks, after all. No need to be that strict.”
“So where did those Rats come from?” Maggie huffed, obviously just being petty.
“Maybe it was…,” Lita’s eyes rolled, “maybe when we searched that Fat Woman—um, that lady’s secret passage, all the Rats got stirred out?”
After finally pacifying Maggie, Lita felt deeply guilty about the whole thing.
Cecilia was right: sometimes she really was a bit of an idiot. Why go to the lord’s manor to catch Rats? Wouldn’t it be easier to head straight for the slums?
But these were just bedtime musings. Apart from Maggie, no one else took it seriously—everyone went to rest as usual.
Lying in bed, Lita was half-watching her basic online courses in her head, half letting her thoughts wander.
Wait! Wait! Didn’t she already answer her own question?
Why bother with the slums? Would anyone believe that Cecilia’s personal Knight Candidate would be catching Rats as community service?
Why not just go straight to the already sealed underground tunnel?
The space was huge, filthy, crawling with Rats—she could grab a handful at a time.
Perfect—rhymes, and the plan is flawless!
Lita quietly put on her outerwear and slipped out the door.
Though the passage had been sealed, it wasn’t hard for Lita to get inside. After all, no one would assign soldiers to guard an abandoned passage all day, especially since there was nothing left to investigate.
If not for Lita’s sudden whim to catch a few little Rats, she’d never have crawled back into this damp, cold place.
It was already late autumn now. The temperature in the Cellar was close to freezing. The mingled stench of dirt and blood made Lita want to gag.
But it was still better than the sickening feeling from bugs.
Pinching her nose, Lita continued forward. The darkness was no obstacle to her; the potholes on the ground and the nearly indiscernible bloodstains were all clear at a glance.
The corpses that had once lain here were long cleared away, but the traces remained—a grim reminder to any who entered of the horrors that had occurred.
In such a claustrophobic space, all Lita could feel was oppression. If she didn’t have some ability to protect herself, she’d be far more afraid.
Indeed, all fear comes from lack of strength.
It was a trip down memory lane, but Lita stayed focused on searching for traces of the little Rats.
Truthfully, she’d only seen Rats here before—she wasn’t even sure she’d find any now.
Most of the passage was already damaged. That had hindered the initial investigation, since clearing the rubble could cause a collapse and even affect the buildings above.
Continuing to investigate was dangerous, and filling it in would be too much work. Leaving it as-is was the best solution, and it gave Lita her opportunity tonight.
After walking for a while, Lita finally heard something different in the dead silence.
A rustling sound, as if a small animal was scurrying about.
Following the sound, she turned a few corners and entered a secret chamber. There were some basic living supplies, a bed and chair ready, and judging from the scattered items, this place had already been searched.
But some supplies had been left behind, which naturally attracted little critters.
“It’s Rats!” Lita’s eyes lit up. Before the little creatures with green eyes could react, a pink mist had already drifted over, enveloping the Rats.
The trapped Rats squeaked a few times, then looked into Lita’s wine-red eyes, stood upright on their hind legs, and saluted with their tiny paws.
Good. The Enchantment Magic worked easily.
These weren’t Familiars, but they were enough to carry messages, and since they didn’t carry magical power, Dorothy wouldn’t notice a thing—simply perfect.
“Let’s go, let’s go!” Lita called, and the Rats instantly squeaked and followed at her feet.
Even though it didn’t really matter if she called or not, saying it out loud gave her a sense of accomplishment.
The only trouble was, Familiars could share vision, but charmed Rats couldn’t. So there would be a delay in passing messages, but there was nothing she could do.
But just reporting wasn’t enough. What if she needed them to deliver some information? What then?
Lita pondered, recalling the spells and abilities she’d learned so far.
She didn’t know much, but after mixing and matching, she really came up with an idea.
Hadn’t she once unconsciously read the memory of that beetle? The Rats’ souls were so weak—could she do the same?
With that thought, Lita tried to recreate the feeling, attempting to invade the Rats’ consciousness. Fragmented images flashed before her eyes—
They scurried on the ground, searched for food in the tunnel, gnawed on corpses…
Ew—disgusting.
But it really worked. Unfortunately, some information would definitely be lost in transmission—this was all she could see.
Wait. Weren’t the corpses already removed? What were they gnawing on?
Lita wondered, and tried invading a Rat’s consciousness again. The images were different but mostly similar.
Piecing together a complete memory through constant mind-invasion wasn’t realistic, and it was even less useful on humans. Clearly, she couldn’t just search other people’s memories like that.
But one thing was certain: there were indeed other corpses here, probably buried under the collapsed ruins.
So that’s why it smelled so disgusting when she came in?
Lita frowned, thinking for a while, then decided not to worry about these side issues. Better to catch a few more Rats and get out quickly.
Let’s try invading once more—see if it knows where any other companions are.
No sooner said than done, Lita invaded another Rat’s consciousness, focusing more on its surroundings this time.
Crawling, gathering, gnawing…
That’s when Lita noticed something strange.
Beneath the corpse the Rats were gnawing, there seemed to be some odd markings.
Lita vaguely remembered seeing similar things during her earlier search, but most had been buried under rubble, making it hard to tell what they were.
But was it really so hard to tell?
Lita remembered—she’d seen nearly identical markings before. In her memories, not from Rats, but from that beetle.
These markings were exactly like those carved beneath the stone giant gate.