"You have to be the worst politician I've ever heard of." Billiam stuck his head in the carriage and looked at the pale corpse on the floor and at the pale-faced Sophia, who was doing her best to disappear into the wall.

"I'm not a politician."

"Obviously."

Billiam crinkled his nose and pulled out a folded handkerchief, flapped it open, and then held it to his nose. Looking at the body, he said, "Really, Biscuit. I don't think 'disappointed' goes far enough."

"How did you…"

"How did I know what you were doing? I told you not to talk near reflective surfaces. You know, I don't think the stink will ever come out of this carriage if you guys don't get a move on."

"It doesn't stink yet," Yesenia said. "It won't for another day or two. It's still in its stiffies."

Billiam laughed. "'Stiffies'? Well put." He looked at the young woman. "You're rather insightful."

She shrugged. "You learn in the camp to move them out before they start smelling."

"Huh." He turned his gaze back to Basque. "Anyway, do you want me to tell you all the ways you've messed up here or…?" Billiam waved his free hand around.

"Are you going to stop us?" Basque stared at the royal mage.

Billiam raised an eyebrow. "That's what you care about?"

"No, I care that she was trying to kill Reianna."

The crinkle next to Billiam's eyes from smiling smoothed out. "Yes, we are aware of that."

Basque was tired of the man's cryptic answers. "Why are you here, Billiam?"

Sophia flinched.

"I'm here to make sure you don't get caught!"

"What? Why? Wouldn't catching a Hianbrun delegate with the body of a high-ranking noble not be a godsend for you?"

"We can talk about this on the ride back to the academy. For now, let's get this taken care of. You, Assassin Queen, carry the body."

Sophia went an even paler shade of white. Basque was surprised she hadn't fainted from lack of blood circulation she was so pale.

"And you, should-be-dead girl, stay in the horseless—unless you want to become actually-dead girl."

Yesinia shrugged.

"Sophia," Basque said.

His maid finally pulled her eyes away from Billiam.

"It will be okay. Let's carry out the body and get the plan done."

Her skin pinkened, and she nodded.

Billiam backed away from the door, but kept his mouth and nose covered with his handkerchief. Basque exited first, turned around, and hooked his arms under Wendina's. He waited for Sophia.

Sinking to the floor, she grabbed the body's legs, and Basque pulled her out. The body was in peak rigor mortis, which made it easier to carry, but meant they couldn't pose it for a dramatic battle. He'd have to get the Yani to attack it.

Yani ignored the dead.

"Now what?" Basque asked.

"Over the wall and into the training grounds," Sophia answered.

Yesenia was still in the carriage, but she stood at the door. Billiam stood back with the handkerchief over his nose and his other arm crossing his chest. Basque looked at the three-meter-high wall.

It would be easy if he could put the body in his storage, but things with an interface couldn't be stored. Dead or alive, humans still had the interface. Not being able to use it because they couldn't read or because they couldn't breathe didn't make a difference.

Dismembering her, as they did in Hianbru, would let him put her in storage, but she tried to kill Reianna; she didn't deserve the honor of those heroic rites. Plus, clean blade cuts would never be mistaken for Yani claws. So, that left getting her over that wall manually.

"Billiam, think you could give us a hand?"

He shook his head. "I'm not touching that."

"Are you really that squeamish?"

"You've got a double eww there! Not only is it a dead body, it's Wendina's dead body. I would never touch either of them individually, and now you want me to touch them combined?" He vigorously shook his head.

"Carston," Sophia called, and the driver hopped off the carriage. He was a big man, almost the size of Harnel, yet somehow Basque hadn't even noticed him in the driver's seat of the carriage.

Despite his size, the carriage didn't move or rattle as he hopped off, nor did he make any noise as he approached.

"Is he a mage or something?"

"No, Basque-Shr, he's just one of my very skilled people. Carston, go up there and take the body."

The large man nodded. Without breaking stride, he leaped to the top of the wall like he was half-cat. Basque's eyes went wide.

"Are you sure he's not a mage?"

"I'm sure," Sophia said.

Sophia held Wendina's body steady as Basque lifted it up. When it was high enough for Carston to reach, the large man pulled the body up and set it on the wall.

Jumping up, Basque grabbed the lip of the wall, pulled himself up, and inspected the grounds on the other side. It looked like one of the single training areas back at the school with practice dummies set up on one corner and a sparring ring in the middle. The bark of a dog came from a medium-sized shed in the back corner.

Carston motioned with his head for Basque to get down, and Basque nodded in return, then slipped off the wall inside the training area. Once he was on the ground, Carston picked Wendina up and lowered her down to Basque.

"Got her," Basque said.

The large man let go, and Basque lowered Wedina to the ground. The next thing he knew, Carston vanished from the top of the wall, and in his place, a pastel blob floated over.

"Billiam?"

"Biscuit."

"What are you doing?"

"Making sure you don't get caught? I thought we already went over this."

"Yes, but no. I still don't understand why you'd help me."

"And we'll still get into that at a later date. For now, I want to see your magic."

"My magic?"

"You are going to produce a Yani, correct?"

Basque didn't say anything. He'd really not been thinking when he'd released one in the cafeteria. If he'd known that Kruamians didn't know that Yani could be stored right before they turned, he might have debated his actions further. It would have only been a simple debate, though. Sophia had felt so trustworthy, and he was determined to protect his students, negotiating points be damned.

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The dog barked again.

Looking from Wendina to Billiam, Basque said, "Stay here and watch her."

Basque left the shadows and went over to the shed. Two large metal bars, one at the top, the other at the bottom of the door, kept it closed. Not that they would stop a Yani, Basque thought. At best, it would slow it down, and the bars being broken would just make a loud noise, which might have been the point.

With the strong scent of humans just beyond the doors and in the house, any Yani would ignore the other animals in the shed and try to get to the humans. The overwhelming, lingering smell of humans in the cafeteria had kept the minute Yani he'd released contained to the cafeteria, but there wouldn't be such a strong scent in a shed for animals.

After undoing the bars, Basque opened the door and went inside. Through the interface, he flipped on the lights and blinked as the sudden brightness blinded him.

The dog that had been barking was huge. If it turned, Basque could see it even becoming a medium. It had white and gray fur with crystal blue eyes. Basque had never seen such a beautiful dog in his life.

Around him, there were smaller animals, most of which would just turn into micros, or minutes at the largest. Only the beautiful dog would become anything larger.

The dog's tongue hung from its mouth as it panted and wagged its tail at Basque. Squatting in front of the animal's cage, Basque opened it. The animal ran at him and began licking his face.

Basque ruffled the dog's fur and said, "You're just precious! Aren't you? How could they keep something as pretty as you locked away like this?"

"What are you doing?"

Jumping at the voice, Basque hit his head on the shelf above the dog's cage, and the dog backed up into its cage while barking.

"What the Yani, Billiam?" Basque asked as he rubbed his head. "I thought I told you to watch the body?"

"Yes, well, I've already explained my distaste for both dead bodies and Wendinas. And, it's not like she's going to walk off; she's dead."

Turning back to the dog and petting it to get it to stop barking, Basque said, "I've seen Yani capable of controlling the dead."

Billiam made an "oh" with his mouth and said, "Fascinating." His face returned to normal as he smiled. "But meaningless to me. Normal or mage, I can disable their interfaces."

What an overpowered ability. "Alright, well, to answer your question, we need to make it look like the Yani came from somewhere, and fortunately, your nobles like to keep animals."

"Can you turn an animal to a Yani?!" Billiam's voice trembled.

"No." Basque shook his head. "But the Yani needs to come from somewhere. I think a medium would make for a nice, dramatic last battle for the illustrious Earl-ess Wendina, don't you think?" Basque continued to scratch behind the dog's ear.

"A medium?"

"You wanna come with me, buddy?" Basque asked the dog.

The dog wagged its tail and panted in response.

"Yes, you're a good boy, aren't you?"

The dog vanished as Basque stored it. Turning to Billiam, Basque walked past him and said, "Come on. Let's go get everything ready."

Basque walked over to the weapons rack and looked at the daggers lined up on it. There were a few other training weapons, but the majority were daggers.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to figure out what weapons she would have used." Once again, his mind wandered back to performing Hianbrun burial rites; once her interface was deactivated, her inventory would dump out.

"Come," Billiam said and pulled on Basque's arm. He led Basque back to Wendina's corpse.

"Why did you bring me here?"

"What's my power, Biscuit?"

A second later, and two daggers appeared next to her hands.

"You can access inventories, too?"

"Anything you can do on your interface, I can make it do, too."

Basque shivered.

"Now, where's that Yani you promised?"

After tossing Wendina's daggers into his inventory, Basque picked her body up and carried it over to the shed. While Basque doused her with a bottle of pheromones, Billiam stood at a short distance and watched.

Taking a deep breath, Basque took his top off. After ignoring Billiam's moan, he went into his system options and set his weapon-class to <100kg barbell>. The tiger tattoo on his back stood looking head-on, and its shoulders and legs bulged out with muscles.

As the tattoo changed, Basque felt extra strength flowing into him. He picked up the corpse and swung it around a few times. He held on to it by her shoulders, and it was unwieldy, but manageable enough.

"That should be good."

He spared a glance at Billiam, who watched wearing a small smirk. When the mage noticed Basque looking at him, he flicked his eyebrows up a few times. Basque looked away and set Wendina back on the ground.

With his preparations complete, Basque went back into the shed, selected a medium-sized pre-Yani from his inventory, and pulled it out. As soon as the alligator was out, it began writhing. He shoved it into the empty cage the dog had been in and ran out of the shed.

Slamming the door closed, he rebolted it and grabbed Wendina. As he picked her up, Basque just prayed that the Yani didn't turn out to be a mage.

"You can fight, right?"

"Of course."

"Okay, cause if it's a mage, I might need your help."

Something screeched from inside the shed, and the sounds of metal being torn apart followed seconds before something slammed into the door, rattling it.

Another screech.

BAM! Skreee!!

Basque readied himself behind Wendina.

BAM! BAM! BAM! Skreee!!

The door exploded outward. Black smoke shot out of the shed, then solidified in front of Basque and Wendina. Basque jabbed her feet into the yellow eyes of the monster, and it screeched.

The battle was on, and the two fought and dueled across the training grounds—the Yani with its claws and teeth, and Basque with his corpse.

The Yani swiped and bit at Basque's unconventional weapon, slashing it open and spilling blood on the training ground. Once enough damage was done to her, Basque threw the body at the Yani and pulled out her daggers.

Switching his class to <dual blades>, his tiger changed stance, and he felt his strength deplete as the blades began to feel like extensions of his hands. Instead of killing the Yani straight off, he wanted to splatter its blood about as well.

Basque taunted and toyed with the Yani, leading it to spots where Wendina's blood had splattered. Once he felt like there was enough blood and the Yani was losing steam, he led it over to where Wendina lay, and in one simple move, killed the Yani, leaving both daggers buried in it.

"Phew," Basque said and wiped his brow. He glanced around the training yard. Blood, both Wendina's and the Yani's, was splattered about along with chunks of each of them. He nodded once. Even a Hianbrun inspector would be convinced she'd gone out in a glorious battle.

As he scanned the scene, his eyes met Billiam's, who now stood with his mouth hanging open and a pale complexion.

"I don't think I've ever seen anything so terrifying in my life."

Basque frowned. "What do you mean? It was only a medium Yani, and fortunately, it wasn't a mage."

"Not the Yani, you psychopath! You!"

"Hey! I don't want to be called a psychopath by someone from your bloodthirsty country! If you want to see a psycho, look in the mirror—oh wait, you can't, you ripped it off the wall and threw it out of the carriage like a psychopath!"

"You fought. A Yani. With. A CORPSE!"

"What else did you think I was going to do?!"

"I don't know?! Get it to eat her somehow?!"

"Yani don't like dead things they didn't kill and will attack living humans before feasting."

"But…but… You fought a Yani with a corpse?!"

Basque pulled his shirt out of his inventory and put it on. "Yes, I did. It's not something that I particularly enjoyed, but it's something that had to be done."

The alarm coming from the estate behind them was blaring, and the sounds of human voices calling out were loud enough to be heard over it.

"Come on. You can have your moral breakdown in the carriage while you explain things to me."

Basque went over to the estate's wall, jumped up, and pulled himself all the way over. As he knew what was on the other side, he didn't need to pause and check. Billiam followed after, his pastel clothes streaking through the air.

"Is it done?" Sophia asked.

Basque nodded. "Yeah, we should go, though." He turned her around and nudged her towards the carriage. Yesenia withdrew inside as Sophia climbed in. Basque turned to look for Billiam. The mage made no effort to follow into the carriage.

"Come on."

He shook his head.

"Billiam. Come."

He shook his head again.

"You said you would answer my questions after. It's after. Get in the carriage."

"Tomorrow is after, too. I…" There was a brief silence, then Billiam turned and ran.

Basque sighed and climbed into the carriage alone. As soon as he was in, Carston drove off.

"Why is Royal Mage Billiam scared of you, Master Basque?" Sophia asked.

"Because I fought the Yani with Wendina."

"But she was dead. How could you fight together?"

Basque shook his head. "We didn't fight together; I fought with her. She was my weapon."

The two women in the carriage just stared at him.

"I had to make her wounds look real. If the Yani attacked me and hit her instead, it would look real."

"Makes sense," Yesenia said and yawned.

"I am sorry to make you go through such an ordeal, Master Basque."

"It's fine. She was dead already. I should be apologizing to you and thanking you for protecting Reianna, but then again, I know that wasn't entirely for her sake, now was it?"

Sophia looked away.

He waited for her to respond, but when she didn't, Basque took a deep breath, leaned his head against the wall, and closed his eyes. It had been a long day. He hoped the next day could go back to just teaching. He wasn't made for political stuff like this.

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