Chapter 47: In Search of Body

The figure walked alone.

Eldrin shifted farther into the darkness and watched.

The man didn’t behave like someone who belonged to the military district. He wasn’t carrying supplies, wasn’t accompanied by another worker, and didn’t seem concerned about being seen. He simply walked toward the storage building with the confidence.

Eldrin narrowed his eyes.

The two guards outside noticed him.

They barely had time to react.

The stranger crossed the remaining distance with startling speed, struck the first guard at the side of the neck, and caught him before his body could hit the ground. The second guard turned at the movement, but the stranger was already behind him. A second blow landed, precise and heavy enough to drop the man without a sound.

Eldrin stared.

The entire thing had taken only a few seconds.

The stranger dragged the unconscious guards into the shadow beside the building and crouched over one of them.

Then Eldrin saw something he had never witnessed before.

The man’s face changed.

It happened gradually at first. The shape of his jaw shifted, the line of his nose altered, and the structure of his cheeks seemed to settle into a different arrangement. Within moments, the stranger was no longer wearing his own face.

He had become one of the guards.

Eldrin’s eyes widened.

An ability.

The disguised man stripped the unconscious guard of his outer clothing and put it on himself. The uniform fit well enough from a distance, and once he stood upright, even Eldrin would have struggled to distinguish him from the real guard.

He took the unconscious man’s body farther into the shadows, then walked back toward the entrance.

Eldrin watched him disappear inside.

His attention immediately shifted to the upper window.

So this was another infiltrator.

And judging by what he’d just seen, a dangerous one.

Eldrin reached for Shade and used Shadow Step to return to the ledge. The movement cost him only a fraction of the mana his longer jumps required, and moments later he was once again crouched beside the upper window.

This time the room was no longer empty.

The disguised man was inside.

He moved between the shelves.

Eldrin watched through the glass.

The man examined several sealed containers before moving toward the J7 section. He checked labels, opened records, and compared the markings against something he had brought with him.

Eldrin couldn’t see the document clearly.

The stranger stepped closer to one of the containers.

His hand settled against the metal casing.

For a brief moment, he remained completely still.

Then his expression tightened.

He struck the side of the container with the heel of his palm.

The sound was muffled by the wall, but Eldrin saw the movement clearly.

The stranger muttered something under his breath before turning away.

He had found nothing.

The man began walking toward the exit.

Eldrin shifted instinctively, lowering himself beneath the window.

He had just enough time to press himself against the stone beside the frame before the disguised man emerged from the building.

Eldrin held his breath.

The man stopped.

Something had caught his attention.

His head turned slowly toward the wall.

Straight toward Eldrin.

The distance between them was barely a few metres.

Eldrin didn’t move.

He noticed me.

He could feel it.

There was no obvious change in the man’s expression, but his eyes were too focused, too deliberate. He wasn’t casually scanning the wall.

He was looking.

Eldrin’s fingers tightened against the stone.

If the man came closer, Shadow Step could get him away. Probably. But there was no guarantee the ability would carry enough distance to put them safely out of sight, and using it immediately might reveal exactly where Eldrin had been hiding.

The stranger’s gaze lingered for another moment.

Then, without warning, he turned away.

Eldrin didn’t move until the man’s footsteps had faded into the distance.

Only then did he exhale.

Who was that?

More importantly....

What was he looking for?

Eldrin glanced toward the storage building.

The front door was still closed, but the guards were gone from their positions.

He moved down from the ledge and circled toward the entrance.

The lock was still engaged, but when he tested the handle, it shifted.

Unlocked.

Eldrin slipped inside.

The air was colder than outside.

Cold enough that the change touched his skin immediately.

The room was darker from within, and the faint smell of metal and preserved material hung heavily in the air.

Eldrin moved toward the J7 section.

The containers were exactly where he’d seen them through the window.

Except one wasn’t sealed anymore.

He stared.

The J7 container near the end of the shelf stood open.

Empty.

Eldrin stepped closer and looked inside.

There was no body.

Only a layer of lingering cold clinging to the interior.

He extended one hand toward the opening without touching it.

Cold air still escaped from inside.

His expression tightened.

This was opened recently.

If it had been opened hours ago, perhaps the temperature would have normalized.

Something had been stored here until recently.

Eldrin’s eyes moved over the markings.

His mind raced through the possibilities.

The stranger who had entered this building before him.

The empty container.

Was I wrong?

Perhaps the body had never been here.

Perhaps the J7 designation in the ledger referred to another material entirely.

He stared into the empty chamber.

Then the other possibility surfaced.

Someone moved it.

His attention shifted toward the door.

There was something else he could investigate.

The two guards.

Eldrin slipped back outside and found the bodies exactly where the stranger had left them, hidden behind the building.

One guard was still fully dressed.

The other had been stripped down to his underwear.

Eldrin glanced toward the road.

Nobody was coming.

He crouched and pulled the second guard’s uniform toward himself.

It was risky.

But if the transfer was still happening, he might need to move through another checkpoint, and walking around the military dressed as a stranger would be far easier than relying on Veil indefinitely.

A few moments later, Eldrin had changed.

The uniform was slightly loose around his shoulders, but the darkness and distance would hide most of that.

He looked down at himself.

He had entered the military district as a household slave with no permit, crossed a guarded entrance using Silver Tongue, infiltrated a restricted storage facility, and now stood wearing a military guard’s uniform because someone else had incapacitated the actual guard first.

None of it had been part of his original plan.

And yet the empty J7 container had given him something more important than certainty.

A direction.

If something had been moved recently, then there was a chance the transfer was still active.

Eldrin was turning the possibilities over in his head when he heard footsteps approaching from inside the building.

Not one person.

Several.

He looked toward the doorway.

The sound grew louder.

A moment later, the interior lights came on.

Eldrin straightened instinctively, then caught himself.

The door opened.

A flood of warm light spilled across the ground.

He stood just outside the doorway in the stolen uniform, trying to look as though he belonged there.

A voice came from inside.

"Who are you?"

Eldrin’s mind went completely still.

He hadn’t expected anyone to return this quickly.

The man’s next words came sharper.

"Why are you standing there?"

Footsteps crossed the floor.

Someone was coming out.

Eldrin lowered his eyes, forcing himself to breathe evenly while his mind searched for an answer that would survive even the smallest amount of scrutiny.

For once, Silver Tongue couldn’t be his first choice.

Too many people were there.

Too much could go wrong.

And if the wrong person saw through him....

He would not get a second chance.