Waking up on the day of the kidnapping, an odd sense of serenity washed over me.
Like the calm before the storm.
I had spent the last few hours of my day tirelessly making a plan until, finally, I had covered all my bases.
After all, I was going up against the entire hero's party, each one of them capable of killing me... if I was unprepared.
I also held one major advantage.
I knew Lily had knowledge of the future, but she did not know that I also had knowledge about the future.
In her eyes, I was a variable.
"... what a joke."
Wasn't I going on about how I hated variables only yesterday..?
Anyway, the djinns wouldn't show up until the evening, so I could go about my classes as usual.
Is what I wished to say.
I would have to be an idiot to give up 7 valuable hours of preparation just for some stupid class.
There were now more important things than reaching the merit point goal.
Do you think the school would believe me if my excuse for skipping was, "I'm trying to save the world, trust me!" ?
I'll worry about that later.
After putting a full set of black clothes in my backpack, I headed out of my dorm in my academy uniform, of course not to the academy but to the middle of the forest.
Since Alya is an elf, she has a high affinity for elementals and often trains in the forest. On this fateful day, she would be training in the forest in the evening and kidnapped by a group of djinns and humans.
The group conducting this kidnapping, the Gemstone Order, is one of the few groups composed of humans and djinns.
That one detail is a major reason my plan works.
After tailing Alya using spies in the academy, the order discovered Alya's training location, so that was where the initial stage of their plan would take place.
That was also my current destination.
After reaching the clearing in the forest, I began setting a bait.
Of course, Alya wouldn't be here now, but I still needed to stall for the Order members for some time at this place.
After placing down my backpack and scattering various things across the ground, I made the scene seem like Alya was training here but left for a short break.
This would keep the villains here as they would try to wait for her to come back to the spot and get her backpack.
After ensuring the scene was ready, I pulled out my phone and responded to some text messages.
[Jin: Dude, class starts in 5 minutes; where the hell are you?]
[Ren: When the hell did you start caring about getting to class.]
[Jin: LMFAO, you right.]
[Han: You skipping today, Ren?]
[Ren: Yeah, I need to do some stuff outside the academy, so I'll use the card again. That's fine with you guys, right?]
[Han: Yep, fine with us.]
[Ren: By the way, did you hear Lily is planning to confess to Kevin today after school.]
[Jin: Wait, bro, are you not over her yet? She almost get you expelled. Plenty of fish in the sea.]
[Han: ^^^ She's not the one for you, trust us.]
[Ren: ...kinda, I guess. Could you guys spread what I said around.]
[Han: Yeah, alright, I get you wanna ruin Lily's confession. Don't do anything rash like last time; we'll spread it around.]
[Jin: But this weekend, we're going out. You really needa get over her. I knew the perfect place for you.]
[Ren: Deal.]
After that conversation, I turned it off and put it on Do Not Disturb.
Dealing with Irene turned out to be surprisingly easy!
She'd go crazy and completely ignore Lily's instructions after she hears the rumors, and then the villains would find her, making everything go exactly as the plot.
Now that everything was settled, I had to address the problem of getting Alya out of the dorm.
Or did I?
After climbing a tree, I looked around from the high ground until I spotted the bridge that connected the capital city to the Academy.
Jumping tree to tree, I used my heightened eyesight to calculate and coordinate my jumps and landings perfectly to make my route as efficient as possible.
From finding the perfect landing spot to increase my momentum and speed to ducking prematurely to avoid obstacles such as branches or leaves, I felt like I was an actual monkey.
Within 5 minutes, the large distance between Alya's training spot and the Academy gate was cleared.
Thankfully, the guard on duty was different than the one from the previous day, so I could pass through the gate with no problems.
After reaching the capital city, I immediately started walking to a familiar place.
A familiar Cafe.
Upon entering the cafe, I immediately spotted a scrawny boy with black hair and eyes, sitting in front of about five pieces of cake.
"Damn it, I forget to get the 5 gold coins back from the fake sword!"
Also, has this punk been using the business money just to buy cake...?
After sitting down across from Raven, I asked.
"How's the business doing?"
"What the hell do you mean how is business doing...? Damn it, YOU GAVE ME THE MISSION YESTERDAY???"
"... Yet here you are eating cake instead of working."
"you son o-"
"Did you forget I said to address me as boss?"
"... Yes, boss, I prepared the items you requested."
After sliding over the bag, Raven continued.
"A Sleeping Gas Potion and Fireworks..? Seriously, boss, I'm not one to judge anyone morally, but really...? This might be too far."
"You brat, I'm using them to save the world."
If only he knew...
Raven raised his hands and turned his head away before saying.
"... whatever you say. I won't question your actions, but just know that God is always watching."
... Is this brat talking about god?
Yesterday, he was out on the street scamming people using god's name! I swear I heard him say, "This sword is made of pure diamond, on god!"
Confused and somewhat curious, I inquired.
"You started believing in god..?"
"After signing that contract with you, he is my only hope..."
"..."
Am I really that bad?
Holding the two bottles in my hands, I continued to improve my plan.
A sleeping gas is pretty self-explanatory; it slowly puts everyone in a 5 ft vicinity to sleep. The key word is slowly, not immediately.
Over a 5-minute span, the gas slowly makes the target feel more and more drowsy until they eventually fall asleep.
Of course, if the target notices that they are falling asleep due to the potion before the 5 minutes are up, they can easily escape it by simply splashing their face with water or something similar.
That's the reason I need the second bottle.
Fireworks.
What better way to distract someone than to use fireworks?
Also, all the other alternatives were either too expensive or hard to obtain.
I'm just a broke academy student... for now.
Flashing a grin at Raven, I grabbed a slice of cake and said.
"Get back to work."
As I walked away, I heard him murmur.
"Am I a slave or something...? Goddamn it, he asks me to deliver something, then asks me why I'm not working. What am I a machine???"
I really don't understand how this brat became the leader of the black market...
No work ethic, no brain, and no respect. What does Raven have?
With a sigh, I cleared my head of these useless thoughts and headed back towards the Academy bridge.
By now, it was noon, so the kidnappers would show up in around 3-4 hours.
This time, instead of directly entering the Academy through the gates, I simply observed Celestial Academy from the bridge.
One thought had constantly been plaguing my mind.
How can these kidnappers get into the Academy in the first place?
Once inside, a spatial magic scroll could easily allow them to escape, and I knew that they had them, but getting inside with a scroll was impossible due to the countless spell seals surrounding the island.
After surveying every inch of the island for about an hour, no secret entrances were found, even with my heightened eyesight.
With my eyesight, it was simply impossible for a secret entrance to go unnoticed by me, so the only other reason would be that I simply wasn't looking in the right place.
What would be the best place for a secret entrance?
On land, it was simply too easy to get spotted. Well, the only other option is the water, then! After all, it is an island.
Turning my gaze downwards, I began to scrutinize the underwater area around the academy; after a while, I finally found something peculiar.
There was an opening, certainly man-made, a few inches below the water's surface.
Without any hesitation, I leaped off the bridge and into the water.
"ahhhh, this feels oddly nice."
After enjoying the water's embrace for a moment, I dived downwards towards the opening and swam through it.
There were clear signs of non-natural occurrences, such as sword dents in the wall, and the structure of the clave was too perfect for it to have been naturally made.
A frown appeared on my face as the water subsided, so I stood up and continued walking in the rock tunnel.
Finally, the tunnel began to slope upwards, so I increased my pace and ran until, finally, a ladder was within sight.
After climbing up the ladder, I pushed forward on the tunnel's roof, and it slowly opened, causing the sunlight to rush in and temporarily blind my eyes.
After standing up on the ground, I stared at the tunnel's exit, which was a disguised rock, and dusted myself off before closing it.
This would be quite useful in the future.
According to the guards of the academy, Ren should be in the capital city, so I used my assassin's stealth to make my way to Alya's training spot silently.
After changing into a pair of dark clothes and putting on a mask, I once again used the shadows to make my way to the academy dorms.
During my recent training sessions, I focused on finding ways to abuse my stealth trait, and my efforts were not in vain.
With full black clothes on, I felt like I was one with shadows, and as long as no noise was made, people wouldn't see me unless they stared at my location for more than 2 seconds at a time.
Just how good will this be in the future?
I guess the sword far outclasses the dagger, so the author had to balance the assassin class by giving it this ability.
Well, I'm not complaining.
After reaching the dorm building, I climbed up a tree and looked around until I found Alya's empty dorm room. She was still in class.
As a student in the top 10 ranks, Alya received a luxurious suite on the top floor of the building, so I had to climb up to the roof.
From the top of the building, I hung down and quickly tied a string to the window of Alya's dorm.
I attached the fireworks and a match to this string so that at a simple tug of the string, the fireworks would explode into her room.
As the sleeping gas had to be handed more delicately, I kept it with me.
Jumping from the roof to a tree, I once again assumed my monkey form. I jumped from tree to tree at incredible speeds until I reached Alya's training spot.
Everything was now set up.