After putting on a simple disguise, Fia left the clinic with Claire.
It’s worth mentioning that, inspired by the darkspawn from yesterday, Fia figured that just using magical dye to turn her black hair white wasn’t safe enough.
So she went with a more physical method—like wearing a white wig.
That way, even if someone used a revealing spell, she wouldn’t be exposed.
But that plan got shot down by Claire.
First, because the clinic didn’t have anything like a wig, and second, because Claire had other ways to disguise her.
Like now—Fia could see herself as a black-haired elf, but to everyone else, she looked like a human girl with white hair tied into twin ponytails draped over her shoulders.
Her delicate, pretty face and blinking eyes made her look absolutely adorable.
It wasn’t an illusion, but a tool that messed with perception.
The short staff Claire gave Fia was called “Cloud Moon of the Illusory Sea.” Besides the usual effects of a magic staff, this one could, with a bit of mana, make the user either “unknowable” or only show others what the user wanted them to see.
In short, even if someone used a detection spell on Fia, as long as she didn’t want to be seen, no one could read her information.
Or, like now, she could make herself appear human in others’ eyes.
Of course, tools that mess with perception usually have limits.
If the detection spell is too powerful, the disguise can fail.
But the Cloud Moon of the Illusory Sea was a top-tier magical item—almost no one could see through Fia’s disguise.
That said, this kind of appearance-altering effect didn’t let you become just anything.
For example, Fia couldn’t use the staff to disguise herself as a massive creature like a two-horned bull beast.
The bigger the difference between the caster and the disguise, the more mana it consumed, and the more flaws the magic had.
It’s easy to understand—Fia was only 1.4 meters tall.
If she disguised herself as someone two meters tall, then when she passed through a narrow space only small people could fit through, it’d create a weird, overlapping visual glitch.
Unlike yesterday, today Fia could clearly feel people on the street staring at her.
The number of people turning to look was almost total—if not 100%, then at least 80 or 90%.
Men and women alike would widen their eyes when they saw her, then lean in to whisper to their companions, occasionally pointing at her.
At first, Fia thought her disguise had failed and she’d been exposed.
But then she realized—it was just that the elf princess look was too damn cute.
As for why no one reacted like this yesterday, the reason was simple: this was the human-supremacist Holy Nation of Milcandis.
Elves weren’t welcome here.
Finally starting to feel like a real princess.
To live up to the compliments from passersby, Fia tried to walk with the grace of a proper lady.
Then she looked up at Claire walking beside her.
For some reason, ever since breakfast, Claire had been in a great mood.
Fia even felt like Claire might start humming a tune at any moment.
Maybe Claire didn’t realize it, but right now, the two of them looked like they were on a date.
Realizing that made Fia freeze for a second.
To avoid the awkwardness, she quickly changed the subject.
“By the way, how did you convince the Pope of the Holy Nation of Milcandis to help you ask the gods for an oracle?” In the Holy Nation, the Pope was basically the king—maybe even more powerful than a monarch in a regular kingdom.
The fact that Claire could get someone like that to help was insane.
“Hm?” Claire tilted her head slightly, her tone light and casual.
“After I helped them deal with a dead city, their Pope agreed to meet me.
Apparently, that city used to be one of the biggest in the Holy Nation.
But one of the darkspawn, one of the ‘Absolute Evils,’ cast a necromantic forbidden spell there and turned everyone into undead.
So they had no choice but to abandon it.
That city, full of death, became a huge problem for the church.
If they left the undead alone, they could last for hundreds of years.
That kind of stain was something the church couldn’t tolerate.”
“Couldn’t the church deal with the dead city themselves?”
“They could, technically.
But it would cost them a lot.
Living people who enter a place filled with death energy slowly lose their life force without even realizing it.
Once it drops low enough, their stamina starts to fade until they can’t move at all—and then they just watch themselves turn into undead.
The Holy Nation’s divine magic can resist death energy to some extent, but a forbidden spell is still a forbidden spell.
A regular paladin would be lucky to last half a day in there, let alone fight off tens of thousands of undead at the same time.
Even for me, it took several days to clean them all out.”
“Several days…” Fia repeated the words, letting them sink in.
“What level are you, Claire?” Even though Fia had the “Wind of Insight,” she’d never used it to peek at Claire’s stats.
“No idea.” Claire shook her head lightly.
“Everyone says I don’t have any mana.
High-level identification spells, high-level appraisal tools—none of them can detect any mana in me.
But I can still communicate with the elements easily and make them do what I want.
Haven’t you ever used ‘Wind of Insight’ on me?”
“Nope.”
“Then give it a try.”
With Claire’s permission, Fia’s ruby-red eyes turned blue.
Just like Claire said, in the “Wind of Insight,” Claire appeared as a deep purple void, the same color as the surrounding environment.
That meant she didn’t have a trace of mana—not even as much as a normal person.
“Freaky, right?” Claire teased, reading the result from Fia’s expression.
If we’re talking freaks, I’m one too.
Fia replied silently in her heart.
If Claire had no mana at all, then Fia had way too much.
She’d once used “Wind of Insight” to look at herself—and nearly blinded herself.
In “Wind of Insight,” the closer to red, the more mana you had.
But she showed up as pure white, so bright it dyed the whole area red—like a walking sun.
It was so weird, Fia hadn’t even dared to tell Anastasia.
Though, to be fair, she hadn’t had a chance to talk to Anastasia last night anyway.
“Kill them!”
“Deliver divine punishment!”
“Wipe out the traitors!”
As they passed the plaza, a deafening roar of shouting suddenly hit their ears.
The two of them instinctively turned toward the noise.
On a wooden platform, a priest was spitting with rage as he riled up the crowd.
Below the stage, the audience was full of anger and fury, fists raised like they were about to storm the platform and beat the darkspawn-infected people to death.
It was just like a witch hunt.
