Ignoring that thought, Xenos, honed from years of playing stealth missions, grabbed a loose stone from the path and hurled it toward the opposite side of the yard.
Clack! Clack!
"...What? Something fell?"
The guard jerked his head towards the noise and started walking that way.
'So it actually works? Good, good'—but not good enough.
A moment later, the same guard returned.
It seemed they weren't as dumb as the average NPC.
He half expected the guard to go, "It must've been the wind."
But unfortunately, no such thing was uttered, truly, and incredibly unfortunate.
"You see something?"
To make things worse, another patrol came from the other side.
Double 'Hm.'
"No, but..."
"Yeah, I get it."
Xenos was fucked... or so the uninitiated might think.
He didn't panic, which wasn't much of an achievement; it might not have been possible for someone like him, and crouched low, letting the first guard pass him, his black dressed body blending into the dark.
Thankfully, his hair was hidden; otherwise, this guard would've clocked him in a moment.
Though he wasn't out of the woods just yet, as the second neared, looking more closely.
But just as Xenos was about to get caught...
"ROLL CALL!"
A loud fuck punctured his eardrums.
His Rune helped in the end, but... it was all as he predicted~.
The guard paused his steps and looked over to where his captain's order originated.
Clicking his tongue, he joined the others, grouping up for roll call, leaving the main path momentarily wide open.
'Perfect.'
Slipping through the gaps, he made it to the final obstacle...
A damned wall.
The manor's gate was too heavily guarded to risk.
He was forced to find another way out, and this seemed to be the best one.
But now that he was here, seeing how tall the wall was, he...
'Damn this week body, guess there's at least one thing I'll miss.'
Well, no problem. He had a plan.
Using all his strength and a lot of momentum from swinging it through his legs, he barely managed to toss his rucksack over the wall, barely able to hold back a grunt.
It wasn't pretty, but it got the job done.
Then, he jogged over to a tree planted way too close to the perimeter.
He chuckled under his breath as he climbed it, depending more on his bones and limbs than his muscles, looking a bit too natural and seamless, to the point that if anyone were watching him, they'd think he was a monkey in his past life.
'Finally, those training regimens proved useful for once.'
Xenos chuckled a second time.
'But, hm. Seriously, they should cut this thing down.'
Now at its peak, he glanced down.
'Total security breach.'
Well, they certainly would after this... not his problem, though.
"Hup."
With a final push, he leapt from a branch and vaulted over the wall, landing with a hard thud on the other side.
There, he paused for a few seconds, listening to the manor with a thumping heart and a smile.
He heard nothing.
No alarms or shouts.
He had succeeded.
'Freedom.'
Dusting himself off, he threw the rucksack over his shoulder and started walking down the hill toward the town in the far distance, the street lamps and old street leading the way.
Xenos couldn't show his face in the town directly beside their House; he'd be caught in seconds. He held no doubt that Verynar had his people keep watch on them.
Rather, he was somewhat surprised he didn't have anyone watch the house.
Or maybe that was his Rune allowing him safe passage, he didn't know.
What he knew, though, was that this trek was going to exhaust him.
The town wasn't all that far, but with the weight he was carrying?
He was far beyond overencumbered, moving at a snail's pace.
It'd be tough, but judging by his still smiling face, he liked 'tough.'
This journey would be easy for him.
Of course, he could just hitch a ride, but...
He, once Xenos of House Kharon, a child of the very hand of Great House Hades, the Rulers of the Third Stratum, owners of Tartoros, was completely and utterly BROKE.
Xenos only had a few Copper Drachmas to his name.
Yeah, only that pouch that he found.
He couldn't waste those; they'd be used at his inn for the night.
But that was fine, not at all a problem, and this time he wasn't sarcastic.
His future, or at least its beginning, was in that town.
Hieron.
The Hieron weren't only this world's police, but they were also the equivalent of your average Adventurers Guild, only way more complicated, political, and Divine. After all, they were controlled by the Houses of God, something of a government for this realm's Three Stratums, a unified coalition on par with all the Great Houses combined.
Of course, that meant that the Hieron were on par with all the Main Houses, and that he couldn't go to his local Hieron Station and cause chaos unless he wanted to be publicly hanged, or sent down to Tartoros for treason.
And yes, 'Tartaros' was very real, this realm's living hell, again, owned by House Hades, but that was a rabbit hole he didn't want to dive into now, so he stopped thinking about it and focused on how he'd find the station.
He couldn't go around asking people that was too risky, but honestly...
'Fuck it, I'll just comb over the entire town.'
Part of the fun in playing games was figuring it out yourself; guides were boring.
Sure, now it wasn't a game; it was life and death, more or less, but it was somewhat of an easy world compared to the brutal worlds he most fondly remembered.
One was a sun-baked wasteland of despair, filled with endless tragedy, pain, a trickle of hope, and absolute resistance, while the other was a neon-lit hellhole of murder and poverty—this world? This medieval, somewhat Greek-inspired fantasy-lite? It wasn't so bad...
Well, it shouldn't be so bad, right?
Right?
...Right?
Xenos smirked to himself, kicking a pebble down the dirt road.
'Right.'