"According to the clues, I know who the murderer is! And it's someone in this room!"
Suddenly my movie pauses and Test's voice interrupts. "Master, we have a situation here."
What now? Is my mother after my cheeks again? I open my eyes to a peculiar situation. The guards in the room have their hands on their weapons, some frozen halfway through drawing their swords. The maids seem stuck in running postures toward my crib. Everyone appears frozen like statues the only thing that moves is the frantic, panicked movement of their eyes.
The door to the balcony flies open. Several cloaked figures start entering my spacious room. From what I count, there are twenty of them altogether. The guards in the room outnumber them my room is always filled with guards and maids, and knights are well-spaced around the walls but they're all stuck. How is this possible? Granted, they're not dragon knights, but still, what kind of enemy am I dealing with here?
Are they actually after my baby fat? Someone out there was so intimidated by my chubby cheeks they actually sent assassins? And one more thing the most lethal thing in this room isn't the weapons these assassins are holding. Oh no, it's the stench. Did they all crawl out of the sewers? Is this this world's assassination tactic? Do these assassins use stench instead of poisons? How did they sneak in here with that kind of stench on their bodies? Do assassin schools no longer teach stealth or, by extension, personal hygiene?
But this tactic seems to be working. I would rather kill myself than live another moment with this stench. Is this assassin group called the Skunk Assassins Guild?
My train of thought is interrupted by the sound of groaning. Someone seems to be struggling. To the side, I see Patricia moving slowly. She's holding a pair of daggers. This maid is definitely not normal.
One of the assassins notices her struggle and begins laughing. From the sound of the voice, it seems like it's a girl. My mind is about to go into another tangent about her hygiene practices when the female assassin says in a mocking voice, "Stop struggling, hehe... We're here just for the kid, hehe... Maybe if you play stuck, we'll let you all off the hook, heh heh..."
She licks her dagger in a seductive way. There seems to be dried blood on it.
This only increases Patricia's struggling. Her body seems to be radiating shadows.
"Test, can you analyze what's happening here?"
"There seems to be an isolation barrier in place. Familiar energy source detected."
"Conclusion reached: this isolation barrier is caused by an angel artifact."
Dang! Those winged equalists must have given this thing to a group of people all for the sake of balance, then forgot about it. Now it's in the hands of some problematic people. My original connection was right the only group of people who could handle this situation are dragon knights. Patricia is just able to struggle through sheer willpower.
There is another person in this room who can deal with this artifact: me and my contract with Testarossa, a greater angel. A shrug from her can erase these people. There's a huge "but" here, though. Should a three-year-old display such power? Will this lead to me getting more work in the future and higher expectations from others?
One of the assassins speaks. "Seven, stop wasting time." He steps closer to Patricia, plunging a dagger through her chest and taking it out in a swift motion. Blood starts to drench her maid outfit. The corners of her mouth also have a thin stream of blood.
The woman Seven doesn't seem to like this, as if her plaything was taken from her. In an instant, she throws a dagger toward me.
"Warning: Imminent danger detected."
"Warning: Lethal projectile detected."
"Engaging defensive measures."
A series of notifications sound from Test. I guess there's no helping this situation. A circular golden barrier covers me. The dagger bounces off with a crisp clang sound, landing on the floor with a thud.
The faces of the guards show relief. All of them think that maybe someone has come to their help and will save the young prince. The assassins, on the other hand, start frantically searching. No one in the room even considered the fact that all of this may have been done by the baby.
"Test, engage assistive battle mode."
"Acknowledged." My vision gets covered with an array of stats and information. I can also see predicted movements of people. There are also recommended actions and different magic spells I can use instinctively.
The baby covered in a golden barrier slowly levitates up, stopping at an acceptable height. My chubby cheeks jiggle as I come to a halt. I really need to do something about this fat it's taking away from my cool factor.
With a wave of my plump hands, the mana and moisture in the air gather, forming several icicle lances mid-air. They have a golden glow to them, hovering mid-air. One of them swiftly moves toward the man who originally stabbed Patricia. It was a blur of golden and blue, shocking the man with its speed. He was only able to move slightly, and the icicle lance was firmly implanted in his right shoulder.
But it wasn't over. In a moment, the lance burst into a puff of steam, switching rapidly from solid ice to extremely hot water vapor. It took out a huge chunk of his shoulder, forming a crescent arch from his neck, instantly vaporizing his flesh and bones. His wrist holding the dagger falls to the ground with a thud. The room falls into pin-drop silence. The man seems to be dead as his body also falls with another thud.
Shock and horror are engraved onto the faces of everyone in the room. Normally, icicle lance is a third-tier magical spell, but the version I used was enhanced by Test. It was a fusion magic spell using three elements: ice, light, and fire. Ice magic is providing the physical substance in this case, solid water. Ice magic is an advanced form of water magic. The light magic is giving it a huge boost in speed. Finally, fire magic is increasing the vibration of the molecules after impact, similar to how a bomb has a fuse and blows up after impact. And Test is doing the aiming.
"Course correction with environmental conditions complete," Test relays to me. I don't delay the other lances swiftly take out the remaining nineteen assassins in the room.
"All targets eliminated. No vital signs detected."
Before my chubby self levitates back down to my crib, I wave my hand toward Patricia and cast 'Full Heal,' a seventh-tier healing spell.
The blood returns to her body, flowing backward. The wound closes up after the blood finishes its journey back to her body, and her complexion returns to normal.
As my butt lands on the soft cushion of my crib, the isolation barrier breaks along with a metal ball, which I guess was the artifact in question. This was done by Test.
I immediately disengage assistive battle mode and engage autopilot, acting like a normal baby with the help of Test's superb acting skills. I play with a plush toy next to me.
Nothing to see here just a normal baby. Let's all act normal. But the environment isn't normal. There are several mutilated bodies in the room. The doors burst open, and several men in golden shining armor barge in. They look between the dead bodies and the cute chubby baby playing with a plush toy. Finally, they look at the people who were already in the room. Their eyes meet each other, bafflement evident on all their faces.