Rise Of The Ragdoll: Part 2, Book 2 of Isekai Tales

Bertilde had Rosie complete the entrance exam after creating the most impressive glamoury spell I’ve ever seen. She even crafted a magik device to activate it.

How we managed to fool the kingdom that Rosie wasn’t a summoned, I don’t know. Maybe they knew and played along with it. Was the queen just playing along? Maybe. It was also completely out of character for Bertilde to act that way. Were they both playing us? Well, it doesn’t matter, we had a new member for our team, and she was accepted.

“Well, we’ve completed our quest, and informed the Queen of our newest member. What should we do now?” I asked.

“I think we should train Rosie and do some easy dungeon diving to get accustomed to our new team line up,” Kanae said.

“I agree, we have a whole year of Academy catch up for Rosie to learn,” Kiera said.

“I’d like that,” Rosie said.

“An excellent idea,” I said.

So we pulled out our study materials from classes, and dove in to teach Rosie everything we knew. I gave Rosie some personal coaching on spell work that I’d shared with the others. But we didn’t neglect having some fun all over the capital. The days and weeks flew by. We didn’t need to do any adventures, and we gave the bulk of the dungeon rewards to Rosie. We all had plenty of money already. We’d also given Rosie an equal share of the quest she helped us with.

That doesn’t mean that danger hadn’t followed us. We just chose not to take on any more quests for a while. It was very clear we were being watched. There was nothing we could do about that. We were by now rather famous at the guild, and as a result among adventurers in general. We had been promoted to A Rank as a result of our last quest. There were adventurers who questioned how rapidly we had risen in rank. Not all of our watchers were just the curious, the jealous, and the skeptical.

We would catch some who stared at us with true hatred in their eyes. So we never went anywhere alone. In fact, we usually went everywhere together. Alas, poor Darby got many stares from guys. The lone guy in a harem of women. Or at least that’s how other guys saw it. Boys. Sheesh. Not that Darby wasn’t good-looking. We had many good laughs over Darby’s growing hit list of haters and chasers.

“I’m just saying, you know we should look for a few guys who are strong enough to adventure or dungeon dive with,” Darby said.

“Darby, we’ve been over this. We’re mostly all A Rank adventurers, now. There aren’t any available adventurers near our rank. Not to mention the few that we might be able to entice are all old, disgusting, creepy assholes who just want to shag us,” I said.

“Not happening! Old creepy dudes are banned,” Kiera said.

“Well I bet we could find someone, and rank them up,” Darby said.

“Adamantine diggers. No, thanks! They are almost worse than the old creepy creeps,” Rosie said.

“That’s redundant,” Kanae said.

“Stuff it, elf girl!” Rosie said.

“Are challenging me?” Kanae said.

“Please. Why would I challenge a loser elf like you?” Rosie said.

“Oh, too chicken to go one on one, Shorty?” Kanae said.

“You did not go there! You’re on!” Rosie said.

“Not without me! This assassin will bury you weaklings!”

“Don’t do it. You remember what happened the last time,” I said.

“Food fight!” Aoi screamed.

“Waitress!” Rosie called.

“No. Don’t. Stop,” I said.

“How may I help you,” the waitress said, her mouth watering over the tip she’d make from the girls having a food fight.

“Bring us today’s dessert special, and keep them coming until you run out. Then bring us any random desserts until someone passes out,” Kanae said.

“Then keep them coming until I’m the only one left,” Rosie said.

“I’ll have a honey beer, and big tub of popcorn,” I said.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!” the pub began shouting in unison.

Darby, Aoi, and me just shaking our heads.

“I’ll sit this one out,” Aoi said.

“Good choice, Aoi. You can help us carry them back at the end,” I said.

So began yet another battle of the desserts. Halfway into the battle, a middle-aged woman came up to us and asked me,

“Isn’t the usual competition with beer or liquor?”

“Shhh! Don’t tell them that, you’ll only provoke them. They don’t need any more encouragement. I’m hoping it’s a phase they’ll outgrow,” I said.

The woman just laughed and went back to her bar stool and watched. There was something off with her. She was not what she seemed to be, but I couldn’t place it. She had a huge aura, but gave off no ill intent. A few minutes later, Kiera passed out from a sugar coma. She’d be puking her guts out later, and be down for a few days. Well all three of them would be puking their guts out later. An hour later and Rosie almost won. Kanae passed out from a food coma, but Rosie followed her a little later.

We had eaten out the pub’s desserts, and they were cranking out new ones on demand. The waitress had a smile from ear to ear. Literally. She was wolfkin. It was actually a pretty scary grin. We were being followed by some suspicious hooded people. I guess they were hoping to take advantage of having three incapacitated individuals. That was their first mistake. Their second mistake was actually attacking us. We set the battlers down, and I cast

“Lectric Arrows!”

“Rock balls!” Aoi cast.

Darby struck one with the butt of his halberd, lifting the guy and his shield off the ground. Flinging him into the wall of a building across the street. He didn’t get up.

One of the attackers hit Kanae’s shield by mistake. That woke her up. Never piss off someone with sugar high. Kanae fired off a stream of silent spells so fast that the attacker was flung from one wall to another long after passing out. Kanae was so charged up now that she was flinging one attacker against another, against another. It was like a game of billiards with live people as the balls. Fortunately, the Night Guard showed up and arrested the lot of the attackers before Kanae accidentally killed them all. Then Kanae passed out again.

The guards let us take them home, after we promised to report in the morning and answer questions. Only the girls were in no condition to be answering questions in the morning. It was afternoon by the time we wandered in to the guard office. Kanae, Kiera, and Rosie were still green from their battle, but their stomachs were now empty, at least. After answering all the questions the guards had they escorted us back to our dorm, where our battlers went back to bed, and the rest of us just relaxed for a while.

Three days later they were all recovered

“Future rules of combat, desserts are forbidden from the selection,” Kiera said.

“I’ll think about it,” Rosie said.

“Ugh,” Kanae said.

“What’s ugh mean?” Kiera asked.

“It means, I’m not ready to think about it, yet,” Kanae said.

“Then you should have said that,” Kiera said.

“Shut it,” Kanae groaned.

“Don’t start, you two,” I said.

“Did the guard ever find out who sent the attackers?” Rosie asked.

“No, but they didn’t kill themselves so probably not Orphean cultists,” I said.

“So we have other enemies besides them?” Darby asked.

“Probably we have several, and probably some we don’t know we have,” I said.

“Why?” Rosie asked.

“Everyone has enemies. It’s just most people don’t realize how many they have, and most of those enemies will never act on it, with murderous intent,” I said.

“Yeah, that’s probably true,” Darby said.

“What shall we do today?” Aoi asked.

“I think, it’s time to mix some training with some enemy hunting,” I said.

“Oh, and how are we going to do that?” Kanae said

“With a spell, that I think you’re all ready for. It’s a very useful spell, but it also has some serious limitations, and it drains significant mana. Plus we’ll be using it in a way it’s really not designed for,” I said.

“Oh, that is so ... you!” Kiera said.

“Well, don’t keep us in suspense, what is it?” Kanae said

“Chamushi,” I cast.

“What! Where did she go?” Kanae asked.

“What was that spell?” Darby asked.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author’s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“She’s still here,” Kiera said.

“What? What do you mean? How can she still be here?” Kanae asked.

“Use your other senses, Kanae,” Kiera said.

“Oh, I can feel here mana. Where are you, Dee?”

I was standing close to the wall, in front of the bookcase. I moved a little along the wall,

“A shimmer! There!” Kiera said.

“Where? I don’t see a shimmer. Dee! Where are you?”

I walked away slowly from the wall.

“Is that ... you, Dee?” Rosie asked.

“Where?” Kanae asked.

“There, where there’s a distortion in the wall,” Kiera said.

“Kiera, Rosie, very good. You can see where I am. Now, that I’m far enough away from the wall take a walk around me, while looking at me, and see what happens,” I said.

Kiera and Rosie began walking around me.

“I see, that would be a real problem, wouldn’t it?” Kiera said.

“But when you stood still against the wall, you were pretty much invisible. No, not invisible, but blended in,” Rosie said.

“Exactly! Blended in, along with ignored,” I said.

Darby, Aoi, and Kanae joined Kiera and Rosie in walking around me.

“Oh I see, You are blending against the background. But it doesn’t work as good if you aren’t up against a wall,” Kanae said.

“Nechamushi,” I cast, canceling the spell.

“Where did you learn this spell?” Aoi asked.

“It’s actually two spells I combined into one. So this spell can only be cast by someone who can dual cast, like all of you. It’s a combination of Chamelious which is a blending-in spell, and Mushi which is an ignore spell,”

“Why not just the blend-in spell?” Kiera asked.

“As you noticed while walking around me the spell wasn’t as effective in concealing me. An observant person, and even some non-observant people would notice, and their attention would be drawn to me. By adding in the ignore spell, people who walk past me when I’m close to the wall wouldn’t notice, unless they were actually looking for me. And that is another weakness of this spell. Someone actually hunting for the person using the spell is mostly immune to the ignore part of the spell. Now of course, a true invisibility spell would be the ideal spy tool, no one has figured out how to actually do it,” I said.

“I’d like to try coming up with one,” Kiera said.

“Be very careful. I should have said no one has come up with a spell for invisibility, and lived, or had their test subject live,” I said.

“So you are saying there are actually spells to turn people invisible,” Kanae said.

“Yes, invisible dead statues, or just invisible and dead. There are several spells that are known. Note, when I say invisible, I actually mean transparent,” I said.

“Wow,” Kiera said.

“Well, there was one odd exception I came across. There was the case of a mage long ago, who found a spell that turned a certain fish species transparent. He’d found this odd fish with light-blue blood, and cast a spell on several of those fish, and created the ghost fish that you can see today. The only example I’ve found of a successful spell to turn things transparent. Even though it’s only transparent while in water. Its blood isn’t exactly transparent, but is effectively so in water of any depth,” I said.

“How do you know all this?” Kiera asked.

“Well, I was rather committed to making myself invisible once upon a time. So I devoted years of research on the subject. Lots of people have died experimenting on such spells. I can’t recommend experimenting on spells on yourself. It’s extremely dangerous, if you research on making spells. Nearly every tome has strict warnings on the subject,” I said.

“Good safety tip,” Aoi said.

“But don’t you have lots of spells of your own that you’ve created?” Kiera asked.

“Yes, and I have the scars to prove it,” I said.

“Scars? Aren’t your scars from battles?” Kanae asked.

“Not many of them,” I said.

“So, you’ve experimented on yourself, but tell us not to? Why?” Rosie asked.

“What I did, I did out of desperation. I had no teachers. No one would teach a half dragonkin, and I needed spells to defend myself. It was later, when I met my master, that I stopped doing that. She had found me, after one of my failed experiments. I was dying, and she saved me,” I said.

“Wow, you never fully explained that part of your story,” Kanae said.

“What was the spell?” Aoi asked.

“I don’t remember,” I said.

“Liar,” Kanae said.

“It’s ok. We don’t need to know,” Kiera said.

“No, I really don’t remember. My master erased it from my memory,” I said.

“Oh, sorry,” Kanae said.

“You can erase memories?” Aoi asked?

“It’s possible. I understand it’s very dangerous. It’s a forbidden spell. Very few are allowed to learn it. Bertilde, probably knows it,” I said.

“Bertilde! You mean that Bertilde?” Kanae asked.

“Yes.”

“Why would she know it?” Kiera asked.

“You girls really haven’t taken the initiative to investigate the people of this world, have you. You’ll have to be better to be a spy and assassin, Kiera. Bertilde is one of the seven Royal Arch Mages. She’s seriously famous. She’s a highly decorated war hero, and one of the Queen’s closest associates,” I said.

Blank stares from everyone. I laughed.

“You all, need to study some recent history. I’m going to give you all some homework researching some of the more famous people, and notable nobles. I can’t have you all be so blind to society, and the world around you. You are all part of this world now, and need to step it up a little,” I said.

“But now, it’s time to master some spy skills!” I said.

We spent the morning learning to use the blending spell, the ignore spell, and my custom dual spell.

“Alright, now it’s time for your final exam! We’re going to town, make sure we get the attention of at least a few people who like to ’secretly’ spy on us. Then we’ll turn the tables on them, while I observe from a remote location. But no going too far. We don’t want to follow them into their bases, and avoid being drawn into spots which might be traps. There is no promise that some of them will not realize they are being followed. Even if they can’t see you, they may have other means of sensing being followed. Some of these might be pros with decades of knowledge and experience. We aren’t even amateurs, except for Kiera, who has the actual skills. So if it seems they are trying to lose you or act weird in any manner stop following, and return to our meet up location. Stay hidden and monitor our meet up point until I arrive,” I said.

“Yes, boss!” Darby said.

“I’m going to smack you,” I said.

“Let’s go.”

So we left the academy, and started exploring the town, like we were just having a day of shopping and fun. It didn’t take long to pick up some followers. We ducked down an ally, and activated our cloaking. I blinked to the end of the alley and let the followers see me turn the corner.

Chamushi! Blink! I cast. I transformed to my battle form, and spread my wings so I could float on the wind. Having blinked myself high above the city. I would be virtually invisible up here. The fluctuations as a result of floating in place would be barely perceptible. This was where my spell really shined.

I had seen the group of followers reach the alley just as I was leaving it. Now they had raced down it, and were confused, looking for me. They split into two groups. I couldn’t see my companions from above, but I could sense their general positions. One was following each group, as planned. Not long after another pair rounded the alley. They blinked to the end, and looked both ways. They also split. Two of my companions followed one, and one the other.

Our little game was afoot. But surprisingly, another shadow arrived at the alley. He examined the spot where my companions had hid, then looked up at the sky. His, no, her eyes, scanned the sky, pausing on the area I was floating in, and then blinked to the end of the alley and followed one of the other followers.

Whoever this was I needed to keep an eye on her. I sent several of my wasp golem spies after her. Two ahead of her, two behind, and on right on her tail.

Our game didn’t last very long. After having lost sight of us all they quickly gave up the hunt, and regrouped. After a brief moment, where I imagine they had a discussion, two broke off and headed away. Two of my companions followed. Of the second group, one began acting weird, and my companion stopped following. Luckily this was the one that the third spy was following. Once the guy who was acting weird realized he’d lost his tail he found the other guy, but was acting suspicious by not meeting up with him, My companion must have noticed, and blinked away.

Three of my companions were now at our meeting location, across the street from the Red Dragon Pub. The two still following a group wound up at a warehouse where the spies entered. My companions blinked away, and appeared at the meeting point shortly after. The one who had possibly realized I was monitoring from up here, had actually used a teleportation circle to leave once she realized my companion was gone from the area. I blinked down to where our meeting point was. Transformed and canceled the spell. My companions appeared right after.

“Well, that was exciting,” Rosie said.

“One of you got made by the second party. I think we were all made by the third spy,” I said.

“There were three groups?” Kanae asked.

“Yes, but we’ll discuss it later. Let’s go have some dinner,” I said.

We all entered our favorite pub. A hooded girl entered shortly after us. She looked familiar, but I couldn’t place her. She smiled at me when she noticed I was looking at her. I had a strong suspicion she was the spy from earlier. I smiled back. Did she do that on purpose? She sat close to the door.

We sat and had a good meal. No food battles today. We had much to discuss yet.

“A round of honey beer for everyone!” I said to the waitress.

We sat and enjoyed a mug of the best beer in the city, and watched the nice atmosphere of the pub. Then we returned to our dorm. As we left, the girl said softly,

“Had fun today.”

I couldn’t tell if that was a question or a statement. I didn’t answer or acknowledge her. We had barely secured the room when Kiera said,

“Alright tell us about the third group of spies!”

“Whoa! Slow down a little. I’ll start with my observations. First we all know about the first party. We turned the corner, and you all cloaked. I blinked to the next street, and waited for the group to see me. I turned the corner cloaked, and blinked into the sky. I transformed, and hung there in the air current. Mostly stationary. I should have been virtually invisible. So that first party split in two, and one of you followed each group.

A second party of two spies followed. They split and the rest of you followed one or the other. Then a third spy came to the spot where you all cloaked and investigated it quickly, and then blinked to the next street, and followed one of you. That was you Aoi. You got made by the one you were following. The weird thing about third group was it was a single spy, and she looked up at the sky as if searching for me before she followed you. I sent five wasp golem spies to follow her. After Aoi blinked to the meeting point she teleported away.

Two of you actually located at least one of the first group of spies’ locations. We can be certain that we are being followed by at least three different groups or people. I don’t know what to make about that third one. The last one is the scariest. She seems to know what we did today, and knows we are capable hiding ourselves. Another group has at least one highly skilled spy. That group will be more cautious in the future. I think our first mission is to expose and take down, or at least wound, the first group,” I said.

“Agreed, so what do we do? Raid the place?” Darby asked.

“Whoa! Settle down. We are just getting started. First we need to investigate. Who owns that place? How many people are in there? Does anyone we know ever go there?” I said.

“So how do we find out those things?” Kanae asked.

“Well we can actually spy on the location for one thing. The library will have information about every location in the city. Ownership information can be learned in many ways. But we don’t want to go through any official means, which might be warning signs to the organization. We have to remember any group following may be connected to multiple organizations both in the government and private sectors,” I said.

“So first we should just watch the place secretly? That might give us all the information we need, right?” Kiera said.

“Yes, but that would be a very lucky thing. More likely we won’t learn everything from just spying on them. But let’s not ignore watching the neighborhood also. How do the neighbors react to the building and interact with its occupants? It’s a warehouse, so goods should be moving in and out? What kinds of goods?” I said.

We spent three weeks investigating everything we could on the place. It turned out the neighbors strictly avoided the place. The place brought in all sorts of cargo, but the cargo shipped out was infrequent and was slaves. So there was, likely, some illegal slave trading going on there. But that didn’t seem to be its main purpose. It was owned by a baron in the east. It was nobody that we knew, or had any known connection with. This meant the most likely connection was the Orphean Cult. We were out of time to do anything more at this time. School resumed next week.

“So what are we going to do about our shadows?”

“Nothing right now. I’m going to have my eyes and ears watching them, and reporting to us for now,” I said.

“Your eyes and ears? How are you going to do that?” Kiera asked.

“I have recruited some of the cities’ orphans to work for me in gathering intel on everything that goes on outside the Noble district,” I said.

“You have your own spy network?” Kiera said.

“Not yet a spy network, just an information network, I give aid to a few orphanages and have recruited some of the orphans living there, giving them educations and money to rise out of poverty. Many among them collect information for me, and I pay them well. You should consider building your own such network, Kiera. Spies and assassins need information, first and foremost. These orphans of mine will likely grow up to work for nobles and trade folk. I use former military to protect the orphans and orphanages against slave traders, and the criminal elements,” I said.

“Where do you find the time? Can you teach me?” Kiera said.

“Finding the time is difficult. I’d be happy to teach you. I’ll introduce you to some of my agents,” I said.

“Me too!” Kanae said.

“Over my head. But I like the idea of helping out orphans so they can have better lives. I’m happy to chip in,” Darby said.

“What Darby said,” Rosie said.

“I want to help too!” Aoi said.

A summons from the queen came for me. So we were off to the palace. When we entered, the queen said,

“Princess Deirdre, the Red Queen Annilise has assigned you a security detail. They will be accompanying you at the Academy, and stationed in your dorm.”

“What!?”