I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 229

“So. What’s the plan?” Sammuel asked.

As soon as we left the Blanche estate, we moved across the street to a dark alley that had a good view of the complex. This was a place I had used before when I was waiting for my other half to escape the Shrodinger’s box, and it seemed to be a decent vantage point. We picked a moment when a large carriage pulled up and blocked the view of the guards to find out their position. After that, more and more people left until the street finally settled down.

It was now dark except for the occasional lit torch.  Two guards were standing at the doorway, and more guards were on the towers. The lighting around the perimeter was especially bright. Paragon guards didn’t need sight to be able to detect an enemy. They could detect someone through a variety of means. I already had experience masking my presence; however, none of that mattered if I was seen crossing the street.

I glanced over at Sammuel and raised an eyebrow. “We need a distraction?”

He gave a grin as if he had been expecting this. “I guess you’ll be entering alone then.”

I blinked, but Sammuel was already slinking away into the shadows. That wasn’t actually what I had in mind. I could create distractions easily enough. I was just speaking out loud. However, he was right. It was better if I entered the mansion alone, so I didn’t see any reason to stop him. Instead, I waited patiently, presuming there would be a sign.

“Hey, Blanche losers! You suck!” I looked to see a man wearing a mask and a cloak. “The Blanche family are a bunch of dickless cowards!”

His voice was distorted as he spoke, making it very difficult for people to see who he was, but I already knew that it couldn’t be anyone but Sammuel. I stared at him with my mouth open. This was his big plan? The guards in the front exchanged glances, and then both began to walk down the street toward him, pulling out their blades. As for the men at the towers, they were staring in that direction too, waiting for the show to unfold.

I couldn’t help but smack my forehead. Sometimes, I thought Sammuel was actually an extremely competent and clever guy, even using his own drunkenness to make people underestimate him. Then sometimes, I had to wonder if he was actually just an idiot.

As the guards got close, he turned around and then slapped his bottom at them before taking off. I didn’t spend any longer waiting to see what happened to him. The window he gave me was painfully small. Perhaps only ten seconds. Had it been another person, there was nothing they could have done with such a distraction, but for me, all it took was a moment. Perhaps Sammuel suspected this and used this opportunity to test me, or perhaps I was just giving him too much credit again.

I burst across the street and leaped. I didn’t just clear the wall, but the tower as well. This was the only way I could avoid the gaze of the people on the tower. Yet, I moved so quickly that even if they had seen me, they might have confused it for a large bird or a late-night trick of the eyes. I landed in the courtyard and immediately slid behind a bush.

I had already adjusted my body. My skin gave off no body heat, and my middling mana was completely suppressed. I had also changed my face once again. Since Sammuel was gone, there was no reason to wear that face. I didn’t know why, but I changed to the disguise face I had already used a few times. It felt somewhat comfortable at this point. However, after a moment, I decided to throw a mask on my face as well. One could never be too careful.

Just like that, I entered the building through an open window on the second floor and then headed down the hallway. I had only entered the building once before, and the sentinels that I had placed there had all died when I left the city. Even if they had still been around, they were early versions. They didn’t have anything like a mapping system. Actually, none of my sentinels did. I wondered if I could create some kind of radar or lidar system.

Many people didn’t know this, but radar was actually an acronym that stood for Radio Detection and Ranging. Essentially, one used radio waves, which had rather long wavelengths and low energy on the electromagnetic spectrum and were imperceptible to human eyes, to map out objects. They sent out a radio wave, and when it hit an object, it’d bounce back. They could predict the object’s distance away and its size based on how long it took the signal to return.

Another type of system, lidar, was becoming more popular back in my previous world because of its use in self-driving cars. Rather than radio, it shot out light, or more accurately, lasers. The Laser Detection and Ranging shoots millions of light beams, which then bounce off and return, allowing someone to easily map the 3-dimensional region around them, as well as any obstructions they face. It’d be quite nice if I could develop something similar in my sentinels.

Maybe echolocation, like what bats use, would be better. They used sound waves in the same way as we used radio or laser, but this was something that already existed biologically, so I didn’t need to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Most of the pulses’ bats sent out were outside the range of human hearing. However, that might not be good enough. I suspected that evolution also expanded the senses of human beings.

It was hard for me to be certain, since I was only mimicking a human’s senses, but it seemed like the higher someone evolved, it wasn’t just that they could see further and hear better, but that the range expanded slightly as well. This further added to the mystique of highly evolved paragons who could seemingly tell whether someone was lying. If you could see heat move to the cheeks, smell the fear, hear a heartbeat quicken, it was easy to detect if someone was lying.

While I was contemplating such possibilities for the future, I found myself already reaching the room where Erika was. How did I know where she was? It turned out the matching necklaces didn’t just allow us to contact each other in an emergency. It also seemed to resonate as the two necklaces grew closer. I hadn’t sensed it during the party, but since entering the Blanche estate, my necklace had begun to vibrate more and more the closer we got.

I suspected that during the party, the Blanche head feared someone might sense Erika’s energy signature, so he must have put a barrier around her so that no one would suspect the girl they presented wasn’t the real Erika. Once the party was gone and everyone had left, he brought it down, which was how I was able to find her. It didn’t really matter, though. I would have found her eventually either way. This just saved some time.

Just as I reached the door, the handle turned and opened with a click. Two men stepped out of Erika’s room. One of them was Master Blanche, and the other was an old man I didn’t recognize. Master Blanche turned to the old man, a dark expression on his face.

“Is there no change?”

“Whatever poison she consumed, she remains in a coma.” The other man shook his head. “None of my herbs or antidotes can raise her. This is truly a sad day. To think she would rather kill herself rather than marry the man we decided on for her family.”

“No, not kill herself.” Master Blanche shook his head. “I know my daughter better than anyone. She loves to be stubborn. The first time I tried to marry her, she fled to the capital and joined the academy. She even polluted her brother’s mind and dragged him down her childish path. This time, I gave her no path of retreat, so she decided to do this. It’s just another tantrum. Perhaps, I spoiled her too much.”

My expression darkened. I was on the roof, just above the door. If the two glanced up, they’d see me instantly, but they weren’t looking that way. When they mentioned Erika’s coma, I spared a glance only to see her in her bed, unconscious. She really did appear to be in a coma.

Erika’s father… This guy was really something. He pushed his daughter into trying to kill herself, yet called her unfilial.

“What can we do, my lord. If she remains in this state…”

“She won’t.” Master Blanche shook his head. “I’ve been gifted a technique from which to remove the poison. In the morning, I will announce that she has fallen to a vicious poison delivered by our enemies. I will then give the technique to young Huntington Frankford. Once he learns the technique, he’ll come and cure my daughter. When it’s revealed that he cured her from her coma, it will become a legendary love story of a man doing anything to save the life of his fiancée. Public opinion will pressure her to the point she will have no choice but to marry him or risk ruining her reputation.”

“My lord is wise.” The old man bowed.