Chapter 25: Plan
"What?! Use my body? Absolutely not!" I clenched my fist. Was this elf asking for a beating?
When she saw how angry I was, the stupid elf quickly hurried to apologize. "Ok, I'm sorry. It was a bad joke. You don't have to do anything sexual at all."
My face was red on the outside, both from anger and shame, but inwardly I sighed in relief. It was true that I had a good amount of sexually-related skills, but that didn't mean I wanted to use them.
"Don't worry, all you have to do is use your body to act cute and pitiful. You just need to distract the guard for a little bit."
"And what will you be doing?"
"Didn't I tell you before that I had something to help us escape? Normally I wouldn't be so trustworthy of strangers but since we're trapped together I have no choice but to depend on you." She scratched her cheek. "And besides, I also have a feeling that I can trust you."
She stood up and grabbed the hem of skirt, lifting it up to her thighs. Around her thigh was a small brown pack approximately the size of my hand, attached to her leg by a belt wrapped around a couple times.
I caught myself staring at her legs and quickly turned away. Wasn't this girl a little impulsive? Couldn't she show a little restraint in front me? I was a guy just a night ago!
Dammit, now I was feeling excited again! I hastily tore my gaze from her thighs as she untied the pack.
She opened the pack and placed each of its contents onto the floor one by one. There was a small bag stuffed with coins, a bracelet, a folded map and a tiny handbook. Finally, there was a glimmering violet gem, slightly smaller than my fist my fist.
"Wow, where did you get this from? How did you even smuggle all of this in here?"
And why couldn't I get a cool starter pack like this?
"Actually, it was easier than you would think. When I woke up in this body, the pack was already wrapped around my thigh. I'm guessing the previous owner had worn it around her waist, but when she was kidnapped, she hid it under her dress. The slave traders that captured her probably didn't take it since they didn't want to get near her and catch her illness," she explained. "And when I was brought here to this cell, they didn't bother search me at all. A little careless of them, but I guess they assumed I wouldn't have much on me considering I'm only E-Rank."
Looking at the stuff laid out on the floor, I couldn't help but be amazed. How could the Demon Lord of Envy's subordinates be so incompetent? They didn't bother to search me either though. Maybe we were truly just insects in their eyes.
"But this stuff looks so valuable. I think some of these coins might even be platinum." I picked one up, trying to get a better look at it. I couldn't tell if it was silver or platinum though, but there was also some gold in the small bag.
"Most of the stuff is useless. Its impossible to bribe our way out. They could just take the coins from us by force. The map is also useless right now." She picked up the purple stone, throwing it up and down like a ball. "As for this pretty thing, I have no idea what it does."
"What about this?" I grabbed the book off the ground and dusted off the cover. "Magic for…" I stuttered as I tried to read the rest of the words on the cover, but to no avail. But this time, it was my turn to stun Elaina.
"You know how to read?!" Seeing her shocked face, I couldn't help but let out a smug smile.
"Only a bit." I humbly replied, while inside I was fluttering with pride. Look at me now, you arrogant elf!
I opened the book to its first page and began to decipher it. Unfortunately, the book was still too complex for me. At most, I could recognize some sentences.
"Do you understand any of it?"
I shook my head. At most, I could understand that this was an educational book about magic. The word magic came up quite a bit, although that was all I could figure out.
Flipping through the pages, I found there wasn't even a single picture. How was I supposed to read this without any pictures?
"Well it doesn't matter, I never expected the book to be of much use." She gently lifted the bracelet. It was white, studded in small blue jewels and looked quite pretty. "This is what is going to get us out of here."
"What is it? Some kind of artifact?"
"This is an invisibility bracelet. Anyone who wears will turn completely invisible." She said while shaking the bracelet a bit. "I even tested it myself."
It was my turn to be shocked. While I had seen few artifacts with enchantments on them, I had never seen one that could make you invisible.
"Is it complete invisibility?" I asked.
"Let me show you." She clasped the bracelet around her wrist, and, suddenly, her body vanished. I squinted my eyes to try to see her, but found that she had completely disappeared!
"See isn't it cool?" Elaina's voice appeared from thin air.
I had to admit, I was pretty impressed. In fact, I wanted a bracelet for myself.
She took off the bracelet, her body reappearing, and placed it down. "Anyway, it's time I tell you the full escape plan."
"It begins with me putting on the bracelet before the prison guard comes to deliver dinner. Usually, the guard will just open the slot at the bottom of the door, which is why you will need to force the guard to open the door by saying I escaped." She pointed at the thick steel door, the only exit from this cell.
"They will have to open the door to check and will then notice that I am indeed missing. At that time, you will have to distract the guard away from the entrance so that I can leave through the open door. After she leaves to get help, I'll come back and unlock the door for you."
I was stunned. What kind of stupid plan was this?
A hundred things could go wrong. What if the guard could see through her invisibility? What if Elaina couldn't unlock the door? What if the guard orders me to tell them where Elaina went through my [Obedient] Perk?
And how am I supposed to believe that she will come back for me? Why wouldn't she just leave by herself and forget about me?
She must have notice my doubt in her, as she added. "You don't have to worry about me leaving you behind." She said, for the first time looking a little angry. "I'm not that kind of person. And besides, you would know that I turned invisible and you could just tell them that if I did abandon you."
For some reason, I completely trusted her words. But that didn't mean I was reassured by this stupid plan at all.
"That's true. But I still think this plan is full of holes…"
"Well, we don't have much choice in the matter anyway. Even if we do get caught, there is not much risk involved. The Demon Lord of Envy won't dare to harm her bargaining chips. At most, they'll just increase the security for us."
Each of her words made sense and I found myself feeling like we might even succeed. So what if we failed, there wouldn't be any consequences so we may as well try.
"Besides, unless someone opens the door for us, there is no way for us to get out. And so far, I have been here for ten days and they've only opened the door once, to bring me to an auction. Unless that door opens, we can;t escape. The walls are far too thick, and they don't even get scratched when I use my strongest magic."
It was true that we didn't have many options. The room was hard concrete all around, with the exception of the metal door which had a small barred window. Besides us, the only other things in the room was a primitive wooden toilet and a couple blankets. It was a little depressing to say the least.
"What about my [Obedient] perk though. If I'm ordered by the guard…"
"We can only hope that it doesn't happen. If it does happen, just try to make your explanation as vague as possible."
Well I suppose that's all we could do.
"After we escape, I will give the invisibility bracelet to you. I have a level in [Stealth], so you need it more. Then we just need to make it out of here before they catch us, but since we don't know the layout of the prison we will just have to wing it," she said.
"I still think that this is terrible plan, maybe we should wait for a better opportu—"
"Come on, you're still hesitating? Did the Demon lord of Lust also take your backbone when she took your genitals?"
This stupid elf! "Fine, we'll go with your plan." But don't blame me when it goes downhill!
"First thing we have to do is practise your charming skills. As long as you look cute enough, maybe mix in a little crying to capture her pity, the guard won't suspect a thing. Your greatest asset is your absurdly high charisma, which might be just enough to trick the guard." She patted my head, scratching my cat ears a little.
I nodded my head in understanding.
She opened her arms wide. "Now come here and practise on me."
"…"
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