Burn the Whole House Down

When Azemo grabbed the papers he had too much adrenaline to take the time to read them. He was worried about being caught in the act and he quickly made his way back to the hallway once more, before going back to the party.

Near the stairs the singular painting caught his eye once again. There was just something off putting about it.

At first glance it was just a cabin in the woods, but the longer Azemo stared the more he saw. He noticed that the trees seemed way too close together and that some sort of darkness was slowly creeping through the trees.

'I don't have time to be an art critic.'

As Azemo turned to leave a flash of inspiration came over him and he used (skill) Flames of Death on the painting. The painting promptly burnt to a crisp. Even though it was a healing skill it was still fire.

"Oops."

Azemo quickly put out the fire but by that time the entire painting had already gone up in flames. Azemo was about to flee in panic when a single metal leaf floated out of the painting. The leaf drifted through the air before falling on Azemo's hand.

'He actually found something that I did not put into this world.' The Soul Essence was in shock. It knew that created worlds would slowly grow after they were made but it had never expected Azemo to find something like the metal leaf.

Azemo tucked the leaf into his hidden pocket and hurried downstairs, he did not want to be at the scene of the crime.

Azemo rushed downstairs towards the party room and was almost to the door when a server walked by. Since Azemo was in such a hurry (skill) Blend In was not in full affect and the server gave Azemo a weird look.

Before the server could ask him anything, Azemo was back in the party room like nothing had ever happened.

'I have successfully completed my mission now all I have to do is wait to leave. I would say I did not leave a single trace.'

Azemo conveniently forgot about the fallen door and the burnt painting, he did not want to dampen a successful infiltration.

The rest of the night went on without a hitch and Azemo was getting a little tired. As his eyes were starting to close he missed the start of the governor handing out awards to his best workers.

Azemo started to sink into his chair when he was jolted awake when he heard. "Azemo, where are you, get up here."

Azemo sat up and quickly made his way to the front of the room.

"I am told that Azemo here lasted the longest out of any of Reginald's walkers and he always makes sure that Reginald is out for the proper amount of time."

Apparently the governor did not like Reginald to be out for too long and since Azemo had been taking him for only the required three hours the governor decided to reward him.

"Nice suit you have there. Smells a little burnt, haha. I will give you this glove. It will never tear and it has a few other features you will have to figure out for yourself."

The governor was talking to Azemo but in a voice that carried throughout the entire room and before Azemo had the chance to thank him, Azemo had already been cast aside.

As the glove was given to him the Soul Essence quickly said. "Would you like to save or keep this item."

"Save." Azemo was riding the high of a successful operation and as such he felt like he had all he needed in Kclzan. The glove would make a nice souvenir for when he made it out of the simulation.

The glove instantly vanished, luckily no one noticed because the governor had moved on from Azemo.

"The last award goes to my trusty head of operations." The governor was still performing and the cameraman was loving it.

The night came to a close and Azemo headed home, he wanted to get to sleep even if he had the next day off.

On the way back up to the city, a time that Azemo had dubbed thinking time, Azemo remembered something the governor had said.

'Smells a little burnt. Uh oh am I busted.'

Before Azemo could come to a conclusion the docks interrupted his train of thoughts and he hurried to his apartment. Bella and Ima were awake, waiting for him with the room bag and after Azemo changed out of his clothes they all went to sleep in the room bag together.

In the morning, well it was more like mid afternoon, Azemo decided to go deliver the documents to Lleh so he contacted Casen.

Casen met him at the usual spot and led him blindfolded to the headquarters. Once the blindfold was removed Azemo handed over the papers and let Casen read them.

"So what do they say?"

"You really didn't read them. Whatever." Casen was too excited to complain and he went on to explain the contents of the paper.

"It appears the scientist," Casen pointed to the poster of the old man, "is the one who works on the common people and makes sure they do what they are supposed to. The government is also afraid about people getting riled up and that is why everyone talks the same. They are looking for irregularities and removing them."

"This paper is exactly what we were looking for, it confirms our theory about brainwashing and it seems like all we have to do is make people angry to break it."

Casen was through the roof and quickly passed on the message to Sareth.

"Nice job Azemo, you exceeded my expectations, so you don't have to worry that the governor knows you turned his painting to ash."

Azemo was extremely surprised. 'I guess that server tattled and the governor did smell soot.'

"Why did you burn the painting?" Sareth might be bad at remembering her code name but that did not mean she would forget every detail.

"I just did not like it and accidentally set it on fire." Azemo did not want to tell Lleh everything. If the leaf would help their cause he would tell them after he looked into it.

Sareth did not seem to really care about Azemo's answer.

"Anyways tomorrow the governor is going to send some people after you during the daily walk. They are being sent to capture you but we will take this time to fake your death."

Seeing that Azemo stayed quiet Sareth continued with her plan. "You need to give Reginald to one of your guards and run off. The people after you will hunt you down and you will need to kill them. After that a few of our people will assume the hunters identity and report to the governor that you killed yourself to avoid questioning. Do you think you can do that?"

"Probably, but what am I going to do afterwards?"

"Don't worry we have arranged transportation to another big city where we have an identity for you."

Azemo could think of nothing to say so he just nodded and afterwards Casen led him out of the base.

After that Azemo had to prepare for an exciting day of faking his own death.