Fire!

"Hmm..."

I looked around the room for a few seconds in search of anything that might be helpful in my plan, but couldn't find many useful things. Heaving a sigh, I crouched down beneath the young master's desk and touched the ink stain on the floor. I moved my fingers up and held them in front of my eyes under the moonlight that was illuminating the room through the gap in the curtains.

My fingertips were not stained by the ink. Furthermore, the ink seemed to have been whipped a few times as some parts of it had the clear marks of someone's desperate struggles in clearing it with a cloth, but the cleaner was unable to remove the mark completely.

'There is no way that the maids were unable to clean such a mark...'

After all, these servants dealt with ink and other substances a lot and had more or less grasped how they had to remove ink spots from clothes or other objects. The ink must've been at least a little bit more uncolored if the maids had attempted to clean it off.

'Then, that means that the young master hadn't told the maids about it... Wait, did he try to clean the ink mark?'

Tap Tap Tap

My fingertips were a little bit sticky and stinky. I whipped them to the palm of my other hand in an attempt to clean them while contemplating.

'I wonder if ink is flamable...'

Can you ignite ink? I've never tried... I don't even know what the ink that young master Alaric uses is made of. It can't be one of those mana-based ones, right? Anyway, even if it's not ignitable, I'll make it burn!

I stood up from my spot and walked to the young master's drawer beside his bed. On top of the drawer was an unlit oil lamp. The oil lamp was always there, but no one really used it as there were magic lights inside the room. It was placed there just in case of emergency.

I walked back to the ink spot and dripped a few drops of the oil lamp's liquid on the ink spot. I then moved backward, approaching the windows while dripping more and more flammable liquid on the ground in a straight line.

'I'm sorry, expensive and beautiful curtains!'

I touched the wick to make sure that it was drenched with the oil before splashing the rest of the liquid on the curtain with a heavy heart. I set the empty oil lamp on the window sill, walked to the young master's desk, moved my hands up, then swept the books and the papers on the desk to the floor.

PLOP

PLOPPP

Bang

The thick books made loud noises as they were thrown to the ground. Black ink from a broken fountain pen splatted around and the glass cup on the desk shattered to pieces. I hurriedly grabbed the young master's mysterious notebook and tore a few pages of it, tossing the torn pages around the room in a messy way. Then I moved towards the bed, kicked the blank away, and jumped on the bed, leaving some dirty marks on it with my shoes. I then pulled the drawer beside the bed open and tossed some of the objects inside it to the bed and on the ground.

'Ah, wait, isn't this too much money?'

My hands froze in the middle of throwing a bunch of cash into the air. I stared at the money in a daze, counted the number of papers in my grasp, then gasped quietly. I lowered my hand carefully and looked at the cash.

'I'm so envious...'

People have this much money in the drawer beside their bed as if it's nothing, and here I have not gained this much throughout my life as a servant! This... This cruel and unjust world!

'I should make things a little bit more... natural... Yeah. It makes things look even more real... Yeah...'

I separated a few of the cash and stuffed them into the pocket of my trousers, patted my bulged-up pocket, and smiled to myself. I bade the rest of the money farewell and threw them around the room.

'This should be enough...'

I heaved a sigh and looked around the room. It looked like a mess... perfect!

I went to the windows, picked up the empty oil lamp, and strode toward the bathroom. I passed the bathroom and entered the hidden door there. After exiting the door at the end of the corridor, I found myself in a small, wrecked room with faint lighting. There was a small burning candle in the room, its flame about to extinguish. I moved the oil lamp and held the tip of the wick on top of the flame. The wick started to burn instantly with a bright flame. Turning around, I walked back to the young master's room once again.

'How come they didn't hear the voices of the books hitting the floor and the glass shattering... I'm sure they made fairly loud voices...'

Strange.

When I reached the young master's room once again, I opened the largest window. The wind blowing outside the building made the curtains flutter and a cold breeze entered the room. I stepped into the balcony, moved back my hand, and smashed the other window that was still closed.

SHATTER

The glass shattered, broke, and small pieces of it scattered around inside and outside the window.

'I'm really sorry.'

I held the burning flame of the oil lamp under one of the curtains that were beside the fluttering one, the curtain covering the shattered window, the one I had drenched with oil. The curtain was set on fire in a few seconds. The fire spread up in the clothing, reached the oil-drenched part, and flared up even more.

I moved away from the burning curtain and threw the oil lamp on the ground. The papers on the ground instantly started to burn, fire spread more and more as the books were set on fire as well. The next thing that started to burn was the ink spot on the ground which had oil on top of it. The fire soon spread around and the wooden floor also started to burn.

'Done! Now I should run away...'

I hurriedly turned my back to the blazing fire and ran towards the bathroom. I ran down the secret path and the staircases as fast as I could and exited the final door that lead to the garden outside the building. I locked the door, tidied my cloth, walked towards the young master's balcony, and shouted at the top of my lungs.

"FIREEE!"

I stopped for a few seconds and took a deep breath.

"THERE IS FIRE IN THE MANSION!"

The burning curtain was visible from where I was standing.