Preparation

Helen was in awe. Simon's plan actually worked?!

She was a little bit nervous when he asked her to just follow along with the interrogation technique he would be using.

He then disappeared off into the bathroom and left her alone with Camila. Her heart actually began to beat so fast.

At that point, Helen had not yet recharged enough for a full-on fight, so she was worried that it was going to devolve into some kind of battle so soon.

However, after that stunning performance from Simon, she knew she did not have to worry anymore.

"You… how did you do that?! That was so cool! How did you know she had a master and that she got her powers recently? And how did you do the costume thing? The smoke and all? Were those abilities?"

Simon shook his head. He did not have the Magick to spare; however, what he did have was ingenuity and creativity.

"The smoke was all just my colored smoke grenades, I attached them to some padded heels to make my footsteps silent. The voice was just me changing how I sounded like the muffling from a mask."

He smiled to himself, proud of his work. He also even made sure that the bathroom was padded with foam to make it soundproof so that they could use it to talk.

"And how I knew she had a master? She said We did not know. Which implied more than one person working for her. The fact that the artifact was not with her also meant that she probably did not possess it, meaning it was either safeguarded by someone else or… she had someone to help her out."

Simon waved his hand as he started to dress himself back up to slacks and a dirty coat to make himself appear to be a rather poor man.

"So I gave an educated guess. However, her gaining her powers recently was an easy deduction. You said it yourself earlier… she held some of the power you seek. The artifact and you only came recently; she herself only a few days ago. Therefore, she must have only come across her power recently."

He got up and carefully placed a small cap on his head that had a few holes in it to really emphasize how dirty and grungy he was.

"How about you stealing her powers? Can you actually do that? Are you going to be the secret final boss I have to defeat?" Helen covered her mouth and gasped.

"Did I guess the twist far too early? Oh no I don't have a save and load power for this, ugh please don't be the twist villain."

Simon just stared at her for a little bit. He could infer and guess a lot of things, but Helen, up to this moment, still perplexed him in every department.

"Uhm… no? I just lied to her."

"Oh… well, okay, at least that makes sense…" Helen was a little bit disappointed but at least it was cleared up.

"So, do we just, bring her back underground?"

Simon shook his head. "We talk to her like this. I'll jump out the window and walk through the hallway door. You come out of this room and pretend you just saw the demon leave."

He carefully disassembled all of his materials and disguises, ensuring if Camila was snooping around, she would only see an assortment of random objects and no damning proof that the demon was faked.

"Then we ask her to help decode the documents and figure out what they were talking about. I'll also cross reference it with my own books to make sure she was telling the truth. After that, we will monitor her for the next three days."

Helen crossed her arms and smiled. She had this fuzzy feeling in her chest that was exciting to say the least. 

It was less than a day, and already her life had finally taken an upturn. Everything was going great, and it was thanks to her partner in crime.

She then lunged at Simon, hugging him tight, to his surprise as he looked down in shock, patting her head and back.

"Uhm… there there? Is everything alright?"

"No! Ever better, everything is going great! You're so meticulous! It's like having a cheat code at the start; I don't even know what is going on in this world!"

"That… will probably need to change; I'm going to have to educate you in this world if we're going to survive…" 

He continued to pat her hair. It was silky smooth and smelled like flowers. 

For some reason, he felt quite warm when he patted her, but that did not matter right now.

"Alright, just as I said. I'll jump out the window now. You play the part of the disciple, got it?"

Helen stepped backward, saluting Simon before winking. "Got it!"

Simon then jumped out of the window into the cold, dark night.

"Hehe, alright~ I can do this!" Helen turned and opened the door back to the bedroom, thankfully Camila was still on the bed, chained up.

In actuality, those chains were not going to hold her in place. But Simon's deception was strong enough that she did not even try to break free.

"My master just left, and he gave me and another one of his disciples the burden of watching over you. So you better know your place, got it?"

Camila nodded vigorously. "I-I understand. As long as he does not punish me, I will obey…"

She looked down, oh how far has she fallen? There was an empty pit inside of her that kept on growing. 

It felt like her life was never really going to get better.

Then, the door swung open, revealing Simon who came from the hallway, covered in snow and dirt. 

"Ah, she's awake. The master has talked to her, I take it? Well then, Baroness Camilla…"

He took out several documents from his coat.

"Let's have a little talk."