Once they'd changed clothes, the three of them headed straight for the estate where their target lived. With the plan to sneak in disguised as a maid applicant now dead in the water, they had no choice but to switch tactics and become a trio of cat burglars instead.
Before they moved, Sorano laid out instructions.
"Listen up. Whatever else he is, the man's still a duke. If we can get this done without alerting him, let's avoid causing too much of a commotion."
"Got it!" Lucy and Meredy said in unison.
"Good. Lucy, you're up first."
"Yes, ma'am." Lucy answered loudly, but the moment she stepped out from behind the tree they'd been hiding behind, she froze and shrank right back.
"Wait, why me?!"
"To build up your experience, obviously. You want us handling something this simple for you?"
Sorano said it like it was the most reasonable thing in the world.
"Come on, get moving. The window's closing."
She reached out to shove Lucy forward, but Lucy latched onto her arm in a death grip and begged.
"No, absolutely not, I don't have any experience at all, I'll definitely get caught."
"Let go. This is already the easiest job I could find for you."
The two of them wrestled over it for a while before Meredy finally couldn't stand watching anymore. She stepped in and offered a compromise.
"How about this. Lucy, I'll use my magic to link our emotions together. I'll stay out here and give you positive emotional support, and you go inside and handle the job. Even if you're spotted or run into danger, I'll be able to sense it through your feelings and react in time."
"I, I actually think you could just come in with me instead."
"Enough stalling. Emotional Link!"
Without giving Lucy any more room to waffle, Meredy cast the spell on her right then. Instantly, Lucy felt a strange sensation, as if she'd merged with another person. Sensing the calm, steady, confident emotions flowing in from her other "self," the anxiety in Lucy's chest gradually settled.
"Okay, fine, I'll go. But if I'm in danger, you two better come save me."
With that, Lucy screwed up her courage again, stepped out from their hiding spot, and crept toward the outermost wall of the estate, glancing back every few steps. The two of them watched from a distance as she took a running start, vaulted the wall, and disappeared from sight.
"Tch, she's finally in. You want to handle it, or should I?"
Once Lucy was safely inside the estate, Sorano turned and asked Meredy, out of nowhere. Meredy shook her head and sat down cross legged on the grass.
"You go ahead. We've got the link, so let's not interfere with her."
With a small nod, Sorano casually flicked her hand, sending a basic wind blade slicing through the leaves above them. A moment later there was a soft crack, and a crystal orb shattered into several pieces and dropped to the ground. Sorano picked up a fragment and examined it, confirming what it was.
"A surveillance crystal, just as I thought. An estate this big and there isn't even a single patrolling guard along the perimeter. Calling her a total amateur would be giving her too much credit for missing something this obvious."
And yet, even knowing their little group had already been spotted, Sorano showed no intention of warning Lucy. She smoothed out her skirt and settled down beside Meredy with elegant ease, legs tucked to one side.
"Alright, let's enjoy the show. Hopefully she can hold out for a while. Better yet if she doesn't need backup at all."
Meredy just shook her head.
Through the emotional link, Lucy could sense Meredy shaking her head, speaking, sitting down, all of it, but she couldn't hear a word they were saying. So she carried on with her infiltration, blissfully unaware that her every move had already caught the attention of hidden eyes watching from the shadows.
"No one on the left, no one on the right. Clear. Move fast."
After a careful scan, she darted across the hallway in a single dash, picked a room at random, and slipped inside, opening and closing the door in one smooth motion. Wiping away the cold sweat that nerves had brought on, Lucy let out a long breath.
"Whew, that went even smoother than I expected."
The estate's security was shockingly lax. The whole way in, aside from spotting a few oddly shaped maids from a distance, Lucy hadn't run into a single hitch.
"What good luck. All I have to do now is find the book, and the job's as good as done. But an estate this huge, where would Ebar even hide it?"
There was nothing for it but to search room by room. With no better method at her disposal, Lucy resorted to a basic detection spell, sweeping through the estate one room at a time.
She had no idea, of course, that her every move was already being captured in perfect clarity by the magic crystal orbs hidden away in the corners of the ceiling and walls.