NoGift

WHEN morning came, Argent was awakened by the knocking on the door. She sat up, she didn't answer whoever it was who was knocking but instead stood up and walked towards the vanity table. The image reflected on the mirror was not her face at all but that of Lady Isabella of Zaragoza – the fiancée of the Conde de la Salvacion. It was a dainty and elegant face with a pair of hazel eyes, straight nose, and natural reddish lips.

She must say, this face was indeed beautiful. But, of course, it still couldn't be on the same level as her sister's. Granted that there were probably only a handful of women in this world could compete with her sister's beauty.

She fixed the black wig she was wearing before walking towards the door. She unlocked it and pulled it open. Outside the door was a young woman in maid's uniform. Behind her were a line of women carrying buckets of water.

"Good morning, my lady. I already asked people from the hotel to bring hot bath water. I will help you bathe and dress," the young maid said.

Argent smiled and the face of Lady Isabella also smiled. This was one of the functions of her holographic mask. Any expression that the wearer made would directly be reflected on the mask. Which made the holographic mask looked more genuine.

"Thank you, Nina," she said referring to the maid. Of course, they did a lot of homework on the Conde's entourage. If they didn't, then it would be easy for their disguise to be taken down. "But there's no need to help me bathe. Although I would appreciate it if you could prepare my dress for me."

Argent said all those things in the voice of Lady Isabella. It's one of the features he added to the current choker she and the other three were now wearing. The choker would directly change the vibration coming out of the voice box to that of the sound programmed in the choker. But it would only be activated once they used the mask of the designated person they're going to impersonate. Of course, the voice programmed in her choker was that of Lady Isabella.

The maid, Nina, bowed. "I understand, my lady." 

Argent let Nina and the women carrying buckets of water enter the room. The women went straight to the attached small room where the wooden bath tub was. Nina, on the other hand, opened one of the luggage of Lady Isabella and took out a light blue dress. She took out some sort of metal gadget from her space ring. Argent recognized it as this world's version of iron press. Then the maid started pressing on the dress. 

Argent raised one of her brows. This maid was quite resourceful. 

"My lady, your bath water is ready," one of the women who carried hot bath water said.

Argent smiled at them. "Thank you."

Then the women walked out of the room. 

"Nina, once your done, you can also leave."

Nina stopped her actions and raised her head. "My lady, how about your breakfast?"

"I'll go down and have breakfast with the Conde."

"Okay, my lady."

Done with that, Argent walked to the attached room and locked the door. She had to make sure that the maid would not accidentally enter the room and saw her naked body. Although she and Lady Isabella had the same body type, there would still be big differences. She couldn't risk anything that might destroy her disguise.

She took off her nightgown and then removed the black wig she was wearing. She put the nightgown aside and put the wig in her space ring. Then she submerged herself in the wooden bath tub. She let out a contented sigh feeling the warm water on her skin. She closed her eyes and soon heard the opening and closing of the door of the room. Showing that Nina already finished with her job and left.

Argent completely relaxed knowing that there was no other person in the room with her. Then she felt the black stud on her ear vibrating. It was the vibration that's solely dedicated for her sister. She pinched it and a screen appeared in front of her. On the screen, the beautiful face of her sister appeared.

Aurum felt shocked seeing a strange face on the screen of her sPhone, thinking if she dialed the wrong number. But then she quickly removed that idea in her head. There's no way she could dial the wrong number. She might forget her own number, but there's no way she would forget her brother's. So, there's really only one answer. 

"Brother, is this the face of the woman you're going to impersonate?"

Argent was not surprised that her sister quickly figured it out. Her sister was very smart after all. "Yeah. What do you think?"

Aurum's eyes slightly widened hearing the different voice. Even her brother's indifferent expression was perfectly captured by this mask. "It's more believable compared to the usual mask."

"I made some adjustments."

She smiled a little when she heard the obvious pride in her brother's tone. "Then are you already inside Kievan?"

"Yeah. We'll probably arrived at the capital two-three weeks from now."

And that's only if there wouldn't be any problems while they were travelling. Although they had already entered Kievan, they were still far from the capital. And with such a slow transportation mode, the least amount of time they could travel was two weeks. 

"It seems we won't be able to celebrate our 15th birthday together," Aurum said with a hint of melancholy. 

Argent also felt a bit down. If ever this would be the first birthday since she occupied this body that they wouldn't be able to celebrate their birthday together. But she couldn't just stop whatever they were doing right now just because of that. There were too many things at stake. 

"I've already prepared a gift for you. Just ask Black when that day comes. He would give it to you," she said, trying to lessen the sadness her sister was feeling.

Sure enough, Aurum's eyes brightened when she heard that. And then she appeared frustrated. "I also prepared a gift for you. But I don't think I could give it to you on our birthday."

"It's okay. You can give it to me when I come back."

Aurum looked at her brother, her expression suddenly turned serious. "You must come back."

"Of course, I will," Argent answered without hesitation. "How are things there?" she asked, changing the topic.

"There's nothing much that happened. Oh, Clay arrived yesterday. He said he wanted to help us out." Aurum turned sideways, as if hiding her expression from her. "I agreed."

Argent stared at the faint blush that appeared on her sister's cheeks and she suddenly wanted to hit someone. Preferably, someone named 'Clay'. She didn't know what kind of ecstasy soup that guy fed Aurum that he could be favored by her sister to this extent. But she couldn't directly oppose when her sister already made a decision.

At the end, she could only say, "Then be sure to make good use of him."

"Brother-!" 

"What? If he wanted to help, then he should be useful first."

Aurum only looked helplessly at her brother. She knew that the other was only joking. Saying these things was already an approval from her. 

"I'll make sure he's useful," she said perfunctorily. 

They talked a bit more before ending the call. After that, Argent spent 15 minutes more soaking in the hot water before drying herself and wearing undergarments. Then she wore the long black wig before going outside.

She looked at the blue dress spread on her bed and she almost didn't cringe. Since arriving in this world for almost eight years, the only time she had ever worn a dress was when she disguised herself as Clay's sister during that time they went to Shandra. She was so used to being a boy, she no longer knew how to act like a girl. But she had to force herself to do so. A large part of their mission depended on it.

Gritting her teeth, she picked up the dress and painstakingly wore it. After that, she sat in front of the vanity table and arranged her black wig as fashionably as she could. While combing her hair, a sudden knock disturbed her reverie. 

"Who is it?" she asked.

There was a pause and then a male voice answered, "It's me."

If Argent was not mistaken, that was the Conde's voice. In short, it was Zhang Lei Feng. She put down the brush on the vanity table and walked towards the door. She opened it and outside stood a man with a very serious countenance. His black hair was neatly combed. Even the black suit he was wearing was finely pressed. He was the very image of a rigid aristocrat.

Worried that some servants might see them, Argent pasted a gentle smile on her face. "Yes?"

Zhang Lei Feng could only stare at the woman in front of him. Even though the face was different, he knew instinctively that it was Argent. He glanced down at the other's chest and was startled to see a bump there. He wondered what kind of stuffing Argent put inside. Even if he still thought of her as a girl, he knew that her current body now was male. So, it's really quite surprising seeing her in women's clothing and not feel any violation from it.

When Argent saw where Lei Feng was looking at, she felt a vein on her forehead popping. So, she stretched out her hand and raised the other's chin, making them looked at each other's eyes.

"Eyes on my face, pervert," she said with almost no expression.

After Lei Feng heard that and understood its implication, his whole face turned red. Even much redder than a ripe tomato!