Dysfunctional - An Assassin's Guide to Reincarnating in Another World Chapter 157 - 156 - The Enemy Of My Enemy...is Still My Enem

Chapter 157 - 156 - The Enemy Of My Enemy...is Still My Enemy

"Co on, pick up, you egotistical loli," I muttered, impatiently running my Mana through a Call Spell Card.

I was on my way to Elina's place and I was currently trying to call her, but she wasn't picking up. Well, whatever, she probably finished it and then passed out...or she couldn't figure it out and is still working on it, too engrossed to hear the buzzing of the Call spell. I reached the building she lived in and walked in, heading for her door.

I knocked on it and waited...no answer. Seriously? Az was here too, so at least one of them should be awake-...no, if she went to sleep, there's no way he'd voluntarily stay awake and work by himself. I reached for the door handle and turned it, just out of impatience, but to my surprise, it actually opened.

"Er...pardon the intrusion, is anyone ho?" I called out, entering tentatively and muttering to myself, "Because I'm technically breaking and entering here..."

Wait, what am I talking about, I broke into houses almost on a daily basis during when Erhtaph gave a bunch of investigation and assassination missions. It felt weird 'breaking into' the house of soone I know though. There was a pile of Spell Cards on the table, but no sign of either Elina or Az...

Oh, wait a sec, she'd moved her piano into a back room in this apartnt, which was soundproofed, since apparently her neighbors had been complaining about the noise whenever I played the piano here. Normally, I'd totally understand that, but co on, who gets bothered by the sound of a piano?

Maybe if soone was playing it poorly, but I was pretty good at it, if I do say so myself...well, anyway, that was the only place they could be in that made sense, otherwise they would have definitely heard by now.

"Hey, anyone in here? Sorry for letting myself in, but the door was...unlocked-...er...what th-the...," I began as I opened the door, before trailing off with a stutter as I took in the sight in the room...

Wh-what? I don't think I've ever been so caught off-guard before...this is...this is very, very unexpected, to put it mildly.

"Sh-shut the door, now!" Scread Elina in panicked embarrassnt, her face red, while Az averted his gaze with a horrified expression.

Don't need to tell twice! I turned around and shut the door swiftly, my mind spinning...I wasn't prepared for that. No fucking way...emphasis on fucking. Elina had been atop the piano...Az had been atop her...and they were both very...very...very naked. Okay, let's calm down...I saw nothing. I saw absolutely nothing. Yeah-...

The door then swung open and the two of them stepped out, their faces red.

"What y-you saw...uh...," Stuttered Az, his gaze on the ground.

Woah, I've never seen him like this before.

"You don't have to explain anything, it's none of my business, a-and I don't really care either way! M-more importantly...uh...wait, what did I co here for...r-right, the spell!"

What followed was a horrifically awkward half an hour, but also a very productive one...Elina had done it, she and Az had puzzled over it for hours, but in the end, they finally managed to figure out how to create the spell exactly as I described it. After that, they made a heap of copies, fifty in total.

Apparently, except for the intangibility feature as I specified, it wasn't a very complex spell to create. Not that I'd ever be able to replicate it. I'm guessing that after they finished their work, they were so overco with relief that they ended up...you know...well, whatever, it's none of my business either way. Oh, she'd also made another spell I'd requested, sothing that could prove to be pretty important. It was another variation on an existing spell, and I only needed a copy for myself.

Anyway, I packed up the Spell Cards and headed back after she explained how the spell works and stuff. When activated, it would form a box-shaped barrier around the user and anyone else within fifty ters of him. The barrier's dinsions were fifty ters on every side, as in fifty square ters of space and fifty ters of height, and it was about ten tis sturdier than the safety barrier used during duels.

Oh, and if it was activated in a space that was narrower than fifty ters, it would automatically adjust itself to fit the space. Okay, now I need to go to the castle and inform them about this, and also let them know which Adventurers I wanted to go with to The Empire.

"So, uh...you're going ho too, Az?" I inquired curiously.

He followed after as I left, and had been trailing behind silently.

"Y-yeah, well...you said you want to go with you to attack Silvland...so, I thought I should get so rest or sothing...," He muttered unconvincingly.

I'd never seen him so...awkward before...

"Oh...well, it's just that you, uh, didn't seem to get to, you know, finish back there, and blueballs do suck-."

"D-drop it."

"Gotta say, man, that was really unexpected. So, you dating her, or is it a friends with benefits kinda thing, or maybe it's more of a ragefuc-?"

"Please drop it."

"Heh, out of context it totally looked like you were banging a kid, that's kinda ssed up."

"Kuro, I said drop-."

"Which raises the question...are you into lolis or older won? Cuz, you know...she's both those things at the sa ti-."

"Kuro...I am begging you...drop...it," He interrupted, stepping in front of and grasping my shoulders with an irritated and flustered expression.

"Heh, sorry, sorry...it's just that I've never seen you get all stuttery and flustered like this, it's pretty funny," I replied apologetically with a sheepish grin, "Though I gotta say, you were REALLY going at it, I didn't even know that you were capable of exerting that much energy-."

"One more word and I will drown you."

"Oh, is that a challenge? So if I keep this up, you'll duel ?"

"...I think Rai would be less annoying right now..."

"Heh, not if he saw what I saw."

"H-hey, you better not tell anyone-!"

"Later, Az! Make sure to get a lot of rest, we'll be heading out around 4 PM, 'kay?"

"Kuro, wait...!"

Let's fast forward a few hours, shall we?

...

...

"I'm coming too!"

"No, you're not, it's too dangerous."

"Why do you always have to be so overprotective, huh? I can take care of myself, Kuro!"

It was currently about five minutes out from the ti we were to depart to The Empire, and I was busy trying to convince Persia to stay here. But she was stubbornly insisting on tagging along.

"Yeah, I know you can, but...I don't want you to get hurt," I admitted with a sigh.

"Tell , if soone else was as strong as I was, would you take them with you for this battle?"

"...probably, yeah."

"I rest my case!"

"Wait, if you co with , who's going to take care of Mika? Normally, she'd probably be able to take care of herself, but right now..."

"I've already taken care of that, she'll be staying with Rai and Key till we're back, I dropped her off there while you were at the eting thingy."

Tch, well played. Damn it, she has no intention of relenting. And it's not like stopping her by force was an option. Fine, then...

"Okay, I give...you can co, but only if you promise, stick by the whole ti, 'kay?"

"Whaaat....you're still being overprotective, but...fiiine, I promise I'll stay close to you the whole ti," She grumbled, her tail swaying aggressively.

I better not let her make a habit of trying to get her way by pestering about it till I relent...

"Alright, let's get going, we're supposed to et everyone else who'll be on this mission by the west gate and then head out using the teleportation spells."

"Mhm, let's go!" She nodded enthusiastically.

She had a triumphant look on her face, having gotten to cave into her demand.

"Oh, if you pull anything like what you did during the ambush, I'll tie you to the bed and tickle you for twelve whole hours, understood? I am not kidding."

"Wha-!? O-okay, fine. I wouldn't do anything like that anyway, you made promise and all," She mumbled, as we left the apartnt, locking the door behind us.

And with that, we headed out for the west gate, along with the spells that Elina and Az had made. In total, there were twenty-seven people going on this mission. Of the S-Ranks, everyone except Elina and Einn were included. Elina because she wasn't a fighter, and Einn because he was a resident of Goldway, so working with the people that blew up his ho country probably wouldn't go down too well.

That ant there were eight S-Ranks present, Yuur Ganroh, Ekai, Misen, Vi, Fuo, Instructor Tabbs, Selesa and Les. Then, from the third-years of the Adventurer Academy, there was Az, Gela, Persia and ...I thought about including Rai and Key as well, but like I said before, I didn't want to leave the Rustlands completely defenseless in the anti, so I left them behind.

The remaining fifteen were all A-Ranked Adventurers, all of whom had killed at least two Vampires during that battle. There were a few more that t that condition, but they refused to co since they were too afraid and there was no point in forcing them to co along. Of those fifteen A-Ranks that were coming along, I only knew three of them, Siert Huet, Siela Larwas and Oreg Dinwiy. In case you forgot who that last one is, he's the guy with the rhino horn and uses Wind Magic with crossbows, I'd dueled him once before.

Siert was skilled enough to be an S-Rank, but his lack of confidence kept him from climbing up the ranks quickly. He was currently at the top of the A-Ranks, and should climb up to S-Rank soon though. Anyway, we soon reached the west gate, where everyone was present. Misen hadn't wanted to be a part of this, he'd had a rough ti of it during that last battle, but he couldn't refuse since Erhtaph told him to. Huh, he looks kinda sick though, like he was coming down with a cold...maybe it's just my imagination.

After I made sure that all twenty-seven of us were accounted for, we headed out towards the the Goblin territory, Rion said that he'd marked the teleportation points with 'T' marks, and he'd also labeled the teleport Spell Cards he'd given , so once we find the first 'T', we'd be at The Empire within a couple of minutes. Teleporting that far required around a dozen or so teleports, which ant that The Empire's teleport spells had about the sa range as the teleport spells we used...either that, or they had better ones but were hiding it. I definitely wouldn't put it past Lagusa to do sothing like that.

We walked past the cave entrance and onto the road leading to The Empire. It didn't take too long to spot the 'T', it was painted on a rocky surface using black ink. I rifled through the teleport spells till I found the right one and used it, after making sure everyone was linked in physical contact with each other.

After repeating that a few more tis, we found ourselves about half a kiloter away from The Empire...or what was left of it. Which was a big-ass crater. Wow, they really did blow it up...guess we won't have to worry about monster-dinosaurs anymore.

And just outside the crater, there were a couple of buildings that looked like they'd been made using Earth Magic...probably Presde's handiwork. A few people then stepped out of the buildings as we approached them...the mbers of the Retribution Tier. And one other, a man with longish wild white hair that frad his face, an eyepatch over his right eye, a diagonal scar that started from above his left eye and ended around the right side of his mouth.

He matched the description Rion had given before, except for the eyepatch, which was new...was it a fashion statent or the result of the battle they'd just been through? Probably the latter. He stepped forward as we neared them, a smirk on his face.

"Greetings, Adventurers of the Rustlands! Welco to my Empire!" He exclaid smugly.

Okay, first impression...I don't like him, he seems annoying. His expression was irritating .

"Your Empire, huh...so, uh, where is it?" I inquired innocently, before a smirk appeared on my face.

Ti to get this truce thing underway, though I can't let myself forget...the enemy of my enemy...is still my enemy...and this temporary truce isn't going to change that...

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