On of Battle
「Dear grandfather, I wish to discuss sothing with you. Can you by any chance give a little bit of your ti?」
The royal capital of Claydale Kingdom. In the pri minister’s office in the palace, the room’s owner Belt Fa lrose glared at his grandson who visited suddenly.
Ahead of his gaze was a young boy with strawberry honey blond hair that was faintly tinged red. He didn’t even flinch against the gaze of his grandfather who was the current pri minister. He put on a smile that was as sweet as his hair color.
Mihail lrose. He was the first son of lrose House’s heir and this year he would beco ten years old. Perhaps because of his strong mana, for these several years he had grown until he looked like he was thirteen years old if he was a commoner. With his sweet look that he inherited from his grandmother and charming smile, he was becoming a hot topic among the young maids who were working in the palace.
The heir who was Belt’s son and Mihail’s father was ruling the territory of Margrave lrose in the place of Belt who couldn’t leave the capital because of his work as the pri minister. Mihail was in the capital even though he wasn’t even in the age to enroll into the sorcery academy was because he had the “friend role” for the crown prince as a candidate to be his aide in the future.
Just like how the young lady of Margrave Dandall, Clara filled the role as the playmate of the first princess Elena, several children from good social standing were also gathered around the crown prince as his playmates so he could form solid connection with them as the future king. But even among those children, it was talked that Mihail together with Rockwell Dandall who was the eldest son of the supre knight commander and also the big brother of Clara were in especially good relations with the crown prince.
「You’re really a slippery fellow……」
「I’m used to dear gradnfather’s glare after all. In the first place the people of lrose House also don’t have the trait to be considerate to others too much.」
「……I guess.」
Belt understood that he himself and his big sister who married to Carlfan Empire were also like that. His lips frowned while he wetted his lips with the tea that was brewed by his butler Oz.
The people of lrose House that was forrly a royal family of a country had such side to them for good or bad. Because of that they could also offer their opinion to the royal family without hesitation but, such side sotis also made them to beco liked by the royal family just like with Belt and Mihail.
「Co to think of it, she was also like that……」
Thinking back now, his daughter eloping without any consideration of her standing might also because such trait of lrose House ca out thickly inside her.
At the very least he was aware that his daughter wasn’t suited to beco the queen.
「Are you talking about the dear aunt that I sotis heard ca up in talk? The old servants ntioned that she was a beautiful person, and I also once saw her portrait that was remaining in the mansion. ……There is also a rumor, that a girl who might be my cousin was found?」
「……Where did you hear that from?」
Mihail spoke of a “rumor” that was only known by very few people including the royal family. Belt glared at him, but he only smiled gently and dodged the question.
Most likely he had his own information network even at this age. Taking that into consideration, he might be more suited than Belt’s son, his father to beco the pri minister when the crown prince beca the king, but Belt sighed at his grandson who was maturing too quickly.
「We will observe for several years more to see about that. ……And, what do you want to discuss with ?」
「Before that, I want to tell about this matter to dear grandfather’s ear only.」
「……Got it. Oz.」
「As you command.」
Oz who was standing by at a corner of the room bowed his head to Belt and Mihail before leaving. Even he who was a knight in the dark side couldn’t hear this talk, just what could it be?
.
「Is it fine now?」
「Thank you very much, dear grandfather. I think you have guessed already but, this is about his highness the crown prince.」
Mihail talked that the crown prince recently seed to have interest toward life in the streets. That interest itself wasn’t anything bad but, apparently the crown prince wished to look around the capital not in his capacity as crown prince, but “stealthily” together with his friends including Mihail.
There were guard posts everywhere in the capital to maintain the public order. The guards were also patrolling, so there would be no danger unless in so unusual circumstance. With such good public order, it was possible to even see young lady from house at the level of count to go shopping in the city, although as expected she wouldn’t be alone. But they could do so by bringing only three guards at minimum and a maid.
But, the crown prince wouldn’t be allowed to do that with his standing. Even though it was at the royal capital, the crown prince would at least need to bring around ten of the royal guards with him and reserved a high class establishnt just to go shopping. Wanting to look around stealthily ant departing to the city without even being accompanied by decent amount of guard. This must be the influence of the first queen who was forrly a viscount’s daughter who liked to behave with abandon.
(……Really, what a troubleso person.)
Setting aside the official function, the first queen was said to be still relying on the second queen for the political duty. Belt grumbled about her inside his heart. Mihail also sensed his grandfather’s mood and continued with the story in order to end it quickly.
「As expected even I can’t allow that. I made his highness agreed to bring several guards with us. But he had apparently heard from sowhere about the case that happened during her highness the princess’s recuperation. Although it was ended only as an attempt, but the abduction was still allowed to happen. Because of that his highness is feeling disapproval for guards from the dark side outside the palace.」
「I see……」
Certainly that was a blunder in the dark side organization’s part. No matter how short of hands they were, high ranked knights of the dark side like Sera had checked the background of anyone around the royal family, and only trusted people accompanied the royalty, but after the case was investigated, it was found out that Grave who had worked for nearly thirty years for the royal family had changed the personnel assignnt and intentionally loosened the security around her highness the princess.
When he was young Grave had a radical side in him to a fastidious degree, but it was thought that it was because of his devotion toward the royal family. In fact for more than these ten years his radical side had quietened down. Nobody could understand why soone in the royal family faction like him would do what he did.
(No, ……guess he went out of control because of that fastidiousness of his.)
Grave even abandoned the mission of confirming the identity of the pink haired girl that Belt ordered him to do and vanished. There was a report that girl was attacked by a monstrous person and went missing.
Belt was feeling discomfort with his 『granddaughter』 who was just found. He sent Grave to his mission because he wanted a material to confirm his suspicion but, he had no way to search for a child whose life and death wasn’t even known.
Sera’s grandfather Hosu was also capable, but perhaps his eyes were clouded when observing Grave because Grave was the orphan that his friend left behind. Mihail made Oz left also because he didn’t want to criticize Oz’s grandfather in front of him.
「Mihail……if it’s you then you should also can remonstrate his highness right?」
「I don’t know about that. Besides as soone who I will serve in the future, it’ll be troubling is his highness is raised in sheltered upbringing and is ignorant of the world.」
「You impudent kid. And, what do you want?」
「Yes. His highness has also known the faces of all the capable dark side’s knights. And so, I want to ask dear grandfather for permission to have a tour of the royal capital, and it will also be great if you can lend us several guards who are knowledgeable about the city and doesn’t belong to the dark side.」
「Knowledgeable about the city huh……」
They could also order capable knights to serve as guard, but the royal guard that had a lot of high ranked knights couldn’t be said as knowledgeable about the city. And with ordinary knights, although they might be knowledgeable about the city, it would be troubling if they brought the crown prince and his friends to suspicious place like bar for example.
(……Co to think of it, those fellows said that they would return to the capital shortly.)
Belt recalled that and rang the bell near his hand. He called out to his subordinate outside the door.
「Soone, send a ssenger to the guild. Make a request for the adventurer party Rainbow Sword.」
「……You are faster than expected. Although low ranked, assassinating three thieves should take longer than this.」
It seed that a month is far faster than expected. When I returned to the headquarters of the branch assassin guild of the northern frontier district, the branch head Dino showed a surprised expression at .
Although he knew of my combat strength, I’m just a child in the end, so he must be thinking that I would either take much ti or fail. But in reality I finished the job in three days after arriving, so I could return even faster if I wanted, but seeing that I was in a dungeon already I went hunting monsters for a bit there.
In that dungeon, rank 3 monster would appear individually starting from around the fifth floor. Fighting rank 1 or 2 monster at this point wouldn’t really serve as training for in spite of the danger. That was why I purchased the map of lower floors from the guild and forcefully advanced to the fifth floor using Stealth and Search.
A dungeon is a “monster”. The inside is a place that doesn’t conform to the rule of the surface. The inside is filled with stronger magic particles than the outside. Thanks to those magic particles the monsters could keep active even if they only eat the minimum amount, but perhaps that’s why they are always hungry and monsters that have tasted human will beco extrely aggressive.
I’m lacking in fighting experience. I had sohow survived fighting stronger enemies until now, but in fact the number of battle I had experienced can be counted in two hands, so I dived into dungeon alone and accumulated battle experienced there until the very limit of my stamina and rations in order to beco stronger.
I stopped at fifth floor because going any lower will force to face multiple enemies at the sa ti, and because rank 3 that operated solo wouldn’t co near anymore.
I didn’t ntion anything about that to Dino here, but in order to make Appraisal’s result on to be vague, I covered my whole body with a cloak. Dino looked at my appearance with suspicion while letting out a light sigh. He then took out a small leather bag from his pocket.
「Well, it’s fine. Here is the promised paynt. Also you have nice timing. An information about the aforentioned rcenary of Dawn had just co from our contacts, so I’ll also hand it to you.」
Dino handed the paynt thirty gold coins and the target’s information to .
I had used up most of my money so this is a nice timing. I fought really recklessly, so I bought another clothes and cloak for replacent until my remaining money had decreased to several silver coins only.
I put the leather bag of golden coins in my pocket and checked the docunt that I had just received. I flipped the bundle of unbleached papers, skipped the individual information and looked at their current situation…….
「……The capital?」
「So tis has passed since then, so they have left this north frontier and headed to the capital. Most likely they are planning to hide in the large dungeon near the capital until the heat on them cooled down.」
「Another dungeon again……」
「They are adventurers after all. Pure assassin isn’t really good with that kind of place.」
Dino was implicitly saying that this is the reason he asked master to do this job, so I should just give up.
「If possible it will be better if you can finish them off while they are in the capital, but that will be hard to do in the capital where the security is tight. We have no contact there, so perhaps we should send one or two people to there……」
「There is no assassin guild in the capital?」
The assassin guild is one of the branches in this country. If there are branches that ans there is the main one. I vaguely thought that it must be in the capital, but it seems that I’m wrong.
When I asked that question, Dino shrugged with an exaggerated gesture.
「My beloved brother disciple. That is a troubleso matter. Although we the assassin guilds are the sa organization, we are not a monolith. It’s not like we are hostile with each other, but our relationship with each other are more like “worthy rivals” with the sa objective.」
「I see now……」
Each branch isn’t fighting each other but they are still competing to get works. No, perhaps it feels closer like when a large company helped a long term employee to establish a branch of the sa shop with separated managent, where in the end the branch got estranged from the main store.
The adventurer guild also feel like that sowhat, but with the assassin guilds they aren’t even sharing information with each other. It feels stupid to , but this is a welco news for .
Now then, the talk is over. I put the docunts in the inner pocket of my cloak and turned around. But Dino seed to still have a business left and called out to at the end.
「By the way, Guy left several weeks ago and he hasn’t contacted us even until today. Did he show up at your place?」
「There is no way I know anything about that.」
「Guess so……」
Dino said that and shrugged before leaving. I stared fixedly at his leaving back.
Am I being suspected……? Most likely the fact that the observer that was watching over master also hasn’t been contacting back also influenced it. But Dino knew about my combat strength before this. He should be thinking that I can’t possibly beat Guy. In addition many assassins are egoistic individuals who often goes off on their own. It’s possible that Guy just suddenly vanished on a whim. Dino must be unable to interrogate too excessively and simply asked a leading question.
The people of this guild should have also Appraise when I first arrived. That was the reason why I obediently followed Dino when he showed around, to show that.
Normal human wouldn’t grow rapidly in just several months. Doing Appraisal also consud mana and ntal strength so usually nobody would use Appraisal on the sa person again unless sothing drastic happened. ……That’s exactly why it can beco an “opening” that I’m taking advantage of.
.
My business in this guild is already over, but I have no intention to carelessly rest in my room here.
I checked it just in case but, there must be so kind of contraption there anyway, so I looked around inside the guild here one more ti before leaving.
I’m not sensing people really clearly inside the guild, but that’s because almost all of them have Stealth skill. But, if Search at the level of mine can still sense them, there shouldn’t be that many people who can sense when I’m using Stealth seriously.
Even so when living in this kind of environnt, your Stealth and Search will get trained whether you want it or not. That must be the reason why even though even though there is nobody here who looks visibly strong with high combat strength, there are people with great skill.
Amidst that, I didn’t feel the presence of Keira inside the guild. Perhaps she is outside or doing work. She is a troubleso person to encounter, but it’s troubleso because her being out of sight like this also feel ominous.
The other troubleso opponents inside the guild are the Shadow User Radha, the Berserker Sharga, and the shaman the Sage, I guess.
From her title, I think it will be hard to find Radha. Conversely Sharga isn’t even hiding his violent presence and give off a strong presence. I feel that it will be dangerous to approach his attack range without any counterasure, but in order to confirm his appearance, I quietly stole a glance at his back figure from a distance.
That place looked like a canteen with wine cask and food scattered every which way. At the back, there is a dwayr clad in full body armor that seed to be made from magic iron, silently gulping down wine while keeping a tight hold to a halberd made from magic steel.
His appearance made think of a wounded beast that would bare its fang to anyone who got near. Nobody will be able to approach him like that. Nobody will ever think that soone like him is an assassin, even so Dino and the previous master kept him as mber here. That goes to show just how high his combat strength in close quarter.
I left that spot before Sharga could find . Then I stopped walking just before I stepped inside a certain spot inside the guild.
There is sothing……. That place is different from the other places. The color of magic particles that my eyes can “see” is strangely mixed with each other. It’s showing a chaotic coloring that sent my heart into anxiety.
(……An unpleasant feeling.)
I muttered inside my heart while my face unconsciously grimaced. Is this……a “curse”? While I’m standing still without being able to step any further, I noticed there is an old man wearing robe, staring fixedly at from the darkness of the passage ahead.
「「…………」」
We stared at each other wordlessly with a distance of ten-odd ters between us.
Then the strange color of magic particle slowly approached toward . When I also backed away to keep the distance, the old man who seed to be the Sage slightly narrowed his eyes. When I continued opening the distance, the “curse” doesn’t co any closer and returned back to its original position.
I see, so the Sage’s fighting style is passive. It’s enough for now to just understand that. Without stopping I left that place and after confirming that nobody is following , I wiped the sweat on my forehead and sighed.
「……So elf can also grow old.」
Having narrowly escaped death, I muttered sothing trivial as I imdiately walked toward the deepest part of the forr coal mine that is the branch assassin guild of the north frontier district now.
As I got deeper, I can hear the low growling voice that sounded like a beast, mixed with the wind that blew from sowhere.
I knew even before approaching there. My legs don’t want to go there and beca heavier. Surely nobody will draw near here. Because they can feel that “death” is waiting if they get closer.
Soone who can’t even notice that won’t have the qualification to be here. I pushed down my heart that is about to get scared to the deepest part inside and walked forward step by step. Then I found a 『beast』 in chain at the end, locked behind thick bars that are as thick as a woman’s arm each.
「The Condemned……Goudo.」
Goudo raised a low growl at my murmur and lifted his face.
.
▼ Goudo Race : ???
【Magic Power : 167/186】【Stamina : 531/546】
【Overall Combat Strength : 1381】
.
He is nearly three ter tall and long distorted arms that are nearly two ters long.
His whole body is wrapped in bandage that is stained with filth. There is fiendish light dwelling in his yellow cloudy eyes. He suddenly tried to assault .
『GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!』
*Gagan-!*
The chains that are fastened to the rock surface are stretched until the limit. Goudo collided on the thick iron bars so hard they almost bent as his claws cut through the air a few centiter in front of my nose.
The chaotic mana that I saw at the Sage’s area is clinging on Goudo’s whole body. Most likely the Sage is binding Goudo’s freedom with his curse. This man isn’t just a re “animal”. He might be insane but, I caught a glimpse of the “Skill” that is burned in his soul from his movent.
Most likely he is reduced to this from drug and sorcery and curse……. When I tried to touch the fingertip of his arm that he stretched as though looking for sothing, he got shocked instead and pulled back his arm.
Nobody will approach near you.
Nobody will look straight at your appearance.
Nobody will ever think of touching you.
I stared straight into Goudo’s cloudy eyes while speaking to him with a small voice.
.
「Wait there. I’ll prepare a worthy “stage” for you.」
▼ Aria (Alicia) Race : Human ♀ – Rank 2
【Magic Power : 162/180】△ 10 UP【Stamina : 132/145】△ 15 UP
【Strength : 6 (7)】【Endurance : 7 (8)】【Agility : 10 (12)】【Dexterity : 8】△ 1 UP
《Short Sword Skill Level 2》《Martial Art Level 2》《Throwing Level 2》《String Control Level 2》
《Light Magic Level 2》《Darkness Magic Level 2》《Non-Elental Magic Level 2》
《Daily Life Magic×６》《Magic Power Control Level 2》《Pressure Level 2》
《Stealth Level 3》△ 1 UP《Night Vision Level 2》《Search Level 3》△ 1 UP《Poison Resistance Level 2》△ 1 UP
《Simple Appraisal》
【Overall Combat Strength : 213 (With Body Strengthening : 236)】△ 42 UP
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