(I don’t have enough hands…)
Inside the small, single-horse carriage, not only did this thought cross my mind, but a sigh, almost like a murmur, escaped my lips.
I had received permission to go out to repair the equipment damaged in the desert battle, but Sera had requested that I return to Elena’s side as soon as possible.
Sera and I have a relationship as foster mother and foster daughter, but also as a national Shadow Unit and an Adventurer who receives requests from it. Even without that, I intended to return to guard Elena, but the problem was the security system that wouldn’t allow me to leave the Princess’s side even for a few days.
The biggest problem is, as expected, Carla. Until she fights me to the death, Carla shouldn’t have any intention of harming Elena or Clara yet, but the Royal Knights can’t stop Carla’s capricious recklessness.
Carla is the Crown Prince’s fiancée and is seen as quasi-royalty, so because the Royal Knights are mostly middle-ranking nobles, many of them would hesitate to stop Carla, the daughter of the Head Court Magician.
But more than that, Carla’s combat ability is seen as a threat. She’s probably the strongest in this country. Not only with the power of her Divine Protection, but even with simple Magic, she already surpasses her father, the Head Court Magician.
The reason Carla’s recklessness is tolerated within the country is because she is feared as a member of the Royal Family’s military force, and because even attempting to assassinate her would likely result in enormous damage.
That’s why Sera is telling me, the “Dragon Slayer” who is thought to be the only one who can stand against her, to return as a deterrent.
I still don’t have enough hands… Even if I don’t have enough combat power, I need someone who can serve as Elena’s aide, a high-ranking noble who won’t be intimidated by Carla.
“Aria, did you say something?”
I shook my head slightly at the voice from the seat opposite me in the carriage.
Today, Theo, Sera’s son… who is, in a way, my younger brother, is accompanying me as an observer. The errand is at the Adventurer’s Guild, but Jesha, who was supposed to go with me, seems to have been accompanied by her tutor, Mira, the day after that.
I didn’t have any problems going alone, but for some reason, Sera told me—
“Aria, you are the Princess’s aide and are thought to be the daughter of a Baron. Consider this a public training exercise and take Theo with you as an attendant.”
Well, I don’t feel much need for it, but if it’s an order, I can’t help it.
So, I’m not wearing my worn leather dress, but the maid’s uniform I wear in the Royal Palace, and I’m accompanied by Theo in his butler’s outfit.
That’s beside the point…
“Theo, is it okay for you to leave that young lady?”
Theo should have been the escort butler for the Mercis House’s young lady.
That Viscount’s daughter, who has the same name as me, is in a position like the “Heroine” that woman was obsessed with, and I heard that she was exploring the dungeon in Lester territory with the Crown Prince, Prince Amor, and the grandson of the Temple leader.
If Theo was the Viscount’s daughter’s escort butler, I thought he would be accompanying her, but perhaps he returned earlier to report to the Prime Minister?
But Theo made a face mixed with dissatisfaction and exasperation at my question.
“…I was left behind.”
According to Theo, the Viscount’s daughter requested to accompany him to the dungeon, but Theo, as a Shadow Knight, tried to persuade her to stop.
That’s natural for Theo’s position. Even if she has learned Light Magic, a Rank 2 Light Magician would be more of a hindrance than a help.
There were several back-and-forths about whether to go or not, and for some reason, Prince Amor directly told Theo that he would take the Viscount’s daughter himself. While Theo was hurriedly reporting this to the Prime Minister, the Viscount’s daughter headed to the dungeon.
“Well, it’s fine… According to Prime Minister (Boss), the situation surrounding her has changed, and I don’t have to guard her anymore.”
“Situation?”
Theo, who staggered slightly at my small tilt of the head, brought his face closer and told me in a hushed voice.
“I’m sharing this information because it’s you, Aria… That young lady’s birth is a bit suspicious. The mission has changed from guarding her to monitoring her, to find out what she’s thinking by getting involved with His Highness the Crown Prince.”
“I see.”
That’s the Prime Minister’s personal judgment, isn’t it? I don’t think you should be telling me that.
“I’m going back to the young lady’s place tomorrow. So today, I wanted to see Aria, but… why are you getting stronger again…”
“We’re about the same height now, right?”
“That’s right… Sigh… I wonder when I’ll become Rank 5.”
Theo seems to be worried about not getting stronger. But it’s strange because he’s comparing himself to me and Carla. I think it’s enough to be Rank 3 at his age.
“I don’t know how many years it will take, but you’ll get there someday, Theo.”
“How many years…”
At my words of encouragement, Theo staggered greatly, as if he were dizzy.
The Leitone family’s coachman stopped the carriage in front of the Adventurer’s Guild, and Theo and I went together through the Guild’s doors for the first time in about half a year.
It’s been a long time, but whether it’s because we’re wearing recognition-blocking Magical Tools or because they remember us, the Adventurers cleared the way all at once.
“…They remember that, don’t they?”
“If it was before, it was unavoidable.”
Theo shook his head silently at my answer that it was unavoidable to deal with the times I was harassed because I was a young woman.
“Aria-san, it’s been a while.”
When I turned my face towards the voice from the reception desk, Mary, Viro’s fiancée, was waving her hand at me.
She seems to be relieved to see me, probably because she heard the circumstances from Viro. She should be quite beautiful, but I still don’t understand why she got engaged to Viro.
“It’s been a while.”
“I heard from that person, and I’m glad you’re safe. I heard about it. I saw the scales for the first time, and they’re amazing.”
It hasn’t been made public yet that the Dragon was defeated, so she’s being vague, but I think it’s only a matter of time.
Jesha will make the scales into equipment, and Feld’s Greatsword will be made from the Dragon’s horns. He’s on his way to Galbas’s place to have it made now, and my and Mira’s leather equipment will be made from the Dragon’s membrane, so if someone who knows sees it, they’ll know that the Rainbow Sword defeated the Black Dragon.
It depends on Gelf’s skill, but the hardest scale of the Dragon… the reverse scale, is planned to be attached to my equipment above my heart.
“So, what brings you here today?”
“To update to Rank 5. For both Melee and Magic.”
“…That’s fast. It’s only been five years since I registered you.”
It’s been five and a half years since she registered me in the Barony. Normally, it’s common not to reach Rank 4 even in a lifetime, let alone five years, so I’m in a special category.
“Well, I heard about it, so I talked to the higher-ups and it’s already been made. We’ll have you do a light demonstration just in case, but you can go ahead and put this on.”
Apparently, Viro and Mary had talked to them, and she handed me the Rank 5 Adventurer Identification Tag that she took out of a wooden box.
The Rank 1 Identification Tag is a copper plate, but Demon Iron is mixed in as the Rank increases, and the Rank 5 Identification Tag is made of pure black Demon Iron.
When I received it with its chain and hung it around my neck, the Adventurers who were casually watching us from around the area grimaced at the sight of the black Identification Tag.
—!
At that moment, the sound of something like a dispute was heard from the back of the wide Guild.
“…What’s that?”
“Ah… come to think of it, was this your first time? About half a year ago, a young man who looked like a knight registered, and since he was Rank 3 at that young age, it seems some Adventurers occasionally bother him.”
Mary frowned, and the male staff member behind her started to move.
If they’re saying he looks like a knight, there’s a possibility he’s a noble. Unlike the frontier, where even commoners can become knights depending on their work, most knights in the Royal Capital are knighted nobles.
If someone were to lay a hand on such a person, would it be an Adventurer who came from the countryside? At that time, the back of that person, who seemed to be the one, could be seen from the gap in the crowd that was amusingly surrounding them.
“…I’ll go take a look.”
“Eh!? P-Please be gentle!”
The crowd split in a chain reaction from the Adventurers who noticed me heading towards them, and the person who was there became visible.
I see, this is why he’s being bothered. The red-haired young man in the back is wearing general light armor, but the clothes underneath and the sword hanging at his waist are clearly of a different rank than those of Adventurers. He’s still young, so it probably looks like a rich man’s hobby. I had proper equipment since I was a child, so I was bothered by both Adventurers and nobles.
The person bothering him was a Rank 3 Adventurer, the same Rank as the young man… but he was an unfamiliar Adventurer with the appearance of a Bandit.
The man, noticing me as the crowd parted and seeing me in my maid’s uniform, flashed a vulgar smile for a moment—then, in the next instant, his face was drenched in sweat.
“T-The Ash-Covered Princess?!”
Screaming that, the man stumbled out of the Guild as if his legs had given way.
…A member of the Thieves’ Guild, huh? I guess I’m quite well-known, even without being covered in ash.
“Aria-jou?!”
The young man, who had been dumbfounded by the exchange, raised his voice. I turned around at the sound of my name, and there was indeed a familiar face.
“…Dandole-sama?”
It was Rookwell Dandole himself, Clara’s brother, who should have had no business being in such a place.
“Doris, is he really stopping by this town?”
In one of the post towns south of the Royal Capital, one of the women who had snuck into the clock tower spoke to the other. Both were dressed as waitresses in a high-class inn, but a discerning eye would notice that both were skilled in reconnaissance techniques.
“Yeah, no doubt about it. Clara-sama’s ‘Foresight’ said so, right, Bibi?”
Bibi, who hid her face with the bangs of her long black hair, and Doris, who had short brunette hair, were maids who served Clara, the Crown Prince’s primary fiancée.
However, both of them had different facial impressions than when they were disguised as maids. Bibi, in particular, had only made slight changes to her bangs, but she had become so different that even Clara would not have been able to identify her immediately. Moreover, there was a possibility that neither of them was showing their true face.
It was a disguise technique, but using it at a practical level was not something done by Adventurer scouts, but by members of the Thieves’ Guild or Assassin Guild.
“I know, but… but I…”
“Bibi, you… are you still thinking of laying a hand on ‘that’? You saw it too, didn’t you, Bibi? Those two are monsters.”
Both Bibi and Doris were members of the destroyed Assassin Guild’s northern frontier branch.
Hilda, who now served Clara, specialized in poisoning rather than direct assassination, so she rarely showed her face at the Guild. Hilda invited Bibi, Doris, and Heidi, who were picked up by Clara, and they were spared from death because they were taking on outside jobs when the Guild was destroyed.
Many of those who frequented the Guild were unable to live in the city, and Bibi, in particular, who was underage, admired the women of the Guild like sisters.
The other two, like Hilda, felt indebted to Clara for taking them in and decided to work for Clara. It was that difficult for people from the Underworld to live outside of it.
Bibi certainly felt indebted to Clara as well. Bibi, who came from the Slum District and had lost her family, was being chased by the Thieves’ Guild, and it was Clara’s subordinate who rescued her from her predicament, although Hilda had made the introduction.
However, Bibi, the youngest of the three and still in her teens, could not be as detached as Hilda and could not forgive the “Ash-Covered Princess” who had killed her family.
(I will definitely avenge those people…!)
She was determined to do so. But the “Ash-Covered Princess” she actually saw was an incredible monster.
She had been forced to her knees by intimidation alone. She felt a desperate difference in power from that monster of the Lester family, but she also felt the same immense power from the Ash-Covered Princess.
The Royal Capital was a demon realm. Doris and Heidi, who had reluctantly offered to help Bibi with her revenge, had their spirits broken early on when they felt the clash of killing intent between the two.
A coward who used poison and set fires? Some still said that, but who could actually do that? What was terrifying about her was the monstrous nature that allowed her to do it without hesitation, and Bibi, who saw her for the first time, felt that “something.”
Even so, Bibi’s heart was not yet broken.
Bibi, who belonged to the Underworld and had been doing evil deeds since she was old enough to understand, was foolishly pure.
“Bibi, focus on what you have to do now.”
“…Understood.”
Bibi also focused on the task at hand at Doris’s scolding.
Their mission was to assassinate Viscount Mercis’ Daughter, who was bewitching the Crown Prince. However, Clara had strictly ordered them not to attack forcibly, but to prioritize retreat if it was dangerous.
The goal was not to kill her quickly and surely, but to eliminate her for sure by the time the Crown Prince graduated. To that end, Clara taught them that it was important to pass up opportunities and focus on gathering information.
Among the opportunities to assassinate the Viscount’s Daughter, Clara had designated this post town on the border between the Royal Capital and the Lester territory.
At first, they, who had been Assassins, thought that there were more suitable places for assassination. However, as a result of Clara’s subordinates, who had been saved by her “Foresight” just like them, infiltrating the Lester territory, they learned why they could not kill her in other places.
The Viscount Mercis’ Daughter never slept in her own bedroom during the trip. She was always in the bedroom of either Prince Amor or Nasanitaru at night.
She should not have been able to enter the heavily guarded bedroom of Crown Prince Elvan yet, but Clara foresaw that she would definitely take action in this post town, where there was only one high-class inn and where she would be staying away from many knights.
To be precise, the Foresight was only half of it. In the official history of the Otome Game, the Heroine, who was attacked by Assassins, used her quick wit to discover a passage in the attic that even the people at the inn had forgotten about, and saved the Crown Prince from his predicament.
There was no guarantee that the Viscount’s Daughter would notice it, but Clara foresaw that she would use it with a high probability in order to achieve her goal. Of course, Bibi and the others had no way of knowing that such game knowledge was the source of the information, but they believed that it was also Clara’s Foresight.
“As Clara-sama said, the Shadow Unit guys haven’t come. We’ll settle this before that butler brat, who’s the only Shadow Knight, joins up.”
“Roger, Doris. I’ll take care of the diversion.”
As foreseen, the two, having confirmed that the Crown Prince’s party had entered the only high-class inn, returned to their work at the inn without being suspected as employees who had been replaced in advance.
If there had been a Shadow Knight, it would not have been so easy, but the Second Knight Order, who were not used to guarding royalty, and the elated atmosphere of being able to return soon, allowed them to enter without suspicion.
The Crown Prince’s and Prince’s rooms were on the top floor of the three-story inn. Nasanitaru and the Viscount’s Daughter were on the same top floor, but in terms of status, they were at the end, with the rooms of the Knight Order Commander and others in between.
There were guard knights in the hallway, but they were not watching all the rooms. While Doris was carrying a late-night snack to the guard knight, Bibi infiltrated one of the empty rooms, entered the hidden passage in the attic from the fireplace in that room, and waited for the Viscount’s Daughter to appear there.
She had considered infiltrating the Viscount’s Daughter’s room and assassinating her directly, but since she was coming to a place where she could not be easily found even if she screamed, if she believed in the Foresight, she would be able to assassinate her for sure if she waited here.
“…………”
Even Bibi, who was waiting in anticipation, was half-doubtful whether the Viscount’s Daughter would really appear.
Clara’s Foresight was not perfect either. It was only calculating the highest probability, so Clara had told her to retreat if she did not appear.
–Click.
(…She really came!)
Bibi heard a faint noise and gripped the poison-coated Knife in her hand.
She’s getting closer…. An utter amateur who can’t even use stealth. From the light footsteps of the cloth slippers, she could tell that it was a girl.
The moment the light of the [Light] lit at the end of a small cane illuminated a faint shadow, Bibi jumped out silently.
But–
(–Eh?)
Seeing the girl’s face illuminated by the faint light, Bibi felt the same nostalgic atmosphere as the people she had been close to in the Assassin Guild, and the moment she stopped, she made a slight noise.
“…Is someone there?”
“!”
She was noticed. But Bibi liked the girl’s courage in asking that question to someone who shouldn’t be in such a place.
(No, this is the person I’m supposed to kill…)
But for Bibi, killing was a job, and she didn’t hate this girl. So at least…
(I have to kill her without letting her suffer…)
“…If you’re going to hate someone, hate me. I feel sorry for you, but…”
She felt a sense of guilt as if she were killing an innocent child, and unintentionally said unnecessary words to the girl.
“Is that… so?”
The girl was a little frightened by Bibi’s words, but she had a sad expression on her face.
(What kind of face is that…)
Bibi’s initial wariness had disappeared. Looking at the girl’s sad face, she even felt as if she was worried about Bibi, who was about to kill her.
It was all just Bibi’s wishful thinking.
Humans are wired to be wary of strangers, but to think positively of those they feel close to.
For example, when reading a story, even if the protagonist (heroine) is someone generally difficult to accept, doesn’t seeing things from their perspective make it easier to think of them in a positive light?
It wasn’t that her heart was changed, but because she found the girl likeable, Bibi arrived at the conclusion that she could trust her.
“Are you troubled? There must be… something you need to do, right?”
“Why… do you say that?”
Most people have things they need to do and worries. Pointing that out is a common trick used by fortune tellers, but the girl’s sorrowful smile, which Bibi took positively, made her feel like she was understood.
The sweet poison of being completely affirmed by someone she liked was eating away at Bibi.
“If you need my life… I’ll give it to you. But…”
The girl quietly approached Bibi, who couldn’t move, and took out a strange Magic Stone from the Amulet Pouch hanging from her neck.
“I’ll give you a fragment of this. If you drink it, it will surely give you strength. You want to get back someone important to you, don’t you?”
“Ah, yes, that’s right! I’m going to get that person back.”
Bibi felt like the darkness in her heart had cleared. She understood that she didn’t want to avenge that person, but to get them back.
Even if it was just taking random words that could apply to anyone in a positive way, and arbitrarily matching them with things inside herself…
She was indebted to Clara. But Bibi concluded that Clara would surely understand if she knew her too.
“Ah, thank you… I’m Bibi. Will you tell me your name?”
“You can call me Licia. That’s what my friends call me.”
“Friends… yes. I’ll come see you again, Licia.”
Saying that, Bibi received a small fragment of the Magic Stone from the girl, and with an embarrassed smile, disappeared into the darkness—
Without noticing the girl’s distorted smile, faintly illuminated in the darkness—.
And so, Clara’s assassination using Foresight was thwarted by Viscount Mercis’ Daughter’s Bewitchment, and Bibi disappeared from the Royal Capital without returning to Clara.
…The story of the first years is taking quite a while.
The bewitchment sought by the false Heroine is neither the power to survive, nor the power to manipulate hearts.
Its true nature is…
Next time, more on the Adventurer’s Guild.