Movement turn.
“Aria-chan, what happened in just one month!?”
When I headed to the Dwarven Armory in the Royal Capital, Gelf, seeing my equipment inside the store where there were no other customers as usual, let out a thick scream like a frail maiden.
I managed to defeat Shadow User Rada and the Rank 4 Adventurer party Dawn Mercenaries.
To gain experience, I fought Dagart, who was Rank 4, head-on and managed to win in a close battle, but the damage to myself was also significant, and it took me two days to heal the wounds.
The same went for the armor. The leather equipment that had taken magic-based Combat Arts and attacks was damaged to the point where it couldn’t be regenerated with Mana. The large amount of blood splattered on me, which I had washed with Water and even used [Purify (Clean)] on to get rid of the smell of blood, had left the surface feeling rougher than before.
“Can it be fixed?”
“Aria-chan, you’re really something! At this point, we’ll have to use special chemicals for an overhaul. It’ll take half a month, you know?”
Gelf sighed while looking at the condition of the equipment. The current equipment was given to me by Gelf, but Gelf, being an artist, might have had a special attachment to her work.
“Sorry…”
“Oh, geez, don’t make that face. I forced it on you.”
“But, I don’t have half a month, so can you just repair the torn parts?”
“Oh, if that’s the case, I have something good! Come this way!”
“…Eh?”
Gelf pulled my arm and dragged me to the back of the store again.
Apparently, Gelf had remade some of her works that she had made for herself but couldn’t wear due to their appearance, in my size.
“I’ll keep what you’ve been wearing. It seems better to soak it in a special liquid and let it recover naturally than to force a repair. So, I want Aria-chan to wear this.”
“…A dress?”
The equipment I received this time was a leather short-sleeved mini-dress with a hem that reached halfway down my thighs, and apparently, I was supposed to equip cloth socks that covered up to my knees with garters.
I could properly equip the gauntlet and boots I received from my master, and the appearance was fine since it was all in non-glossy black.
It was easier to move around in than I expected, and as I was attaching throwing Knives to my thighs since it was my first time wearing a skirt in a while, Gelf, with a serious face, handed me a small paper package.
“…Aria-chan, wear this.”
“Hmm? Okay.”
Even with that woman’s “knowledge,” I didn’t understand the necessity of it, but if Gelf said it was necessary, then it probably was.
What I was given was women’s underwear. But it wasn’t the drawers I had seen before, but a small triangular undergarment that tied at the sides, which was in that woman’s “knowledge.”
Apparently, the Margrave of Dandole’s daughter developed it a year ago and it had come onto the market, gradually spreading among young ladies and female Adventurers who liked new things, and Gelf said she was also a regular user.
After that, I asked her to maintain the gimmicks of the gauntlet and boots, even though I could do it myself. Since the maintenance would take about a day, I decided to do what I needed to do in the Royal Capital before then.
The workflow of the Assassin Guild is that the client requests an assassination through the Underworld, and if there are no particular problems involving nobles, the Assassin is sent after payment.
The assassination period is about half a year to a year after payment, and if it exceeds that, the request fee is refunded with a penalty for non-completion.
It seems surprisingly serious, but in this kind of industry, where nobles are often involved, trust is more important than in the surface society.
After completing the assassination, the Assassin submits evidence to the Guild.
If the case is nearby, the Assassin brings it back to the Guild themselves, but in this case, since it was around the Royal Capital and not the Northern Frontier District branch, the evidence was to be handed over to a contact person first, and only the completion of the request was to be communicated.
I put the Adventurer tags I took from the Dawn Mercenaries into the safety deposit box of the Commerce Guild, as stated in the documents from Rada.
At the appropriate time, the other contact person would collect it, and after informing the Assassin Guild that the request had been completed by some means, they would bring the tags back to the Guild as a report.
If I kept watch here, I might be able to see the face of the contact person, but I don’t think it’s very meaningful.
The person who comes to collect it may not be the contact person, and there is a possibility that it could be an ordinary person who knows nothing. And, in order to make the Assassin Guild lower their guard, I need them to send the information that the request has been completed.
If the information arrives, they will be off guard. Even so, if Rada, the “surveillance officer,” doesn’t return by the time the contact person returns, some people will start to be wary.
The contact person should return via the normal route, so it should take a month and a half. If I take the shortcut through the Valley, I can shorten it by half a month.
During that half month, I have to make arrangements to defeat the Assassin Guild locally.
…After all, the travel time is too much of a problem.
I thought about buying a horse, but even if it’s faster than a carriage, it can’t go through places like the Valley where Monsters appear, or through the Forest.
There is a general Skill called [Tame], which is said to be possessed by carriage drivers and knights, and I think it would be a little faster if I had it, but I don’t have time to acquire it now.
That’s something to work on in the future. But I’ll stop with the horse. If a child like me is riding it, it will stand out quite a bit, and in the first place, a special thoroughbred horse should be quite expensive. I’ve received an advance payment, but I don’t have that much to spare.
By the way, I only took the tags and the necklace of the deceased from the Dawn Mercenaries.
There were also magical bags and money that could be used, but I don’t like taking from Adventurers, even if they are criminals, unlike Thieves or Bandits.
Besides, the Dawn Mercenaries are a normal Adventurer party in general, although they are suspected, there is no evidence of their crime. So this time, in order to make it look like an accidental death in the Dungeon, I couldn’t use the bag or anything.
Still, someone might find it and pocket it, but in that case, those people will just become the prime suspects.
Before leaving the town where that Dungeon was, I also showed my face at the Adventurer’s Guild to make sure I wasn’t suspected, but I didn’t meet that strange girl, Carla, again.
…Will I really meet her again?
After that, I replenished disposable throwing Knives and food in the Royal Capital, stored some in [Shadow Storage], and after receiving my equipment the next day, I thanked Gelf and left the Royal Capital.
I heard that the owner of the necklace of the deceased is Baron Nolf, who is next to the Dandole March. Originally, I wanted to return the遺品 immediately, but I’ll have to ask him to wait a little longer.
If I stop by that place, it will take extra time, but if the遺品 returns to the Baron’s hands, the Guild may find out that I’m back nearby.
This time, when I return to the Assassin Guild, I must not let the Guild realize that I have returned. In order to trap all the members of the Assassin Guild, I needed to completely hide my presence.
The Assassin Guild has fewer personnel than the Adventurer’s Guild or the Thieves’ Guild, but there are still surveillance eyes mixed in with the common people.
But they are just affiliated with the Guild and are not even members of the Guild, and some of them should be living normally as citizens.
So I can’t assassinate all of them, but I made full use of my Stealth Skill, which had reached Level 3 before entering the County of Hedel, where the Guild is located, and returned to the town with the Chapel without being seen by anyone.
During the day, I take naps in the Forest, and under the cover of night, I gradually approach the town.
After entering the town, I hide in abandoned houses during the day, holding my breath, and gradually head towards my destination.
From here on, it’s a lonely battle. I disappear, hold my breath, sharpen my fangs in the darkness, and just wait for the time to come.
If I have the Utility Magic [Water], I won’t feel thirsty. If I have Level 2 [Night Vision], I won’t have any problems even in complete darkness.
I eat pills that I made with Alchemy before coming here.
This is made by powdering the ingredients for making Potions instead of boiling them into a liquid, and kneading them with Mana. It doesn’t have as much recovery as a Potion, but it has sustainability, and if I eat 10 pills of about 1 cm in size a day, I can maintain my physical strength and condition for about a week.
Besides, I’m used to simple meals and hunger from my time in that Orphanage.
It took me three days to infiltrate a place that I could normally reach in one day after entering the town.
Even with Level 3 [Stealth] Skill, if I combine it with Night Vision that sees colors and choose a place where there are no people, it will exert an effect of Level 4 or higher.
In fact, even when I passed by the “Surveillance Beggar” who probably had a Level 3 Stealth Skill, I wasn’t even noticed.
Even with a Level 4 Skill this time, things would be much easier, but I don’t necessarily believe I’ll reach Level 4 in the future.
Unlike Level 3, the ‘limit of ordinary people,’ which anyone can acquire with enough time, Level 4 has a significant barrier that only those with true talent can overcome.
Even so, I defeated Dagart, who was Rank 4.
I understood that ranks and combat power are just guidelines for strength, and true strength lies in how you ‘use’ it.
The destination I’m heading to is the Underground Tomb of the Chapel where the Guild is located, but I’m not going to enter through the front entrance like an idiot.
When I returned to the Guild last time, I thoroughly explored every corner of the underground.
That Guild uses an abandoned mine, so it’s vast and intricate, with several air vents.
I used my sense of direction and pace count with Search to determine the distances and memorize the locations of the air vents. I meticulously investigated the corresponding locations in the Underground Tomb, hidden in the darkness, and after about two days, I managed to find all the air vents.
I sneak into one of them, a stone room labeled ‘Twenty-One,’ remove the stones around the fist-sized air vent, and dig into the soil using my Dagger.
I don’t want to use my weapon for this kind of thing, but I can’t afford to take too much time. Five days have already passed since I entered this city, and there are only ten days left until the contact arrives at the Guild. Still, the soil is surprisingly soft, and after about three more days, I successfully infiltrate the Assassin Guild.
With a rustle, stones fall from the ceiling and roll into the passage.
In any other place, that sound might have given me away, but I don’t have to worry about that here, and I knew that there was no one else here but him.
“……Guaaaa”
As I enter the room from the narrow passage where the air vent is located, the grotesque Shadow behind thick iron bars as thick as an arm raises a growl of caution and turns its muddy eyes towards me, and I give him a slight smile.
“Gord… I’m going to set you free.”
The strategy finally begins.
The content of the feedback I receive is reflected in part, as long as it does not affect the plot and main story.