Assassin Guild Arc, Last 3 Episodes.
Over about five months, I annihilated the Assassin Guild’s northern frontier branch.
I left my master’s place in winter, but the season has passed through spring and is already early summer, and in another season, I will be nine years old.
After crushing the Assassin Guild, I left the County of Hedel, where the northern frontier branch was located, on the same day and headed to Norf Barony, which is next to the Dandole March.
That noble is the client whose relics were stolen by the “Dawn Mercenaries” I assassinated.
It’s not like I’ve suddenly awakened to my work as an Assassin, but…
“Relics”… For me, who lost my parents in an accident, it felt like something “special,” and I wanted to return it to their family if possible.
Chara-ri…
“…”
I take out the relic necklace that I had stored in my 【Shadow Storage】 on my palm so as not to lose it, and gaze at it.
“Spirit Tears” — Spirit Magic Stones that can be obtained very rarely from defeated Spirits, and are also treated as jewels. Since the original is a high-purity Magic Stone, it should work as an amulet just by embedding a simple magic circle.
Because of this, it became expensive, and there were a series of accidents in which those who tried to deliberately drive the summoned Spirits mad and hunt them were killed in retaliation. The Holy Church, the head of the Fundoria Theocracy, which took a serious view of hunting Spirits that control the laws of this world, decided that even possessing “Spirit Tears” was a crime, let alone buying or selling them.
It doesn’t have any coercive power, but no authority openly opposes the Holy Church, which has many light attribute Magicians.
I’m not interested in why Baron Norf had this.
Certainly, even at the prices at the time, it shouldn’t have been worth more than the reward of twenty gold coins, so there must have been a “feeling” that he wanted to get back even if he had to pay such a large sum of money.
Just to be safe, I didn’t stop in any big cities, but passed through the Forest and small towns, and arrived in the town where Baron Norf lived in a week, but I didn’t encounter any remnants of the Assassin Guild.
Was I too cautious? …No, I don’t think many people have noticed that I crushed the Guild, but it’s better to be cautious.
The Monster leather cloak I bought at Gelf’s shop disappeared in the battle, so now that I’m wearing a cloak I bought at a normal store, I don’t think they can track me down just by my appearance.
I paid one Silver Coin to enter the town, and while eating the soup I ordered at a stall, I asked about the town and the lord. The plump female stall owner seemed to have some free time, so she told me a lot of things.
“You see that mansion on the hill over there? That’s the lord’s mansion.”
“Hee…”
The mansion, which can be seen from the street, is probably because it’s close to Dandole, but it looked more magnificent than the Seyles Baron’s house where I infiltrated as a maid before.
“If you came from a big city like Dandole, it might look small, but this place isn’t bad either. The taxes have been a little higher in the last few years, though.”
“Did something happen?”
When I asked in a lowered tone, the female stall owner, who seemed to like gossip, brought her face closer to me and secretly told me.
“It was about two years ago, I think… The lord’s previous wife was attacked by Bandits in a carriage on the way to another territory and died.”
“…Previous? Bandits?”
“Oh, you don’t know about that either? After that, he gathered knights and Adventurers and formed a large-scale subjugation team to defeat the Bandits, but the lord seems to have overdone it and borrowed money from a merchant company with a bad reputation.”
“…That was tough.”
At that time, the “Dawn Mercenaries” stole the relics, and he borrowed money from that merchant company to pay the reward to the Assassin Guild.
“I don’t know how much of it is true? But after that, the merchant’s daughter entered the mansion as his second wife, and since then the taxes have gone up, so I heard rumors that the lord couldn’t refuse.”
“I see…”
“Well, the town isn’t that bad, so if you’re an Adventurer, I hope you’ll work hard to enrich the town.”
The female stall owner said that and laughed heartily. …But.
“How do you know I’m a ‘woman’?”
“Even if you’re dressed like that, I can tell if you’re as pretty as you are.”
“…”
Apparently, my appearance doesn’t look like a man anymore.
Anyway, the information I got is that the Baron has a good reputation. The fact that no one is saying anything bad about him even though the taxes have increased a little means that he has been governing well.
I think the reason why the taxes have increased is because his second wife made him do it to collect the money.
Even if the merchant company has a bad reputation, it’s natural for a merchant company to seek that much profit in order to lend money that is difficult to collect, so I have no thoughts on it.
It was the Baron’s decision to borrow money from a merchant company with a bad reputation and to hire the Assassin Guild, so it’s up to the Baron to decide what to do from now on.
I just came to return the “relics” as a way to settle things.
Another piece of information is that the Baron has a daughter, so it might be easier to hand it over to her than to the Baron himself.
For now, let’s check out the Baron’s mansion.
Since I entered the town as an Adventurer, it might be natural to show my face at the Adventurer’s Guild, but if I go to the Guild, a record of my visit might remain, so it’s better not to make too many detours in this town.
Even if I’m going to return the relics, I should wait until night.
From what I can see, there doesn’t seem to be any magical defense on the mansion, so it doesn’t seem like there will be any problems sneaking in. As I was observing the mansion, keeping a distance so as not to look suspicious, I was suddenly called out from behind.
“Are you, by any chance, an Adventurer?”
“…Yeah.”
A woman wearing a dress that looks reasonably high-quality, but has a slightly worn-out feel to it.
I had noticed that she was approaching, but her walking style and presence were no different from ordinary people, so I thought it would be unnatural to pay attention to her and left her alone.
“Ah, I knew it. Even though you’re so young, your atmosphere is different, so I thought you might be.”
When I nodded, the woman clapped her hands and laughed cheerfully.
“…Who are you?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, that was rude of me. I’m Nora, the daughter of the lord of this land.”
“The lord’s… daughter?”
I didn’t expect to encounter my target so easily…
When I muttered in response to Nora, who suddenly showed a noble curtsy from her cheerful atmosphere, she immediately returned to her atmosphere and waved her hands in a flustered manner.
“Don’t worry about it, I’m just the daughter of a small local lord, so…”
“So, what do you want with an ‘Adventurer’?”
“Ah, yes, that’s right… I was hoping to talk to a female Adventurer if there was one. If you don’t mind, could you spare me some time?”
“…Okay.”
Originally, I shouldn’t get involved. But for some reason, I felt a sense of impatience at her words “I want to talk,” and I agreed.
But I had forgotten. Even though Nora is a friendly person who doesn’t seem like a noble, she is the daughter of a Baron family that governs over ten thousand people.
There was no way that a noble lady would be standing around talking on the street like this.
“I’m sorry that it’s just tea that I made.”
“…No problem.”
Nora herself made tea for me in what seemed to be a reception room inside the mansion.
It can’t be helped that I ended up inside the mansion. Let’s think positively. More than that, why is she making the tea instead of a servant?
It’s not impossible for a Baron’s daughter to serve as a maid to royalty, but the fact that she was going out alone without any attendants in clothes that didn’t seem like a noble’s might have something to do with it.
“I… have to get married soon. Since I’m the daughter of a noble, I have no objection to spending my life with someone my parents have decided on… but I’m feeling a little weak. I wanted to hear from an Adventurer who can go to various places.”
“…What do you want to hear?”
As I told her harmless stories about “Adventurers” as she asked, Nora gradually told me about herself as well.
She apparently had a fiancé since she was a child. She and the third son of the Baron family, who was supposed to be her husband, seemed to have liked each other, but last year, for some reason, her fiancé changed.
“He seems to be talking to his parents about it too… but it’s no use, right? Both he and I are nobles. We can’t go against our families…”
Nora said that brightly… and smiled sadly.
“I see…”
I don’t understand the subtleties of romance. But I somehow understood that Nora still cares about her former fiancé.
“Nora-san, what are you doing?”
At that moment, the door was opened without a knock, and a flashy woman in her late twenties entered the reception room.
“M, Mother-in-law…”
“Oh, you had someone over.”
That woman… probably the second wife from the merchant house I’d heard rumors about.
Wearing a dress of finer make than Nora’s, she glanced at me as I sat on the sofa after taking off my cloak, immediately recognizing me as an Adventurer. With a “hmph,” she snorted and ignored me, continuing her conversation with Nora.
“Have you finished your errands for the merchant house? You’re going to marry my brother, so I hope you’ve properly greeted them? Linus will be the next Baron, so you’ll regret it if you don’t start currying favor now.”
“Yes…”
“In a place like this, with such a brat…”
The second wife’s voice trailed off mid-sentence.
I hadn’t done anything. Not even a conversation, let alone Intimidation.
“…………”
However, the woman turned her gaze to me, and whatever she saw in my “eyes” as she stared silently caused her to take a slight step back, a hint of fear flashing across her face.
“Hmph, such an ill-mannered brat!!”
Slamming the door shut, the woman hurried out of the room.
“…I-I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Surprised by the second wife’s attitude, Nora apologized apologetically, but I lightly shook my head.
There’s really no need to worry. I realized something too.
＊
After parting with Nora and leaving the Baron’s mansion, I noticed several presences following me after a while.
Two people… it would be too rash for that second wife to have arranged this so quickly. But after a short while, the number decreased by one, then increased to four, and finally reached ten.
“Why don’t you come out?”
Deliberately stepping into an alleyway and calling out in a deserted spot, I sensed a slight surprise before the men revealed themselves.
“Well, well, as expected. You’re ‘Ash-covered’, aren’t you?”
“…Who are you?”
The men who appeared were dressed like unremarkable commoners, the kind you could find anywhere.
The number of people who know my identity and call me “Ash-covered” is limited. But gathering this many men against a single child suggests this won’t be an “amicable” discussion.
Among them, a man in his early twenties, dressed slightly better than the others, lowered his head in a pretentious gesture, mimicking the nobility, and gave a reptilian smile.
“We’re from the Thieves’ Guild, here to welcome you.”
The men from the Thieves’ Guild have appeared.
What do they want from Aria?
And what will Aria decide?
Next time: Invitation from the Darkness ②
This will determine Aria’s “position in the Underworld.”