“——【Cyclone】——”
At the Adventurer’s Guild training grounds, the Combat Art 【Cyclone】 of the Dagger Arts Skill, level 3, was unleashed, carving up the surface of the target log.
The Combat Art itself is Non-Attribute Magic, but this 【Cyclone】 includes Wind Attribute, and becomes a “range attack” that carves up the space within a radius of about 1 meter in the direction it is unleashed with blades of wind.
Frankly speaking, its power and ease of use are inferior to the level 1 【Thrust】, but it can instantly scatter Flame-based and Wind-based attack Magic, and it has a great effect on small swarms of Monsters.
I only saw this Combat Art used once, by Dagart, the leader of the Dawn Mercenaries.
It was hard to be able to use it based on that one time, but even so, if you burn it into your eyes once and receive that technique into your body, you can surprisingly manage it with training.
I shook off the heat of Mana as if to dispel it, and put the Black Dagger behind my waist, then I heard the sound of applause, and the receptionist woman approached me as before.
“Splendid. You must have grown with Mana, but to be Rank 3 at that age, were you taught by a very famous swordsman?”
“I guess so…”
I was taught by a master who is a famous Magician in the Underworld, but I learned the basics of Dagger Arts from Feld, Combat Arts from Viro, and was corrected by Sera, but most of it was self-taught after seeking efficiency in actual combat and cutting out unnecessary parts.
When I look at Viro’s and Sera’s Dagger Arts, there were various forms like a school.
I don’t say that they are unnecessary, but I don’t have the time or experience to master all of them, so I chose to train only the basic forms and increase the accuracy and power of a single blow.
Any creature dies if stabbed by a Blade, no matter what the technique. My theory is that if you hit the vital point at a perfect angle without even a millimeter of error, it is equivalent to thousands of techniques.
In addition, tactics that combine Illusion Magic and poison are my way of fighting.
“Then here you go. This is the Adventurer’s Guild 【Rank 3】 tag.”
“Thank you.”
The Guild tag is a 3×6 cm copper plate attached to a pendant-like thin chain.
The remade one not only has the display showing Rank 3, but it also seems to be mixed with Demon Iron, which is a non-rusting metal, so the color was a little darker.
I considered using Light Magic just to become Rank 3.
There are two level 3 Light Magic spells, one of which is 【Remove Curse】, which requires a cursed target to use, and the other is 【High Heal】, which consumes a lot of Mana but performs healing and recovery with high power, and I eventually gave up because I would be noticed in various places just by being able to use this.
I paid the registration renewal fee of 3 Silver Coins, and when I returned to the still subtly awkward lobby, Jill and Shuri, the siblings from the Slums, were waiting for me.
“…………”
This isn’t good…
The Adventurer who seemed to have connections with the Underworld went outside a while ago, so it’s okay now, but I can’t believe that the Thieves’ Guild in this town won’t be hostile to me.
So just being known to be acquainted with me could lead to trouble later on.
I shook my head with just a look to signal them, and went out of the Guild as if ignoring them, and entered a nearby alley, and after a few minutes, Jill and Shuri followed.
“W-was that okay?”
Jill, the older brother, talks to me with a somewhat suspicious demeanor.
I thought he used to see me as a rival, but as soon as he found out I was a woman, he stopped feeling like he was competing with me.
After all, he can’t see a woman as a rival. When our eyes meet, he looks away, but for some reason he glances at me.
“Yeah. It’s better not to get involved with me too much. It’ll be troublesome in various ways.”
“What do you mean…”
“Don’t be stupid, Onii-chan. Aria is Rank 3, right? I’m sure she’s doing amazing work, so we can’t form a party with beginners like us.”
Apparently, they wanted to talk because they wanted to form a party with me.
“I know that! More importantly, Shuri was so depressed, but are you okay now?”
“…There were various things, like Aria suddenly growing up and being a girl, but now that she’s this beautiful and cool even as a girl, I guess that’s ‘okay’ too… Hehehe.”
“No, that’s not okay!?”
Shuri, who was laughing somewhat pathologically, glared at Jill at his words.
“…Even Onii-chan can’t meet Aria’s eyes because she’s so beautiful.”
“You…!”
“Is that all you needed?”
“Wait a minute!”
Perhaps they were excited to see me after a long time, and when I cut off the story that had started to go in a strange direction, Jill raised his voice with a desperate look.
“The reason why we want to form a party is that there’s actually a place we want to go…”
“Onii-chan!”
“Shuri, you don’t think this is okay either, do you?”
“…Talk from the beginning.”
I ended the incomprehensible conversation and made them talk about what happened from the beginning.
The two of them were not born in this town, but seem to be from a small town a little west of here.
Their mother died early, and their father remarried a few years later, but when their father also died of an epidemic a few years later, the stepmother drove them out and abandoned them in this town in order to leave the fields to her own child.
They say that’s when they met me. Surely Victor, the general store owner, was watching over them while being fussy.
And when I killed the man who was abusing the siblings in the Slums, the siblings chose the path of becoming Adventurers in order to become stronger.
“We sold rabbits at the old man’s general store, and Galbas sold us weapons.”
“Look at this.”
The two proudly show off their steel Dagger and Knife. I think they are “just right” weapons for them now.
Still, I don’t think they could have bought weapons of this rank with those ragged rabbits, so it must be a farewell gift from those two eccentric old men… They’re really good-natured.
Then, when Shuri turned 10, she and Jill, who was 13, became Adventurers… or rather, since they don’t have any combat skills yet, they were earning money by carrying luggage when they heard a “strange rumor.”
“Orcs, huh?”
“……Yeah.”
According to what I heard from that receptionist, it hasn’t been made public yet, but it seems that Orcs have formed a village in a place a little west of the ruins.
Moreover, that place is between the ruins and the town where people live, and it seems that several people have already been sacrificed.
In that case, I think the Baron, the lord of the territory, should send troops, or that town should ask the Adventurer’s Guild, but when the Baron actually asked the Adventurer’s Guild’s scouts to investigate the scale, a terrifying fact was revealed.
Fifty-odd normal Orcs of Rank 3.
Four Orc Soldiers of Rank 4.
And one Rank 5… Orc General who leads them was confirmed.
There are 150 soldiers of the Baron in this town. If they scrape together from other towns, it would be 300, but most of them are Rank 1 or 2, and there are only about 10 platoon leader class of Rank 3, and there are only a dozen or so Rank 4 in the Royal Capital’s knights.
If it were just normal Orcs and four Orc Soldiers, the soldiers might be able to do something, but with one Orc General, probably nearly half of the soldiers would be sacrificed.
Moreover, if they leave soldiers for security, the number of soldiers they can send out for subjugation is limited to 70, and the receptionist said that they would probably be annihilated with that number.
In that case, they should ask the Adventurer’s Guild, but it seems that a party of five Rank 4s with at least two Rank 4s is required to defeat the Orc General.
But currently, there are no Rank 4 Adventurers in this Barony.
The Baron is afraid of the annihilation of the soldiers and is struggling to put out his forces, and the Adventurer’s Guild cannot forcibly send out Adventurers in the current state, except in an emergency such as a Monster outbreak.
Even if they cooperate, no one can move because there are things that have not been decided, such as whether the Baron will pay, whether the town will pay, and how far the Adventurers will deal with it.
For now, they are still building a wall in that town to defend it, but it is not known how long that will last.
“That town… is our hometown.”
Jill says so as if biting his lip, and Shuri distorts her face next to him.
“I don’t care what happens to that town. It’s the town where the woman who abandoned us is.”
“Still, we have our younger brother and friends, don’t we!”
“I don’t remember any friends. Besides, I’ve never thought of that woman’s child as… my brother.”
“Shuri!”
Jill scolds Shuri, but he seems to understand her feelings, so he is at a loss for words and turns to me.
“Aria… can you take me to that town, even if it’s just me?”
“Onii-chan, no! Onii-chan might die!”
Jill wants to help his acquaintances even though he has no good memories and has had terrible experiences.
Shuri is afraid that Jill will die, even though she doesn’t want her half-sibling to die.
“But no. I won’t take you with me.”
“Aria!”
The moment Jill took a step forward, I lightly swept his feet, causing him to fall, and pressed a knife to his neck.
“You’d only die if you came.”
“……gh…”
Jill groaned, realizing his own powerlessness.
“Besides—”
Without even looking “that way,” I threw the Pendulum’s blade, and one of the men hiding there jumped out.
Immediately, I manipulated the first thrown Pendulum to entangle the ankle of the man trying to escape, and wrapped the second Pendulum around his neck, pulling him to the ground.
“A Thief? An Assassin?”
“N-No, it’s not like that! I just came to see what was happening, I didn’t defy the Guild’s decision! I won’t be hostile to you either!!”
“Save your excuses for the afterlife.”
“Ah,”
Gokyun…
Using the thread wrapped around the man’s neck and leverage, I twisted and crushed the bones in his neck sideways.
“I’m being targeted. That’s why I won’t take along baggage who can’t protect themselves.”
“……”
Jill and Shuri paled as I dragged the body of the Thief, who knew of their existence, into the shadows where it couldn’t be seen from the main street.
Even though we’re in the same “place,” the “worlds” we live in are too different.
This is probably the best solution.
For the two of them to survive, who have little fighting ability.
That’s why—
“I’ll go see what’s happening in town. I’ll help you escape if it comes to that, so stay here.”
“Aria…”
Jill muttered blankly, and Shuri wiped her eyes with her sleeve as if to hide them.
As I walked towards the dark back alleys instead of the main street, I faintly heard Shuri’s voice behind me, “Please.”
Next time: Is there a way to save the town being attacked by Orcs?
While calling the eccentric old men softhearted, Aria is also naive.
Additional Information:
The Thieves’ Guild has not completely withdrawn; the response varies by branch.
A year has passed since the conflict, and guilds that are not militant are gradually shifting to the opinion of “withdrawing from the Ash-Covered Princess” due to reasons such as it not being worth it anymore and the damage being too great.
Of course, there are individual differences in how afraid they are of Aria.
Some are afraid of Aria herself, but defying the Thieves’ Guild’s decision could result in the entire family being dealt with.