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The new thread was completed without any major problems. If there were any minor issues, it would be that the spider was larger than expected, making it difficult to stir the mucus that would become the thread, and that I had to mix my blood into it, which left me slightly anemic.
Processing something of this size was impossible for me alone. If Master hadn’t helped, the quality of the thread would have been uneven.
But thanks to that, the finished thread was 100 meters long, and although it was thinner than before, about 1 mm instead of 1.5 mm, it had the strength to make it difficult to cut even with the Black Knife without channeling Mana.
With this, unless they are a true master, no one should be able to cut the thread dancing in the air with a blade.
I ran the new thread through the four new Pendulums to check their usability. They worked well with my Level 4 Thread Manipulation Skill, and I could change their direction at will about 60% of the time.
As for the remaining old thread…
“Give me that thread.”
“What are you going to use it for?”
I was told this two days before my departure. Wondering what it was for, I handed over about 20 meters of thread. Master wove it together with ordinary thread to make a short shawl that could be wrapped around the neck, and handed it to me on the morning of my departure.
She said that wearing this around my neck should protect me from small throwing knives. I wonder if the day will ever come when I can repay the kindness she has shown me…
“Well, go on now, Taciturn Disciple (Aria). I won’t tell you not to be reckless, but don’t push yourself too hard. Just live your life as you see fit.”
“Yes, I’m off. Master (Serejula).”
I bid farewell to my master and set off. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to come back… but I repeat the farewell each time, intending to return.
My physical condition has almost recovered. I should have plenty of time to reach the meeting place with Viro in a month and a half.
I left Seyles Barony, passed through several noble territories, and then passed through County of Hedel, which had the Assassin Guild’s Northern Frontier Branch that I destroyed, from the County of Bash, which was their patron.
County of Hedel used to be lively, but now I see a lot of shady characters, and the whole place feels faded.
Probably, the Count, who was involved with the Assassin Guild, thought that he could maintain his deteriorating finances and security by inviting the Thieves’ Guild after the Guild was destroyed.
The Count, who had been making money by brokering shady assassinations for other nobles, must hate me enough to want me dead.
But at the same time, the Count, who knew the power of the Assassin Guild better than anyone else, did not want to get involved with me, who had destroyed it.
If the Count had enough power, I think he could have arrested me on trumped-up charges within his territory, but I have never been bothered by guards or thieves in this land.
If I am to believe Viro’s words, Sera may have warned the Count.
To get from the County to Dandole March, and from there to Haerlton Dukedom, where the meeting place is, there are two routes.
One is to go southwest from Dandole and pass through the area patronized by Marquis Dance, and the other is to go west, which I am used to, and go from Taurus County to Marquis Kendras Territory, where the mine is located, and then go south from there.
The latter is cheaper in terms of the number of noble territories I have to pass through, but the former is slightly closer in terms of distance, so I will choose that route this time.
When I arrived in the area patronized by Marquis Dance, it had been almost a month since I left, and the season had changed to early summer. There is still more than half a month until the meeting, so I should have plenty of time to get there if nothing happens.
Even on previous journeys, I have been attacked by thieves and bandits who did not know me, but ten or so people are not a problem.
Come to think of it, do ordinary Adventurers do escort duty for caravans on long-distance trips?
For a moment, such “knowledge” came to my mind, and I thought that I, with my expanded detection range and ability to take frequent naps, would be perfect for the job, but I gave up in a few seconds, thinking that a caravan would never hire a child Adventurer like me.
After about a month and a half of traveling from Master’s hermitage, I arrived at Haerlton Dukedom, where the meeting place was.
There was no notice of a change of location at the Adventurer’s Guild in County of Sandora, which I passed on the way, so I don’t think there is a problem, but if I stop by the Guild in the town where the Duke’s castle is located, I should be able to find out if Viro and the other person have arrived.
I passed through the post town on the border of the territory near dusk, and after walking along the highway for a while, I noticed a faint presence following me.
“…”
They are not quite highly skilled, but they are quite capable.
I can’t make an accurate analysis because I haven’t actually seen them, but judging from the way they hide their presence and walk, they are probably in the upper Rank 3 to lower Rank 4 range… in other words, they have about the same combat power as me.
There are probably two or three of them… If they know “me” and are targeting me, I think they are from the Assassin Guild, not the Thieves’ Guild.
If they are from the Assassin Guild in this area, they are probably assassins from the Central West Branch, who are descended from the desert people who attacked me in Marquis Kendras Territory.
The last attack was by six Rank 3 assassins. Even if the number is halved, if they are sent with that in mind, they must be more capable than that.
Can I win? … No, even in the battles I’ve had so far, there have been fewer battles that I could definitely win.
That’s why I use my wits, know my enemies, set traps, and use every trick I can to snatch a narrow victory.
When I stopped and turned around slightly, the presence that had been following me also stopped, and one of them stepped out again and showed himself on the dimly lit highway.
“Are you the ‘Ash-Covered Princess’?”
“I’ve never called myself that. Are you an Assassin from the Central West Branch?”
“Indeed.”
The middle-aged Cruz man said, deepening the wrinkles etched into his dark skin as he smiled slightly.
“I have a message from the Chief. If you join our ranks and carry out a hundred assassinations, we will overlook everything that has happened so far.”
“A hundred? Who?”
“You don’t need to worry about that. Isn’t it ‘us’ who kill without emotion when we receive a request? Ash-Covered Princess, what is your answer?”
“I refuse.”
At that moment, a crossbow bolt was fired from the Darkness of Shadow Snatch, which I had dropped on the ground in advance, and the middle-aged Cruz man dodged the surprise attack by leaning back.
He dodged it even at this distance… This guy is definitely Rank 4.
“You foolish little girl!”
Even as he said that, the middle-aged man grinned, jumped back, drew a scimitar with his right hand, and threw a knife with his left.
As the man moved, I hesitated to pursue him, trying to dodge the knife. Why is he taking distance while drawing a one-handed sword?
“Tch!”
A slender man leaped out of the Darkness spreading to my side, exhaling as if leaking air.
… Empty-handed? When I parried the punch thrown with bare hands with my knife, the slender man used strange movements using his flexibility to flick the belly of the Black Knife with his hand.
A martial art! I dodged the punch that was thrown again by leaning back, put my hand behind me, and kicked up the punch with my bladed boots.
“!”
I caught a slight whooshing sound and took even more distance without being able to follow up, and the blade of the scimitar passed right in front of me.
“Well dodged!”
As the middle-aged man pulled his arm, the scimitar tied to the string danced in the air.
A Thread Manipulation weapon like my Pendulum. Moreover, the range of operation is wider than mine.
The scimitar, spinning around in the air without falling to the ground, attacked me again, and the slender man kicked at me while protecting the wound on his arm.
While dodging the two men’s attacks, I parried their attacks with the knives and dagger in both hands, rolled away from the two men, and at the same time, a third man jumped down from directly above.
“!”
The third man plunged the daggers in both hands deeply into the ground where I had deliberately taken the punch and jumped away from the impact.
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
The man pulled out the daggers that had been buried to the hilt without any problem and roared like a beast.
The third man is a wolf-type beastman… His fighting method is orthodox, but just looking at his movements now, his Status is far superior to mine.
The three assassins surrounded me from three directions so that I could not escape, and slowly changed their positions clockwise.
“…”
What should I do? I felt that I could fight them one-on-one, but to fight three of them, I needed some kind of “trigger” to separate them.
Just as I was thinking about what to do,
“–hee hee hee–“
” ” “!? ” ” ”
A strange “laughing voice” echoed through the darkened road, momentarily distracting the assassins as a “shadow” approached from within.
I knew I should seize the opportunity to attack, but the bizarre nature of the appearing “object” involuntarily captured my attention.
It was the figure of a small “old woman” crawling on all fours through the dark road with incredible speed.
“Gah!?”
The wolf-beastman, seemingly confused, threw a dagger, which the old woman caught in mid-air. Discarding the dagger behind her, an abnormal surge of mana erupted, unleashing a massive sandstorm.
“Tch!”
The assassins and I immediately retreated. However, a slender man, perhaps unable to sense the mana, was caught in the sandstorm and subsequently attacked by the old woman.
【Old Woman】【Race: ???】
【Mana Capacity: 365/425】【HP: 173/184】
【Overall Combat Strength: 1598 (Body Enhancement in progress: 1992)】
What… is that? The moment I thought that, the necessary information surfaced from that woman’s knowledge.
A rapidly moving old woman, inhuman combat strength with high mana, and the use of sand… could that possibly be…
“…A Yokai?”
According to the knowledge, such monsters existed in that woman’s world. But even so, what I had to do remained the same.
Switching my focus in an instant, I used Stealth to dart out, concealing myself within the swirling sandstorm, and unleashed magic towards the wolf-beastman’s back.
“—【Phantom Pain】—”
“Gigya!?”
As the wolf-beastman stiffened from the intense pain, I leaped onto his back and plunged the Black Dagger deep into his medulla oblongata.
“You little brat!”
The middle-aged Cruz, who had been momentarily distracted by the old woman, threw his tethered scimitar at me after his comrade was killed.
It was a mid-range weapon with considerable weight and power. Normally, one would be unable to withstand such an attack and be torn apart, but you’re far too arrogant.
How could an Assassin show the same trick to the same enemy multiple times?
Clang!
“What!?”
The roaring scimitar was deflected several meters before me.
The weighty 【Ball-Shaped】 Pendulum, with added centrifugal force, could become a deadly weapon capable of crushing even a creature’s skull.
The Black Cross, concealed in the darkness, deflected the scimitar, and the 【Slashing Style】 Pendulum, flying in an arc from another direction, slashed the middle-aged Cruz’s carotid artery.
“Hihihi…”
At that moment, the old woman pounced on me as if lunging.
“—【Shadow】—”
I used a Shadow Phantom as a decoy to evade the attack. However, contrary to the immense combat strength I saw in the appraisal, the attack was slow enough for even me to see through.
Could it be that her close combat ability relies solely on Body Enhancement? Assuming that her combat strength was due to Magic, I retrieved the 【General-Purpose】 and 【Blade Scythe Style】 Pendulums from 【Shadow Storage】.
If she used Magic, I would have no chance of winning. The only way for me to win was to end it in an instant before she could use it.
Gathering mana throughout my body, I crouched low like a cat, leaped off the ground, and hurled the two Pendulums. The old woman’s eyes widened as she unleashed a vast amount of mana from her entire body to counter.
The battle would be decided in an instant. With our current HP, whoever landed the first attack would take the other’s life.
But—
“Wait, wait!! Stop you two!!”
At the same time as that familiar voice, a knife came flying, causing me and the old woman to evade each other and the knife as we rolled on the ground to create distance.
…That voice, Viro? He rushed in from the road, forcefully intervening with a knife, and let out a scream-like voice as he saw me and the old woman fighting.
“Why are you guys fighting each other, like comrades!?”
I thought it was a Yokai, but it was a new comrade.
Aria has knowledge, but she doesn’t really understand the difference between fiction and non-fiction in the modern world, so she thinks Yokai actually exist.
Next time, the Magician Old Woman.
The next update is scheduled for Saturday or Sunday.
Consultation:
There was an opinion that the title does not match the content.
So I was wondering if I should change the title. What do you think?
Candidate 1
『Iron Rose ―Heroine【Strongest】Survival―』
I was wondering if I should add the second half as it is now, but I’m worried. I’m waiting for your opinions on whether the second half is unnecessary or whether it should be left as it is.