“What are you doing, killing each other, you guys!”
Viro said, sounding exhausted as he intervened in the killing, and the Yokai old woman laughed like a human.
“Hee hee hee, too late, Viro boy.”
“Stop calling me ‘boy,’ you old hag. Seriously… well, whatever.”
Viro, sounding exasperated as he complained to the old woman, suddenly threw a knife somewhere.
“!!”
At that moment, the slender Assassin, who had been battered and immobilized by the old woman’s attack, leaped up as if jolted awake and began to flee.
Seeing this, Viro slightly raised the corner of his mouth and drew his beloved Mithril dagger from his waist as if leaping from the spot.
“You think you can escape me—”
Hyunng!
The black blade shot through the air, and the Blade Scythe Style Pendulum deeply gouged the neck of the fighting Assassin, who had been distracted by Viro and the old woman, from his blind spot, spraying a large amount of blood as he collapsed.
I pulled the Pendulum back to my hand, shaking off the blood, and turned to face Viro, who was standing there with his dagger raised.
“Viro… explain.”
“Aria, geez…”
Not again? More trouble from Viro? I hadn’t thought I could escape, so I was prepared to fight back, but if we had continued killing each other like that, the chances of me dying would have been much higher.
Is this old woman his comrade? If so, then this old woman is the retired magician from his party… I really managed to survive against a Rank 5 magician.
“Well, um… this old woman is my comrade.”
“I didn’t hear anything about inhuman comrades.”
“She’s not inhuman. She looks like a monster, but she’s human. She’s just a bit senile… we were staying at an inn in the post town, and she suddenly shouted that she sensed a suspicious presence and ran off.”
“I’m not senile, you boy! I’m only 99 years old!”
“You’ve been saying the same thing for ten years!”
“…………”
Is she really not inhuman…? A Rank 5 magician who can also fight hand-to-hand is extremely dangerous, especially if she’s senile.
“She’s got reliable skills, despite how she looks. She retired because she gets senile sometimes, but her abilities are definitely solid, so don’t worry.”
“My name is Samantha Samantha, you little brat!”
“…I see.”
Where is the reassuring part? Samantha, the old woman, introduced herself normally, as if she had already forgotten that she had been killing each other just a few dozen seconds ago.
Even so, I returned the knife to its sheath and lowered my警戒 level to “Caution.”
According to that woman’s “knowledge,” it is not rational to hold a grudge about things like senility, which are beyond a person’s control.
Certainly, with her level of skill, there would be no problem in combat.
“I’m Aria. I didn’t expect to meet you here, but Viro, what are your plans from now on?”
“Let’s see… we were planning to stay overnight in the post town, but we can’t get a room anymore, so should we head straight to our destination?”
“The town with the Duke’s castle?”
“That’s just a meeting place. We’ll stop by on the way, but the ‘target’ is in the Barony along the border.”
“Understood.”
At Viro’s words, I took out the Pendulum blade and gripped it in my hand.
He’s there… Grave is there.
When I fought him before, I couldn’t even touch him. I took a gamble and barely survived.
Even now, there’s still nearly a double gap in our combat power, but I’m not the same as I used to be, and now I have Viro and Samantha with me.
If possible… I wanted to settle things alone, but killing him takes priority over my personal feelings.
“Let’s go then, Aria, Samantha. We’ll be in town by tomorrow.”
“To force a march on a night like this, what do you think of old people?”
“You’re the one who ran off on your own!?”
“…………”
…I’m a little worried.
Samantha, who has a long history as an Adventurer (almost a century), naturally had Night Vision. Even on a road like this at night, everyone can use Body Enhancement at Level 4, so the movement is surprisingly fast.
“By the way, Samantha, you’re a magician, so how can you use Body Enhancement? You don’t have any close combat skills, do you?”
“Good question, little brat!!”
When I asked what I was curious about during the move, both Viro and I naturally suppressed our presence, but Samantha didn’t care and answered in a loud voice that could be heard three houses down.
“The magician’s natural enemy is the fast-moving light warrior type! That’s why magicians who have reached a certain level of skill learn Body Enhancement in order to perform Thought Acceleration!”
“Hee…”
So that’s another reason why my master, even though she’s a magician, also fights in close combat.
“Old woman, I didn’t know that either.”
“Recent boys don’t study enough! Well, most young magicians these days are only concerned with the power of magic and rarely bother to learn Body Enhancement! You guys should remember this: if you see a magician using Body Enhancement in this day and age, you should be careful!”
“Got it.”
I see… the stories of practical Adventurers are helpful.
“Anyway, old woman, keep your voice down a little. You’ll attract Monsters.”
“What is it, boy? Is it mealtime!!”
“We ate at the inn an hour (two hours) ago!?”
“…………”
…Is this really going to be okay?
We ate almost only portable food and hurried on our way, and by noon the next day, we arrived in the town with Duke Haerlton’s castle, the largest city in this region.
Samantha and I took a room for one night, and Viro went to the Adventurer’s Guild to gather information.
“Aria, stay here with the old woman. You too, but Samantha is a celebrity, despite how she looks, so it’ll be a hassle to take her in this state. Also, the old woman will suddenly get senile even when she’s having a normal conversation, so be careful.”
“Understood.”
It would be troublesome if I went to the Adventurer’s Guild, so I’ll leave the Guild-related matters to Viro.
The inn that Viro took was a high-class inn worthy of first-rate Adventurers like them.
I thought I would need to take care of her, but even though she’s old, she’s still an Adventurer, and most things can be taken care of by telling the inn staff, as befits a high-class inn, so there’s not much for me to do.
Bang!!
“Little brat! Food, let’s eat food!”
Not even a few seconds after entering the inn room, Samantha, who was supposed to be in the next room, burst into my room as if kicking down the door.
“I heard you ate yesterday.”
“Demon Wife, there’s a Demon Wife!!”
I have no memory of becoming anyone’s wife.
“What is it? Are you already hungry even though you’re an Adventurer? Then come with me. If you want a decent meal, it’s on the first floor.”
“O-okay.”
Accompanied by Samantha, who was somehow slightly taken aback, I went down to the first floor and was guided by the inn staff to a table for six where we could eat.
“Samantha, what do you want to eat?”
“Let me see… meat, lamb meat is good!”
“Understood.”
I asked her what she wanted and called the waitress to order the food.
“Lamb meat dish. One whole lamb.”
“O-one whole lamb!?”
“She has repeatedly complained of hunger. Besides, we are Adventurers, so there is no problem.”
Viro was a man who ate meat from the morning even when he was recovering from an illness. If I lined up dishes that suited his Adventurer companions, there would be no problem.
The surrounding customers fell silent as they watched the old woman and the child silently pouring the “meat” that was brought out one after another into their stomachs, and in the midst of that subtle atmosphere, Viro returned from the Guild two hours later.
“What is this amount of meat…”
“Samantha said she wanted to eat.”
“The little brat is a Demon Wife!”
Viro tilted his head as he looked at Samantha, who had become slightly rounder and shinier than when she had arrived at the inn.
“…I don’t really understand, but oh well. Waitress, give me an ale. I’ll give you a report for now.”
Viro sat down and started eating the meat on his own, and began to talk in a low voice about the information he had obtained from the Guild and what had happened so far.
It’s hard to understand because he’s using underworld slang, but to summarize, this is the story.
Grave, who failed to kill me, left Sera’s Shadow Unit and disappeared.
He was quiet for a while after that, but around a certain time, incidents began to occur in which nobles from a faction called the “Aristocratic Faction,” which was trying to weaken the power of the royal family, were assassinated.
Three nobles have been killed so far, and in particular, one of them, a Baron, was a noble rumored to have a deep relationship with a neighboring country, who had been advocating that the Crown Prince’s fiancée should be a princess from abroad.
The nobles of the Aristocratic Faction accused the Royalist Faction of killing the Earl, demanding that the nation reduce the size of the Royal Guard and the Shadow Unit, the swords of the Royal Family. They also insisted that the Royal Family should lower their heads and marry a princess from a neighboring country.
But in the current situation, such a thing could not be accepted. The head of the Shadow Unit, who had been unfairly suspected, investigated the incident and finally identified Grave as the culprit.
According to the Shadow Unit’s investigation, Grave seemed to be targeting noble families who were enemies of the Royal Family. After narrowing down several baronies, they obtained information that a person resembling Grave was hiding in this Haerlton Dukedom.
While the two frontier counts, who could have been the figureheads of the Aristocratic Faction, were actually part of the Royalist Faction, the Duke of Haerlton, who should have been a Royalist, was now known as an anti-Royalist because he had been deprived of the vested interests that he should have obtained by the frontier counts.
“Grave is waiting for the Duke to go out. According to the information, troublesome monsters have appeared in a barony near the border, and ordinary adventurers and knights can’t stand a chance against them. Well, to put it simply, the Duke is going to lead a subjugation party himself to gain popularity.”
It seemed highly likely that Grave would target the Duke at that time.
Normally, attacking a Duke guarded by about a hundred knights would be a suicidal act, and no one would take it seriously as anything but foolish. But Grave probably judged that it was better than attacking him when he was in the castle.
The Duke’s side couldn’t be on constant alert against an opponent who might attack at any time. In such a situation, I was convinced that Grave would definitely do it. There was no reason for my conviction. I just thought that I “would do it” too.
And the Duke wouldn’t cancel the subjugation just because he was afraid of a single attacker.
“We’ll leave tomorrow morning and head to that barony. What we have to do is to defeat Grave before the Duke departs.”
“Hee hee hee, instead of saying tomorrow morning, we should go now! Come on, boy, little girl, get ready!”
Clap.
I slammed the table to stop Samantha, who was about to leave immediately.
“Not yet. There’s still meat left.”
“…………”
Adventurers have to eat when they can. Viro taught me that, and I learned it from my first camping life in the forest and the lessons I learned in the forest with the Orcs.
Eat when you can. Endure when you can’t. That’s why I won’t allow leaving food. When I stared at them as if pleading, the two slowly sat down and the three of us began to eat the meat in silence again.
The next day, early in the morning, we left the city where the Duke was and headed to the barony where Grave was hiding.
In that place, I would have a certain “encounter.”
Next time: What I Encounter in the Barony
Thank you for the many opinions regarding the title consultation.
After listening to your opinions, many of you said that you started reading with that title, so you don’t want me to change it.
Based on that, we will keep the title as it is for the time being.
If I do change it later, I would like to keep the current title and add words to the end of it.
Thank you for your valuable opinions. It was very helpful.