✠
I almost flinched at his rather sharp tone.
[‘The Spoiler Inspector’ tenses up.]
Thesilid’s gaze stuck to my face a little more gently.
Before I knew it, his observation had become probing.
So far, he pretended not to care much about my suspiciousness, but on the other hand, Thesilid seems to have been diligently gathering information about me.
With a good-natured smile, he laid out his deduction.
“You know this world well, but you’ve never seen it with your own eyes.”
“……”
“Come to think of it, you knew all about how to attack Hellkaion. I think you expected it to come out of the dungeon, but when you arrived at the scene of the disaster, you faltered.”
“Did I?”
“Yes. It was the first time I’ve heard you swear.”
I can’t remember, but I think I did. He won’t know I swore to his future self, right?
I was stabbed for no reason, but Thesilid returned to the main topic.
“Anyway, that……”
“……”
“It means that the information you have is not visual.”
Contrary to the relaxed voice, his gaze was tenacious.
His eyes were intent on capturing every detail of my response without missing a single thing.
It was no different from an interrogation conducted through the gaze and I gradually felt a sense of danger.
<Wow, this guy… … .>
As Agnes was about to say something when I clutched the necklace tightly.
With a big smile on my face, I suggested.
“Maybe we should save the game of truth for later.”
“Sure.”
Thesilid gave up his quest without regret.
As we left the commercial district and entered the residential district, the streets became quiet.
It was a bit early for sleeping, so the lights were still shining in the windows of each house.
Agnes commented.
<Quiet and clean. This place seems like a good place to live.>
“I know, right? The security seems to be very good by the norm.”
I affirmed Agnes’ words and added a few more.
“But today might be an exception.”
We rolled our eyes and looked behind us. Thesilid spoke first in a quiet tone.
“We got a tail. He seems like a fairly trained assassin, I’m sure he’s aiming for me.”
It was an opinion worthy of the 17th episode protagonist, where he believes that the whole world wishes for his death.
I offered a hopeful opinion.
“Don’t be so conclusive. Maybe he’s a fanatic who has a crush on me.”
“I’m also not pleased with that option. Anyway, since we are almost at our destination, let’s go inside and grab them.”
“Okay. Let us ambush and catch them first.”
After going around the wall, the entrance door of the huge townhouse came out.
After unlocking the door with the key and entering, Thesilid and I exchanged glances and quickly scattered left and right to hide in blind spots.
Now, which side will the fearless assassin come for, me or Thesilid?
<They went to Thesilid.>
Bang!
An explosion that interrupted the peaceful night was heard. I quickly moved towards the sound.
In the small garden-like backyard, a Holy Sword and a dagger coated in aura were clashing.
Facing Thesilid was a man in drab robes. He was quite tall and, befitting an assassin, he used twin daggers as a weapon.
My eyes narrowed slightly. The way he stepped back as if he was falling backward while alternately parrying Thesilid’s attacks with his two daggers was somehow familiar to my eyes.
<That guy……>
I decided to watch their battle for a while without stepping in.
Tududu!
The trajectory of the Holy Sword thrust by Thesilid was twisted and deflected by the dagger.
The sound of metal against metal rattled through my ears for a long moment before Thesilid vertically slashed at the assassin.
The assassin crossed the two daggers to receive the Holy Sword and for a while, a standoff in which they competed against each other’s strength ensued.
“……”
“……”
Soon, as if they had promised, the two shook each other off and retreated.
It was Thesilid who took the first step to make the next move.
Quickly approaching, he raised his sword at the assassin.
It was at that moment that the assassin displayed unprecedented swiftness. He stepped up fast enough to leave an afterimage, avoided the slash, and repositioned himself.
Unknowingly, Thesilid was caught from behind.
Two daggers were about to fiercely slash Thesilid’s back, but he knew to handle the summoning of the Holy Sword as if it were part of his own body.
He summoned the Holy Sword in reverse in his left hand and without looking back, he stabbed at the assassin.
“……!”
The assassin, who narrowly avoided the danger of having his abdomen pierced, retreated far away. As if stimulated by something, he also held the daggers in reverse.
The air in the backyard began to slowly stir with bloodlust, so I stepped in.
“Enough, both of you.”
“……!”
“……!”
The murder intent that had leaked out was quickly smothered.
Aside from Thesilid’s reaction, the Assassin’s identity was confirmed as he made a show of himself listening to me.
“Ash.”
“Hey, sister. I’m glad you remembered me.”
His unique sluggish voice welcomed me.
With daggers tucked into the garters on both his thighs, the man took off his hood. A boy with gray hair revealed a scruffy face.
Ash Night.
He was an assassin of the 1st Squad of The Night Eagles that I met in the slime farm dungeon.
“Do you know each other?”
Thesilid’s eyes narrowed.
Ash replied in a quick and sociable manner.
“She’s my lifesaver. I almost died in an S-class dungeon, but she saved my life.”
“……Was saving people a hobby?”
Pretending not to hear Thesilid’s muttering, I interrogated Ash.
“Why did you tail me?”
“It became a habit to do it when I see a familiar friendly face.”
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
“It’s true. I don’t have anything better to do.”
“Nothing to do? Did you lose your job?”
Come to think of it, his shabby appearance makes him look like a vagrant who has been homeless for a long time.
I thought I smelled something, so I pulled my neck back.
“You know, sister……Whoops!”
When Ash was trying to explain his situation, he suddenly bent forward at the waist. I grabbed the back of his robe to keep him from falling and asked in worry.
“Ash, what’s wrong, are you hurt?”
The droopy man raised his head and pretended to be pitiful.
“I’m hungry and I have no energy……I’ve been starving for two days……”
“……”
A sigh was heard. It wasn’t me, it was Thesilid’s.
“Do as you please.”
✠
As if there was no lie in his claim of starving for two days, Ash gobbled up his food.
An assassin who is a direct disciple of the Guildmaster and has the skills to support that claim is struggling to make a living.
It’s not as if the world suddenly became more beautiful and the demand for assassination disappeared.
The reason he was starving was as follows.
“……So, right now, the Tower Master in the Magic Republic of Ragneif was assassinated, and the Night Eagle Guild was pointed out as the one behind it, and all your assassins have been ordered to be exterminated?”
“Yes, sister. I’m dying of injustice.”
It was the same story as the original. However, I did not know that the place Ash had been hiding for a while was the Principality of Hispenril.
“Why did you come to the Principality?”
“The headquarters of our Night Eagle’s sister guild, Dark Information Guild, is located in Peronsa. I tried to rely on them for a while or at least find some work, but I was beaten at the door.”
“Oh, it looks like they are paying attention to the Republic.”
“Yes.”
Ash, who responded by pretending to be pitiful with a drooping tail, continued.
“I was homeless in Peronsa because I was running low on money after paying for travel expenses, but even if I assassinate again, I don’t commit fraud, robbery, or theft.”
“Yes, an assassin belonging to the Night Eagle 1st Assassination Squad can’t be a petty criminal.”
“As expected of you, sister. You know your stuff, I’m quite the classy assassin, right?”
“So?”
“Ah, so it’s been about a week since I started living in Peronsa, and today there was a lot of fuss about The Chosen One parading in the square. I went to watch it without thinking much about it and I was really surprised. I was beyond disbelief to see an acquainted face in the carriage that should be caring the Saint. And that was……”
I waited for his review feeling a little flattered.
“The sister who gave me thrilling memories half a year ago in a dungeon where only the two of us were left……”
“What?”
“Back then, I was leashed like a dog, and I ended up wagging my non-existent tail, pleading with sister…….”
“Hey, don’t say misleading things.”
I shoved a baguette into Ash’s mouth and looked back at Thesilid.
He had a face that seemed to have been bleached.
“I just scolded him for being an arrogant prick.”
“……Okay.”
I steered the topic back on track.
“Ash, did you wait in front of the Castle all this time until you saw me going out?”
“Yes.”
“And you followed me all the way from there?”
“Yes.”
Ash mumbled a baguette and nodded like it was nothing.
“You’re pretty good, huh?”
It was a sincere admiration.
I didn’t notice until we were out of the main streets. No matter how many signs were mixed in the place, he can basically cheat the senses of two top-notch aura experts.
<I wasn’t sure, either.>
Even the Aura Master.
Ash pulled his lips together in a smile. It was a compliment he’d heard so many times that he didn’t even bother to show off.
After finishing the meal, Ash called me.
“Sister.”
“What?”
“Is there anyone you want to kill?”
“You want me to make an order?”
“Yes. An ex-boyfriend who cheated on you, the girl who cheated together with your ex-boyfriend, etc. I’ll take care of them all. I’ll do it cheaply.”
“You think I’ll do it?”
“No.”
Ash, who had withdrawn neatly, changed his words.
“Then hire me as a mercenary. You’re going to subdue dungeons too, right?”
✠
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