"So this is the shipment that you'll be guarding. We have 4 large carriages and you're not allowed to peek or ask any questions about them. In return, we'll pay you 4 gold and a journey to Norbury." The man said whilst pointing at the carriages that were locked tight.
"Can I sit on the roof?" Shiro asked.
"Pardon?"
"Can I, this miss, sit on the roof of these carriages?" Shiro asked once more.
"Er, sure as long as you don't peek at the shipments."
Nodding her head, Shiro walked towards the carriage situated in the centre of the convoy.
Making herself comfy on the roof of the carriage, she laid on her back and crossed her legs.
The man had never seen someone as relaxed as Shiro, especially not with her kind of beauty that can only be described as one in a million.
Shaking his head, he started to gather the rest of his crew for their journey to Norbury.
Shiro ignored all of the commotion around her as all she needed to do was to relax and guard everything till they reach Norbury. That being said, she was a little curious about the shipment.
However, as a professional, she'll only look at the shipment once she got what she wanted.
After all, she never said that she won't look at it after their business is over.
Feeling the carriage shake, she knew that they were setting off so she pushed her senses out to keep an ear out for any monsters or bandits that wanted to rob them.
Strangely however, the carriages were completely silent. Not a single sound could be heard from them.
'Seems like they've isolated the sound of the carriages.' Shiro thought without much care. If they took that many precautions with these shipments, her desire to see what they were transporting only increased.
'Though it could potentially be something illegal since he doesn't seem like a good person.' She thought as she flicked her wrist.
An ice javelin materialised above her as she then controlled it to shoot forwards.
*BANG!
The sudden appearance of the javelin shocked the crew as they glanced back at Shiro. However, seeing that she hadn't made any more moves, they continued their travels only to find a monster pierced through the head.
The monster had half of its body camouflaged with the floor. If not for the fact that green blood was flowing out of his head, they wouldn't even have noticed the monster.
The man who recruited Shiro narrowed his eyes as he saw her capabilities.
For her to be able to accurately see through the disguise of the monster showed that she was extremely capable.
But, perhaps a little too capable as he was slightly regretting the fact that he had recruited her.
He wanted someone who could guard the shipments whilst they could still threaten if they wanted to rebel. However, from what Shiro had shown, trying to threaten her would only result in a situation similar to the monster on the floor.
"What's the matter? Something wrong? Am I too strong?" A cold voice rang out behind him as sweat dripped down his back.
He could see a few strands of white hair that flowed down due to Shiro hanging over the carriage. Looking up, he could see her cold azure eyes that seemed sadistic almost. As if she was looking at a plaything that she could end at any moment.
Her smile that sent shivers down his spine and the fact that she was making constant eye contact without blinking made him feel unnerved.
"N-no. S-strong is g-good!" He replied as his voice trembled slightly.
"Hahahaha, well as long as you bring me to Norbury, I won't interfere." Shiro laughed before moving back to her spot.
The reason as to why she did this was because his eyes had the same look the hero had when he realised that she was growing stronger than him.
Watching Shiro return back to his spot, he could still hear his heart pound. His mind was numb and the regret of bringing her on board was growing by the second.
'What have I done…' He thought to himself in fear. There was a small part of him that realised that he wasn't going to be surviving the day but he didn't want to humour that thought.
###
There were a few monsters that tried to attack the convoy during the trip but Shiro took care of them without a problem.
However, the more Shiro killed, the more fearful the man became. Wanting to get this potential calamity off his carriage as soon as possible, he sped up the journey towards Norbury with the crew barely getting any rest.
But due to Shiro taking care of the monsters, all they had to worry about was driving the carriages.
And so, they arrived at Norbury in only 2 days compared to the estimated 3 days journey time.
"Young miss we've arrived at the location now." He said with a bow.
"Mn, that was rather quick wasn't it?" Shiro asked whilst narrowing her eyes.
This caused the man to tremble but he still responded.
"Of course. We don't want to hold you up after all." He replied and paid her the four gold.
"Well alright, I'll leave now." She said as she hopped off the carriage and walked away from the convoy.
Naturally, she was still going to keep her eye on it due to the fact that she wanted to see what they were transporting.
If it was something that passed her bottom line, kill them all.
If it was something that didn't pass her bottom line then she would just ignore it.
But first, she needed to double check about the route to Silvermoon Keep along with the current situation of the army fighting against the cultists.
Since her ultimate goal was just to stop them from reviving a great evil or whatever, she could ultimately just kill all of the cultists and it will be A-OK.
Once again, she arrived at the tavern and paid for a cup of ale.
"Can you tell me about the situation around Silvermoon Keep?" Shiro asked.
"The army can't break past their defences. Too many mages on the battlements that keep them out. Not only that, but something seems to be weakening everyone. More people are getting injured and many more are killed." The barman replied.
Recently, a lot of youngsters like the young miss in front of him had come to Norbury to ask about the situation at Silvermoon Keep. Most were adventurers that were apparently undertaking a quest while others were hero wannabe's that are seeking to gain fame from this.
"Hou~… What's the army doing then? For them to persist for this long means that they've either recruited more people or reinforcements came."
"A bit of both. Reinforcements from the capital are still making their way here and the army is currently recruiting strong men from the nearby towns to help drive the cultists back. Promises or lavish rewards and what not." He shrugged.
"Seemed to work though."
"Bah, sure it works in tricking underaged youngsters to enlist. The little twats haven't even grown out of sucking on their mother's teet and they think they can survive a bloody war? Dream on." The barman scoffed.
Finishing her drink, Shiro paid a small tip before leaving the bar.
'So the army is recruiting in this town. Maybe if I join them, I'll be able to have an easier time sneaking into Silvermoon Keep. Plus, can't charge me for deserting if I split up from the army and charge into the Keep.' She thought with a small chuckle.
'But first, time to see what they were transporting.'
Making her way back to the stables, she saw that they finally started to shift the cargo.
She went to the bar first since she knew that they would still be on guard after she left. Especially since she demonstrated her power. Only after making sure that she wasn't around, would they transport the cargo.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom – Illusionary Phantom.
Trailing the cargo, she saw that they were shifting the cargo to another carriage. While they weren't looking, she landed beside the carriage and broke a piece off of the container for the cargo.
The moment she did that, she was suddenly assaulted with the aura of evil spirits.
Instantly backing off, Shiro narrowed her eyes when she saw that inside the cargo was a bunch of dead bodies and a crystal that was leaching off the bodies. A similar sight to quarantine zone back in Hythe.
"Hou hou, so they were the ones responsible for the infections." Shiro muttered as a green fire lit up in her palm.
Throwing out 6 fireballs towards all the cargo, she created two ice daggers and started to assassinate the people transporting the cargo.
The first victims were the guards closest to the cargo. Twisting her body, she drove the daggers into their skulls before flicking her wrist, sending their heads flying off their torso's.
Clutching her fingers, a handful of ice daggers were created. She waited for a short moment as more guards were bound to appear due to the commotion.
As she had expected, all of the guards for the convoy had dropped what they were doing and rushed towards her. However, when they saw who it was, they widened their eyes before turning around so that they could run away.
Shiro didn't let them leave as a single flick of her wrist sent the daggers flying towards the back of their skulls and killed them instantly.
The main culprit, the one who had recruited her into the convoy, was smart and had run the opposite way the moment he heard the commotion. He knew that Shiro was the one behind it and wanted to run as far away as he could.
During his escape, he had the urge to turn around to check the current situation. However, he paled when he saw Shiro in the air. She was grinning while several ice daggers were flying towards him.
Before he could even scream, the daggers had pierced his body and killed him instantly.
Thawing the ice daggers, Shiro left the area before anyone could actually realise who she was. Since she was still wearing her hood, all they knew was that the killer could use ice magic.
"Well that takes care of that." She muttered whilst disposing of her cloak.
It wasn't too hard to see where the army was recruiting as there were literal signs that pointed her to the direction.
The queue for joining the army was surprisingly long. She could see the excited youths that wanted to become a hero by defeating the cultists.
Shaking her head with slight amounts of pity, Shiro queued up patiently and waited for her turn.
After waiting for over an hour, it was finally her turn.
"Name?"
"Shiro."
"Age?"
"Er 13."
"Parents?"
"None."
"Mn fine. Class?"
"Ice mage."
"Take this and go to the left. They'll test your aptitude to see where you will be stationed." He said whilst handing her a piece of paper.
Following his instructions, Shiro went to the left and saw a small queue of mages.
'Hmm… it seems like there are more warriors when compared to mages in this trial.' Shiro thought to herself as mages seemed to be a little different in this world when compared to earth.
Not only did they need to chant for every spell, but the charge up time was also slow.
Standing at the back of the queue, she realised how tall each of the mages were. Even the shortest mage was half a head taller than her.
However, what annoyed her was that all of them were looking at her with contempt. Even though they were amazed at her beauty, they were annoyed at the fact that a midget decided to join the army.
Naturally, if Shiro was to know that they classified her as a midget in their minds, she wouldn't mind cutting off their legs to see who was the midget now.
Thankfully, she didn't need to wait too long as the number of mages were significantly smaller when compared to the amount of warriors.
"Hmm… name, Shiro. Age, 13? Parentless and an Ice mage. Demonstrate to me an attack type magic and I'll grade your cast time, and power." The recruiter said whilst looking at her info.
*Click
Snapping her fingers, four ice spears materialised around her, shocking all the mages on scene.
The recruiter's jaw dropped in shock.
"So what's my grade?" Shiro asked.
"Ahem, Cast time grade S. Attack the dummy and I'll evaluate the strength." He said as he coughed a little.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Before he could even blink, the four spears had long pierced the four dummies and pinned them to the wall.
"Grade?"
"Er, power grade S. Take this and go to the captain near the gates. He'll take you to the carriage for the elite squad." He replied whilst still trying to digest the shock from her performance.
Meanwhile, Shiro, who was the cause of this shock, couldn't help but sigh at how bad mages were in this world. Even a simple spell that an amateur could do back on earth was enough to warrant an S rank.
'No wonder they're getting pushed back by the cultists.' Shiro thought to herself. With how easy this world seemed to be, she wasn't too excited about the rewards anymore.
From her viewpoint, just the fact that she was able to learn healing magic was enough of a reward, Hell, even if she failed the quest now, she wouldn't even mind.
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