Omen of Battle
「Dear grandfather, I wish to discuss something with you. Can you by any chance give me a little bit of your time?」
The royal capital of Claydale Kingdom. In the prime minister’s office in the palace, the room’s owner Belt Fa Melrose glared at his grandson who visited suddenly.
Ahead of his gaze was a young boy with strawberry honey blond hair that was faintly tinged red. He didn’t even flinch against the gaze of his grandfather who was the current prime minister. He put on a smile that was as sweet as his hair color.
Mihail Melrose. He was the first son of Melrose House’s heir and this year he would become ten years old. Perhaps because of his strong mana, for these several years he had grown until he looked like he was thirteen years old if he was a commoner. With his sweet look that he inherited from his grandmother and charming smile, he was becoming a hot topic among the young maids who were working in the palace.
The heir who was Belt’s son and Mihail’s father was ruling the territory of Margrave Melrose in the place of Belt who couldn’t leave the capital because of his work as the prime minister. Mihail was in the capital even though he wasn’t even in the age to enroll into the sorcery academy was because he had the “friend role” for the crown prince as a candidate to be his aide in the future.
Just like how the young lady of Margrave Dandall, Clara filled the role as the playmate of the first princess Elena, several children from good social standing were also gathered around the crown prince as his playmates so he could form solid connection with them as the future king. But even among those children, it was talked that Mihail together with Rockwell Dandall who was the eldest son of the supreme knight commander and also the big brother of Clara were in especially good relations with the crown prince.
「You’re really a slippery fellow……」
「I’m used to dear gradnfather’s glare after all. In the first place the people of Melrose House also don’t have the trait to be considerate to others too much.」
「……I guess.」
Belt understood that he himself and his big sister who married to Carlfan Empire were also like that. His lips frowned while he wetted his lips with the tea that was brewed by his butler Oz.
The people of Melrose House that was formerly a royal family of a country had such side to them for good or bad. Because of that they could also offer their opinion to the royal family without hesitation but, such side sometimes also made them to become liked by the royal family just like with Belt and Mihail.
「Come to think of it, she was also like that……」
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Thinking back now, his daughter eloping without any consideration of her standing might also because such trait of Melrose House came out thickly inside her.
At the very least he was aware that his daughter wasn’t suited to become the queen.
「Are you talking about the dear aunt that I sometimes heard came up in talk? The old servants mentioned that she was a beautiful person, and I also once saw her portrait that was remaining in the mansion. ……There is also a rumor, that a girl who might be my cousin was found?」
「……Where did you hear that from?」
Mihail spoke of a “rumor” that was only known by very few people including the royal family. Belt glared at him, but he only smiled gently and dodged the question.
Most likely he had his own information network even at this age. Taking that into consideration, he might be more suited than Belt’s son, his father to become the prime minister when the crown prince became the king, but Belt sighed at his grandson who was maturing too quickly.
「We will observe for several years more to see about that. ……And, what do you want to discuss with me?」
「Before that, I want to tell about this matter to dear grandfather’s ear only.」
「……Got it. Oz.」
「As you command.」
Oz who was standing by at a corner of the room bowed his head to Belt and Mihail before leaving. Even he who was a knight in the dark side couldn’t hear this talk, just what could it be?
.
「Is it fine now?」
「Thank you very much, dear grandfather. I think you have guessed already but, this is about his highness the crown prince.」
Mihail talked that the crown prince recently seemed to have interest toward life in the streets. That interest itself wasn’t anything bad but, apparently the crown prince wished to look around the capital not in his capacity as crown prince, but “stealthily” together with his friends including Mihail.
There were guard posts everywhere in the capital to maintain the public order. The guards were also patrolling, so there would be no danger unless in some unusual circumstance. With such good public order, it was possible to even see young lady from house at the level of count to go shopping in the city, although as expected she wouldn’t be alone. But they could do so by bringing only three guards at minimum and a maid.
But, the crown prince wouldn’t be allowed to do that with his standing. Even though it was at the royal capital, the crown prince would at least need to bring around ten of the royal guards with him and reserved a high class establishment just to go shopping. Wanting to look around stealthily meant departing to the city without even being accompanied by decent amount of guard. This must be the influence of the first queen who was formerly a viscount’s daughter who liked to behave with abandon.
(……Really, what a troublesome person.)
Setting aside the official function, the first queen was said to be still relying on the second queen for the political duty. Belt grumbled about her inside his heart. Mihail also sensed his grandfather’s mood and continued with the story in order to end it quickly.
「As expected even I can’t allow that. I made his highness agreed to bring several guards with us. But he had apparently heard from somewhere about the case that happened during her highness the princess’s recuperation. Although it was ended only as an attempt, but the abduction was still allowed to happen. Because of that his highness is feeling disapproval for guards from the dark side outside the palace.」
「I see……」
Certainly that was a blunder in the dark side organization’s part. No matter how short of hands they were, high ranked knights of the dark side like Sera had checked the background of anyone around the royal family, and only trusted people accompanied the royalty, but after the case was investigated, it was found out that Grave who had worked for nearly thirty years for the royal family had changed the personnel assignment and intentionally loosened the security around her highness the princess.
When he was young Grave had a radical side in him to a fastidious degree, but it was thought that it was because of his devotion toward the royal family. In fact for more than these ten years his radical side had quietened down. Nobody could understand why someone in the royal family faction like him would do what he did.
(No, ……guess he went out of control because of that fastidiousness of his.)
Grave even abandoned the mission of confirming the identity of the pink haired girl that Belt ordered him to do and vanished. There was a report that girl was attacked by a monstrous person and went missing.
Belt was feeling discomfort with his 『granddaughter』 who was just found. He sent Grave to his mission because he wanted a material to confirm his suspicion but, he had no way to search for a child whose life and death wasn’t even known.
Sera’s grandfather Hosu was also capable, but perhaps his eyes were clouded when observing Grave because Grave was the orphan that his friend left behind. Mihail made Oz left also because he didn’t want to criticize Oz’s grandfather in front of him.
「Mihail……if it’s you then you should also can remonstrate his highness right?」
「I don’t know about that. Besides as someone who I will serve in the future, it’ll be troubling is his highness is raised in sheltered upbringing and is ignorant of the world.」
「You impudent kid. And, what do you want?」
「Yes. His highness has also known the faces of all the capable dark side’s knights. And so, I want to ask dear grandfather for permission to have a tour of the royal capital, and it will also be great if you can lend us several guards who are knowledgeable about the city and doesn’t belong to the dark side.」
「Knowledgeable about the city huh……」
They could also order capable knights to serve as guard, but the royal guard that had a lot of high ranked knights couldn’t be said as knowledgeable about the city. And with ordinary knights, although they might be knowledgeable about the city, it would be troubling if they brought the crown prince and his friends to suspicious place like bar for example.
(……Come to think of it, those fellows said that they would return to the capital shortly.)
Belt recalled that and rang the bell near his hand. He called out to his subordinate outside the door.
「Someone, send a messenger to the guild. Make a request for the adventurer party Rainbow Sword.」
「……You are faster than expected. Although low ranked, assassinating three thieves should take longer than this.」
It seemed that a month is far faster than expected. When I returned to the headquarters of the branch assassin guild of the northern frontier district, the branch head Dino showed a surprised expression at me.
Although he knew of my combat strength, I’m just a child in the end, so he must be thinking that I would either take much time or fail. But in reality I finished the job in three days after arriving, so I could return even faster if I wanted, but seeing that I was in a dungeon already I went hunting monsters for a bit there.
In that dungeon, rank 3 monster would appear individually starting from around the fifth floor. Fighting rank 1 or 2 monster at this point wouldn’t really serve as training for me in spite of the danger. That was why I purchased the map of lower floors from the guild and forcefully advanced to the fifth floor using Stealth and Search.
A dungeon is a “monster”. The inside is a place that doesn’t conform to the rule of the surface. The inside is filled with stronger magic particles than the outside. Thanks to those magic particles the monsters could keep active even if they only eat the minimum amount, but perhaps that’s why they are always hungry and monsters that have tasted human will become extremely aggressive.
I’m lacking in fighting experience. I had somehow survived fighting stronger enemies until now, but in fact the number of battle I had experienced can be counted in two hands, so I dived into dungeon alone and accumulated battle experienced there until the very limit of my stamina and rations in order to become stronger.
I stopped at fifth floor because going any lower will force me to face multiple enemies at the same time, and because rank 3 that operated solo wouldn’t come near me anymore.
I didn’t mention anything about that to Dino here, but in order to make Appraisal’s result on me to be vague, I covered my whole body with a cloak. Dino looked at my appearance with suspicion while letting out a light sigh. He then took out a small leather bag from his pocket.
「Well, it’s fine. Here is the promised payment. Also you have nice timing. An information about the aforementioned Mercenary of Dawn had just come from our contacts, so I’ll also hand it to you.」
Dino handed the payment thirty gold coins and the target’s information to me.
I had used up most of my money so this is a nice timing. I fought really recklessly, so I bought another clothes and cloak for replacement until my remaining money had decreased to several silver coins only.
I put the leather bag of golden coins in my pocket and checked the document that I had just received. I flipped the bundle of unbleached papers, skipped the individual information and looked at their current situation…….
「……The capital?」
「Some times has passed since then, so they have left this north frontier and headed to the capital. Most likely they are planning to hide in the large dungeon near the capital until the heat on them cooled down.」
「Another dungeon again……」
「They are adventurers after all. Pure assassin isn’t really good with that kind of place.」
Dino was implicitly saying that this is the reason he asked master to do this job, so I should just give up.
「If possible it will be better if you can finish them off while they are in the capital, but that will be hard to do in the capital where the security is tight. We have no contact there, so perhaps we should send one or two people to there……」
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「There is no assassin guild in the capital?」
The assassin guild is one of the branches in this country. If there are branches that means there is the main one. I vaguely thought that it must be in the capital, but it seems that I’m wrong.
When I asked that question, Dino shrugged with an exaggerated gesture.
「My beloved brother disciple. That is a troublesome matter. Although we the assassin guilds are the same organization, we are not a monolith. It’s not like we are hostile with each other, but our relationship with each other are more like “worthy rivals” with the same objective.」
「I see now……」
Each branch isn’t fighting each other but they are still competing to get works. No, perhaps it feels closer like when a large company helped a long term employee to establish a branch of the same shop with separated management, where in the end the branch got estranged from the main store.
The adventurer guild also feel like that somewhat, but with the assassin guilds they aren’t even sharing information with each other. It feels stupid to me, but this is a welcome news for me.
Now then, the talk is over. I put the documents in the inner pocket of my cloak and turned around. But Dino seemed to still have a business left and called out to me at the end.
「By the way, Guy left several weeks ago and he hasn’t contacted us even until today. Did he show up at your place?」
「There is no way I know anything about that.」
「Guess so……」
Dino said that and shrugged before leaving. I stared fixedly at his leaving back.
Am I being suspected……? Most likely the fact that the observer that was watching over master also hasn’t been contacting back also influenced it. But Dino knew about my combat strength before this. He should be thinking that I can’t possibly beat Guy. In addition many assassins are egoistic individuals who often goes off on their own. It’s possible that Guy just suddenly vanished on a whim. Dino must be unable to interrogate me too excessively and simply asked a leading question.
The people of this guild should have also Appraise me when I first arrived. That was the reason why I obediently followed Dino when he showed me around, to show that.
Normal human wouldn’t grow rapidly in just several months. Doing Appraisal also consumed mana and mental strength so usually nobody would use Appraisal on the same person again unless something drastic happened. ……That’s exactly why it can become an “opening” that I’m taking advantage of.
.
My business in this guild is already over, but I have no intention to carelessly rest in my room here.
I checked it just in case but, there must be some kind of contraption there anyway, so I looked around inside the guild here one more time before leaving.
I’m not sensing people really clearly inside the guild, but that’s because almost all of them have Stealth skill. But, if Search at the level of mine can still sense them, there shouldn’t be that many people who can sense me when I’m using Stealth seriously.
Even so when living in this kind of environment, your Stealth and Search will get trained whether you want it or not. That must be the reason why even though even though there is nobody here who looks visibly strong with high combat strength, there are people with great skill.
Amidst that, I didn’t feel the presence of Keira inside the guild. Perhaps she is outside or doing work. She is a troublesome person to encounter, but it’s troublesome because her being out of sight like this also feel ominous.
The other troublesome opponents inside the guild are the Shadow User Radha, the Berserker Sharga, and the shaman the Sage, I guess.
From her title, I think it will be hard to find Radha. Conversely Sharga isn’t even hiding his violent presence and give off a strong presence. I feel that it will be dangerous to approach his attack range without any countermeasure, but in order to confirm his appearance, I quietly stole a glance at his back figure from a distance.
That place looked like a canteen with wine cask and food scattered every which way. At the back, there is a dwayr clad in full body armor that seemed to be made from magic iron, silently gulping down wine while keeping a tight hold to a halberd made from magic steel.
His appearance made me think of a wounded beast that would bare its fang to anyone who got near. Nobody will be able to approach him like that. Nobody will ever think that someone like him is an assassin, even so Dino and the previous master kept him as member here. That goes to show just how high his combat strength in close quarter.
I left that spot before Sharga could find me. Then I stopped walking just before I stepped inside a certain spot inside the guild.
There is something……. That place is different from the other places. The color of magic particles that my eyes can “see” is strangely mixed with each other. It’s showing a chaotic coloring that sent my heart into anxiety.
(……An unpleasant feeling.)
I muttered inside my heart while my face unconsciously grimaced. Is this……a “curse”? While I’m standing still without being able to step any further, I noticed there is an old man wearing robe, staring fixedly at me from the darkness of the passage ahead.
「「…………」」
We stared at each other wordlessly with a distance of ten-odd meters between us.
Then the strange color of magic particle slowly approached toward me. When I also backed away to keep the distance, the old man who seemed to be the Sage slightly narrowed his eyes. When I continued opening the distance, the “curse” doesn’t come any closer and returned back to its original position.
I see, so the Sage’s fighting style is passive. It’s enough for now to just understand that. Without stopping I left that place and after confirming that nobody is following me, I wiped the sweat on my forehead and sighed.
「……So elf can also grow old.」
Having narrowly escaped death, I muttered something trivial as I immediately walked toward the deepest part of the former coal mine that is the branch assassin guild of the north frontier district now.
As I got deeper, I can hear the low growling voice that sounded like a beast, mixed with the wind that blew from somewhere.
I knew even before approaching there. My legs don’t want to go there and became heavier. Surely nobody will draw near here. Because they can feel that “death” is waiting if they get closer.
Someone who can’t even notice that won’t have the qualification to be here. I pushed down my heart that is about to get scared to the deepest part inside me and walked forward step by step. Then I found a 『beast』 in chain at the end, locked behind thick bars that are as thick as a woman’s arm each.
「The Condemned……Goudo.」
Goudo raised a low growl at my murmur and lifted his face.
.
▼ Goudo Race : ???
【Magic Power : 167/186】【Stamina : 531/546】
【Overall Combat Strength : 1381】
.
He is nearly three meter tall and long distorted arms that are nearly two meters long.
His whole body is wrapped in bandage that is stained with filth. There is fiendish light dwelling in his yellow cloudy eyes. He suddenly tried to assault me.
『GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!』
*Gagan-!*
The chains that are fastened to the rock surface are stretched until the limit. Goudo collided on the thick iron bars so hard they almost bent as his claws cut through the air a few centimeter in front of my nose.
The chaotic mana that I saw at the Sage’s area is clinging on Goudo’s whole body. Most likely the Sage is binding Goudo’s freedom with his curse. This man isn’t just a mere “animal”. He might be insane but, I caught a glimpse of the “Skill” that is burned in his soul from his movement.
Most likely he is reduced to this from drug and sorcery and curse……. When I tried to touch the fingertip of his arm that he stretched as though looking for something, he got shocked instead and pulled back his arm.
Nobody will approach near you.
Nobody will look straight at your appearance.
Nobody will ever think of touching you.
I stared straight into Goudo’s cloudy eyes while speaking to him with a small voice.
.
「Wait there. I’ll prepare a worthy “stage” for you.」
▼ Aria (Alicia) Race : Human ♀ – Rank 2
【Magic Power : 162/180】△ 10 UP【Stamina : 132/145】△ 15 UP
【Strength : 6 (7)】【Endurance : 7 (8)】【Agility : 10 (12)】【Dexterity : 8】△ 1 UP
《Short Sword Skill Level 2》《Martial Art Level 2》《Throwing Level 2》《String Control Level 2》
《Light Magic Level 2》《Darkness Magic Level 2》《Non-Elemental Magic Level 2》
《Daily Life Magic×６》《Magic Power Control Level 2》《Pressure Level 2》
《Stealth Level 3》△ 1 UP《Night Vision Level 2》《Search Level 3》△ 1 UP《Poison Resistance Level 2》△ 1 UP
《Simple Appraisal》
【Overall Combat Strength : 213 (With Body Strengthening : 236)】△ 42 UP
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