The Phantom Thief's Reluctant Tail
The phantom thief and assassin *** Asili Martina. A legendary phantom thief of the continent and a living myth in the assassination world. Those titles sounded impressive, but the truth was far simpler: she was just a reformed disciple who had escaped her criminal past thanks to me.
In the first place, there were only two kinds of assassins on this continent—those still operating in the underworld, and those who had come from it. The only real difference was whether they were still active down there or not. Every assassin was born from that darkness. Of course, the highborn liked to dress up their own killers with fancy names like Shadow Corps or Covert Operations Unit, but since they insisted those people weren't assassins, they didn't count.
Anyway, while it was true that Asili was both a legendary phantom thief and a myth among assassins, to me she was still a girl who hadn't fully washed away her past sins and was living as a thief to atone for them. She was also the only disciple I treated roughly. Her first impression had been an absolute disaster, and even now, outside of her actual thief work, she did nothing but laze around. How was I supposed to dote on someone like that?
Unlike my other disciples, who had taken up important roles one by one, the moment I heard Asili was slacking off again, a sigh would automatically escape me. That was why, after several rings, when the communication finally connected, I spoke to her without wasting time.
"Oh, Master? What brings you to call me? Feels like it's been almost half a year..."
"Asili, you're in the kingdom right now, aren't you? I heard from Zenle last time that you'd come in."
"Ah, that blabbermouth. Yeah, well... I did come for a vacation, but why do you ask?"
"If you've got nothing to do, I need you to tail our runaway daughter. Report her location to me regularly, and if anything goes wrong, step in and help her."
"Huh? What do you..."
The sudden order with no preamble drew a questioning sound from the other side of the orb. It wasn't confusion about the request itself, but rather a clear tone of why are you asking me of all people?
"Come on, Master. No matter what, I'm the Asili. Assigning me something as rookie as tailing is..."
"If you'd rather spend the rest of your life rotting in the kingdom's underground prison, I don't really care."
"Ah, aha ha...! M-Master, you really know how to say scary things..."
The sound of her swallowing hard came through the orb loud and clear. Of course I had no real intention of throwing her in prison, but if she refused this job, I was fully prepared to let her stew there for a day. That was the choice I presented to the disciple who had just shown reluctance.
"So, will you tail my daughter, or will you visit the prison?"
It was less a choice and more a threat wrapped in the illusion of one. Still, what could she do? Faced with those options, the only thing Asili could do was swallow her tears and pick the forced choice.
"...I'll... I'll do the tailing."
Her voice shook as she accepted the surveillance mission I'd forced on her. I gave her details about Elia's appearance, age, and personality, then ended the call.
After handing the job over to Asili, a sense of relief washed over me, as if a weight had been lifted.
"With Asili on it, there shouldn't be any problems."
The self-proclaimed legendary phantom thief and myth of the assassination world—who always said she didn't do tailing—had taken the job. There shouldn't be any major issues. Still, just to be safe...
Click—
"I should get ready too."
Just in case, I strapped the sword I'd grown intimately familiar with during my mercenary days to my waist and opened my eyes. I prayed that no trouble would find Elia while she was away from home.
"Wow... I really..."
In a massage parlor in the kingdom, the black-haired woman named Asili—who had dismissed the masseuse working on her to take the call—removed the blindfold covering her eyes and spoke.
"Master really does use people however he pleases... With a name like mine, he's got me doing something as basic as tailing..."
As far as Asili knew, Kael's daughter was fifteen this year. Weren't one or two runaway episodes during puberty completely normal at that age? She couldn't understand how much he doted on the girl to drag even her into it. It stung her pride a little.
Using the Asili—the legendary phantom thief and myth of the assassination world—for something as trivial as tailing his daughter? And without paying her!
Honestly, the lack of payment was what bothered her most. To brag a little without false modesty, the famous "legendary phantom thief" and "surface-world assassin" did take the occasional paid request. The minimum fee for hiring Asili was five hundred gold. It wasn't an outrageous sum for work in the open world, but it was still money an ordinary citizen would need years of backbreaking labor to earn.
Yet here she was, being used for free on such a trivial task. Asili's lips pursed into a pout.
But she had already agreed. There was nothing to do but follow through.
"Well... I can just think of it as a chance to repay my debt."
Kael was the one who had saved her when she had been walking a ruined path. If this was his request, no matter how annoying, she had no choice but to do it. Besides, the way he'd jokingly mentioned prison made it clear he was genuinely worried about his daughter. Asili rose from the massage table.
"Huuup...!"
Crack. Pop—!
As she stretched, her joints—still tight from the unfinished massage—screamed in protest. The raw relief drew a languid moan from her lips.
"Haa... That feels good."
"Ma'am, we still have more of the course left..."
"It's fine. I'll come back for the rest later. Let's stop here for today."
Something more urgent had come up. Asili answered the masseuse, slipped back into the clothes she'd set aside, and fastened them. A pitch-black undergarment and cloak that elegantly covered her body, matching her long black hair that fell to her waist. A pair of daggers went on her belt. She handed the masseuse her payment and walked toward the room's window.
"Here's the fee for today's massage... I'll be going now."
"Wait, ma'am, that's not the door, that's the win—"
Before the masseuse could finish, Asili's body dropped through the window. She twisted mid-air, planted her feet against the building's outer wall, and launched herself upward.
Tap, tap, thrust—!
After kicking off the wall several times, she reached the roof in moments. Standing atop it and looking down at the ground, Asili let out a long sigh at the vast landscape of the kingdom spread before her.
"Haa... So I have to find her somewhere in all this?"
According to the description Kael had given her, the girl had white hair, red eyes, an expressionless face, a sword at her waist, and wore plain white clothes. Finding and tailing a single person in a disgustingly huge kingdom packed with people was a task that would require serious time and effort, even for someone like Asili.
A mage could have shortened the search dramatically with detection magic, but Asili had never learned any. That left using her own two feet. At least the girl's striking white hair and red eyes would make the search a little faster. That was her only consolation.
"Blindly searching the entire kingdom would be stupid... Let's use our head a little."
Since time had to be spent either way, Asili decided to spend it efficiently. Her plan was simple: ask the patrol guards walking the streets about Elia's whereabouts. Since the guards stayed in constant contact through communication orbs, borrowing Kael's name might get her the information surprisingly easily.
"Let's see... The guards... Ah, there they are."
After spotting two patrol soldiers on the street below, Asili immediately kicked off the roof.
Thud!
"Hey there, guard gentlemen!"
"Whoa?!"
"W-Who are you!"
The two soldiers jumped in fright at the woman who had suddenly dropped from the sky and leveled their spears at her. But Asili pushed the weapons aside with her usual sly grin and smoothly began a conversation.
"Here's the thing..."
Starting with 'I'm the phantom thief Asili' and adding 'on Kael's orders,' she asked about Elia in one fluid motion. She had more than enough proof that she was the real Asili and that this was indeed Kael's command, so she quickly earned the soldiers' trust.
Once she had it, the answer about Elia's whereabouts came rolling in easier than expected.
...
......
.........
"Where did you say she went?"
"She went out the north gate a little while ago. We let her through, but if she's heading that way... it's probably the Delusion Forest."
The man had relayed her request to the other patrol soldiers and the gate guards stationed at every entrance to the kingdom. Asili tilted her head at the north gate guard's eyewitness account.
The Delusion Forest?
It was a monster habitat right next to the kingdom. Naturally, since it bordered the kingdom, there weren't many truly dangerous monsters. Only the occasional territorial boss monsters posed any real threat. It was a place where all sorts of things gathered, managed well enough by regular soldiers without needing the Shardena Knights to intervene.
Why would a fifteen-year-old girl who had just run away head straight there? Asili's head tilted at the incomprehensible destination, but she quickly cut off that line of thought.
Well, that's not really my problem.
The description the north gate guard had given matched Elia perfectly. Asili's only job was to tail the girl and protect her if needed. She had no time to waste pondering unnecessary questions. Asili thanked the patrol soldiers who had answered her so diligently and began to run.
"Thanks for the help, gentlemen! I'll make sure to tell Master how cooperative you were!"
"Please put in a good word with Sir Kael for us!"
"We hope you find her quickly!"
The two soldiers waved as they saw the accelerating Asili off. Burning their figures into her mind one last time, she shot forward like an arrow, racing toward the kingdom's north gate—toward the Delusion Forest where Elia had headed.