Playing in the Night

"Orknodi. I shall grant you the honor of having your soul-extracting technique passed down to me♡"

I was darting through the grass with an insect net in hand, hard at work completing an insect-collecting achievement, when an unwelcome guest dropped by.

Chirp, chirp.

While the awkward chirping of crickets echoed through the quiet night air, I naturally had no idea what she was talking about.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Playing dumb won't do you any good♡ My subordinates already watched it at the testing grounds and reported everything to me♡"

The testing grounds? She had to be talking about earlier today when I went to watch Mob and Zaku take their exam. But had I really used a technique to pull out souls?

Not at all.

All I did was extract dark mana.

Ah.

So that was what she wanted!

I suppose to someone who didn't know any better, it really could look that way.

"Why should I teach you?"

"I'll pay you in Points♡"

With an air of supreme confidence, the Mesugaki Imperial Princess jotted down 5,000 Points in her notebook and flaunted it before me. It was certainly a bold opening bid, befitting the Imperial Princess of the Central Holy Empire, the dominant superpower of the continent.

Then again, I hadn't brought it up because I was looking to make Points in the first place.

"No way!"

"...Five thousand Points is enough to buy a permit to carry an artifact, you know?"

"I've got plenty of Points too."

I wasn't joking. Between the daily grinding and stockpiling for upcoming seasonal events, my Points had long since surged past three hundred thousand. To standard students, 5,000 Points was a massive sum ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠they would sell their souls for, but for me, Points were something that rolled in steadily even while having idle chats like this.

"Oh, gotcha!"

Chirp, chirp.

I scooped the cricket caught in my net and popped it neatly into my specimen collection box. With that, my insect collection hit a clean twenty species.

Many a little makes a mickle. While everyone else was drowning in academic coursework, I skipped studying material I already ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠knew inside and out, spending my time filling out encyclopedias, grinding titles, upgrading my stats, and raking in Points. This was the true secret of how a veteran min-maxer could play the exact same number of hours as a newbie, flip the stat disparity entirely on its head, and pull leagues ahead.

"Pffft. Running around playing toddler games like that is why people call you Babynodi♡ You're such a child♡"

"Whaaat? And what kind of grand, noble things do you spend your time doing, huh?!"

"If I want insects, I can simply order my followers to bring them and grant appropriate praise for their devotion♡ Running around on my own two feet is far too rustic and unrefined, don't you think~?"

Even toward another little girl, the Mesugaki Princess maintained her trademark cloying, infuriating tone. She had an adorably bratty face that made her hard to truly despise, no matter how obnoxious she acted. To someone who had originally been a grown man before being reincarnated, she seemed even more like a harmless kid throwing tantrums.

"Hmph. You think I couldn't do that if I wanted to? I just feel bad bossing people around, so I don't!"

"Says the girl who makes Isabelle cook for her every single day~?"

"Gasp! H-How do you know that?!"

"And you bum treats off Arcadia at her tea parties, don't you~?"

"Ugh. T-That was because Arcadia invited me first!"

"And what about gobbling up all those wild greens Dorothy forages for you~?"

"Ack! Why do you know all of that?!"

She knew everything like an actual stalker!

"It's no different from what you usually do. The only change this time is that you'll be taking Points instead of food♡"

Seeing how thoroughly she had kept tabs on me, she wasn't the type to give up easily.

"Fine. I'll teach you. But instead of Points, you have to put up something else."

"What do you want~?"

"A bet!"

"A bet...?"

"If you beat me in a contest, I'll teach you the technique I used to subdue Zaku during the Mana Verification Test. But if you lose, you have to do what I say!"

The Mesugaki Princess pouted her lips.

"No way♡"

I hadn't expected an outright refusal, which caught me completely off guard.

"Why not?"

"You're the top student of our year. You're way too strong♡"

"We're not doing a contest of strength!"

"Then magic~?"

"Not a magic duel either!"

"Hmph~. Tell me the event first, then I'll decide♡"

"An insect-catching contest!"

"Insect catching...? Eww. How vulgar~. Why on earth would we bet on something like that~?"

"Because I'm collecting bugs right now."

"Are you trying to become an insect master or something~?"

"Whatever! If I win, every single bug you catch is mine. If you don't like it, the deal's off!"

I might as well rope the Princess into my title grind and use her to snag the Bug Collector title faster. Figuring she had nothing to lose even if she failed, she readily agreed to the terms.

"Fine♡"

And just like that, the match began.

Orknodi hadn't returned to the dormitory.

It wasn't the first time. She had a habit of roaming every corner of the campus while spouting gibberish about secret training grounds or hidden pieces. Even so, Hestia couldn't shake a gnawing sense of unease. Wild rumors regarding what Orknodi had done at the Lower-Class testing grounds earlier today were spreading like wildfire throughout the dorms.

"They say Orknodi bound the soul of a Lower-Class student and forced him to swear an oath of absolute obedience!"

"Has the Dark Princess finally made her first official move?!"

"She might be harvesting the souls of her classmates to promote to a Demon Lord class! It's terrifying...!"

Orknodi was finally awakening to evil!

Hestia, naturally, didn't believe a word of it.

"Zhuang. I need to find Orknodi. Please, help me just this once."

"Her? Personally, I think it's better to just leave her alone."

"If you're going to tell me that she'll be fine despite all the awful things people are saying, don't bother. During my mercenary days, I endured endless persecution just for being a berserker, and not once was I ever truly fine."

Hestia knew that pain all too well—the bitter injustice of being wrongfully insulted and condemned. Even for someone like Hestia, who was thoroughly accustomed to slander and false accusations, the rumors swirling around Orknodi were crossing a dangerous line.

"For an assassin, this sort of thing is everyday routine. If our identities get exposed, our heads get chopped off on the spot. If her life isn't in immediate danger, she should consider herself lucky."

Her short black hair swaying lightly, Zhuang used a dagger to carve away at a small wooden sculpture, tilting it toward the moonlight now and then to inspect her handiwork. Not a sliver of tension showed on her face—proof of just how perilous the daily reality of the assassin class truly was.

"Still, Orknodi is our friend."

A friend.

At the mention of a word she had assumed would never belong in her life, Zhuang's hands froze. Her focus, which had been poured entirely into her coursework for Let's Become a Moonlight Sculptor to hone her manual dexterity, shattered in an instant.

An assassin was supposed to maintain total clarity of mind even in the middle of a bustling marketplace. To let that concentration fracture over a single word like 'friend' meant she was still a long way from mastering her mental discipline.

This is troublesome.

Her master had always said: kill everything that makes you hesitate. If you don't, it will kill you.

Yet Zhuang couldn't bring herself to do that. She didn't dislike Orknodi, and even if she did, she harbored no confidence that her current skills could ever manage to kill that girl under any circumstances.

To reclaim her focus, she had to eliminate the root of her distraction. And if she couldn't eliminate Orknodi, the only way to banish the nuisance known as worry was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to prove to Hestia that no harm had befallen her.

"Fine. I'll help."

"Thank you. I knew I could count on you."

"It's just a whim. I simply got curious about what ridiculous corner she's wasting her time in this time."

"Hehe. Even saying that shows what a good kid you are. There really are so many good people around Orknodi."

"...Who are you calling good?"

Zhuang felt uncomfortable under Hestia's praise. She knew better than anyone that she was not a good person. She had taken human lives before. She had never once weighed right against wrong; she simply did what needed to be done.

If someone like her could be considered a good child, then Hestia's standards for goodness were fundamentally broken.

What a pain. Orknodi, did you feel like this too?

The worst child of all, being called good. Before the awkwardness could set in, an irritating impulse surged from deep within her chest. A foolish yearning to become a truly good child. A desire to turn into a gentle, harmless creature, just like the soft prey standing right beside her.

That softening of her heart, gnawing at her from the inside out, pricked at her like a thorn.

"Should we check the Room of Double-Sided Paper Strips first to see where she might have gone?"

"Not that way."

Hestia blinked in surprise. "You know where she went?"

"I tagged her with Thousand-Li Trailing Incense. Whenever people actually need that girl, she's always scurrying through ten thousand different places, making her impossible to track otherwise."

"Incredible. You ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠even use fancy Eastern tools like that?"

"My master is from the East."

Zhuang took the lead, guiding them toward the forested area where giant mosquitoes had once swarmed in droves.

"...Is Orknodi really in a place like this?"

"Don't wet yourself. All the mosquitoes migrated toward the academy grounds last time and got wiped out completely."

Besides, the value of the Blood Stones produced by those mosquitoes had mysteriously skyrocketed among the upperclassmen recently, making it almost impossible to spot a single stray bug. Zhuang didn't bother mentioning that part to Hestia. There was no real need to, and a far more concerning sound had just caught her ear.

Clang, clink...

Clatter, bang!

The distant metallic ring of colliding steel echoed through the trees. Orknodi wasn't alone. She was with someone capable of engaging her in combat.

"Picking up the pace."

Zhuang slipped through the woods without a whisper of sound, gliding between the trunks like a ghost. Hestia sprinted after her by sheer brute force, barreling straight through the underbrush.

Protruding branches scraped against her skin. Dense thorns caught at her clothes. Shadows twisted beneath the swaying canopy in the night wind. It was the kind of desolate forest where finding a fresh corpse wouldn't surprise anyone in the slightest.

Beyond the clearing, Zhuang was already standing still. Seeing the assassin completely unruffled while she herself was covered in scratches and leaves stung Hestia's pride for a brief second, but the sheer absurdity of the scene before them swept away every shred of petty irritation.

"Isn't that... the Imperial Princess?"

"Looks like it."

"What on earth are they doing?"

The 2nd Imperial Princess was whipping out pairs of tweezers and flinging them like throwing knives straight into a hollow tree trunk. Meanwhile, Orknodi planted a broad shield like a boulder to deflect the barrage, hurling heavy stones back at the Princess as she sprinted toward another tree.

It was a late-night brawl far too violent to be called child's play, and surprisingly, the Princess held the absolute upper hand.

"Stoooop! Don't throw those, you mean princess!"

"Pffft~ Silly Orknodi♡ You said it was an insect-catching bet, but you never made a rule saying we couldn't kill the insects we find~? If I can't catch any, I just have to slaughter every single one you find♡"

"Haaah... So... they've been running around having an insect-catching contest until the middle of the night..."

Zhuang let out an exhausted sigh, and Hestia felt every ounce of strength drain from her body.

If the hot-tempered Princess had grown impatient waiting for an imperial execution order and personally ambushed Orknodi to kill her, they would have stepped in immediately. But despite the lethal intensity of the projectiles flying back and forth, it was nothing more than an overgrown game of tag between toddlers. Neither of them had the slightest desire to intervene.