Chapter 134
Chapter 134
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 133
Chapter Title: Assassin
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“What the hell are these guys?”
On the road heading east.
Pinden A, having neatly beaten down the assassins who came for her, stretched her shoulders and muttered indifferently.
“If you’re here to assassinate someone, shouldn’t you at least show me something? You guys have no pride.”
The sight of a maid in her maid outfit scolding the assassins was incredibly out of place.
But the assassins were so useless that they figured they deserved this treatment.
I knew she was irritated because she hadn’t even gotten a chance to use her newly acquired Blood Clan hand, but I pushed her back and stepped in front of them.
When they suddenly ambushed the carriage, I wondered what was going on. I thought maybe it was church fanatics who still hated me, but looking at them, that wasn’t the case.
“Who sent you?”
At my question, the assassins clamped their mouths shut and lowered their heads.
They had some sense of loyalty, unlike their skills.
“You’re not going to talk?”
“J-just kill us!”
“You filthy black mage!”
“We came here already prepared to die!”
“Don’t humiliate us!”
Their bold shouts were somewhat impressive. If only they had the skills to match, they would’ve been proper assassins.
“Fine, I’ll kill you.”
I formed a sphere of flame in my palm. The four elemental magics didn’t suit me well, so this was about my limit, but I had at least mastered the basics.
“But don’t think death is the end.”
The assassins flinched at my words.
They seemed to be from the Griffin Kingdom, but they hadn’t realized how foolish it was to talk about death in front of a black mage.
“I’m a necromancer. After I kill you, I’ll capture your souls and grant you eternal torment until the day I die.”
Power surged through my body.
I unleashed the kind of intimidating presence that even Pinden A had acknowledged while preparing for my last lecture.
“You can’t escape me even in death. I’ll chop off your limbs, tie a rope around your necks, and drag you around.”
“…….”
The assassins looked up at me with mouths agape. Fear began to settle in their eyes.
“Does it seem impossible? You’ll be dead, so you won’t be able to die. Because you’re already dead, you’ll learn there’s no end.”
“…….”
“Even death won’t save you.”
As I raised my hand to shoot the flames, the assassins finally bowed their heads desperately and started shouting.
“L-Lord Romerjan! We’re subordinates of Viscount Romerjan! He’s moving with the Marias Tribe, and he ordered us to assassinate you!”
“Why?”
“W-we heard the Marias Tribe fears the Necromancer! He said to take you out before you reach the battlefield!”
“Heroin and Boman are there too, right?”
Romerjan, Heroin, and Boman.
I’d heard they were notable nobles who fled to the Marias Great Forest.
The assassin nodded frantically before I even finished speaking.
“Yes! They’re all there!”
Neat and clean.
“Pinden A, tie them all up and hand them over to the guards in the nearest city. The royals will come to arrest them.”
“Perfect timing. I need to buy some food anyway, so we can stop by.”
At that, I turned my head slightly.
“We don’t lack food, do we?”
“I’m in my growth spurt.”
I turned to Owen, and he shook his head. When I looked back at Pinden A, she just shrugged.
“You’re 27. Shouldn’t you be past your growth spurt?”
So she was saying she’d been scarfing down food like crazy by herself. Can’t smoke, so she’s relieving stress with weird stuff.
She grabbed her axe, saying she’d make them pay for it, and without hesitation bashed the sides of the assassins’ heads with the flat, knocking them out.
A crude method, but effective.
Owen started tying up the unconscious assassins with the rope they’d brought.
[You sure talk a big game.]
The Black Necromancer was watching fondly from the side. Naturally, I had no intention of actually doing to their souls what I’d said.
It wasn’t my style.
She knew that, so she smirked and crossed her arms.
[Anyone would think you’re some evil black mage.]
“Never mind that. There’s something that bothers me.”
[What?]
The Black Necromancer hadn’t noticed, but it was a pretty important issue. Especially now that we knew the assassins were incompetent.
“They pinpointed my exact location.”
[…….]
I glanced around. It could be called a plain, but there were plenty of rocks—perfect for assassins to hide.
There were multiple paths east, and they wouldn’t have had the luxury to station assassins at every one.
That meant they knew exactly where I was.
[Ask the assassins.]
“They wouldn’t know. If they did, they would’ve spilled it already.”
They were probably just ordered by the nobles to wait here.
“The nobles sent them, but fugitives like them wouldn’t have the means to track my location.”
[I agree.]
“That means the Marias Tribe has something.”
I glanced at the Black Necromancer, and she pouted while shrugging.
[I don’t know everything. Especially since I’ve hated forests since way back. You think I’d go to a place like the Marias Great Forest?]
“Yeah, I suppose not.”
She looked like the type who’d hate dense jungles at first sight.
But I couldn’t let it slide easily.
The fact that neither she nor I sensed anything meant it wasn’t mana-based magic.
And if even sharp-minded Pinden A felt nothing, then no one was tailing or watching us.
‘Something that doesn’t use mana.’
In the game, the tribesmen didn’t appear separately, so it was hard to grasp their powers precisely.
‘The important thing is.’
I worried they might not just track my location but approach in other ways too.
* * *
The first-years’ first field training was in a small forest. There were magic beasts, but only low-grade ones, and not many.
It was basically just camping.
Aria was grilling meat.
“…….”
A wild boar neatly taken down by Happy, the archer.
It was too much for their six-person team, so they’d bartered with other students for mushrooms, corn, potatoes, fruits, and other foods.
In the end, Aria’s group had the richest tent around.
Happy and Florensia were subtly acting smug and enjoying it, while Leorus and Jin were being hounded by other girls asking for help.
Aria, turning the skewered meat this way and that, glanced at the one other team member beside her.
A girl with blonde hair wearing a white beret, sitting with her legs together and a canvas on her lap.
The poster child for ‘I’ve never done this before’—Princess Elenoa.
“Why don’t you do something?”
When Aria snapped irritably, Elenoa kept moving her brush without much emotion and replied.
“I’d have to have something to do.”
“There’s plenty. Come help me grill the rest.”
When Aria nudged Elenoa with her foot, she furrowed her brow and sighed.
Finally setting aside the painting she’d been working on, she picked up the skewer of potatoes and mushrooms and stood next to Aria.
Princess Elenoa had felt burdened being grouped with other students, so Deus had forced her into Aria’s group, where she could be more at ease.
Aria peeked at what Elenoa had been painting, and this time it was herself in a magical girl outfit, cooking.
“Hey.”
“I drew you pretty. And I’m going to trade it.”
What was this now?
“If I give this to Group 7’s boys, they’ll take night watch for us. We just sleep.”
“And my opinion doesn’t matter?”
Elenoa shrugged arrogantly. If she weren’t a princess, Aria would’ve smacked her right then.
Aria sighed, pondered a bit, then made a proposal.
“Draw one of Professor Deus. Then I’ll let it slide.”
“You think I’m a street artist?”
“No, then forget it. You’ve probably drawn Professor Deus nonstop anyway.”
“…….”
It wasn’t wrong.
If she ranked who she drew most, first was Kim Shin-woo, second was Deus.
Basically the same person.
Drawing itself wasn’t hard, but Elenoa didn’t want to give away a picture of Deus to anyone.
She casually brought up something she’d overheard from Happy earlier.
“You don’t like Professor Deus, right?”
“……Happy.”
Aria immediately identified the culprit and vowed to punish Happy at night, but answered flatly.
“I said ‘not yet,’ didn’t I?”
“What’s ‘not yet’ supposed to mean?”
Elenoa scoffed in disbelief, turning the potato-and-mushroom skewer in her palm as she spoke.
“I thought the girl who kept calling him ‘Professor’ nonstop had finally come to her senses. If you’re giving up, do it cleanly.”
“Says the princess who draws him all creepy behind his back.”
The two glared at each other for a moment. They bickered like this but never actually split.
To Elenoa, Aria was the only girl who treated her without reservation.
To Aria, Elenoa was the only friend she hadn’t been close to in the first round.
They both needed each other, but neither wanted to admit it and give the other the upper hand.
“Fine, whatever. I’ll draw one.”
“……Can you do specific outfits or poses too?”
“Let’s hear it.”
“No. Do you have any samples to show?”
“Samples?”
When Aria nodded with eyes full of expectation, Elenoa looked puzzled.
“Yeah! If I see what you’ve drawn before and like something, you can draw something similar.”
“N-no! Are you crazy!”
Elenoa’s face turned beet red as she panicked. Aria wondered why, but then it clicked, and her own face flushed.
“Hey, wait…… you don’t mean.”
“No! It’s not! Absolutely not! I have no idea what you’re thinking! Anyway, it’s definitely not!”
“…….”
But Aria was half-convinced. That Elenoa had drawn pictures of Deus Verdi she couldn’t show anyone.
It was a shame she’d brought a canvas with an easel instead of her usual notebook.
If it had been the notebook, Aria would’ve snatched it open and exposed every dirty thing this girl had done.
“We’re students.”
Elenoa squeezed out the words defiantly. But to Aria, it was nonsense.
As Aria hesitated, about to ask just in case.
Rustle rustle.
A man emerged from the nearby bushes.
He had a plain look with glasses and didn’t seem like a student or professor.
Scratching his head as he approached, he asked.
“Excuse me, I’m looking for Professor Erica. Do you know where she is?”
“Who are you?”
When Aria shot back curtly, the man smiled awkwardly.
“Haha, an acquaintance. I live nearby, and I heard she was here for training, so I came to see her.”
“……Over there.”
Aria pointed to Erica’s tent and went back to grilling.
He thanked her with a smile and left. Elenoa, who’d overheard, glanced at the back of his head and asked.
“That guy’s hiding a dagger in his thigh holster.”
Aria replied indifferently.
“I know, but I don’t. I’m just a normal student.”
What the hell was she saying?
Elenoa looked baffled but used her quick wits to speculate, landing on the most likely.
“I couldn’t recognize him even as a princess, and he gave a lame excuse, so he’s not a pro assassin. But Professor Erica isn’t such a big deal that she’d have an assassin after her.”
“…….”
“But she’s from the Bright family, though I heard they’re half-estranged. That leaves her being the Necromancer’s fiancée.”
Aria was honestly surprised listening to Elenoa’s deductions spill out like thread. Even now, she was capable.
“Professor Deus’s fiancée is in danger of assassination?”
At that, Aria replied like, what do you want me to do?
“I told you, I’m a normal student? I don’t know if that guy’s an assassin. Even if I did, I’d pretend not to.”
“You should see a doctor.”
Elenoa couldn’t comprehend Aria at all and pouted while focusing harder on grilling the potatoes and mushrooms.
Seeing that, Aria irritably asked.
“Then why didn’t you go help?”
“Huh? If she’s Professor’s fiancée, she should handle that much herself.”
“…….”
“If she can’t, dump the fiancée.”
It was an utterly ridiculous answer.
“You’re so wise. The kingdom’s future is bright.”
“I’m a princess. It’s the early education.”
Aria found herself deeply agreeing, so the two dove back into grilling.
“Hey, but…… how explicit can the drawings get?”
“You tell me how far you want it first.”
“Then you tell me too.”
After that.
Eek!
Eeeek!
Oh my! Oh my! Oh my!
You’re amazing too!
Exclamations like that burst nonstop from their mouths.