Chapter 15
Chapter 15
What I Wish For
The daughter of Count Kite.
We had seen her before.
She was that tamer girl who had received a bear as a gift from Baron Oton.
We were the ones who delivered it.
…And she had burst into tears the moment she saw it.
I asked Mytes if the Count had any other daughters, but apparently that girl was his only child.
Well then…
Following Mytes’ lead, we arrived at the Count’s castle, where soldiers stood in formation with grim expressions.
One of them rushed toward us and shouted,
“Are you Luka? Please come this way!”
A stranger knowing my name.
That was new.
Felt a little strange.
The soldier led us toward the barracks.
The shouting that could be heard even from outside made it clear how serious things were.
When we entered, we saw the Count’s retainers in the middle of a meeting, while the Count himself sat in a corner with his head lowered slightly.
His eyes were bloodshot, and his trembling hands gave off an ominous air.
It was hard not to feel a little sorry for him.
But more noticeable than that was the one giving the briefing in the center.
A man… no, a male?
That should be right.
Anyway, it was the bear.
The very bear we had delivered.
It was speaking fluently, explaining the situation to the retainers.
The Count’s subordinates listened seriously, scribbling notes as they hung onto every word of the bear.
Beside me, Yuna asked quietly,
“That’s the girl we saw before, right? The one who got kidnapped…?”
“…Probably.”
Yuna frowned.
At that moment, the bear spotted us and shouted,
“Sir Luka! We need your strength!”
“What exactly happened?”
The bear explained the situation to us.
…
“So, in short, she was kidnapped near the city?”
“That is correct.”
According to the bear, the Count’s daughter had been riding on its back as usual, taking a stroll through the nearby forest.
Looks like they had gotten pretty close.
Anyway, despite being so close to the city, she was ambushed and taken away.
Such boldness…
These weren’t ordinary bandits.
The bear spoke bitterly.
“I ran to report the news. Forgive me…!”
A retainer beside it tried to comfort him.
“It’s fine. You did your best.”
Judging by the wounds scattered across the bear’s body, it looked like it had been hit by several arrows.
“Did you reveal that you can talk?”
The bear nodded.
“This was hardly the time to keep trivial secrets.”
Fair enough.
The Count’s daughter had been kidnapped.
Whether the bear could talk or breathe fire was hardly important right now.
Then the Count spoke, his voice horrifyingly cracked.
“Has the assassin arrived…?”
At that, Tanya stepped forward.
The soldiers hesitated, wondering if they should stop an assassin from approaching the Count, but none of them moved.
The Count slowly raised his head and looked at Tanya.
His eyes were so savage, you’d think his class was Berserker.
“Kill those bastards.”
“Is your daughter safe?”
The Count didn’t answer Tanya’s question.
He only slowly turned his gaze toward the bear.
The bear spoke in his place.
“I am bound by her skill. That bond has not been severed, so she should still be alive…”
“But?”
“She seems weak. It appears they’ve limited her food to keep her from escaping.”
At that, a grotesque sound escaped the Count’s mouth.
“Ghhhk…”
Tanya spoke to him in a low voice, almost comforting.
“As an assassin, I can accept your revenge request. But first, let’s focus on saving your daughter.”
Speaking as if soothing him, Tanya requested several documents from the retainers.
She examined them and nodded.
“An abandoned military fortress… Makes sense why it was abandoned.”
One of the retainers who had handed her the documents asked,
“What do you mean?”
“It’s easy to infiltrate. Hard to escape, though. But if an assassin is prepared to die, killing a target inside wouldn’t be difficult.”
I glanced at the documents.
Looking at the fortress layout…
Easy?
To me, it looked like the perfect fortress.
Tanya nodded and continued.
“The girl is definitely underground.”
“Why?”
Tanya answered my question.
“Because it makes suicide harder. Falling is easier than you think. It only takes one impulse. Even a child could do it.”
At that moment, Yuna trembled and collapsed to the floor.
“Are you okay?”
“Ah… y-yeah. Just a moment.”
Still sitting on the floor, Yuna took several deep breaths.
Looks like she imagined it.
Honestly, I was shaken too.
I had only seen her briefly, but the image of that little girl clutching her teddy bear kept flashing in my mind.
Tanya spoke to the Count reassuringly.
“She’s probably alive. Even those bastards should know that killing a noble’s daughter would bring a full-scale extermination.”
The Count shook his head.
“They’ve already killed nobility before… Yes, the daughter of Duke Pietz died at their hands.”
“What?!”
The one who reacted was Melaim.
It really was shocking.
A bunch of bandits killing a duke’s daughter and still surviving afterward?
That wasn’t normal.
Tanya looked at the Count.
“She’s alive for now, right? Then there’s no time to waste. Are you hiring us?”
She asked him directly.
The Count stepped down from his chair and dropped to his knees.
Grabbing Tanya’s hands in both of his, he looked up at her with bloodshot eyes and trembling lips.
“Save my daughter…”
Tanya lowered her face toward the kneeling Count, smiling.
Then she whispered like a devil.
“Is that all you wish for?”
The Count clenched his teeth.
Strength filled his bloodshot eyes.
“Give those sons of bitches a horrible death! I’ll give you anything you want!”
At those words, Tanya smiled.
Beautiful.
Cruel.
The Count no longer looked like a noble hiring adventurers.
He looked like a believer praying to something.
But the one who answered him wasn’t Tanya.
It was Melaim, her face twisted in anger.
“Count, your wish shall be granted.”
…
The bandits’ fortress.
A woman with gray hair, covered in wounds, was being chased by dozens of skeletons.
“What the hell is this?!”
When she reached the fortress gates, she shouted at the top of her lungs.
Someone poked his head out from the second floor.
The gray-haired woman shouted at him.
“Hey, damn it! Open the gate! Hurry!”
“Wait, Sara! What are you doing bringing those things here?!”
“Malon, you bastard! What, you want me to go die alone somewhere?! Quit talking and open the damn gate!”
“Shit, this is insane!”
Sara, the gray-haired woman, was on good terms with most of the gang.
To be precise, most of the men in the bandit group liked her.
Rough around the edges, but pretty.
That included Malon, the man guarding the gate.
Of course, Sara knew that.
But she never openly acknowledged it.
The undead chasing her were still some distance away.
Which meant, from Malon’s point of view, he could save the girl he secretly liked without much risk.
Naturally, he would open the gate.
A little effort in exchange for earning Sara’s goodwill.
And the gate could always be shut afterward.
Just as we expected, the gate opened.
The woman called Sara ran inside the fortress.
But the gate never closed again.
Malon was probably already dead.
Yuna asked me,
“Now I summon him, right?”
I nodded.
“Pouw!”
Yuna gestured toward the skeleton horde.
At once, in the middle of the skeleton army, the Death Knight—Pouw—was summoned.
They were too far away to hear, but Yuna still began giving orders.
“Lead the skeletons and storm the fortress. And anyone who shows hostility…”
She took a breath.
Then said firmly,
“Kill them all.”
Yuna gripped the orb tightly.
At once, black energy erupted from the Death Knight and the skeletons.
Good job.
And I mean that sincerely.
Not sarcasm.
Even if the enemy were criminals, deciding to kill humans wasn’t easy.
Honestly, I’d never done it myself.
“We’re going in too.”
Yuna nodded.
An undead invasion.
The bandits inside the fortress would’ve seen how the gate was opened.
But they wouldn’t know why it stayed open.
I did.
Malon had been killed the moment he opened it.
By Tanya, who had already infiltrated.
But the bandits would just think,
“Why didn’t that idiot close the gate?!”
At the very least, they wouldn’t suspect outside interference.
Because it wasn’t soldiers invading.
It was undead.
Anyway, the fortress was thrown into chaos by the sudden undead assault.
The skeletons had already been strong.
Now, empowered by Yuna’s orb, they were even stronger.
And Pouw too.
Stopping them wouldn’t be easy.
But according to the Count’s retainers, there were hundreds of bandits in this fortress.
Most of them were combat classes.
Disgraced soldiers, failed adventurers.
Even Pouw, powerful as he was, couldn’t fight them all.
Even if all four of us joined the battle head-on, it would be too much.
But causing chaos?
Pouw and the skeletons were enough for that.
Using the confusion, Yuna and I successfully infiltrated the fortress.
And there, we met the gray-haired woman.
The one who had been chased by the undead.
Sara.
I spoke to her.
“That acting was incredible.”
The gray-haired woman frowned.
“Acting? What the hell are you talking about?”
Her body shifted.
And she returned to her original form.
Melaim.
“I merely behaved according to her original personality. Still, it was an excellent plan.”
“Yeah… When Tanya explained it, I wasn’t totally convinced.”
Melaim nodded.
“She may seem absent-minded at times, but when it comes to planning something like this, she is the most capable among us.”
I’d thought assassins were only good at quietly killing.
Looks like sabotage and creating chaos were specialties too.
This whole plan, from start to finish, had been Tanya’s work.
She built it using all the skills available to us, plus the memories Melaim had gained after devouring Sara.
Whether things would keep going according to plan…
That part, I wasn’t sure.
“But Melaim, wouldn’t it be better to stay in Sara’s form? Since you’re already inside.”
Melaim shook her head.
“That form is too weak. There is no longer any need to act.”
At that moment, Tanya appeared out of nowhere and whispered to us.
“The materials are ready. We can begin.”
“You’re fast.”
“Of course.”
And with that, Tanya disappeared once again.