Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Underground Sewer (3)
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Naturally enough, the fate of the assassin who had taken Sion hostage was already sealed.
He might have had a slim chance if he'd just fled, but instead, he'd made the absolute worst move possible out of all his options.
[Um, hey, Cloe... could you save me...?]
[...?]
-ZZZAP!
[Gaaaaaaaah!]
Having conveniently snagged an achievement in the process, Sion looked down at the unconscious assassin and muttered.
"Hmm... He's out cold... I need to figure out who's behind this..."
"...I-I was controlling it as much as I could just now..."
There had been two assassins tailing Sion's group. One had just been knocked out by her spell.
"It's fine. We've still got one more left."
"..."
The other was dragged over by Cloe and forced to kneel before Sion.
"Talk. Who's behind this?"
Cloe pressed a dagger to his throat and began the interrogation, but the assassin's expression remained utterly calm.
"Kill me. The moment I got caught, I was as good as dead."
"Hmm..."
In truth, Sion had a pretty good idea who was pulling the strings.
The two assassins were dressed in outfits similar to the ones who'd kidnapped Cloe before.
'Hmm... They scream mid-tier crime guild affiliation...'
"Hey... We'll protect you if you talk, so why not just spill it nice and easy...?"
Their skills weren't terrible by any means, but objectively speaking, these assassins were far from top-tier.
That left them as either members of some middling guild or disposable pawns from a major one.
'No reason to risk their life for that...'
The assassin's pupils began to tremble slightly at the promise of protection.
Humans naturally feared death, after all.
No matter how resolved they were, if a path to survival appeared, their feeble survival instincts would kick in.
'A mage from the Magic Tower and the Backstreet Mad Dog...'
After frantically running the calculations in his head, the assassin finally steeled his resolve.
"...Just kill me."
'These two can't protect me.'
It was a wise judgment from the man's perspective.
If he spilled to these two, his remaining family would be brutally slaughtered by the guild.
"...Oh, really...?"
However, the man hadn't anticipated the immediate consequences of that choice.
"...Guess we have no choice then... I'll send you off right now..."
'Huh?'
The man sensed something was off.
He'd pegged the girl as naive based on her innocent looks, thinking maybe she'd let him live.
The real issue was the Backstreet Mad Dog, but from her actions, it was clear the girl was the actual leader of the pair.
If he could just convince her, he might survive this.
"Th-that... They say burning to death is the most painful way to go... I don't know any other spells besides this one...?"
'Liar! You were zapping lightning like a pro earlier...'
But the girl's reaction was far from what he'd expected.
"It'll probably feel like... your whole body being stabbed with needles... and the burning pain too... And every breath will be like... your windpipe being sliced with a knife... but I'll make it quick for you..."
Flames licked at her hand as she slowly reached toward him.
"W-Wait, I'll talk!"
In the end, his survival instinct won out, and the assassin had no choice but to reveal his identity.
Being hunted by the assassin guild was better than dealing with the psycho in front of him.
"W-We... We're from Yormungand!"
Yormungand.
"Yormungand? No way..."
Cloe was stunned to learn the assassins belonged to Yormungand.
Even she, a back-alley thief with limited hearsay, had heard of that assassin guild a few times.
"Yormungand...?"
Sion was shocked too—
"Wh-where's that...?"
—or not.
"I-I mean..."
Where the heck was that...?
Why were they both looking at her like that?
...Did she need to know?
Yormungand.
An assassin guild that never failed to kill its contracted targets no matter what. A rising power that had gained notoriety relatively recently.
Their history was short, but they were packed with young, talented killers who showed no mercy, assassinating commoners and nobles alike without discrimination—
"...Right?"
"Yeah, these guys are seriously dangerous."
"Hmm..."
What? She thought they were some big deal, but they sounded pretty meh.
"So... they're just assassins, right?"
"Exactly..."
Any other class might be a different story, but a group of assassins didn't scare her one bit.
The only assassin she truly wariness toward had once been her comrade.
...Though she probably never saw Sion as a comrade.
Anyway, having witnessed the pinnacle of assassins up close in Velkara, Sion wasn't even tense around mediocre ones like these.
"Yormungand's scariness isn't their skill as assassins."
But Cloe thought differently.
"It's their dogged persistence in killing their target no matter what. That's what's terrifying."
As a back-alley thief who'd overheard plenty of underworld gossip over the years, Cloe had naturally caught wind of Yormungand rumors now and then.
Importantly, she'd never once heard of them failing a contract.
They were obsessive hunters who maintained a 100% success rate, even at a loss. That was Yormungand.
'Why would guys like that come after someone like me...?!'
She could only assume the nobles whose wallets she'd picked had put a hit on her as an example.
"Hmm... This is a headache."
She'd come here to rack up adventurer-related achievements, only to stumble upon someone who might become her most annoying future boss.
She'd come to fix the purification facility and found evidence of dark magic tampering.
And now that she was dealing with that, an assassin guild shows up to kill them.
All in all, things had been one headache after another since arriving in Prifre.
"Hey, how many of you guys came after us?"
After hearing Cloe's explanation, Sion was convinced there was no way only these two assassins had been sent.
An organization that elite wouldn't dispatch just a pair.
Especially not ones with middling skills and zero loyalty.
"Those guys... they're just decoys, right...?"
These two were likely bait to confirm the target's location and lower their guard—disposable pawns.
"...Besides me and that guy, about a dozen more were deployed."
"I see... You wouldn't know the exact numbers or positions, obviously...?"
"They don't give grunts like us that kind of intel."
Well, yeah, obviously.
Why trust a guy who betrays the organization the second he thinks he can live?
"Got it... That's enough info."
-ZZZAP!
With that, Sion wrapped her right hand in electricity and approached the assassin.
"W-Wait...! You promised to let me live if I talked—"
"Wh-who said anything about killing? You'll just pass out for a bit. Don't worry..."
"Hey, I swear I'll run away nice and quiet! So pleeeeease—!"
Ugh, so noisy...
-Thud
The assassin went limp like a corpse from the shock. Sion dropped him to the ground like trash.
"..."
"Wh-what's with that look...?"
"N-No, it's nothing."
Thanks to the recent chain of events, fear was starting to creep into Cloe's gaze whenever she looked at Sion.
"So... what now?"
Still, Cloe felt more gratitude than fear toward Sion.
On top of the guilt for dragging her into this assassin mess, she also felt burdened that Sion was helping her anyway.
"They've probably surrounded us by now. If so, we need to get out of here fast—"
With Yormungand on their tail, fixing the purification facility was impossible.
Judging as much, Cloe suggested retreating—but
"Um... Cloe, how about we... part ways here...?"
"...What?"
Sion's response completely threw Cloe off.
Deep in the Prifre underground sewers.
A group wearing outfits like the assassins Sion had just knocked out lay in ambush there.
"Boss, connection with the 'bait' is completely cut off."
The organization's grunts weren't even treated as proper members; they were used as 'bait' in operations.
Humans were arrogant creatures who lowered their guard against obvious, low-level threats. The bait were sacrifices for that purpose.
"Told 'em just to tail... and they couldn't even manage that."
Even as grunts, proving useful in ops could earn them official membership.
But no bait had ever managed that in their history.
"What now? Send more to search?"
They'd already spread out enough manpower. Dispersing further would tank op success rates.
Sticking together risked missing the target, though. Either way, it was a lousy choice.
"Hmmm..."
As the guild's squad leader pondered...
-Beep! Beep! Beep!
-Beep! Beep! Beep!
The signal devices they carried lit up, blaring noise in all directions.
"...Whose is that?"
"The bait's..."
The signal came from the bait, already subdued by the target.
"Idiots... They even let the signal devices get found out."
If the target knew about the signals, they'd likely pieced together that a main force was hidden nearby.
And now, two of them were activating simultaneously.
There was only one meaning to that.
"Move. Post a few at the essential sewer exits, then relay orders for the rest to converge on the signal direction."
"Boss, that's way too likely a trap!"
"That bitch is inviting us."
Scattered, they'd be hard to take down—so lure them into a clump and crush them at once.
"No more wasting time on bullshit. Tell 'em to come at us all together."
For Yormungand, who had to succeed on contracts, it was a declaration of war they had no reason to refuse.