The Assassination Attempt on the Princess
The next day...
I couldn't figure out what had happened.
After dining on room service in the luxury suite of a high-end inn I had rented with the money I had somehow filched from the slave market yesterday, and stepping outside, the scene before me was completely different from the one yesterday.
The wanted posters that had been plastered everywhere on buildings in the capital city were gone, replaced only by occasional festival announcements hanging near the temples.
Street vendors from various provinces had set up stalls, narrowing the road, and the street was bustling with people gathered to watch the festival.
Hoping no one would recognize me, I pulled my hood low over my head and pushed my way through the crowd toward the temple.
I needed to reach the temple to hear the goddess's voice.
I had to get an answer quickly—whether to go after the Demon King instead of the hero, or to simply send me back to my original world. That was why I hurried to the temple.
The closer I got to the temple, the more crowded the streets became.
The guards were on high alert, as if a very important guest had arrived. Without realizing it, I pulled my hood even lower.
The temple of the Moncrito Kingdom.
Although it looked large and grandly built, it was nothing compared to the temples in the Holy Nation—just small and modest.
The number of priests working here, the number of believers who visited, and even the size of the marble statue of the goddess in the sanctuary.
Everything was different.
I sat in the remaining seats inside the sanctuary and clasped my hands, praying to hear the goddess's voice.
Would she send me back to my original world, or would she tell me to go to the hero and demand to be returned?
While waiting for the goddess's response and closing my eyes...
"Her Highness the Princess Sophia has arrived!"
I didn't hear the goddess's voice. Instead, a knight in shining armor entered the sanctuary and shouted at the top of his lungs.
When I opened my eyes again, after a brief moment of prayer, the sanctuary was now full of people.
Far away, at the sanctuary's raised platform, a woman who looked like the Princess Sophia from the knight's words was ascending while trailing a beautiful dress on the ground.
Her hair was as blue as the sea—a sight impossible to see in the human world—paired with a stunningly beautiful face...
Well...
Even if she wasn't as pretty as I was, at least in this Moncrito Kingdom, she seemed the most beautiful.
It appeared she had come to visit the sanctuary as a guest for the festival held in the temple...
I didn't care whether they were having the festival or what they were doing; I kept my eyes closed and listened for the goddess's voice.
One...
Two...
Three...
...
The goddess's voice I wanted to hear didn't come, and strange humans were wandering around the roof of the temple with eerie energy.
Their movements as they walked on the roof and the positions they had currently taken...
No matter how I looked at it, they didn't look like knights who had come to protect Princess Sophia.
Since it wasn't my business anyway, I ignored them and tried to listen to the goddess's voice again...
But their presence kept distracting me and preventing my concentration.
Their movements stopped right below the stained-glass window installed on the ceiling above the sanctuary's raised platform.
And right there, the princess Sophia was sitting.
This was...
No matter how you looked at it...
**KABOOM!**
A short while later, with a thunderous explosion, the stained glass shattered and the intruders began entering through the hole in the ceiling.
The explosion was so powerful that the building seemed on the verge of collapsing, and people rushed to the exits without thinking.
As a result, the exits were blocked, and the knights assigned to guard Sophia tried to find another way out to rescue her, but they couldn't even find a moment to step away due to the attackers' relentless assault.
I would have liked to stay out of it and quietly leave the sanctuary...
But there was no way to leave with everyone blocking the exits, and if it was revealed that a wanted criminal like me was here, I might be mistaken for the princess's assassin, which I wanted to avoid at all costs...
**Swish**
I secretly pulled the sword I had hidden in my bosom out of my pocket, pulled my hood back, and revealed my face.
The people fleeing stopped for a moment to stare at my identity.
At that moment...
The knights who had been escorting Princess Sophia fell, and the intruders pushed through them and advanced.
"Kill the Princess Sophia!"
The leader of the intruders, pointing his sword at Sophia, ran toward the raised platform where she had taken refuge.
**Swish! Swish! Swoosh!**
I approached Sophia's side faster than the intruders, swinging my thin rapier so silently that no one noticed, clearing the lead attackers.
Then, to the following ones, I swung twice in the air, creating the sound of slicing the air and exerting intimidation.
"Eh... elf...!!?"
The intruders, seeing my sharply pointed ears sticking up between my hair, shouted each in turn, their faces dazed at the sight of an elf from the human world here... especially protecting their target, the princess Sophia.
"L-leader... this... this woman is..."
"Why?"
One of the intruders, having recognized my face, could only point with his finger and mumble without finishing his sentence.
"This... this woman is... Lowell, a member of the hero's party!"
"What!!?"
Another intruder who knew my name staggered back, and the leader of the intruders, seemingly surprised in the same way, retreated a step and then another.
"Eh... We have more numbers on our side! Don't retreat!!"
The leader, unable to retreat, aimed his sword at me and shouted, while the other subordinates, who had been retreating, stopped and seemed unsure whether to advance or not.
As he said, if we were only counting numbers, we were outnumbered—only me and Sophia—yet the intruders numbered about ten, much more...
The knights guarding the princess had already been defeated by the intruders or were fighting outside the platform, leaving no room to approach Sophia.
But...
Whether they had more numbers or were stronger, as long as they weren't as powerful as the Demon King or Sword Masters, there was nothing they could do to me.
I just needed to capture them alive instead of killing them, but my focus was on that...
Usually, when such assassination incidents occurred, the most important thing was to find the masterminds behind the assassins rather than killing the attackers themselves.
If they were killed, I'd have to prepare for another assassination, but by finding the masterminds and rooting them out, I could be safe from assassination.
"I will handle this elf!"
In the end, since the intruders weren't moving according to his will, the leader stepped forward, gripping his sword and approaching me...
**Sa sa sa sa**
Seeing him challenge me so boldly, knowing I was a member of the hero's party, I thought he was a spirited fellow...
But the dark mana seeping from his sword made me frown.
A magic sword inlaid with dark magic...
If I were to name a magic sword inlaid with dark magic, it would naturally be the demonic sword used by the Demon King and the Four Heavenly Kings.
Yet the leader of these intruders standing before me was obviously not the Demon King, and judging by his aura, not even a Four Heavenly King—just a plain human...
How on earth was dark mana from a magic sword I couldn't see in the human world emanating from his sword?
"Where did that sword come from?"
"Huh... Do you think I'll tell you? I'll tell you after I knock you down."
"Yeah?"
The intruder leader was taunting me arrogantly.
Thanks to his provocation, I gripped my sword even more seriously. Although I didn't know how amazing that sword was, I wanted to give him a proper lesson for acting so high and mighty because of it.
**Crack! Snap!**
I prepared without warning, and immediately pierced his gap, severing only the tendons in his right hand holding the sword.
**"Kwaaaahhhhh!!!!"**
Without realizing it, I severed his arm's tendons, and because I accidentally touched the nerves nearby, the leader of the intruders screamed and rolled around on the ground in agony.
"My arm!!! My arm...!!"
In the meantime, I picked up the magic sword emitting dark mana from where he had dropped it.
As expected, the aura emanating from that sword was very similar to the one from demonic swords.
The only difference was that its power was a bit weaker?
I didn't know where the leader of the intruders had gotten this sword from, but if it were being circulated in the human world, it was a dangerous sword that would require constant caution, as it would be extremely dangerous to possess.
For the demons, it was just a good sword, but for humans, it was a sword that absorbed the user's life force and gave strength.
After reclaiming the leader of the intruders' sword and stowing it away, I looked at the remaining intruders.
All of them were wearing masks, so their faces were all the same, but this much was certain.
They were afraid of me.
Watching their swords, the subtle shaking at the tips of the blades seemed to convey all the emotions of the people holding them to me.
What was left were only these frightened intruders...
**Kwa-ji-jik...**
The technique I was using for the first time since coming to this other world.
**[Thunder Lightning Sword Technique]**
When I defeated the Second Demon King, I had once been sealed with the Holy Sword and nearly died to the Demon King, but luckily, thanks to the skill **Thunder Lightning Sword Technique** in the body of the reincarnated hero, I had barely defeated the Demon King.
Sometimes stronger than the Holy Sword, sometimes weaker, but an extremely useful skill that could be used with various techniques—sometimes precisely, sometimes adjusted to the intensity.
**Kwa-ji-jik**
Lightning that fell from the sky through the hole where the stained-glass window had been shattered in the ceiling struck the ground around the intruders, instantly knocking out the people standing around them.