Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival-Chapter 70

Invitation from Darkness (3)

“Hah, hah”

Lynus was running down a back alley holding his bloodied face.

The plan was perfect.

He would get the Tears of the Spirit that a certain high-ranking nobleman wanted and the position of nobility at the same time.

I was not a man who smoked in a small guild in Baron Nolf’s territory.

My sisters and I, who were from the slums, had spent years planning this. If they could raise their status in the guilds in this area and become part of nobility, along with the backing of the nobles to whom they would sell the Tears of the Spirit, we would be able to kick back the noses of those in Dandol’s Thieves guild, which had made fun of us.

It was Lynus’ inferiority complex that made him think twice about acquiring not only money and position, but even the women of the nobility.

He knew that Mercenary of Dawn was being targeted by the assassins’ guild. In the first place, it was the baronial bandit guild that lent money for the commission.

From the beginning, Lynus and his group had planned to have the assassins’ guild take care of Mercenary of Dawn.

Whether the Tears of the Spirit were sold directly by the Mercenary of Dawn after they had eliminated the assassins or returned to Baron Nolf’s hands via the Assassins’ Guild, they would eventually all come into their possession, but before long the situation changed and incredible information came to light.

The Northern Frontier Branch of the Assassin’s Guild was destroyed and it was done by the same child assassin, who had taken out the Mercenary of Dawn.

I didn’t know what method the child used to destroy the guild, but according to the survivor of the Assassins Guild who brought me the information, the child was a disciple of the demon tribe and must have used some mysterious magical tool.

Moreover, the Tear Of The Spirit was said to be in the hands of that very assassin, called ash-haired.

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Lynus saw this as a good opportunity.

I didn’t know why he betrayed the guild, but no matter how good he was, if he was a child, he could talk his way out of it.

He would insinuate that the survivors and other branches would retaliate, and under the guise of protecting him, he would gain his strength and prestige.

Even if the actual strength of the ash-haired was not so great because he was a kid, the guild would be recognized in the underworld simply because there was a man who destroyed the assassins’ guild.

The first plan was perfect…

But Lynus failed to realize that the mind and ability of a child to kill everyone in the guild was beyond their comprehension.

Ash-haired was a young but good-looking girl of about twelve years old in appearance.

Even though they knew that the girl had destroyed the Assassin’s Guild, the thieves who saw her were misled by her dainty appearance.

It was impossible for such a girl to kill people so easily….

The moment she turned hostile, his companions were killed in the blink of an eye.

Even though the thieves were not good at rough work, they were compared to adventurers, and this time, just to be safe, they had brought only those who could fight at Rank 2 or 3.

It took less than a minute. Without a moment’s hesitation, she reaped life as easily as plucking a flower blooming in the field, her movement beautiful as if she were dancing.

In fact, she was beautiful. She was so beautiful that even the pain of having his face slashed open was forgotten as he admired her.

However, the way she plucked out life without hesitation with her dainty appearance made her look like an unworldly god of death, so out of fear Lynus abandoned his slain comrades and ran away.

The sun was still high in the sky, and Lynus, with his official position as the head of a trading company, might be saved if he went out into the street and appealed to the guards.

However, Lynus also had the pride of being a member of the underworld and understood that he could not survive in this world if he had a conflict against people from the underworld.

He would not be able to go out in the open with such excuses passing through his mind, but in fact, he knew somewhere in his heart that it would be useless to do so.

That thing was definitely going to kill him.

If necessary, she would come to kill him, even if she had to kill everyone and everything that stood in her way.

The moment Lynus saw the ash-haired‘s eyes, he understood this with the instinct of a creature living in the underworld.

“Oh, open up, open up!!!”

Returning to his own trading house, Lynus punched the back door with a loud thud.

“Lynus! You’re hurt…”

“Get out of my way!”

Lynus pushed aside the man who opened the back door and proceeded to the back.

The Thieves’ Guild in the baron’s territory had been using this store as a front for a long time, and when they decided to trap the baron, they had moved the guild’s base here, and now almost all the members had been replaced by guild members.

“Close the store! That thing is coming!”

He hurriedly closed the store even though it was still early evening, kicked out the few employees who knew nothing about the situation, gathered weapons from the warehouse, and began preparing for a fight.

The dozen or so remaining thieves looked at each other in bewilderment as Lynus, who was shivering and gripping his weapon without treating his face in the back of the store, looked at them.

Even though they were told to prepare for battle, Lynus had already taken care of the ones who were good at fighting, and the only people left were those who were good at concealment and tricks that were Rank 1 or 2 at most.

Moreover, Lynus was not in a state of mind to give an explanation, so the thieves were puzzled.

“What’s going on, Lynus?

“Father!”

The man was the head of the Thieves’ Guild in baron’s territory, and was also the man who had picked up his sister and him from the slums.

“Help me, father! It’s coming!”

“What?”

The head of the Thieves’ Guild let out a sigh of disappointment as Lynus clutched at him with a frightened and bloodied face.

“Looks like you made a bad move. Well, hey, I’ll send out an errand boy to get some adventurers…”

“Father?”

Lynus looked back at the head of the Thieves’ Guild, who had stopped moving in the middle of his actions, and saw three knives stuck on him, one in his right eye, the second right between the eyes, and the last one in his throat.

The head of the Thieves’ Guild fell on its back as he was, making the ground tremble.

…What happened? Even the women standing beside the chief were stunned, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

Outside the only open window…against the moon in the darkening blue sky, a girl, her hair stained with ashes, stared at the thieves present with icy cold eyes.

“I’ve come to kill you all.”

***

A large number of murders took place in the streets of Baron Nolf’s territory.

Nine corpses were found in a back alley. Eight of them had been identified by some of the guards who had examined the bodies as members of a certain trading house, and when the soldiers went to the house, they found more than a dozen people, including the head man and Lynus, the keeper, all dead in a store that had not opened in the morning.

The total death toll was over 20. Although this was the largest murder case in the barony, it was dealt with as an underworld war before it became public knowledge, since documents related to the crime and the Thieves’ Guild were found inside the Chamber of Commerce, and all the dead were killed with a single blow.

Even if that trading company was the home of the Thieves’ guild in this city, thieves would again pour in from all over, and a guild would once again be formed somewhere in the city.

Some of them must have been lucky enough not to show up at the guild that day, and they would definitely warn the newly arrived thieves.

Do not get involved with the Ash-crowned Princess.

***

A few months after the destruction of the city’s guild of thieves, Baron Nolf’s only daughter, Nora, was being married in his mansion.

The person to whom she was to be wed was not her new fiancé, the keeper of the merchant’s house.

She had finally been able to fulfill her feelings for her former fiancé, the third son of the baron’s family, with whom she had been in mutual love.

He had joined the Nolf barony as the husband of their only daughter, Nora, and would now learn to rule from the current baron as the next Baron Nolf.

Baron Nolf was moved to tears by the sight of Nora as a bride, but his wife was nowhere to be seen.

Baron Nolf was carrying a small portrait of his wife, who died a few years ago, and who entered his family only a few years later when her merchant family “went out of business” and she was disinherited. It was said that she was attacked and killed by thieves in the mountains on her way to Dandol.

At the wedding, smiling with a young man she had known since childhood, Nora’s necklace of [tears of the spirit], slightly decorated so as not to be discovered, was swinging on her chest.

According to the servants who secretly asked her, the necklace was her mother’s memento, and her mother’s grandmother, who was a spirit user, had received it from a spirit, not an abominable item taken by killing a spirit, as forbidden by the Holy Church.

“…”

I looked over at a happy Nora and gently turned away.

Because of all the things I’d done in this city, I wondered when and how to return it, but eventually, I simply sneaked into her room where she was sleeping and left it under her pillow.

I left a note saying that I had avenged her, but in hindsight, it was probably unnecessary.

Nora seemed happy. The words I left behind may serve as closure, but she shouldn’t look back anymore.

I looked back one last time, and my eyes happened to meet Nora’s, who looked back at that exact moment and even though we were quite far apart, she seemed to remember me, rolled her eyes a little and waved at me with a big smile, and I lightly waved back and left.

In the past few months, I had finally turned nine years old.

Although my body had grown a bit again, and I was able to crush the branches of the Assassin’s Guild and the Thieves’ Guild, I couldn’t say that I had really become strong yet.

I was still not strong enough to fulfill my promises to various people.

I had also not yet settled my score with Grave, who had attacked me previously and might also harm Elena.

I was also still keeping away from the organization with Sera, as I didn’t know whether they were a friend or foe.

The remnants of the guild sometimes attacked me, though sporadically. Because of this, I still could not return to my master.

I was not strong enough yet to fight off everything that tried to bind me.

But I had stopped running away. I had stopped hiding.

If someone wanted to attack me, they could attack me anytime. The stronger they were, the stronger I would be.

I would fight. For my promise to Master and Elena, I would acquire a strength that was not bound even by the bonds of nobility, and I would become someone who was feared even by those in the underworld.

It might be the fantasy of a reckless child, but I would have it.

To do so, I would live not as an assassin, but as an adventurer. I wanted real strength, not just the ability to fight against others.

So–

“Come out.”

When I said this out loud on the darkened street, a black-clad figure appeared as if oozing out of the darkness.

Probably an assassin from some guild. The fact that he was hiding his entire body made it impossible to accurately appraise him, but even so, the atmosphere he emanated suggested that he was as capable as a Rank 4 assassin.

The assassin pulled out a black one-handed sword, and I pulled out a black knife, and we clashed blades at the same time.

“I will not run away from you all anymore.”