Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival [WN] - Chapter 30.1

Retrieving the Princess (1)

I followed the path to the kidnapped Elena through a small side hole.

Even if that maid had been tipped off, there was no way she would have had time to dig a hole this deep beforehand, and I guessed the kidnapper was probably a user of earth magic.

Even if Sera’s friends were keeping an eye on them, they couldn’t have checked all the way down to the basement….

They even had to use children like me, as they were short on manpower to begin with. The only one of Sera’s companions who was by Elena’s side this time was the maid who helped her, but I was told that she too was not skilled at concealment or detection, but only possessed some warrior skills to serve as a shield.

Not everyone in the organization had the high level of scouting skills that Sera had, and most of them were probably just intelligence-gathering, counter-intelligence types. That’s why Sera was trying to plant her skills on an unknown kid like me.

Even if I could contact the senior butler outside, it would take him a dozen minutes to catch up with me. By then, I would need to find Elena and stall for time to rescue her on my own.

If she herself were to move with one child through such a narrow space that only a child or a slender woman could pass through, she would be dealing with a scout, a Thief type, or…

“…or an Assassin.”

An assassin who uses magic is the worst I can imagine. But I still needed to go after them. Maybe it was not only because it’s a job I had been hired to do.

As I proceeded through a basement the size of three houses, it abruptly transformed into a vertical hole. I ascended the hole smoothly, using stealth to strengthen my body, and fingering the dirt skin. I peeped out of the hole, searching for signs, and saw a dirty little man preparing to flop out of the hole.

Was he not working alone, but had companions? Possibly, he was just scavenging, but I had already decided to attack.

“…[Feel]…”

I chanted in my mouth, and the man turned back toward the entrance as if startled, and seeing the chance at that moment, I jumped out and threw the two knives I had hidden in my cuffs.

“Gee!?”

I kicked and rolled the man’s legs, who was knocked out of position by the two knives in his back, and then I got down on one of the knees to kick the supine man in the back, thrusting the black knife at his neck.

“Where’s the woman and child that got away?”

“…Wha, What the heck, man! I didn’t do anything!”

I made a cut at him across the neck and back with a knife and then put the knife to his neck again in the ready position as he tried to dodge the question.

“I don’t have time for this. I’m going to torture you and then use [Heal] to cure you.”

The man’s face instantly turned blue as I slid the knife across his neck, intimidating him.

“Oh, I was just paid to keep an eye out! Give me a break!”

“That’s not what I asked you.”

“Giyaaaa!”

This time, I stabbed the knife into his back and gouged it out with no care, and the man, unable to bear the pain, started to speak.

“That woman went to the right…no, to the left, with the child in her arms! There’s a carriage there!”

The man, realizing that she was serious, hurriedly changed his words.

“Who else is with you? If you’re lying, I’ll kill you.”

“No, there are no others! The others are outside the city! I’m not lying!”

“Got it.”

Guh! 

“Gah…”

With both of my physically strengthened hands, I stroke the handle of the knife to the head, knocking the man unconscious.

I decided that there was no point in asking any more questions. If I let him live right now, Sera’s companions who have caught up with me will probably come after him again for more information.

I retrieved the knives I had thrown and went outside to find myself in a narrow, unpopular back alley.

The man said they left, but I needed to confirm it first. When I physically strengthened my eyes with my face barely above the ground, I found footprints on the right, sure enough, but I found a slight trail to my left that looked like a footprint that had been erased, so I ran off in that direction.

It was my first time in an actual battle, but I was able to confirm the activation of [Feel].

This was a combination of magic and sorcery, an illusionary spell that I had composed with [Dark Magic], using a [Dark Magic] spell to specify a location and [Dark Magic] to only give an effect.

The effect was a simple one that gave the target the sensation of being touched at a random place, and since it did not actually touch the target, it could not move a single leaf, but by cutting down the composition as much as possible, the magic power consumption was reduced to only 5.

With magic, it could be activated just by casting a spell, but with sorcery, I had to construct the composition in my brain, so it was still difficult to use it on the spur of the moment. But it could be used effectively in situations like this, and the magical power consumption was low, so once I get used to it, there would be many situations where I could use it however I want.

“…This way?”

I continued the pursuit, checking the footprints occasionally. There was only one set of footprints. The other person was probably walking without leaving any footprints, but there were faint footprints that looked as if the person was re-carrying her as “luggage”.

I did not know if Elena was heavy, or if she was conscious and struggling, but considering that the kidnapper was a woman, I felt that her muscular strength was not so high.

Assuming the enemy was an assassin, why didn’t they kill Elena? 

Sera had once assumed that the enemy would be sent by a rival faction. If she was right, the kidnapper’s purpose was probably to bring Elena back alive and use her for their own purposes.

If so, they need not to be assassins. Considering their low muscle strength, they might be scouts of the thief type who were not mainly engaged in combat.

If so, they wouldn’t take her life. I could assume so, but I would not be so naïve as to think that I could kill them at any time if the need arose.

My main goal was Elena’s safety first, then her retrieval came second, not defeating the enemy.

I would like to know who the enemy was, but that’s not my job, and if I made a mistake in prioritizing something else here, I would be in big trouble.

Even if the enemy was a scout who was not specialized in combat type, the enemy might probably be more powerful than a hobgoblin. Why would I go after her alone, I asked myself…why would I take such a risk?

Not because it’s my job. I just did not want… Elena to die.

With my priorities in mind, I raced down a back alley and saw a carriage in an open space, the kind used by a private peddler.

“I found it.”

Seeing a single slender shadow outside and golden hair from inside the carriage, I flipped up my skirt as I ran and pulled out a few knives strapped to my legs.