Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival [WN] - Chapter 31.1
Retrieving the Princess (2)
“Aria!!”
I threw my knife to intercept the female clerk’s hand that was being extended to Elena, and although the knife failed to pierce her hand, now they both had their complete attention on me, and the blonde girl – Princess Elena – called out my name.
“Heh… I thought it would take another dozen minutes for you to catch up to here, but maybe you followed us through that hole?”
“…”
I didn’t answer her and held up my black knife, but the female clerk, instead of getting angry, clapped her hands and laughed with delight.
“I love it, a maid! I didn’t think I could meet two out-of-the-ordinary, pretty girls on a job like this! This is why working with nobles is so interesting.”
I gathered the necessary information while looking at a strange woman.
She was in her mid-twenties. Dark red hair and brown eyes. Her face seemed well-defined, but the overall impression was so weak that I almost forgot her face when I took my eyes off her.
She was not too tall, and her body was slender, as I had expected. Perhaps it was because she stopped acting, but when she moved, even over her clerk outfit, I could see that she had supple muscles.
Considering her features, she must be a scout. Was the kidnapping also a trap that had been laid in that store for a while, or was it made easier by placing unimpressive people in various locations to facilitate a change of identity?
The woman was a lone suspect, but considering all these factors, I sensed an organized conspiracy behind the kidnapping. If that’s the case, I could not let her escape. If she succeeded in leaving this town, I wouldn’t be able to follow her footsteps.
But still… What did this woman want? I had expected the kidnapper to resist or run away, so I frowned at the unexpected reaction.
“She’s a thief from the Thieves’ Guild. Watch out for poison!”
When Elena revealed her identity, the Female Thief looked at Elena with a wry smile and cowered her shoulders in a theatrical gesture.
[Female Thief] [Race: Human ??]
[Magic Power: 175/180] [Strength: 145/155]
[Total Combat Power: 388 (With body Enhancements: 440)]
“…”
A Thief… better than an Assassin, but still with a combat power on par with Castro.
But though she certainly seemed like a good fighter, her fighting power wasn’t that high, so it might have been from her magic value. As I recalled from what Viro told me, thieves were highly skilled in covert skills and Taijutsu skills, but those who specialized in combat were fairly few.
If this Female Thief was one of those, I felt that this level of physical enhancement would be equivalent to level 2 in melee combat.
I could fight against a level 2 dagger user, depending on how I did it. However, if this kind of fighting ability was possible at the level 2 level of melee, I should probably think that the earth magic that could be used to dig a hole would be up to level 3.
A Rank 3 thief… not someone I would normally be able to fight, but I couldn’t back down either.
Elena seemed to be okay, but she couldn’t move. Her speech was slightly strange, so I was unable to expect her to escape by herself with magic, so I’d have to do something about it on my own.
“If you let Elena-sama go, I won’t come after you.”
“And you think that’s a deal? I’d say you’re still a child, but I’m not going to play along to buy you time. I don’t kill for a living, but I’m sorry if I end up overdoing it.”
“Kuh!”
I felt something like a killing jolt for a moment and avoided it sideways as I turned my back, and a thin knife flew by it.
Like Castro, I didn’t see any preliminary movements. I’d been practicing too, but I’d only used it successfully a few times, including that thing I used on the hobgoblin.
But before I had time to think about it, I felt the earth-colored magic swell up from the Female Thief, and as soon as I jumped back, she unleashed her magic.
“–[Stone Bullet]–“
The moment I heard the activation word, the earth-colored magical element spread around the area, and several pebbles flew toward me from the ground.
“Kuh!”
I used my body strengthening and Taijutsu to twist myself around and ducked under the pebbles, then stepped back further and put one hand on the ground as if to get down.
“Wow, I didn’t think you could avoid it!”
“…”
A trickle of blood spilled from my forehead and ran down my cheek. …I didn’t manage to avoid all of them. At least one of them grazed my forehead, and my shoulder took one as well. I received a little damage, but not enough to need to use [Heal] yet.
This was attack magic… I’d never seen it in action before, but if I were to take a hit, I could probably be incapacitated with a single blow.
She’s using throwing projectiles as a deterrent to buy herself some time to cast magic… I was learning how to use magic in battle, and at the same time, remembering the pattern of magic used by the enemy.
The shoulder that had been hit by the gravel could still move… If the blood on my forehead didn’t run into my eyes, I would leave it alone and brace myself, but the Female Thief, who, I thought, was going to give chase, hugged her arms, shaking herself as if she were enduring something.
“Oooh, oooh, that’s it, a maid. Bright red blood on a beautiful young face… This is why I’m not cut out for killing. I get more excited by their suffering looks than by killing them, and I just end up tormenting them… especially pretty girls like you.”
A pervert. I had heard that thieves didn’t kill civilians, but there were some who were simply not suited for killing. But there was not a single element of comfort in knowing that. In fact, Elena’s face turned so blue that she couldn’t even make a sound.