Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival [WN] - Chapter 32.1

Retrieving the Princess (3)

“Heeh…[Combat Maid] is it?”

The way the Female Thief looked at me had changed a bit.

There were different types of escort maids. There were those who simply stayed by their Master’s side and protected him physically, acting as a shield in case of poison or emergency, and there were those who gathered information around the Master and kept him away from any kind of danger.

Among them, there were those who had their main role in combat, such as Sera, who had high combat power and would eliminate intruders and assassins ruthlessly without being discovered.

From the Female Thief’s reaction, I sensed such people were feared and loathed by the Thieves who invaded a Noble House.

If a skilled escort like Sera was called a [Combat Maid], I was only as powerful as a [Maid], but I would still get Elena back with me.

*Tan!!!

“Kya!”

Suddenly, the Female Thief shot a knife into the carriage with her eyes still on me.

I heard Elena’s scream from behind the wooden plank where the knife had been stabbed, and I could see the magical element spreading from that spot.

“You are a naughty princess, aren’t you? Even if you suppress your magic and your voice, I can still hear the magic incantation, okay? Next time you try to do something bad, I’ll use magic…”

Hyun!!! 

“Tsk!”

The woman, who had been distracted for a moment, ducked to avoid it.

“Your opponent is me, remember?”

“…you.”

The Female Thief returned her attention to me, and I gave a small shake of my head to Elena, who was looking at me, to warn her not to pull any tricks on the Female Thief.

“That’s true… we don’t have much time, so let’s stop playing around.”

With that, the Female Thief removed her clerk uniform from the clothing store and underneath appeared a tight-fitting leather outfit.

It certainly was difficult to move in the loose-fitting clothes. When I wasn’t used to maid clothing, I too felt that it inhibited my movement a lot, but this uniform had its own advantages.

The Female Thief had discarded her dagger and pulled out two new daggers, which had an unnatural glow to them.

Perhaps it was poison doused. There were different poisons, but if it was the kind used by the Female Thief, I had a feeling that even a scratch would be fatal for me.

But what I feared the most was magic. I had to be wary of poison and magic, and I had to devise a plan which would lead to survival.

*Hyun! 

“That attack again!”

The Female Thief, sensing my presence, jumped away from the spot she had been standing on.

I used the blade of the string to keep the Female Thief from coming closer to avoid being in close range with her poisoned weapons. The Female Thief also knew what the attack was for and avoided it in time.

My trump cards right now were this blade of string and illusion magic.

When I first used the thread blade, I wanted to inflict a certain amount of damage, but I could not use it effectively and had no choice but to use it as a deterrent.

Even though I was wary of the poison and opened up the distance, this Female Thief had magic. Currently, the string was yet to be discovered by her, but if I continued to use it, it would be revealed to be just a blade attached to a string, and I would soon fall prey to her magic.

Still, for now, I had no choice but to continue attacking with the weapon in my hand to create an opening.

“–[Hole]–“

“Tsk!!!”

The Female Thief performed magic to escape from the “blade” of the string.

A hole suddenly appeared under my feet, and I rolled to the side to avoid the spell, but it gave an opening to the Female Thief.

She threw one of her poisoned daggers at me which I barely managed to repel from my stance with my knees on the ground, but then the Female Thief, who lunged at me at the same time she threw the dagger, took a big swing backward and launched a dagger skill thrust at me.

“–[Double Thrust]–!”

It was the Combat Skill of the dagger Level 2, [Double Thrust]. Its range was similar to the Level 1 [Thrust], but with this skill the speed of attack increased and two consecutive thrust attacks became possible.

With my unbalanced stance, I could not avoid this attack in time. But–

“Huh!?”

My body slid to the side as if I was trying to kneel, and the Female Thief’s dagger skill slashed through my skirt.

Normally, I would not have been able to avoid it but I had predicted that the Female Thief, impatient with the lack of time, would rely on her Combat Skill, which was more powerful and could be executed with a single strike, rather than a spell, which took a long time to activate.

So, I was able to evade the attack by using the footwork I had learned from Sera, while keeping my legs hidden by my long, spread skirt.

The prediction was half intuition. If she had used magic at this point, I would have been unable to avoid it and would have received a fatal wound, but there was no way I could miss this opportunity when the Female Thief had missed her Combat Skill.

I supported myself with one knee firmly on the ground and pulled the knife as if twisting my upper body, and the face of the Female Thief, who understood what I was going to do, twisted slightly.

“–[Assault]–!”

I didn’t use [Combat Skill] that often. The immediate power is certainly attractive, but I didn’t like the gap that would be created after using it.

If I used Combat Skill, it would be to finish off a target or when there was a clear opening. If the enemy went to the trouble of creating that gap, there was no reason for me not to use Combat Skill.

“Tsk!”

However, the Female Thief evaded [Assault], which she thought would hit her, by bending her body sideways. I had recalled from my knowledge that there was a technique called soft body, but I had never imagined such a bizarre way of avoiding it.

Still, unable to completely avoid it, my Combat Skill slashed the Female Thief’s shoulder with a shallow slash, but as the Female Thief was falling on her side, she suddenly threw a sharp kick at me.

The position had reversed, and since I had just used Combat Skill, I could not duck in time. With a split-second decision, she kicked me in the hip as if to bounce off me, rolled a few meters, and used this momentum to return to her feet.

I regained my stance, making a slight distance. But by the time I stabilized myself, the Female Thief, who was already standing, started chanting a spell.

Judging by the amount of magical elements in her body, she was probably planning to use a big magic spell. I flipped up my skirt and threw a knife that I had pulled out, but a moment later, the Female Thief’s magic was already activated.

“–[Rock Skin]–“

*Gin! 

The throwing knife was repelled by the Female Thief’s leather clothes.

It’s not an offensive magic, but a defensive one. When I threw out the “blade” and “string” to find out, the Female Thief grinned and struck the blade away with her bare hand.

“Wow… a blade attached to the end of a string…a pendulum? Sounds like an interesting thing to use, but these clever attacks won’t work anymore.”

“…”

Was that the effect of magic… The Female Thief’s appearance had not changed, but her entire body was covered with earth elemental magic.

Seeing the situation, I judged it to be magic armor based on its effect.

“It’s over. I really didn’t expect a child as young as Rank 1 to be so difficult to deal with. Now that you’ve made me use my tricks, at least show me a good cry. Because I’m going to make it hurt like hell.”

The Female Thief, with a twisted smile on her face, starts chanting again.