Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival [WN] - Chapter 46
Assassins’ Guild
“I have been waiting for you, apprentice of Dark Elf.”
A woman in a strange dress greeted me at the Assassins’ Guild in the chapel’s basement, sitting at a table that looked like it had been carved out of rock.
She was about fifteen or sixteen years old. Her black hair was arranged in curly waves like a spring on both sides of her head, and the black dress she wore was decorated with many things, much like what that woman called Gothic Lolita Girl in her knowledge.
“You are the apprentice of that Evil Race, aren’t you? As an apprentice of a magician, you seem to have some magic power, but can you even kill with that level of fighting power? I guess you would be an easy target for even a knife thrower, right?”
As I stared at her, the Goth Loli Girl also appraised me and spitted venom with her bright red lips.
“Who?”
“I’m your senior, newbie. Be mindful of how you talk to me. I hate kids who don’t know their place. I almost kill them accidentally when they behave like a brat.”
“…”
[Goth Loli Girl] [Human Female]
[Magic Power: 120/120] [Strength Power: 173/177]
[Total Combat Power: 242 (With Physical Enhancements: 297)]
She was strong despite her appearance. With these numbers, it would appear that she would have at least one attribute magic, but I would assume that her combat style would be [Rank 3] melee or projectile.
Normally, it was rare to reach Rank 3 at the age of 20 or younger, so if she had this much combat power at such a young age, she must be a skilled fighter in her own way.
This was the Assassins’ Guild…?
“What’s wrong? Can’t an apprentice even say hello properly? You have a nice face which is very much to my taste. If you feel like it, you can be my pet, you know?”
The Goth Loli Girl smiled as she spoke and pointed her polished black shoes at me as she sat down at the table.
Did she mean lick me when she said “hello”? Of course, I had no intention of doing so, but if I refused, I would end up clashing with this woman… Or maybe that was the purpose of the provocation from the beginning.
I probably wouldn’t win if I fought her head-on. If I used all the tricks I had, I might be able to win, but I didn’t want to expose my hand right now.
So, what should I do? If I took advantage of these people, they would take advantage of me. That said, I would not want to cause problems on the first day, but…
“Kira, what are you doing there?”
At that moment, the Goth Loli Girl turned her head slightly at the sound of that voice, and I turned my attention only to that direction as well, keeping my consciousness on the Goth Loli Girl.
“Dino, I didn’t do anything.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
“I was just having some spare time and thought I’d show the newbie a thing or two, you know? Fufu.”
“I see.”
Dino, who had become the head of the Northern Frontier District of the Assassins’ Guild, appeared.
From what he said, ?this Goth Loli Girl… Kira, who found out that I was coming here, had come here to mess with me on a whim.
Apparently, not all members of the assassins’ guild were taciturn assassins. Just by looking at them, their facial expressions changed from moody to whimsical. Soon Kira smiled at me, erasing the pressure that had been exuding from her. Her expression also changed from intimidation to a smirk.
From my impression, they seemed to be a group of freelancers just like other guilds, but they also seemed to be much stronger than adventurers.
Dino frowned slightly at Kira, and then turned to me again, avoiding commenting on her any further, as if he thought it was pointless to say anything.
“Welcome, my fellow apprentice. The Assassins’ Guild welcomes you, Aria.”
Dino uttered the words of welcome with the exaggerated gesture of a stage actor.
“So, what’s the job?”
“…You are not so quick to get into the groove as expected of my fellow junior sister. Well, I’ll let you get used to those things gradually, but first I’ll show you around this place. I’m sure there are not that many members here now.”
“Then I’ll do it for you~.”
From the side, Kira smiled as she suggested in a spoiling tone.
But this woman had repeatedly flashed a faint killing intent that only I could understand, ever since Dino’s attention had turned to me.
An assassin… or rather a pleasure killer.
Why would such a person be in an Assassins’ Guild? Perhaps there were more types of such killers than properly trained assassins. … it’s a pain to deal with.
“Stop fighting, both of you. Private fighting is forbidden in the guild. If you pull out your weapons on your fellow members and attack them, there will be penalties. Am I clear to both of you?”
“Yes~”
Dino seemed to have noticed Kira’s provocation. Kira was chastised for it and responded in a light-hearted manner, jumping off the table as if she were going for a walk–
*Swish!
Suddenly, Kira, with the momentum of her jump, slashed at me with a knife she pulled out of her sleeve.
I avoided the playful slash, which did not even use body reinforcement, with minimal movement as I turned my face away from her.
From the start, I didn’t trust Kira one bit. Having a rule and a penalty like that meant there were people who would do such a thing.
She was a woman who seemed to believe nothing of her actions, but in a way, I was convinced that Kira was going to do something to me.
I predicted several ways that she would attack, and as soon as Kira’s knife made a slight cut on my cheek, I took the knife out of my sleeve and made a shallow cut on Kira’s cheek as well.
“–!”
It must have been an unexpected counterattack because Kira jumped back into the distance amidst the splatter of blood from both of us, and I called out to Dino, keeping her in my line of sight and vigilance.
“You’re not going to tell me it’s my fault, right?”
“…It can’t be helped.”
As expected, Dino exhaled in dismay. He didn’t mention anything about not fighting back after being attacked.
“My… my face is scarred…”
Kira muttered in a low, snarling voice, her whole body oozing a deadly, killing intent.
“You ash-covered little brat, you’re on my list!”
“Kira!!!”
Kira was about to attack me again, but Dino’s yell stopped her.
“If you continue attacking her, I’ll have to deal with you, okay? You’ve had attitude problems before, but if you’re going to cause more problems, you will be the target of a purge.”
“…”
Even though she seemed agitated, she had indeed not lost her sanity enough to defy the Assassins’ Guild. Even so, Kira did not respond to Dino’s words and remained silent, staring at me with eyes filled with hatred.
Dino let out another sigh at Kira and turned to me once again.
“Aria, you should also avoid provocations. Now, let me give you a quick tour of the guild, and then we’ll talk about work.”
“Okay.”
I wiped the bruise on my cheek and walked with Dino, who was going to show me around, to the back, and Kira kept her glare at me until I couldn’t see her anymore.
I ended up causing a problem… She was a real pain in the neck. If she cared so much about her face, why didn’t she just have someone cast [Cure] on it to make the scars disappear?
I thought so, but maybe there was no one here who could use [Cure]. Because there were so few people in this guild, which led me to think so.
“There aren’t many people here.”
“Please don’t put us together with the Adventurers’ Guild or the Thieves’ Guild, where even beginners can join. We are not like hypocritical adventurer scouts or foolish bandits who are driven by greed.”
Because of the nature of the job of Assassination, the members of the Assassins’ Guild consisted only of those who had received special training.
Special skills. A special environment. Dino said that only those who could handle killing could reach the gates of the Assassins’ Guild.
The number of adventurers in Cleydale Kingdom numbered in the tens of thousands, including beginners. The Thieves’ Guild probably had about the same number, including beggars and slum criminals.
But the Assassins’ Guild, because of its unique nature, only had a few hundred members in the country. There were also paid informants in each city, but they were not considered as the members of the guild.
However, this number was not accurate. There also existed freelance hitmen and assassin squads raised by the nobility. But the main reason why it was impossible to ascertain their real number was because one could not tell whether those members had survived and were currently lying low after their work was done, or whether they were actually dead.
According to my master, there were only a few branches of the assassins’ guild in this country, which could be counted on both hands. According to Dino, there were only a few dozen members in this branch, though they were contracted to assassinate any kind of people in the area, including Dandol.
Even so, there might be someone who could use [Cure] if I looked for them, but in any case, it was not Kira’s face that was injured, but her pride, and even I could not heal that.
There were very few people around, but as I walked along, I could feel some faint prying eyes on me from the darkness.
They were watching me. Trying to assess me.
I wondered if I would really be of any use to them. Could a child assassinate someone? What would be my weapons? And could they kill me?
“First, let me tell you about the request I was going to ask our beloved Master.”
After looking around and arriving at a place with chairs that looked like a restroom, Dino began to talk about the job.
The assassination target was a party of four adventurers called [Mercenaries of the Dawn].
I was told that it was a Rank 4 party, but in fact, only the leader of the party was Rank 4, and the rest of the members were Rank 3. The reason they were called “Pseudo-Adventurers” was because they were not proper adventurers, but habitual embezzlers.
Adventurers were sometimes asked to collect valuable materials and goods. However, if the goods they recovered were more expensive than the commission, they would often claim that the request had failed and just run off with the goods.
This time, however, the client they tried to scam was not a simple person.
It seemed that these guys recovered the belongings of a family member that a noble had requested and then ran off with it. If that were the case, I would think that they should be caught or left to the Adventurers’ Guild, but ?asking adventurers for help would be dishonorable to the nobles, so the client asked the Assassins’ Guild to assassinate them and recover the items in retaliation for them running away with the goods.
“First, as I told you in the beginning, we will test you to see if you are really capable of fulfilling the request. If you can assassinate those people, we will believe you. But if you were to fail or run away, Celeshura will take the blame, won’t she?”
“What are the details of the test assassination?”
Dino deliberately shrugged his shoulders as I asked back with no emotions shown on my face.
The client for the test assassination was a retired ex-adventurer. The target of the assassination was a group of three men posing as adventurers, and we have confirmed that they were not real adventurers, but members of the Thieves’ Guild.
The former adventurer was attacked by those thieves at a certain place.
The adventurer, who was trapped and had his childhood sweetheart killed, appealed to the guards to catch them, but because of the peculiarities of the location, and due to lack of evidence, they were never charged with a crime.
They had probably bribed the guards as well. The former adventurer was so desperate that he borrowed a large sum of money to hire the Assassins’ Guild and hoped for the death of the thieves.
The place was located in a dangerous area, a place where ordinary people dared not step in, and where anyone could die.
The thieves were a gang of novice hunters who specialized in dungeon robberies.
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Also check out my other novels: Reincarnated into a Game as the Hero’s Friend, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, and A Girl Who Was Told “You Have No Talent” Turned Out To Be A Talented Monster