Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival [WN] - Chapter 62

Assassins’ Guild Strategy (1)

“Aria-chan, how did this happen in just one month?!”

I headed to the Dwarven armor shop in the Royal Capital, and as usual, there were no other customers in the store, and Gelf screamed wildly like a frail maiden when he saw my equipment.

I was able to defeat the shadow master Radha and the Rank 4 adventurer party Mercenary of Dawn.

To gain experience, I went head-to-head with Daggart, a Rank 4, and won the battle by the skin of my teeth, but I took a lot of damage myself and spent two days healing my wounds.

The same was true for my protective gear: the leather equipment that had been subjected to magic combat art and attacks was damaged to the point that it could not be regenerated by magic power, and the large amount of blood that I had been exposed to had made the surface of my gear look unsightly and stained, even if I washed it many times with water to remove the smell of blood and even used [Clean] on it. The surface of the gear had a different, stark appearance than before.

“Can you fix it?”

“Aria-chan really goes at her own pace! I guess I’ll have to overhaul it with special chemicals. It’s going to take at least half a month to fix it.”

While looking at the condition of the equipment, Gelf let out a sigh. I returned the equipment that was given by Gelf for repairs, but being an artist type, he may have had some attachments toward his work.

“Sorry…”

“Oh, my, don’t look at me like that. I pushed it on you on my own.”

“But I can’t wait half a month, so can you just repair the torn part?”

“Oh, I’ve got something for you to replace it with! Come here.”

“…Eh?”

Gelf took me by the arm and led me into the back of the store.

Apparently, Gelf had made a few pieces of my size from his older models that he had made for himself but couldn’t wear.

“I’ll hold on to the ones you’ve been wearing. It would be much better to soak them in a special solution and let them recover naturally, rather than forcing them to be restored. That’s why I want Aria-chan to wear this.”

“…One-piece?”

The equipment she received this time was a short-sleeved mini dress made of leather that hemmed to mid-thigh, and underneath was a pair of cloth socks that covered up to the knees, with garters hanging from the bottom.

I could properly equip the left armor and boots given to me by my Master, and since the dress’s whole body was all black with no gloss, I had no problem with the appearance.

It was easier to move than I had expected, but out of habit I strapped a throwing knife to my thigh because it had been a while since I had worn a long skirt. Gelf, with a serious face, handed me a small paper package.

“…Aria-chan, put these on.”

“Hm? I’ll put them on.”

Even with that woman’s knowledge, I didn’t understand the necessity of these, but since Gelf was the one who recommended it to me, I guess they were necessary.

The item he handed me was a pair of women’s underwear. But they were not the drawers I had seen before, but the small triangular underwear that was tied at the side, which I had seen in that woman’s knowledge.

It was something that the lady of the Dandol frontier had developed a year before, and it had been on the market since then.

I asked him to do some gimmick maintenance on my armor and boots, which I could have done myself. Since the maintenance would take about a day, I decided to do what I needed to do at Royal Capital before then.

The workflow of the Assassins Guild consisted of the client requesting an assassination through the underworld, and if there were no particular problems involving nobles, an assassin would be sent to the target after receiving the deposit.

The assassination period ranged from six months to a year after the payment was made, and after a longer period, if the request was not fulfilled then the fee would be refunded, including the penalty.

This seemed unexpectedly serious, but since many aristocrats were involved in this kind of industry, it was said that trust was more important than in the surface world.

The assassin submitted evidence to the Assassins’ Guild after accomplishing the request.

If the case was in the vicinity, the assassin would take the evidence back to the guild himself, but in this case, since the area was around the Royal Capital, which was not the responsibility of the North Frontier District Branch, the assassin had to hand over the evidence to the liaison officer first and only tell him that the request was completed.

I would place the adventurer’s tag that I had taken from the Mercenary of Dawn in the safe deposit box of the commercial guild that had been previously arranged by Radha.

At the appropriate time, the other liaison would retrieve it, inform the assassins’ guild that the request had been completed by some means, and then take the tag back to the guild for a report.

If I were to keep watch here, I might be able to see the liaison’s face, but I didn’t think it was necessary.

The person who would come to collect the tag might not necessarily be the liaison officer, but might be an ordinary person who knew nothing about the situation. And, to make sure that the assassin’s guild would be caught off guard when I start my plan, I had to ensure that they had received the information about the completion of the request.

Moreover, if Radha, the observer, did not return at the same time or before the liaison returned, some people would begin to be wary.

The liaison would return by the normal route, which would take a month and a half. If I took the shortcut through the canyon, I could shorten the time by half a month.

During that half month, I would need to plan to defeat the assassins’ guild there.

…I really felt that taking too much time to travel would be a problem.

I thought about buying a horse, but even if a horse was faster than a carriage, it would not be able to pass through places where monsters appear, such as canyons, or in the forest.

I heard that there was a general skill called the [Training and Taming] that carriage drivers and knights had, which would make them move a little faster, but I didn’t have the time to get it now.

That’s something I would have to work on in the future but I would have to hold off on the horse for now. A kid like me on a horse would stand out in its own way, and a dedicated riding horse should be costly to begin with. I had been paid up front, but it’s not like I could afford such an expressive ride.

Incidentally, I only took a tag and a relic necklace from Mercenary of Dawn.

There were some leftover magic bags and money that I could have collected, but I didn’t like to rob adventurers, even if they were criminals or bandits.

Besides, the Mercenary of Dawn was working like a normal adventurer party in general, with no evidence of crime, although they were suspected. So, this time I could not use their bags, etc., to establish that the death was an accident in the dungeon.

Still, someone might find it and claim it, but then it would result in them being the prime suspect.

Before leaving the town where that dungeon was located, I visited the Adventurer’s Guild just to make sure that I was not suspected, but I did not meet that strange girl – Carla – again.

…Was I really going to see that thing again?

I then went to the Royal Capital to replenish my supplies of disposable throwing knives and food, some of which I also put away in Shadow Storage, and left the Royal Capital the next day after thanking Gelf for the equipment.

I was told that the owner of the necklace was Baron Nolf, who lived next to the Dandol frontier. I would like to return the relic immediately, but I would have to have him wait a little longer.

If I made a stop there, it would require extra time, and if the relic was returned to the baron’s hands, the guild might find out that I was around the vicinity.

So, this time, after returning to the Assassins’ Guild, I would need to make sure that the guild did not know that I had returned. To trap the entire Assassins’ Guild against me, I needed to hide my presence perfectly.

Unlike the Adventurers’ Guild and the Thieves’ Guild, the Assassins’ Guild had fewer personnel, but there was still a watchful eye that was hidden in the city.

But they were not even members of the guild, just the guild’s breath, and there must also be people who were living as normal citizens.

So, although I could not assassinate all of them, I made full use of my Concealment skill, which had reached Level 3 before I entered Count Hedel’s territory where the guild was located, and rushed back to the city where the chapel was located without being found by anyone.

I took a nap in the forest during the day and gradually approached the city under the cover of night.

After entering the city, I hid in an abandoned house during the day to hide my breath and gradually made my way to the destination.

From here it would be a solitary battle. Disappearing and hiding for cover, I would sharpen my fangs in the darkness and wait patiently for the time to come.

With Life Magic’s Flowing Water, I would never feel thirsty, and with Level 2’s Night Vision, even complete darkness would not be a problem.

For meals, I would use the pills I had made with alchemy before I came here.

The ingredients for making potions were not boiled to make a liquid, but were powdered and kneaded together with magic power. It was not as potent as a potion, but it was sustainable, and if I ate 10 one-centimeter balls a day, I could maintain my strength and physical condition for a week or so.

Besides, crude food and hunger were familiar to me since my time in that orphanage.

It took me three days to break into a place I could normally reach in one day after entering the city.

Even the Level 3 Concealment skill was as effective as Level 4 if I chose a place with no people, combined with color vision and night vision.

In fact, I passed by the Monitoring Beggar who would likely have Level 3 Concealment skills, and he did not even notice me.

I believed that Level 4 skills would have made my life a lot easier, but I doubted that I would be able to attain Level 4 skills so soon.

Unlike Level 3, which could be obtained by anyone with time, Level 4 presented a huge wall that only the truly talented could obtain.

Even so, I defeated Daggart, a Rank 4.

I understood that Rank and combat power were just a measure of strength, and that real strength was how you used them.

The destination I was heading for was the catacombs of the chapel where the guild was located, but I wasn’t going to foolishly and straightforwardly break in through the entrance.

The last time I was back at the guild, I looked around every nook and cranny of the crypt.

The guild was built on an abandoned mine shaft, so it was deep, wide, and intricate, with several vents.

I memorized the locations of the vents by using my sense of direction with detection and by checking the distance with my step count. It took me two full days to find all the vents.

I crept into one of them, a stone room marked [21], removed the stones around the fist-sized vent, and used a dagger to dig into the earth.

I didn’t want to use my weapon for this sort of thing, but I couldn’t take too long. Five days have already passed since I had entered the city, and there were only ten days left until the liaison officer would arrive at the guild. Still, the soil was surprisingly soft, and I succeeded in breaking into the interior of the assassins’ guild after another three days.

A stone from the ceiling fell and rolled into a passageway.

In any other place, I would have been found by that sound, but this was the only place I didn’t have to worry about that, and I knew that there was no one here but this guy.

“…guaaaah!”

I entered that room through a narrow passageway in a vent. An oddly shaped shadow behind, blocked by iron bars as thick as my arm, snarled in alarm and turned its murky eyes to me, in response I gave him a slight smile.

“Gord, I will set you free.” 

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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