Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival [WN] - Chapter 64
Assassins’ Guild Strategy (3)
“What happened to Radha?”
A few hours after Aria’s earlier-than-expected return, the guild members who had been contracted as liaison officers returned. However, Radha, one of the most powerful members of the guild, who had been sent out to monitor Aria, had not yet returned.
At the quizzical look from Dino, the head of the guild, the liaison, who had just returned after finishing his work, looked puzzled.
“This one has not seen Radha since ash-haired finished her assassination. Guild leader, have you received any reports from ash-haired’s side?”
“No…”
This liaison, though low in combat power, excelled in detection and concealment skills, and could even hear conversations at a distance with his wind magic, making him one of the guild’s top intelligence operatives.
In terms of combat, Radha was available, so she was sent along with the intelligence specialist, but he could not enter the dungeon alone, as his combat power was barely Rank 2.
What happened in the dungeon?
Certainly, Aria’s fighting ability had grown remarkably since they first met. It was unusual for a child of only 10 years old to increase her fighting power so much in just four months, even if she was a disciple of that Evil Race person under whom Dino had studied as well.
However, with a maximum Combat Power of only around 500, it would still have been difficult for her to defeat a Rank 4 party even if they did not go all out. Dino thought that Radha had helped her defeat them, but perhaps Radha was disposed off by the target instead?
But if that was the case, it was strange that Aria did not report it. It was not easy even for Dino to find Radha in the dark.
If the target was a Rank 4 party, there was a possibility of detection, but it would be difficult unless someone hinted at Radha’s existence.
(…betrayed?)
Someone betrayed us. Although highly individualistic assassins often acted on their own, it was not easy for any of them to betray the guild. For this reason, Dino and his father, the former head of the guild, thanks to Sage, created the shackle called Gord the Executioner.
Because of this, assassins became even more concerned with their own life regardless of their individualism.
They joined the guild because they could obtain safety and money at the same time, and Dino, the head of the guild, understood best that they did not have a sense of belonging to the guild.
But even if that was the case, assassins would still not outright antagonize the guild.
They didn’t see any advantage in doing so.
In some cases, disputes among members may result in killing each other. This liaison had neither the reason nor the skill to defeat Radha, and this old liaison knew the importance of Radha in the guild.
Assuming, then, that Radha was dead, what was the purpose of the person who harmed her?
The guild members, being selfish, did not necessarily antagonize the guild. They knew the danger of antagonizing Radha, who was a powerful person, and the disadvantages that would result from killing her.
Dino could think of only one person in the guild who would not consider it.
Aria, the ash-haired assassin.
A disciple of the Evil Race whom Dino had enlisted to help him by using her Master as a hostage and blackmailing both her, and her Master.
With that combat power, she should be able to trap Radha. Dino did remind Radha about the hostage and to not underestimate Aria when he noticed Aria’s fighting ability. However, why would Aria harm Radha and act hostile to the guild when she was used as a hostage to her Master, an Evil Race, regardless of the small dispute she had with someone like Kira?
No one could stand to be hostile to the guild and live fearing assassins from the guild for the rest of their lives. In the past, there had been some political leaders who tried to destroy the Assassins’ Guild itself, but even at that time, the assassins hid in the dark and killed the political leaders, even if it took a long time to do so.
No one would be foolish enough to oppose the huge organization known as the Assassins’ Guild.
It was impossible to completely overpower the assassins living in the darkness with the power behind the scenes, and that was why the nobles had no choice but to choose the path of coexistence, even though they were afraid of their existence.
Therefore, no matter how suspicious the situation might seem, it was normally unthinkable for a young child to turn against the guild after her Master had been held hostage.
Dino did not know.
Although he was living in the insane world of the Assassins Guild, he had only viewed Aria within the framework of the common sense he had developed as an adult.
A single woman with memories of her previous life had given a girl a chance to gain wisdom for selfish reasons, and as a result, a mental [monster] was born in this world who wanted to kill all her [enemies] and whoever disturbed her peace.
Dino left the room to confirm Aria’s true intentions. If, as he had imagined, Aria had an intent to antagonize the guild, he would eliminate her himself on the spot.
But that decision was made a little too late.
***
There were not so many people who were called strong in this world.
Level 1 combat skills… Rank 1 could be acquired even by a child after a few years of training. Generally speaking, they could be called beginners, but they would not be amateurs, and a few of them could even fight against Rank 2 demons.
Even soldiers who had served for several years were mostly Rank 2, and those who reached Rank 3 were seen as competent even being selected as unit leaders.
Even in the Adventurers’ Guild, where almost all members were fighters who could fight alone, more than 70% of the members were Rank 1 or 2, which showed the rarity of the strong.
Even in the Kingdom of Cleydale, which had a population of several million, there were only a few hundred people who could reach Rank 4 or higher.
The Assassins’ Guild was no exception.
Unlike adventurers, assassins did not have to fight with the strong, and what was required of them was the ability to gather information and make the right decisions to take down the enemy, even if it were to take a long time.
Among them, the Elven sorcerer Sage, the Dwarven battle maniac Sharga, and the Beastman Shadow Master Radha were all Rank 4 adventurers and were considered exceptional and awe-inspiring existence within the guild, but Rank 3 such as Kira and Guy were also rare within the guild. The reason why they were regarded as exceptional was because most of the members were bandit scouts, with emphasis on concealment skills.
Many of the members of the Northern Frontier District Branch of the Guild of Assassins lived among the citizens.
Aside from those who monitor citizens who did not even know they were involved with the guild, there were some of them in large cities who usually did normal work and only reverted to being assassins when they were asked to assassinate civilians without combat skills, and some of them specialized in poison killing without any combat-related skills.
But they did not take jobs themselves, and did not even know the faces of the other members of the guild, and were ostensibly no different from ordinary people as long as they were not requested to do something.
The guild’s job was to manage them, and the members currently in the guild were those who could be called the core of the northern frontier district, with those who allocated necessary tasks to members who did not even know each other’s faces, those who managed information together, and those who were first-class assassins with a certain level of combat power and assassination skills. They were the core members of the Northern Frontier District.
At that time, the Northern Frontier District branch had about 80 members.
They knew that a child called ash-haired, a disciple of Evil Race, had become a new member and had a combat power of almost 200.
With a combat power of only Rank 2 to 3, they knew that information was their weapon of choice. However, they also understood that ash-haired was only strong as a child, and generally speaking, she could only be a top Rank 2, that was what they concluded.
So, they were caught off guard.
Because she was a child, she would throw tantrums, they assumed that she couldn’t do much different from what a normal child would do.
Because she was a child, she was not a threat, not for adults who were supposed to be much stronger than her.
Because she was a child… they didn’t get involved, they let their guard down, which was not something an assassin was supposed to do.
The easy-to-understand Skill Level and Combat Power numbers could cause the weak to be awed by the strong, and for the strong, it could lead to conceit.
“….Nn?”
The middle-aged man tilted his head, feeling something like discomfort for a moment.
The man was responsible for receiving assassination requests from liaison officers in various locations, collecting the information and assigning it to his constituents based on the difficulty of the job.
There were five subordinates in the guild. He sometimes went to the area to gather information, and since all of them had some Concealment-type technology, he figured that someone had passed nearby with Concealment, as usual.
“…Steaming today.”
Even in the relatively cool underground guild, it could get steamy depending on the season. The heat made his head feel a little hazy, and he wondered if that was the reason why he was distracted, but just as he was about to head for the sofa in the room–
“What?”
The man couldn’t walk properly and fell face first onto the hard stone floor.
What happened? Had he been poisoned?
But the man had poison resistance skills. If the poison was something that would kill an average person instantly, he would have been able to recognize it, even in small doses.
Some poisons were tasteless and odorless, but such poisons took time to act up, and with his poison resistance, he thought he could deal with such poisons if he only took the time to endure.
But then he noticed a faint sign of someone entering the room. Was it one of his men? As he unconsciously shook his body to call for help, he felt the coldness of a blade plunging into his neck without any killing intent, and his consciousness sank into the darkness, never to return.
***
The guild was poisoned.
I learned only the basics in Master’s class, and the formula was almost entirely my own, but it seemed to work well.
This poison would work even if one had Poison Resistance skill.
To begin with, the poison resistance skill was not a perfect skill. Even Treat of light magic could not deal with the poison if it did not know the type of poison, but it could never deal with all poisons unconditionally.
I considered that the poison resistance skill was not a skill to withstand all poisons, but a skill to prevent further absorption the moment the body recognized the poison, and I even verified it by drinking poison myself to confirm it.
The poisons I created were a mixture of different poisons, and only one of them was a medicine to relieve nervous tension.
Poison resistance did not work on things that did not harm the body. Otherwise, even recovery potions and food would not be absorbed.
Therefore, I started mixing a small amount of non-poisonous medicine into the drinking water a week before the infiltration, and had the guild members take their time to ingest it.
Once absorbed by the body, even poison resistance would not be able to prevent it until the chemical was broken down in the internal organs.
Then, in front of the room where the people were to be killed, a second chemical was sprayed so that the poison would be generated in the blood of those who inhaled it.
Although not toxic enough to kill instantly, this neurotoxin impairs bodily functions.
After a while, the guild gradually became lively as I carefully stabbed each one of the paralyzed guild members.
“So they already noticed me…”
That was quicker than I had expected. It wasn’t so because the people I had killed had been discovered, but rather that the poison I had sprayed had spread, and the effects of the poison had begun to appear even in places where it had not been sprayed.
But I had gotten rid of more than half of them. From now on, I would directly kill those whose movements had slowed down.
With the Concealment, I put out the blade of my pendulum from the shadows of my hands and moved soundlessly down the passageway as if gliding.
“You…”
I threw the Pendulum at the stranger I encountered in the passageway, and slit the neck with the blade, it was easy to achieve with their movements being slowed down by the poison.
While doing so, I also used the pendulum and the Dark to extinguish the lamps and magical light sources that were lit in various places.
I believed most of the members had night vision, but the reason why the lights were still on was because humans could only use night vision up to Level 1.
Nevertheless, they would not turn on new lights if there was no serious problem in the battle. This was because they thought that darkness was their ally based on the common sense of an assassin they had until now.
They could not yet imagine what their enemies looked like. They could not imagine that their opponents would be more accustomed to the dark than they were.
That should work to my advantage, even if only slightly.
*Hyun!
“Agh!”
“You!”
The poison slowed them down slightly, and even though they understood that they were being attacked, in reality the darkness inhibited their perception of me as an enemy for a fraction of a second.
It was just for a moment or two but that small window of time was enough to kill them.
While scattering a cloth around me that was soaked with a chemical that turned into poison, I killed one guild member after another as I encountered them, and I made sure that those who were stuck within the area were also killed.
Some of them pretended to be unable to move, but attacking them with pendulums from the beginning caused no problems, and those who were obviously stronger fighters, I pierced their brains through their ears with a crossbow using Shadow Snatch.
*Doggon!
The large wooden door at the end of the passage shattered, and as if piercing through the remaining debris, a dwarf in armor with a huge halberd appeared and shouted at the sight of me, who was able to move freely just like a normal person in this poisoned air.
“You traitor! ash-haired!!!!”
[Sharga] [Race: Dwarf ??] [Rank 4]
[Magic: 135/150] [Strength: 393/450]
[Total Combat Power: 825 (With Physical Enhancements: 979)]
[Combat Madness Sharga]… a little earlier than planned, but it seemed my betrayal was made known to the guild by his voice.
I hurled a knife at him the moment I recognized him, and Sharga flicked it with his halberd.
He was very dexterous with that big spear-axe. As expected of a Rank 4 opponent, I felt that the poison was less effective on him, and I ran to my planned spot.
“I won’t let you get away, ash-haired!”
His big weapons and hard armor would not be a good match for me in a melee, even if he were alone, but I didn’t have time to waste on an impossible-to-win-against opponent.
A combat maniac… that was what he was called, and his Intimidate was extraordinary. However, as a warrior, he was so focused on the battle that he forgot to pay attention to his surroundings.
He was strong. But he didn’t realize why I had led him to this location, as he could not see the direction we were going towards.
*Crack…
A crack appeared in a part of the wall of the passage through which we passed.
Dogooooon!!!!
At that moment, a long-limbed deformity burst through the mud wall and collided with Sharga, who had been chasing me, causing a violent metallic clang.
“Gord!!!”
“Gaaaahhh!!!!”
Can’t wait to read more? Want to show your support? Click here to be a sponsor and get additional chapters ahead of time!
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