by Sakon Kaidou
“Ellie...”
Before meeting her today, I’d believed that the second princess was a selfish little girl. Elizabeth S. Altar was said to be whimsical, excessively vigorous, really insolent, and so full of curiosity that it was troubling.
That wasn’t really wrong. After all, she had escaped the place she was staying at just to go sightseeing around Gideon, completely neglecting to take any retinue with her. However, her actions could have been spurred by the loneliness caused by not having any family time with her sisters anymore.
“Today, however, I was very happy!” she burst out. “I had lots of fun playing with you, Marie! This was my first time partaking in such activities!” Ellie grabbed my hand in both of hers and gave me a smile reminiscent of a Sun peeking out from behind the darkest clouds.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” I said.
“I enjoyed it very much! It was a wonderful time! Like from my magic picture books! However...” She cast her eyes down and momentarily fell silent. “However... this magical time is ending.”
Ellie let go of my hand and turned her back to me.
“I think I will go back now.”
“Are you satisfied, Ellie?” I asked.
“Very! Thanks to you helping me cheer up, I will be able to do my duties better.” Still turning away from me, Ellie put her hands together. “Someday, when I become really good at my duties, I will take over for my elder sister and give her some time to rest!” she said before turning around and giving me a full smile. “Then, she and I will walk around Gideon, just like we did today!”
Albeit filled with determination, Ellie’s words displayed nothing but the dream of a little child. Considering her and her sister’s positions, it was really questionable that it could come true. However...
“Great. I’m sure you’ll be able to do that.”
That wasn’t a lie, but my very own desire.
From the very bottom of my heart, I wished for this pure girl’s dream to come true.
That was why I decided to help her.
◆◆◆
???
“The target and the accompanying person are on the move. Likely heading for Count Gideon’s residence in the first district... the place she is staying at.”
“Our Magic Cameras got them on record. We have enough ‘proof’ to frame that Master as the culprit. The time is right.”
“Inform the parties responsible for spreading false information all over the city. Once we gather, we will assassinate the second princess of the Kingdom of Altar — Elizabeth S. Altar.”
Side Story: A Day Off in Gideon — Night
???
Come eventide, the two of us were walking through the dimly-lit streets.
The way we held hands might’ve made us look like sisters or mother and child, which was quite curious when I considered the fact that my avatar, Marie, was something akin to a daughter of my own.
As we walked, I chose to take us through a relatively empty alleyway. There were two reasons for that. The first was the fact that it would get us to our destination, Count Gideon’s residence, about ten-odd minutes earlier, while the second was...
“Stop,” I heard someone say, and I turned around.
A moment later, I felt something pass through my neck.
Then — after a momentary shiver — my head, separated from my body, fell to the ground.
◆◆◆
Leader of the professional assassin group “The Reaper’s Pinky,” Dead Hand, Roux Diene
“Target secured,” I said. “The accompanying person is confirmed dead.”
Within my vision, I could see the now-headless Master woman turn into particles of light and vanish.
The target, the second princess, had fainted due to the sight before her.
“Hmph,” I scoffed. “She’s a Master, you know? Not like she’ll die.”
They were always like that. When driven to death’s door, they just vanished and came back three days later as if it was no big deal. If that wasn’t bad enough, they also had ridiculous powers, Embryos, in their arsenal. It was really bothersome for us that they had their own networks.
To us, a group that murdered by the request of nobles and other rich people, hunting immortal targets wasn’t worth the trouble, causing us to ignore most such requests. However, in this situation, the fact that a Master was accompanying our target was actually convenient.
“You have the ‘proof,’ right?” I asked.
“We’ve recorded her walking through the town alongside the target,” answered one of my subordinates as he took out a crystal used for visual recording. “After we kill the princess, anonymously giving this ‘proof’ to the right people will get her accused of kidnapping and killing the princess. That will get her on every country’s wanted list.”
Truth Discernment could reveal any fabricated evidence as fake, but what we had was completely legitimate, so there was no need for us to worry on that front.
The woman had used Illusion to make the princess look different, but that was a skill that only worked on the minds of living things, having no effect on the inorganic. She had also changed her status display by using Disguise, but that was unrelated to our cameras. Not to mention that I — being a skilled Assassin — had high-level Mind’s Eye and Reveal skills, allowing me to see right through such tricks. Mind you, the fact that my low-rank job subordinates hadn’t been able to see through it meant that her skills were very high-level.
It was a mystery why a mere Journalist had Illusion and Disguise at her disposal, but since those skills weren’t battle-related, it was entirely possible that she’d gotten them from a different job.
“Killing royalty instantly gets you on all the wanted lists,” I said. “Even if she revives, she’ll be out in the gaol.”
She’s as good as dead at that point, I thought.
“This is going well,” said one of my subordinates.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “We only have to deal with a powerless woman and a child, so this is far easier than anything we originally planned.”
We’d expected having to fight the Royal Guard or infiltrating the residence to poison her. However, for some reason, she’d gone outside all on her own and even ended up finding us a nice scapegoat. This situation was a windfall if I ever saw one.
“Marquis Borozel will enjoy this news,” I muttered.
“Hmmm...? So it wasn’t Count Brittis,” replied someone who wasn’t my subordinate.
A moment later, the subordinate holding the princess screamed as blood burst out of his limbs.
First, I realized that his tendons had been severed.
Then, I saw that the princess was no longer unconscious and that her eyes were wide open.
Finally, I noticed that she was holding a dagger of a sinister design.
Thus, I concluded that she wasn’t the princess, but an enemy.
“Kill her!” I commanded my subordinates, who instantly and simultaneously threw poisoned knives at her.
However, the enemy bearing the appearance of the princess jumped backwards, moved behind the subordinate who’d lost his tendons, and used him as a shield. All the knives sunk into him and didn’t even give him a moment to scream before he died.
“What a terrible thing to do,” she said, still holding the corpse. “However, I say that such deaths are a given for fiends trying to kill an innocent child.”
She then threw the body away and revealed herself, looking completely unlike the princess.
No longer bright and blonde, her hair had become as black as midnight itself. She was now clad in one of the so-called “men’s suits,” sometimes used in places like Dryfe and Caldina. Despite it being sundown, she also wore a pair of sunglasses. Her stature was completely different, as well, for she was now an adult.
The only things that were the same about her were the dagger in her hand and the fox mask she wore on the side of her face.
“I must say, Art of Transformation sure takes a tol
l on SP when you take the shape of someone with a very different physique,” she said.
She now had the visage of the Master that we’d beheaded mere moments ago, and the shining crest on the back of her left hand proved that she was the exact same person.
“You...!”
“Oh? What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Why is she alive? I thought stunned. How did she transform? Isn’t she a Journalist?
As such questions went through my head, I used Reveal to take a look at her stats.
Marie Adler
Job: Journalist
Level: 32 (Total Level: 33)
Sure enough, I could see it. She was a mere Journalist who barely crossed level 30.
“What is it? It’s rude to stare at people, you know?” she said.
“Did you come back to life using an Embryo skill?” I demanded.
It will all make sense if she did, I thought.
“Why would I need to come back to life if I never died?”
“Where’s the real princess?” I demanded. “When did you replace her?”
“Replace her? But I’ve been here from the start, and—” Before she could finish her sentence, a subordinate positioned in one of the buildings to the side of the alley jumped out, got behind her and swung his blade at her neck. The moment it sunk into her body, she became particles of light and vanished.
At the same time, however, the subordinate who’d attacked her fainted and fell to the ground.
“And there was no one here but me,” her voice reached my ears.
It came from the roof of the building the subordinate had jumped out of.
Looking up, I saw that her appearance had changed yet again. Her body was now shrouded in a dark mist, giving her form a vagueness that made it hard for me to make her out. All I could be certain of was the fact that she wore the fox mask, held a dagger in her left hand, and held a strange pistol in her right.
“...!”
Shock filled me as my Reveal skill — still active — gave me completely different results than before.
■■■■■ ■■■■■
Job: ■■■■■ ■■■■■■
Level: ■■■ (Total Level: ■■■)
I could no longer see her name, her job, or even get a glimpse of her stats.
I’d experienced this when I was training to be an Assassin.
That was how the results looked when my Reveal had a lower skill level than the person’s Disguise.
However, I was an experienced Dead Hand — a high-rank job from the assassin grouping — and my Reveal skill level had already reached the maximum of 10.
Is her Disguise above that? I thought.
“It can’t be,” I muttered, yet I was hardly able to deny what I was seeing.
Another thing of note was the fact that my Reveal still got the right number of characters.
“It can’t be,” I repeated to myself, for it just didn’t seem right to me.
The main job level — not the total level — was in the triple digits.
At the very least, it was obvious that it wasn’t Journalist, for that was a low-rank job with a maximum level of 50.
The job and low stats I’d seen before were merely the result of Disguise or a similar skill, while this was her true form. The triple digits in her job could only mean two things — that she’d also reached the maximum on a high-rank job, or...
“What... What are you?!” I howled.
My question made her form a callous smile, making it seem as though she’d been waiting for it.
“‘I am a shade,’” she spoke, each word thick with emotion. “‘I am the reflection of all the wrongs you’ve committed — the mortal phantasm sent to pull you into the darkness...’”
Her tone didn’t have any of the ridicule from before. It was cold and theatrical in delivery.
“‘Into the Shadow,’” she went on with emphasis and grandeur, spreading her arms to the sides as if she stood before an audience.
“Credit for those words goes to Chapter 1 of Nagisa Ichimiya’s hit man superpower battle manga, Into the Shadow,” she added, making as little sense as before, as her tone did a complete turnaround and returned to normal.
The fact that her stats were still Disguised and that she’d just killed my subordinates didn’t change. Me and the rest of the subordinates still standing were intently observing her every single move.
“U-UWAAHHH!” screamed the new guy in our midst as he dashed towards her, unable to bear the pressure. It was a foolish thing to do, but if his sacrifice gave us an opening, then it would be worth it.
Not saying a word, the woman moved only her hand. With a snap of the wrist, she emptied the chambers on her revolver-like gun and loaded it with white and black bullets before pulling the trigger.
The muzzle was pointed in a completely irrelevant direction, but...
“GERGHGHGHGHGHGHGH!”
...what came out of it was a black and white, bullet-like creature that sounded a strange voice as it left the gun, changed its trajectory in an impossible manner. It sunk into the new guy’s body.
Without as much as a groan, he collapsed to the ground and became unable to move a finger.
It was as if he’d been completely paralyzed.
Though alive, there was nothing he could do.
The woman had done this with barely any effort — by merely moving her hand.
“What’s wrong?” she asked while looking down on us. “Getting cold feet? Cold sweat? Heartbeat too fast? About to break?” Her eyes were hidden behind both the mist and the sunglasses. “Is that how you become when facing something other than ‘powerless women and children’?”
I could tell that the light in her gaze was still cold.
“I’m probably not one to talk, though,” she said as she sighed. “When attacked by the land-warship, all I could do was run away. It was scary, and even though I was still in Dendro, I felt as though I could actually be killed... Yes, even I’m afraid of strong enemies.”
Even as she spoke of something that had scared her, her expression didn’t show a hint of fear. She was merely looking down on us, her gaze dense with coldness.
“That’s why...” she continued. “...I’m only good at cleaning up ‘powerless assassins’ like you.”
Following that proclamation, she made her move.
We tried to stop whatever she was doing, but the mist shrouding her concealed all her actions. A few of my subordinates threw knives at her again, but they all got deflected. Then, from behind the mist, she threw something in our direction.
It was an orb with a fuse on it — a bomb.
We tried distancing ourselves from it, but the fuse burned up far too quickly, blowing up and covering a part of the alley with an intense burst of... smoke.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that it wasn’t even a harmful kind.
“Don’t panic! It’s just a Smokebomb!”
Realizing that she might’ve used our reduced vision to kill us, we began to look around for her. I noticed her soon enough, but she instantly hid herself within the smoke. Thinking that she was using this smokescreen to get away from us, I got ready to do what I had to. However, a moment later, five silhouettes walked out of the smoke, all looking exactly like the woman.
Naturally, I was overcome with shock.
An Illusion...? No, this is above that! I thought.
“Get rid of the fakes! Throw!” I shouted my orders to my subordinates.
“Throw!” they said as they showered the five figures with throwing weapons.
It didn’t matter if they aimed well. The knives would simply pass through the fakes, while the real one would block it. That would help us determine which one we had to focus on.
However, the result was completely unlike what I’d expected. Each and every one of the five figures moved in different ways to deflect all the throwing weapons heading in their direction.
“They... They�
��re all real?!” I couldn’t hold my surprise.
“Sadly for you, my Shadow Clone Technique creates corporeal bodies,” she said.
Shadow Clone Technique?! I thought, shocked yet again. That was the name of a skill used by a Tenchi-exclusive job — Ninja.
So when she took the form of the princess, she... I see! So she’s...!
“Ugaah...!” I heard my subordinates begin to panic, clearly because they couldn’t tell which one was real.
The skill had created four clones that had the exact same presence as the original, making it difficult to tell which was the real one. Naturally, my subordinates were afraid of the person capable of this.
However, I was the only one who knew that her level was in the triple digits. If they were to find that out, their fear would become so great, it would hamper their ability to act. If that were to happen, I’d no longer have any chance of winning.
“Don’t falter!” I shouted. “We have the numbers! Go two-on-one!”
“Understood!” they shouted as they charged at the clones.
A pair for each of them.
If logic applied, clones were weaker than the original. My subordinates should have a chance if they took advantage of their numbers.
Also, having them occupied like this gave me more options.
Or so I thought...
“Their levels sure are low,” said one clone.
“Truly,” agreed another.
“They don’t require many of our tricks.”
“Let’s refrain from using Arc-en-Ciel, then, shall we?”
“Roger.”
Even while fighting in pairs, they were still at a disadvantage against the clones. In fact, some had already lost their partner. Though supposedly weaker than the original, the clones were surpassing pairs of Assassins with a grasp of the trade’s techniques.
Unlike me, they didn’t have the high-rank job of Dead Hand, but they were capable Assassins nonetheless. And yet, they were getting disposed of so easily...
“Most people think that the biggest difference an Embryo makes are its unique skills,” a clone spoke up. “I believe that to be both right and wrong. After all, even tians can have special skills if they get a UBM special reward.”