Translator: Denryuu; Editor: Ryunakama

The employee I had met twice by now introduced himself as Moyes.

「Hey there, Slade.」

「Hello.」

He seemed to welcome my arrival, perhaps because I had killed off the man he bore a grudge against. Since then, he’d assigned me many different quests. The faith he had in me made it feel as if we had an unspoken agreement.

Just because you work for the underground doesn’t mean you’re a bad person — Moyes was a prime example of this. The way he behaved at work didn’t do justice to him as a person. He was doing it for the money and to support himself, just like any other ordinary member of the workforce.

「I don’t really have anything good for you today.」

「I see.」

While most of the quests he assigned me paid considerably poorly, the rewards were already high by the underground guild’s standards. And as I had expected, every single one had something to do with Welger & Co. Moyes spread a few quest slips onto the countertop as he explained each one.

「This one entails going after a bounty head. And this one –」

「A bounty head?」

「Oh yeah, I should’ve explained. You go after a fella who has some bounty on his head, and catch him dead or alive to get the cash. Something like that. It’s a little different from your usual assassination — first to get him wins.」

「Hmm.」

Letting him prattle on about the other quests, I read the quest slip for ‘Bounty Head Capture’ in detail.

Bounty: 40 million | Age: 20s | Sex: Male | Pupils: Black
Wanted for: Destruction of the underground arena
Other information:
Goes by multiple names, prefers Hamel, Roland, Bjorn, Leon or Kruger. Possesses a skill that affects awareness of his presence.

Well, if it isn’t me.

While there was even a portrait included, it was so poorly drawn that I wouldn’t be recognised even on a crowded street in broad daylight. I suppose whoever requested this hunt must have had something to do with the underground arena. It was because of me that the cash flow from it had stopped, so of course he would hate me.

But… how did he know my skill? On top of that, he also knew that I went by many names. No way this was guesswork — he had been spot on, to the extent that the names listed were indeed the ones I went by the most.

「…」

「Hm? You interested in this one, Slade?」

Taking care not to act unnaturally, I had Moyes confirm the details for me. The arena I was thinking about was indeed the same one — the one that Rina that fought in — and as I already knew, the events held there had been disrupted. They were now searching for the man behind its destruction.

I wasn’t the one who blew it up, but doing so had been on my laundry list at the time, so I can see how the misconception arose.

「Seishi-fumon… ‘dead or alive’. Either bring him back alive, or produce evidence that you killed him.」

「Okay. This underground arena… I wonder if the requestor can show me the place personally」, I asked, feigning ignorance.

「They have ceased operation, unfortunately.」

But of course.

「Only sadists would appreciate what goes on there anyway… but you seem interested. That’s unusual」, said Moyes, glancing at me as he aligned the pile of documents in front of him.

Closing my eyes, I produced a deeply pained expression.

「I was wondering if it could possibly be that… I’ll just put it flatly. One of my friends had a bad time in that place…」

I mean, saying that Rina had had a bad time wasn’t a lie, especially if I hadn’t found her there. But having left some ambiguity in my statement, maybe Moyes thought that a friend of mine had died within the walls of the arena.

「Ah, I see…」, he replied softly.

「I never expected to hear of this matter again, especially in a place like this. The requestor appears to be someone involved in the management of that arena… and I’d like to get my revenge on him if possible.」

I had put all my theatrical skills into action to make the act more believable, choosing my tone of voice and expressions carefully. Looking troubled, Moyes heaved a deep sigh.

「It really is a dog-eat-dog world」, I muttered, tapping my finger on the counter. 「Forgive the monologue.」

「You will hear nothing of this.」

Despite appearances, Moyes seemed like an easy person to appeal to emotionally.

「This was requested by a former Vadenhaag nobleman. Ben Amstel. He was once a baron.」

Since most of the audience members in that arena had been from the upper echelons of society, I wasn’t surprised to hear that. I remembered hearing that those who had been nobles before the war had their nobility stripped from them in order to facilitate the establishment of Congress.

But how did that guy find out about me…?

Moyes called out to me as I stood up.

「Slade. This quest goes deeper than it looks, is what I feel. Don’t dig too deep.」

I left without looking back.

I made my way to a village situated in the northwest region of Vadenhaag, barely a stone’s throw away from Ferland. According to Queen Leyte, the part of the country that had once been under Ben Amstel was near Ferland as well.

「He is gentle and diligent in his duties.」

That was the queen’s impression of him — although every person has at least two sides to them. The more she told me, the more I was certain that he had nothing to do with me. He might have been a requestor long ago, but not anymore.

I was told that the former baron was living in this village, one of many he had once ruled over.

Imir, where the entrance to the underground arena had been, was about two hours away by horse carriage. I found the villagers warm and welcoming, possibly because it was rare to see an outsider like me around here. After allowing for some small talk, I inquired of Amstel’s current address.

「Amstel-sama? He lives in a mansion at the end of this path.」

I tipped the villager a little, and he told me more about the former noble. His accounts were consistent with those of Leyte’s, saying that Amstel was diligent and gentle. Thanking him, I headed for the mansion.

The village was small, and the fact that the mansion had a perimeter about twice that of the other houses made it instantly recognisable. Looking at the way it was constructed, I felt that I could infiltrate it without much effort. But the moment I spotted the living room, three unusual presences — possibly those of bodyguards — revealed themselves.

「…」

They had tried to thin out their presence, but left traces of it lying around, allowing me to gauge their power level. Activating my skill, I kicked off the ground and scaled the outer wall in one movement. I had slipped into the mansion undetected within a literal blink of an eye.

I spotted a bodyguard in the corridor. Seeing that he had let his guard down entirely, I crept up behind him and relieved him of the knife he had hidden on himself. He noticed me only when I had a hand over his mouth and nose — way too late. Gripping the knife in a backhand manner, I slid it into his heart.

Making sure that he was dead, I carried his corpse into a room. I searched him, and the objects I found told me that he had been a professional assassin too.

「There’s no need to erase your presence. Just blend in with the surroundings」, I said to the dead body.

By the time I stepped out of the room, two men were closing in on me from opposite ends of the corridor. Even if they hadn’t noticed me, they must surely have realised that their ally had been killed. I found the malevolence in their eyes rather familiar, as if I had seen it somewhere before.

I noticed the telltale signature of skills being used. The man to my right extended a hand in my direction and grabbed the light overhead. When his arm contracted, he was hoisted into the air and he tried to bring his knife down on me. The one on the left was more straightforward. He simply ran along the wall and then onto the ceiling.

「Those are good skills you have there.」

I activated ‘Faint Shadow’ again. When I moved out of the spotlight, the eyeballs of the man above me darted left and right. I knew I had given him the slip. Realising that things had gone south, he flung his hand at a window frame, hoping to carry himself to relative safety.

But it was too late for him. I aimed for the side of his head and my knife struck true. I felt some resistance, and knew that I had cut through bone and reached his brain itself. Dead before his hand reached its target, he tumbled onto the floor.

「You managed to aim at the head of a moving target… all while seeing a skill for the first time –!?」, exclaimed the only man left standing in surprise.

He was clearly at a loss for whether to flee or to stand his ground. No matter how much one trains, one inevitably ends up like this when faced with a huge difference in power. Still standing on the wall, he only hesitated for a split second.

It was more than enough for me.

I threw the knife at him before that split second had passed. His chest appeared to suck it in like a vacuum sweeping up dust.

「Like an adult and a child…」

Those were his last words.

「It’s my first time seeing either of your skills. But only when the unexpected occurs will you have your ability tested.」

Experience and composure, only the former of which I had a slight advantage in.

But that was what decided the battle.