Chapter 393: Extermination of visible enemies (1/2)
‘Haah haah’, those short and rough breathes that didn’t have a shred of leisure were annoying.
Even when knowing they were his own, the man couldn’t help but be annoyed by how disturbing they are to his own thoughts, his face warping to show such displeasure.
He by no means will reduce his running speed.
He also won’t allow himself to deactivate the Skill that hides his presence.
He is a top of the crop pro.
He has been working in Tsige for more than 30 years, and has spread his name in the dark side of society despite being a demi-human.
He is a species of demi-human called Noga that maintains the appearance of a teen hyuman even when they grow, and this helped greatly in his work.
It was also fortunate that he had several racial abilities that were advantageous for stealth work and being a scout.
But he didn’t indulge in them and continued training himself.
That’s why he could run faster than not only hyumans but also demi-humans whose strength was their speed, and he could even maintain the special skill of a Noga for several days which was far from other Nogas that would reach their limit within only a few minutes.
(I was erasing my presence completely.)
(My timing should have been perfect since it was after some obvious weaklings had messed with him.)
(The attack point and the sniping point as well. There was no better place than there. I had his blind spot physically and mentally.)
(Also, I used my special mech bow to snipe him from afar. I paid the utmost of cares so that magic power detection wouldn’t catch me. And yet…)
And yet…
His sniping target definitely looked at him at the moment he was about to shoot.
If put in time frames, it would be less than 1 second before shooting.
Even with that, his consciousness had been lowered to the lowest possible, making him a clear top sniper at that instant, an assassin.
(Despite the attack being at a speed he should have experienced for the first time with an arrow that’s far shorter than your average one…he grabbed it with his hand.)
Thanks to the weaklings, the bodyguard of his target had been reeled out.
He had managed to confirm the slight moment of relaxation from her.
And yet, the result was his sniping moment being seen, avoided, and even had his sure-kill arrow grabbed with a hand.
No matter how skilled, no one could blame the man for having been shaken by this.
But that gave birth to even more mistakes.
Within the set of motions of the target, not a single time did he take his eyes off the sniper.
The moment he grabbed the arrow, he for some reason made eyes that looked exasperated or disappointed, and then shot the arrow back as if it were nothing.
No, to be more specific, it wasn’t a snipe or a shot, but throwing.
Despite that, that arrow he threw was far sharper and faster. It destroyed the mech bow and gouged out the upper part of his right arm in set, and disappeared in the horizon.
That time felt like an eternity but it was actually just a few seconds.
“!!!!”
Recalling all that, his sense of pain that should have been erased with drugs resurfaced in the shoulder of the man.
‘Is this what they call ‘phantom pain’?’ is what the man said as he wailed in self-derision.
A right arm on the verge of falling that could lead to death if left as it is.
The man was somewhat aware that he was being reckless here because he is prioritizing not dying rather than medical treatment.
(I messed up. Now that I failed to kill him with that first strike, there’s already no more opportunities for me.)
He thought over the situation, and after escaping at full speed while considering his next attack, the man reached a conclusion after careful consideration.
That he cannot win.
His brain was telling him that there was a despairing chasm of difference in ability.
After jumping one roof after the other while skillfully utilizing the shadows of the buildings as he was filled by negative thoughts, he finally jumped into an open window on the second floor of a building.
It was one of the many hideouts of this man that’s affiliated to the free assassination business in Tsige that’s known as Letter.
No matter if this is a hideout that has everything to function as a hideout, he can’t treat his seriously injured right arm here.
Even so, it does have the means to do emergency treatment before heading to the place of the healer he is closely acquainted to.
He must have already had in mind what to do first, he hurried to the shelf where the magic medicines are kept in —no, he tried to hurry.
His feet stopped cold, and his rough breathing calmed.
“Who is it?”
“…Hoh, that’s surprising. I shall give you a passing grade for that.”
The man directs his gaze to the side.
A single woman sat on a chair at the corner of the room, placed an elbow on the round table, and rested her chin on one hand without hiding.
“You are…”
“I see, so you have also investigated thoroughly the surroundings of your target, huh. You’ve got experience.”
“Tomoe, right?”
“Umu.” (Tomoe)
The man immediately noticed that it is one of the people that he had to be wary of around the surroundings of his target.
It is also one of the people he had to separate from the target at all cost if he wanted to succeed.
“…Looks like I have poked my head into an outrageously dangerous lot.”
“Right. Cease your attempt to kill yourself just because you know that you are no match. I don’t really have an interest in your employer, and have no intention of torturing you either after all.” (Tomoe)
“?!”
The man was shocked at the words of Tomoe that felt as if she had read his thoughts.
Tomoe complains under her breath ‘that would only increase the work pointlessly’.
“Oi, Mondo.” (Tomoe)
“Yes!” (Mondo)
“?!”
Tomoe suddenly said this, and a response came back from behind the man.
The man thought that just the fact that Tomoe was in this hideout was already fatally strange.
On top of that, judging from the positioning, it would mean that the man had been tailed by this Mondo person.
Even if he had resolved himself to take action, who knows if it would have rolled well or badly.
The experience and instincts of the man were both ringing alarms to not move no matter what.
“I think this serves just right-ja ga. What do ya think?” (Tomoe)
“…I think it would be somewhat sufficient.” (Mondo)
“Then… Oi, you, you said your name was Letter or something, right? Your real name is…Ruki, huh. I see.” (Tomoe)
“?! Wa…” (Ruki)
“Ruki, this is your punishment for attacking our Waka-ja. Keep us company for a bit. Mondo, I leave the rest to you.” (Tomoe)
“Yes, leave it to me.” (Mondo)
Tomoe then disappears.
Ruki, who had already dimmed his self-awareness to his own real name with how little he uses it, was sweating bullets at Tomoe calling out his real name with pinpoint accuracy.
“Just who in the world are you guys?” (Ruki)
“As you can see, we are a miscellaneous store working diligently in Tsige. Well, we have luckily fallen into this situation, so please be obedient here.” (Mondo)
“What part of your actions were lucky?! Those moves were as if you had predicted it all, as if you had known from the very beginni—” (Ruki)
“…By lucky, I meant you, Ruki. You attacked us, faced both Tomoe-sama and Boss, and yet, you are still alive. There’s no doubt you are lucky.” (Mondo)
The brown skinned Mondo speaks in a slightly informal way to Ruki.
Ruki can’t even begin to imagine what’s going to happen to him from here on.
But what he is sure about is that his will has no power in that decision.
Also, that they have created a use for him.
Ruki faces upwards.
Dreading the fact that he had taken a way too dangerous job just for that slight big achievement.
That sigh that came out from him, who looks like a middle schooler, was giving out the weariness that matched his age.
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Extermination of visible enemies.
The response of Capli-san to the bandit countermeasure was a really really simple one that was given as if it were natural.
She instead asked me back ‘What other way would you deal with the people that try to rob you of your precious cargo with unjust force?’.
She said that’s why they hire escorts even when doing rounds in the city.
Capli-san also said that she has an armed force rather than employing from outside.
In the cases when they have to travel long distances outside the city or have important cargo, they would employ adventurers through the Adventurer Guild, or request from adventurers they have a good relationship with.
By the way, the reason why Capli-san was the first one I asked about the bandit countermeasures was because, when I went to the Bronzeman Company, the two company representatives were having a heated discussion about how to improve the carriages.
When speaking of wagons, most have the wooden or cloth look, but the majority of them have their important parts made from metal, and many serve the core role of affecting the performance directly.
Research is being done in Tsige with a variety of materials that obviously have to be more resilient than wood or cloth and lighter.
Wagons wear down fast and are used a lot, so there’s frequent customers for both wooden and cloth made ones alike to the point it is greatly profitable.
Product developments are also being made by priority.
You could say that’s how the world works.
By the way, when I asked the Bronzeman Company about their countermeasures for the bandits, they said ‘if they pick a fight, we get them back’.
By using the craftsman network, they pinpoint the culprits and the collaborators up to the last one of them, corner them, and have them repent.
It is apparently especially so for blacksmiths, but unless you have quite the great creation, they don’t get targeted that much.
It has apparently turned into an industry that you wouldn’t want to put a hand on unless you have quite the resolve since their retribution practices are well known.