<146 - Night Play>
“Oknodie. I’ll allow you the honor of teaching me the technique of extracting souls ♡”
While I was diligently hunting insects with my insect-catching net to clear the collection achievement, an unwelcome guest approached me.
Doo roo roo.
As the sound of a cricket echoed, of course, I had no idea what was going on.
“What’s that?”
“It’s useless to play dumb ♡ My subordinates already saw it at the exam venue and informed me ♡”
If she’s talking about the exam venue, she must be referring to the time I watched the test between mobs and Jakku during the day.
But did I use a technique to extract souls?
No, I only extracted Dark Mana.
Ah, she must have wanted that!
It could appear that way to someone who doesn’t know.
“Why should I tell you?”
“I’ll give you points ♡”
The daring Princess Masugaki confidently wrote down 5000 points in her notebook and presented it.
Truly, a bold bid from the princess of the Holy Central Empire, the current hegemonic state of the continent.
But it wasn’t like I said that hoping for points.
“No!”
“…With 5000 points, you could also get a permit to possess artifacts!”
“I have plenty of points too.”
I wasn’t joking.
I’ve steadily collected points for later events, and the total is well over three hundred thousand when counting all the little bits.
To other students, 5000 points might be a fortune capable of buying a soul.
But for me, accumulating points while having this conversation is the real deal.
“Ah, got it!”
Doo roo roo.
After putting the captured cricket into the collection sorting box for storage, I was able to fill my insect collection with 20 different kinds.
[Insect Collection: Beginner Level 2 achievement unlocked.]
[Acquired title [Goo Fabre].]
[Title effect: All activities consume 0.1% less stamina.]
[Achievement bonus: Acquired 500 points.]
While others are focused on their studies, I’m busy upgrading my specs by diligently filling various encyclopedias and collecting titles instead of studying what I already know.
This is how a veteran player can pull ahead in a time game against newbies.
“Hmph. Playing games like that makes you sound like a gooey nobodies ♡ How pitiful♡”
“What? What great things do you spend your time on?”
“If you want bugs, just ask your subordinates, and give them rewards commensurate with their contributions! Running around myself is so old-fashioned~?”
Princess Masugaki continued her cute yet annoying tone even when talking to a girl.
She was a princess with a cute appearance that was hard to hate, especially since her real self was a guy!
“Hmph. As if I can’t do it! I just feel bad using others!”
“Is that why you make Isabel cook for you every day?”
“Ugh! How do you know that?!”
“You get snacks from Arcadia at the tea parties, right?”
“Ugh. Er, she invited me first!”
“Receiving wild vegetables gathered by Dorothy is~?”
“Eww. How do you know everything?!”
Like a stalker, she seems to know it all!
“It’s really not different from usual. This time, I’m just getting points instead of food ♡”
She has been so thorough in her stalking.
She didn’t seem like she would easily give up.
“Fine. I’ll tell you. But you have to wager something other than points.”
“What do you want~?”
“A bet!”
“A bet…?”
“If you win against me in a duel, I’ll teach you the technique I used to subjugate Jakku during the Mana Evaluation Test. But if you lose, you have to grant my request!”
Princess Masugaki pouted her lips.
“Yuck ♡”
I was stunned, not expecting a rejection.
“Why?”
“You’re the top student. You’re too strong ♡”
“I’m not going to use strength for this bet!”
“How about magic?”
“It’s not a magic duel either!”
“Hmph~. Let me hear it and decide. What’s the category? ♡”
“A bug-collecting competition!”
“A bug-collecting… Yuck. That’s so undignified~. Is there really any reason to make that the bet~?”
“Because I’m collecting insects!”
“Are you planning to become an insect mage~?”
“Anyway, if I win, I’ll take all the bugs you collected. If you don’t like that, then I won’t do it!”
At least I can get the title of Bug Collector while dragging the princess into this bet.
It seemed the princess thought losing wouldn’t be a loss either, as she readily accepted the wager.
“Alright ♡”
And thus, the bet began.
*
Oknodie hadn’t returned to the dormitory.
This wasn’t the first time.
She often wandered aimlessly, saying things like the secret training ground or hidden pieces.
But Hestia felt worried.
Today, rumors about what she had done at the lower class exam venue were spreading throughout the dormitory.
“Oknodie bound a lower class student’s soul and made them swear absolute obedience!”
“Has the Dark Princess finally begun her first steps!”
“She might be gathering lower-class souls to level up to a Demon Lord class. It’s so scary…!”
Oknodie had begun to open her eyes to evil!
Hestia certainly didn’t believe the rumors.
“Jiang. I want to find Oknodie. Please help me just this once.”
“Her? I think it would be better to leave her alone.”
“Don’t say something that is too harsh. I can tolerate countless abuses for being a berserker during my mercenary life, but it never really felt okay.”
Hestia knew.
The unjust humiliation one feels.
Even she, who had grown accustomed to slander and false accusations, thought that the current rumors surrounding Oknodie were seriously over the line.
“It’s not rare for assassins. If their identity is revealed, they could lose their heads. If there’s no threat to her life, it’s just luck.”
Jiang, with his black bobbed hair, carved away at a statue with his dagger, checking to see if it was properly chiseled against the moonlight, without feeling any tension.
This was proof that the dangers associated with the assassin class were that serious.
“But Oknodie is a friend.”
Friend.
The emergence of a word she thought would never be associated with her stopped Jiang’s hands.
His focus on his assignment for the [Let’s Become a Moonlight Sculptor] lecture had wavered.
An assassin should maintain a clear state of mind even in the middle of a marketplace if one wants it.
If his concentration could be disrupted by just one word, it meant he still had far to go in terms of mental discipline as an assassin.
‘This is troublesome.’
His mentor had once said.
Kill anything that causes hesitation.
Otherwise, it will kill you.
Jiang couldn’t bring himself to do that.
He didn’t dislike Oknodie, nor was he confident he could kill her with his own strength, even if he wanted to.
To regain that focus, he needed to kill the source of his worries.
If he couldn’t get rid of Oknodie, then confirming with Hestia that there were no threats surrounding her would be the way to eliminate the hindrance called worry.
“Alright. I’ll help you.”
“Thanks. I knew you would help me.”
“I was just feeling curious about where that troublesome girl has been wasting her time this time.”
“Fufu. That’s how good kids are. Oknodie really has a lot of good people around her.”
“…Who said anyone was good?”
Jiang found Hestia’s compliments uncomfortable.
He knew best that he wasn’t a good person.
He had killed someone before.
He had never bothered to discuss right or wrong.
He just did what needed to be done.
Yet if he could be considered a good person, then Hestia’s standards for goodness must be terribly flawed.
‘This is really troublesome. Oknodie, were you feeling like this too?’
The worst of evils being called a good child.
The awkwardness, coupled with an impulsive desire to reject that notion, was bothersome.
He really wanted to be a good child.
He wanted to be a gentle existence like all these kind-hearted prey.
A longing to change from the deepest part of his chest to something soft stabbed at him like a thorn.
“First, we have to find a place Oknodie might go in the Room of Double-sided Strips, right?”
“Not that way.”
Hestia was taken aback.
“Do you know where Oknodie went?”
“I hid a Thousand-Mile Scent. That girl finds it impossible to search when she wanders aimlessly all over the place.”
“Impressive. Using such an eastern item.”
“My mentor is from the East.”
Jiang led the way, arriving at a place where mosquitoes had once swarmed the forest.
“…Is Oknodie really here?”
“Don’t be scared. The mosquitoes moved their habitat near the academy last time and got wiped out.”
Among the seniors, for some reason, the value of the Bloodstone that mosquitoes produced was surging, making it even harder to find them.
Jiang didn’t disclose that news to Hestia.
There wasn’t any reason to, and a sound more pressing caught his ear.
Clang clang…
Crash crash…
The sound of metal clashing echoed from afar.
Oknodie was with someone else.
And that someone was at a level where a confrontation with her could occur.
“I’m going to increase my speed.”
With a ghostly pace gliding through the forest, Jiang’s movement sped up as he dashed after Hestia, who was desperately trying to keep up while tripping over branches, thick bushes, and the rustling shadows of trees swaying in the night breeze, in an atmosphere where finding a corpse wouldn’t even be unusual.
Ahead, Jiang stood still.
“Is that… the princess?”
“Probably.”
“What are they doing?”
The second princess, throwing tweezers into tree holes, and Oknodie, using a wide shield as if it were a rock to block, were throwing stones at the fleeing princess.
This nighttime fight, a bit too ruthless for a childhood game, surprisingly showed the princess holding the upper hand.
“Stop it! Don’t throw, you bad princess!”
Puff~. Silly Oknodie ♡ I said we were having a bug-collecting bet, didn’t I? I never set a rule that said you can’t kill the bugs you caught~? If I can’t find them, then you can just kill whatever you found ♡
“Ha… So you’ve been bug-collecting all night…”
With Jiang’s sigh, Hestia felt exasperated as well.
If the Imperial Assassination Order had come out, at least they could have taken action, but it felt like waiting for an impatient princess to directly assault Oknodie instead was adding salt to the wound.
Despite the urgency, it felt too childish, and she couldn’t bring herself to intervene.
