“Eh?”
By the campfire, aside from Truth, the other three barely had time to react to Bazelle’s sudden appearance and disappearance.
Only Karen instinctively tried to grip her rune greatsword.
An assassin? When did he get here?!
And so strong, terrifyingly strong! The man got right up in my face and I still couldn’t sense a thing.
If he hadn’t shown himself, I’d never have known there was an assassin nearby!
What was he after—robbery? Or was he here to assassinate Truth?
After all, for an assassin of that level to come after a Second Tier Magic Knight like myself or even Mr. Digger, that’d be like using a broadsword to kill a chicken.
The only likely target was Truth—only a noble young lady like her would warrant being hunted by such a powerful assassin!
And if that were really the case, then there was nothing Karen could do.
Sorry, but my level’s too low; all I could do is watch helplessly as the cute little priestess is snuffed out.
But in the very next second, Karen watched in astonishment as Bazelle knelt respectfully before Truth, and then spotted the golden emblem on his chest:
“That’s a… Sun Emblem?”
……
As a level 67 scout, even Bazelle couldn’t believe it had taken him an entire afternoon to finally track down Truth.
When he first arrived in Deya City, Bazelle discovered that after finishing healing the followers, Truth had vanished straight into the cathedral—and after that, no matter how hard he searched, he couldn’t find a single trace…
It was bizarre. No matter what, the Saintess was still only a First Tier Priest, right?
How could she have such powerful anti-tracking abilities? Bazelle was completely stumped.
Of course, Truth had actually left the cathedral by taking on the form of a Blood Demon and slipping out of the city undetected.
There was simply no way a Mid-tier Scout could have caught on.
So, Bazelle had no choice but to grit his teeth and conduct a thorough, methodical search.
In the end, it was only after asking President Edwin at the Adventurers’ Association by the city’s edge that he learned of Truth’s whereabouts, and hurriedly rushed to the outskirts dungeon—where he finally found the four of them resting by the campfire.
“What a half-hearted disguise…”
That was Bazelle’s first thought on seeing Truth.
Edwin had told him that Her Holiness the Saintess was in disguise, so he’d need to be careful, and Bazelle had assumed the disguise must be extremely elaborate if it had taken him this long to find her—but this was it?
Just swapping hair and eye color counts as a disguise? Looks more like she went for a beauty treatment, a shampoo and dye job…
And what was with the other three? Hadn’t they ever seen Her Holiness the Saintess’s real face? Were they playing dumb, acting along for her benefit?
Forget it. As a scout, his duty was only to deliver the message; everything else was none of his business.
So, without hesitation, Bazelle appeared before everyone, revealed his Sun Emblem, then immediately knelt on one knee in front of Truth and presented the envelope containing Firefall Island’s approximate coordinates for the coming month.
He had no idea what kind of play the Saintess was acting out with these three weaklings, so he very sensibly kept his mouth shut, and as soon as Truth accepted the envelope, he vanished once again into the darkness…
Karen and the others remained silent for a long time, all staring at Truth and breaking into a cold sweat.
Wait a minute—what was someone from the Sun Family doing here, and why did he just kneel to the little priestess right off the bat?!
Truth, however, was studying the envelope’s contents thoughtfully:
“Mm, so that’s the route…”
According to the letter, Firefall Island would be heading to a desert region called the “Land of Exile,” and would pass through the “Northern Frontier Mountains,” the border between the Sylvia Kingdom and the Northern Empire, in a few days.
This made things much easier. Truth gave a cold laugh; now she could finally see what that so-called Heavenly Fire was really made of, to have the nerve to send a lackey to blast apart her mist!
“Um… Miss Ariel?”
Once Truth put away the envelope, Karen finally mustered the courage to ask:
“That senior just now, who was he?”
“Just a messenger. Why?”
“A messenger?! Then… then can I ask what his class and tier are…?” Karen couldn’t believe that a mere messenger could be stronger than her.
“Sixth Tier Assassin. But I figure he doesn’t know many assassination skills—he’s focused all his training on scouting, so more accurately, he should be called a scout.”
“Sixth Tier?!”
Karen was so shocked by Truth’s answer that she nearly jumped.
As a native-born Deyan, her biggest lifelong dream had been to become a Fourth Tier Magic Knight.
If she was feeling bold, she’d imagine someday breaking through to Fifth Tier.
Fifth Tier! That kind of power would be revered by thousands in any small city.
Karen often dreamed of being addressed respectfully as “Lady Knight.”
But today, she’d seen a Sixth Tier senior running errands as a messenger—and kneeling to a First Tier Priest…
It was as if you were still an undergraduate, looking forward to a bright future, and suddenly discovered that your grad school students were delivering food for you—and groveling for a five-star review… utterly soul-crushing.
She’d heard stories about how cutthroat the big cities were, but she’d never imagined things were this extreme! For a moment, Karen just couldn’t accept it.
No, maybe this was just a special case. After all, he was from the Sun Family—a major clan, so high standards were normal, right?
With this thought in mind, Karen cautiously asked what Fifth and Sixth Tier really meant in this world.
“Fifth or sixth? About the same as a stray dog by the roadside,” said Truth, putting the envelope away.
“What?! Then… then how high do you have to be to count as above average?” Once again, Truth’s answer shocked Karen to the core.
A stray dog by the roadside… was her lifelong dream really so worthless?
“At least Ninth Rank, I’d say.”
In Truth’s view, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Tier might all be called high rank, but really, only Ninth Rank gave you any real choices in this world.
Below Ninth Rank, Adventurers didn’t last more than a few rounds against King-level Adventurers—let alone the Gods.
Without some extraordinary stroke of luck, most people would remain trapped within the rules set by the Gods until death.
But at Ninth Rank, things changed. Adventurers at this tier all had their own specialties; though they still couldn’t beat a King, they could at least eke out a living.
You could say that only at Ninth Rank was the “free mode” of this world unlocked.
At that point, the Gods were no longer shackles in your eyes, but merely factions you could choose to join—or not.
You could side with the Gods, or go see things you’d never imagined, or seek out the buried truths, or even join the Demons and take revenge on the Gods, or tease the Saintess, and so on.
But if you were a Seventh or Eighth Tier Adventurer and tried any of that…
You’d probably be scattered to the wind before your ashes hit the ground.
With that, Karen fell into a long, deep existential crisis.
What did she mean, Ninth Rank was just “above average”?
Wasn’t that like calling a D cup “flat-chested”…?
“So you really are from the Sun Family?!”
Anderson, who’d been observing from the side, was shocked as well.
He’d boldly guessed before that Truth might hail from one of the major powers, but even so, he’d underestimated things—he’d never dreamed Truth was from Sylvia’s number one family.
“Mm-hmm.”
Truth nodded repeatedly. After all, the Sun Family needed her help right now, so making use of their reputation shouldn’t be a problem, right?
“Then… if Ninth Rank is only above average, what kind of work can you even find at that level?” Kovado also asked, full of curiosity.
As a First Tier Summoner, Ninth Rank was the stuff of dreams for him.
“You could probably be a bodyguard,” Truth mused.
Since coming to this world, she’d only met two Ninth Rank individuals—one had a foul mouth and she’d already killed him; the other was working as a bodyguard.
“A bodyguard? Impossible!”
Karen finally couldn’t hold back her doubts.
Having a Sixth Tier Assassin serve as a messenger was already pushing the limits of her imagination—but reality was right in front of her, like it or not.
But now Truth was saying Ninth Rank could end up as a bodyguard?!
That was just as ridiculous as having Da Vinci draw lewd pictures. Ninth Rank!
If she were Ninth Rank, she’d become a mountain king and keep a harem of a hundred handsome men!
“Miss Ariel, I know I haven’t seen as much as you, but you’re telling me Ninth Rank seniors would be bodyguards? That’s just—”
“Wooom!”
Before Karen could finish, a strange sound of twisting space erupted above the four of them.
With space elements wildly churning, a girl in a jet-black mage’s robe slowly descended from the sky.
“My, what are you doing here? I couldn’t even scry your whereabouts—nearly couldn’t find you at all!”
Ninth Rank Elementalist and Saintess’s Shadow Guard O’Mily landed, stamped her foot, then stepped past Karen and the other two to bow to Truth.