Chapter 35 : A thief and an assassin

Asili Martina.

A legendary thief of the continent and a myth in the assassination world.

However, it’s just a grand title. In reality, Asili was simply a rehabilitated disciple who had been freed from the status of a criminal thanks to me.

In the first place, if we talk about assassins on this continent, there were only two types.

Either assassins from the underworld, or assassins who came from the underworld.

The only difference is whether they are currently active in the underworld or not. All assassins were created from the underworld.

Of course, there are also assassins who were packaged with fancy names like “Shadow” or “Covert Special Forces” by high-ranking officials.

However, since they themselves claim they’re not assassins, let’s exclude them.

Anyway, to sum it up, Asili is indeed a myth in the assassination world and a legendary thief, but to me, she was still someone who is living as a thief to atone for past sins that have yet to be resolved.

At the same time, Asili was the only disciple I treated casually among all my disciples.

After all, from the very first impression, she messed things up in a bizarre way, and even now, unless it’s related to thieving work, she spends her time lazily. How could I treat her fondly?

Unlike other disciples, who are steadily occupying important positions, every time I hear news of Asili wasting time, I can’t help but sigh.

That’s why, after a few beeps, the connection was made.

I spoke to Asili, who received the communication.

[Oh, Master? What brings this on? I feel like it’s been almost half a year since we last contacted…]

“Asili, you’re in the kingdom, right? Last time, I heard from Zenre that you entered the kingdom.”

[Ah, that talkative girl. Yeah, well… I came on vacation to the kingdom, but why do you ask?]

“If you have nothing to do, follow our daughter, who has run away. Keep an eye on where she is and check in periodically. If anything happens, step in and help her out.”

[Huh? What do you… mean by that…?]

Without any preface, I immediately got to the point, and I could hear confusion coming from the other side of the communication.

However, the confusion wasn’t because she didn’t understand what I said, but rather, it was a question of why I was assigning such a task to her.

[Hey, Master. No matter what, I’m Asili. Assigning me a rookie mission like following someone… that’s just… really?]

“If you don’t want to take this mission and prefer to rot in the kingdom’s underground prison for the rest of your life, I’m fine with it.”

[Ah, hahahaha….! M-Master, you sure know how to speak… harshly…]

I could clearly hear the sound of her swallowing dry saliva through the communication.

Of course, I didn’t actually plan to lock Asili in an underground prison, but if she didn’t accept this task, I had the option of throwing her in for a day.

So, after she showed signs of rejecting the task, I gave her the choice.

“Do you want to follow my daughter, or would you rather go to prison?”

It was essentially a forced choice, nothing more than handing her the decision.

But what could she do?

In front of this choice, all Asili could do was reluctantly choose the one forced upon her.

[…I’ll… follow her.]

With a trembling voice, Asili chose to follow her.

I then provided Asili with details about Elia’s appearance, age, and personality before ending the communication.

After assigning the task to Asili, I felt a sense of relief, as if a burden had been lifted.

“With Asili on the case, there shouldn’t be any major problems.”

A self-proclaimed legendary thief and myth in the assassination world taking on a task like following someone? There shouldn’t be any issues.

But still, just in case…

Clink—

“Should I prepare something as well?”

I strapped the sword I had become accustomed to from my mercenary days to my waist and opened my eyes wide, just in case something happened.

While Elia was out, I hoped no problems would arise for her.

“Wow… I really…”

In a massage shop in the kingdom.

There, Asili, a woman with long black hair, removed her eye mask after finishing a massage and opened her mouth as she received the communication.

“Master, you really know how to treat people… my name is worth a lot, and yet you just assign me to follow someone…”

Asili knew that Kael’s daughter was 15 years old this year.

At that age, it’s pretty normal for someone to run away during their adolescence, right?

But how much must someone care for their daughter to use even Asili for such a task? Asili felt a slight blow to her pride.

To think that this legendary thief and myth in the assassination world was being used for something as trivial as following a daughter?

And without any pay!

To be honest, the second reason was more important to Asili than anything else.

Without pretending to be humble, to brag a bit, Asili, famous as a “legendary thief” and “public assassin,” did take on thieving work for free sometimes, but she also often took paid commissions.

The minimum commission fee for Asili was 500 gold.

While not an enormous amount of money, for an ordinary citizen, it was the kind of money that would take several years of hard work to earn.

For Asilli to be used for such a trivial job without any payment—she couldn’t help but feel irritated.

But what could she do? She had already agreed.

“Well… if I think of it as an opportunity to pay off my debts, I guess I can’t really complain.”

It was Kael who saved Asili, who had once walked the wrong path in life.

If it was Kael’s request, then despite her displeasure, she had no choice but to accept.

Furthermore, judging by how he jokingly mentioned the prison, it seemed that he was genuinely worried about his daughter.

With that in mind, Asili stood up from where she had been lying down.

“Ugh…”

Crunch, crack.

-!!

As Asili got up from her seat and stretched, her still-unmassaged joints screamed in protest.

A powerless groan escaped Asili’s mouth at the raw sense of relief.

“Haah… That feels good.”

“Sir, you still have part of your massage course left…”

“The rest is fine. I’ll come back later, so let’s just stop here for today.”

A more urgent matter had come up, so that took priority.

Asili responded to the masseuse’s inquiry while putting on the clothes that had been set aside.

Flutter.

A sleek black inner garment and cloak covered Asili’s entire body, complementing the long, jet-black hair cascading down her back.

With a single rapier fastened at her waist, Asili retrieved a payment from her pocket and handed it to the masseuse before stepping toward the window.

“Here, this is today’s massage fee. Now, I’ll be taking my leave.”

“Huh? Sir, that’s not the entrance, that’s a windo—”

Before the masseuse could finish speaking, Asili leaped out of the window.

Mid-air, she rotated her body and kicked off the outer wall of the building, propelling herself upward.

Tap, tap, tap—!

With a few bounding steps along the exterior, she swiftly reached the rooftop.

From there, Asili gazed down at the vast, seemingly endless kingdom and let out a sigh.

“Haa… So now I have to find someone here?”

According to Kael’s description, the person she was looking for had long white hair, red eyes, an expressionless face, a sword at their waist, and wore white casual clothing.

A mission to locate and track a single person in this massive, bustling kingdom, where people crowded every street.

Even for Asili, this would require a considerable investment of time and effort.

If she were a mage, a detection spell would greatly shorten the search, but since she had never learned magic, there was only one option: manual labor.

The only solace was that the girl’s unique features—white hair and red eyes—might make the search slightly easier.

“Searching the entire kingdom myself would be foolish… Maybe I should use a smarter approach?”

If time had to be spent anyway, Asili wanted to make the most efficient use of it.

Her plan was to ask the city patrol about Elia’s whereabouts.

Since the patrol constantly reported back through communication channels, using Kael’s name might make it surprisingly easy to gather information.

“Hm, let’s see… Where’s the patrol…? Ah, there they are.”

Scanning the streets for guards, Asili quickly spotted two patrolling soldiers below.

She pushed off with force—

Boom—!

“Hey, patrol officers!”

“Whoa?!”

“W-Who goes there?!”

The two guards, startled by Asili’s sudden appearance from the sky, immediately pointed their spears at her.

But Asili casually pushed their weapons aside with a mischievous grin and started speaking smoothly.

“Well, here’s the thing…”

Introducing herself as the infamous “Phantom Thief Asili” and dropping Kael’s name as an authority, she effortlessly inquired about Elia’s whereabouts.

Since she could easily prove her identity and that she was acting under Kael’s orders, she quickly gained the trust of the two soldiers.

And once she had their trust, the information about Elia’s movements practically fell into her lap.

“She went where?”

[She left through the north gate earlier. We let her through, but if she went that way… she’s probably headed for Delusion Forest.]

One of the soldiers relayed information after contacting other patrol units and the guards stationed at the kingdom’s gates.

Hearing this, Asili tilted her head in confusion.

“Delusion Forest?”

The forest, which bordered the kingdom, was known as a monster habitat.

However, since it was so close to the city, there weren’t many dangerous monsters—only a few territorial boss creatures posed any real threat.

Even without the intervention of the kingdom’s elite knights, regular soldiers were capable of handling the area, making it a gathering spot for various groups.

But why would a 15-year-old girl run away and head straight for such a place?

Asili couldn’t understand the destination at all, but she quickly dismissed the thought.

“Well, that’s none of my business.”

The north gate guard’s description matched Elia’s appearance, and Asili’s mission was simply to track and protect her.

There was no time to waste overthinking things.

Thanking the patrol officers for their cooperation, Asili immediately took off running.

“Thanks for the help, guys! I’ll be sure to pass the credit on to my master!”

“Please put in a good word for us with Lord Kael!”

“We hope you find her quickly!”

The two soldiers waved her off as she sprinted away.

With one final glance at them, Asili accelerated, racing toward the kingdom’s north gate.

Toward Delusion Forest.

Where Elia had gone.