Chapter 6: Assassination Order
White petals danced on the cobblestone streets that evoked a sense of history.
The city center of the citadel, starting from a huge iron gate, is a narrow maze of narrow streets that make it easy to repel intruders.
The houses were dull, with black roofs and grey-colored walls. In midwinter, snow falls, giving the whole area a gloomy, depressing atmosphere.
Lou, the capital of the hero territory, was one of the quietest towns in the kingdom, but today was a different story. People were leaving their steeple-roofed houses, lining up at both ends of the narrow streets, and cheering for the blonde-haired boy who was riding a wyvern down the center of the street.
Setanta, the previous hero, had become a holy tree, and his younger brother, Finn Lou, had been chosen as the next hero.
Finn Lou, his long blond hair swinging and a friendly smile on his normally ruthless face, waved to the crowd from atop the wyvern's saddle.
The boy's ears are pointed like a wolf's, and a crown made of branches of a holy tree rests just over his ears.
His cloak was gold.
In the center was a wolf embroidered with black thread.
Today was the day of the coronation of Finn Lou as head of the hero family.
"Patricia Lowell is alive"
Finn said simply as he returned to his room after the ceremony and threw down his crown.
The crown of the sacred tree tumbled to the stone floor, where it was picked up by a beautiful elf slave.
Finn pulled on the elf woman's arm and took her lips like a wolf biting the throat of its prey. Then he quickly pulls his lips away and punches the elf woman in the cheek as hard as he can.
"You know what I mean?"
Ahead of Finn's words, there is an old man and woman.
The man looks like a knight who has fought in many battles.
The woman was a shabby old woman in animal fur.
The man, with a quiver in his neatly trimmed white mustache, replied.
"Are you asking me to kill Patricia-sama?"
"That's right."
"Is that an order from the head of the family?"
The old man with the white mustache raised one eyebrow and asked again.
Finn shook his long blond hair and looked back at him.
Vermilion flashed across Finn's face.
He bit his lip, his anger seeping out.
The boy swung quickly in front of the old man's eyes and hit him across the cheek.
"Don't make me say it again"
"…………"
"Man, I'm tired of hearing your voice. Enough of the sermons."
Finn whispers in the old man's ear.
"If you defy me, I will kill your family. If you fail to assassinate her again, I will kill you. And kill sister-in-law Patricia. On the other hand, if you succeed in assassinating her, I will guarantee the life of your family. And I will find a good doctor for your frail granddaughter."
"――――"
"I will allow ten of your men to accompany you. You will not be allowed to return until you have sister-in-law Patricia's head."
"……Yes"
"You too, herbalist."
Finn looks at the old woman in the animal fur.
"Erase all traces of our involvement. You can use bizarre techniques, that's all you can do."
"Is that an order from the head of the family?"
"That's right. After killing Patricia Lowell, you can go wherever you want. However, it is forbidden to contact your disciple―― sister Melvina. If you tell on us, I'll send the hounds after you."
Finn pointed his index finger at the old woman.
He continued.
"From the storehouse of the hero family, I will give you the heart-slaying magic spear and manticore venom. Let me know if there's anything else you'd like. I'll give you everything"
He takes off his cloak, removes his armor, and throws it down roughly.
Finn let out a sigh and slumped back into a fine chair.
"What's wrong? Go now."
The old man with a white beard and the old woman in animal fur bowed and left.
After seeing the two of them off, Finn put his thick finger between his eyebrows and roughly rubbed the deep wrinkles that had been carved into them.
× × ×
As the old man with the white beard leaves Finn's room, the knights of the "Black Hunter Corps" who had been waiting in the corridor gather in a crowd.
"Sebastian-sama, what did the young master say?"
"I have orders to kill Patricia-sama. Failure is not an option."
At the old man's words, the members of the Hunter Corps looked at each other and ――smiled ferociously.
None of them showed any aversion, guilt, or dislike toward Finn for killing Patricia.
They were all filled with joy at being given a place to fight and the anticipation of killing a powerful warrior.
Sebastian is no different.
He has been a knight for fifty years.
He has always been loyal to the Lou family and has been fighting for them.
Sebastian had hoped to die in battle, but the "Immortal Sword Saint," as he is called, was too strong to die.
This time, he was given a place to die.
Patricia Lowell is at the Lowell family's villa in the royal capital.
The villa is full of Lowell knights and armed maids who have fought a hundred battles, and the king's knights might intervene if he hears the commotion.
Even if they could kill Patricia, it would be almost impossible to get out alive.
This was exactly the stage Sebastian wanted.
"Finn-sama is wary of our betrayal, but there's no need to worry about that."
"Oh, the hounds will chase their prey until there are no more rabbits left. Give us tribulation and pain. The head of the target gets ten times the points."
"Hahaha, it’s a competition to see who can get the most head. The head of the target is ten times the points."
"We'll be leaving by the end of the day. Is that okay?"
The wolf knights nodded vigorously at Sebastian's words.
"Ha, you fools."
Sebastian and his men's morale was rising, but a hushed voice interrupted them.
The black wolves turned to see the herbalist smirking at them.
Sebastian and the others all have good builds, but the old woman is as big as they are.
"Herbalist."
"You are fools if you intend to fight the Lowell family."
The old woman stuck out a pale finger and continued.
"What we were ordered to do was assassinate her. We will sneak into the house and target Patricia when she is in the washroom or asleep. If the security is too tight, we can sink the entire building, or worse, target her when she is out shopping alone."
"If we set up in the city, civilians will be harmed."
Sebastian's thick eyebrows furrowed.
The old woman shrugged her shoulders.
"If that's the case, we can lure Patricia outside at night when no one is passing by. We shouldn't have a head-to-head battle."
"Ha, we have no intention of cooperating with you. If you want to plot something, do it alone."
The young wolf knight bared his fangs.
The old woman nodded.
"I will do so even if you don't tell me to."
With that, she slipped past Sebastian and glided down the hallway, disappearing.
One of the wolf knights spit out, "She's a creepy fellow."
"That herbalist has served the Lou family since Leroy-sama’s generation. Don't be too hard on her."
"We have no need to be so hard on her anymore. We will die, and so will the old woman."
Sebastian wanted to say something back to the young knight, but closed his mouth without saying anything.
Because he agreed with what he said.
He was going to die now, so there was no point in lecturing him about human conduct.
"Finish saying goodbye to your family. If you want your family to leave the hero territory, tell me. I will arrange some money for you."
"Alright."
The hounds nodded in unison and left happily.
Sebastian, the last one to leave, looks back to the room of the young hero who sent him off to his death. From within, he could hear the lusty panting of the elf-slave.
"Glory to the Lou family. May there be light in Finn-sama's future."
The old man knelt down in front of the room and closed his eyes.
× × ×
After "Holy Milk" Breast Knight, Tiger Black, and "Great Hawk" Siegfried returned, Christo and Melvina were guided to the castle's dining room courtesy of Blaise and the others.
Apparently, Blaise had been in a meeting all day before meeting the "Band of the Great Hawk of Salvation," and had not yet had dinner. So they decided to have a dinner party with Christo and the others who had not had dinner yet.
At first, old man Ronnie was supposed to cook the dinner (Yattrud, a girl from the village, was going back to the pioneer village around sunset, and would not be at the castle anymore.), but Melvina was to cook the meal, as it was not possible to have the old man alone working in the dimly-lit cooking area.
Christo had no choice but to offer to help Melvina, and finally, for some reason, Blaise and the others agreed to help, and everyone got together to prepare the meal.
Since Christo and Melvina could magically start a fire and cool the food, the cooking itself was over in about 30 minutes.
By the time the day changed, the dining room was lined with plates of sumptuous food.
"...Fried frog meat, it's delicious."
"The fried river prawns are also delicious."
"The mushrooms and wild plants with mustard are also very appetizing."
About five minutes into the meal, there was a surprised shout from Blaise and the other administrative and judicial officials. For the first five minutes, everyone was silent as they gorged themselves on Melvina's cooking.
"It's refreshing since we've been eating nothing but potatoes, beer, and vegetable peelings."
Blaise mutters without stopping the knife and fork.
"I knew dinner was going to be mashed potatoes because we didn't have the ingredients. I didn't realize it would be such a rich meal. Melvina-san is a cook with an artistic imagination."
"Melvina is my proud wife."
Christo smiled as he shook a glass filled with sludgy beer.
"I must admit, I didn't care much about food until I started living with her. But when I started eating her food, I discovered the joy of eating. Mealtime is fun, and the nutritional content of the food makes me feel better."
Melvina makes flavorful and gently seasoned dishes utilizing mushrooms, fish, tomatoes, and other ingredients. On some days, she serves herbs and herbs-based porridge and soup, which suits Christo, who is like an old man in terms of food preferences.
“No, Cristo-san. Compliments don't get you anywhere."
Melvina smiles as she gives Ronnie a bowl of frog and potato soup.
Since she didn't seem to be working on her own food yet, Christo decided to take over as Ronnie's attendant.
"Oh, don't worry about it young man and the young lady. I can eat by myself."
"It's dark, so you won't be able to see your plate. Don't hold back."
Ronnie took care of Cristo when he was little.
He wants to be kind to him at least while he's here.
Christo is a devil who returns goodwill for goodwill.
He also wanted to show Melvina that he was kind and cool since she was watching him.
"Mama"
Suddenly, the glasses―― Administrator Caspar quietly opened his mouth.
But the glasses he is wearing now are just a piece of junk with broken lenses and deformed frames.
"Mama――――-, no, it's like my mother's."
"Come to think of it, what part of the country are you from?"
Blaise looks at Caspar.
"It's a region around here. It's a small village with no name."
Caspar gulped down the beer with great force, and his face turned bright red as he continued.
"I studied hard to make things easier for my mother. I was not even able to buy enough writing materials, but I was determined not to be outdone by the wealthy nobles, so I worked hard all the way through....... But to be transferred to such a shithole like this is really the worst."
"It's my birthplace, though."
"Haa, I want to go back to my hometown..."
Caspar says so and tries to pour another beer.
However, perhaps because his glasses were broken, he threw the contents into his chest.
"What are you doing?"
"Really, what am I doing?"
Caspar muttered self-deprecatingly and stood up, putting down his broken glasses.
"I'm going to go wash my clothes."
After he left the room, the dining room was silent.
The only sounds were the clatter of cutlery being manipulated and the occasional sound of someone pulling up a chair to get another beer.
When Christo was sipping his fifth glass of beer, Melvina, who stood up to pour another beer, shouted, "Ah!"
"We're out of beer."
"I won't drink anymore, but if you want one, get it from the kitchen."
Melvina nodded and left the desk at the words of the tipsy Blaise.
"I'll go. You stay here."
Christo, who had been caught in the strong gaze of her childhood friend Yattrud, the village girl, said so without a pause. Yattrud used to be a cheerful and friendly girl, but at that time, there seemed to be a definite look of rejection in her eyes.
Something is wrong.
His devil's intuition told him that it had a bad feeling about something.
"No, no, I just wanted to go pick some flowers."
“Toilet, huh... I guess I can't follow you into the restroom."
"I-it's obvious! Please don't do that!"
"Christopher-dono, what's wrong?"
"This castle has the air of a haunted wraith, but there's nothing dangerous about it."
"It used to belong to the devil who used to disguise himself as Baron Ixel, so we were a bit nervous at first that something might happen to it."
The judicial officials chuckle.
The atmosphere in the area made it impossible to say something like, "Don't go because I have a bad feeling about it."
A premonition is just a premonition after all.
If he stuck to his hunch and became too self-centered, the people around him would think he was strange, and more than anything, Melvina might not like him. He should refrain from doing so before he becomes like a shady psychic.
“I understand. But don't wander off and come back. Don't go outside the castle."
"Christo-san, you worry too much."
After saying that, Melvina left the dining room.
Christo watched as her back disappeared into the darkness, and then returned to chugging his beer.
× × ×
(I feel like Christo-san is being a bit too overprotective lately.)
Melvina thinks about this as she hurries toward the restroom.
Of course, it is nice that Christo is concerned about her, and considering that Melvina will eventually be removed from her position as the wife, she should probably enjoy his goodwill while she still can.
However, there is a limit to how much he can worry about her, and it was a little unusual that he even suggested to follow her to the restroom. He may have been inviting her to have sex with him in the restroom, but that is exactly what she did not want him to do behind everyone's eyes.
Worry or sexual desire?
Either way, she didn't like the feeling that Christo himself was telling her that she was nothing more than a pretty doll in the name of his fiancé.
She entered the women's restroom, where there was no smell of urine.
It was pitch black inside.
Melvina hooked the lantern to the wall and entered the empty private room in front of her.
She pulled down her black tights and underwear and pulled the peach-colored plug in her vagina.
There is a sound, and the cloudy liquid drips down.
"Nhh... a-ahh..."
She straddles the toilet bowl and thrusts her buttocks back.
If she squat down completely, the semen would drip down her buttocks, so she stopped in the middle.
Melvina put her finger on her own secret hole and gently split it open.
Then she felt a spurt of semen that had turned into a gelatinous mass.
(I feel that Christo's semen makes my body hot to the touch. But there is no way that semen has an aphrodisiac effect.)
It's just that I'm nasty, I'm sure――.
"Fu――u, nhh..."
Melvina's finger extends to the clitoris.
When she gently stroked it with her semen-stained finger, a tingling sensation that seemed to intensify the tickling several times over followed.
"Nhh... ah... haa..."
Squelch*―― it made a faint sound of liquid and indulge in light masturbation.
However, when the clitoris was particularly stimulated, Melvina remembered that she had reached the limit of her urge to urinate.
She took her finger off the clitoris, which was erect, and crouched down to relieve herself.
That hooded girl―― the girl named Yattrud who came to help didn't use this toilet at all, her urine was splashing to the empty bottom of the toilet and making a flashy sound.
"Nhh... fuu... fuu"
A small sound comes out.
Melvina came to her senses from the comfort of urinating and looked outside for signs that Christo had come to check on her.
No one came―― Melvina felt relieved.
She wiped her secret hole and cleaned it with water.
After that, Melvina put the plug into the secret hole, pulled up her underwear, and left the private room.
As she carefully washed her hands at the hand basin, Melvina's sensitive ears heard what sounded like a man's laughter.
"......?"
Without a second thought, she looked down through the restroom window into the small space behind the castle building.
Soderholm Castle is located on a hill surrounded on three sides by the river, and behind the castle building is a sheer cliff, so a fence and wall have been planted to prevent people from falling into the river.
In front of the fence, a woman in a black robe seemed to be talking with administrator Caspar holding a lantern light.
The woman was quite young, as was evident from her gestures and the way her torso swayed.
Or rather, it was the hooded woman she had met before coming to this castle ――Yattrud.
(What are they talking about in such a secluded place?)
While Melvina watches, the two of them slip out through a gap in the fence toward a steep slope. Going down the slope in the middle of the night is dangerous for ordinary people.
She almost shouted out, but Melvina closed her mouth when she saw the two dexterously climbing down the slope.
Caspar and Yattrud entered the shadows of the thickets and began to remove their clothing. Then, in the middle of taking off their clothes, he lays his lips on hers as if he couldn't resist.
"――――!?"
(W-what the hell! This is big news! Uwa, I've encountered a difficult situation!)
Covering her eyes with both hands, but observing the two of them firmly through her fingers, Melvina stomped on the spot.
If she looked at them any longer, it would be rude or embarrassing to them.
However, she couldn't suppress her curiosity.
Melvina had only had sex with Christo, so she was curious about how other people had sex.
She wondered if they were all drooling and getting wild like Melvina.
Christo performs relentless cunnilingus each and every time, but is that normal?
How long does it take to complete the act?
For Melvina, who was always eager to know, the current situation was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
"――Don't let yourself be carried away by your own desires, Melvina. Think about both of them. If I were them, I would never want to be seen. I won't do anything I don't like! Let's get out!"
When she told herself that and tried to leave the window, something strange happened.
To her surprise, they started kissing deeply.
Yattrud covered Caspar and took his lips deeply, and Caspar flapped his hands. Too desperate, or so it seemed, Caspar was kicking Yattrud in the stomach and scratching her shoulder.
"――――!!"
In Melvina, whose head was in a flower garden state, normal judgment returned in an instant.
Eight root-like tentacles sprouted from Yattrud's back, forcing down the limbs of Caspar, who was trying to escape by twisting his body.
Shortly after, Yattrud's grip became stronger, and Caspar's body suddenly lost strength.
The next thing she knew, she was jumping.
Even though Christo had warned her not to go outside the castle, Melvina kicked the window and landed on the fence without hesitation.
As she took another leap, the pouch on her waist opened by itself and the rune stones that Christo had given her unfolded in front of her.
[Don't wander off and come back.]
The rune stone floated in the air, a bright orange afterglow in the darkness.
It was a warning from Christo.
But Melvina is no obedient, pretty doll.
She ducked the automatically deployed rune barrier with a triangular leap, and the next moment she was standing behind them.
"What are you two doing there?"
"――――"
A small, hooded figure moves away from Caspar, who was covering her.
The woman in the hood was still Yattrud.
She had eyes as cloudy and white as a dead fish's, and something dark brown and tentacle-like was coming out of her mouth, which had just been tightly closed.
The tentacle-like object slithered out of Caspar's unconscious mouth.
Then, it was stored in Yattrud's small mouth like an anteater's tongue.
"It's Yattrud-san, isn't it? I've heard that you've come from the pioneer village to help out at the castle."
"…………"
"What were you doing there?"
Melvina asks, watching carefully the movement of the root-like tentacles that are writhing around on Yattrud's back.
(Monster? No, she is Christo-san's childhood friend. She is human. If so, is it something parasitic?)
"Hey, can you return Caspar-san? He seems to have lost consciousness."
"Caspar?"
Yattrud reacts for the first time.
"Is this man Caspar?"
"Yes"
"――――"
Yattrud looks at the face of the young male administrator, who is not wearing glasses.
After observing Caspar's features for a while,
"…………"
She tosses Caspar aside carelessly, as if she had mistaken him for someone else.
"You're going to die here."
A high-pitched giggle.
"Die, Oracle......"
(Oracle?)
Melvina narrows her eyes.
The water behind Yattrud bubbles, and a series of women's heads emerge from the dark surface.
All of the women have yellow glowing eyes that are not human.
Melvina checked behind her and saw another robed woman standing on the cliff.
"Wait"
Melvina raises her hands while recording the surrounding environment, the position of obstacles, and the distance between her and them.
"I have no intention of fighting here. I will forget what I saw here. Can you overlook it?"
Yattrud smiled.
Countless yellow eyes peering at her from the water.
The sound of wood creaking in the wind resounds from behind.
"You will not leave here alive."
× × ×
Seventeen in the water.
Three behind.
Yattrud in front of her.
To be honest, with Melvina's physical abilities, she could have easily gotten out of the place.
Even if it was impossible for a normal person, she could get out of a steep slope of five or six meters in two steps.
However, there was Caspar, who had fainted.
He was still alive.
She could not abandon him and run away.
"――――――――"
Melvina's special ability.
From an early age, in order to be loved by others, she had lived her life by looking at their faces, and she could somehow tell what they were thinking from their facial expressions.
The angle of their eyes.
The tempo of their breathing.
A momentary chest movement that expands the lungs.
In combat, she could use these hints to predict her opponent's movements.
Melvina leaped backward at the moment Yattrud's eyes widened.
Immediately after, eight tree roots, which had been deployed to envelop her, rushed to the spot where Melvina had been standing a moment before.
(The tentacles are not shiny. They look like tree roots, but the fiber sheaths have a softer, more organic movement. No gills could be identified, and it was probably not an aquatic demon. It has features similar to the monster known as a skogsra, or dryad.)
(TN: Sukugusuro, スクーグスロー. I thought it was Squog, a prehistoric squid since it had tentacles but it was not aquatic. So I came to the Skogsra, a mythical female creature in Swedish folklore.)
Melvina ducks and dodges the three women who would grab her from behind.
It is a complicated foot movement on a steep slope, but Melvina, with her wild instincts, chooses only the safest foothold and repeats the step.
"Yah"
At the same time as she dodges the woman who rushes forward with both hands, she swings down with her right hand.
She hit the woman's neck, but what came back was the feel of the hard trunk.
She immediately leaps into the air.
Aiming at the nape of the neck, this time the heel is dropped.
The woman's head fell with a loud crack, as if snapping the trunk of a tree.
She rolls on the ground, inverts with only the strength of her arms, and backflips like a cat.
Lagging behind her, Yattrud's tentacles gouged the ground deeply.
(For three gold coins)
Melvina rolled on the ground and took out a bottle of liquid that she had hidden in her inner breast pocket. She splashed it, made of thick glass, on the women in front of her.
At the same time, she invoked her magic.
Rune magic "ᛊ".
It reads Sowilo.
It is a runic alphabet meaning the sun.
At Melvina's muttering of "Sowilo," the rune stone shot out and drew a dazzling arc of light in the darkness.
"――――!" "…………!"
Tentacles like tree roots burst into flames.
The first to be scattered was a mixture of phlegm and saliva from a wyvern―― a flammable substance.
(They did not flinch from the strong light. They are not searching by sight, but by hearing or heat.)
The woman whose tentacles had caught on fire let out a shrill scream and jumped into the water.
It saved her the trouble of shouting for help.
(For five gold coins. It also makes my skin rough, but I have no choice)
She set off a firecracker hidden in her sleeve and let it explode.
Sound and heat.
Both generate intense things that make her disappear from the women's perception.
Melvina disappears soundlessly into the darkness, and then, like a snake, she bends down in the grass, twists and turns, and moves at high speed. This is a technique she stole from Setanta.
From an inside pocket, she pulls out a bottle with a label that reads, "Danger!" She pulls the lid off the tightly sealed bottle with her mouth and leaps out of the grass with the strength of her back muscles.
As soon as she jumps out, she splashes the chemical on both hands.
The chemical is a manticore poison that dissolves anything it touches.
Melvina lands soundlessly on the grass, feeling her skin burn and sore.
(I'm sorry.)
At the same time as she landed, muscle streaks appeared on Melvina's thighs.
Yatrud and the other women caught sight of her as they heard a distinct creaking sound.
But it was already too late.
Melvina jumped out in a straight line at once, moving her hands violently like a waterfowl in flight.
It was a somewhat comical action, but one second later, it had the tremendous effect of burning off the heads of women near the river.
Women other than Yattrud disintegrate and collapsed into the ground while transforming into a collection of tree roots before squeezing into the ground and disappearing. Yattrud slowly fell backward with her torso and head separated, and soon stopped moving.
(I see. So there is one real one, and the others are fake ones that have been divided into different strains. Interesting.)
Melvina approached the remains of the women, who were being engulfed in flames and reduced to cinders, and plunged her hand into the blazing flames to stop the manticore's poison from eroding it.
When the poison worn off, she takes her hand out of the flames.
The burnt skin is quickly regenerated and restored to its original state.
Although not as resilient as Setanta, Melvina was also much more resilient than most people. That is why she is able to perform the rough trick of putting manticore poison on her hands and cutting through her enemies with them.
After defeating the women in less than two minutes of time, Melvina walked up to Caspar, who was unconscious, without showing much reaction to her own achievements.
From the top of the cliff, she could hear Christopher's panicked call intermittently.
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