Chapter 188
"Well, what should I do?"
The Imperial Capital at night.
Sebas was running through it, looking for information.
More precisely, he was searching for people who seemed to have information.
Assassinating the Saintess would require a great deal of preparation. Those preparations would make suspicious people show their hands.
That was what he had assumed.
And he had been right.
He had found suspicious individuals in the Imperial Capital at night.
A few of them were talking about something, and their movements were clearly not those of amateurs. Had it been anyone other than Sebas, they might have been noticed.
But Sebas had melted completely into the darkness, never revealing his presence.
Having apparently finished their discussion, they began to disperse. Capturing them would be easy, but anyone operating on the ground like this was merely a lower-ranking member.
Even if the plan behind them had nothing to do with assassinating the Saintess, someone who used men this capable as underlings could not be left alone.
To learn more about the person behind them, Sebas decided to let them run free.
"Shall I follow them?"
Just as Sebas made that decision,
the men trying to leave in different directions were attacked by an "arrow."
"What!?"
"Gwaaah!?"
The supposedly skilled men fell without being able to react at all.
Only the man whose ally had shielded him remained.
The person presumed to have fired the arrow appeared before him.
"Y-you!?"
"If you know who I am, then you must be a member of the Organization, after all."
The person was wearing a vermilion mask.
From her manner of speaking and build, Sebas could tell she was probably a woman.
But that was not what had surprised Sebas.
She pointed her bow at the man. However, there was no arrow on it.
"A magic bow, a vermilion mask... You must be Vermilion, the Knight of the Scarlet Moon—the righteous thief...!"
A magic bow.
It was a technique for firing magic from a bow. It required special talent, but it could produce magic several times more powerful than spells cast by ordinary means.
There was a righteous thief in the vassal kingdom who used one.
She was a righteous thief who targeted nobles known for their tyranny, reclaiming money extorted from the people and exposing corruption. Her name was Vermilion, the Knight of the Scarlet Moon.
Some people connected her with Silver because they wore the same kind of mask. One was a wielder of rare ancient magic, while the other used the precious magic bow.
Remembering Al's complaint that it was a real nuisance, Sebas heartily agreed.
Why was the vassal kingdom's righteous thief here?
Though puzzled, Sebas smoothly drew a knife. He intended to draw her attention and let the man escape.
There would be no useful information to gain by capturing him here.
That conclusion came from Sebas's long experience in the shadowy world as an assassin. Vermilion, however, had not made the same deduction.
"Tell me. Why has an organization that operated mainly in the vassal kingdom come to the Empire? What are you planning?"
"Hmph. What are you talking about?"
"Pretending ignorance won't help. When I destroyed one of your bases in the vassal kingdom, I found a plan stating that you intended to do something in the Empire. You can't talk your way out of this."
With that, Vermilion pointed her bow at the man.
Sebas prepared to throw his knife at the same time.
But at that moment, several magic arrows flew toward Sebas.
"Tch!?"
Despite his surprise, Sebas threw his knife with perfect accuracy and intercepted them.
There was no sign that Vermilion had fired the magic arrows at him.
The arrows she had fired earlier were probably still lingering and had automatically reacted to Sebas's movements.
As he assessed the situation, Sebas nearly clicked his tongue at how bad it was.
"Who are you!?"
Saying that, Vermilion fired magic arrows at Sebas in the alley.
Sebas tried to intercept them, but there were more than before, so he could not stop them all and was forced to evade them.
However, the magic arrows changed direction and came at Sebas again.
This time, he intercepted them all, but Vermilion entered the alley during the exchange.
Seeing that, Sebas steeled himself.
For the moment, things had gone differently from his plan, but he had succeeded in separating the man and Vermilion.
If he could narrow down the direction in which the man had fled, Sebas could find him. He could not risk squandering one of his few leads.
"I didn't expect you to have a guard."
"I didn't expect a righteous thief from the vassal kingdom either... but I'll have you disappear here."
With that, Sebas threw a series of knives.
Vermilion casually knocked them down with her bow, then fired magic arrows in return.
With a black dagger in hand, Sebas knocked the arrows aside and slipped through them as he closed in on Vermilion.
Vermilion was neither his enemy nor his ally. Fighting her here had its disadvantages, but leaving an unexpected interloper alone could send various gears awry.
Just as Sonia had once thrown the board into disarray, an unexpected person could become an obstacle for Al.
Sebas entered the fight intending to remove her from the board, even if he did not kill her.
"Hmph!!"
Vermilion caught Sebas's strike on her bow, but the unexpectedly powerful blow threw her off balance.
Sebas did not let the opening pass. He pressed in until there was no distance between them.
"You can't use your magic bow now."
"How rude. I'm good at close combat too, you know?"
As she said that, Vermilion hooked Sebas's arm and hurled him away.
Realizing that resisting would get his arm broken, Sebas threw himself away to lessen the force.
But.
"!?"
"Shooting a bow is no trouble at all, even at point-blank range."
As she spoke, Vermilion let go of Sebas's arm the instant he became airborne and drew her bow in one fluid motion.
Despite the tiny gap between them, she had managed to assume a firing stance.
Then the arrow she released came rushing toward Sebas.
Sebas forcibly twisted his body in midair and barely managed to evade it.
"You're like an acrobat!"
"No, I can't match you."
As he said that, Sebas put some distance between them.
For an assassin like Sebas, a head-on fight was not his usual arena.
Even so, Sebas was confident that he could hold his own against most opponents. Yet even he had to admit that Vermilion was strong.
As befitted a righteous thief, Vermilion did not seem intent on killing Sebas. More importantly, she was reducing the power of her arrows out of consideration for the surrounding buildings.
That was enough to make them only just evenly matched.
He had no chance of winning a head-on fight.
Considering Vermilion's skill, simply holding her at bay would not be enough.
The man had already fled, but if Sebas gave chase in earnest, he could still catch up.
He would have to fight another round and somehow keep her from moving. Fortunately, the odds were beginning to favor Sebas.
But suddenly, Vermilion lowered the bow she had been holding.
"...What changed your mind?"
"I get the feeling that you're not with the Organization."
"You don't know that."
"People in the Organization generally don't help one another."
As she said that, Vermilion looked toward the rooftops.
Sieg was there, spear at the ready, watching the situation.
"Sharp girl."
"Quite."
When Sebas realized that Sieg had arrived, he saw his chance, but Vermilion had seen through that as well.
The two of them chose to end the fight before either sustained a serious injury.
"I came to the Empire in pursuit of the Organization. Are you two from the Empire?"
"You have a complicated way of speaking. Well, something like that."
"In that case, we have no reason to fight."
"Wait a moment. Could you leave the pursuit of him to me? I used to be an assassin, you know."
As if declaring their conversation over, Vermilion moved to pursue the man, but Sebas stopped her.
For a moment, Sebas and Vermilion's eyes met.
Vermilion was the one who relented.
"...You have the advantage of the terrain, so I'll leave the pursuit to you."
"Thank you. I'll share whatever information I obtain. How should we do that?"
"...Come back to this spot tomorrow night. And don't pursue them too deeply. Their organization is called Grimoire, a continent-spanning criminal organization."
Sebas had heard that name before.
It had evolved from a research society devoted to the deepest secrets of magic and was a mysterious organization that surfaced at major turning points in history.
And it was active in the Empire.
"I see. So that unpleasant premonition of His Highness's was justified after all."
Muttering as though the situation were a troublesome one, Sebas bowed to show that he understood.
Vermilion then leaped away from the scene.
After watching her leave, Sieg and Sebas pursued the fleeing man.