Volume 3 Chapter 1: Ash Crowned Princess
Ash Crowned Princess
The territory of Marquis Kendras that was located at the northwest part of Claydale Kingdom. At the west that area, there was Condo Mine where the biggest ore vein of the southern part of the continent was sleeping. Presently its possession was being fought over by the neighboring country Ils Dukedom and Solhorse Kingdom. Both countries held each other in check even while the mining of the mine continued. The area was known as a buffer zone.
Because of that, Marquis Kendras refused the national army to be stationed there for fear of provoking the neighboring countries. Because of its rejection toward the military strength of the capital, it also managed to repel any political intervention and obtained great profit from mining and metalworking.
When there was light there was darkness. Behind the prosperity of Kendras territory that managed to repel the intervention from the capital, there were several organizations secretly maneuvering to indulge in that profit.
The slave guild that was an illegal organization of the underworld. The intelligence agency of neighboring country or crime syndicate. There was also the thief guild that boasted the greatest scale in the northwest frontier district. Their evil influences were spreading behind the scene.
Because there was a mine, a lot of rock dwarves who were good with mining and smithing were living there. There were also a lot of adventurers who came visiting for the weapons created by those dwarves. The number of bars for dwarves and adventurers also increased, but due to that the supply from the mining and the alcohol brewing couldn't meet the demand.
The thief guild got their eye on that. They worked together with the slave guild to buy up orphans from everywhere and captured children from the slums for slavery trade in this land.
Kendras territory also had its own knight order and the marquis also hated the secret maneuvering of the criminal organizations in his territory. He tried to remove them, but it was difficult to completely remove an organization that lurked inside a city with population of tens of thousands. Also because the marquis had received retaliation from the thief guild many times, he was letting them go almost unchecked at this point.
One of the causes of that was because the thief guild of this area was known as a collection of formidable fighters, especially its leaders the four Galga siblings. All of them were skilled level 4 and had killed many knights. They were feared in the underworld.
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「The slaves' quality has dropped recently hasn't it? You aren't trying to trick us siblings aren't you?」
In a clearing inside a forest that was a bit far from the city......under the sky where the sun was starting to set, a slave delivery was being carried out in the usual place and time.
The eldest child of four Galga siblings, the chief of Kendras territory's thief guild Lamia intentionally threatened her business partner. In respond the chief of the slave guild shrugged his shoulders theatrically.
「You think there's anyone in this area who dare to go against you? We just got a little problem, but we even went until far away to gather the products in compensation y'know? They aren't lively from getting stuffed on the bottom of carriage, but they'll perk up if you just give them some food scraps.」
「Fuu~hn?」
The children were all looking sick from being forced to go through a very long trip. Light had also gone out from their eyes when they thought of what they would be forced to do after this. They all trembled in fear when Lamia stared at them.
It was rumored that her age was about to enter forty, but she still looked youthful like someone at the early thirty. Because of her beauty and cruelty, she got called as Lamia, the name of monster who sucked blood in order to maintain its beauty.
The slaves that were delivered here this time were all children. There were thirty of them. They weren't all human, a lot of them were also demihuman because when wandering dwarves or beastmen died, few orphanage wanted to accept their children.
「If you're bringing me demihuman brats, can't you at least bring me some elves?」
「Oi, don't be unreasonable Lamia. Ain't no way those elves gonna let their brat get out of their village. Even adult elves are mostly adventurer, it just not worth it to try taking them.」
It would be a different matter if they were talking about half elf, but elf children who take very long time to grow up almost never went out of their village. Even so Lamia still sought them out because elf race's appearance was excellent, they stayed young for long, and so they were in high demand among a lot of people.
Even half elf could be sold with the price of ten times the normal price. But, the haughty elf rarely would allow themselves to marry human, and getting their orphan as slave was something that happened very rarely even for the slave guild's chief.
「And, what's this problem you're saying?」
Lamia asked for more detail about the 『problem』 that the slave guild's chief mentioned just now. In the first place the two guild leaders personally came for a slave delivery like this because the number of products from the previous transaction was insufficient and it almost caused a quarrel with the customer.
「Aa, about that, two of our slave hunting teams got crushed you know.」
「Haa? In our turf? Did those damn knights of the marquis finally got off their butt to work?」
「I don't think it's them....... From the method used it was most likely the work of someone in the same trade──」
「Ooi, big sis! Let's buy the woman riding on this carriage too-!」
The voice of her "little brother" interrupted the two's talk. Lamia looked at the slave guild's chief with a suspecting gaze.
「Oi, you actually still have more product there ain't it......? Caith-! What kind of woman?」
「She's still a teen but, she look like someone from a nice family yeah!」
The youngest of the four siblings called Caith──a very gangly man who was at the latter half of his twenties yelled back in respond to Lamia's question.
「That's what he said, what's the deal with that?」
「......Whoops, I forgot! We caught a travelling woman on the way here-. She looks like a daughter of a low rank noble. I put her on a different carriage because I want to show her particularly to you......hehe」
The slave guild's chief turned pale and made excuse when Lamia glared at him.
「What's wrong big sis?」
「Did Caith mess up something again?」
Ramia's remaining two little brothers came there after hearing the ruckus.
The eldest son Gigas. He was more than two meter tall with muscles covering all over his body like armor. Used axe.
The second son Troll. He was the shortest among the male siblings, but he was really obese and boasted the strongest physical strength.
The third son Caith. He used two short swords and excelled in evasion using his skinny body.
And last was the eldest daughter, a whip user and a wind sorcerer, the thief guild's chief Lamia. The four of them formed the four Galga siblings. These four siblings had combined their strength to survive their childhood until now. From that experience, these four always acted together, which was rare for thieves to do.
The four of them had discarded their actual name and took monster name for themselves. Surrounded by the four rank 4, the slave guild's chief turned even whiter like a wax.
「Say? You were hiding her from me because you want to give me a surprise present to make me happy right? In other words, you want to give her to me instead of selling her right? Isn't that right?」
「......Y-yeah.」
「Yosh, as expected from the slave guild-, we'll continue being great business partner even in the future. Oi, Caith, bring that woman here-!」
「Say, big sis-, give her to me please!」
「You like little kid just like usual huh....... Even though you always break them right away, just shut up and bring her here already-!」
「I get it big sis......oi, get down.」
As expected Caith couldn't oppose his big sister. He dragged out the woman from the carriage with great reluctance.
「Hoo......」
What came down from the carriage was certainly a woman who still hadn't reached her coming of age. She was wearing a travelling outfit like a lady from a good family. She could still be called a kid with her age, but more than her pretty face, the atmosphere that she was clad in was really eye catching.
Certainly after seeing her, it was understandable why Caith really wanted her or why the slave guild's chief tried to hide her from Lamia to sell her somewhere else. Just feeling her atmosphere and seeing the side of her face that was slightly looking down caused even a fellow woman like Lamia to feel her heart skipped a beat.
That was exactly why she misjudged. She let her guard down exactly because she was a strong person.
Someone as strong as Lamia could gauge someone else's true strength to a certain degree even without using something like Appraisal. But, focus was required to us that, it wasn't something that was done constantly and subconsciously. Just like how Lamia didn't doubt the actual strength of a child who got kidnapped to be a slave, Caith who was standing close to her also hadn't tried to gauge the true strength of that "pink haired girl".
「──Gah!?」
In that moment, Caith felt a burning pain on his throat and his breath got caught.
No, his breath didn't get caught. It was flowing blood pouring into his lungs before getting spouted out through his mouth. With that Caith finally realized that his throat was pierced by the girl's black knife.
Caith was a light warrior who focused in speed and specialized in evasion. He had never even considered that there could be anyone else other than his siblings who could possibly wound him. But, the girl before him had casually stabbed a knife into Caith's throat without even making any gesture beforehand that could hint him about it or giving off any bloodlust.
And then, he realized from looking at the reflection from the girl's green eyes, that he was looking at his own face in death. Caith finally realized that he was dead.
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「Caith-!?」
Lamia unconsciously shouted seeing her youngest brother crumbling while spurting out blood. Her other little brothers were also staring dumbfounded at that.
He was killed. Easily. One of the siblings that had climbed until their current position by combining their strength for more than twenty years and swore to each other that they would still climb even higher with the four of them from now on, had died so easily.
「............tsu」
「You're lying right......Caith, this is just another of your joke right-!?」
The eldest son Gigas gritted his teeth in anger. The second son Troll yelled asking if this was another joke of his playful little brother. Then at the next moment──
「Higuh」
The slave guild's chief let out a voice that sounded like a crushed frog. His forehead was hit by a crossbow's arrow. Then the girl who killed Caith and fired a crossbow at the slave guild's chief immediately turned around and broke into a run to the opposite direction to escape.
「You won't get away-!!」
「Troll! Shit-」
「You two!」
Troll started running after the escaping girl. Even Gigas who was wary against the girl quickly followed behind. Seeing that, Lamia who was dumbfounded from Caith's death returned to her senses right away and called out to the two's backs but, the two didn't stop and continued chasing the girl.
「I'll kill you!」
Troll didn't even hear his big sister's voice and angrily screamed. The two started running almost at the same time, but the obese troll raised his speed to pull ahead of his big brother. Troll looked like a pile of fat, but there were lumps of muscles underneath all that fat and he began to catch up to the girl in the blink of eye.
The girl noticed the pursuer and glanced back to Troll and Gigas who was following behind. After ascertaining their position, she turned right to lure them into the forest.
「You think I won't be able to move inside the forest with my body? Don't underestimate me-!」
Troll used his arms and legs and snapped the small trees and thick branches without care while following behind the girl. Troll was a fist fighter. His bulky fat protected him while his thick muscles smashed the enemy, snapping their body. If that large hand grabbed the girl's slender body, she would be crushed easily.
*GAN-!*
With the girl entering the forest, Gigas threw his hand axe while chasing. It hit a thick trunk and there the girl swiftly threw back a knife.
「Hmph!」
But Gigas didn't use his favored weapon the axe and deflected the knife simply by tensing his muscle.
「Hyahhahah, big bro's muscles are damn special! You too are gonna die from being crushed by them!」
Troll clenched his fist and charged from the side. The girl subtly changed her position while constantly keeping the two of them within sight. Astonishingly she headed toward Troll on her own to get away from Gigas. Troll too rushed even further ahead to match her.
「Coming to your own death──」
「──Pain──」
「Gugah!?」
Troll stiffened from the enormous agony, then the girl tossed a jar made from thin baked clay into Troll's mouth.
*Pakin!*
「......GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?」
「Troll-!」
Troll's shriek echoed inside the forest. Gigas closed the distance in panic seeing that. Right at that moment──
*Baki......-!*
「──tsu!?」
Gigas heard the sound of solid thin porcelain breaking from under his foot while dropping into a pitfall.
「GUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!」
The hole was two meter wide and two meter deep. He would never step into it unless he got lured there, and even if he fell inside he would only get sprained leg from that depth, but the sharpened stakes that were prepared at the bottom of the hole pierced Gigas's legs and back.
The board that was made from thinly spread clay and hardened with Hard before being baked wouldn't break from something like a wolf walking on top of it, but it couldn't endure a huge man stepping on it.
「......B-big bro......」
Troll who seemed to be fed with poison struggled to help his brother with a purple face. In front of him the girl dropped a small fire into the hole, then flame and death throes rose from the bottom of the hole.
「AAAAAAAAAAH!?」
Troll screamed seeing his brother's death, but the girl jumped and stomped on his face before her black knife stabbed deeply into his skull.
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「Gigas-, Troll-!!」
Lamia who caught up at that timing witnessed the deaths of her little brothers.
「You bitch......you bitch......my little brothers......how dare you!」
The girl kept stepping on Troll's face as she pulled out her knife and swung it to threw off the blood clot. Lamia screamed angrily at her and fired her sorcery.
「──Hurricane──!」
The level 4 wind sorcery Hurricane rampaged inside the confined forest.
Lamia knew the characteristic of her own sorcery very well. It might be different for pure sorcerer or adventurer, but a thief like Lamia put more importance in activation speed rather than power. She was using this level 4 wind sorcery to hold the enemy in place.
Lamia's sure win tactic was to stop her enemy in place using Hurricane before finishing them off with other wind magic. There weren't that many people who could dodge invisible blade even if they knew it was coming.
But the girl also knew that wide range wind sorcery had no strong wounding ability.
「What-!?」
The body of the girl who should be held in place there danced through the air. No matter how thin the girl's body was, Lamia's sorcery couldn't blow away human like that. Even if someone could fly using magic like that, they would never consider getting dragged up by wind inside a forest with trees crowding closely like this.
The girl cut through the sky using her dress's train to move without fearing collision against tree. Her eyes were looking at Lamia without even caring of the branches and pebbles that were hitting her. It caused fear to bubble up inside Lamia.
「──Wind Cutter──!」
Lamia yielded under her fear and fired the wind sorcery she was preparing toward the girl.
The girl muttered something in respond and crossed her arms to protect her head and blocked the attack. No matter how low wind sorcery's wounding ability was, that was only when the opponent was wearing armor. It would easily tear apart the girl's body if the magic hit vital spot.
The navy blue dress the girl was wearing got torn apart and fluttered in the wind. But a black leather dress appeared from underneath it. Although her exposed arms and legs got wounded, all of her vital spots were protected by "shield of light". She closed the distance with Lamia while brandishing her black knife in preparation for a decisive attack.
「──Thrust──!」
Lamia watched the black blade slowly approaching her while her mind became filled with images like a revolving lantern.
Where did they go wrong? There was nothing that they siblings couldn't do if they combined their strength. At first they just wanted to survive. They siblings simply had strength, so it was easier to live by doing bad things.
Was that a mistake? Shouldn't there be a more proper way of living for the siblings to take if they combined their strength?
But......it was already too late.
The Battle Skill that the girl unleashed tore Lamia's neck until halfway. Lamia's sight was filled with the splatter of her own blood.
Who was this girl? She didn't Appraise her but the strength that she felt from her should be around level 3. That was exactly why they siblings also thought there wasn't the slightest chance of them losing as they rushed into the girl's trap.
In front of the fallen Lamia, the girl who was wearing an adventurer black dress covered her hair with the illusion of 『ash』. Seeing that, Lamia realized the girl's true identity and she left behind those words at the end as her consciousness was sinking into the depth of darkness for eternity.
「......"Ash Crowned Princess"......」
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▼ Aria (Alicia) Race : Human ♀ - Rank 3
[Magic Power : 174/240]△ 30 UP[Stamina : 132/190]△ 20 UP
[Strength : 9 (12)]△2 UP[Endurance : 9 (12)]△1 UP[Agility : 13 (17)]△1 UP[Dexterity : 8]
△ 1 UP NEW
NEW△2 UP
△1 UP
△1 UP
△1 UP△1 UP△1 UP
[Overall Combat Strength : 576 (With Body Strengthening : 691)]△ 133 UP