Chapter 91: Irons in the Fire (1)

A few days after leaving Aubrey Village, we arrived near Tiaria.

But we were still some distance from the city, and since it was already late at night, we decided to enter the city tomorrow and set up camp for the last time.

To us, who were doing so.

“Hey, Evie!”

Hitmen came.

“Don Paulo sends his regards!”

Naturally, they were the ones sent by Don Paulo.

『Burn!』

Along with their greeting, they first threw a 「Fireball」.

But we were not caught in the flames.

Because Miki, who had quickly run to the path of the 「Fireball」, 「Parried」 it.

Kwa-gwa-gwang──!

The fireball, deflected by the shield, exploded, and fwoosh! the nearby bushes caught fire.

“Capture Evie alive!”

At the same time, the hitmen all drew their weapons.

“Kill all the rest!”

“Who are you capturing?”

“──!”

In the meantime, Ibi had already gone behind one of them through 「Shadow Step」.

Thud!

Ibi's dagger plunged into the hitman's back, and the hitman let out a silent scream.

At that, the other surprised hitmen hurriedly turned to chase Ibi, but Ibi had already disappeared from their sight.

Paang!

The dagger that had been stuck in his back spread its 「Thorns of the Wind」, and red blood splattered in all directions like dandelion seeds.

Through the flower of those blood streams, Toric passed.

『Wooooh──!!』

Toric, who had let out a 「Battle Cry」 and rushed towards the hitmen, swung his axe with force.

──Hwoook!

The heavy piece of metal cut through the air and plunged into the hitman's upper body.

The thin leather armor, which emphasized mobility, could not block the blow, and in the end, the axe blade was deeply embedded in his chest.

Toric then kicked the fallen man in the abdomen and pulled his axe back out of his chest.

“T-Take a hostage!”

Seeing this, a panicked hitman shouted, and as if they all had the same thought, they kicked off the ground as soon as the shout ended.

And most of them, probably thinking she was the weakest, rushed towards the cleric── Lily.

Paang!

One of them was hit by the 「Gale」 that Lily shot and was sent flying before he could even get close.

『Your opponent is me!』

And another swung his sword at Miki, who had blocked his path with a 「Taunt」, but.

Kang!

Miki, who had casually blocked it with his shield, was immediately hit by a 「Triple Strike」 and staggered.

“Keoheok!”

At that moment.

The glove of the approaching Lily spewed wind.

Lily swung the prayer book in her one hand with all her might.

“It's divine punishment!”

Thwack!

The thick prayer book hit the staggering hitman's head, and a dull sound echoed.

“Damn it…! Mage!”

At someone's urgent shout, the hitman who had first thrown a 「Fireball」 at us quickly raised his staff.

“Keuk…!”

Then he ‘empowered cast’ a 「Magic Arrow」,

『Pierce!』

And shot four arrows at each of us at once.

But

Kugugung──!

The four arrows all failed to break through the 「Ice Wall」 that had soared up without even a chant, and disappeared without a trace.

“Ma…”

The hitman who, as a mage, was feeling the ‘wall’ of the difference in skill as soon as he saw the high ‘ice wall’ that had so easily blocked his 「Magic Arrows」──

“…!?”

──Kwajik!

Was sent flying by the axe of Toric, who had rushed over in an instant, and his head was embedded in that wall.

As his comrades began to be taken down one by one, the hitmen, who seemed not to have expected this situation at all.

『I'm coming for you.』

Saw me, who was in the midst of it all, excitedly── playing a so-called ‘execution BGM’ to give my comrades a buff, and.

“Th-That bastard…!”

Seemed to be very angry.

Perhaps that's why three of them rushed at me at once, but.

『Since when were assassins guys who come to die!』

“Kraaak!?”

“Ugh!”

As soon as I stopped singing and threw a 「Multiple Vicious Mockery」, they all stopped in their tracks and clutched their heads in pain.

But, since I wasn't in a state where I had taken off my mask, I couldn't shatter their minds to the point of instant death.

Instead.

“Hap!”

Miki, who had immediately rushed over, swung his shield and broke their leg bones, Ibi's dagger pierced their chests, and Rine's 「Magic Arrow」 pierced their heads.

As a result, only one hitman remained.

The one who had sent his regards to Ibi.

“……!”

The guy, seeing his comrades go limp in an instant, couldn't hide his bewilderment and seemed to flinch, and then.

“U-Uaaah──!!”

In the end, he rushed at me, who was the closest, and swung his sword.

Flash!

The blade flashed in the moonlight.

『Kneel!』

Of course, before that blade could reach my neck, he ended up kneeling before me.

And without giving him a chance to be surprised, Ibi, who had quickly rushed over, grabbed his hair and held a dagger to his neck.

“Oh, right.”

Answering the greeting he had given at the beginning, now.

“It's good to see you again too, you bastards.”

This ‘hitman raid’ event was an event that would unconditionally trigger once when you arrived in the Tiaria region and camped.

Therefore, we had been on alert.

There was no need for me to give a heads-up.

In the first place, from the moment we set foot in the Tiaria region, Ibi had been on much higher alert than usual.

─From here on out, it’s that damn old geezer’s territory.

She hadn't just been on alert by herself, but had even warned us in advance.

─Even though it's not the city yet, we don't know where those bastards might be hiding.

Stay sharp.

Thanks to that, dealing with it wasn't too difficult.

It might have been different if we were sleeping, or at least relaxed, but we hadn't even changed our clothes.

In other words, in fact, it was as if they had fallen into our trap.

“How did you know we were here?”

Ibi pulled the hair she was holding back even further and said into the hitman's ear.

At that, the hitman, who had let out a hollow laugh as if in resignation, answered with a slightly trembling voice.

“Evie… did you really think you could escape from the boss…?! His eyes are everywhere── Aak!”

“No, cut the crap, you f*cker.”

Ibi dismissed the hitman's sneer as if she were tired of it and immediately spun the dagger she had held to his neck and stabbed him in the shoulder.

Then she drew the other dagger and held it to his neck again.

“How did you know we were here!”

“F-From Aubrey Village…! A message came from one of our people…!”

Since it was the largest of the villages near Tiaria, they would have naturally planted someone there.

Ibi also muttered, “Ah, I bet,” and let out a hollow laugh.

“Ha. Then did that bastard not tell you this?”

“Wh-What are you──”

“That we caught that dragon there.”

──Seuk.

Then, as if she had heard everything she needed to hear, she slit his throat without mercy.

Then she let go of his hair, and the hitman, clutching his throat, soon collapsed limply at my feet.

I looked down at the hitman's back for a moment, and then turned back to Ibi and said.

“Strictly speaking, we didn't catch it, though.”

“Huh? Ah, right. I forgot. We didn’t catch it, we slept with it. Someone.”

“…I didn't sleep with it.”

“To think that he was at least normal when he was messing with the nun. Who would have imagined?”

At Ibi's mischievous joke, Lily, who had been hit by a stray bullet, was startled and looked away as if embarrassed.

“…Hmm? What's that about?”

When Toric, who didn't know the situation, tilted his head and asked, Ibi answered immediately, “What do you think? The bard did what the bard does,” and chuckled.

Then she nonchalantly stepped over the fallen hitmen on the floor.

“What are you doing? Let's clean this up quickly. You're not going to sleep with these guys, are you?”

***

The next day.

Tiaria.

The largest city on the continent of Zodiac, founded by those who worship the moon goddess ‘Tia’.

You have finally arrived in Tiaria.

As the ‘voice’ said, we had arrived in Tiaria.

As befitting the largest city on the continent, the checkpoint to enter Tiaria was crowded with people.

Thanks to having two ‘Insignia of Alliance’, the check-in itself was almost a breeze, but we had to be stuck at the checkpoint for over an hour just because we were surrounded by a crowd.

The Tiaria that we had finally managed to enter, could surely be described with various adjectives──

‘──It’s big.’

But the first word that came to mind was this.

Everything in this city was big.

The large buildings that greeted us as soon as we entered the city.

The great river that flowed between the rows of buildings, connecting to the vast sea.

The large merchant ships floating on that river and sea.

The large statue of the moon goddess Tia, who wished good luck to those merchant ships, standing tall in the middle of the harbor.

And, the crowd.

There were people everywhere.

There was no place without people.

There were people everywhere, on the wide main streets, in the narrow alleys.

Stout and Daian were by no means small cities, but compared to Tiaria, it would not be an exaggeration to say that they were just villages.

But, how would someone who had never left a really small village in their life take this?

“Wow……”

Of course, they couldn't take it.

Lily was looking at the scene unfolding before her eyes in a daze, as if she were dreaming.

Lily couldn't take her eyes off the new stimuli she was seeing for the first time in her life, the cityscape of a big city, the crowded crowd.

On the other hand, the two who had returned to their hometown and the one who had returned to the place with the most of her former colleagues (?) were making a complicated expression.

“……It’s good to see you again, you damn hometown.”

Especially Ibi, who had acted nonchalantly until she had dealt with the hitmen sent by Don Paulo yesterday, seemed to be feeling very complicated now that she was back in Tiaria.

Well, they weren't the only ones who felt complicated upon arriving in Tiaria.

Usually, the players were the same.

Because as I mentioned before, most of the contents of this game were concentrated here in Tiaria.

The so-called, a heaping bowl of rice.

Therefore, as soon as the players arrived in Tiaria, they would see the heaping bowl of rice in front of them and would usually be confused about where to start, where to go first, and who to meet first.

At least in Stout and Daian, there was a clear main quest that ran through the city, so you could just follow that quest line.

But in Tiaria, so many things were intertwined that it was not easy to untangle the thread and organize it into one ‘line’.

The city was large, the people were many, and all sorts of quests were bustling, and the developers, who had somehow coaxed and threatened (and brought) us here, had suddenly thrown us into the middle of a big city from their warm embrace, saying ‘You are free’, so it was only natural to be confused (even if that was their intention in the first place).

Well, of course, I had passed that stage a long time ago.

In a situation like this, where it was difficult to organize things into one, you had to solve them one by one, step by step.

So first, let's feed the poodle… no, I mean, you have to plan your route considering the difficulty of achievement and the urgency.

So, the place we should head to first is──

“──F-Fire! It's a fire!”

That mansion, which was currently burning fiercely.

To be precise.

“……Huh? Uh, uhh!?”

The burning mansion of the Irons family.

In other words.

“M-My house!?”

Miki's family home.

“M-My house is on fire?!”