Chapter 1

1 The Last Mission “All right, this plan is the best shot we have if we’re going to make the most of Roland’s skills!” A smile bloomed on the hero Almelia’s face as she concluded her explanation. Our party had already infiltrated the demon lord’s castle and was having a last-minute strategy meeting in an empty storehouse. We were incredibly close to the audience chamber, where we would presumably find the demon lord. To put it simply, our strategy was to have the hero, mage, high cleric, and paladin—basically everyone I’d been traveling with—distract the demon lord. Then I’d use my Unobtrusive skill’s special ability to kill our enemy. That’s all there was to it. “Almelia, isn’t that supposed to be your job?” It did seem strange for the hero to step out of the spotlight. “It’s fine. Besides, this plan has the highest chance of success.” Everyone else agreed. It wasn’t like I’d be any good at drawing the demon lord’s attention—that was for sure… “Looking at it objectively, you’ve got the best chance of getting it done, Roland.” When it came to our individual abilities, that was definitely true. The reasoning behind the plan was solid… Our party had exhausted every reserve of physical strength and magic just to reach this place. Likely because of how drained we all were, there was a sense of grim resolve hanging in the air. At this rate, somebody was going to end up dead. No matter what lay ahead, however, these were people I’d traveled with for a long time. I wanted to see this journey through to the end without losing a single one of them. Even though we normally got pretty talkative the moment we had a chance to rest, right now nobody had much to say. The others might’ve been brooding, or maybe they were quietly preparing themselves for what was coming. I decided to excuse myself. I activated my Unobtrusive skill and tried to leave the storehouse in which we’d hidden ourselves. “Roland, where are you going?” Almelia easily caught me. Everyone else noticed the moment she pointed me out. All my Unobtrusive skill did was make me more forgettable and blend into the background. It wasn’t like it made me invisible, nor did it erase all traces of my presence. In this world where everyone got a skill, mine was the letdown of all letdowns—literally the most disappointing skill. “I’m taking a breather.” “Taking a breather…to do what?” “To take a leak—want to come with?” “H-honestly! Just get it done quickly! I can’t believe you’re not even slightly nervous at a time like this.” The party of heroes was made up of women at a tender age. I had no clue what kind of idea had gotten into Almelia’s head, but her face turned red, and she shooed me away with her hand. “I’ll be back real soon.” I left the storehouse only after making sure that no enemies were around. The truth was, I didn’t plan on returning to the party. In fact, I expected never to see any of them again. I was going to finish this journey without losing a single one of them. That was my mission. Facing the demon lord as we were ensured someone would perish. “…All right, time to get to work.” The top floor of the demon lord’s castle was eerily quiet. At the end of the long, extensive hallway, I found a monolithic and outrageously gaudy door. …This was it. Instead of heading that way, I climbed out one of the windows in the corridor. I leaped onto a terrace about two floors down, landing quietly. I spotted a demon knight who’d been stationed as a guard. I drew the dagger at my hip. After covering the demon knight’s mouth with my hand, I slit the creature’s throat. Once it had died, I laid its limp carcass on the floor. My companions had believed that the audience chamber where the demon lord waited could be reached only through the front entrance. When I checked the blueprints we’d gotten our hands on, however, I found an alternate route that I could take. After showing everyone the map, I’d told them that I’d be able to get in that way. “There’s no freaking way we could pull off the acrobatics needed to go that route,” Almelia had said. “Yes, I agree,” Elvie the paladin had added. She just didn’t like heights. “…Looks fun…,” Lina the mage had commented. That girl had absolutely zero reflexes to speak of, so her willingness to try was concerning. “Ha-ha, ha-ha. Never expected to fall to my death after coming so close to fighting the demon lord, ha-ha. This is like some sort of joke.” Serafin the high cleric had been battling a fit of laughter. …And that’s the conversation we’d had in that strategy session earlier. I hurled up a length of rope, aiming for a spire above, and silently climbed from shadow to shadow. Facing enemies directly was for heroes. I was going to take that demon lord directly by surprise instead. Still gripping the rope, I ran along the spire wall and used my momentum to make a long leap. I reached the window of the demon lord’s audience chambers—an entry point that was supposed to be absolutely impossible to infiltrate. I inhaled sharply, then let out a slow exhale. Gathering magic in my pointer finger, I thrust it at the window. As I broke through a single point on the firm magical barrier, I simultaneously cut a hole in the glass. Attacking a specific location on the front of a defensive barrier could be quite effective. Reaching through the hole I’d cut, I unlocked the window, raised it, and quietly slid in. Now I was right behind the throne. “What an entertaining guest I have.” Apparently, you couldn’t pull a fast one on a demon lord. My visit had been immediately detected. Emitting some sinister mana, the demon lord stood from the throne. We stared each other down. Before me was a figure wearing a gaudy mantle. Slitted reptilian eyes stared into mine. The demon lord’s long hair was as red as fire, and her irises were a deep crimson shade. She was beautiful, that demonic woman. We didn’t bother with chitchat. I activated my skill—immediately using my full power to end this quickly. At the same time, the demon lord fired off magic that looked like black lightning. Despite being unfamiliar with that kind of spell, I had no trouble evading it. That was because her attack had been directed at the wrong place. “Hmm…?” The demon lord realized something was off. She sure was powerful. Even if it’d missed, her attack broke through the magical barrier placed on the room and blew out the wall with a thunderous roar. I would’ve been lucky to be a pile of dust if I’d taken an attack like that. The demon lord loosed another one of those dark bolts, this time at a completely different trajectory. Much like the first one, however, it missed the mark. “—Again…!” I’d been turning my Unobtrusive skill on and off since we started. Skills weren’t normally capable of being activated and deactivated like that, but I could use mine as if I were flipping the lights. Even though it’d appear like I was right before my opponent’s eyes, I’d seem to disappear the very next instant. In reality, I was actually still right in front of the demon lord. Rapidly alternating between those states confused my opponents. The more desperate they were to find me, the worse of a situation they’d dig themselves into. I hadn’t moved a single step. Anyone confounded this much would naturally start to attack blindly. “You little sneak…!” The demon lord was growing irritated. Her mana, magical skills, magic sensibilities, and battle prowess were all undoubtedly exemplary. However… “…Demon Lord, when was the last time you actually fought anyone?” Lords weren’t commonly drawn into the fighting. I’d never even heard of this woman showing her face on the front lines. Against an opponent like me—someone who’d fought against enemies on the regular and had honed his senses—downtime was as good as fatal. Then again, the skill I had, Unobtrusive, was a loser skill that denied me the chance of ever being a hero. To put things in a somewhat different way, however, no one used loser skills. That meant no one knew how to counter them. Every ability had its uses… You just had to get creative. Understanding that was the key to making any loser skill a special one that nobody could emulate. “First time seeing a skill like mine, huh?” After hearing my voice, the demon lord flipped around and attacked me with a shadowy longsword that she’d fortified using her mana. By the time she swiped, I’d already turned my skill on and was long gone. “Tsk, where are—?” “…Right in front of you.” The moment she faced forward, I thrust a dagger at her forehead. Costing only seventeen hundred rins, my weapon was pretty cheap. Even a kid could’ve bought one of these knives if they saved up their allowance for a bit. I didn’t need any special gear or the like. Even a weapon was just a tool in the end. I’m my greatest weapon. That idea had been driven into me countless times during my tenure as an assassin. “Guh… I shall acknowledge my defeat… I shall scale down the demon lord army and thereafter dissolve it. I will instruct my forces not to harm any humans as they retreat.” The demon lord fell to her knees. “That’s not even on the table for discussion.” Even if she actually did dissolve her army and forbade them from harming humans, the possibility for war would remain so long as the demon lord’s banner flew. Protecting the party of heroes and assassinating the demon lord—those were my duties. Abandoning them now wasn’t an option. “If you’ve got any last words, let’s hear them.” At my command, the demon lord raised her bowed head. She looked relieved. It was almost as though a huge burden had finally been lifted from her. Perhaps she’d been prepared for this. I then killed the demon lord. With that, my mission was complete. I walked out the front door alone and put the demon lord’s castle behind me. Just like that, the assassin who defeated the so-called most powerful demon lord had become a legend. Without anyone knowing…