“Be straight with me,” I said, leaning back in the carriage seat. “Do you think there’s actually a chance the Holy Kingdom might go for something as blatant as assassinating me even though we just signed a peace treaty?” I asked Ira and Ifriita while in the carriage on the way to the Adventurers’ Guild.
From my perspective, that kind of move made no sense. I was tied directly to Merinard’s upper government, and we were still in the middle of diplomatic negotiations.
“I think that’s a naive way to look at it,” Ira replied. “It’s not as though the Holy Kingdom is unified under a single will. You should keep your guard up.”
Ifriita nodded in agreement. “Mm. If there are people over there who genuinely desire peace, then there are almost certainly others who oppose it just as strongly, and they’ll push back as hard as they can. To them, you’re an obstacle that needs to be eliminated. In fact, the delegation that came to Merinard even warned us that the old main-sect might try a decapitation strike or terrorism.”
“Wait, what? Nobody told me that part.”
“Because there was no point,” Ira said curtly. “Either way, you’re a high-risk target. Our weakest point.”
“I mean sure, but…”
I wished someone had told me regardless. If I knew I was being targeted, I could at least prepare myself mentally. If I got attacked out of nowhere, I could end up panicking or something.
“You can be pretty careless, you know that?” Ifriita said with a sigh. “It’s like you believe peace is some kind of default state.”
“Can you blame me? Back in my world, assassinations and the like were things you only experienced in games or fiction. The idea of being a target myself feels unreal.”
People who walked around constantly freaking out about assassins were usually treated like conspiracy nuts back home.
As I thought about this, our carriage jolted to a sudden halt, and shouting broke out outside.
“Huh? Don’t tell me…”
“I don’t know yet. Stay put, both of you. I’ll go outside and take a look,” Ira said as she swiftly opened the carriage door and leaped out—only for a fast-moving object to shoot straight at her.
It appeared to pierce her!
“Too obvious,” she muttered.
Clank, clank.
The sharp sound of metal striking the stone road rang out. For a moment, it had looked like the projectile had impaled Ira, but in all reality, she caught it midair with one hand.
“Kousuke, stay inside,” Ira ordered, shutting the carriage door behind her with a firm click.
I glanced down and saw the object on the ground: a small, thick crossbow bolt.
“Dammit!”
“Don’t,” Ifriita said sharply, grabbing me by the collar as I reached for the door with a handgun I’d pulled from one of my shortcuts. “You’ll only slow her down. She’s protecting you, so stay put and let her do her job.”
“But I can’t put Ira in dang—”
Before I could finish protesting, several fierce pops echoed outside. Must have been the sound of Ira’s lightning magic firing off in rapid succession.
“It’s over,” Ira’s voice said calmly a few seconds later, and the carriage door opened again.
Er, wasn’t that a little fast? Like, anticlimactic, even?
“The assassins are down. A few are still breathing, so I’ll leave them to the others outside.”
“The others…?”
I opened the window to take a look and sure enough, Shemel and the other ogre girls were outside, tying up a bunch of scorched figures (probably assassins) still faintly smoking from residual lightning. Harpies circled overhead, and a few members of the royal guard had already arrived to help.
“Those types tend to bite their tongues or take poison,” Ira said briskly. “Gag them immediately. Contact the castle and tell them to be ready to heal and detoxify.”
“U-understood! Right away!”
Flamme—the brown-feathered harpy—received Shemel’s orders and flew up into the sky. Shemel spotted me watching from the window and waved cheerfully, as if to say “See? We had you covered the whole time.”
So they really had been protecting me from the shadows this whole time. Good to know.
“Driver,” Ira said, turning her head slightly, “continue to the guild as planned. There are a lot of demi-humans over there, so humans stand out like a sore thumb. If any other assassins try something, those hot-blooded adventurers will jump in before we need to.”
“R-right away, ma’am!”
The beastman in the coach seat—something between a mouse, squirrel, or hamster—snapped the reins nervously, and the carriage rolled forward again.
“You okay, Ira? Not hurt or anything?”
“I’m fine,” she said simply. “None of their attacks could hit me. I activated our new magic barrier.” She reached beneath her robe and pulled out a crossbow bolt that had been aimed at her, handing it over. “There’s poison on the tip. I’d like you to put this in your inventory as is.”
“Got it.”
I took the bolt, stuffed it into storage, and immediately checked the readout. “Basilisk poison,” I said. “The system tag says, crossbow bolt (coated in basilisk poison).”
“I see. That saves me some time,” she replied, eyes narrowing slightly.
Ifriita frowned. “A crossbow…? I didn’t expect the Holy Kingdom’s assassins to start using those.”
“Mm, it’s not that surprising,” I said. “Some adventurers have been using them too.”
Crossbows were part of the Merinard army’s official loadout, so a few were bound to leak into civilian hands.
We’d been sending squads of soldiers with crossbows out across the country to take down monsters, so normal folks had plenty of opportunities to see the crossbows in person. It wasn’t a stretch that some merchants—or spies—had managed to get their hands on them.
“I suppose that’s true,” Ifriita said.
“They didn’t feel as powerful as the ones our soldiers have,” Ira added, examining the bolt’s shaft. “I don’t think they’re the same kind we have. Some local craftsman probably tried to copy the army’s design.”
“Gotcha. I’d love to take a closer look later,” I said, leaning back with a sigh. “Still can’t believe it. I really got attacked by assassins, huh?”
“It’s stranger that it hadn’t happened sooner,” Ira replied matter-of-factly. “You’re far too important. And far too visible. We need to be more careful going forward.”
“Agreed. And you need to remember your life isn’t just your own.”
“I’ll take that to heart. Was anyone else hurt? Besides the assassins?”
“The assassins toppled some wood and cargo to force our carriage to stop. A number of people got caught up in it and were injured, but the royal guards tended to their wounds right away and Shemel called for medical assistance, so they’ll be okay. There were no casualties outside of the assassins.”
“Thank goodness…”
It was a relief nobody else had died, but we still had to provide maximum aid to those who’d been caught up in all of this. Once we got back to the castle, I planned to file requests and make sure they got everything they needed.
“At this point, I should probably avoid going out in the city too often, huh?” I said.
“You’ll never be able to do anything if you get into that mindset.”
“Mm. You’re worrying too much.”
Both Ifriita and Ira objected. Locking myself in the castle out of fear would feel like I was letting the assassins win. That thought irritated me almost as much as the idea of innocent folks getting hurt because of me.
Then an idea hit me.
“If getting targeted by assassins is gonna be a problem, what if I build a route they can’t use?”
“Wha?” Ifriita blinked in confusion.
“Ah! I get it.”
Ifriita was puzzled, but Ira nodded in understanding. This was the difference between someone who had just started hanging out with me and someone who’d been there since the proverbial start.
“How do you plan on traveling, on foot?” she asked.
“No. I can lay down rails and build my own personal vehicle that runs on them. Power it with a golem.”
“What kind of magic energy source?”
“You know, one of those,” I gestured toward some gleaming magic jewels.
“Too dangerous. Stop while you’re ahead. As the head mage, I can’t allow you to use something so dangerous underneath the city.”
I could’ve used ordinary magic crystals, but I also had gleaming magic jewels that could produce magic energy almost indefinitely. Still, Ira was right. Using something that powerful beneath Merinesburg was a disaster waiting to happen. A single incident could level the whole city.
Ifriita looked baffled by the conversation. I decided to spend the rest of the ride explaining the plan to her. If it worked, it wouldn’t just change how I moved around the city, it could revolutionize travel here and even expand the slime girls’ range of mobility.