「Aria....youuu, you went back by yourself leaving behind your teacher. After that a scout came back with fast horse bringing information, so I managed to slip in the commotion and escaped but, it’ll be better if you don’t show our face in this town’s guild for a while. Aa, also I got the payment for the magic stone with me.」

「Right, sorry. Thank you.」

As I thought it really became troublesome. Even so I couldn’t possibly just stay silent without reporting, so I only handed the information while pushing off everything else to others, but it looked like the scout in that town was capable and immediately came here to notify the guild about the extermination of the orcs.

「It will be hectic for the lord and the adventurer guild after this.」

「Oi, don’t act like it’s someone else’s problem. But well, guess this is still better compared to having to face the orcs head on.」

Baron Horace wouldn’t be able to cancel his reinforcement request to his caregiver and other noble houses based on only report from adventurer. He would have to send his soldiers in great hurry to verify the information.

If the information was correct than the soldier’s dispatch had to be stopped, but he would still need to pay some reparation even if he stopped it at this point. Well, even so it was just as Viro said, it should still be better compared to having his town getting attacked by a group of orc and his people and soldiers got exposed to mortal danger.

「Anyway let’s confirm our plan going forward.」

「Roger.」

I was waiting in Galbas’s workshop and Viro also returned there. We coordinated our schedule in there.

Viro was supposed to take command for the orc subjugation that suddenly got requested, but that problem had been solved. It seemed that he was told to stay here for the time being until the baron’s soldiers had verified the truth, but even that would be finished in around one week.

I was also not in my best condition, and Viro too wanted to go to pick up one more comrade, so we arranged to meet three months later in the territory of Duke Helton at the west part of Claydale Kingdom.

It should also be possible for Grave to move on to another place if we took that much time but, in that case Viro said that he would leave behind message to me in the adventurer guild of big cities like at Dandall.

With this I got time to stop by at master’s place but.....

「This request, is it from that “organization” as expected?」

When I confirmed just in case, Viro lightly crossed his arms and made an unusually serious face.

「Are you still doubting that organization? I don’t know the reason why Grave turned traitor but, at the very least that organization didn’t give any order to kill you. There isn’t even any reason for that, or rather, in the first place even the reason why Grave attacked you is unclear.」

「At that time Grave said it was because a noble got interested to me. He also said about me getting too close to royalty. What does he mean?」

By royalty he must meant about me getting too close to Elena. As for the matter of noble....was there still any biological family who was looking for me?

「That’s....I don’t know. Perhaps someone like Sera will know but, should I try asking her?」

「No need. I’ll lower my wariness but, I’ll continue keeping distance to that organization for a while. Is that alright?」

「It’s not like I’m a member of that organization, so I can’t tell you what’s alright or not. After all it’ll also be dangerous if you completely believe them. But, is it alright if I at least tell Sera and her son that you’re alive?」

「Hmm....that’s fine.」

Viro made a slightly relieved look when I nodded. ....As I thought, it seemed he was also requested by Sera or someone else to investigate about my wellbeing.

「Also, if you’re still planning to get involved with the princess from here on, you better prepare yourself to get involved with that organization too. I can tell you now that organization is this country’s 『black ops』. Even if you’re planning to live as adventurer, you’ll definitely get involved with them one day when you’re this strong.」

「....Got it.」

I had assumed that to some degree by the time Elena was involved but, as expected, they were a black ops organization, this country’s intelligence agency huh.....

A black ops that had intelligence network spreading throughout the whole country and also have influence in the open. Making them enemy would be even more troublesome than with the assassin guild. I would have no other option except running away to other country the moment I made them into enemy.

(....So it’ll soon be the time for me to resolve myself huh.)

I whispered inside my heart and let out a deep sigh as though to let out the thing accumulating inside me.

I had simply been running away until now but, I decided that I wouldn’t run away anymore. If there the people who were involved with the so called Otome game and the family looking for me tried to drag me into destiny again, I would remove them forcefully.

If my strength was insufficient....at that time, let’s also held the resolve to throw away my life rather than living as controlled “puppet”.

Until then I needed to become as strong as possible.

My destiny belonged only to “me”.

The other person who Viro would pick up was apparently a former party member who had retired.

Now that he mentioned it, it felt like I had been told once about a sorcerer retiring and him looking for a replacement. His party must still be unable to find a replacement if Viro needed to pick up that person. Even so....that person should be retired due to advanced age, would it be alright?

.

First let’s return to master’s place after so long..... I chose to return to master’s place partly because my body was unwell, but there were also two other important reasons.

I made the string for pendulum two years ago but, I had used it in many battles, and now the only string I had left was the ones connected to the two pendulums. Galbas made me four new pendulums so, right now I wanted double amount of strings including for spare too.

Besides, I also wanted to ask about the last technique I used to defeat Goljaoul──the origin Battle Technique. Normally even just using it would endanger my life, but if it was master then perhaps she knew something.

By going through Count Taurus’s territory and Dandall, it would take me one month to reach master’s place no matter how much I hurried. From there it should also take more than a month to go until the territory of Duke Helton where I promised to meet Viro.

The place that Viro would go to pick up his comrade was at the territory of Marquis Wankarl that was around two weeks distance from the royal capital, so I didn’t think that they would be late to the meeting place. With that I couldn’t possibly allow myself to be the only one coming late.

....As expected I needed a method of transportation. With this itinerary I would only be able to stay in master’s place for one week. That was why I decided to pass through a dangerous forest area in order to shorten the time needed.

In a straight line between this territory of Baron Horace and the territory of Baron Seylace, there was a forest where it deep inside it was adjacent to a “monster habitat region” where monsters were prevalent.

The northern side of the forest was a monster habitat, but that place wasn’t a territory of Claydale Kingdom. But, for the national border to be drawn until that forest in this territory meant that there should be people who explored until there and casted the sorcery barrier that acted as national border.

Perhaps it was an achievement that was left behind from the era where mercenaries who specialized in exploration, “adventurers” were carrying out their original work.

That was why, it wasn’t an unexplored land because there was national border there. If there were people who went until that far, I assumed that at the very least there was a “path” that human could pass through along the border.

I bought a lot of salt and sugar in the town and also bought spare mantel as substitute for blanket. Viro had also brought the payment for magic stone to me. It really helped me a lot from getting detained in the guild.

By the way one orc magic stone was equal to five silver coins. The magic stone from orc soldier was four gold coins, and the magic stone of Goljaoul, the orc general gave me five large gold coins.

In total I got paid nine large coins and some change. It was a lot of money but, I should be able to get twice of this if I could also harvest the materials from the orcs. I didn’t harvest them and just left them there because I couldn’t bring them all by myself and also because I wanted to leave behind some for the other adventurers’ reward. It was that kind of stupid reason.

Several days had passed but my stamina and magic power still didn’t recover above 70%. But that was enough for now. I wasn’t going to fight, just cutting open a path. I should be able to manage somehow even with my current state.

Finally I found some good quality dry fruits and roasted nuts in a stall so I purchased them. I stored only the items that looked like they could get moldy into the Storage where things were kept in sterilized state, then I left the city and headed straight to east.

.

I started running with 60% of my speed while using Stealth. If I adjusted my mana amount while using Body Strengthening moderately,? I should be able to traverse the same distance like riding a horse without forcing myself.

But, that was only assuming that I was running on a flat ground. Flat ground was rare inside a forest and my travelling speed would lower dramatically.

Before that happened I would use Magic Power Control and trained my Body Strengthening.

I removed the attributes that acted as “off-flavor” from the magic particles just like when I used that original Battle Technique and suppressed the magic particles from rampaging using my willpower.

As long as it didn’t go out of control, Body Strengthening would only exhibit the normal strength but, the training of Magic Power Control skill wouldn’t be a waste.

The testing I was doing right now was heightening the fluidity of magic particles to increase the efficiency of Body Strengthening by using less magic particles to achieve the same result.

Even so....perhaps because my body was too used to using magic particles, my arms and legs didn’t get thicker despite my height getting taller. It wasn’t like I didn’t have muscle. The muscles in my whole body were properly developing but, I wonder why my stomach wasn’t showing toned abs?

Even if my muscle structure was “monsterized” with the premise of using magic particles, I had seen the orcs and Feld having such bulging muscles all over their body, and yet with my body..... Well, my body stayed being light was a good thing. Let’s just keep it at that.

I went out of the highway and entered into the forest. Just like when I was chasing after orcs, I didn’t step on the ground where tree leaves were lying around and leaped around on rocks and fallen trees.

I didn’t do anything to any goblin or demon wolf that I found on the way. In the first place the low rank monsters didn’t sense me while I was using Stealth.

I wouldn’t kill living creature meaninglessly.

I killed animal for “eating”.

I killed enemy because that was the most “logical” way to solve a problem.

That was why when killing “enemy”, I didn’t “feel” anything. I didn’t kill other based on emotion and I also had no reason to show mercy to them.

That was why I didn’t feel hesitation with living.

.

I became “shadow” and ran through the forest. I only ate fruits that I found and the preserved food I brought with me. When I got tired I would take a short nap on a tree. I didn’t know the precise location of the national border but, I was able to find traces of “people” on large rock or cliff while moving through the forest.

「....Barrier?」

I noticed that inside the forest there would be spaces that purified magic particles that were laced with negative attribute....miasma in each interval.

Human could live in this world that was filled with monster because the higher ranked a monster was, the smarter they would be. That kind of being knew just how threatening humans were in group.

That was why stronger monster had the tendency to avoid human settlement. Most likely these purified spaces were from magic stones filled with light magic particles that were buried into the ground, just like in the surrounding of village or city where humans lived.

That was a warning to monster that the place was where human lived. This was a trace that human had visited this place which formed a “path”. And this path was definitely leading to a place where human lived.

Even so, as expected from this location. I had caught sight of several powerful monsters, perhaps because of the proximity of this place to the monster habitat.

Beast demihuman race Ogre that was a monster with strength of upper end rank 3. A rank 4 tree monster Treant. Rank 5 mythical beasts Griffon and Troll.

I managed to avoid the Griffon because I noticed it first but, the chance I died would be higher if it found me first.

「....There.」

I passed through that forest where death was always lurking around closely and after ten days, I was able to see a big lake through the gaps of the forest from a rocky place where I was standing.

That was the lake at the border between the territory of Count Basshu and Baron Seylace that I passed before this too. The only big lake around here was there so there was no doubt.

I headed straight to the lake from the rocky place and then I headed north from there. I finally arrived at human settlement there and stayed for a night in a nearby town, and then I spent four nights travelling before I finally arrived at the territory of Baron Seylace for the third time.

.

The brother and sister of Seylace House might be at the age to enroll into the academy around now. Were the two of them in the royal capital? Perhaps the big sister had come of age and returned here, but either way I had no plan to go meet them.

The problem of mysterious person who attacked the people here had been resolved, so I had no more reason to meet the two of them.

Even so this was the place where I fought Grave and lost. This place left a deep impression to me.

「........」

Grave....you tried to kill me after considering me a danger from getting too close to a royalty. But this time I’d be the one hunting you as an existence that might harm Elena.

Regardless of what kind of reason you had, I’d deal with you as “my enemy”.

It had been nearly a year since the last time I showed my face at master’s place to report about the destruction of the assassin guild. I arrived at master’s hermitage bringing a lot of salt and spices as souvenir. There I found that field of medicinal herb had grown a bit bigger with the addition of some grasses I didn’t know.

「I’m back, master.」

I entered inside the hermitage that was filled with nostalgic medicinal smell and put down my luggage. Master came out from the alchemy room in the back. She smiled suggestively while lifting up her face that had the characteristic glossy black skin of dark elf.

「You’re late, surly disciple. Even though I had been making “preparation” because I thought it’s about time you come back, all my efforts would get wasted if you take any longer.」

「....Preparation?」

It was as though master had predicted my return. She put the potion bottles she was holding into a box without any hurry in her movement. Then she approached me and hugged me inside her arms.

「You have grown a bit bigger again. But aren’t you getting a bit thinner? Welcome home....Aria.」

Like this I returned “home” to where the only person in this world who I could call family was living.

「Yes....I’m home, master.」