Chapter 294 - 'Hero'

Upon entering the bar, Shiro saw several people turn their heads towards her.

Ignoring their gazes, she sat at the bar.

"Can I have your strongest drink?" She asked with a smile.

"Strongest? Lady, are you sure about that?" The bartender asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yup. I just had a rough day so I want something to distract me from that." Shiro chuckled.

"Why don't I give you something weaker first? We can talk about getting you the strongest one after." The barman suggested.

"Fine. Just give me something to drink." Shiro nodded with a sigh.

While the bartender was getting her the drink, she kept an eye out in the bar for anyone that seemed like they dealt with information.

'Tch, no one. Where the hell are the informers when you need them.' Shiro cursed in her mind.

"Here you go. That'll be 2 silvers please." The bartender said while sliding her the drink.

"Thanks." Shiro nodded and handed him the money.

Tilting her head, she downed the drink in one go before placing the cup down.

"Now then, am I qualified for the strongest drink?" Shiro smiled while tracing her finger along the lip of the glass.

*Whistle~

"Damn!!! Look at the lady go!"

"Oi Karm! The lady's a drinker, why don't you just give her what she wants?! Haha!"

"Shut it the lot of you!" Karm, the bartender, shouted out while looking back at Shiro.

"Well I did warn you before." He sighed before crouching down behind his counter.

Pulling out a bottle filled with translucent liquor, he poured it into a shot glass before handing it to her.

"That'll be 10 silvers."

"Wow, quite expensive for a simple drink don't you think?" Shiro raised an eyebrow but handed him the money anyways.

"Well I don't have much of it so." Karm shrugged.

"Fair enough."

Drinking the shot, Shiro closed her eyes and savoured the moment.

"Damn, that's some good stuff." She smiled.

Karm's eyes had almost fallen out of their sockets after seeing her reaction. Even those who have large tolerances would at least flinch at the sudden impact. And yet for Shiro, it was akin to just drinking normal water.

"Fine I give up haha. Next shot's on me." Karm smiled and poured her another shot, free of charge.

"Thanks."

Taking the shot once more, Shiro sighed.

"So mind telling me why your day has been rough?" Karm asked after seeing her sigh.

"Well I've been looking for a person called Aekari Lumire but I haven't found any traces of him."

"Wait, which Aekari Lumire are you talking about?" Karm raised an eyebrow.

"You know of him?" Shiro asked.

"Depends on which one you're looking for. I only know one and that's the recently crowned light hero. He's going to have a parade tomorrow so you'll probably see him then."

"Hou… Seems like I've found the person I need." Shiro smiled and stood up.

"Why do you need to look for the hero?"

"Just some minor personal business. Don't worry about it." Shiro shook her head.

Leaving the bar, she started to plan out what she should do.

'Since he's going to have a parade tomorrow, it's probably my best chance at kidnapping him for some torture. That being said, he'll probably be surrounded by level 100's for protection. Hell, they might even be higher than 100.' She mused to herself.

{Maybe you should find a good spot and snipe him?} Nimue suggested.

'Hmm… I don't think I'll do that. What I want is to torture him and watch his face twist in pain. If I just kill him plainly, it would be no different from me just killing a cannon fodder. I need to make sure that his pain is the worst it could possibly be." Shiro grinned coldly.

{That's… true. But with the level 100's around him, are you sure you can get him out of there so that you can torture him later?} Nimue asked.

'Probably not. In all honesty, my best option would be to make sure that he can't resist. Getting Volume 4 might help me accomplish this. After all, with him having the hero class, who knows what kind of bullsh*t skill the light goddess had given him.' Shiro shrugged.

{Are you sure you're one to talk about bullsh*t skills my queen?} Nimue raised her non-existent eyebrow.

'Whatever do you mean.' Shiro played dumb.

{First of all, Rift Walker. This skill is one of the most bullsh*t in your arsenal since hardly anyone can cancel this skill if they're not fast enough to knock you aside before you can get in the rift. Second, Celestial Path. This skill the most, and I mean THE MOST, bullsh*t skill you have. I don't even need to get into how bullsh*t it is.} Nimue rolled her eyes.

'Well, I need bullsh*t to fight bullsh*t after all. It wouldn't help much if I just had average skills against the hero now would it?' Shiro smiled while scratching her cheeks.

{Even so, just one should be enough right? But you have an arsenal of them. And don't even get me started on having two main classes with one being triple S and the other being a grade I haven't even heard of before.}

'I suppose so. Anyways, I'll probably stay up all night today to see if I can find the entrance.'

{Don't change subjects.}

###

Throughout the night, Shiro didn't find anyone suspicious nor one that revealed the entrance to the labs so she could only get up and make her way to a good vantage point.

Today was the day that the light hero was going to parade around the city so it should be the best chance she'll get at kidnapping him.

Settling with the space under one of the arcs, Shiro made herself a small seat on the wall so that she didn't have to hang off the side.

"Hmm… The parade should start soon. If the enemy is level 100, I should be able to kill them with a decently powered sniper shot. If they're higher, then I'll probably skip this for now." Shiro muttered while making a sniper.

Making sure that it had the highest possible stealth bonus it could have at the moment, Shiro rested it on her knees and looked through the scope.

The longer she looked down it, the more powerful it became. After her class upgrade, this limit had been increased tremendously.

However, one shot was never enough so she made extra copies and connected them all together.

That way, not only does she increase the power of their shots at the same time, it also gives her the option to kill multiple guards at once.

Waiting patiently for the parade to start, she saw the city become lively as decorations were set up. The cathedral was surrounded by people who had hopeful gazes since this was THE hero after all.  The chosen warrior of the light goddess of whom they worship.

"Tch." Clicking her tongue, Shiro suppressed her urge to throw up and waited.

A few hours later, the parade finally started.

Bells were ringing and confetti were thrown into the air.

A mass of guards exited the cathedral as Shiro narrowed her eyes down the scope. Each of her snipers were fully charged and ready to kill.

However, when she saw the hero, she widened her eyes.

"Who in the fck is this pansy?" She tilted her head in confusion.

While the face was still rather reminiscent of the hero that had betrayed and killed her, the demeanour was completely different.

Instead of the confident and egotistic ass that he was, the Aekari Lumire that she was seeing was meek. His naïve face while greeting all of the people was completely different to what he was later in life.

Furrowing her brows, she no longer at the urge to torture this fake since it clearly wasn't the one that she wanted.

"Tch, what a rip off." Shiro cursed in annoyance. What she wanted to see wasn't the confused fear that she would get from torturing this Aekari, but rather, the regretful fear and despair from the one that had betrayed her.

Disassembling the snipers, she stood up in annoyance.

{Aren't you going to take him?} Nimue asked.

'No point. He's not the one I know. It's just a spineless fake that wouldn't give me any satisfaction.' Shiro clicked her tongue and jumped down from the arc.

Since she wasn't even going to kill the proper version of the ass hat that he was, there was no point in wasting time with the fake hero.

{But isn't he still the hero? If you were given a chance to kill him as this form in the real world, would you?} Nimue asked curiously.

'No. It is like me getting some random fcker and calling him the younger hero and killing him in cold blood. It's no longer the same. If I can change him, I would.' Shiro shook her head.

Since killing the hero was a bust, she could only focus on finding the base.