Volume 2 - CH 14

▼ Shadow User Radha  Race : Beastman (Cat) 

【Magic Power : 233/235】【Stamina : 240/240】

【Overall Combat Strength : 855 (With Body Strengthening : 1017)】

……This woman is most likely Shadow User Radha.

I’ve roughly memorized the general “peculiarity” of the presence of  people in that assassin guild northern frontier district branch, even  the ones who were hiding from me.

Stealth isn’t something for the sake of hiding, but for the sake of  not getting found out. Even if someone tried to hide perfectly, if I  understand that they are 『definitely there』, it will become an out of  place feeling, and if it’s too perfect than a “peculiarity” will form  there, and if I can just memorize that peculiarity then seeing through  Stealth also become possible.

Among them, the only presence that I couldn’t find despite knowing  that there was an existence there was only the Shadow User Radha. I’m  guessing from the information I have and the trait from their nicknames,  and this woman is the only one who isn’t registered in my memory, which  mean she is Shadow User Radha.

Radha is glaring at me. In respond to her question, I pushed my emotion to the bottom of my heart and tilted my head slightly.

「Guy? Dino also asked me about him but, there is no way I know anything right? I was away from the guild for a job.」

I disposed Guy’s corpse together with the rookie hunters so that not a  trace of him remained behind. There shouldn’t be any proof at all about  me murdering Guy, but Radha is suspecting me. I wonder why.

「Keira said that she requested Guy to attack you. Did he appear at your location?」

The sharp glint and pressure that are unique to cat beastman pierced  me. My heart almost leaped for a moment. I suppressed my heart even  deeper and narrowed my eyes without a single change in my expression as I  stared back at Radha.

「Please stop with all the accusations. Even if he came to where I was, he might be dead from the dungeon’s monsters.」

I didn’t expect that there was such strong horizontal connection  between the members of assassin guild. Besides it was surprising that  Keira was leaking information that was disadvantageous for herself but,  is there a “reason” for her that made it fine to talk if it’s with  Radha…….

「……There is no way Guy will lose against some random monster-. That  child has the strength to fight equally even against me if it’s in a  head-on fight. ……There is no way Guy can lose. Unless someone set up a  dirty trap for him……-!」

In that moment, dark colored magic particles mixed with killing  intent surged from Radha’s whole body. I also unleashed my magic power  at the same time with that and took out throwing weapon using the shadow  of my palm as the intermediary.

Radha and my killing intents clashed. The presences of the small animals at the surrounding vanished as they scattered away.

Is she planning to kill me in the middle of city at noon like this? I  accelerated my thought and constructed several fighting patterns in my  mind, but Radha suppressed her killing intent and threw a bundle of  paper on my feet.

「……We will talk again after the job is over. The information from one  other contact who was following and investigating the Mercenary of Dawn  is written there. Let me see how someone at your level is going to  fight against “rank 4” adventurer.」

Radha spat out those words before she began backing away without showing her back at me.

「……”What” is Guy to you?」

When I asked her that before she vanished, Radha turned her eyes that  were filled with anger just for an instant, then she left behind a last  whisper while vanishing into the alley’s darkness.

「He is my precious……”little brother”.」

Radha and Guy were raised in an orphanage of a small city at the north.

Both of Radha’s parents were beastman adventurer. The two of them  left the beastman country trying to strike it rich. They dived into  dungeon many times before one day, they didn’t return home and left the  young Radha alone.

There were quite a number of demi human even at Claydale Kingdom that  was a human country, but as expected there was subtle prejudice at the  remote region. There were not many who had regular occupation. Radha who  was left alone was entered into the orphanage by an adventurer who was  acquainted with her parents, but Radha who was a beastman who wasn’t  even a legitimate citizen was already really lucky just from being able  to enter the orphanage.

Even so she couldn’t get close with the human children and was  isolated. When she was five years old, a Cruzian baby was sent to the  orphanage.

Even Cruzian who had different skin color was rarely discriminated,  but in the end that was only between adults. In the case of uneducated  children, they would exclude those who were different from them to a  cruel degree.

The older orphans were tasked with taking turn to take care of the  baby, but the orphans disliked looking after that baby who was named  Guy. They pushed the task to Radha who was still five years old.

『The black baby should be looked after by a “black cat” like you.』

Black eyes and black hair. She was teased as black cat because she  was the only beastman in the orphanage. Radha got the task pushed on her  together with those heartless words, but while she was at a loss of  what to do, Guy grasped her hand with his small hand and smiled. That  sight made the young girl decided.

『This boy……I’ll protect him.』

She changed his diaper with clumsy fingers, patiently gave him goat  milk, protected him desperately from the other orphans and cold. It made  Guy idolized her as his elder sister, while Radha also loved Guy as a  little brother.

The two sought each other to heal their loneliness. When Radha and  Guy became twelve years old and eight years old respectively, the two  stole food and money from the orphanage that was cold against foreign  thing and ran away.

『Guy, if the people of this country called us 『black』, let’s live in the 『shadow』 then.』

『Yep, Radha. Let’s show them our strength.』

Radha received instruction of combat and dark sorcery from her  adventurer parents in the past. Guy also had the high physical ability  that was unique to Cruzian people. They gained strength in the blink of  eye.

The two hid themselves in the slum district, attacked drunken people  or old man in moonless night and killed them, stealing lives and little  money. That act naturally provoked the anger of the local thief guild,  but they were discovered by someone else before the thief guild could.  The one who called out to them was a member of assassin guild.

.

──After that several years passed. Radha grew more skilled until she  got called as Shadow User due to her stealth type skill that was  characteristic of cat beastman and her talent in dark sorcery. As for  Guy, although he was only evaluated as rank 3, he had grown to become a  warrior that was acknowledged even within the guild for his head-on  battle skill.

That Guy one day went out to follow a rookie child and didn’t come back.

It wasn’t rare for a task to last until several months in the  assassin guild. Radha too wasn’t anxious although she was feeling  slightly worried, but then Keira came to talk to Radha which was unusual  for her.

Radha and Keira’s relationship wasn’t good or anything. The number  they talked could even be counted because of their difference in  personality, but Keira confided that he requested Guy to hurt the new  member.

『Hey, Radha. Don’t you think it’s strange, Guy taking this much time just for that simple job?』

Radha guessed from those words. Most likely Keira knew of her  relationship with Guy and she was trying to direct Radha’s ill will  toward that child.

She knew that there was a quarrel between that child and Keira. She  also felt anger toward Keira who dragged her into such nonsensical  matter, but Radha prioritized Guy and avoided making trouble inside the  guild. She then volunteered to head the capital where that child should  be at as a contact from the guild.

Her task also included being a 『watcher』 in case the contact this  time made a blunder like allowing that rookie to escape or getting  themselves captured. At that time it would be her duty to clean up the  mess.

And then when she arrived at the capital and met that rookie for  real, that child possessed abnormal nerve and combat strength that were  unthinkable for a kid……and most of all, seeing those eyes that were cold  like ice made her convinced, 『this girl might be able to kill Guy』──no,  she was convinced that 『she killed him』.

「Ash covered……tsu, I’ll torture you to death with this hand.」

「…………」

Little brother……huh. Did she mean that figuratively? I felt Radha’s  existence vanished completely from the shadow she disappeared into  before I finally let out a long sigh.

She is still suspecting me but……well, forget it. Radha gave me a lot of information from that short exchange.

About my contacts, one is following the Mercenary of Dawn, while the one who got dispatched from the guild is Radha.

Even if they weren’t related by blood, Radha chased me until the  capital and even considered killing me. If she thought of Guy by that  much, than that was an important information.

Radha is strong. Even so if she lost control of herself from anger,  there will be an opening no matter how strong she is. And if I  understand her reason, I’ll also be able to estimate how much anger she  is harboring. Scaring the weak and angering the strong to create an  opening is an old trick.

Also it was just something that she said casually but, with the way  Radha emphasized saying rank 4 adventurer, I think Radha herself is also  a rank 4.

From the magic power and combat strength of Radha that I saw using  Appraisal, and if what she said that the rank 3 Guy was equal to her in  close quarter combat despite her being rank 4, what made Radha to be  worthy of being rank 4 must be her dark sorcery.

Furthermore Radha made a mistake. She might be underestimating  because I’m a child, or perhaps she lost control of herself from anger  even though she was pretending to be calm, but she had shown the way she  activated darkness sorcery to appear from the shadow and vanish into  the shadow in front of me who can see magic particles as color.

From what I felt, it looked like she can travel from inside a shadow  to another shadow but, spatial teleportation should be impossible for  someone of her level even if it’s just for a short range, so I  hypothesized that most likely it’s a similar technique with my spatial  storage that made the darkness of my body as intermediary.

She must be covering her whole body with dark magic particles to make  it possible to 『travel』 from shadow to another shadow that is connected  to the original shadow by shadow or by magic power. A space that is  isolated by darkness magic particles is in a state like vacuum, so  living thing can’t live in it but, most likely, it’s possible if it’s  just for several seconds like how human can dive into water.

But, there is a weakness with this 『shadow crossing』. If she is  hiding in the darkness like diving into water, in case she is hiding  herself for more than several seconds, she definitely should be opening a  hole to the isolated space of darkness.

And then, the most important information that I obtained from the chance meeting this time is how I managed to perceive Radha.

Radha’s stealth ability surpassed mine, so I couldn’t grasp her  presence perfectly but, at the very least I was able to sense the “out  of place feeling” when she entered and exited the shadow.

Just like how I became able to designate a person to some degree with  their presence, Radha was able to identify me even after I changed my  outfit and erased the ash on my hair must be because she is also  remembering my presence.

It seems like I’m at a disadvantage with how Radha can identify me  while I can only sense Radha vaguely through an out of place feeling,  but the fact that I know that has become an “advantage” for me.

A fight between dark sorcerers is a fight of deceiving and confusing  each other. Combat strength isn’t that important in such fight. What’s  important is your power of observation and insight to grasp the  opponent’s state of mind and hidden information.

Shadow User Radha was the worst opponent for me affinity wise. In  case my betrayal against the assassin guild is revealed and she is  hostile against me, my survival rate will drop drastically is Radha  whose presence I can’t read is still remaining.

That’s exactly why, I’m really lucky that Radha came here as my contact.

……Radha. As a fellow dark sorcery user, I’ll defeat you and become stronger.

「Die and become my “nourishment”.」