Book 1: Chapter 19

Book 1: Chapter 19

The First Duty

What did this guy want to say?

I kept my hand hovering over the handle of the knife on my waist while meeting Castros piercing gaze. It seemed that even that attitude of mine was displeasing for him. He slightly raised a single eyebrow before speaking as though to spit out.

People at the slum are humans who behave like a spoiled child due to the environment where there is nothing and lose their mettle to live a proper life. Thats why they can dirty their hands with crime as naturally as breathing and betray other people just from a small greed even when they are given work. How can you possibly believe that kind of human?

Seeing me not reacting and also not averting my gaze from him after he said that, Castro slightly clicked his tongue inside his mouth and turned his back on me.

Ill only give you that needle dagger and a work. Your workplace is over here.

Understood.

The thin knife that Castro threwneedle dagger? I pulled it out from the ground and then I followed behind him.

Among the slum residents, there were also those like the siblings Gil and Shuri who had no parents and had no other choice but to live there. Similarly there were also hopeless adults living there like the drunkard who ripped off their money.

An aspect of the slum was as a receptacle for people who couldnt live normally. You couldnt understand the truth if you only looked from one side, you had to look at it from many angles. I didnt know what happened to him in his past, but I was just a street urchin who didnt even live in the slum, so it was bothersome for me if he expected some kind of reaction.

Castro led me to inside a forest that was located to the west direction from the back of the castle. As I wondered what I was going to do in this kind of place, Castro pointed toward even deeper into the forest.

The area ahead from here is a woodland that doesnt belong to any noble. There is the recuperation resort here so there are forest guards who will periodically patrol this area, but in a very rare occasion, there will be animals like stray wolf and the like entering here. Your work is to watch over this place. Viro has boasted so much like that, so you can at least chase away a wolf right?

The content of the duty was very crude. Even a child could do a work like watching over a place, but I imagined that a normal child would run away within several days if they were told to do something like that.

The time period?

One month at the very least. There should be foods at the guard cabin inside, use them as you please.

Roger.

Castro really told me just that before leaving me inside the forest and returned back to the mansion. It seemed he didnt have the intention to give a proper work to a slum kid that couldnt be trusted.

Guessing from what Viro and he told me, the intention of the actual client was to hire a child because the protection target was also a child, so a guardian with the same point of view with them was necessary. A selfish child might be unable to understand the danger that might befell them and sneaked away from the adults supervision to run away. The client seemed to anticipate that kind of situation, but apparently Castro was denying that. No, that wasnt it. What he was denying was using slum children.

Well fine. For me this kind of work made me more at ease rather than getting involved with noble. For now I tried heading to the direction where Castro said the so called guard cabin was at. There I found a half rotting shed that was a cabin in name only.

keho

When I opened the rotten door that couldnt fulfill its purpose anymore, the inside was covered in dust with empty wine bottles carelessly scattered around. The sign showed that it hadnt been used for many years. Most likely there was a proposed budget under the pretense of storing reserve foods and so on for the use of the guards patrolling this area at night, but perhaps that budget was actually embezzled. Naturally there was no way this place had any proper food remaining. Even if there was, at most it would be moldy dried meat that had been gnawed by insects. Such thing wouldnt be edible at all.

No other way.

I put down the baggage on my back and checked what I had on hand.

My weapon was the black knife and a steel knife for reserve. I had six knives for throwing, and one skewer. Other than them there was only the weighted cord made from my hair, and the slingshot that I previously made. There was also that needle guard, but I didnt really know how to use it. It had thickness but without blade at its sides, so perhaps it was a weapon specialized for thrusting.

Shadow wasnt created because there was light, perhaps darkness element itself was a physical energy that blocked light? In that caseI might be able to treat darkness as particles and enveloped thoughtsound and image with them and sent them out. No, maybe projecting darkness particles themselves was how illusion worked.

Light particles were pure energy, so it was possible to convert them into life force. And then darkness element didnt have shape like the other elements. The inside of Viros expanded bag was pitch black and nothing could be seen. Exactly because darkness didnt have any shape that depending on ones imagination, it was possible to increase the capacity of the bag. But, perhapsthere wasnt even any need to be fixated with shape like a bag for expanding space?

At that time, it felt like the color of magic particle at the corner of my sight moved. My limit was thirty meter if I wanted to perceive the colors as scenery with clear shape, but if it was just looking at the simple movement of the magic particle, I could see within double that range.

It wasnt a winds movement. Was there really a wolf showing up here? Or was there finally soldier appearing here to patrol?

No.

The moving objects were five, no six. They were gradually coming this way. By focusing my mind, their shape was gradually getting clearer.

Goblin? But

There was just one among them with bigger size. Goblin was a low ranked monster with body the size of a kid. Even so they had combat strength around 40 that rivaled the average adult. Even I could defeat a goblin. But what was that one?

When I used appraisal to that thing without regretting the amount of magic power that it consumed, the true identity of that thing surfaced from the knowledge.

.

?? Goblin

Magic Power : 66/68Stamina : 332/340

Overall Combat Strength : 101 (With Body Strengthening : 116)

.

Hobgoblin?

Hobgoblin was a higher class of goblin. It was a rank 2 monster. Was it a stray monster? I didnt know why it was in this kind of place, but it was too much for me. However it was troublesome. The hobgoblin and goblins were slowly approaching my tree looking for prey.

The goblins had approached until less than five meters below me. I was waiting for them to pass with a held breath, then I noticed a small light walking toward the guard cabin. A soldierno? This silhouette was a maid? Just alone? A small girl carrying a small lantern and a small box was approaching in the darkness with unsteady footstep. If I called out to her from here, both of us would get found out. But if I stayed quiet, it was very likely that the girl would get discovered by the goblins.

It couldnt be helped. I sighed in my heart and quietly suppressed my emotion to the bottom of my heart.

I pulled out the needle dagger that had high penetration power instead of the black knife. I matched my movement with the flow of magic particles to kick the branch soundlessly and descended right above the hobgoblin while firmly holding the knife with both hands.

*Gakin-!!*

GUGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?

The dagger couldnt penetrate its skull. It slid off and gouged the monsters face before stabbing the bottom of its neck. The hobgoblin screamed. Blood spurted up and dyed me dark red.

For now die.