Book 3: Chapter 1

Book 3: Chapter 1

Ash Crowned Princess

The territory of Marquis Kendras that was located at the northwest part of Claydale Kingdom. At the west that area, there was Condo Mine where the biggest ore vein of the southern part of the continent was sleeping. Presently its possession was being fought over by the neighboring country Ils Dukedom and Solhorse Kingdom. Both countries held each other in check even while the mining of the mine continued. The area was known as a buffer zone.

Because of that, Marquis Kendras refused the national army to be stationed there for fear of provoking the neighboring countries. Because of its rejection toward the military strength of the capital, it also managed to repel any political intervention and obtained great profit from mining and metalworking.

When there was light there was darkness. Behind the prosperity of Kendras territory that managed to repel the intervention from the capital, there were several organizations secretly maneuvering to indulge in that profit.

The slave guild that was an illegal organization of the underworld. The intelligence agency of neighboring country or crime syndicate. There was also the thief guild that boasted the greatest scale in the northwest frontier district. Their evil influences were spreading behind the scene.

Because there was a mine, a lot of rock dwarves who were good with mining and smithing were living there. There were also a lot of adventurers who came visiting for the weapons created by those dwarves. The number of bars for dwarves and adventurers also increased, but due to that the supply from the mining and the alcohol brewing couldnt meet the demand.

The thief guild got their eye on that. They worked together with the slave guild to buy up orphans from everywhere and captured children from the slums for slavery trade in this land.

Kendras territory also had its own knight order and the marquis also hated the secret maneuvering of the criminal organizations in his territory. He tried to remove them, but it was difficult to completely remove an organization that lurked inside a city with population of tens of thousands. Also because the marquis had received retaliation from the thief guild many times, he was letting them go almost unchecked at this point.

One of the causes of that was because the thief guild of this area was known as a collection of formidable fighters, especially its leaders the four Galga siblings. All of them were skilled level 4 and had killed many knights. They were feared in the underworld.

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The slaves quality has dropped recently hasnt it? You arent trying to trick us siblings arent you?

In a clearing inside a forest that was a bit far from the cityunder the sky where the sun was starting to set, a slave delivery was being carried out in the usual place and time.

The eldest child of four Galga siblings, the chief of Kendras territorys thief guild Lamia intentionally threatened her business partner. In respond the chief of the slave guild shrugged his shoulders theatrically.

You think theres anyone in this area who dare to go against you? We just got a little problem, but we even went until far away to gather the products in compensation yknow? They arent lively from getting stuffed on the bottom of carriage, but theyll perk up if you just give them some food scraps.

Fuu~hn?

The children were all looking sick from being forced to go through a very long trip. Light had also gone out from their eyes when they thought of what they would be forced to do after this. They all trembled in fear when Lamia stared at them.

It was rumored that her age was about to enter forty, but she still looked youthful like someone at the early thirty. Because of her beauty and cruelty, she got called as Lamia, the name of monster who sucked blood in order to maintain its beauty.

The slaves that were delivered here this time were all children. There were thirty of them. They werent all human, a lot of them were also demihuman because when wandering dwarves or beastmen died, few orphanage wanted to accept their children.

If youre bringing me demihuman brats, cant you at least bring me some elves?

Oi, dont be unreasonable Lamia. Aint no way those elves gonna let their brat get out of their village. Even adult elves are mostly adventurer, it just not worth it to try taking them.

It would be a different matter if they were talking about half elf, but elf children who take very long time to grow up almost never went out of their village. Even so Lamia still sought them out because elf races appearance was excellent, they stayed young for long, and so they were in high demand among a lot of people.

Even half elf could be sold with the price of ten times the normal price. But, the haughty elf rarely would allow themselves to marry human, and getting their orphan as slave was something that happened very rarely even for the slave guilds chief.

And, whats this problem youre saying?

Lamia asked for more detail about the problem that the slave guilds chief mentioned just now. In the first place the two guild leaders personally came for a slave delivery like this because the number of products from the previous transaction was insufficient and it almost caused a quarrel with the customer.

Aa, about that, two of our slave hunting teams got crushed you know.

Haa? In our turf? Did those damn knights of the marquis finally got off their butt to work?

I dont think its them. From the method used it was most likely the work of someone in the same trade

Ooi, big sis! Lets buy the woman riding on this carriage too-!

The voice of her little brother interrupted the twos talk. Lamia looked at the slave guilds chief with a suspecting gaze.

Oi, you actually still have more product there aint it? Caith-! What kind of woman?

Shes still a teen but, she look like someone from a nice family yeah!

The youngest of the four siblings called Caitha very gangly man who was at the latter half of his twenties yelled back in respond to Lamias question.

Thats what he said, whats the deal with that?

Whoops, I forgot! We caught a travelling woman on the way here-. She looks like a daughter of a low rank noble. I put her on a different carriage because I want to show her particularly to youhehe

The slave guilds chief turned pale and made excuse when Lamia glared at him.

Whats wrong big sis?

Did Caith mess up something again?

Ramias remaining two little brothers came there after hearing the ruckus.

The eldest son Gigas. He was more than two meter tall with muscles covering all over his body like armor. Used axe.

The second son Troll. He was the shortest among the male siblings, but he was really obese and boasted the strongest physical strength.

The third son Caith. He used two short swords and excelled in evasion using his skinny body.

And last was the eldest daughter, a whip user and a wind sorcerer, the thief guilds chief Lamia. The four of them formed the four Galga siblings. These four siblings had combined their strength to survive their childhood until now. From that experience, these four always acted together, which was rare for thieves to do.

The four of them had discarded their actual name and took monster name for themselves. Surrounded by the four rank 4, the slave guilds chief turned even whiter like a wax.

Say? You were hiding her from me because you want to give me a surprise present to make me happy right? In other words, you want to give her to me instead of selling her right? Isnt that right?

Y-yeah.

Yosh, as expected from the slave guild-, well continue being great business partner even in the future. Oi, Caith, bring that woman here-!



tsu!?

Gigas heard the sound of solid thin porcelain breaking from under his foot while dropping into a pitfall.

GUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

The hole was two meter wide and two meter deep. He would never step into it unless he got lured there, and even if he fell inside he would only get sprained leg from that depth, but the sharpened stakes that were prepared at the bottom of the hole pierced Gigass legs and back.

The board that was made from thinly spread clay and hardened with Hard before being baked wouldnt break from something like a wolf walking on top of it, but it couldnt endure a huge man stepping on it.

B-big bro

Troll who seemed to be fed with poison struggled to help his brother with a purple face. In front of him the girl dropped a small fire into the hole, then flame and death throes rose from the bottom of the hole.

AAAAAAAAAAH!?

Troll screamed seeing his brothers death, but the girl jumped and stomped on his face before her black knife stabbed deeply into his skull.

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Gigas-, Troll-!!

Lamia who caught up at that timing witnessed the deaths of her little brothers.

You bitchyou bitchmy little brothershow dare you!

The girl kept stepping on Trolls face as she pulled out her knife and swung it to threw off the blood clot. Lamia screamed angrily at her and fired her sorcery.

Hurricane!

The level 4 wind sorcery Hurricane rampaged inside the confined forest.

Lamia knew the characteristic of her own sorcery very well. It might be different for pure sorcerer or adventurer, but a thief like Lamia put more importance in activation speed rather than power. She was using this level 4 wind sorcery to hold the enemy in place.

Lamias sure win tactic was to stop her enemy in place using Hurricane before finishing them off with other wind magic. There werent that many people who could dodge invisible blade even if they knew it was coming.

But the girl also knew that wide range wind sorcery had no strong wounding ability.

What-!?

The body of the girl who should be held in place there danced through the air. No matter how thin the girls body was, Lamias sorcery couldnt blow away human like that. Even if someone could fly using magic like that, they would never consider getting dragged up by wind inside a forest with trees crowding closely like this.

The girl cut through the sky using her dresss train to move without fearing collision against tree. Her eyes were looking at Lamia without even caring of the branches and pebbles that were hitting her. It caused fear to bubble up inside Lamia.

Wind Cutter!

Lamia yielded under her fear and fired the wind sorcery she was preparing toward the girl.

The girl muttered something in respond and crossed her arms to protect her head and blocked the attack. No matter how low wind sorcerys wounding ability was, that was only when the opponent was wearing armor. It would easily tear apart the girls body if the magic hit vital spot.

The navy blue dress the girl was wearing got torn apart and fluttered in the wind. But a black leather dress appeared from underneath it. Although her exposed arms and legs got wounded, all of her vital spots were protected by shield of light. She closed the distance with Lamia while brandishing her black knife in preparation for a decisive attack.

Thrust!

Lamia watched the black blade slowly approaching her while her mind became filled with images like a revolving lantern.

Where did they go wrong? There was nothing that they siblings couldnt do if they combined their strength. At first they just wanted to survive. They siblings simply had strength, so it was easier to live by doing bad things.

Was that a mistake? Shouldnt there be a more proper way of living for the siblings to take if they combined their strength?

Butit was already too late.

The Battle Skill that the girl unleashed tore Lamias neck until halfway. Lamias sight was filled with the splatter of her own blood.

Who was this girl? She didnt Appraise her but the strength that she felt from her should be around level 3. That was exactly why they siblings also thought there wasnt the slightest chance of them losing as they rushed into the girls trap.

In front of the fallen Lamia, the girl who was wearing an adventurer black dress covered her hair with the illusion of ash. Seeing that, Lamia realized the girls true identity and she left behind those words at the end as her consciousness was sinking into the depth of darkness for eternity.



Ash Crowned Princess

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Aria (Alicia) Race : Human Rank 3

Magic Power : 174/240 30 UPStamina : 132/190 20 UP

Strength : 9 (12)2 UPEndurance : 9 (12)1 UPAgility : 13 (17)1 UPDexterity : 8

Short Sword Skill Level 3Martial Art Level 3Throwing Level 3 1 UP Archery Level 1NEW

Defense Level 3NEWString Control Level 42 UP



Light Magic Level 31 UPDarkness Magic Level 3Non-Elemental Magic Level 3

Daily Life MagicMagic Power Control Level 41 UPPressure Level 3

Stealth Level 41 UPNight Vision Level 2Search Level 41 UPPoison Resistance Level 31 UP

Simple Appraisal

Overall Combat Strength : 576 (With Body Strengthening : 691) 133 UP