CH 31

Chapter 31 The Battle of Niña – Part 1

“─ ─ Here.”

Nina murmured in a whisper, hiding herself in the shadows of the bushes.

Nina was now on the outer perimeter of the Elven Village. As she had heard from Spera beforehand, there seemed to be a transparent magical barrier there that could only be seen if you strained your eyes.

“You told me that it’s magic that detects the presence of intruders and sounds an alarm. Then, the skill ‘Attention Blocking, Revision’.”

Shun, and. I can feel my presence disappearing. Nina looked around and confirmed that there were no members of the bandit group, and entered the barrier so as not to make a sound.

…There are two missions: the first is to defeat & neutralize the bandit members who take the elves hostage, and the second is to raise a signal to inform the Gustav, who is waiting a short distance away from the village, that the mission has been accomplished.

Having survived in the slums as a thief, Nina is confident that she is competent enough to sneak into other people’s territory. But she is not careless, and sneaks up to the shadows of the building that seems to be the first dwelling. After checking inside through the window… and seeing the hostages there, as per the information from Spera, she quickly unlocked the window and crept in.

“…God, it’s so boring. We’ve run out of alcohol. I wonder if the shopping team from the other base has come to supply us yet?”

“They’ve probably just left with that elf to go shopping. They won’t be back for half a day.”

“I can’t wait to get a drink.”

Inside the building there were two rather gruff-looking people sitting at the entrance and one in the kitchen, respectively, and they were talking. They seemed to be armed and were no doubt bandits. In the middle of the room, several young elves were clustered together and lying face down.

The children were not harmed at all. Nina put all her strength into her stomach, saying that she would do everything perfectly. And just as the man in the kitchen looks up boredly at the ceiling, Nina runs from the shadows to the man at the entrance in an instant, without making a sound.

“??”

She doesn’t use a weapon. She used her elbows to hit him, knocking him unconscious. She didn’t even give him time to make a sound. The man in the kitchen has not yet noticed.

“¡gha!”

In the meantime, Nina leaps at him. And then she slams a spinning kick into the kitchen man’s face. Sadly, there is a level difference, I guess, because that man also lost consciousness with just a single blow.

Okay, this place is clear for now. Breathing a sigh of relief, Nina ties the men up with ropes and then turns to the children… who are about to scream from the unexpected event. Nina hastily put her seething index finger to her mouth.

“Be quiet, okay?”

“Oh, sis… who…?”

“The Chivalrous Thief who came to save everyone, I guess.”

“The Chivalrous….. Thief?

“Well, whatever. Anyway, it’s dangerous out there, so just stay here quietly and don’t make any noise.”

Leaving the children tilting their heads, Nina slips her body through the window through which she has re-entered and runs to the other residence. According to Spera, there are only three places left where hostages are being held. All of them needed to be released before the situation came to light.

Two, three, three – Nina steadily defeats the members of the bandit group. All of them in less than five minutes. At last, the last dwelling where the hostages are being held. It is a building in the center of the village, which is a little difficult to break into because of the many bandit members walking around the village without a care in the world. However, I managed to clear such obstacles.

There are three elderly elves in the building. There is only one bandit.

“Alright… if there’s only one!”

Nina takes out a kunai from her waist, jumps out, and throws it at the bandit.

“-clang!

“Nah?”

The kunai, which was fired in a straight line at the bandit, is bounced off. That too, by the hand of the old elf.

“…No! You’re not elves.”

“That’s right.”

The outlines of the old men, whom Nina had thought were elves, became blurred, and they finally took the form of bad-looking men.

“Skill!”

“That’s right. How did you like my skill ‘Change’? It was pretty good, wasn’t it?”

With a proud smile, the man from the bandits’ group, who thought he was a guard, stepped forward in front of Nina.

“I’m Yzma, the boss of the bandits. I never thought that it would be a colleague of mine who first fell for the trap I had set up in the hope that one day all the elves would rebel together.”

“Tsk! So there were really only three hostage-taking dwellings, is that right?

“Yes, but… hey, you let the other three go, didn’t you? You’re a dangerous one, you know that? I’m gonna kill you right here… or should I say…?”

What?

“At your age and with the way you carry yourself, you’re very promising. Join us. If you do, I guarantee your life, and that’s not all. I’ll take you on as an executive of this bandit organisation. That’s not a bad deal, is it?”

Saying this, Yzma grinned.