Chapter 1451 – Dark Moon
“…….”
Invisible Blade closed her mouth.
Come to think of it, she acted separately from us. Was it because she was a ninja and moved secretly on her own? No, she had another purpose. She must have planned to get her hands on Jupiter’s ledger first. But things must have gone wrong when Philip Jupiterlane reacted faster than expected.
Her silence was an answer to my question. I quietly waited for her answer. It wasn’t me who was at a disadvantage by dragging out time, it was her.
“Haa.”
A sigh she made on purpose. Her voice was so good that it felt strangely seductive.
“That’s right. I received a double request.”
“Receiving a double request for any job is a betrayal of trust.”
“It’s okay if I don’t get caught. I’m a ninja. I was confident I wouldn’t get caught.”
“Does your broker know?”
“What do you think?”
“They probably don’t. If they were a broker with their head screwed on right, they wouldn’t do something that would not only ruin their career but also end it.”
Mercenaries work on requests. And brokers handle requests for a fee and arrange them for mercenaries. The moment a broker messes with a request, they’re done in this industry. Of course, the mercenary’s career is also ruined, but… mercenaries have plenty of opportunities to recover if they have the skills.
“You’re smart. I received the ledger recovery request two days before the mission started. The client is the person you’re thinking of.”
“If they were going to request you… that congressman must have known what Philip was doing in the casino basement.”
“Is that important?”
“…No. At this point, I’m curious about why you took on a double request. Why did you do it?”
“It’s nothing grand. It was a pretty big reward for an easy job. …As you can see, things got twisted because of you. I’m fiercely regretting it. I shouldn’t have dragged you into this.”
Invisible Blade shook her head.
“I could pretend I didn’t see it.”
“What’s the condition? Do you want money? I can give you about 30% of the request reward. It’s quite a lot of money. You won’t regret it?”
I shook my head. I started the chicken business to avoid being bound by various things. The business is still in its early stages, so I need money, but that will be solved with time. The chicken business is growing bigger. And I don’t need a lot of money right now. Rather, I wanted to solve the curiosity I felt every time I saw her.
“Ninjutsu.”
“Huh?”
“I’m curious about the ninjutsu you use. As far as I know, ninjas use hand seals when using ninjutsu. But you use ninjutsu sometimes and sometimes you don’t. If you opened your astral like a mage… I could understand, but… you’re not, are you?”
“Hmm. That’s what you were curious about?”
The female ninja made a nasal sound and crossed her arms. My gaze instinctively went to her chest. Her breasts, raised above her arms, felt even bigger. One breast was about the size of a person’s head. No, maybe even bigger.
“Sorry, but my answer is no. Do you think I’d sell my secret for something like this?”
“I swear I won’t tell anyone else.”
“Aren’t you underestimating ninjas too much? Do you think I necessarily need to make a deal with you?”
“Are you thinking of killing me like a ninja to shut me up?”
“If necessary… absolutely!”
Clang!
Her blade, which had narrowed the distance in an instant, struck the barrier. If you look closely at the ninja sword, the water clinging to the blade is vibrating at high speed. She increased the cutting power with water. It seems to be one of her ninjutsu techniques.
‘She used ninjutsu again without hand seals.’
Kiiiiiiiiing!
One barrier was cut. That blade was now closer to an electric saw.
There were four barriers left. There was still some leeway.
“……Weren’t you low on mana? Your barrier is too strong for that.”
“It’s true that I’m low on mana. But I’m in better condition than you are right now.”
“I’ve been found out. That’s right. I pushed myself a bit when dealing with the rampaging Philip earlier. He wasn’t an ordinary guy. But… it’s no problem to kill you.”
She held the blade in reverse and rotated her body. The transparent water blades generated from the blade decorated the air and cut through the barrier. The water droplets scattering every time she moved her sword felt even beautiful.
‘Did she forget that I can use electric magic?’
[Electric Field]
I stomped my foot. The lightning that spread from me filled the room. I flicked my finger. The current that had been spreading in all directions abruptly changed direction and rushed towards her. It was an unavoidable attack.
She threw her ninja sword into the air and quickly made hand seals with both hands. I made a disgusted expression at the hand movements that changed more than 10 times in one second. She caught the falling ninja sword again. Immediately after, a water pillar rose around her, blocking the current.
Her voice was heard from inside the water pillar.
“It’s a big mistake if you thought water would be weak against electricity.”
“Water created by magic or abilities is close to distilled water. Did you think I wouldn’t know that?”
A speed sword flew from the back of the open room and pierced the water pillar. It didn’t pierce through the water pillar, but its coldness succeeded in penetrating the water pillar. The water pillar froze in an instant. She was as good as trapped in ice.
I didn’t let my guard down and prepared for the next move. It was obvious that the ice pillar wouldn’t hold her for long.
Crack!
A blade popped out from the center of the ice pillar. The blade vibrated, and the vibration spread throughout the ice pillar. The ice pillar couldn’t withstand the vibration and crumbled.
“…Is that also ninjutsu?”
“It’s a ninja secret technique.”
I felt an immense killing intent from her. I flinched for a moment at the dense killing intent. It had been a long time since I had received this level of killing intent.
It was a mistake. The gap that occurred when I flinched for a moment. She used that gap to attack the ledger she was holding, not me. She first threw the ledger into the air. And then she made hand seals like before.
A large water droplet created in the air swallowed the ledger. The inside of the water droplet rotated and tore the ledger apart. It didn’t stop there, it began to dissolve the remaining pieces of the ledger into a gooey mess.
I gasped.
This was my mistake. Come to think of it, she didn’t necessarily need to take the ledger. Her client didn’t want the ledger, but rather wanted to prevent it from falling into someone else’s hands.
The ledger was now gone. It disappeared without leaving a single piece.
Even if I told the client about this, would the client believe me? Or would they believe the ninja’s lies? Maybe they wouldn’t believe either of us.
“I should have taken the ledger first.”
“Could you have taken it?”
“…….”
It wouldn’t have been easy.
That’s when it happened.
I felt a presence behind me.
A muscular man with a large pompadour hairstyle, wearing four swords, strode in. He smiled when he saw us in the room.
“Were you here? Seeing Philip’s corpse, it seems the mission is over. The outside is being cleaned up now.”
I took off the radio that was in my ear. I thought it had been quiet since earlier, but it seems that the radio doesn’t work here.
Mons whistled, looking at Invisible Blade.
“Is that the ninja? You’re more fiery than I expected. I know a good bar. Do you want to go together?”
“Sorry, but you’re not my type. Those muscles, they’re too dense, it’s disgusting.”
“I see….”
Mons sighed with a gloomy face. Then, he belatedly realized that our atmosphere was strange and asked.
“Did something happen?”
“Nothing happened. Right?”
The female ninja asked me.
I hesitated for a moment and then nodded.
“Nothing happened.”
She walked straight out. I slowly followed behind her.
I thought in my head.
Was it really over with this?
Reporting the ledger to the client wasn’t the problem.
What I had to think about was her retaliation. Would she really let this go? Would she leave me alive knowing her weakness?
One of the things I’ve seen and experienced while living in this world is that in this world, just knowing someone’s weakness can be a reason to die. When I was in the Freesel Kingdom army, some of my missions were to kill civilians who knew the weaknesses of nobles.
‘She’s a mercenary and a ninja. In other words, an assassin. I can’t trust her.’
Turning a ninja with her skills into an enemy would make everyday life annoying. Preparing for assassination is a very tiring thing. Above all, Yuria could get caught up in it.
‘It’s better to eliminate the danger here….’
When we came out of the secret passage, she suddenly started running. I was flustered but chased after her.
[Haste]
I even used magic to force myself to keep up. It was hard, but not to the point where I couldn’t keep up. She was also quite exhausted.
[Detection]
If I ever lost sight of her, I used detection magic immediately. Thanks to the cyber suit she was wearing being broken, she was detected immediately.
-Hey. Where did you suddenly go? Are you two playing without me? I’m a little disappointed.
Mons’ voice was heard from the radio. I hesitated for a moment and then spoke. It was wrong to hesitate until now. From the moment she took on a double request, she betrayed me… no, us. Not only that, but she also betrayed her own broker.
“The ninja betrayed us. She destroyed the ledger in front of me. Thanks to that, our mission is half successful. I’m chasing the ninja now.”
-Do you need support? If you tell me the location… Damn it. It’s an attack. …Are they trying to destroy the building itself?
I could picture what was happening.
“……They must want to hide the machines that were in the basement. It’s a kind of destruction of evidence.”
-They’re not ordinary gang members. They’re trained professionals! Fall back. Their goal isn’t us. There’s nothing in the request we received that says we have to protect the building. The ledger is already destroyed. The mission is over with half success.
Mons said coldly.
It wasn’t surprising since mercenaries were originally like that.
-Fortunately, they’re not actively attacking us either. I can smell the same profession strongly.
“Is support possible?”
-I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’s possible. It’s a close call. The situation could change the moment we get out of here. The moment they judge that we have a small number of people… there’s a possibility that they’ll change their attitude. You should also chase her moderately and then give up.
“Okay.”
I said that, but I had no intention of giving up.
For the sake of the future, Invisible Blade had to be dealt with now.
