Did she already know what I would ask her for?

Ch 268: Do none of them really realize I’m here?

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When I arrive in the vicinity of the city of Denir, it is not yet dawn.

I can see very little of the buildings due to the darkness, but somehow it seems to me that the city is in a state of disrepair compared to when I visited it previously.

As I get closer, I see that several wooden houses have been completely destroyed, and most of the few concrete houses in the city have some holes in the roof, as if they had been bombed from above.

'What the hell happened here?'

If this were an inhabited area located in the west of the kingdom, I could understand this being some sort of collateral damage from the war with the Drial Cenit kingdom.

But Denir is one of the cities of the kingdom of Castemira farthest from the kingdom of Drial Cenit.

'If Denir City is like that....

The Solitary Temple, which is not too far from here....

No. There's no point in worrying about it. I was there yesterday, and I didn't sense anything strange....

Haa... It's no use making assumptions. The most effective approach would be to consult the local residents.'

Using the map on my interface, I can quickly locate the markers pointing to Alessia's friends and start walking towards them.

Interestingly, none of them seem to be sleeping.

Their markers move slowly through the streets of the city, divided among themselves, as if some of them find it hard to keep up with the rest of the group.

'Considering the last time I saw them... they probably had an overextended night of drunkenness.'

As I approach them, the sun finally appears on the horizon, and some light begins to bathe the city.

The place has a depressing air about it as I move through the dirt streets of the city.

Most of the people I pass walk with their heads down, as if with resignation at whatever is happening to their city.

No one seems to notice me as I walk through the streets.

Richard and Bernard are the first members of Alessia's former party that I see around the corner.

[Richard Archer Lvl 14]

[Bernard Lancer Lvl 13]

The young, blond-haired, green-eyed young man and the lancer with black hair tied in a ponytail are turning their backs to me, looking up at the sky with a distracted air, as if searching for something.

'Haa...

They shouldn't leave their backs unprotected like that....

They're too vulnerable...

They shouldn't get drunk to that extent.'

If I were someone with evil intentions, I know it would be very easy for me to stab Alessia's friends in the neck, silently eliminating them, whereupon I could probably attack the rest of the group without them even noticing my presence before it was too late.

But as I get closer, I see that, despite the blond archer and the black-haired spearman not seeming to notice my presence, they are completely lucid and appear to be watching the sky with a target in mind.

"Nothing around here. How about in your area, Damien?" says Richard, raising his voice a little to get the attention of his three companions, who are in an adjoining street.

'Hmm... If they're not drunk, why are they moving in separate groups?'

"Nothing around here either... But it wouldn't be strange for something to be going on in another part of the city. There are too few of us. We can't cover the whole city." says a voice, which I assume belongs to Damien, as he moves towards the position where Richard and Bernard are.

'Cover the whole city? I'm getting more and more curious to know what's going on here.... But for now, I'm going to remain silent'

"Luckily, it's getting light already.... I guess now we can rely on the city guard for a few hours. At least for them to give us the alarm if something happens," Fernando's voice says.

"Haa... I'm terribly tired. Damn the stupid war for taking most of the competent adventurers from the city," says Cael's voice, as their voices already start to be heard more clearly, even though I still can't see them.

"If only it were just that... But even the city knights don't have enough trained people..." Bernard expresses his frustration, saying, "... I'm tired of having to save the asses of the people who should be defending us."

At that moment, I can see the rest of the group coming towards our position.

'Do none of them really realize I'm here?'

"Yet you love the demonstrations of appreciation from the young girls we save. How many did you sleep with this week?" Richard says with a mocking tone.

I stand behind Richard and Bernard, waiting to see when the two boys will become aware of my presence.

For experienced adventurers, they don't seem to be very alert.

"If I'm going to risk my neck for them and their families, I may as well accept their affection in return..." says Bernard defensively.

"... It's not like I'm forcing them or anything. But how could you understand?! Most men don't have as much luck with women as you do."

"You? Risking your neck? ha!" says Richard dismissively.

Cael, Damien and Fernando don't seem to notice my presence at first, but after a few moments, I see them focus their gazes on me.

[Cael Adventurer Lvl 12]

[Fernando Warrior Lvl 13]

[Damien Warrior Lvl 14]

"Enough bickering, why didn't you tell us we had visitors?" says Damien, looking at me with a smile.

The white-haired swordsman has a severely weary expression on his face, but he still looks glad to see me.

"What do you mean?" says Richard, confused.

"Visito-?..." says Bernard, also confused, but then he looks in the direction of Damien's eyes and....

"...Wow, Emir! At what point did you get there?"

"What a way of vigilance you two have!" says Cael with a chuckle, and Fernando also immediately bursts out laughing along with his friend.

The black-haired swordsman with a light black beard, as well as the shield and full armor user with an ungraceful face, look just as tired as the rest of their friends, but they seem to have enough energy to laugh at their friends.

"You can't blame us....," Richard says, looking at me with eyes like saucers.

"... Emir approached us overly stealthily. You know that normally nothing escapes my eyes."

'Overly stealthily?... right, now I understand what's going on. It's not that they were inattentive, but that I was too hard to spot. I guess it's a side effect of the Assassin class.'

Like most classes, the Assassin class doesn't grant me any skills.

But it seems that its effects are tied to increasing the stealth skills of those who possess it.

Makes sense.

'Come to think of it...

When I thought about how easily I could take out Richard and Bernard in stealth....

I unconsciously knew or felt in which places I should stab so that they would die quickly and quietly...'

The same thing is happening to me as when I got the Archer class.

Before activating it, I had trouble using my bow properly, but after activating it, my body instinctively knew what to do.

'Considering my particular situation, this class fits me like a glove.....

Sooner or later, Alessia's true identity will be discovered, and at that time, it will be in my best interest to be a true killing machine if I want to have the ability to protect her'

"Yeah, I guess you're right..." says Damien, sighing without taking his eyes off me.

"... How are you, Emir? With those abilities to approach silently, it might look like you're in the business of hunting people, not monsters."

'If only you knew'

"Better than you, it seems...." I say, ignoring the comment, and ask them, "... Why do you guys have to defend the city at night? More importantly, what happened to this place?"

"Ahh, this...." Damien says, pointing with hand gestures to the half-destroyed or destroyed buildings, ".... It's a consequence of the war."

"What do you mean? This city is too far from the war zone to be the victim of the Drial Cenit kingdom..." I say thoughtful and confused.

'No, wait.... 

If most of the adventurers and knights have left the city to go to war.... 

Who protects the city from the monsters?.... 

But that doesn't make sense... 

The logical thing would have been to leave a large enough number of people to defend the city.... 

Then the only rational reason for this problem that they have is...'

"... There's some out of the ordinary monster preying on the city, isn't there?"

'It's either that or some of the high-level people who stayed behind have decided to do whatever they want with normal civilians, taking advantage of the fact that there is no one to stop them.... 

But I can't tell them that... 

Surely they would take it as an insult to the people in their city.'

"Yes. Several actually. We're doing what we can, but the truth is, we don't have enough people to cover all the ground," Damien says, while Cael and Fernando yawn behind him, leaning on each other, looking completely exhausted.