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Volume 8 Chapter 7 Part 1

Translator: Kell

A few days later.

I was in the mountains near the border between the Empire and the Kingdom. Not alone, but with my assistant that the king got for me—Mylia.

“I didn’t expect you to be accompanying me,” I said.

“When the commission came in, I was surprised too. It’s by far the worst commission I’ve ever received. Charging straight into guarded Empire territory. If it weren’t you I was going with, I wouldn’t have accepted it.”

“Just because I’m here doesn’t mean it’s safe, though.”

“I’m well aware of that. But given the reward, I had no choice but to accept it.”

The reward for the commission that Mylia received—assist in infiltrating the Zaiel Empire—was nobility and a domain.

The reason Mylia became an adventurer was to rebuild her family. For this reason, she had been taking on dangerous commissions and working hard to raise her status as an adventurer. If she succeeded in this commission, she would finally achieve her goal.

For her, it was a commission she could not refuse. Although, it wasn’t that the reward was offered right at the start, but more like, she was asked by the king what she wanted, and when she said nobility and a domain, the king agreed.

And that’s how Mylia and I partnered up in the infiltration. As for whether I’d call it lucky or not, it would depend on the results of this operation.

If possible, I would have liked to have a companion who could use Search Enemy, like Sachylis, but in terms of being an asset in battle, she’s far from reaching Mylia’s level just yet. I’m not sure if having Sachylis instead would be better, but we’ll know once we’re near the ruins, the hardest part of this mission. Once there, everyone except her would be an enemy, so whether we use Search Enemy or Magic Search doesn’t really make much difference. So there’s only Mylia with me on this one.

“From here on out, we’ll address each other using aliases, Myria,” I said as I looked at the fake ID the king gave me.

This ID card was made by an agent of the kingdom who had infiltrated the empire, using real equipment. Therefore, other than the information written on it, it’s completely genuine, so the probability of them figuring out that the name is fake is low.

The king mentioned that all attempts to infiltrate the center of the Empire had failed, but they were able to at least infiltrate the place where the equipment for making the ID card was located. Then again, even the guild card that I usually use for identification can be made at any guild branch. I guess the Skill-based surveillance network of the Empire doesn’t really extend to every nook and cranny.

“Okay, Lhude.”

My fake name was Lhude, and Mylia’s was Myria. They’re too similar to our real names, but there are a lot of people with similar names, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

If I used a name that’s too different from my real name, I would not be able to respond if someone calls me, which would make me look suspicious. On the other hand, if I used a name that’s too similar to my real name, and someone called me by my real name and I accidentally responded, I could just say that the name sounded similar. But that doesn’t mean it’s foolproof.

“But won’t they still find out?”

Apparently, Mylia felt the same. In her case, in particular, her fake name was almost the same as her real name.

“For sure,” I replied. “At least, in the towns near the ruins, we’ll most likely trip their surveillance network. We can fake our names, but we can’t fake our faces.”

If anyone looking for me sees my face, they’ll know. Using a fake name is, at best, a way to avoid being caught because of a notice or something that says “If you see a stranger by the name of Eld, immediately notify the guards!” Once we arrive at the vicinity of the ruins, where it’s heavily guarded, people who know our faces will be on the lookout for us anyway.

“That’s true,” Mylia said. “All right, then. Let’s get a move on.”

“Yeah.”

We continued on our way to the Empire, or rather the mountains. The Empire and the Kingdom are enemies, but not every part of the long border is guarded.

Routes that are accessible to the general public are naturally guarded, but not the ones that are normally impassable due to monsters or terrain, which is pretty much most of the border. Such places are of course dangerous, but that’s not a problem for me and Mylia. We took down monsters that closed in on us along the way, and soon we made it inside the Empire.

“We should be in the Empire already,” I said.

“That was relatively easy.”

“Well, they wouldn’t be constantly watching the forest.” I took a map out. “Our destination is… that way.”

The city of Etonia, where the ruins are located, is less than a day’s trip from the border if we take the shortest route, but the shortest route is likely to be guarded. Therefore, we’re avoiding the shortest route, and taking a path that would allow us to slip past the enemy’s surveillance network.

Our plan was to stay overnight in the town of Czecherus and arrive in Etonia the next day. Czecherus is away from the shortest route, but it’s close to Etonia and is a fairly large town. A large town is likely to have many guards, but a town too rural is likely to be suspicious of strangers, so I chose a bigger town.

But the route to Czecherus is pretty much uncharted. The enemy will be watching the roads, so it’s best to avoid them if at all possible.

However, traveling long distances through the forest in an unfamiliar land carries with it the risk of getting lost. Under normal circumstances, we can just look for a town if that happens, but we can’t do that when infiltrating an enemy nation. The Royal Intelligence Service gave us info on landmarks, so we’ll just have to follow those.

“Don’t worry, I have the map memorized,” Mylia said as she moved along.

Walking behind her, I looked over the information I was given, and the path that Mylia was taking seemed to be the right one. Heroes don’t have any guiding Skills, so this is probably her experience talking.

The reason that Mylia was chosen to accompany me was not only because of her strength, but also because of this. I’m better than her in terms of combat, but she has more experience as an adventurer in areas unrelated to fighting. The commissions I’ve received so far were all about “killing strong monsters nearby,” so I didn’t really need any other skills, though.