445: A Gathering of Avengers
She, who had been listening to me in silence, turned her gaze from me to Liz.
“…Lizlit, can you explain it to me, in a way that is easy to understand?”
“No, senpai, that was all of it. If I were to put it in an assassin’s terms, then you should probably see it as her feeling a sense of unease at ‘an unfamiliar face.’”
“I see.”
At her nod, Liz continued.
“And besides, since our Master has an extraordinary interest in the profession of a maid, you can probably assume that the ‘premise’ of averting her consciousness was broken the moment she saw you in a maid uniform.”
I protested to Liz.
“That makes me sound like a strange person.”
“Huh? Did you think you were a normal person?”
“…I am a strange person.” I hung my head at her all-too-sharp retort.
“Any sense of unease as a maid?”
“Aside from the fact that she was present at a meeting with Your Majesty without any prior notice, not really.”
In fact, her movements were graceful, and the order in which she served the tea was in order of rank. Her attire and everything else were flawless, and she was a perfect maid.
“I see. Any other sense of unease?”
“None.”
Liz continued my words.
“…I think it’s a special case, senpai.”
“I would like to hope so. But our work is always like walking a tightrope. You never know when the rope under your feet will fray. Even if the risk cannot be reduced to zero, it should be lowered as much as possible.”
She said, flatly, and she took a sip of her tea. Her eyes, which were not what you would call wide, and which looked a little sleepy. Was that, too, a technique to avert one’s consciousness?
As I stared at her, she looked back at me, without averting her gaze. I was the one who became embarrassed, and I searched for a topic.
“Um… your name?”
“Shino Nokthausen…”
“…This is the first time I’ve heard your name, senpai.”
“Huh? The first time?”
Liz, before she had become my vice-commander, had been an assassin in the Royal Guard, and I had heard that she had been scouted and had joined, directly by the top assassin. —That should have been her.
“There was no opportunity, and no meaning, to introduce myself.”
“Senpai, I know there might be classified information, but isn’t that a little harsh?”
“It is not. This is a temporary name.”
“Huh? A pseudonym?”
“It is an official name, in a way. …To put my past simply, I was picked up, and I was given a name. That is all. This name was the name of the deceased daughter of the family that took me in. But I could not become her replacement…”
She, for the first time, averted her gaze and looked down.
“…I could not do anything…”
Rebecca opened her mouth.
“…Shino Nokthausen, could it be that your ‘family’ is—”
She looked up and nodded.
“Yes. It was a rather old family. It was destroyed in a trivial dispute a hundred and fifty-one years ago. I was the sole survivor, and I had my revenge. But for whatever reason, this country does not recognize personal revenge. Therefore, I was to be executed for the crime of murder.”
A style of not hiding anything.
“But since there were extenuating circumstances, I was offered a reprieve, on the condition that I become an assassin for the army, and I accepted. Since then, my life has been in the hands of Your Majesty the Demon King.”
Liz’s expression was unreadable.
“Senpai, I’ve never heard that past before, but isn’t it a little too heavy to be told so casually?”
“There is no heavy or light in the past. Rebecca-dono seemed to have known, and you know.”
“No, not the whole story… it was a matter of speculation.” Rebecca said, hesitantly.
“It is over. I have no intention of spreading it around, but it is not something to be hidden.”
She spoke, as always, flatly. Liz asked.
“…But you’ve never talked about it before, have you?”
“You have never spoken to me about anything other than work, Lizlit. If you had asked, I would have answered.”
And she continued.
“…Whether it was out of consideration for me being an assassin, or because ‘senpai’ or ‘captain’ was enough, you never even tried to ask for my name. Though it is not limited to you.”
“Ah… that’s, um—”
Liz’s expression was one of embarrassment. She, too, had refused to tell me her name on our first meeting. While a name had a magical meaning, in the case of a contract with a demon, for an assassin, the thorough concealment of personal information was a basic, and Liz had probably just been following that. …Even for a colleague’s name. She was the type to have a perfect on-off switch. Though I had a feeling the range of that switch had been getting wider lately.
“Well, if you worry about the past, you can’t get anything done.” I said, as if to comfort her.
“Yes, that’s right.” She nodded lightly.
“…That part of you, senpai, is similar to my master.”
“Really?”
“Yes. …Master, can you explain how you came to this world?”
The circumstances of my coming to this world—
“Yes. I came from another world, through a strange summoning spell used by humans, and I lost my memory because of it. I was bound by mind magic, and I was about to be killed, after my mana had been drained. Now, it’s almost nostalgic.”
“See, that strange lightness is similar.”
It was true, when she said that.
“That said, I have had my ‘revenge.’ …Probably, if you see it as a revenge, it was excessive. My hatred and my resentment have not disappeared, but for me, that is now a thing of the past, and there is no one to direct those feelings at.”
“…Yes. Me, too.” Rebecca nodded.
“…I understand, but.” And Liz, too.
The high rate of revenge in this place. Among the women, it had reached 100%. Harken, too, if you looked at the results, it could be said that he had had his revenge for his lost homeland… but he didn’t seem to have been moved by such personal feelings. And as for Samarkand…
I stared at his crescent moon eyes, and for once, Samarkand looked bewildered.
“Is something wrong, my master?”
“…No, it’s nothing. I was just thinking that you are a very loyal subordinate.”
“…I am honored.” The black goat placed a hand on his muscular chest and bowed his head.
Actually, the purest one in our group was probably Samarkand.
“Well, let’s leave this story here.”
“Yes.”
“…Yes, that’s right.”
“Yes, it’s a thing of the past.”
They were all the type to switch gears quickly. If it had been an ongoing matter, it would have been different, but the past was the past. Though there might be times when it would be a reference.
If you were to say that, then her past was worthy of belief. The achievements she had accumulated were in the Royal Guard, where the elite of the Listrea Demon King’s army gathered. A skill that had made Liz call her a ‘perfected assassin.’ I had no intention of dwelling on her past any further.
Her past was a special one, and from that, if she were to hide it, she might be suspected of something she hadn’t done. If you were to think of it as a full-open style, then her lightness was a calculated one. My past was also special, but she and I, who had specialized in ‘letting them suspect me of something I hadn’t done’ as a decoy, were, in a way, similar.
I had been a human, but that had nothing to do with my position. The reason my race had been kept a secret was because it had been difficult to predict the impact, and it had been a lot of trouble. Your Majesty the Demon King appointed the supreme commanders, and the supreme commanders led each army. The act of questioning that simple and clear authority of Your Majesty the Demon King was, in itself, a crime in wartime. And my ruthlessness, my mission success rate, and the damage I had inflicted—had nothing to do with my race.
I, too, decided to switch gears.
“Um, well then, Shino-san, please tell me the details.”
“…Shino… san?” She tilted her head, her expression unreadable.
