(Yozora’s POV)

I pulled the dagger from the head of the goblin, the blood on the blade disappearing, being absorbed by the dagger. I look to the corpses of ten goblins around me, the mask and hood covering my face and head. These goblins died without even knowing that I was here.

I look down to the armor. It’s quite flexible and comfortable. When I was crouching on a shadow, my body became blurred without me doing anything, and I couldn’t feel any trace of mana. This will be useful against people sensitive about magic.

These daggers are also great, they are quite heavy and extremely sharp. The curse is also real, and just holding them fills me with bloodlust and wish to kill. However, since this is related to souls, and its energy tries to directly affect my soul, I can block it easily, nullifying the negative effects of the curse.

Also, I made a deep cut on the shoulder of one of the goblins and left it alone when I was fighting the previous group of goblins. He bled abnormally, losing all his blood in instants and consequently dying.

I sheathe them on the base of my back. I put the sheath under the pouch, so that I can sheathe the daggers on my back from both sides easily. I look up to the sky. It’s starting to get dark. I managed to level up all the way to level 22, so this should be reasonable. I then look to my status table.

Status Name:Akatsuki YozoraLevel:22Race:Human Title:AssassinJob:None Parameters Strenght:275Agility:410 Intelligence:520Endurance:670

My status raised quite a bit too. Mainly endurance, that is absurdly high compared to the other ones, even intelligence. At least I will endure a good beating, if I ever get one. Alright, time to head back to the ci-

Something enters my ears. Since I’m alone, I fully modify my human form. A way more sensitive nose, a mix of owl and hawk eyes, and way more sensitive ears as well. Although the audition and smell senses don’t visibly show on my body, the eyes get pretty clear, as they change from blue to golden, and I also mix a bit of cat eyes, allowing me to actually move them in the orbits.

What I heard was a faint woman’s scream. I immediately run into the direction, shapeshifting into an owl, flying silently just above the trees. After a few minutes, I arrive at my destination, landing on a branch. What I see is a road raid in progress. Well, at least the aftermath of one.

Surprisingly, the bandits, that are around fifty in number, are pillaging the carriages and bodies in an orderly manner, even tying up the woman instead of raping them on the spot, that is what you would expect them to do.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

There are some bodies on the ground, around twenty, that are dressed in different armor than the bandits. These bandits… they look organized. They are dressed in plate armor, with identical design. I pay more attention to the details.

The armors that the bandits are dressing are indeed identical, and a bit old, although they are well maintained, proving that they have some discipline. They are also all muscular older man. Some kind of disbanded military group, I guess? Or deserters?

I look at the victims and the loot. Gold and jewelry, but no sellable goods. The carriages are also quite fancy and seem expensive. The kidnaped people are also dressed in expensive clothes. They certainly aren’t merchants, most likely nobles.

The way that they were heading… the fortress city? Were they heading for the fortress in the center or just to the noble district? Well, whatever, let’s just watch for now. This is a bad situation, if I go head in I might get done in. also, my instincts demand a situation where I have the overwhelming advantage.

Ah, I wish that I had more throwables on me besides knives. If I had some shuriken, as well some kunai… well, whatever. I’ll make do without them. As I watch, they burn the carriages and take the loot, as well the prisoners, with them.

I decide to change into a more convenient form, the form of a squirrel with black fur, disguising myself in the dark. I follow them back to their hideout. I wonder if there is a reward for their head. I’m also feeling quite small in height, as everybody is tall, around 1,80 at the minimum.

Well, my small height allows me to go where big people can’t, so I’m fine with it. I actually prefer to be small. After a few minutes, we arrive at their hideout. An abandoned structure, that is in a relatively good condition, made of stone.

It was probably an outpost at some point. There is also signs that they fixed parts of the place. Well, from here, I can only see the walls after all. I climb over the six meters tall and three meters thick wall and take a look inside.

A tall tower with a lot of windows, probably where the bandits sleep, a warehouse, a square building with barred windows, probably cells, and a long building, probably where they eat. Beside the tower, there are also five two stories houses, also probably to house the bandits. There’s also a common area, and the area is big as two football fields. I can see many, many bandits.

This place… is quite the base. I go down on the outside of the wall and check the ground. There are tracks on the ground, human tracks. There’s also marks in pairs on the ground. They are a bit old, probably five days. It’s all over the place, and more than thirty meters of the trees around the wall are clear of trees.

So a battle happened here recently? These bandits have been here for some time then. This is more dangerous than I imagined. I turn into a small bird, more specifically, a hummingbird, and fly to the prison, where they are dragging their most recent victim. They carry the nobles inside, so I go to the windows, to see which cell they are put in.

They are rudely thrown inside the cell, the five prisoners together. Three girls and two guys. Three of them are dressed in expensive noble clothes, namely two of the girls and one of the boys. Well, it’s one noble boy that is around 12, one girl that is around 15, and an adult noble woman.

The others are servants, the guy was probably the carriage driver that survived and the other two girls are maids.

(noble girl): “O can’t believe that we were kidnapped by bandits!”

(noble woman): “Don’t worry my dear, we will et out of this. Your father will notice our absence.”

She says. They continue talking, but I ignore it completely. It’s not important. What really matters is how I am going to get them out from here. This won’t be my first rescue mission, but I never snuck someone out from a medieval fortress.

I need to first find a scape route. So, I fly around the fortress for a bit. Alright, I have a route in mind. The prison is easy to break out from, but there is only one gate. And it’s also way to well guarded, so that’s a no.

There are some options, but I think that I’ll just go back to town and get some rope, as well some oil to burn something for a distraction. I’ll try to get them over the wall with the rope. I’ll also make a bomb with the gunpowder that I made earlier. I have a few kilos, so I could cause some damage to something.

I quickly fly back to the town, as it is still early in the night. I buy a lot of oil and rope, putting everything on my stomach. I soak a lot of rope in oil, for the sake of using it as a wick. Of course, there’s enough hope to help the nobles.

I also rent four horses for the night, at the value of ten silver each horse. Because of that, I’m a bit low on money, but I guess that they will give me an appropriate reward, that will certainly be more than my expenses in this moment. I did saw some horses in the bandit’s fort, so I’ll need to get them unusable too.

I then return to their fort, and wait until the moon is high on the sky. I’ll strike when they are asleep.