(edited by ganjz)

(author note: there will be some cruel depiction)

“Come and get one of the best chicken in the city!”

“Don’t eat chicken skewers. Bread and soup are the best for lunch!”

“Lunch is the best if you eat a sandwich, we got pork and chicken, the best from Dimitri’s stall.”

Comer city merchant district was kind of busy and lively when lunch time arrived. Some local restaurant and some stall were set up and trying to attract costumer. Whether it was the taste or price, they were always competing with each other.

“I wonder where I will eat today, but it will be good.”

Of course, the stalls also provided a place to sit down to eat the food that was bought on the spot, in one of that place, Nina could be seen.

In the past few days, Yu was always moving around doing something so Nina can’t be together with him and formed a party but she was still happy nevertheless.

“Nina-chan, are you going to eat in my place today? I can also see that you’re happy which is a good thing.”

“Hehehe~”

Nina bought a sandwich and ate it. Of course, the cause that made Nina happy was the return of Yu which made her mood bright and cheerful every day. People of the Comer were also affected since they knew how gloomy her mood before. Her appetite also grew as her mood became better and she looked extremely healthy now.

“Do you have some time?”

“what do you want?”

In front of Nina, there was a group of people. The one who talked to her seemed to be the leader and two people behind him should be the escort.

“Nice to meet you, Nina. My name is Chris Walton, a merchant from Hameln.”

Chris identified himself and sat in front of Nina without even waiting for her reply and took out a small box. When Chris opened the lid of the small box, it was full of bracelets, rings, and precious gems.

“Please take this as a token of our friendship. I don’t want to ask anything from Nina except, maybe, you can arrange a time for me to talk with Sato-san. It is kind of embarrassing, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to meet with Sato-san, so I was wondering if you can arrange a meeting for us?”

Nina looked at the box and at Chris with no interest but only write something on paper.

“Nina, if it was a little noisy here, we can arrange another place to talk, how about-“

Before Chris finished talking, Nina stood up and left.

“Chris-san, is this alright?”

“We can’t force things, I really want to have a chance to talk but-“

Chris retracted the small box as he talked but then stopped as he looked at the small box and saw there was something inside it. Chris then smiled.

“Let us return to Hameln.”

“Chris-san, are you sure?”

“Are you going to go against my order?”

Chris then got into his carriage with his escorts.

“I assumed that both of you don’t know what Nina wrote.”

“Chris-san, could it be there are some enemies?”

“Yes, she was giving me a warning.”

The carriage then walked out from Comer city and headed towards the Hameln.

…

“So what was it about?”

“She told me that we’re being tailed. I am quite surprised that both of you didn’t realize about it but Nina could tell.”

Chris at the moment was hiding in one of the basement passage of Comer city. It was originally a waterway but people never used it anymore.

When Chris boarded the carriage and read the letter, he was surprised at the content.

“No way… we’re being monitored from the sky.”

One of the escorts then tried to confirmed it and it was sure, there is some kind of invisible figure of a bird that was tailing their horse-drawn carriage. Also, the letter designed him to meet in an undisturbed location which was somewhere along this underground passage.

Chris move along the underground passage and arrived at the specified location. In there he found a rusty iron door and opened it. Nina on the other hand has been waiting inside.

“Nina, sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Is everything alright?”

Chris can notice that Nina was showing a different behavior.

“Yeah, once I got into the carriage, as written in the letter I jumped out and entered the tunnel. Along with these two escorts, we came up here with vigilance and there was nothing that following us. Not even a small animal like a mouse can pass the 【Barrier】.”

Without even caring about his reply, Nina closed the iron door and locked it.

“Please, take this.”

Chris on the other hand take out the small box once again and this time it was filled with white gold.

“I believe we will have a good long-term relationship and perhaps we can discuss it now. Can you tell me about Sato-san? His friends, hobbies, also some weakness can be good to. Don’t worry, I didn’t mean any harm to you, Nina. It’s just there are some rival merchants like Victor that seemed to have a step ahead of me.”

“Are these people the only people that came with you?”

“Yes, the two escorts that I brought with me is all I have. However, their ability are on par with a high-level adventurer.”

“Speaking of which, why do you want to know about Yu?”

“Although it was only a rumor, there has been some talk that Sato-san was planning to build a kingdom. If it was confirmed, it will be easy for us to make our moves later on. We can get some profits if we make the first move.”

“how about his weakness?”

“of course, we’re not planning to fights against him but it won’t hurt to know about it.”

“Yes, it seemed that I have to kill you after all.”

“What?”

Nina hands were already armed with her dagger and in an instant Nina was already in front of Chris escorts.

“What is this?”

Nina didn’t answer his question.

“My escorts are one of the best, you better don’t have any weird ideas. They won’t even lose in one on one!”

“What about your escort?

“Guuuh.”

A groan can be heard but it wasn’t from Chris. It was coming from his escorts, and the dagger that was previously held by Nina was already stuck on the escorts head.

How is this possible? In an instant, the escorts that Chris trusted so much in their ability were killed in an instant. Chris also wanted to move and run away but he noticed that he can’t move his body.

“What is happening? Why can’t I move my body?”

“Oh, that technique is similar to the holy kingdom 《heaven’s net》.”

“Holy kingdom technique? Did you work for the holy kingdom?”

Chris knew that the breath of his escort has ran out and they have been dead, so there is no one else that can save him at this moment.

“Why?” (Nina)

“What is why? I don’t… ugh…”

Before Chris can spoke anything more, Nina’s dagger was piercing his stomach without any resistance.

“Guhaaa! It hurts! Stop it! Aaaah!”

“So, tell me the real reason why you’re investigating about Yu. Why?”

At that moment, Nina twisted the dagger that was already piercing Chris’s stomach and Chris breath gradually become weaker. Nina examined his face and after awhile Chris didn’t utter anything anymore and became expressionless like a Noh mask.

“Why? Tell me… eh, he’s dead already.”

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