Downtime

After Yohane and Alexia left to find Jacob, the three who stayed behind as lookouts dragged out some chairs and sat wherever they pleased.

The front door had been destroyed by the brothers sprawled on the floor, but they'd forced it back into the frame and bolted it shut.

It would at least buy a little time.

"We let him get away again."

"Yep."

Azu was the one to break the silence, unable to stand it any longer.

Last time, Iefuda had used a teleportation scroll to escape.

This time there'd been no sign of that, yet he'd made a clean exit, taking Jill with him.

One moment he'd been right there, a split second before Azu tried to grab him. It felt like being hoodwinked.

"I know the trick, though."

Finn flipped up the lining of his coat with her foot.

There were traces of something sewn into the fabric.

"He probably had some kind of invisibility magic tool hidden in there. Used it to vanish along with Jill. If it'd been me going for the grab instead of you, he wouldn't have gotten away."

"An item that turns you invisible?!"

Invisible.

If something like that existed, wouldn't anything be possible? That was Azu's first thought, but Finn didn't seem to share the concern.

"It's handy for catching someone off guard. Even I would've lost track if I hadn't been standing close. But it only hides your appearance. Sound, smell, footprints… those all remain. I didn't pursue this time because we couldn't afford to leave this place unguarded. And tools like that don't last long. Even among people in my line of work, only a handful use them."

"So if you know about it you can counter it, and it's not as convenient as it sounds. But that's because you're you, Finn-chan. For us, it's… well…"

Elza looked to Azu for agreement.

Azu nodded vigorously.

She really had been shocked when Iefuda disappeared right before her eyes. According to Finn, he'd somehow slipped past Azu's hand, gone invisible, and simply walked away. Even with the explanation, it was hard to believe.

"I mean, you three are all about raw combat power. It's honestly unbalanced for adventurers. How do you even deal with traps?"

"Um… Alexia-san's magic and Elza-san's miracles, mostly. Anything we couldn't avoid, we just kind of… powered through."

"Azu-chan fell into quite a few pit traps, didn't she?"

"It's not like I fell into them on purpose!"

Azu protested, but against Elza it was like driving a stake into mud. She'd just dodge and deflect, completely ineffective.

"So basically you brute-force everything? It's a wonder you're all still alive. Well, your combat abilities where it counts are way above average for your rank, so I guess that's why."

Finn assessed them with an exasperated tone.

Azu as a dodge-tank and attacker, Alexia the knight who doubled as both mage and mid-range fighter.

And Elza, a healer yet a stronger frontliner than Azu.

In a fight, they'd be a formidable team. But outside of combat, they were hopeless to an almost impressive degree.

In the end, they cleared Yohane's standards well enough that he'd never seen the need to intervene.

"In that case, why don't you help us out sometime, Finn-san?"

"Me?"

Her face looked thoroughly reluctant.

Finn was currently on hiatus from her assassin work. The power struggles within the Empire had escalated beyond what she could navigate, and she'd pulled out after a serious injury.

She'd fully recovered since then, but she had no desire to throw herself into danger again.

Helping with Yohane's jobs paid well enough, and every available contract in the Kingdom right now was small-time anyway.

When she thought about it that way, tagging along with Azu and the others might actually not be the worst way to kill time.

"Maybe if I feel like it."

"That's a promise."

"Yeah, yeah."

Finn knew that Yohane didn't treat his slaves as disposable. He took care of them properly.

Good equipment, thorough preparation. He even did his own reconnaissance, amateur as it was.

Some of the jobs she'd taken from him had probably been for exactly that purpose.

If she did agree to help, he'd no doubt treat her well. But still…

Her "maybe if I feel like it" was honest. If she got bored enough, she might just take them up on it.

"Hehe. You've really softened up. You had an aura like a sharp knife when we first met."

"Hah? Shut it. I had a lot going on back then. Just because you're a priestess doesn't mean you get to lecture me. I'm going to close my eyes for a bit, so don't talk to me."

"Understood. We'll keep watch."

Finn closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair.

Trained as an assassin, she couldn't actually sleep in a place like this. But even resting with her eyes shut helped her recover somewhat.

Her eyes in particular were put through heavy daily use, so resting them periodically like this was important.

She was thinking about just that when she sensed people gathering outside the mansion.

"Tch."

At first she thought Yohane and Alexia had come back, but it was far too soon for that.

And there were too many of them.

Had reinforcements for the enemy finally shown up?

"What's wrong?"

"Stop spacing out and get up."

When Finn urged them, Azu and Elza stood.

They hadn't noticed the activity outside yet.

By the time even more people had surrounded the mansion, Azu's face had taken on a tense expression.

(She really has learned to make the face of a warrior. She looked so spoiled when we first met.)

Elza wore her usual smile, making it impossible to tell what she was thinking. Perhaps because she was a priestess, she seemed skilled at hiding her expressions, and even Finn's discerning eye couldn't read her.

The easy-to-read Azu was more endearing by comparison.

All three readied their weapons and faced the door.

The mansion was completely surrounded. Escaping as a group was impossible.

Not that running was an option at this point anyway.

They could feel people massing at the entrance.

A breath out, brace, prepare for the breach.

The door was smashed in and a wave of figures poured through.

"Kingdom Army investigation unit! Everyone inside, sheathe your weapons and do not move! Resist and you will be treated as enemies!"

The ones storming in weren't members of a criminal organization.

They were Kingdom soldiers.

Finn lowered her weapon and sheathed it. No matter the circumstances, fighting the Kingdom Army would be nothing but trouble.

Azu and Elza looked to Finn, then followed suit.