"This job doesn't exactly get me excited..."
The orichalcum-rank adventurer Mist had been commissioned to kidnap the duke's daughter, violate her, and parade her before the public eye.
He didn't know what the point of any of this was, but he couldn't refuse his client.
At any rate, the kidnapping itself was a success.
It didn't matter that his opponents were knights of the ducal house — they were no obstacle.
Not before
the Mist of Shadow Fog,
though.
That said, he hadn't killed anyone.
He'd struck while avoiding vital spots, incapacitated them, and then casually abducted the princess.
The question was where to violate her — the outdoors was out of the question, so what should he do?
While he was mulling over such trivialities, a boy appeared before him.
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He watched the man who had seized the girl.
In the end, his curiosity won out, and he tailed them.
When he looked at the man through [Divine Eye], the reading came back: Mist, orichalcum rank, [Shadow Magic].
Orichalcum rank had quite a wide spread.
You could qualify if you were strong enough above a certain threshold, and even after reaching it, growing stronger further didn't unlock any higher rank.
He took a quick look at the girl as well.
Her name was Nina Raising.
Daughter of the current head of House Raising — the ducal family.
The current duke was a rare sort of noble, one who was actually popular with the people.
That's because he didn't discriminate much against commoners.
Decision. I'll save her.
"Let the girl go, Mist! For an Orichalcum-rank to resort to kidnapping — how disgraceful!"
And in that very instant, a dull pain struck my chest.
I dropped my gaze just slightly — black thorns were growing out of my chest.
They were thorns that had sprouted from my own shadow and skewered me clean through.
I hadn't sensed even a trace of an attack.
Ah... my consciousness is slipping away...
[Re...ver...se!]
Ha— I'm saved.
I was about to black out there.
If I had, it would've been death on the spot.
Thank god I managed to activate the skill at the very last moment.
Seriously, Mist is completely ruthless.
Without even bothering to exchange a single word, she went straight for a lethal blow aimed at my heart.
I guess I only had myself to blame — every opponent until now had been the kind of small fry who'd deliberately flaunt their rank before a fight.
But even setting that aside, I had no way of reading the attack coming until it hit.
I'll sort that out later — in any case, since [REVERSE] had bounced my damage right back at her, blood was pouring from Mist's chest.
I was healed.
"Shadow Dive."
Mist murmured the words softly, and the two of them sank into the shadows with a slithering sound.
I rushed over in a panic, but they had already vanished without a trace.
Man, that was one hell of an opponent.
She attacked without a word or a moment's hesitation, and her retreat was just as swift.
That's the kind of person I should be learning from.
Even after I'd reversed the damage back at her, it didn't look like a fatal wound.
In other words, her strength was on a completely different level from mine.
That was because this body was still incomplete, of course.
But there was still a way to make this work.
Taking her attack had created a connection between us — so I could pinpoint her location with "Perfect Research."
All I had to do was use [Space-Time Magic]'s "Teleport" once I had the location.
The room I teleported to was bare and unadorned, with potion bottles scattered across the floor. Lady Nina was there, her face stiff as she stared toward Mist.
I immediately grabbed Lady Nina's hand and activated "Teleport."
It was a race against time. Mist probably hadn't expected me to teleport here, so I had to use that window to get her out.
I could've used the opening to attack, but I couldn't very well let the duke's daughter see a bloody scene — and I wasn't confident I could finish her off anyway.
The rescue was a success.
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Skill: [Reverse][Divine Eye][Sword God][Gentleman Thief][Dark Magic][Rock Iron Magic][Holy Magic][Space-Time Magic][Scorching Magic][Frozen Ice Magic]
Rank: Bronze