Credits
Chapter 3: The Robbers’ Killer
Originally published in the May 1990
issue of Monthly Dragon Magazine.
Black shadows emerged from the
darkness.
A group of hooded men rushed toward
the bed, blades raised high.
“Flare Arrow!”
Before they could strike, flaming
arrows materialized and shot forward.
The fight was over in an instant.
All because they underestimated
me, Lina Inverse, genius sorceress extraordinaire! Someone who never lets her
guard down!
Sure, an assassin might take down a
skilled warrior by attacking them in their sleep. But that won’t work on a
sorceress.
Chanting while lying down? Easy. The
moment their murderous intent woke me up, I started casting.
The only problem was they moved
faster than I expected.
Which means—
“Elena!”
I threw on my cloak, grabbed my
short sword, and bolted into the hallway.
A man dressed in black stood before
me, blocking the way. The sound of clashing swords rang from Elena’s room.
No time for this.
“Here, hold this!” I tossed my short
sword toward him.
“Huh!?”
That half-second of dumbfounded
hesitation was all I needed.
I drove my knee into his stomach,
grabbed my sword back as he collapsed, and rushed into Elena’s room.
The best way to launch a preemptive
attack is to kill the other person’s decision-making ability for an instant.
Surprising them like that almost always works.
Thankfully, she was still alive.
Somehow, she was fending off two assassins, while lying on the bed. Now that’s
impressive.
I was tempted to watch for a bit,
but—
“Thunder!”
A single electrified slash was all
it took. The assassins dropped instantly.
“Thanks, Lina!” Elena panted.
“Pack up! We gotta move!”
Both of our room locks had been
undone. Either these guys were skilled thieves, or they had inside help. Either
way, staying is suicide.
We sprinted down the corridor.
At least a dozen more dark-cloaked
figures waited in the lobby.
“Close your eyes!” I shouted.
As soon as Elena shut them, I
chanted, “Light!”
I fired three quick bursts. The
spell isn’t just for illumination, it can be blindingly bright when controlled
correctly.
The assassins cried out, momentarily
blinded. That was all we needed.
We dashed past them, burst out the
front door, and ran through the dimly lit streets. The first glow of dawn
peeked over the horizon.
Only when we reached the coast did
we finally stop to catch our breath.
The lighthouse’s glow flickered out
as the sea reflected the morning light.
For a second, it was actually kind
of beautiful.
Then—
“Look!” Elena pointed toward the
city.
I turned.
Flames rose from the middle of town.
Right where our inn is.
…Ah.
Maybe Flare Arrow was a bad idea.
“You set the inn on fire!”
Oops.
Oh well. Can’t cry over spilled
milk.
Besides, it’s the Dark Wolves’ fault
anyway!
That’s what I was hired for, after
all, to eliminate the Dark Wolves gang.
The pay isn’t great, but I took the
job for two very humanitarian reasons: I love beating up bad guys, and “Dark
Wolves” is such a lame name. Seriously, even folk songs have better names than
that!
…Okay, maybe not the most noble
reasons, but whatever.
Yesterday afternoon, Elena and I
arrived in this town, unknowingly walking straight into the Dark Wolves’ home
turf. Asking questions got us noticed fast.
Elena, my client, is a woman in her
early twenties. Black hair, a face that vaguely reminded me of my older sister,
and a surprisingly skilled swordswoman.
She hadn’t told me why she wanted
the Dark Wolves taken out. I hadn’t asked.
If she wanted me to know, she’d tell
me.
For now, we need to finish this job
fast.
The sun had risen, a cool sea breeze
blowing across the port town of Laura.
That’s when I noticed something.
I was still wearing my cloak over my
polka-dot pajamas.
“Very nice weather today!” I
declared loudly.
Elena, on the other hand, stayed
silent, scanning our surroundings like a bodyguard.
The plan was to act as obvious as
possible. If the Dark Wolves know we are looking for them, they’ll have to
respond.
And when they do, we’ll capture one
and make them talk.
A young, beautiful sorceress (me,
obviously) and a wary-looking swordswoman walking through a sunlit port town.
No way that wouldn’t draw attention.
Sure enough—
“Hey, what are you two doing?”
Two tanned men approached us,
looking like they thought we were tourists.
Ugh. I wasn’t in the mood for
flirting.
But, this was a chance.
I turned on my best “cute girl” act.
“Oh, we’re new here! We don’t really
know our way~❤”
“We’ll show you around! Come with
us.”
Perfect.
“Thanks! We’re actually looking for
the Dark Wolves’ hideout!”
…
Silence.
Not just from the two. Everyone
around us, merchants, customers, random passersby, froze.
One of the guys stammered, “I-I
don’t know… I don’t know!!”
Then they bolted.
So did most of the nearby crowd.
Elena sighed. “Lina… everyone left.”
“Well, that just makes it easier.” I
smirked.
Now, all we have to do is wait.
It won’t be long before someone from
the gang shows up.
Finally! Time to use some of my favorite offensive spells.
Or so I thought.
A white cobblestone road stretched
alongside the blue sea. A row of elegant houses lined the street, probably owned
by rich nobles.
And standing in the middle of that sunlit road.
A group of hooded figures.
Similar to last night’s attackers.
One of them, presumably the leader,
stepped forward. “I hear you’re looking for the Dark Wolves’ base.” A mask hid
his face.
“That’s right!” I said cheerfully. “Know
where it is? Wanna show us the way?”
“…What a shame.” Another one spoke
as they all drew their swords. “The only place we, the Five Zore Brothers, will
be guiding you—” they fanned out, surrounding us, “—is straight to hell!”
Oh, please.
Elena and I drew our swords.
They circled us, moving in sync.
“Behold our secret technique—”
They picked up speed, blurring
together as they ran in a clockwise circle around us.
“The Waltz of Death!”
They moved faster and faster, with
their similar clothes and build, it was difficult to differentiate them, almost
seemed like an illusion, it was difficult to see who’d attack us.
I knew the best spell for this
situation and started chanting under my breath. But then—
“Guh!” One of the men suddenly
groaned and collapsed.
“What happened!?”
“Brother! Pull yourself together!”
The rest of them rushed over in a
panic. Elena and I just stood there, watching, stunned.
“…He’s dead.”
“What!? How!?”
“Heart attack.”
Elena and I collapsed to the floor.
“Hmm, well, he did have a weak
heart…”
“Maybe the Waltz of Death was too
much for him?”
Someone like that shouldn’t be an
assassin!
“I’m sorry, brother…”
“…Nice work, little girls.”
“We didn’t do anything.”
“Don’t get cocky! I’ll avenge my
brother!”
…I’m not sure what’s going on
anymore, but they’re trying to have a normal conversation over the body of
their fallen comrade like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
The four remaining men began
circling us again.
I don’t want to waste any more time
on them.
“Mega Brand!”
The ground rippled outward from
where Elena and I stood. As soon as it reached them, they were sent flying,
crashing down with startled screams. They’ll live, though.
Well then. Time for a break.
“Are you really expecting me to
talk?” one of the tied-up men sneered defiantly.
“Well, if you don’t…” Elena leaned
in threateningly.
Not very effective. Another one
laughed. “And what if we don’t? You little girls gonna torture us? You’re the
heroes, right? You don’t have the guts.”
The four of them laughed in unison.
“I don’t think you understand the
situation.” I scratched my head. “I don’t know about her, but I’m no hero. I’m
an enemy of evil.”
“Hah! You think acting cool will scare
me into talking?”
Hmm… My small frame definitely isn’t
helping here.
I don’t want to do this, but…
“Tell me, have you ever heard the
rumors about a certain Lina Inverse?”
They frowned at the sudden shift.
“Ah, those rumors. Supposedly, she’s
some ruthless sorceress who hates bandits. Word is her whole family was killed
by them. I heard she’s young, a teenager, but…” His eyes widened in
realization.
Looks like he figured it out.
Rumors tend to get exaggerated, of
course. My family’s fine. But it’s a cool backstory.
Might as well use it.
“…You… you look just like the man
who killed my brother…” I said coldly.
For the record, I don’t have a
brother. Just an older sister.
They all screamed at once. “The
bandit-slayer, Lina Inverse! The one even dragons fear!”
“Wait, I’ll talk! Just don’t use us
for your chimera experiments!”
“I don’t care what you do to me,
just spare my family! My wife and daughter have nothing to do with this!”
…Okay, what the hell are these
rumors.
I don’t even want to know.
“…You should’ve just been honest
from the start.” I kept up the cold-hearted sorceress act. “By the way, about
that ‘dragons fear me’ thing—”
“Ah—” he opened his mouth nervously.
“Because you’re so terrifying—”
My elbow landed squarely on top of
his head.
“I see. No one would ever guess this
was the entrance.”
Elena and I stood in front of a
towering white lighthouse on the cape.
Going in normally would just take
you to the observation deck. But somewhere inside was a hidden passage leading
to the Dark Wolves’ underground base.
Pretty unexpected for a bandit gang.
The lighthouse is a public building, after all. You can see the whole town from
up there.
“Anyway, let’s just blow up the
whole thing and bury everyone down there—”
“No!”
I was mostly joking. Maybe 20%. But
Elena firmly cut me off.
“I have to settle things with their
boss.”
I sighed. “Ugh, fine.”
The walls and ceiling of the
underground corridor were lined with luminous moss, casting a dim greenish
light.
The air was cold, damp, and smelled
like rusted iron.
According to those four, this was
originally just a storage facility. But after some heavy renovations, the gang
dug a tunnel deeper underground. Must’ve taken a lot of work.
“Hmm?”
Elena and I both stopped.
“The air…”
“It’s moving.”
We focused on the walls.
“There!”
A thin, black line ran through the
moss-covered stone. A hidden door.
I felt around and found a small
switch at my feet.
Click.
The door creaked open.
We pressed ourselves against the
sides, waiting for any movement inside, then peeked inside.
A small room with another door.
“Seems empty…” I stepped inside,
Elena following cautiously. “Stay alert. There might be traps.”
Almost like I summoned it.
With a dull thud, part of the wall
began protruding towards me.
A classic crushing trap. Usually
deadly. But due to poor construction, or maybe just old age, it moved at a
snail’s pace.
“Lina, look out!”
Elena shoved me aside with
surprising force.
“Hey, wait—”
I stumbled forward, my foot slamming
down.
A pitfall opened beneath me.
“Whoops!”
The last thing I saw was Elena
clapping her hands over her mouth in shock before I plunged into the darkness.
“DON’T ‘WHOOPS’ ME, YOU IDIOOOOOOOOOT!”
“Hey, did you wait long?”
By the time I climbed back up, Elena
was fighting some kind of slime that had been guarding the passage.
“Lina! Are you okay?”
“Of course I am!” I grinned and
winked.
Swords are useless against slimes,
but Elena was tossing some kind of powder at it. The moment it touched the
slime, it flailed and retreated in a panic.
Nice.
“Whoa, what’s that?”
“Salt,” she said matter-of-factly.
…Huh.
“This is a port town, right? Salt is
cheap here, so I bought some just in case, Lina? What’s wrong?”
I crouched down and held my head.
Everything I thought I knew about
slimes crumbled.
Unstoppable force was the best way
to describe us.
Punching, kicking, hurling bandits
left and right. Pure chaos. Pure destruction.
The Lina Inverse way!
…Come to think of it, maybe this is
why those nasty rumors keep spreading.
Whatever. My motto is “Not sorry!”
Anyway, time to face the boss of the
Dark Wolves.
We stopped in front of a massive
door. The tension in the air sharpened.
“…This is it,” Elena murmured. She
took a breath, then turned to me. “Lina. I’ll make this clear. I’m the one
taking down the boss. Don’t lay a finger on him.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
I pushed the door open.
It slid inward with surprising ease.
“You’re finally here.”
The man waiting inside was… bleaker
than expected.
Tall. Blond. Fierce-looking, almost
like a tiger. A scimitar at his hip glowed faintly.
“It’s nice to see you again, Tis.”
“…Huh?” I turned to Elena in
confusion.
“I heard rumors about a woman poking
around for us. Figured it was you,” the man, Tis, smirked knowingly.
Hey. Someone wanna fill me in?
“You were always a little
troublemaker,” Elena said, her voice calm but tense. “But I never thought you’d
become the leader of a band of thieves.”
There wasn’t just sadness in her
eyes. But anger, too.
“Why…?”
Tis shrugged. “That’s just how it
went. Fell in with bad company, lived the outlaw life, next thing I knew, I was
in charge.”
That’s a pretty narrow way of
looking at things.
But at least I’m finally getting
what’s going on here.
They are clearly childhood friends.
But somewhere along the way, he lost his path and became the leader of a gang.
And now, Elena is here, not to persuade him, but to put an end to it all.
“Are you planning to go back home?”
she asked.
Tis let out a self-deprecating
laugh. “It’s too late for that…”
Elena sighed heavily. “Then, there’s
only one way to settle this.”
“…Yeah.”
Without another word, they charged
at each other, their swords clashing in a flash of steel.
Elena blocked a strike and lashed
out with her right foot. Tis jumped back, narrowly dodging. The crescent moon-shaped
scimitar in his hand deflected every thrust aimed at him.
The fight dragged on.
I watched from the sidelines,
effortlessly taking care of the occasional low-level thug who decided to
interfere.
They were nearly equal in
skill, which is to say, neither of them were particularly good at fighting.
Hesitation dulled their blades,
though I doubt they realized it. Even so, Tis had the advantage in sheer
strength and endurance. With every swing, every parry, Elena’s movements
slowed, her breath growing heavier.
Beads of sweat formed on her
forehead. Her legs trembled.
BANG!
Her sword went flying. She lost her
footing and crashed to the ground.
It’s over.
Tis raised his scimitar high, then
stopped.
Time passed. Maybe long enough for
an hourglass to run down.
He must have realized it. No matter
how much he tried, he can’t bring himself to kill her.
I started clapping, “Good show.”
Tis turned to me with a sigh of
relief. “Even after everything… I don’t want to be a bandit.”
“Well, if you keep this up, you’re
not going to die a good death…” Elena smiled wryly as she stood, looking him in
the eye. “Why don’t you quit?”
He shook his head. “It’s not that
simple. Even if I walk away, do you think my subordinates will just let me go?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. I’ve
got a solution. Elmekia Lance!”
A spear of light shot through the
air, slamming into Tis’ chest.
“Guwah!”
He flew back, hit the wall, and
crumpled into a heap. Unconscious.
Elena grabbed me by the collar and
started shaking me violently. “Linaaaaaaa! What did you do to my Tis?!”
“Gyaaah—that hurts!” I barely pried
her off. She had an iron grip, I coughed violently.
‘My Tis’? Heh. Took her long enough
to admit it.
“He’s not dead,” I said, rubbing my
throat. “That spell attacks the astral body. Ah, details aside, he’s just
unconscious. He’ll be fine in less than a month.”
She looked at me bewildered.
“Listen, you came to save your
friend, right? Let’s say, he was just a body double for their boss. You took
down the leader of the Dark Wolves and saved him in the process. He was weak
because he refused to cooperate, so they treated him badly. Simple.”
That should do it. She could explain
it to him when he woke up.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Lina
Inverse showing mercy to a gang leader!?
“The body will never be recovered.
That ties up all the loose ends, don’t you think?” I puffed out my chest.
“But how do we make sure the body is
never found? It’s not that simple.”
“A quick Dragon Slave.”
The whole area becomes part of the
sea. The den of thieves is wiped off the map. None the wiser. Problem solved.
I turned to Elena, who was still
kneeling beside Tis. “Pass this message to him: If I ever hear that you caused
trouble for Elena again, there will be nothing left of you but ashes.”
Elena looked up at me, blinking in
surprise. Then, she smirked. “Thank you, Lina. Really…”
“…Huh?”
She started crying.
That made me feel way too
embarrassed. Why so formal? I quickly turned away.
“Ah, before I forget.” I tossed her
a small leather bag.
She caught it, confused. When she
looked inside, her eyes widened. Gold coins. A lot of them.
“It’s a gift. For a fresh start for
you two.” I spoke quickly to hide my embarrassment. “Oh, and don’t worry, I
already took my cut.”
“But this is too much—”
“It’s fine. I’m not hurting for
money. Besides, you’ll need it. Nursing someone for weeks isn’t cheap. Just
take it.”
She bowed deeply again.
Rumors of the Dark Wolves’
annihilation spread fast.
I heard about it in a small port
town about ten days away. Apparently, the local lord used the opportunity to
hunt down the remaining members and confiscate whatever treasure they had left.
Smart move. I’d do the same.
Not much loot was found, though.
Most of the valuable stuff apparently vanished into thin air.
Haven’t heard anything else. Seems
like Elena and Tis are managing somehow.
…By the way, Elena never asked me
what I was doing after we got separated by that pitfall.
As I sat in my room at the inn, I
absently sorted through the treasures of the Dark Wolves, lost in thought.
Contents
Chapter 1: The Prince of Saillune
Chapter 2: Revenge!
Chapter 3: The Robbers’ Killer
Chapter 4: Naga's Challenge
Chapter 5: Elsia's Castle
Chapter 6: Slayers Excellent — Villain Fight!
Afterword, Color ilustrations and Download Links
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