My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's

This time it's a bit longer!

With a loud clatter, the pot flipped over.

The fire underneath was stamped out by someone.

Ah—our lunch is gone.

I’d spent time making it, but all that effort vanished in an instant. I watched from behind Tsuda-kun’s shield as it happened.

Demonic beasts don’t care whether we’re eating or on guard; they just attack. That had happened to us many times since entering this forest.

How many times have I missed a meal now?

I don’t have the kind of attacks that work on monsters like everyone else does, so it’s a bit presumptuous for me to say, but if even one strong person like Oda-kun were with us, maybe we wouldn’t miss lunch, or end up fleeing until dusk and missing dinner.

I let out a soft, self-mocking laugh at that thought.

It wasn’t the kind of thing a person currently being protected inside Tsuda-kun’s shield should be thinking, and the idea that I would just shove everything onto Oda-kun so I could survive made me sick to my stomach.

If someone had to be sacrificed for everyone else to survive, then maybe I should—

Just then, Waki-kun, holding a shaking monkey and cat, shouted beside me.

“What the hell is a robot doing in this forest!?”

His voice snapped me back to reality.

What had I been thinking just now?

The thing that ruined our precious lunch was a bipedal robot that looked wildly out of place in this world—something any boy who likes robots would adore.

It moved smoothly and with variety. You might be more convinced if someone said there was a person inside controlling it.

But there was no mistaking it for anything but a robot: its silver plating gave off a dull sheen and probably stood out in the forest.

It looked obviously artificial.

About human-sized, its armor was so hard attacks couldn’t penetrate it, and its movements were so dense that even Shiori-chan—who dodged attacks from whale-type demonic beasts—couldn’t evade them. Some of those attacks were laced with poison.

It attacked both up close and at range depending on distance.

A nightmare, really.

Who built this robot, and why did they hold a grudge against us?

According to Shiori-chan, it probably ran on magical power, so it would keep moving until its magical power ran out. In other words, we’d need to deplete its magical power—but I suspected we’d collapse before that happened.

Also, Shiori-chan’s gluttony can’t even be used since we can’t get close.

“Ueno-san! Sorry, can you detox poison remotely!?”

I jerked my head up at Shi-kun’s shout and saw his left arm hanging limp—he’d been hit by a ranged attack.

It was probably a paralysis-type poison.

If Shi-kun went down now, Nanase-kun and Mr. Zeal would collapse too. I quickly nodded and, as I did, realized why I’d been thinking so strangely earlier.

Waki-kun’s shout had pulled me out of that daze; it felt familiar—like the curse that was once placed on the castle. I vaguely remembered hearing at the Adventurer Guild that psychic interference-type skills felt similar to one another when cast.

Once that clicked, the answer became clearer.

This robot is so high-performance that it wouldn’t be surprising if it had one or two skills.

“This robot is doing psychic interference too!! Be careful!!”

As everyone raised their alert levels, I started casting curse removal on myself and reached out to get as close to Shi-kun as possible.

Luckily he was within my current range. Barely, but within reach. The other two would probably be out of range.

A pale light wrapped Shi-kun’s left arm. If I could get closer I could detox him faster.

“Tsuda-kun, can you move up a bit? I can barely reach Shi-kun, but I can’t reach the other two… Tsuda-kun?”

The shield in front of me wavered.

I looked up at the classmate who normally stands firm to protect me; his eyes had taken on a vacant look.

Crap, I bit my lip. It should’ve been obvious that since I’d been affected, Tsuda-kun—standing between me and the robot—would be affected too. How could I have missed that?