My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's

By request, I reduced the blank lines around dialogue by two.

If it's hard to read, I'll add one back.

――In a certain study

“It seems we managed to drive the nuisances away nicely.”

“Yes. Let’s reward those ‘night raven’ lot.”

“Ah… Still, I can’t believe that Saran was so easily done in.”

“His majesty the king desired it, so there was no way it would fail. The curse on anyone other than the hero is complete, and now we only await a pretext for war with the eastern country.”

“We can fabricate something — harbouring a wanted criminal or the like. That brat’s probably rotting somewhere anyway.”

“Yes. All according to his majesty the king’s will.”

The plan proceeded steadily. In places unknown to the people involved.

―――――――――

I left the castle and dove straight into the labyrinth.

“If you’re ever falsely accused and forced to flee, there’s no better hiding place than a labyrinth. The corridors are almost a maze, and there are plenty of places to conceal oneself. I’ll be careful, but if fate forces it on you, hide in the Cantinen Labyrinth and aim for level 100. You might—”

Commander saran’s words floated in my head. Thinking I could never see him again made tears well at the corners of my eyes, but I shook my head and switched my focus. The labyrinth was a place where a single moment could mean death. I had to stay constantly on edge; alone without a party, I’d be killed in an instant. My class was already terrible at handling multiple enemies. If surrounded, even low-grade demonic beasts could be fatal.

“Ugh… haah, finally the fifth floor. I thought there’d be more people early in the morning, but surprisingly few.”

I dispatched a goblin that jumped out from a side passage with a knife I’d stolen from the castle and let out a breath.

Presence detection Lv.4 has an effective radius of about fifty meters. Demonic beasts using presence concealment Lv.5 would remain undetected, but there aren’t many such high-skill monsters on these upper floors; if there’s no monster within roughly fifty meters you can relax.

Using the method a knights order member taught me in the labyrinth before, I tore the Demon Stone from the goblin’s heart. Humanoid demonic beasts often carry Demon Stones in their heart regions; beast-type ones sometimes do too, but humanoid types drop them far more often. This was proven during the last labyrinth expedition.

And the larger the Demon Stone, the higher its market value. Primarily for magical conduction — Demon Stones hold magical power, and a magic user can extract some to convert into their own power. For a low-grade demon like a goblin, the usual size is about the size of a pinky nail. That alone can start a fire with everyday magic, a skill so basic it doesn’t even show on the skill list. Considering the future, I definitely want a lot to conserve my magic.

“No harm in keeping it.”

I muttered, putting the purple Demon Stone into the place in my black clothes where I normally store hidden weapons. Hidden weapons are a pain to retrieve later, so I’d only brought a few. If it came to it I could manage with shadow magic; I should be fine.

Thanks to maxing presence concealment, I could remain unfazed even when monsters passed right in front of me. Of course I stayed cautious — monsters with eyes like commander saran could exist — but it was much easier than without the skill.

Hidden, I could slit throats as they walked by. Many demonic beasts died in front of me without knowing who killed them or how. Demon Stones appeared in about one out of seven creatures, and with some leeway now, I kept presence detection fully on to level it up. As you level up it widens the range, so leveled increases were noticeably helpful.

I’d been here only a few days before, so I knew the route and found the stairs down without getting lost once.

I wanted to reach the 30th floor today, so I stepped onto the staircase without hesitation — and stopped. Danger sense rang its alarm. I grabbed a small Demon Stone and tossed it; the instant it hit the ground, an arrow stuck near it.