My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's

No.7’s shop mascot girl guided us down the stairs that led from the back of the store to the underground. It’s good to head somewhere you can talk without being overheard, but isn’t being underground a bit risky? If the single stairway to the surface were sealed, we’d be trapped.

If necessary, I could use shadow magic to eat through the ground between us and the surface and get out, but that would probably drag any nearby people who are eating into it, so I didn’t want to take that option.

“...Hey, is it a good idea to follow someone into a place with no escape routes?”

“If it comes down to it, make me the decoy and run. Just shut up and follow.”

When I asked Crow if he had a plan for going underground with no caution, he answered nonchalantly.

Ever since he started aging, Crow’s made comments that treat his life as expendable. I don’t want him saying things that make Ria cry, but he’s probably frustrated by the gap between who he used to be and who he is now. Do all Beastmen become like this once aging begins?

“...It’ll be fine, my lord. If it comes down to it, I’ll do something about it for you.”

Lattice Nail, who’d been following behind, whispered to me quietly so the shop mascot girl leading us wouldn’t hear.

If Lattice Nail really does own several useful magical tools, maybe there’s something she could do...

“If it comes down to it, I’ll open a tunnel to the surface with magic for you!”

Ah, maybe not.

Resolving that if push came to shove he’d be willing to use shadow magic even if it dragged others into it, I stepped into the underground room we were led to.

“This room is soundproof. Make yourself at home until the master comes.”

The shop mascot girl left after saying that.

The room was more luxuriously decorated than the shop above. A table with ornate decorations and four chairs surrounded it, and a glass shelf along the wall neatly held bottles filled with liquor. I don’t drink, but those looked like “carefully aged vintages.” Crow, who enjoys alcohol, immediately drifted to the shelf.

Even though he was told to help himself, he wouldn’t be foolish enough to drink something he couldn’t verify was real—yet he still looked fascinated.

“Can I ask while we have the chance? What’s with that Slum District? Why are non-Demon Clan people in Demon Clan territory?”

I sat on the sofa and asked Lattice Nail.

She sat opposite me, folded her arms, and answered.

“That place is called Morte, but it’s not really a town for the Demon Clan. It’s a settlement that other races happened to wash up at in Demon Clan territory. Now it’s a place where people who can’t leave and have nowhere to return to wait for death.”

“People of other races really wash up there!?”

We had taken an airship toward Demon Clan territory because the sea is full of demonic beasts. There are wyverns in the sky too, but that’s preferable to having something tear a hole in the bottom of your ship from the sea.

“Ah, I didn’t hear it directly either, but storms or changes in tide and wind sometimes push ships too close, and demonic beasts destroy the ship, leaving survivors to wash ashore barely alive. Of course they lose their luggage and everything else, and after living there a long time they forget who they are, where they wanted to return to, and many get sick and die.”

Lattice Nail looked away awkwardly as she spoke.

“As far as I’ve heard, human and Beastmen fishermen avoid sea areas near Demon Clan territory because of strong demonic beasts. Still, those doing diplomacy with the Elf race or people from Human and Beastmen territories who travel for work have to cross the sea. Whether the ones who wash up are lucky or unlucky is hard to tell...”

As Yoru had said earlier, if a ship is attacked and sinks by demonic beasts, some die on the spot. Survivors who make it to the continent may die without anything to prove who they are, be eaten by monsters, or become sea debris. Either way, death is the same.