My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's

"So? What do Crow from the former hero's party and the dark assassin want, bringing the Demon King's successor and his right hand? What sort of information are you after?"

His brusque tone and attitude—like he wasn't even serving customers—nonetheless made a few things clear to me.

"...You hate the Demon King, don't you?"

"Why would you think that?"

He exhaled smoke upward and let ash fall into the ashtray.

I watched the precise, practiced motions and fixed my gaze on his eyes.

"The first thing that felt off was that the former hero's memoir recommended this place. I only read one line, but Crow, who read the whole memoir, showed no caution about this shop at all."

Crow glanced sideways and downed the Grand Slam handed to him with an indifferent face. Hey.

"Also, I recognized Lattice Nail and Yo's identities at a glance, but your attitude and your eyes showed no respect—instead they looked like you disliked them. Their common link is the Demon King. The rest is just a hunch and atmosphere."

If he knew he was in front of a royal's daughter and her right hand, he wouldn't be smoking like that. I don't know whether the smoke here had secondhand effects, but the smell and appearance were the same as the cigarettes in that other world; when smoked indoors they stung my nose and eyes. I assumed he exhaled upward to avoid blowing smoke at me, but maybe he was aiming at the standing Lattice Nail. This was my first time seeing cigarettes since coming to this world—perhaps they, too, had been brought by some past hero.

After explaining my reasoning, I looked to the master to see if he was satisfied. He murmured "hmm" and blew smoke again.

"As expected of the famed dark assassin. So it's true you're stronger than this era's hero. Sharp observation."

I widened my eyes at his words alongside ash falling into the tray.

Because the stat reveal at Reytis Castle was avoided, I should be the only one in the world who knows my stat information. And there's been little occasion to compare me to the hero in battle—maybe only at the Cantinen Labyrinth. So the source must be a classmate or someone from the former knights order?

A hand reached from the side, so I passed my glass to Crow. Either way I couldn't drink it. The airship only had cooking sake; Crow seemed oddly pleased to have real liquor after a while. 'World Eye' could guarantee there's no poison, but most wouldn't drink normally.

"I see. So you sold information on the Demon King's Castle to the former hero, Ritter Ganador, because you hate the Demon King. Now that I think about it, he was odd after entering Demon Clan territory. He moved smoothly without even checking directions to places he'd never visited, and dropped information whose origin I couldn't trace. At the time he only grinned creepily when I asked, so I didn't bother—but maybe he was getting information here?"

"So you say it's fine to drink what you were served? You're already starting to age, aren't you. Ah, since your sister and friend are dead are you hurryin' yourself to die?"

A tense air ran between the two.

I thought the master resembled someone earlier, and now that I saw him like this I realized his vibe was a lot like Crow's. Which meant he was also similar to Noah—great, even if we split up after leaving the ship I'd probably have to mediate. I almost sighed.

"Hey, save the arguing. More importantly, if you're selling information here there should be a price. What do you want from us?"

"Ah, a price. I can sell you three pieces of information. Ideally I'd want that eye you and the Elf race's princess have... but—"

I clicked my tongue inside my mouth at the mention of the 'World Eye.'

There are many people in this world with degraded versions of the 'World Eye'—see-through skills or appraisal skills. I only use mine to view opponent stats or distinguish tricky herbs, but this eye is probably more than that. Even Amelia, who's used it much longer than I have, is stuck at skill level three, so there must be factors beyond mere usage time to raise its level. And there's that flash of future scenery I got at the Cantinen Labyrinth—a sensation of seeing through the whole world. I'd rather not be hostile to an eye like that.