My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's

Today’s chapter is a short one!

I’ll put an important announcement in the afterword, so I’d be grateful if you’d take a look.

“Is that true!?”

Yoru leapt at Crow as if about to bite.

As a kitten it didn’t look that threatening, but if it had been huge, Crow couldn’t have dodged so gracefully.

“Are you trying to make me say the same thing twice? Only if you really come back alive, got it?”

This one’s tsundere, huh.

Like, “I’m not watching you or anything!” kind of vibe?

Anyway, I felt relieved.

Crow didn’t intend to come, but he’d still lend a hand.

“Crow, while you’re at it, can you do me a favor? …Find out who helped the Demon Clan sneak in.”

I scolded my body into moving again as I asked Crow to investigate.

Crow, with Yoru on his head, looked at me with a sullen face.

Well, that grumpy expression might just be his default look.

“I’ll look into it without being told. The fact that the Demon Clan came hasn’t been announced to the public yet, but it’s only a matter of time before word reaches the king. Several adventurers saw demons, not just this one. When that happens, the first thing people will question is where they got in.”

I nodded.

Even for a port town, the defenses weren’t lax enough to allow an easy invasion.

If anything, being a port town meant stricter security, and they even had an Adventurer Guild.

Of course the guild existed because of the labyrinth, but the more skilled adventurers there are, the harder it is for outsiders to get in.

Although the Demon Clan and the Human race look almost identical, the demons’ tainted magical power can be felt even by those without magical knowledge.

Then again, in this world, and especially among the Beastmen—who are famous for being quick to fight—there isn’t a single person without any magical knowledge at all.

“If you’re investigating, start with Guild Master Ringa and his younger brother Sena.”

Yoru and Crow both widened their eyes.

“Master, that is…”

“Ringa, when he was calling to adventurers in front of the guild, said, ‘Don’t let the Demon Clan defile our town.’ The other adventurers were on edge before the battle started, so they probably didn’t notice, but at that time no one had said a word about demons yet.”

Sena, who seemed calm then, was suspicious too.

Come to think of it, would you really send yellow and red rank adventurers to the front lines as a matter of course?

Beastmen have many capable fighters, and there was a party of silver rank adventurers present.

By then the response had already been delayed and a considerable number of demonic beasts had poured into the city.

If it were me, I’d have the high-rank adventurers like the silvers take out the monsters that the reds and yellows couldn’t handle, and have the others deal with the remaining beasts.

The labyrinth’s gate had already been broken at that point, so even if you sealed the labyrinth entrance, monsters would still come through.

So it would be far more efficient to let them come out and then send adventurers to the areas that were slow to evacuate and wipe them out.

Ringa’s plan couldn’t guarantee the safety of noncombatants who were slow to evacuate.

…If that was the case, it wouldn’t be strange for capable fighters hidden among the general populace to step forward.

“…Did he do it on purpose?”

“Master?”

Yoru suddenly fell silent, then murmured that and widened her eyes. She asked me with a worried look.

“…The possibility that Ringa is the mastermind just increased. All the adventurer deployments were handled by that guild master. So even if the evacuation of the village near Crow’s house was delayed, he could have avoided sending adventurers. No matter how much he was later questioned, he could make excuses about command confusion—there are plenty of alibis.”

Yoru furrowed her brow, uncertain of the true meaning of my words.

Crow, on the other hand, looked like he’d swallowed several bitter bugs.

“What are you saying?”