Chapter 85 – Adopt
The continents’ traveling routes were quite advanced and varied.
The Magic Teleportation Route was controlled by the authorities. They were used only when there were papers from both the Magic Association and the Kingdoms’ authorites, and would not be used under normal circumstances. The area where the teleportation took place was also controlled by the Magic Association, and most commoners had only heard of it and had never seen them before.
No kingdom would like their citizens to travel about without settling down, as this would create huge problems for the administrators. It was also too easy for bad people to create trouble. Also, if a war broke out, the teleportation circles might easily allow enemies access to the city……
There were two public transportation routes for the common citizens; air and land. There were either horses or magical beasts that were tamed and used for transportation. Every city had a place for the beasts to rest, and each checkpoint’s resting time lasted from ten minutes to an hour, allowing the customers to do their business if necessary. There might even be a change of the transportation animals so that there would not be any delays to the next stop.
Even though the roads in this world could not compare with Earth’s roads, they were much better than Sue initially thought, and she even imagined that she had to tag along with some merchants, encountering bandits or magical beasts…..
It looked like reality was less dramatic.
Of course, there was also the option to travel by themselves which was faster. There was no need to wait at any checkpoints, and some of the magical beasts out there were better than the public transport. An example would be the demons’ night mounts…… If Sue wanted she could even ride on the white tiger and fly about quickly. But there were two problems, she was too small and easily attracted attention. The other reason was that she did not know what road to take…..
When Sue finally reached the capital it was already more than a month. By this time, the little prince had reappeared in the public’s eyes again.
Because the Tobias Kingdom had controlled the news of the disappearance of Fedrus tightly, the citizens did not realize the little prince had disappeared for more than half a year, so they had nothing to worry about. There was really no difference whether he appeared in the public or not as they still lived their lives without any changes.
At most someone would suddenly say something like, “Hey! Look over there, isn’t that Prince Fedrus?! It has been quite a while since we saw him in the streets….. Oh well, which store did you say had cheap goods?!”
Fedrus was speechless over the citizens’ adaptability. Even though he was relieved when there were no embarrassing questions asked, he also felt a little empty inside — Did the citizens in the capital not miss him?!
The royal family had the excuse of maintaining their image, and the members were unable to act worried over his disappearance because the kingdom needed stability.
The chibi suddenly missed Sue, especially when he recalled that first night when he tried to run away. She was probably the only person he would encounter in his entire life who jumped down from the sky in order to rescue him when he was in danger, without any regards to her own safety……
As for Sue who had arrived in the capital, before she had the chance to experience the busy city’s scenery, was directly taken to the Assassin Guild.
She did not put up any resistance, because she currently had no acting guardians to look after her and needed to get her story straight. On the other hand, the four assassins’ dads
were also anxious about the situation. When they heard the stories from their sons, the guild leader was keen to see exactly what kind of person the little girl was. In fact, it would be best if he could find a chance to bully her a little.
The Assassin Guild was located below the Underground Market, and the entrance to it was at a dilapidated bar in the district where most of the impoverished citizens stayed at. After walking in a passage for about ten minutes, Sue and the others were able to reach the exit……
The Underground Market used to be a gathering site for the Dwarves. The location’s safety was guaranteed and would not collapse from any earthquakes, so people felt it was safe to turn it into the Underground Market.
The kingdom’s authorities certainly knew what kind of place this was. They were not stupid enough to not notice a beeline of people heading into the bar constantly. However, they closed one eye to this place. As long as they did not create trouble, they would not interfere. If they had some (il)legal troubles they could not solve in the open, they could at least find a way to handle it……
There were three levels to the Assassin Guild. The first level was the open hall, where anyone was free to come in and take a look. The primary goal was to let people register their requests. The second level was reserved for VIP customers who had high status. The third level was the administrative section, and only related personnel with higher ranks were allowed inside. No one else was allowed to loiter in that area.
Besides the three floors, the Assassin Guild had a basement that was given to the staff for training and also allowed them to rest. Each level had guards, administrative workers and waiters…… It was quite a big company.
“Hey! If you keep blocking me I’m going to duke it out with you! I already said I just want to take a stroll and I’m not going to run away…..”
Sue’s face was very dark, so very dark. Once she entered the place, the four idiots were brave enough to throw her behind and told the administrator to take care of her. It was obvious that the administrator was really there to guard her, while they went straight to the third floor to look for their dads……
This was some form of psychological strategy, one of their dads must had communicated with them and arranged something like this, all for the sake of leaving a kid behind to ‘experience’ this scary Assassin Guild and make her scared…..
It was certainly not her delusion because the administrator kept repeating the same words over and over. She initially did not feel something was amiss, but it was simply too suspicious.
“Child, the guild leader is going to come down soon, if you leave I will be greatly troubled…..” The administrator displayed an aged look in order to stir up some feelings of elderly respect and even made very fake coughs: “How about telling me what you would like?! How about if I get someone to buy you candy from Alfred’s store?!”
“…… Seriously, whether you get troubled really has nothing to do with me.” The corner of Sue’s mouth and eye twitched: “Also your lying skills are just super awful, even I have the heart to play along, I think I’m insulting my intelligence instead…… Either you get the guild leader down now, or I’m going to walk one round in the city before coming back. I’m your bloody customer, stop restricting my freedom.”
“Pffff……” Before the administrator was able to reply, a masked man who just entered the hall was unable to suppress his laughter: “A little child calling herself a customer of the Assassin Guild….. Well then, how about telling this older bro here whom you want to kill?! Did some bad little laddie upturn your skirt?! Or did a naughty boy throw a frog into your adorable lunch basket?!” (TL: DOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!)
“Xiao Bai, throw him out of here!” Sue ordered with great displeasure. The little fluff ball who obediently laid beside Sue’s feet received the order, and with a very compliant meow, instantly turned into the huge and mighty white tiger, opened its mouth and bit the unlucky idiot’s clothes and flew up into the air.
There was a long scream as the unlucky idiot struggled to bring out his sword. In the end, he got smacked senseless with a paw strike and was thrown onto the streets without any further resistance.
There were several men who instantly darted out from the Assassin Guild to clear up the garbage and bring the unconscious man back into the back doors. The audience in the hall who were looking at her curiously from before instantly changed their looks. The administrator wiped his cold sweat furiously…… F&#@! This was the rude little child that the guild leader was talking about?!
He knew who that unlucky idiot was. Even though he was not a top tier assassin, he was still a full-fledged assassin. Even if he encountered the typical skilled fighter he would not be knocked out so easily.
[Did I spent too much money on the accounts and the guild leader is punishing me for it?] The administrator wanted to cry and regretted taking this task.
Fortunately with such a large commotion, the guild leader was finally forced out of his shell. That event allowed him to see clearly that this child was anything but a child. Trying to scare her with such tactics was just a waste of time. In fact she might even think the guild leader had no guts to meet her…….
Indeed. Sue’s eyes brightened up and waved her hand when she saw him: “My lord, did you finally find the courage to show up?!”
“Cough cough cough……” The guild leader felt doubly taunted: “I was a little busy with something, I’m really sorry about the delay.”
“No problem. As long as you’re not hiding forever. I must say that I feel like you’re overspending on service. The administrator is pretty good at taking care of the food and drinks and even on personal service….. I guess I can put up with his looks.” He was an old man who was over fifty, she was certainly polite because she was definitely putting up with his looks by a mile.
“”……”” The level of snark was insane….. Both the guild leader and administrator felt depressed.
The hall was starting to get rowdy again. The crowd was used to the guild leader appearing, but it was really rare for him to come out personally for a kid. Was it because her status was of high rank? …… It did not look like it. Maybe she had something special about her….. Did rearing a Magical Tiger and having a terribly rude mouth count?!
“Let’s go up to my room and discuss.” The guild leader also realized this was not a place for a discussion, so he dismissed the administrator and brought Sue directly to the third floor.
The four assassins had stayed on the third floor ever since they entered the guild, and saw everything that happened through a Magic Projection. They knew how bad Sue’s mood was.
When they saw her, every one of them was silent and had their heads lowered to the point where it could not be lowered anymore, trying hard to look like the background. Sue did not have the mood to pick a fight with the four idiots, so she merely swept her eyes over them and let them off, pretending not to hear the relieved sighs that came to her ears.
“Please sit.” The guild leader politely offered her a seat, hummed for a moment before he spoke again: “Child, we wanted to speak with you about the mission…..”
“I remembered that the fees had already been agreed upon, what other questions do you have?!”
“The situation is like this…… We have always received requests for assassinations, and we had never received a request to investigate someone.” The guild leader looked a little troubled: “This is a new type of request after all. Normally, the requesters will provide the information for us and we just need to execute the task, so we have no idea on how to start on this investigation. Other than the one time where we met with the person who requested this particular assassination, we have not interacted with that person again…..”
Even though they had done some limited investigations to kill other targets in the past, they were simply not professionals at this kind of work.
Also, they accepted the the request because the four stupid sons were still in her hands, so they had no choice but to accept the task. But there were many things that could not be done with just courage or foolhardy actions….. This was not a shounen manga where the protagonist had the power of deus-ex-machina on the little finger that could stop the galaxy from exploding.
Maybe love and courage could save the world, but the two traits would definitely not bring information right into their hands…..
“So you mean to say that the mission is a little too difficult?!” Sue nodded to show that she understood.
“It is good that you understand.” The guild leader was relieved: “In order to continue with this request, I wish for you to provide us with some information.”
“I already provided them-” Sue lifted her hands: “The time and location of the prince’s poisoning. Even the time and location of when he landed in the Magical Beast Forest…… I did not hide these information at all.”
“…… The information isn’t enough.”
“Then I don’t have any other means to help you.” Sue was helpless in this aspect: “We made a request to investigate the culprits because we don’t know on how to investigate. This has nothing to do with me anymore, because I have already provided with all the information that I have. It’s your job to do the remainder of it….. If I need to work on everything myself, why the heck am I wasting my time by giving you this request?! Do you think it’s because I have so much money that it’s biting my hands and I need to throw them away?!”
“……” The guild leader silently coughed out blood. She really had…… spoken out like it was her every right to do so: “….. Can I at least have the chance to speak with the little prince?”
“There will be a chance to do so.” Sue irritably waved her hand: “Change the topic. I didn’t wait so long like an idiot to talk about these s^$#ty stuff.”
“……” Who was the one who made this s^$#ty request! The guild leader’s tears flowed freely. This child was just too unreasonable.
“I came to your guild to ask something. What kind of conditions do you have if I want to join your guild?!” Sue’s words were like lightning that struck the entire room.
“””You want to become an assassin?!””” The four assassins and the guild leader spat out blood at the same time and screamed loudly.
“Why can’t I?!” This was her old profession, but she could not use this as an excuse so Sue found another reason: “Your son knows that I don’t have a guardian. I have two options if I want to move legally. It’s either I find an orphanage or I find a family or group to adopt me…… As you well know for the kids in an orphanage, if there’s some human smugglers hiding in the orphanage my legal route will be destroyed. Even if the orphanage has no problems at all, the children will probably need to work every day, and that goes against my way of living……”
“But….. you can also find someone else to adopt you.” The team leader stuttered, apparently shocked out of his senses: “I remember that you have a pretty good relationship with prince Fedrus, and even saved his life. You even helped him make this request and bullied me….. Cough! I mean, if the royal family is involved in this, you are going to have a very big possibility of getting adopted by nobles, and even staying inside the palace isn’t something that’s impossible.”
“If there’s no career to pursue, life is bleak…..” Sue’s eyes were distant, before she clicked her tongue and continued speaking: “Plus. A noble’s life doesn’t suit me. These people drink their afternoon tea for three to four hours. I will become useless.”
“But you want to become an assassin……” The guild leader still could not accept it. The little girl’s age was too young, and even from the past till now, he had not heard of any five years old child becoming an assassin…… Certainly, she could accept training and get adopted by the guild, but he found it hard to accept her personality…….
“You don’t need to be so shocked. I mean if it’s really unacceptable then my name can be just for show. You don’t even need to take care of my lodgings and food. I just need someone to accompany me from time to time to show proof that I’m adopted.” Sue really did not mind. Perhaps she did not have a way to earn money, but she definitely would not starve in this place. If there was really a financial need she could go to the palace and get the little prince to provide the rescue fees and get some living expenses too. No matter how she think about it, they would not be stingy about it.
The guild leader was someone who had seen enough and knew that Sue was not joking…. “How about this, you can live with Lawrence……”
“Guild leader!!!” Lawrence screamed like he was being raped.
“His father is our guild’s vice leader. Handling a child’s identity is very easy for him.”
[I don’t hear anything—] The guild leader dug his ear with his finger amidst Lawrence’s protests.
“Also if you want you can address yourself as Lawrence’s daughter or sister.”
“…… Do you really think this boy is really that amazing?!” Sue subtly criticized him for making fun of a child: “At the very least I don’t think anyone would believe he would have a daughter at his age.”
“Maybe Lawrence is someone who hides his personality well enough?!”
“…….”
When the negotiation was over, both parties were quite satisfied. Sue was satisfied over having a legal home, while the old man was satisfied that he threw a little devil to his old rival…..
From his own son and the other three young men’s lips, he knew that she was very capable at making potions. Even if her personality was a horrible one, it was a good transaction to have if they had an alchemist working for the guild.
Of course, this investment was risky, so he decided to have the vice leader suffer for it……
The only person who felt shock and lost and even betrayed was Lawrence. He could not understand how he suddenly had a sister appearing from nowhere, and she had……. such a wonderful personality.
“Oh right, I have a question I want to ask.” Sue turned behind curiously while dragging her freshly baked brother who was still in a daze: “Seeing on how merciless you are to your political rivals, you shouldn’t be a simpleton. How did you raise such a…… Erm, I mean, an innocent son?!”
She obviously knew she was thrown out like a hot potato, and it would be silly of her if she did not have any resolve to be handled like that, and instead act like she even felt good about the whole situation.
It looked like there were political fights even in the Assassin Guild. Although, she did not really understand why he thought she would definitely be a source of trouble to Lawrence’s family?!
“Cough cough cough!!!” The guild leader coughed dryly with embarrassment: “I was really busy with missions a few years back, and I left the kid to his mum…..”
When he was finally free from business, his son’s personality was already fixed. The successor had grown into an innocent rabbit so what choice did he have?! He also felt helpless about it…… But he was also to blame because he really liked women who were caring and generous……
“Tsk, tsk, tsk! That’s why a kid’s education is important…..”
Of course, the guild leader’s position was not easy to be judged. From a normal person’s point of view, an innocent and sweet son should not be looked down on, but he still belonged to a unique family, so the judging criteria was a little complicated.
Sue believed that the walls of this old man’s home must have been smacked till they were damaged badly. The conflicted heart he had was not anyone could experience.
“Haha, go ahead and continue with your work, I’m going to bring my brother along to check out where I’m going to stay.” After she satisfied her curiosity, she waved her hand and led ‘a new’ brother out of the room.
Since she was done with her business, she had better set out to find out where she was going to stay. She was sure that the old guild leader did not want her to become an eyesore at his place.
But if things did not work out, perhaps she could just compromise and set up a tent outside his home?!