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Splitting Up
Splitting away from the royal knight squad led by Alexandra, we headed to the inner side buildings alongside Mielle.
The building on the inner right had the least amount of presences, and there weren’t many too strong presences either, making it the easiest to subjugate.
I left that one to Ralf and Esta to handle, and meanwhile, me and Mielle headed to the building that had the green banner hanging from the top.
“Alright, then we split up here



Don’t you dare die on me alright?”
“Like hell we will! Besides, that’s our line! I know that you specifically chose the building with the strongest people for yourself anyway right?”
“They’re both similar in danger. And I have said this before but if it feels like things are getting too dangerous, just run. And Esta, maintain your calm at all times.”
“I’ll be fine. If I sense unmanageable danger, I’ll personally drag Ralf away if I have to.”
“That’s good to hear. Then let’s meet up once we’re done with our work.”
Exchanging words one last time, I saw those two off, and then we headed to the left side building.
Firstly, I tried to hide near the entrance and check the situation inside but



I couldn’t really sense if there were too many people moving about inside or not, and there was no way for me to know if they had noticed our attack already or if they were still unaware.
“Hey, when Ralf said that this building was probably the most dangerous one,

.. was he saying the truth?”
“They’re all dangerous, like I said. Also, stay quiet for now. I want to scout out the insides of the building.”
“Just tell me the truth then. If I know that we’ll be facing strong enemies, I need to prepare in my own way as well.”
“


.It is. I think there are at least two executives in this one.”
“Waaah, so he really was right. Why do I always seem to get the short end of the stick every single time I wonder?”
When I told her the truth to stop her from annoying me, Mielle openly frowned and then sighed.
Well, I do feel a bit bad for dragging her into this but, from the very start I planned to take this building on entirely by myself, so I don’t plan on letting her face too much danger anyway.
“You can run if you feel like things are getting too dangerous for you. As I promised, I’ll always be the vanguard


.or rather, I orig9inally planned to fight by myself anyway. You can just watch from a little far away, and just make sure that I don’t get ambushed or attacked from behind.”
“Run away when it gets dangerous he says

it’s already pretty dangerous though


well, I’ll say this in advance, don’t expect anything from me when you’re in active battle.”
“Sure.”
I curtly replied to her prickly words, and then focused inside the building again.




yeah, it doesn’t seem like people are moving about in a rush or anything.
Have they really not noticed? Or are they simply pretending not to?
There was no point pondering over it any more so, while reminding myself to not get careless, I began my raid on the building.
Since it was broad daylight outside right now, unlike last time, I didn’t need to use [Crimson Eyes].
It makes it pretty use for me to know where the enemies are but at the same time, it also makes it easier for enemies to notice me as well.
While I was making sure to not accidentally run into anyone, it was still the first floor so it didn’t seem like there was anyone here in the first place.
While I could hear some small sounds from the upper floor, the building overall still felt pretty quiet and it didn’t really feel like I was attacking them at all.
I was expecting to be clashing swords by now, but since no one had noticed us, it ended up turning into a stealth mission instead.
I warned Mielle to not make any loud footsteps, as we climbed to the next floor while talking with only hand signs.
I had sensed a couple presences in the second floor but, the really strong ones were still on the upper floors so I decided to ignore these, and focused on going up instead.
Should I bother getting rid of the scrubs, or should I go directly for the executives


.?
I had been thinking about it even before I reached the building but, if they really hadn’t noticed me, it’s better if I can ambush the stronger enemies I decided.
While being extra cautious, I decided to make my way to the person who had the strongest presence inside the building.
I don’t know if I am making the right decision or not but, well, if I get ambushed from behind because of this, it’ll certainly turn out to be a bad decision——keeping that in mind, I finally reached the 5h floor, he place from where I could sense the strongest presence in all of black market coming from.
While I had been sensing people, I hadn’t actually run into anyone until now.
Perhaps I just got lucky but, when they’re being that defenceless, it’s hard not to grow even more doubtful instead. That’s just how I am.
If it was Ralf, he’d always take everything positively and would have burst into the room to attack by now but, I just wasn’t that kind of person.
I mean, I came all this way so quietly just to ambush them, it’d be quite contradictory of me to just burst into from the door directly at this point but

.
“Mielle. Blast that door with your magic.”
“Eh? You sure?”
“I can sense the strong presence from inside there but, I am getting a bad premonition for whatever reason.”
“I don’t really get what you’re implying but, I just need to blast it with magic right


.seriously, you asked me to be so silent and cautious and now you want to me to blast magic. You really make no sense.”
She seemed to be grumbling complaints, but still she began to pour and knead her mana——and then blasted her magic at the door.
“[Hail Barrett]”
A large block of ice was fired from Mielle’s hand, and crashed into the door with tremendous speed and force.
And after crashing into the door


the magic didn’t stop its momentum and continued bursting into the room, when suddenly——
A sound of explosion far larger than the sound of her magic hitting the door echoed throughout the building.
In a panic, we had quickly gone down a floor to avoid the explosion, which allowed to safely avoid it but

..the place we were before had been burnt black and charred from the massive explosion.
A cold sweat rand down my spine, as I turned to look at Mielle who was also equally stunned