Mushoku Tensei — Chapter 109 - Operation 9

Three days in.

The operation was running smoothly, though some of the original plans had shifted.

Ghislaine was supposed to serve as my personal bodyguard. Her etiquette, however, was simply too poor for that role.

So we swapped her out for Aisha.

I have to say, if Aisha Greyrat had been born into nobility, she would have been the kind of noble lady no one could find a single fault with. I demonstrated the protocols once. Just once. She had every last detail down perfectly.

The operation didn't slow down because of the change. During the day, Aisha served as my guard. At night, she handled reconnaissance and positioning, and the guard duty passed to Ghislaine. The venue preparations were coming along just as smoothly.

As long as no one unexpected showed up, we were fine.

"Princess Ariel."

"Hm?"

"When this is over — let us handle Darius's disposal personally."

"Very well."

Aisha was already treating our victory as a foregone conclusion. She was past the question of if and already thinking about how she intended to make Darius suffer for it.

I almost felt sorry for the man.

I had seen him yesterday, briefly. Aisha was at my side when it happened. The moment Darius spotted her, his face changed, the way a man's face changes when he sees something that has come to kill him.

I've seen terror before. But that kind of raw fear on someone who sits that high? He had clearly crossed Rudeus at some point before all this.

"If I may ask, why do you want to deal with him personally?"

"Hmph? Fine, I'll tell you. Darius once set his sights on Eris-sister. And wasn't he also the one who framed her family?"

"He was."

Ho.

Luke, your luck is something else.

...

Using a disguise tool, I had Aisha impersonate me regularly, playing bait while I stayed out of sight. Every day, they wrapped up assassins and dragged them back to me for interrogation. Not that it produced anything useful.

The whole thing felt almost too easy. I kept asking myself: were my guards just that strong, or were these assassin groups really that weak?

...

Five days in.

No attacks on us.

Instead, the influential nobles in the surrounding area started getting targeted. The ones who had been backing the construction of the venue. They all had their own security, so nothing catastrophic happened, but the warning was loud and clear. A lot of minor players read the message and quietly shifted their allegiance to the First Prince's faction because of it.

In the middle of all this, I came face to face with someone.

Pilemon Notus Greyrat.

Luke moved on him immediately, pulling him aside for a long exchange. It never turned into a shouting match, but when it was over, Luke looked like a man who had just heard something he couldn't process. Even so, he chased after Pilemon, pleading with him to come back to our side while there was still time.

It didn't work.

At the end of it, Pilemon fixed Luke with a suspicious stare and said, "What, do you want to be the family head too?"

Then he walked away and left Luke standing there, shoulders rigid.

What was I supposed to do with that?

Offer comfort? Or do the cold, calculated thing, cut Luke loose because a man whose father had just defected was a liability? There was a logic to it, if I was being ruthless about it.

But just thinking about it made me feel sick.

Luke was my friend. The odds of him betraying me were zero.

And yet I couldn't make myself walk over and say something, either. Because his father had, in fact, betrayed me. That was just the truth.

I turned to leave.

Aisha walked up to Luke instead.

"How are you holding up?"

"What do you mean, how am I holding up..."

"How does it feel? Being abandoned."

"Are you here to mock me?"

Luke shot her a glance, then looked away. His voice had an edge to it, but underneath the edge was something more like I don't care anymore.

"Nearly ten years studying abroad," Aisha said, "and this is how your father and your brother treat you. How do you feel?"

"Heh... my family is none of your business."

"Hmph~ Fair enough. But I seem to recall you once said your father would never betray us."

"I..."

"Relax. I'm not here to twist the knife. You never took that bracelet off, after all."

Luke's brow furrowed. He didn't follow her.

"I'll ask you the same thing your brother just asked you." She held his gaze. "Do you want to become the family head?"

"I am Princess Ariel's knight."

Aisha opened her mouth to say something more. I stepped forward and cut her off.

I didn't say anything. I simply extended the back of my hand.

Luke performed the knight's salute.

"My knight," I said. "That's enough."

...

Day nine.

The venue setup was complete.

Banquets were nothing unusual inside the royal castle. The cover for this one was simple: Second Princess Ariel hosting a dinner to honor First Prince Gravel.

An obvious trap. But the obligations of nobility don't leave much room for refusal.

That night, something went wrong.

We were in the carriage heading back to the villa when a figure stepped out into the middle of the road and stopped there.

"Who goes there!"

"One of the Three Swordsmen of the North God. The North King — [Twin Swords] — Nackergado."

And then Nackergado split in two.

Smoothly. Like a soul slipping free of its body, peeling left and right into separate figures.

"Nacker-bro. I really think you're not supposed to give your name at a time like this, you know?"

"...Right."

No need to ask who had sent them.

Without a word, Eris drew her sword and charged. No ceremony, no hesitation.

Hm. Aisha still hadn't shown herself.

Was Eris really fighting two of them alone? Could she handle it?

Beside me, Luke had his sword in a white-knuckled grip, ready to move.

"I'm fine, Aisha, I can win this on my own!"

Eris shouted it toward the darkness, then threw herself completely into the fight.

So Aisha and Ghislaine were nearby. That was the only reason she'd call out like that.

I watched Eris fight. I couldn't look away.

So this is a Sword King.

BOOM!

A small explosion, somewhere behind me. Luke pulled me in close and I turned toward the sound.

I couldn't see clearly. But out in the dark, three figures were moving, tangled together in something fast and brutal.

"Luke, you, "

I didn't finish the sentence. Two figures materialized at my side like they'd stepped through the air itself.

My heart lurched. Had Aisha's group lost,

I looked up. Aisha. Ghislaine.

Ghislaine had a severed head in her hand.

Aisha took one look at where Eris was still fighting and ran straight for it.

About 10 minutes later, it was over.

The head of the man who had called himself Nackergado was brought back as well.

"Heh. These guys sure can run."

Aisha said it flatly and tossed the head onto the ground.

"This is...?"

"Nackergado. The one Ghislaine's holding is Ober's head, someone I'd been keeping an eye on the whole way here."

"I see."

Eris sheathed her sword and walked over.

"Your swordsmanship keeps getting sharper, Aisha."

"Well, I did have Eris-sister as my teacher when I was little."

"Is that right! Mm!"

She's very easy to please, this Miss Eris.

After Aisha treated the injuries on both of them, she gave me a breakdown of what had happened. She had killed 3 named figures on the way back.

[Peacock Sword] Ober. A versatile fighter who used terrain and magic tools to maximum effect. His techniques were plain and unpretentious, the opposite of his flamboyant wardrobe, which was exactly how he earned the name Peacock.

[Light and Dark] Vi·Ta. A small-folk fighter who turned his stature into a non-issue by specializing in stripping opponents of their sight. The technique worked both ways, he could fight just as effectively blind.

[Twin Swords] Nackergado. Twin swordsmen who fought as mirror images of each other, using combination techniques to lock opponents down and crush them.

Four people, total. The Three Swordsmen of the North God.

Three of them were dead.

➤ Next: Operation 10