Revenge On Ruru

“Well then――with this, everyone’s revenge is finished.”

The Assassin Ruru honestly I held no particular grudge with, so I had instructed Dullahan and Dark Horse to send her off and just kill her casually.

Of course, since she saw how badly I was treated as a slave and did nothing, she was definitely a target for revenge.

When I checked Dullahan’s view a moment ago, I saw that Ruru was already dead and being transported by the Dark Horse.

Dullahan should be coming here soon carrying Ruru’s corpse.

Thinking that, I tried to check Dullahan’s view again――

“――――Huh?”

“Sid, what’s the matter?”

“Dullahan has been killed.”

What the hell is going on?

When I checked earlier, Ruru was dead.

You can’t check statuses through a Shadow’s vision, so I didn’t confirm that the HP was zero, but there’s no way Dullahan wouldn’t have noticed that.

“Besides, the current Dullahan is as strong as an early Minotaur… There’s no way Ruru could have killed him…”

I had a bad feeling.

I spawned a large number of shared-vision windows for the summoned Shadows across the screen and searched for the Ruru I had lost sight of.

The video windows streamed from right to left one after another.

In one of them, I thought I saw a purple silhouette for an instant――and the pane vanished.

Snap, snap, snap――the shared-vision panes disappeared one after another.

“The Shadows are being killed one after another. And at an incredible speed.”

Amid that――a bat Shadow clinging to the ceiling caught sight of Ruru.

I rotated the suspended bat’s vision pane 180 degrees to make it easier to see and observed Ruru reflected on the pane.

“Of all things, of all things――indeed.”

Ruru was alive.

She ran through the dungeon’s corridor without slowing, cutting down passing Shadows one after another with an expensive-looking dagger.

Only small-animal Shadows like bats and rats escaped Ruru’s blade, but the monstrous Shadows were being precisely slashed across vital points.

“Ruru was definitely supposed to be dead!?”

“It’s probably the Assassin skill――【Fake Death】. A skill that puts you into a near-death state. She faked her death, then ambushed Dullahan from behind while being transported.”

“Dullahan’s weak spot is under the neck――inside the armor. So that’s where she struck, huh.”

All the while, Ruru kept taking down the Shadows I had spread throughout the dungeon.

As if she had the map memorized, she headed for the surface by the shortest route.

“Notice to all Shadow units! Do not let Ruru return alive!”

I issued the orders remotely, but it was meaningless to give such commands to Shadows weaker than Ruru.

“Ruru’s always been hard to read, but she was hiding her true ability…”

Ruru had already moved up to the area near the dungeon entrance.

But to block the dungeon entrance, I had placed the Goblin Lord as the last bastion.

Originally I had the Goblin Lord seal it off so other adventurers wouldn’t interfere with the revenge, and thanks to that it helped now.

The Goblin Lord’s Overall Combat Power is below Dullahan’s, but it has no obvious weak points.

It wasn’t an opponent Ruru could defeat based on her stats.

“Goblin Lord! Stop Ruru at all costs!”

I watched the Goblin Lord’s vision window with bated breath.

The Goblin Lord swung its greatsword.

Ruru evaded with swift movement and slashed as she passed by.

The Goblin Lord turned and chased Ruru, but as soon as it took its first step it knelt and couldn’t move.

“The tendons in its legs have been neatly severed!”

“If she gets away it’ll be bad… Vanargand! Send us up to the surface!”

“Waoon!”

Vanargand swallowed me and Ekarraat whole and warped us to the surface, but Ruru was already gone.

“Tch… she got away, huh.”

“Grrru……..”

The Goblin Lord, sprawled on the ground with its leg tendons cut, made an apologetic sound.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s all my responsibility as the commander.”

“That Ragiu clan Assassin is quite a skilled veteran.”

“But I checked Ruru’s stats before—Level 45. Her stats should be about that of an A-Rank Adventurer who just got promoted from an experienced B-Rank.”

“In that case―it’s probably due to raw physical ability not reflected in the stats. The weaker Shadows had all been stabbed in vital spots, and the Goblin Lord judged she couldn’t be defeated and crippled its legs immediately. The dagger itself looks to be a very fine piece.”

“Well… what’s done is done. There’s no evidence that I’m the culprit anyway.”

I’ve been thorough in preventing other adventurers from seeing the Shadows.

Hopefully Ruru will decide she was attacked by some mysterious black monster and won’t know what actually happened.

“I’ll kill Ruru another time. Unlike Sylvan, Garen, or Lilium, she has no social influence. Leaving her alive won’t cause trouble.”

I heard Ruru is an Assassin of the Ragiu commoner clan with no backing, unlike the Royal Sylvan, the Palace Knight Garen, or Lilium of the Holy Church.

With the Hero party annihilated, she’ll probably form a new party and continue as an adventurer.

I’ll wait for that chance then.

――It ended in a somewhat unsatisfying way, but it’s true that I successfully carried out revenge on the three I hated most.

For now, I’ll bask in that sense of accomplishment.

I had Vanargand warp me back to the deepest part of the dungeon and retrieved the Dungeon Core.

The dungeon vanished along with Sylvan and the others’ corpses, leaving no evidence.

“If I disposed of everyone here, I’d have nothing left to do. To be honest, I’m not that angry with Ruru, so I’ll leave it for another time.”

“That’s the composure of the strong, I suppose.”

And so we returned to the mansion in the royal capital where Rin awaited via Vanargand’s spatial transfer.