Tonight, the sky was pitch black, with clouds and tree canopies obscuring the light of the blue moon, making the Rainforest particularly dim.
In the silent Wild Will Tribe, the dirt streets were deserted. Everyone was sound asleep after indulging in drink, their snores audible even through closed doors. Not even a breeze stirred.
However, beside the small room temporarily occupied by the foreign guests, a randomly growing shrub branch trembled without warning.
Then, the branch suddenly stopped, as if a tremendous force had been applied to it, even though it hadn't touched anything.
[Hoo—that was close]
Beside the branch, a girl with purple hair and eyes patted her full chest, concealed beneath a white camisole, carefully returning the violently shaking twig to its original position.
The young girl appeared to be underage, wearing a black jacket with a cape, and black tight-fitting hot pants on her lower body. Although exceptionally revealing, no mosquitoes dared to land on her.
On either side of her head grew purple, bat-like membranous wings. From the back of her hot pants, which hugged her small buttocks, extended a curled, multi-segmented purple tail with a sharp hook at the end, resembling that of a scorpion.
This curled tail, almost as long as the girl was tall, indicated that she belonged to a sparsely populated race—the Manticore.
The faint crystalline texture of her tail indicated that she was a mild oripathy patient.
Her crystalline tail made her particularly conspicuous in the dark night.
But in reality, her figure could only be observed by herself.
Her racial traits were inherently suited to concealment in the environment, and because she suffered from oripathy, the girl had Awakened new Originium Arts.
From the perspective of others, the ground was empty; only a shrub branch suddenly stilled.
As long as she activated her Originium Arts, the girl's presence would completely disappear in front of everyone, and her figure would become transparent. The interplay of sight and sensation would complete the true invisibility.
The girl didn't have her own name. She might have once had one, but she didn't remember her childhood or the faces of her parents.
All she knew was that after her racial traits, combined with the symptoms of oripathy, mutated and produced a completely new Originium Arts, she was taken to a secluded settlement in the Sargon desert and underwent many years of training.
The training was simple—killing.
Using the Originium Arts she had learned, the venom unique to her race, and any means available—a stone, a fishing line—to swiftly and cleanly kill the target.
Who was the target? Anyone could be.
Ordinary people, mercenary leaders, bandit chiefs, caravan merchants, foreign company representatives, even royalty... Each assassin had only one goal: to kill the target—and then either retreat unscathed or die without revealing their identity.
And the girl, for this purpose, had undergone rigorous and cruel training from childhood, eventually graduating successfully.
This time, she was to carry out her first mission: to protect a VIP from Columbia while obeying all his orders.
Before heading to the southern Rainforest, she received her codename, a codename that would accompany her for life.
—Manticore.
[First mission, I must complete it well, but... thankfully, I don't have to kill anyone.]
Manticore's employer, Mr. Parvis, had handed over her command to Mr. Elwin, who in turn gave her a task.
To "teach a lesson" to a member of the primitive tribe—Goki.
Since she didn't need to kill him, Manticore only needed to inject him with a small amount of venom secreted from her tail, enough to keep him bedridden in pain for an entire day—her venom required a large dose to be fatal; killing mainly relied on Originium Arts.
The organization trained assassins by first having them hunt wild animals, and finally kill an enemy. Manticore had also killed a robber who attacked a convoy, watching them be torn apart by Originium Arts.
However, Manticore would carefully collect the identity tags of those people and hang them on her chest, not to show off, but to preserve the traces of their existence.
From day to night, Manticore had been observing the man in the black trench coat from a distance.
He was not an Adaklis people, but he possessed the same strength as them, clearly an excellent warrior.
But... not enough. Manticore's strength and skill also exceeded ordinary Aegir warriors; moreover, she had even more superior Originium Arts.
A warrior cannot defeat an assassin.
"Ambush... prepare."
Maintaining the Originium Arts that concealed her figure, Manticore gently crooked her finger, and several spikes of condensed purple light rose from the ground, gently pushing the door open.
Not only was she invisible, but she could also launch these venomous Originium spikes to directly pierce the opponent.
"Whoosh——"
Mimicking the sound of the wind, Manticore gently opened the door a crack, turned sideways, and slipped into the dark room.
Imitating sounds to mislead the enemy was a racial talent of the Manticore, something others couldn't learn—the bird calls from before were also her imitation.
Having only opened a small crack, Manticore curled her tail, turned sideways, and slipped in easily.
Although it was a bit difficult to squeeze her chest through, Manticore was a professional assassin, and the whole process made not a single extra sound. To outsiders, it was just a gust of wind opening the door and then closing it again.
Soon, Manticore entered the narrow room and, by the dim light, saw the tall, thin man in black lying on the bed.
Manticore stepped forward, her curled tail extended, the pale purple tail shimmering in the dark night, revealing its sharp stinger.
With just one sting, this simple little task would be completed. The person who opposed the employer would suffer, and the employer would be satisfied with her performance.
But for some reason, Manticore felt a little regretful.
[It's always like this; no one can directly detect me... sigh.]
Manticore was excellent. Her physical qualities were high, and even her strict mentor had praised her, saying that he could only perceive her presence through subtle changes in the environment.
Because Manticore's concealment Originium Arts were activated at all times, she couldn't control the elimination of Originium Arts.
If she didn't use a notebook to write, no one would notice Manticore's existence, couldn't communicate with her, let alone hear her words.
Most people would just treat her like air, ignoring her completely.
Of course, it wasn't their fault; it was entirely Manticore's own problem.
Therefore, from childhood to adulthood, Manticore had never had any friends—although she was an assassin, there were still many friends in the training camp who got along well, which Manticore particularly envied.
[When... will I meet someone who can discover me—]
Thinking regretfully, Manticore swung the stinger on her tail, slowly stabbing towards the man on the bed.
With just a light sting, the other party wouldn't be able to sleep well for the next two days.
Clang.
But the next second, Manticore found that the tip of her tail had been grabbed by a warm, large hand.
Then, another hand climbed onto her slender, exposed waist.
Both hands exerted force together, pulling her towards the bed, but not to attack her; it didn't seem to be filled with hostility.
"Ugh... eh? Wah!"
The pulling force wasn't strong, even a little gentle, but because no one could see her, Manticore, who had never had her waist touched, suddenly stiffened all over when she felt the other person's body, completely unable to resist.
The next second, she was easily pulled onto the bed.
In the darkness, a deep, particularly gentle voice came from her ear.
"Got~ you~ Tomimi, if I don't teach you a lesson today, I'll be letting down your Gavial sister!"
In the dark, Goki closed his eyes and touched the other person's thick, somewhat hard, somewhat thick tail, preemptively confirming the other person's identity.
Sure enough, his hunter's perception was correct; this was Tomimi!
Today, he would teach her a lesson on behalf of Gavial!
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