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Jenny Arrend.
The second daughter of the Arrend County.
Among Count Thomas Arrend's five children, she possesses the most outstanding martial arts skills and is also highly intelligent, making her the most likely candidate to succeed as the next head of the family.
Her eldest sister, Reina Arrend, married into a Marquis family when she was young, and her third and fourth brothers are lacking in every aspect compared to Jenny Arrend.
And... the youngest, Ronin Arrend, recently died after a period of illness.
Jenny Arrend's temporary quarters.
Thud.
Jenny took off her thick armor and tossed it carelessly onto the floor.
"A gold mine... I heard rumors of it vaguely. So it wasn't just baseless gossip?"
Jenny went to the bed and collapsed onto it.
"This terrible war is all about claiming the gold mine. Not for our youngest, Ronin..."
Jenny ruffled her hair with both hands.
Her hair, already flattened from wearing a helmet during the day, became even messier.
"I need some air."
Taking only a sword with her, Jenny left the tent and slowly walked up a hill covered in darkness.
The beginning of summer.
The cool night breeze simultaneously lightened her heavy body and the thoughts that had been weighing on her mind.
Thanks to that, Jenny's mind was able to calm down a little.
"Was I too harsh on Father...? Securing a gold mine would certainly allow our territory to develop much further."
Reaching the top of the hill, she could see the sprawling Arrend territory behind her.
Vast farmlands and, in the distance, the Arrend County's main castle.
Jenny stared blankly at the Arrend County's territory for a long time.
"...It's still just a border county. But if we possess a gold mine, at least no one in the eastern part of the continent will be able to ignore our family."
Jenny raised her hands and neatly swept her disheveled hair back again.
"But it's too dangerous for Father to step forward directly... I need to tell him that I'll personally lead the preemptive strike tomorrow. I'll claim the gold mine and avenge my youngest brother with my own hands."
At that moment.
Whoosh!
A sharp sound cutting through the night air.
Jenny's sword was out of its scabbard in an instant.
Clang!
What collided with the sword was a very small dagger.
Hit by Jenny's swing, it flew to the side and lodged in a tree.
Hiss.
White smoke rose from the tree trunk where the dagger was embedded.
'Poison?'
Jenny focused her mind and scanned her surroundings.
And.
"Who's there!"
She shouted loudly on purpose.
She wasn't shouting for the enemy hiding somewhere nearby to hear.
Below the hill was the Arrend County's encampment.
'At this point, someone must have heard me. The guard will be here soon.'
Rustle.
She could see two figures moving quickly in the darkness.
'Are they running away!'
Jenny quickly darted forward and began chasing them.
The assassins ran desperately.
But escaping from Jenny Arrend, the next head of the Arrend County, was beyond their capabilities.
The distance continued to close.
"Stop right there!"
Just as she was about to catch the assassins, she felt a magical attack from the nearby bushes.
Whoosh!
A fireball the size of a human head flew towards her.
Boom!
Jenny quickly swung her sword and cleaved the fireball in half.
The fireball exploded, but Jenny wasn't even scratched.
But that wasn't the problem.
'This is bad! I got carried away.'
The two assassins who seemed to be running away suddenly stopped and turned to face Jenny.
And two more were walking out from where the fireball had come.
Furthermore.
'Two more behind me. Six in total? ...I did something so stupid.'
Whether it was because her brain was heavy from the day's fatigue, or because her judgment was clouded by the fight with her father earlier.
Jenny Arrend had already come far from the hill where she had first shouted.
And this place was undoubtedly a trap that they had set up in advance.
"Cowardly assassins. You set up an ambush and waited for me. Are you dogs of the Visant County?"
The six assassins surrounded Jenny without answering, closing in little by little.
Jenny focused all her senses to observe their movements.
'I don't know if they use swords, but it seems like there are four melee fighters and two mages.'
She figured out their power structure just by their movements and footsteps.
The problem was their proficiency.
Assassins have different combat methods than ordinary swordsmen or mages.
Even if Jenny was objectively superior in martial prowess, she couldn't be complacent.
At that moment.
Rumble.
The ground began to shake roughly, as if an earthquake had struck.
In the moment when the assassins were flustered and exchanging glances.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several strands of sharp wind elemental magic flew out from the darkness.
While the assassins were blocking or dodging the wind elemental magic, Jenny Arrend's body flew away quickly as if tied to an invisible rope and pulled.
"Kyaa!"
Grasp.
Before she knew it, Jenny was in someone's arms.
It was definitely not the arms of the assassins surrounding her.
"Wh-Who are you? What are you?"
"Sorry. Did I pull too hard? I'm still not very good at telekinesis."
Davian set Jenny down next to him and took a step forward.
Next to him, Latia was still firing off wind elemental magic.
"Latia, use the noisy stuff now."
"Okay. Got it."
Whoosh.
Several fireballs formed above Latia's hands.
Boom! Bang!
The fireballs left Latia's hands and exploded where the assassins were with a loud noise.
The assassins also quickly responded.
Scattering in an instant, they cleverly used the moonlight and shadows to re-encircle Davian's group widely.
"Jenny, listen carefully."
"Huh?"
"We're going to stop this war. The gold mine and all that is false information spread by those guys. I'm going to do some assassin hunting, so Jenny, protect Latia here. Those guys aren't easy opponents."
"Who are you to suddenly appear and give orders? How do you know my name?"
"Your savior and the one who will stop this war."
Latia, who was listening to the conversation, shook her head.
"Davian's been throwing out cheesy lines a lot lately..."
Swoosh.
Davian leaped into the darkness.
Clang!
The sound of swords clashing could be heard from the direction Davian disappeared.
At that moment.
One of the assassins, who had approached unnoticed, thrust a thin, long sword towards them.
Latia hastily threw the fireball she was in the middle of creating, but the assassin easily dodged Latia's magical attack.
The assassin's sword was aimed at Latia's torso.
Clang!
Jenny's sword blocked the assassin.
Whoosh!
This time, a hidden weapon flew from the other side.
Crack!
The ice wall that Latia had erected blocked the hidden weapon.
Despite being a hidden weapon made of a seemingly light material, it pierced quite deeply into the ice wall that had 3-star mana infused in it.
Meanwhile, the assassin who had exchanged blows with Jenny several times disappeared back into the darkness.
Jenny, who was about to chase after him, turned her head to look at the young girl who was continuously firing fireballs and stopped in her place.
"You guys, do you have a plan?"
"Probably."
"Probably?"
"Since Davian made the plan, it should be reliable."
"Davian?"
"The savior who will stop the war. The one who threw out that cheesy line and disappeared a while ago."
Boom! Bang!
The sound of Latia's fireballs exploding continued to echo in the night sky.
Moreover, it emitted a bright light each time it exploded, and now flames had spread to the trees and grass everywhere.
Several assassins approached the two of them, dodging Latia's indiscriminate attacks, but they were repeatedly blocked by Jenny's sword and ran back into the darkness.
Jenny didn't chase after them and calmly stayed by Latia's side as Davian had instructed.
'The guards and search party will all be here soon. These guys said they have a plan... It seems like they're fighting so loudly on purpose. But where did one of them go?'
Before long, the sound of horses' hooves could be heard from beyond the hill.
The sound was quickly approaching.
Peep.
With a sharp whistle, the assassins quickly began to scatter.
'I have to capture at least one of them and reveal their identity!'
Jenny, who was about to leap towards the direction they were disappearing, shook her head and stopped.
'I can't afford to be caught in the same situation twice if I rashly follow them. Besides, these guys, whoever they are, said they have a plan, so it's better to listen to that first.'
Davian, who had returned in the meantime, stood next to Latia.
"Latia, good job."
"Yeah, whatever. But what did you do?"
"Assassin hunting."
"So what's that?"
"You'll see tomorrow."
Tring.
Davian heard a notification sound in his ear.
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[Step-by-step Quest in Progress]
② Successfully Prevent Jenny Arrend's Assassination
―Reward: 6,000 Mana Points (x2)
=====
During the 3rd playthrough when he did the step-by-step quest alone without Latia, he was only able to clear the 2nd stage mini-quest.
To clear the 3rd stage mini-quest, he had to identify the assassins, but he couldn't find a trace of them even after the weekend had passed.
As soon as Monday arrived, he received a message from the academy to return immediately, and Davian had to give up the step-by-step quest and return.
"Miss Jenny! Are you alright!"
One of the knights who had approached in the meantime shouted.
Behind him, about a dozen mounted knights were looking around.
But they didn't move rashly.
"Oh, I'm fine. What about the search party?"
"They'll be here soon!"
"When the search party comes, tell them to search this area thoroughly. We need to find their traces."
"Them?"
"There were guys who were trying to assassinate me. They're probably from the Visant family."
"That's not right."
Jenny and the knight's heads simultaneously turned to Davian.
"You said you're Davian? What do you mean?"
"Those people aren't assassins sent by the Visant family."
"Then who sent them?"
"The guys who started this war."
"The guys who started this war? Who's that? Wait."
Jenny Arrend turned to face Davian.
"...So you're saying there's someone behind this war?"
"There's a hidden force involved besides the two counties. Guys who have something to gain from this war."
"Let's go back to my quarters and talk. I need to hear exactly what kind of bastards dare to manipulate our family's war from behind."
Jenny Arrend's temporary quarters.
At Davian's request, no one else was allowed to enter this place.
Only Davian, Latia, and Jenny were sitting at the table in the center of the quarters.
"...So. You knew all this and saved me?"
"Yes. I'm trying to prevent the war from escalating any further. There's no gold mine in the first place, and Ronin Arrend wasn't killed by Carl Visant either."
Jenny raised her right hand and placed it on her forehead.
She shook her head repeatedly as if her mind was complicated, then raised her face again.
"So. The bastards who killed my youngest brother Ronin spread the false rumor that there was a gold mine to start this war, and to make matters worse, they tried to assassinate both Carl Visant and me today to escalate the war into a full-scale war?"
"Yes."
"Their calculation was that if they succeeded in assassinating even one of us, it would immediately lead to a full-scale war, right?"
"Yes."
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