Once they were in the alley and with her back turned towards the wall. Naru stood in front of Georgine.
“Stay behind me always do not run,” Naru told her. It was for her own good if Georgine tried to run away it would make it difficult to protect her.
Georgine who looked extremely frightened nodded obediently at the situation.
The two hooded figures looked at them. Naru couldn’t see their faces in fact their entire face was covered in cloth with the exception of two slits for eyes. She normally would’ve laughed at the get-up but it was practical clothing.
“Cmon, girl let us have her. You’re just a new hire, we’ll even let you keep a little bit of change for your troubles.”
Naru stood firm in response. She did care about money, but she didn’t want to let Hakuya down. Although the thugs in front of her seemed pretty well trained. She was sure they didn’t expect anything out of her.
They probably thought she was defenseless.
The thug slowly approached Naru with their blades out. Behind her, Naru could hear Georgine whimpering.
Naru’s heart was pounding. She had never truly been in an actual fight before. She was a mild-mannered salary woman at heart. But Naru knew better. This was not a world not made for mild-mannered salary women. It was a brutal one.
[Mou, so ridiculous]
She wanted to scream out. From dying of overwork in her last life to being forced to fight the men to see the deer slaughter. It was utterly cruel that she was being forced to resist such a fate.
[People here all lack any sensibility! Killing is so… so tacky!]
Naru steeled her heart.
If this was such a cruel world, she would have work to make it one for mild-mannered salary women like her.
She faced the men in front of her and felt a surging in her heart. A soft glow was emanating from her chest through her clothes. Evidence that her mana crystal was working.
The men seemed to sense that something was amiss and lunged at her.
Well, Naru chose this sport with exposed dirt for a reason.
Both instantly tripped, their legs bound with thorny bramble. They instantly tried to push through and then cried out in agony as the barbs dug deeper.
Naru could still feel a steady flow of mana through her chest. Her magic was strong compared to the other deer. She inherited it after all from her father.
Still, she was young so her mana pool wasn’t as developed as it could be. Her father told her it would grow naturally over time.
The men still tried to struggle, and the barbs dug deeper. The bramble was wrapping around their body and immobilizing them.
“What is this! Nobody told us she had a magic crystal!” one of them spit out.
“Why would she have one? does a piss-low commoner have one in the first place!” The other said,.
A large chunk of earth also popped out of the ground and began to compress. The dirt eventually became a large rock that was covering the heads of the two thugs who laid prone over the ground.
“You can keep struggling, or else I will brain you,” Naru said wagging the rock over the heads of the bandits.
The bandits realizing their situation immediately stopped struggling and relaxed.
“Tch, she got us”
“Boss ain’t going to happy about this one”
Naru watch the curious scene in front of her, it didn’t even feel like the men wished to beg for their lives. In fact, it seems like they had accepted their fates.
She tightened the bramble on them further and they remain stony-faced as ever.
[These guys are tougher than I thought]
“Who’s your employer?” Naru asked. From the way they spoke, it seemed like they were hired to do this job.
The men still didn’t speak. They were well trained at the very least.
Naru moved the dirt stone that was above their head and released her magic on it. The dirt collapsed onto the ground in a clump. From the start, she didn’t really have any intention of actually killing them. She just wanted to threaten them slightly to see if they would reveal their employer.
The bramble meant that it was impossible for them to move anyway.
Naru grabbed Georgine’s hand and pulled her away. The girl was scared stiff at the scene.
[This is going to be another problem. She unharmed… but the mental damage might be an issue.] Naru thought while sighing. She didn’t want to lose her paycheck.
They walked back out onto the street and left the two men in the alley.
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I don't think its fair to be angry at her for not killing considering where shes from. It's normal to be desensitized to violence but still view murder as "Something you can never come back from" in the modern world.
It is easy to say on a forum looking at it from the outside. Some people think its easy and then freeze at the last second. For others they never think about it. Its impossible to tell who you are until the time comes.
The good news here is that she didn't freeze. That would basically be game over. She just viewed them as no longer a threat or at the least not worth killing. Naive? Sure probably. But it may also have been worse to kill them.
Think about it, her charge is probably going to have to answer questions from her family or caretakers on this matter. Our MC can't just not report this. The signs that magic were used was pretty obvious.
The only way she could have really covered this up would be to kill them AND hide the bodies AND get rid of the signs of magic AND convince a traumatized child to not talk about it if shes pushed on it.
That is a real tall order for someone not trained in that kind of thing. I think even with my knowledge as a reader if I was for say 10 minutes transported into her position I wouldn't be able to do anything about the situation.
Edit: as a follow up. Consider also that these thugs instantly recognized a magic crystal being used. That means that at the least they are relatively common. Just not common enough for a peasant to have. That means that either she is just some random nobody that just HAPPENED to be guarding their target on the day of their plan. Or she is someone more dangerous put there on purpose to head them off. Assuming their boss is appropriately paranoid I would guess they are gonna hesitate until they know what the actual f*ck is going on and why a mage is getting in there way.
Left them alive, now someone's going to come dig out her gem and she'll be mindless/dead too, very smart.
Oh yes leave the bandits that tried to kill you and your employer alive after showing them your magic power. How tactful. And annoyingly naive. You literally just said that this world ain't good to mild-mannered salary women then you do this? can already see the dozens of assassins and problems coming her way.
Great job, @Newfypuppie! Your story is so well-written that I almost wrote a whole article describing how I felt.
Idiot... An enemy that clearly researches their targets just saw you use a magic crystal... You've now just doomed yourself to be forever hunted...
Should've buries them up to their necks and shoved a vine in their mouths.
Leaving aside matter of alive bandits, I wonder how this little miss will change attitude towards Naru, brat-princesses always change their attitude when you safe them despite everything, even if they don't show it
Maybe a bigger problem: now she'll be asked "how did you do that?"
*shaking hands* IT'S MAGIC!!!!
Naru moved the dirt stone that was above their head and released her magic on it. The dirt collapsed onto the ground in a clump. From the start, she didn’t really have any intention of actually killing them. She just wanted to threaten them slightly to see if they would reveal their employer.
Would the assassins still shut up if Naru had threatened to shove a thorny vine up their ass?
Thanks for the chapter
You know, I don't necessarily think she thought this decision out well enough, but i'm not mad at her for making it.
Not even disappointed, this is about what one should expect of a person of her circumstances.
“You can keep struggling, or else I will brain you,”
"Stop struggling" maybe?