While the room was filled with various sundry items, it looked like it had not been used in a long time, and there was a white layer of dust on the ground. However, there were traces that the Zern scouts had been here. They had moved between the window and a very large shelf.
Shizu produced a rope out of nowhere. It was the same color as the castle wall.
After that, she secured it to the large shelf. She used all her strength to tug on it to see if it could take the weight of Neia and herself, but it did not budge, and it showed no signs of fraying.
The size ― and weight ― of the shelf was a factor, but the web-like strands stuck to the shelves was probably more important. The Zern who had come to this room beforehand had fixed it in place with sticky threads taken from the Spidans.
The window opened easily, and Shizu looked at the city walls outside. After verifying that there were no patrolling guards in sight, Shizu slung her weapon onto her back and said, “I’ll go first.”
She threw herself out of the window and slid down the rope to the window below.
She took her weight on one hand and used the other to push open the next window, which opened easily. That too had been the work of the Zern.
Shizu then slid inside. Her skillful movements had only taken a few seconds.
After confirming that the room below was safe, Shizu poked her face out and beckoned to Neia.
Neia grabbed the rope and leaned out of the window.
While the window on the floor below was only four meters away, they were now over a hundred meters off the ground. If Neia fell, she would meet with a horrible death. No, it would be worse if she did not die. She would surely be tortured until she gave up what she knew and then she would be killed. Falling to her death would be a merciful alternative.
The rope had evenly spaced knots along its length ― handholds, in other words ― and there had been no problems during the several practice sessions they had conducted. However, training felt completely different from the real thing.
Ahh, I really don’t want to go…
But she had no choice. If only there was something like a balcony that she could just jump down on―
Neia gripped the rope tightly as she pushed her entire body out of the window. She crossed her legs to firmly clasp the rope between her thighs.
After this, all she had to do was descend slowly.
The ground’s just a little lower. The ground’s just a little lower.
She slowly went down the rope, reminding herself not to look down over and over again.
She shifted her weight from her right hand, and then to the left, just what like she had practiced. The wind blew and made her body shake at an intensity that could not be compared to training at all.
Come on, come on, come on, me! Shizu should have been more scared than this!
The window was open because of the Zerns’ help.
However, if someone had locked the window after the Zerns opened it, then Shizu would have had to climb back up. With that in mind, Neia ― who only needed to make a single trip ― had it easy in comparison.
She finally approached the window, and Shizu reached out to grab Neia’s body. Thus, she pulled Neia in with incredible strength.
“Thank, thank you.”
“…Mm. But, too long… I’m taking it in, hold this.”
“Yes.”
Shizu leaned out of the window and raised her spell gun. Neia held the rope as indicated. There was a pop-hiss of expelled air and Neia felt a force tugging on the rope. Shizu had cut it with her weapon.
She pulled the severed rope back into the room and dumped it in the corner. They would not be using this route on the way back, so she had pulled it back in rather than let it dangle freely, but there were merits and drawbacks to that.
The merit was that it minimized the risk of being spotted by the sentries on the walls.
The drawback was that if anything happened and they could not exfiltrate by their planned route, they would not be able to climb to the upper floor with this rope.
In the end, the two of them had decided that the drawbacks of being spotted outweighed the merits.
“It’s done, Shizu-san. Next we need to get past the first obstacle…”
“…Mm. Let’s go… Got to kill them. Can you do it?”
“Mm. I think I can.”
Once they stepped out of this room, they would be in a position to shoot the sentries stationed along the passage.
If they could not kill them before they raised the alarm, all their effort would be wasted.
Neia took out her bow and nocked an arrow. Shizu raised her magic gun as well.
“I’ll take the right, you take the left, Shizu-san.”
Shizu formed a circle with her thumb and her index finger.
The two of them exchanged looks, and then Shizu pushed open the door.
Neia made eye contact with a nearby demihuman, about one and a half meters away. He did not know what was going on or who they were. The demihuman was so surprised that he could not parse the situation, but Neia did not hesitate and put an arrow into him.
With a katsun, the arrow pierced his skull through the forehead.
I did it!
While Neia’s skills had played a part, most of the work had been done by the Ultimate Shootingstar Super.
Thank you, Your Majesty!
Just as Neia’s arrow pierced the demihuman through the head, Shizu’s spell gun blew off half of the other demihuman’s head.
The demihumans made more noise when they collapsed than Neia had expected. Neia hurriedly pricked up her ears. Fortunately, she could not hear anyone running towards this place. It would seem nobody had spotted them yet.
“…Hurry.”
They had already assigned their tasks beforehand. As Shizu dragged the corpses into the room they had just entered with the rope, Neia used the smell-clearing item Shizu had lent her. After that, she reached for the waterskin on her belt and poured the powerful wine within all over the place, washing away the chunks of meat, brains, skull and bloodstains on the ground. As the stench of alcohol filled the air, Shizu emerged from the room, then produced an empty wine jug and poured a little bit of the jug’s wine inside before quietly ripping it up and leaving it in place.
“…Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
While they had tried to cover it up, it was very likely that the next shift would sense something was up when they came to take over. She would be able to relax if they could put the bodies into Shizu’s mysterious pocket dimension, but Shizu said that she would not do so, thus they left the corpses in the room. Of course, they had made preparations there too, but there was no way to make sure that they would not be found.
They had to assume that they did not have the luxury of ample time.
Eventually, they reached the second obstacle, the aerial walkway. Of the several scenarios they had come up with, this was the closest to being ideal. They still had time and nobody had spotted them yet.
“…It’s a race against time now.”
“I know. If I slip, don’t worry about me.”
The path from the castle to the tower was roughly two people wide.
There were no walls on either side ― it was open to the air. Apparently several people had fallen off the side before, and after seeing this, all she could think of was that it was only to be expected.
This aerial walkway was the reason why this place was the final redoubt when engaging invaders during a siege.
A large force could not pass through here, so an advantage in numbers would be nullified. At the same time, there was also the risk of falling. If there was a spear line at the end of the path, breaking through would be very difficult. This design was the kind that attackers hated. One would need magic casters with attack spells like 「Fireball」 to take it down.