Revenge?

Several members of Dega's crew who sympathized with Nymon's views led the latter directly to the little girl that was his main target.

Upon sighting his target standing right in front of his deceased parents' former restaurant, the blue-haired teenaged thief boy gripped his fists so hard that audible cracking could be heard.

Ever since he heard three days ago that the next tax raid would be today, Nymon felt that this would be the best opportunity he would ever have. Behind the scenes, he'd visited as many people as he possibly could to convince them to take up arms today, and found many receptive ears willing to listen.

Nymon even secretly taught basic thief class skills to as many as he could, without his uncle's permission. A few who had the talent were able to make it into the thief job class. Although they remained at only level 1 or 2, it was still a great improvement over having no job class at all. The guards would find it far more difficult than usual compared to dealing with a mob of weak townsfolk with no job classes.

"You Harts shall pay for your sins!" Nymon growled maliciously under his breath in an icy tone as he speedily threw on his pre-prepared drab-colored camouflage cloak and activated one of the signature skills of any thief, [Camouflage].

Normally, it would be pure idiocy for a thief to be using the [Camouflage] skill right out in the open in broad daylight. Luckily for him, the sky was overcast today and his target remained unaware of his presence. With everyone else having gathered around the restaurant, no one paid a boy like him any attention. Even if she saw him, a noble like her wouldn't possibly know who a commoner like him was. However, he knew perfectly well who she was ever since she came to Clearlight Town.

His target was Mia Hart, the daughter of the local tyrant!

'You should have been purged last time when you fell into Dega's hands… he's nothing but a traitor!!' Nymon's heart was filled with a cold fury that only served to sharpen his focus. However, Mia then turned around to seemingly look directly at him, causing his heart to skip a beat.

'Damn it! Did I mess up? Did she notice my killing intent, or could it be that my [Camouflage] has failed?' Nymon slunk down into a shadow against the wall of a building, crouching down as low as he possibly could.

Yet, her gaze simply passed over him as she looked elsewhere. Nymon had indeed been correct in surmising that she was looking for him; it was just that Mia's physical eyesight was unable to perceive his [Camouflage] and identify the source of the strange dot moving towards her.

Nymon shook his head and gripped his knife even tighter, steadying his nerves. 'There's no way a little girl like her will be able to see through my [Camouflage] or know anything about thief skills. What am I worried about? And even if she does see me, that won't stop me from doing what I'm here to do!'

Without any more hesitation, Nymon scurried through the shadows, zigzagging between obstacles, crouching all the while, and arrived right behind Mia.

"It's time for you to die! [Backstab]!"

The blue-haired thief boy let loose all his murderous intentions and stabbed his knife into the silver-haired girl's back, feeling a pleasant… squishiness?

Mia was wearing formal noble ceremonial clothing for the excursion today. This type of clothing was both fancier and thicker than normal commoner clothing, and also made her an easy target to pick out in from a crowd. Yet, in a way, it was also a life-saving reason why Nymon didn't notice how his knife didn't fully sink into her back.

This somewhat slippery sensation as he pushed the knife deeper into her back was an unfamiliar one to Nymon. He had never actually stabbed a real, live person before… was it really supposed to feel this way? It was probably just the natural resistance of flesh and blood being like this.

Nymon's [Camouflage] skill was forcibly canceled right after he used the classical thief skill [Backstab] which was further amplified by another complementary thief skill, [Surprise Attack]. His hands trembled as he left the knife he just used in the little girl's back.

"I… I did it! HAHAHAHAHA!" No longer able to contain his emotions, the thief boy started waving his hands wildly as he even did a little dance over the lifeless little girl's back.

"Mother… Father…" Tears started dripping out of Nymon's eyes. "I've finally done it… the first step of avenging your senseless deaths… Just why… over something so trivial… The Count stopped by your restaurant and had you burned to death simply because he felt the roast chicken was too salty… That's just too ridiculous!" The blue-haired boy stared into the sky as he started reminiscing on the past.

*Whack!*

Suddenly, a wooden sword slammed directly into his crotch. Nymon doubled over in agony, clutching at his private parts.

When she was stabbed earlier, Mia was knocked over by the impact and fell flat on the ground. Without having him at all, a blue-haired boy suddenly appeared behind her, loudly declaring her death. Only when he shouted the iconic [Backstab] skill did Mia realize what was going on – an ambush by a thief!

A sharp pain needled her back from the stab which knocked the breath out of her lungs. The Slime Armor had made the blade slide across her back a little before Whimsy managed to catch the knife.

Mia laid on the ground and pretended to play dead while doing her best to hold the furiously squirming Whimsy against her, not allowing the slime to reveal itself just yet. She took this moment to catch her breath as her heart pounded uncontrollably.

While Nymon monologued to himself, Mia wasn't actually listening very closely. All she needed to know was that this guy had such a grudge against her that he was willing to kill a little girl like her. For now, the only thought in her mind was to get away from this maniac.

Once the blue-haired boy stared up at the sky with tears streaming down his cheeks, Mia knew her opportunity had come. She swiftly withdrew her wooden sword and swung it as hard as she possibly could, aiming right for his groin.

Even without much martial training, Mia figured it was only common sense when fighting male opponents to aim for the most vulnerable spot of all. Besides, her physical body was quite short, and he had been standing right above her. Where else was she supposed to aim for? The wooden sword landed a solid blow and the thief boy Mia didn't know nearly fell over, almost curling up into a ball where he stood.

Nymon wanted to scream, but couldn't muster up the energy to do so. All that came out was a small whimper. No words, no sounds could describe what he felt right now. But, he was in such pain that it could only be alleviated by whimper-screaming.

Where the hell was Colson when she needed him? Mia did a quick search of her mental minimap and discovered his mana wavelength together with Dega's. Mia scrambled to her feet and ran in Colson and Dega's direction. Nearby, the previous commotion between the guards and the townspeople had broken out into a full brawl. The ruckus was such that none of them even noticed the attempted assassination.

The guards drew their weapons and moved in on the crowd. One guard ran his sword straight through another man's stomach as Mia watched in horror.

The sword came out together with a generous outpouring of blood. The man collapsed on the ground, attempting to cover the hole on his stomach with his hands. His moans were incoherently distorted by pain.

While the guards were technically on her side, and weren't stupid enough to stand by and watch something befall her, Mia wanted nothing to do with them right now after seeing such a sight. All she could do was run to those she viewed as her real allies.

As Mia ran, she pulled the knife out of Whimsy, which came out with a *squish* sound. The moment the knife was removed, the slime membrane automatically reformed again.

A quick look at Whimsy's status revealed that the attack had done 20 points of damage to the Wind Slime. Mia's heart ached, as this was the most damage Whimsy had ever taken so far while shielding her.

"Thank you, Whimsy. You saved my life." The only response Mia received was a slime tendril which reached out from under her clothing and patted her on the head.

Mia glanced for only a moment at the knife before continuing to run with it still in her hand. Now wasn't the time for a careful examination of this attempted murder weapon. If it hadn't been for her plot armor, er, Slime Armor, she might be nothing more than a corpse by now. As this realization sunk in, her heart-pounding adrenaline from earlier was gradually replaced by an icy calmness and clear state of mind.

A loud shout came from somewhere, followed by the sound of glass breaking. Smoke was also rising from somewhere; someone had started a fire.

Running in the direction that her spell pointed her in, Mia reached a small clearing behind some bushes where she saw the scene of Dega standing over Colson.

"Both of you, stop right there!" Mia's voice arrived before she did on the wind via her [Whisper] spell.

"Milady!" "Mia!" Colson and Dega called out in unison before exchanging surprised looks with each other.

Mia took a moment to recover her breath before speaking up. "What's going on here? We don't have time for this. Something major is happening in Clearlight Town. Colson, this is Dega. Dega, this is Colson," she spoke while pointing at the both of them with the thief boy's knife. "All of us are here for the same purpose, to restore order to this domain," Mia took a clear and firm tone.

Dega shrugged. "Okay, whatever you say, Mia." His gaze then hardened yet again. "What's this you say about something major happening in town?"

"But, but, Milady! This man is a dangerous, wanted criminal! How could you –" Colson awkwardly climbed back up to his feet, but was interrupted in the middle of his sentence.

"Perhaps he's a criminal in the eyes of the law, but who makes the law in this land? That's right, the ruling lord of the land. What makes him so different from the guards you just witnessed? The legitimacy of their actions. Well, I, Mia Hart, guarantee the legitimacy of Dega's actions. Will that be good enough for you, Colson?"

The silver-haired girl then turned to look at both men. "I can tell that the two of you had a quarrel just now," Mia said as her eyes darted to the leg armor strewn on the ground and Colson's obviously battered condition. "But I hope that the two of you can put any differences aside and work together with me for the time being, because bigger things are at stake right now than personal grudges. Basically, a riot is going on in town right now. I think that people are dying. Oh, and someone just attempted and failed to assassinate me a few minutes ago with this knife."