Siervian had planned to head to the restaurant where she had met the guildmaster not long ago. That way, she could get help from the guild members if they were there.

‘And there is a secret passage in the basement.’

As Siervian turned into the alley, she suddenly noticed someone in the distance, looking around.

[Occupation: Assassin (Lv. 53)]

‘They’re already after me?!’

Siervian was startled and broke into a run.

‘This is bad.’

As she headed toward the Justice Guild restaurant, Siervian gripped the pendant in her hand again. She still had enough mana, but she couldn’t activate the pendant right away. She needed some time for the mana circuit to cool enough to use it again.

‘No. I don’t think they’re after me.’

She had only caught a glimpse of them, but she had clearly seen that the assassin here was much lower level than the ones from before.

‘Were there assassins lying in wait in the commoner’s district, too?’

If so, going straight to the guild would be even more dangerous.

‘There it is!’

She could hear the sound of someone running behind her in the distance. Almost at the same time, Siervian was able to slip in through the back door of the restaurant.

Contrary to her expectations, there was no one inside.

‘Please, please, please!’

She quickly opened the door to the basement and went down the stairs. Like last time, the space below was empty.

‘I have to escape through the secret passage.’

There must be some secret method that Maison used to come and go here like a ghost. However, no matter how much she searched with mana detection, she couldn’t find anything.

‘What do I do?’

Her legs shook uncontrollably with anxiety. Because of the status window synchronization, the child’s frightened body kept trying to take over.

In desperation, she groped along the wall, searching for something.

Then, she touched a spot on the wall that seemed completely ordinary.

[Justice’s Secret Passage]

“Ah!”

Siervian let out a cry without realizing it, then quickly covered her mouth.

She focused on the spot where the status window had appeared and pushed on it several times. Suddenly, the wall slid open.

‘I did it!’

As Siervian hurriedly stepped inside, there was a commotion above her.

She heard the sound of several pairs of heavy boots stomping around, and then the door above suddenly opened.

‘They’re after me!’

Siervian rushed further inside, and the door to the secret passage slid shut behind her.

‘The assassins might know this secret passage better than I do.’

She felt increasingly anxious. As the sound of footsteps descended the stairs, Siervian moved deeper into the passage, trying to muffle her own footsteps.

Soon, she heard the sound of the men who had come down into the storeroom, now faced with an empty space.

“What the hell? It’s empty. Was it a false alarm?”

“…We got word that someone saw the kid in the next building. Let’s go.”

“Tch.”

Fortunately, the assassins hadn’t found the secret passage.

‘I need to hurry, though. They might come back to look for me.’

She had to hold out until she could use the pendant again.

‘Come to think of it, if they had that mana nullification bead, why didn’t they use it before? Do they not have it this time?’

If Siervian were chasing a mage, she would definitely have that bead with her.

‘That bead must not be the kind of thing you can just make whenever you want.’

If it were common, all assassins would have one just like the magic nullification artifact.

Thinking about it, the assassins in the granary of the Kingdom of Mosae all pulled them out at once. It was very unnatural.

‘Maybe there are strict conditions for activating it.’

Siervian had slowly been piecing together the situation, and before she knew it, she had reached the end of the passage.

It didn’t seem to be very long, since Maison had returned quickly before.

‘First, I’ll do a mana scan.’

She had no information about what was on the other side of the passage. So, Siervian carefully performed a mana scan.

“Whew……”

Siervian let out a sigh and cautiously opened the door to the passage. She searched for the spot where the status window would appear and felt around until the door opened smoothly.

‘If it weren’t for the status window, I would have been in big trouble.’

Thinking that, she stepped out to find that the passage led to a deserted alleyway.

‘It’s above ground, after all.’

The passage had been slightly uphill, so it made sense that she had come out through a wall in an alleyway.

As soon as she stepped outside, the secret passage seamlessly transformed back into a wall.

‘Where is this?’

The alleyway felt even more run-down than the restaurant street she had been on before.

Siervian let out a frustrated voice before she knew it. She had never been to the slums except when she had come once to save Zecko.

‘I don’t know my way around here!’

Her barely controlled body began to lose control. Fear suddenly gripped her when she realized that not only the assassins but the unsafe slums themselves were a problem.

“Did you find her?”

“Well. I wonder if we should really come this far.”

Just then, sinister voices were heard from nearby. She instinctively pressed her body against the wall and checked one side, and status windows that she never wanted to see appeared.

[Occupation: Assassin (Lv. 24)]
[Occupation: Assassin (Lv. 16)]

‘Oh, no!’

Siervian covered her mouth in surprise and slowly backed away. The tension from being chased continuously turned her into a little child in an instant.

“Hmm? I heard something over here?”

As she hesitantly backed away, Siervian eventually reached a wall with a small hole at the bottom. Just then, a face suddenly popped out of the hole in the wall.

“Huh?”

“……!”

Siervian’s heart skipped a beat as she froze in place. The reason she didn’t scream was because she was too surprised and just froze. However, the silent scream soon turned into hope.

“I found her!”

“Z- Zecko?!”

The moment Zecko’s familiar face popped up, Siervian was barely able to regain her senses.

“I heard a noise, so let’s go this way.”

When Siervian turned her head with a frightened expression at the assassins’ conversation, Zecko quickly grasped the situation.

“Come this way, quickly!”

The hole Zecko stuck his head out of was a small opening that only a child could even barely fit through.

“Hurry, hurry!”

Hearing the sound of footsteps, Siervian anxiously crawled into the hole that Zecko was guiding her to. She was smaller than Zecko, so she easily fit through the hole. The sound of footsteps was getting louder and louder from behind.

‘I’m scared!’

The moment she rolled out to the other side of the wall, the sound of footsteps was right behind her.

“Whew.”

Zecko quickly pulled Siervian to her feet. Then, he leaned against the wall so that he couldn’t be seen from the other side.

“That’s strange. I heard voices.”

The voice that had approached from behind sounded suspicious. However, it soon faded away as if it hadn’t noticed Siervian.

“Phew. Are you okay?”

Only then did Siervian realize that there were more than just the two of them on the other side of the wall. Several dust-covered Foundation children were there, too.

“Zecko, how did you get here?”

Siervian asked slowly, her legs giving out from the tension.

The children ran over and surrounded her. It was as if they were trying to hide the fact that Siervian was there.

“Sister Maison told me to ask you to come!”

“That’s right! Tanka the Mage did, too!”

The children lowered their voices but chattered away.

Siervian barely regained her senses at the children’s innocent attitude.

‘I can’t put the children in danger!’

“I’ll hide again, so all of you quickly go back to the Foundation!”

“Huh? But!”

“The Princess is coming with us!”

“No, you can’t. You’ll be in danger!”

Her genuine concern and the children’s expressions became a little strange.

“Princess, we’re fine.”

Zecko had been watching the children whispering and also spoke up.

“That’s right. You can rely on us a little more. We know our way around here.”

Tears welled up in her eyes at his words. She was grateful that these little children were doing this for her.

Siervian completely forgot that she was a child herself and nodded firmly.

“Thank you all.”

The children were still surrounding her and giggling and suddenly raised their heads.

“That’s right!”

“Sister Angel made something!”

“What?”

Zecko came to his senses and scolded his younger siblings when she asked curiously.

“That! You should have said it sooner!”

“Ugh, you forgot about it, too!”

“S- shush!”

[Zecko]
Thought: The perfect me couldn’t have forgotten! I just waited for the princess to calm down!

As Siervian looked at him questioningly, the child took a small bead from his pocket.

It was a bead smaller than the child’s palm.

“Uh, what is that?”

Before Siervian could examine it in detail, the child threw the bead hard to the floor.

With a loud clang, the bead shattered into pieces, scattering mana.

“Sister told me to do this if I found the princess.”

“That’s right! We didn’t mean to do that!”

Siervian nodded, meaning that she wasn’t angry about the bead being broken.

She was just confused at the moment.

‘Wasn’t that a bead that marks location coordinates? Isn’t it too early for that?’

As she was pondering over this, she suddenly felt an enormous flow of mana from above.

“Whoa?!”

“What is that?”

“Everybody, get behind me!”

She clenched the pendant in her trembling hand. She only had a short time before she could deploy the defensive barrier.

However, her worries were in vain, as the person who appeared after the flow of mana subsided was someone she had missed so much.

“Siervy.”

“Dad!”

At that moment, Siervian forgot everything and ran forward.

Her father had landed on the ground swiftly and spread his arms wide.

As she jumped into his arms as if she were flying, Siervian burst into tears in relief from the fear that she had been holding back until now.

“Sniff, sniff, sob.”

“You’re safe.”

Her father’s voice, which came out with a sigh of relief, couldn’t have been more welcome.

—