Chapter 14: The Advantage is Mine
“Please take care of me from now on too.”
Peiya let out a long breath, as if she had been given a new life.
Some people say that the meaning of making choices is to help you appreciate the things you once missed.
In the past, Peiya had lost many things. But now, she would take them back properly and enjoy them.
“Are you still living in the same place? I can walk you home.”
Seeing that it was getting late, Elise planned to send Peiya back.
They had already spent a long time outside today. There was no need to rush in repaying kindness.
“Yeah, but I’ll move in a few days. People from the Adventurers’ Guild will come help, so you don’t need to worry.”
“Alright, but you should still tell me. It’s easier to move things with a carriage. It’s not a big effort for me. I won’t feel at ease letting you move alone.”
“Then thank you so much.”
Peiya didn’t refuse. She pressed her hands together to show her thanks.
The two of them chatted for a while longer. When the sun was about to set, Peiya took a carriage back to the dirty old district.
On the way home, Peiya noticed that there were strangers moving around near her house.
Even though they were trying to hide their presence, Peiya, after awakening as a witch, had much sharper senses than before.
Her ability to sense magic was especially strong.
Thinking about what Elise told her earlier about evacuating people from the old district, Peiya became alert.
The man kept walking around her house, like he was checking the place.
He clearly didn’t come with good intentions.
Peiya quietly hid her presence and held a potion in her hand as she slowly approached.
Before the man could react, she struck him down in one hit.
With her strengthened body and the boost from the magic potion, the attack was very powerful.
“Talk. Who sent you? What’s your purpose?”
Even though she already had a guess, Peiya still wanted to confirm it.
“……”
The man kept his mouth shut, unwilling to speak.
“Why aren’t you talking? Are you mute?”
“I don’t know anything! I was just passing by, and you suddenly attacked me!”
“Stop pretending. Your clothes don’t belong to someone from the old district. And the thing on your waist is a magic tool that can trap people for a short time. That kind of item is usually only used by professional assassins, right? So did you bring it on purpose… or by accident? Also, I suspect you have some drugs on you. You know what will happen if the patrol finds out, don’t you?”
The man looked shocked. He didn’t know how Peiya figured all that out.
He could only feel that she was far more dangerous than expected.
Didn’t the client say she was just a nobody? You call this a nobody!?
“If you lie again, I’ll cut out your tongue.”
“N-no, don’t! I’ll talk, I’ll talk! I was hired by Miss Anna. I had no choice, she said if I didn’t help her, she would cut off orders to our assassin guild.”
“Oh? And now you want to blame me? Speak, what did Anna tell you to do?”
“She told me to capture a man named Peiya and bring him back. She even gave me a picture, look.”
Peiya took the drawing and commented, “The drawing is ugly. But I’m in a good mood today, so I’ll give you a chance to make up for your mistake. If you do well, I’ll let this go.”
Hearing this, the man quickly knelt down and bowed.
“My lord, as long as it’s something I can do, just give the order.”
“Tell your master this, if she dares to stretch her hand this far again, once it’s broken, it won’t be fixed.”
“Yes!”
The man didn’t dare waste time and quickly ran off.
“Wait. Take some ‘local specialty’ back with you.”
Peiya threw him a torn contract. The man didn’t know what it was, but he still picked up all the pieces and took them with him.
Watching him leave, Peiya’s eyes slowly grew cold.
In the past, everything was just a fair deal. You take the money, you do the job.
But if someone still tried to disturb her life now, then she wouldn’t be polite anymore.
…………………………
Rose Manor
Looking at the contract torn into pieces, Anna was so angry she almost jumped up in rage.
This was outrageous!
But as soon as she moved, the wound on her face started to hurt again.
And that arrogant younger sister of hers, she was really making her furious!
Anna never expected that right after her sister hit her left cheek, Peiya would “hit” her right side as well.
“Tell that person, if you have the guts, then don’t come back.”
The man: “……”
Are you crazy? I almost got beaten to death because of you. If I go back again, who knows what will happen.
And your information was completely wrong.
With that kind of strength, if you told me she could kill a cow, I’d believe it.
You call that a small character?
He was someone who had a name on the assassin rankings, yet she had almost figured out everything about him.
You’re a noble young lady, why would you mess with someone like that?
Be careful, or your whole family might suffer because of you.
“Miss Anna, you should find someone else for this job. And I say this with my honor as an assassin, you’d better not provoke that person. She’s not even angry yet. If she does get angry, the result will be terrible.”
The man firmly refused the job.
He knew what was more important.
Making money was fine, but risking his life like this was not.
Besides, who hires an assassin for something like this? If anyone actually agreed, that would be strange.
The man felt that having such a foolish client was just bad luck.
“You… do you believe I’ll cut off your funding?”
“Then there’s nothing I can do. If you must, go talk to our leader. Goodbye.”
Watching him leave without hesitation, Anna felt so wronged that she almost cried.
Why was everyone treating her like this?
What had she done wrong?
She only wanted Peiya to come back and cook for her.
It wasn’t like she wouldn’t pay her.
Anna spent the whole day looking among the servants, but she couldn’t find anyone who could recreate Peiya’s cooking.
She tasted everything, they were all different from before.
She hadn’t eaten properly for almost a whole day.
She couldn’t just starve, right?
But the servants only looked at each other. No one was willing to step forward.
Anna began to suspect that all the people she raised were useless. When Peiya was still here, why didn’t any of them learn from her?
As soon as she said that, an old chef stepped forward and argued,
“Do you know how carefully Master Peiya selected ingredients? And all those seasonings were made by ‘him’ personally. We simply can’t recreate them. To be honest, even if Young Master Peiya opened a restaurant in the future, ‘he’ would never lack customers.”
Seeing a servant arguing with her like this, Anna felt that everything had gone out of control.
These servants were practically rebelling!
She really wanted to fire this chef.
But he was her last chef. If he left too, she might really starve at home.
Knock knock.
A knock came at the door.
Anna weakly said, “Come in.”
“Miss Anna, it’s me, Lisa.”
A purple-haired girl walked in. Today, Lisa was wearing clean casual clothes. When she saw Anna’s swollen face, she was shocked.
“What happened to your face? Who did this to you?”
Anna: …
“I fell. Why are you here?”
“It’s like this, we’re planning to explore a new secret dungeon, so we wanted to ask for your opinion.”
“Why ask me about that? Discuss it within your group.”
“Well… I heard from a reliable source that the next dungeon boss is the Ice Bear King. If we defeat it, we can get a lot of materials. And I also found out the location, it’s in an ice crystal mining area. The information is very reliable. Based on our team’s past achievements, I think we can defeat it.”
Hearing this was something serious, Anna nodded.
A flame of revenge rose again in her heart.
Peiya, how dare you humiliate me like that.
Luckily, fate hasn’t abandoned me. It gave me another chance.
If they could defeat the Ice Bear King, the reputation of their Dawn Guild would rise even higher.
At that time, she could prove that without Peiya, she would live even better.
Just wait, Peiya. Reality will make you regret your choice.
Anna, like a cockroach that couldn’t be killed, regained her spirit.
“Lisa, you did very well. Very, very well. Why didn’t I notice before that you were this smart?”
Lisa: … (sweating)
“Of course, it was Peiya who held us back before. Now we are complete. Nothing can defeat our Dawn Guild.”
“That’s right. Help me up, I’ll personally supervise this expedition!”