The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat - Volume 2 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 | The Assassin Obtains a Divine Treasure

The tavern room I’d reserved was one I’d learned about while I was working at the Balor Company. It was one of the most expensive places in Milteu, and people said there was no better place to stay in the city. Thankfully, the establishment’s delicious food and scrupulous service justified the high price.

I spared no expense when it came to treating Dia and Tarte.

After dinner, the three of us retired to our room. The interior design was impressive. The place looked thoroughly cleaned, and the beds appeared comfortable and immaculate.

“That dinner was amazing! I wasn’t familiar with the alcohol, but I was excited by how much there was. I thought I was used to eating fancy food, but there were so many dishes I’d never sampled before. It was so much fun!” Dia proclaimed.

“That’s because Milteu is a harbor city. Delicacies from all over the world end up here. Milteu doesn’t have very many local specialties, but tasting things from all over the world is part of this city’s charm,” I replied.

“Wow, now I really can’t wait to go exploring tomorrow.”

“You’re right to be excited. It’s impossible to be bored in this city as a tourist.”

We sank into a lively discussion about Dia’s sightseeing plans for the following day. Tarte would’ve typically participated in such a conversation, but something seemed to be making her uncomfortable.

“…My lord, is it okay for me to be treated to such fine things? I’m only your retainer. It doesn’t feel right to me. I’m not used to being looked after. It makes me feel uneasy.”

At the moment, Tarte wasn’t wearing her servant clothes but was instead dressed in finer attire. I’d bought them for her before we arrived at the inn. Her Tuatha Dé servant clothes were cute, but I wanted to see her in something nicer every once in a while. That’s why I’d picked out something I thought would look good on her. I’d done the same for Dia, too.

Tarte was lovely, and my chosen garments rendered her indistinguishable from a noblewoman. She’d turned the heads of many men while we were out in the city.

“You have to spread your wings now and then, Tarte. You’ve got to feel constricted doing servant work every day,” I said.

“There’s no way I’d grow weary of taking care of you, my lord!”

“I’m happy to hear you say that, but you need time for yourself… Also, I don’t get many opportunities to eat with you. Eating with you makes dinner a lot more fun.”

“You enjoy eating with me… That makes me happy. O-okay, I’ll give in just for today.”

Tarte always gave her all at her job, and it’d started to worry me. I needed to force her to rest once in a while.

“I get so jealous when I look at the two of you. You seem so natural together,” admitted Dia.

“U-um, we’ve just known each other for a long time,” Tarte said, blushing. She never handled that kind of teasing well. She was so embarrassed, she hadn’t even noticed that the candies she’d been eating during our conversation had been dirtying her mouth.

How would she react if I wiped off her mouth right now? Feeling a little mischievous, I picked up a napkin.

After reminding Dia and Tarte again that I had important matters to attend to, I left the next morning.

I dyed my hair black, put on glasses, and used cosmetics to disguise my face slightly. In only a short while, I had transformed from Lugh Tuatha Dé into Illig Balor, a distinguished son of the Balor family.

I was headed to the main store of the Balor Company cosmetics brand, Natural You. The storefront was on the first floor, while the second floor was used for office space and storage.

I entered from the back, greeted the guards, and went inside. I then climbed up the stairs and knocked on the door of Maha’s office.

“Enter.”

“Hello, Maha.”

“Welcome back, dear brother. It’s been so long. I’ve been so looking forward to this day.”

Maha greeted me with a smile. She was an orphan whom I’d adopted and raised. She’d proven herself very talented and operated the Natural You brand while Illig was away.

She had straight, glossy blue hair and was wearing a thin layer of makeup. Her work attire—complete with full-length pants—gave her a very enticing, intellectual sort of appeal. Like Tarte and myself, she was fourteen years old. I would be remiss not to mention how beautiful she was, too.

“You’re as pretty as ever, Maha.”

“Why, thank you, dear brother. Don’t you want to make this pretty woman yours? You can do what you like with me whenever you please, you know.”

“I’ll think it over,” I answered, laughing awkwardly and sitting down on a sofa in the middle of the room. Unlike Tarte, Maha always said that kind of stuff directly.

She brewed some tea and sat down beside me. It smelled different from any tea I’d had before. Curious, I took a sip.

“This is an interesting tea leaf,” I remarked.

“They were brought in from the south on a newly opened sea route. Their tea has a nice balance of sweet and bitter. It makes for a very relaxing drink. If you like it, I can send some to Tuatha Dé.”

“That would be nice. There have been several things stressing me out lately, even at home. I would appreciate it if you could send them to me raw instead of boiled. I feel like I can figure out a way to improve on this tea, depending on how I prepare it.”

“That’s no problem. Let me know if you come up with a suitable preparation method. I want to expand our offerings beyond cosmetics soon.”

Imported tea leaves were a valuable product. Enjoying them myself was all well and good, but they could also be used to entertain guests.

Maha and I enjoyed the tea and made idle conversation as she brought me up to date on recent events.

“So can I go ahead and see that thing you obtained for me?”

“Well, aren’t you impatient? I was hoping we could chat for a bit longer. All right. I’ll go fetch it for you.”

Maha went to retrieve the item in question from a safe. It was wrapped up in old cloth, but I could feel mana emanating from it. Maha unraveled the fabric to reveal a small red and blue leather bag.

“This is a divine treasure?” I asked, dubious.

“Yes, it’s called the Leather Crane Bag. Its unremarkable appearance made it a rather easy purchase,” Maha answered.

Not all divine treasures were weapons. Many of them were tools. That appeared to be the case for this satchel.

“The way you explained it made it sound incredible. It doesn’t seem all that useful,” I observed.

“You’ll change our mind once you see how it works.”

Maha began to put all of the tea utensils into the bag. First, she stowed the teapot, then the tea leaf container, the cups, a basket full of sweets, and the milk pitcher. As if all that wasn’t enough, she deposited a thick bundle of files, and finally a chair.

“This is a magic bag with an infinite capacity, so long as you supply it with mana. The weight never changes, no matter how many items are kept inside. It’s so useful that any traveling trader would probably consider it a hugely unfair advantage.”

“There isn’t a merchant in the world who wouldn’t want this, no matter the price,” I remarked.

“…Considering its main function, yes. But it has a fatal flaw. Think about this logically, dear brother. If this bag were as good as it sounds, do you think I would have been able to purchase it for a price that didn’t bankrupt Natural You?”

I shook my head. As the proxy representative for the Natural You brand, Maha had vast sums of money at her disposal. However, even with a veritable fortune, I doubted it would’ve been enough to buy such an incredible bag.

“Probably not. Balor, for example, would offer three times as much as us. He would be confident he could recover his costs in just two years. There is no way we could outbid the Balor Company,” I said.

“That’s exactly right. There is a fatal flaw that prevents this bag from being worth that much: Its capacity does not increase unless you supply it with a decent amount of mana, and as soon as the mana supply runs out, this happens.”

Suddenly, all the contents of the bag exploded out at once.

“…I see. So you can’t use it unless you’re a mage, and even then, filling it with a constant stream of mana without pause would be draining. Can I take a look at it?” I requested.

“Go ahead,” Maha replied.

I poured mana into the Leather Crane Bag. By doing so, I was able to get a sense of how much its capacity could be increased. If an average mage poured their full mana output into the satchel, the total would probably be enough to fit one horse-drawn carriage. However, any typical magic user wouldn’t be able to hold that output for more than three minutes. The legendary item would, at best, be a glorified backpack. A normal rucksack that didn’t drain mana was preferable.

“Now I see why merchants don’t want it,” I said.

“It’s too unreliable for business. But you, dear brother…you can probably employ it as an assassination tool.”

“You’re right. I’m sure it’ll come in handy.”

As an assassin, being able to carry your weapons without drawing any suspicion was very important. That said, it felt like a waste to use a divine treasure for something so mundane.

As my mana capacity was one thousand times higher than the average mage’s, using the bag continuously wasn’t a problem. That everything would burst from the little container if my mana flow was interrupted for even a second was a big risk, though.

Actually, wait a second.

“I can probably make use of those,” I muttered.

I took a Fahr Stone out of a small pouch. Fahr Stones were gems I carried around as weapons. I’d filled each one with as much mana as what three hundred normal mages could produce. I used them as explosives, but I’d also devised a way for the little spheres to release their mana at a steady rate.

I poured power into the Fahr Stone, made it so that it would continuously release magic energy, and put it into the Leather Crane Bag.

“If I do this, it won’t put any strain on me, and the bag will have a steady supply of mana.”

As I’d expected, the Leather Crane Bag absorbed the mana that the Fahr Stone was steadily releasing, and its capacity increased.

“How much do you think the bag can fit?” Maha inquired.

“Half a carriage’s worth. I could increase the capacity even more if I hadn’t set the Fahr Stone to release energy at such a slow rate,” I answered.

“That’s incredible. How would you feel about offering it and some Fahr Stones to the Natural You brand?”

“That would probably increase our profits, but I’m going to have to decline. I want to investigate this divine treasure thoroughly. If I can find some commonality between divine treasures, I might be able to develop a countermeasure for any I may have to deal with in the future. I might even be able to devise a way to create some divine treasures for myself. This bag is quite convenient. I’ll make good use of it.”

Such a wondrous pouch was more than a convenient tool. I was already pondering ways to weaponize it. With a little bit of work, I believed it had the potential to become one of my trump cards against the hero.

“Thank you, Maha. You’ve found something truly extraordinary,” I stated.

“Are words of thanks all you have for me?” Maha pressed.

“What, is there something else you want?”

“Yes. I want you to kiss me.”

Maha leaned her face toward mine, glancing up at me amorously. No doubt she was just trying to tease me as she so often did.

“Ha-ha, if you don’t want to, then we can just have lunch or something…”

“Okay, sure.”

“Wait. What? You— WHAAAAA…?”

Maha, having fully expected me to turn her down, was shocked. I brought her close…and kissed her on the cheek. She blushed deep red and stiffened. There was no sign of her usual relaxed demeanor.

“How was that?” I asked.

Maha had trouble responding.

“…I…I don’t…”

She looked down at her hands and finally managed to force out some words.

“…I-I’m so happy, and embarrassed, I don’t think I’ll be able to focus on work at all today.”

She looked so cute that without thinking, I kissed her on the cheek again. Maha let out a panicked cry and froze up completely. Seeing her in such a state proved amusing, so I watched until she regained her composure.

Maha was always teasing me. There was nothing wrong with giving her a taste of her own medicine once in a while.

Likely because of the kiss, Maha pouted all through our lunch date. Even so, she couldn’t wholly conceal her elation. Spending time with her like that was great fun.