The Reincarnated Villainess Assassin Only Wanted Friends

"Hmm? What we wrote on that note was this. 'Don't play around or we will kill you.' That's all," R25B said when I complained to him about what I heard from Safira yesterday.

"But Safira said we wanted to kill her!"

"Now, that's funny. Well, he wasn't known to be an honest and righteous person after all. Don't worry. As far as I know, our job was to deliver a threatening letter."

"I see."

"Regarding that, congratulations on your advancement to the second grade of the academy," R25B congratulated me.

"Thank you." I grinned. I had never attended a class advancement ceremony before and thought I would have it this year. But, nobles being nobles, the academy mailed Alicia and my report card directly home. I was so jealous. The capital nobles and commoners were having their meeting with the professors, and yet I got free time? No showing off my scores to my father and mother? No talking about it with my friends. I am jealous…

"Sorry for intruding. And once again. Thank you so much for having me," Safira said as she boarded a carriage with me to my county. Our research into her father's embezzlement didn't bear fruit. There was no evidence that any weapons were smuggled outside the empire under Baron Kharn's watch. All that spying was for nothing. I complained, but R25B only said this was part of the job. Not every recon will bear fruit. R663 still watched the warehouse to this very day.

The carriage was a bit cramped with the three of us and 8 knights outside. After the previous incident, Father and Brother Zach guarded me more zealously. I thought it was excessive. Ah, but Safira's father was also encircled by ten knights.

"There are fewer knights guarding you than I thought," Safira said.

"I don't need them. Two or three are enough." I didn't want knights following my every footstep. It would make it harder to sneak around. Thankfully, this was just a trip to the county, so I can manage.

"Lady Eli is a hero! My hero! She is proficient in both magic and knife fighting! It's natural, even though mages are seen as inferior in CQC! When she first killed those bandits, she cast an illusion on them, and then, when they got distracted, she stabbed their neck." Alicia raved about my achievements all the way to the rest stop. Safira listened attentively. Due to our history, mages were not taught martial arts. It has proven to be more efficient to have mages cast spells from afar or fill feystones for magic traps. I wanted to complain to the government about our curriculum after seeing those three musketeers kick my ass, but I guess they were the outstanding ones. And we did have magic duels, though that was treated more like a sport in this country.

"Lady Eli! Don't use shadow binding to snatch some food. Use your hands or ask me politely." Alicia slapped my tentacle, and it dispersed due to her magical defense. Mages could coat their bodies with mana to prevent mana from harming them. It is far from perfect but better than nothing. This is why it was hard for my illusion to hit mages like those three musketeers but easy to hit the spy. Alternatively, commoners could douse themselves with magical water to gain similar effects.

"Alright…" I relented and moved my hand inside the basket. After taking out an apple, I gave some to Safira, too.

" Wow. So that's level 8, huh? I could use water binding well. But using it as well as a hand needed much concentration for me." Safira exclaimed as she tried to mimic me using her water tentacle. Water grew out from her hand and grabbed the apple reminiscent of my dark binding. The apple moved sluggishly into her mouth, and she took a bite out of it.

"Nah. It is going to get the food wet. I couldn't use it like hands." She gave up and dispersed it, then grabbed the apple like normal.

When I arrived in the county seven days later, I almost couldn't recognize it as my own county. Stone walls were erected three times the length of the old wooden ones. Four circular towers with cannons mounted on top showed how majestic it was. All of that was visible from the back gate, the place where the new wooden wall and gates were erected with soldiers manning it. Judging from the scale of the development, the royal family planned to make a fortress in my county.

When I entered my mansion, I could see the barracks beside it full to the brim. The building for our troops had risen two floors higher than I remembered. Streets were littered with peddlers, weapons dealers, and knights. Lots of knights.

"Where am I?"

"It certainly improved a lot, isn't it?" Alicia replied to my stupid question.

"So, this is a fortress under construction… our efforts in the western fronts were delayed by more than three years because of this…" Safira, a noble from the capital, muttered.

"Welcome Home! I have seen your report card! Good work, Eli and Alicia. You got top scores again! Please come inside. This is Safira, right? Alicia's letter arrived two days ago. Please treat our humble house as your own." Brother Zach welcomed us.

"Brother Zach. Our county has changed a lot."

"Yeah. We were just a newly established county forty or fifty years ago. The knights garrisoned here were meant to repel monster incursions. But now, we are preparing for war. There have been skirmishes in the jungle already. It's a good thing we have the map of the forest. We had the upper hand so far, but it was merely an opening before a real attack." Zach answered.

"Can we win?"

"Of course. As long as we pay attention to their elite mageknights, we will win. No matter how elite they are, they are still human. A bullet or two from a musket will still kill them." He smirked.

"Do you know what my role will be?" Alicia asked.

"Hm… As the usual military strategy. Fire mages will be artillery on top of the wall. But, you don't need to come personally. We aren't desperate enough to enlist children even though you do have a military rank, Alicia. It would be more beneficial for you to fill out the feystones. Like other mages do."

"I could still help."

"The time has passed for mages to help directly. Muskets have the range of an arrow. Moreover, they can pierce metal armor or gaps between it at closer range. Mages only have a range of 40 to 50 meters. They are only useful if the enemy is clumped together for fire mages to bomb them."

"I see. I will help with the feystone then."

"Your help will be greatly appreciated."

"I can't imagine you guys building all of these in mere 4 months..." I muttered at that tower.

"Yeah. The empire employed seventy earth mages, with some of them at level 7. I am impressed myself. We have four towers, each housing up to four cannons, with another six towers on the queue. But walls need to be built first. The walls need to envelop this town. Then we can focus more on towers."

"Let us visit the new wall tomorrow! I also wanted to visit the towers." I said excitedly.

"Sure. Do you want to come, Safira?"

"Yes."

We visited the walls the next day with light steps, donning our casual clothes, as noble ladies usually do when going shopping. We climbed the stairs to the wall, and it felt like we were on vacation to the Great Wall of China, though this one was supposed to be shorter than that. Never mind traveling outside the country; I have never been to beaches or Disneyland. I only read about them on Wikipedia.

The walls now had stairs, not mere ladders like before. Several soldiers were manning the wall and the gate. I questioned nearby soldiers about why they built an entrance at the front. They replied that it was to let our cavalry out if we were to chase the fleeing enemy.

We were currently at war. But it didn't happen all the time. Visiting walls was fine because muskets couldn't reach here from the forest. The sentry at the tower with telescopes would find any trespassers, but the soldiers still warned us not to go too close to the battlements. Battlements were the raised wall on the front to act as railings and to protect our shooters.

After a visit to the wall, we enjoyed our time in a cafe. With most of the new knights coming from the royal guard, they had money to spare, and business was booming. As I enjoyed myself together with Safira and Alicia, my card vibrated. I hurriedly asked for some alone time in the bathroom before putting on my earclip.

"R666, I have a new mission for you."

"Can we talk later? Does it have to be now?"

"Oh, well… if I don't receive confirmation from you, the commission might be snatched up by others, so it would be best to do this as fast as possible."

"Very well. What's the mission?"

"I want you to sneak into the barracks and spy on the new vice commander from the capital."

"Sneaking into the barracks? Do I have to sneak? Couldn't I visit them normally?"

"You need to sneak. Otherwise, you wouldn't discover their wrongdoings, would you…" R25B sighed. "Despite your talents, you can be dumb sometimes."

"Don't call me dumb! Alright! Alright! I will scout the barracks this night! It would be impossible to tail him at noon, right?"

"If possible, we also wanted to scout him during noon. But this will do for now."

That night, R25B forwarded me some images of the vice commander of the troops. He was John Sark, a count under Duke Bron, similar to my father. The current head was a level 5 earth mage and thus rose to prominence, and his position now rivaled even my brother's. R25B suspected he did some embezzlement with Baron Kharn from the warehouse.

"He doesn't seem like a bad guy," I commented.

"We don't know that yet. Just because they are mages and rich doesn't mean they can't become corrupt," R25B said, "Moreover, I also want to confirm if the supplies that arrived there match the ones that were sent from the warehouse."

"Roger. I will check the military supplies."

"No, idiots. Traps could have been planted on the field, and no one actually counted it, and finances could be manipulated. Feystones and bullets might have been used in training. There would be no evidence of embezzlement if we look at the accounting book."

"There might be some!"

" Well, if you do find evidence of corruption from their accounting book, I might have to applaud the stupidity or diligence of the military accountant. See you this night, R25B."