{Chapter 33} I am Your Wings
Now! Even if it means death! Anna would jump off the city wall right now!
She wouldn't even take a glance at what achievements she's unlocked!
...Wait, has she set this flag before? Whatever, she doesn't care! She absolutely won't look at it!
[Unlocked Achievement: I Am Your Wings (Silver Medal)]
Wow, it's a silver medal achievement, maybe she should take a look after all.
She thought it would be some bronze medal achievement, but it turned out to be a silver one. Now she has to check it out.
Oh Anna, Anna, is it just for 10 achievement points that she's fallen so low?
While scolding herself inwardly, she eagerly opened the achievement interface to claim the points.
[I Am Your Wings (Silver Medal): Being regarded as the mutual lover by two people who like you, and marrying both as their wife.]
[Reward: 10 Achievement Points] [Gold Unlock Condition: None]
Lately, it seems she's been unlocking a lot of achievements that don't have higher-level unlock conditions. Or are these one-time achievements the majority in the achievement interface?
Well, it's not the main point.
Apart from that last simulation that makes her brain feel like it's going to explode just thinking about it, the previous part at least proved that befriending Atala was effective.
Was the biggest divergence there... After Atala explained the situation, she went with Louise and Helga to the forest to deal with those magical beasts.
Although it seems that even if they dealt with those beasts, they probably wouldn't find out who commissioned Atala to assassinate Anna, but Anna's intuition tells her that maybe she really would find something.
Even though it only appeared once in the simulation, in reality, it keeps giving her hints. This intuition of hers is really strange.
But, she's trusted it so many times, what's one more time?
After ordering a new drink, Anna downed it in one go.
Having learned so much new information, maybe it's time to ask Louise for help again.
...
"Senpai, you're saying someone has posted an assassination contract on you in the black market?"
Upon hearing such news, Louise almost hugged Anna immediately, but Anna dodged just in time.
Even though she was wearing a cloak, crashing into Anna with that plate armor still hurts! Anna's just in casual clothes now!
"So that elf is actually a mercenary?"
Louise also seemed quite surprised.
"Atala is a mercenary... is there a problem with that?" Anna found Louise's surprise a bit odd.
"So her name is Atala... that's not the point." Louise shook her head, then said seriously, "It's normal that you don't know, Senpai, because I only know a bit about mercenaries and such due to my family's involvement in the entertainment district business..."
"So your Latimir family is involved in the entertainment business too? That's really something." Anna teased, "Although it's not illegal in the kingdom, it's still a shady gray area!"
"Don't talk to me about that, I was also speechless when I found out my family was involved in such things!" Louise gently poked Anna, "And Senpai, stop changing the subject! Don't interrupt my explanation!"
"Alright, alright..."
"Mercenaries handle black market jobs and contracts, you know that, right Senpai?"
"I know a bit about that... it's taught in the academy."
"Since it's a black market business, naturally they deal in all sorts of nasty trades you can think of." Louise's face showed disgust as she spoke, "Like killing, or... slave trading."
"Slave trading..." Anna wasn't stupid, she just hadn't thought that far before, but now she quickly caught on, "Are you saying there are still elf slaves circulating in the black market?"
It's not news that elves, being very beautiful, are often captured by slave traders, at least not since hundreds of years ago.
But that was also based on the fact that the Elf Forest didn't interfere externally, allowing human countries to act so freely.
In fact, since the Elf Forest underwent changes and a new Elf Queen ascended, the forest's external stance has become much tougher, even repelling several human invasions, and once even defeating a royal army of the empire with the strongest land forces, prompting many nations to ban elf slave trading.
After the diplomat beheading incident, among the many agreements reached between the empire and the Elf Forest, it was explicitly stated that the empire could not capture elves as slaves.
At that time, the empire was the last nation that hadn't abolished elf slavery. After the treaty was signed, elf slaves disappeared... Now, after learning all this, Anna had to add a prefix to that conclusion: "on the surface."
"A black market where elf slaves are still circulating... and Atala can still work there safely as a mercenary?"
"From the information you gathered, Senpai, it seems this elf named Atala was tricked into becoming a mercenary because she was broke, right?" Louise thought of something, "I've heard that the black market has such tricks, luring broke adventurers to become mercenaries, then tricking them into accepting a hard-to-fulfill contract, and in the black market, failing a contract means you have to pay compensation."
"...The next trick would probably be not being able to pay the debt, and being forced to sell themselves, right?"
"What a disgusting trick!" Anna never imagined such dirty dealings, then suddenly thought of something, "But... assassinating me... would that be a hard-to-fulfill contract?"
"I really don't know about that." Louise shook her head, "At least from what I know of the black market, their tricks are always like this, specifically targeting those who don't understand these things, especially those naive adventurers from other races."
"And Senpai, you said Atala is very beautiful, right?" Louise's tone carried a hint of jealousy, "Although all elves are beautiful... anyway, do you really think those black market guys would let a super beautiful elf woman be their peer? I don't buy it, those black market guys are all about profit, they'd even sell their own people, seeing such a high-value elf, they'd definitely find a way to capture and sell her."
"That... makes a lot of sense." Anna nodded, it was indeed logical. The academy also taught that those who end up as mercenaries are profit-driven scum, even in national wars, hiring mercenaries is just using them as cannon fodder... not like hiring adventurers who are treated as elite troops.
Or rather, these mercenaries are the elite among cannon fodder…