I found three items in the room. An enchanted sword and ring. As well as a scroll with Ignition Magic in it.
I couldn't find Queen Blossom's seeds, but thinking about it, there's no way those would've been entrusted to the flippant guys like these. Which meant, that Gale guy most probably hid them on his person.
"Hmm, I suppose I should take them by force then."
I made up my mind and went back to setting up the traps. I used to judge corrupt nobles in my past life, so I was used to these kinds of situations.
First was the guy called Balde. Based on his footsteps I assumed his physique was good, so it was impossible to strangle him on my own. On top of that, I had to take the seeds off that Gale too.
"In that case..."
I looked over the items at hand and started devising a plan.
First of all, I had to guarantee Matisse's safety. For that, I had to make sure Balde couldn't leave his room. As such, I twined my steel threads on his door and fixed it in place. I even tied it to a mop's handle and other things to further solidify it, so he could hardly break out.
Fortunately, I was able to confirm their rooms through the windows, so there should've been no problems. Next, I took Matisse outside and left her at a place with public attention. I brought her blanket too so she wouldn't get cold.
That said, while I said it had public attention, it was late night now, so it would take time for people to actually notice.
Meanwhile, I went on to set another trap.
Under Balde's room was stable that kept two horses and a cart. And next to it was a pile of fodder. His room was on the second floor, followed by Gale's. I inspected its structure and set up a trap there.
I then extracted oil from the indoor lamps and sprinkled it everywhere in the house. This would make the fire spread faster.
Finally, I placed Enchant on Balde's door to further strengthen it, and with that, everything was set.
I set the house on fire by using the Ignite scroll on the first floor. Unlike Tinder, this magic could ignite much larger objects. Due to its strength and the oil's influence, the flames spread through the house in the blink of an eye.
I remained inside the burning house and waited single-mindedly.
"Huh, fire?! 𝓢𝓱𝓲𝓽, what the hell are those bastards doing down there!"
Eventually, Balde seemed to have noticed the situation and yelled from his room, followed by violent knocks on his door.
I could hear a faint click of the tongue from Gale's room, too, but it appeared like he was searching for something inside.
Perhaps Balde was trying to save himself while Gale was prioritizing the safety of Queen Blossom's seeds.
"Door's ain't budging! In that case, the window!"
Everything went as I expected. Balde opened the window and looked at the street. He should've seen Matisse who I took out there, along with me standing next to her.
With a clear culprit before his eyes, Balde completely flipped out.
"So it was you!"
He yelled and got on the window to take a look at me. Along with his shout, he jumped down, but...
"Geugh!?"
What followed were his death screams. Under the window was the stable and a pile of fodder. He would obviously choose to jump on the fodder, it was a natural action. A pile of fodder could cushion his fall, after all.
Since I predicted that much, all that was left was to run a steel thread between the window and the fodder. And the result of that was that he splendidly bisected himself into two thanks to his own falling momentum.
I wonder what Gale thought as he peeked through his window and saw his corpse? Because he prioritized the safety of Queen Blossom's seeds, his timing to escape was even delayed than Balde's.
Not just the flames, he could also see that their fainted hostage had been taken outside and placed on the road in a showy manner. And next to him, there was a Balde's bisected corpse.
Given the situation, there was a little chance of him pursuing us through the window. With that being the case, I resolved myself and leaped inside the blazing house.
The door opened with a small creak. I hadn't fixed his door in place, so If he wanted to, he could open it. Gale was also aware of the invader's presence... so he tried to slowly step out of the room.
That was also the best moment for me to make my attack.
That door opened on the outside. In other words, its hinges were on the outside too. By opening that door, a small gap could be created between the door and the wall.
Gale slowly stepped forward. Aiming for that moment, I sent my thread through the created gap and tied him in place. Then I tied one side of the thread to the knob so he couldn't escape.
"Gah!?"
He immediately inserted his fingers between the thread and his neck to prevent himself from being strangled, but I wouldn't have been able to strangle him with my strength either way. My goal was to simply hold him in place.
Following it, I put my katana in the gap, a bit above where his abdomen should've been. Then, with the edge facing down, I pierced through with all my strength.
"Agh! W-Who are you...!"
"An assassin. Sorry, but you'll have to pay the price. For everything."
I gave an honest answer to his yell. Reacting to my voice, he thrust his sword through the door... but unfortunately for him, I had seen it coming.
I was flattened against the wall so that attack would never hit me. Were it my former body, I would've been able to slit his throat with one thrust through the door, but it was impossible now.
I put my weight into the katana and slid it down bit by bit.
"Gaa—ugh...Sto..."
"I won't. That girl surely pled you to stop, but you didn't, right?"
"Wait... I'll die..."
"That was my intention from the start."
Gale's voice ceased before long. I planned to torment him some more for what he did to Matisse, but the smoke spread in the surroundings faster than I expected and caused him to faint. It didn't affect me because I was wearing a scarf with Purify cast on it.
I withdrew my katana from Gale and started collecting the threads I set up throughout the house. It would've been troublesome if they became evidence and they found out I was the culprit.
Finally, I recovered the Queen Blossom's seeds from his pocket that he was trying so hard to protect.
And with that, my mission was complete.
