Aster’s Tangent - The Doll’s Suspicions

What is he?

Aster Retsa was born and raised as an assassin – not a particularly good one though. Although her form was above-average, her physical and mana skills were severely lacking. The only skills she had were mana sense and throwing. She did take up swordsmanship to handle close range attacks, but her strength couldn’t quite keep up with her form.

The main reason Aster was an assassin was because of her regeneration abilities. As long as one part of her body remained intact, she could regenerate herself. It might take seasons, if not years, but she wouldn’t die from anything but old age. Of course, this overpowered trait had its own drawbacks. Without a heart, she couldn’t function. Without a brain, she could lose some or all of her memories. Her expressionless mask was due to a brain regrowth, not that she remembered. It was a godsend that her functions and instincts were never impacted.

Once she turned fifteen, the assassin who raised her provided two paths: stay as an assassin or leave and try another job. Even with her talents, her deficiencies meant she would never be better than third-rate. So, Aster decided to try something else.

First, she became a private detective. With a B-rank mana sense, there wasn’t anyone she couldn’t find. However, most of the jobs were from husbands and wives trying to catch their partner in an affair. There was the occasional missing person’s case, but it was never enough to leave her fulfilled.

Then, she tried out adventuring. It was also pretty simple, but she felt much more satisfied. Her mana sense could easily detect enemies while throwing took them down in a few minutes. After learning a bit of poison magic, stronger enemies also fell without issue. Even if they managed to hit her, she used that opening to defeat her target. Of course, her reckless strategy constantly destroyed her clothes, so she opted to use a poncho made of rags rather quickly.

Eventually, Aster made her way over to Akamai, where she joined a red wolf named Rufus in his party of two. Ai and Rufus were an F-rank party back then, while Aster was D-rank. Being an adventurer was starting to lose its appeal, so it was a good change of pace.

Every day, they each took on their own quests, completing tens, if not hundreds. Apparently, the others wanted to move up to B-rank to meet a strong adventurer. It wasn’t that appealing to Aster, given how she eliminated B-rank threads all the time. A or S-ranks wouldn’t make any difference, in her opinion.

Then, five years passed. They gained a human supporter named Emma and rose up C-rank. Aster hadn’t expected to stick around for so long, but here she was. The time to take the B-rank promotion exam was finally upon them. While everyone else was excited, Aster didn’t really care.

Until she met him.

The guildmaster had brought the party into a room before explaining the quest and introducing the proctor. The other members were disappointed when they viewed that shady man. He wore the same rags as her, but his entire body was completely obscured. Without her skills, she would’ve acted in ignorance like them. However, Aster was always using mana sense, so it didn’t take long for her to break out into a cold sweat.

What is he?

The proctor was completely ordinary – a human if she had to guess. If he didn’t wear a rag, he would be like any other passerby. He might be a bit stronger than the average citizen, but he wouldn’t hold up to an active adventurer.

The same could not be said about the mana circulating within him. Aster’s mana sense couldn’t identify anything around him; his mana density outstripped what hers could pass though. Even stranger, the mana’s parasitic behavior seemed to be killing him, as if his body couldn’t handle the strength and density.

Normally, when a person absorbed mana from their surroundings, it took some amount of time to control. The denser the mana, the longer the conversion took. If the mana was too dense for the person to handle, it led to the same symptoms of mana deprivation: fatigue, slower processing, foggy brain, and even death in extreme circumstances. This person showed no signs of those symptoms, which was impossible. The man was an enigma at best, and Aster wanted nothing to do with him.

Then, Ai challenged the proctor to a battle. Can she not sense his mana? She’s walking to her death. Well, she won’t actually die as long as the guildmaster is here… probably.

The outcome of the battle itself was as she expected, but not the means. He only used a small sliver of his mana at the end, but the rest of his movements were pure skill and technique. A human moving faster than an instant? Impossible. Aster wanted to avoid him, but at the same time, her boredom had begun to dissipate.

The proctor was more observant than Aster initially thought. After seeing her swordsmanship, he immediately asked about the throwing skill. He also somehow managed to mask his mana that Aster couldn’t sense him anymore, even though she could clearly see him. He clearly knew about her skill, but he didn’t comment further.

Then, there was the wolf beast. It was a C-rank, but it was quite a bit faster, making the fight more difficult. When the beast initially stalked them, it was clearly keeping its distance. Then, the proctor’s mana disappeared again, which conveniently lined up with the beast attacking. At this point, curiosity was overpowering her will to avoid him, so Aster settled for an indirect engagement.

When the proctor went to the shower, Aster attempted to peek at this face, sneaking over to where he was. His rag acted as a barricade, and she couldn’t find an opening after circling around. He’s also singing! Is he trying to attract beasts?

Just when she was about to give up, a chill went down her spine. A huge burst of mana shot out on the opposite side of the rags. A quick look revealed nothing though. The only change was a slightly tense silence. So, Aster returned to camp, pushing any thoughts to the back of her mind.

Once everyone had washed themselves, Rufus gathered everyone’s attention again. “Okay, night watch will be the same as the bathing order, except for Emma and the proctor. It’ll be a little more than three hours for each shift. If you start to feel tired, there’s something to drink in the pot.”

Aster’s shift was second, so she tried to get some rest but had trouble sleeping. The mystery of this proctor, both terrifying and curious, had kept her up. She wanted to do something to sate my curiosity and boredom, but she didn’t want to directly engage him.

Her lookout shift eventually came, and two hours passed. The only conclusion Aster could come to was to attack him myself. It felt like the only option to her as sleep deprivation began to set in. She snuck over, muting my footsteps and obscuring my presence, removing any hesitation in my heart. Then, looking down from overhead, Aster unsheathed her sword over his throat.

“[Puncture].”

Aster plunged the sword down. As her sword reached his neck, he showed no sign of waking up. It didn’t look like he noticed either. Just before the sword was about to puncture, one thought crossed her mind:

He’s not going to defend himself.

Aster immediately pulled back my sword, weaving it in such a way to destroy the shockwave. It didn’t seem like it would be enough, but somehow the sword managed to stop a hair above his throat. By all means, the sword should’ve hit, so Aster got very lucky.

Her head started to clear as she realized what she almost did. There was a much saner option: pulling the rag down from his head. However, actually looking at him, he slept in such a way that made pulling the rags impossible. Aster still couldn’t see under the rags even at this distance.

After a bit, she decided to head back to the campfire. There was a nagging sensation though: Did I overlook something? Aster was too exhausted to put any thoughts together, so she put it to the back of her mind.

And so, a lone sigh escaped, unheard.