yemalu

As Katsuki had promised, she accompanied me around the school for the rest of the day which brought quite a bit of attention to me. More because of how she really stuck to my side the entire time I was in school like glue, always maintaining just a step behind me at all times.

Thankfully, the person who was targeting me either gave up for the day or was dealt with since no more silver needles were shot at me.

But the fact that Katsuki still stuck close to me meant that the threat was still present or… She really just wanted to stay near me?

Well, I\'m not shameless enough to ask her if that was the reason directly.

I will admit though, it sort of feels a little nice to have her around me.

Especially since Delmare and Odeta have more or their club activities after school so I got to have Katsuki accompany me home this time. So it\'s just the two of us walking home right now.

"Mmm… Does Katsuki know what happened to the guy shooting needles at me?" I asked while we were walking home from school.

"I apologise, Mistress, but we have not caught the culprit yet."

"Ehhh… To be able to avoid them, that guy must be pretty skilled? Did Rita and Tracey catch up to that assassin?"

"They did, but we found out that it was merely just a [Shadow Summon]. They managed to find it while it was still shooting needles at Mistress but they were unable to take a good look at its features before it dematerialised itself."

"So we\'re dealing with an Umbramancer?"

"I would not assume that there is only one enemy, Mistress… It might be a group of them working together."

Ehhh… Why the hell are they targeting me… What did I ever do? Is it something related to that bandit group that was going around kidnapping children? But they were hired to get rid of some noble kids by another noble family to do so right? Who would target me?

Besides, didn\'t I already get rid of them? So who the hell is this that\'s after me?

Oh! Maybe another bandit group wishes to do the same thing but sees me as a potential threat? But Odeta was also there with me when we saved that group of kids, yet no one was targeting her…

Maybe… Some family doesn\'t like me standing out or outshine their own children so they wish to get rid of me?

Unless they\'re after me because of my relation to the Nilm family?

"Did information about me being Mother\'s child get leaked?" I asked.

There was a split second of hesitation from Katsuki. "I would like to say that there isn\'t, at least on our side. But since Mistress has revealed your relation to other people, the possibility of that is not zero anymore."

"I don\'t think any of them would sell me out though… Even as much as Emilia likes money, I don\'t think she\'ll sell me out either."

"That was not what I was suggesting, Mistress. But they might have let it slip unintentionally when they are conversing and someone overheard it."

"But why would they want to kill me and even send a threat letter to me beforehand?"

Katsuki frowned, "Unfortunately, I cannot answer that question as I am not sure of it myself, Mistress… Perhaps Head Maid Mary might have some answers for us when we get home?"

Unnn… I sure hope so…

It actually took me a while to realise that Katsuki and probably the other maids were trying their best to downplay the seriousness of this situation as much as possible, either because they don\'t want me to worry or because of some other reason.

Just as I was thinking about that, a portal opened up in front of me as I reached the stretch of road that led towards the upper district of the city.

"Young Mistress, I\'m here to pick you up. The Madam would like to see you."

Eh? Umm… Ok?

I stepped through the portal with Mary and Katsuki following behind me, appearing inside the main hall of the mansion.

"What\'s going on, Mary?" I asked.

"Young Mistress already knows you are being targeted, yes? We believe we know the reason as to why as well. Please follow me."

Huh… To the point that she would actually use her portals to bring me back? I wonder what they found out?

She brought us to the study room where Mother was drinking a cup of tea casually.

"Ara? Welcome back my little one~ How was school today?" She asked, as though she didn\'t even know there was an attempt on my life.

Correction… She knew but she was intentionally not mentioning it.

I noticed Katsuki tense slightly and I realised that this was a test of sorts for her. If I were to say something like my day was bad or something similar, it would leave a bad mark on Katsuki since that would be her responsibility as my personal maid.

"It was fun like usual, Mommy!" I answered cheerfully.

"Ara, ara~ That\'s good to hear~ Well done, little Katsuki."

Katsuki bowed, "I was merely taking care of Mistress, Madam."

I knew it…  Is there really a need to be so harsh though? Isn\'t Katsuki just a year older than I am? Plus she hasn\'t been a maid here for that long has she?

Maybe I shouldn\'t ask…

"Ufufufu~ What are you waiting for, my little one? Come to Mama~" She giggled, tapping on her lap.

I went up to her and Mother lifted me up like I was still a baby and sat me down on her lap with my back facing her. She then rested her chin on top of mine and began nuzzling me affectionately.

Seeing that I was settled in, Mary took out something from her apron, "Young Mistress, please take a look at this. Do you recognise this person?"

A drawing of a young man with sunken cheeks and eyes that looked like he hadn\'t slept in days was placed on the table in front of me.

"Umm… No. At least I don\'t think so… Should I?"

"It\'s not surprising that you don\'t. His name is Balor Jules, a former baron living in the capital. He was stripped of his land and titles when it was revealed that he was involved in a series of murders in the capital."

"Don\'t tell me he\'s the one after me?"

"That is what we are in the midst of confirming but we have reasonable suspicion that he is the one. The only problem is that he was supposed to be dead about a decade ago."

I blinked at Mary, "Eh? Then why do you think that it\'s him?"

"Because we followed a trail that led us to a hidden base with notes that belonged to him. And in that base were recent notes and pictures that are related to you."

Mary took out even more pieces of paper and this time there were multiple drawings of me in various angles and the other pieces of paper had notes like how tall I was, what magic I was capable of and even my day to day schedule as well.

There\'s no doubt that whoever was writing this note was definitely taking notes of me and not in a good way.

"Why is this guy targeting me? And where is he now?" I asked.

Mary frowned, "We are still trying to determine the answer for both of those questions. The base itself looked used, but we found no signs of food or water so he must not be using that base as a permanent residence. Thus, we believe he must have other hidden bases elsewhere."

I looked up at Mary, "How dangerous is this person, actually?"

"If he has not done anything in the past ten years, I would say he\'s not of any threat directly. I would be more concerned if he has prepared traps or other tricks in these ten years. What\'s more, we still don\'t know what his goal is."

I would have guessed that he might be some pervert but I don\'t think that would explain about the silver needles.

"And you said he was involved in a series of murders?"

"That is correct, Young Mistress. From the records, he seemed to be involved in researching some kind of ritual that uses body parts of people. Which led to him going around to kill innocents in order to harvest those corpses. What exactly the ritual was supposed to do was never revealed, however."

Ughh… It\'s one of those crazy mages doing crazy experiments or whatever kind of scenario isn\'t it? In that case, I wouldn\'t even be surprised if it was revealed that he\'s still alive and he\'s planning to use me for some sick experiment or something…

I poked my fingers together, "Umm… Is there anything I should do then?"

"Not at all, Young Mistress, I merely felt that we should inform you of what we have uncovered so far since it involves you."

"And if I were to meet him, what should I do?"

Mother giggled, "Ara, ara? My little one can just treat him like a common bandit~ There\'s no need to hold back~"

Oh~ So I don\'t need to be worried about being charged for murder if I kill him~ Good to know~