Chapter 196: 105. Clues (Part One)

**

Late at night.

On a night where the moonlight had been swallowed up by the gloomy clouds above, several assassins were making their moves.

They had only one purpose.

‘Barus Victoria.’

It was to assassinate the First Prince.

The order had been issued by the Second Prince of Lome Kingdom, Derian.

-Go and take the life of my older brother. However, you must never harm the Imperial Prince of the Theocratic Empire. Remember that we cannot deal with their wrath if you do!

The negotiation for the ceasefire was still ongoing.

But… to enter a ceasefire when certain victory was practically right before his nose? It was unsurprising that Derian grew anxious from this turn of events.

If the agents of the Theocratic Empire started their in-depth investigation of Lome Kingdom’s affairs, then there was an uncomfortably high chance of numerous truths being uncovered, such as who actually murdered the previous king, or all the underhanded dealings Derian was involved in.

He found himself in a situation where he couldn’t afford to give the rebels even the slightest advantage. Before the ceasefire could commence, he had to kill Barus by any means possible.

By removing the First Prince from the picture, this civil war should come to a swift end.

-Do not leave behind any evidence.

In case the Theocratic Empire demanded an explanation and ruthlessly pressured him, he planned to pacify them somehow even if he had to resort to kowtowing to them. Everything was acceptable as long as he could ascend to the throne.

He was even prepared to give up a portion of the kingdom’s territory if that helped his case.

The empire had quickly become one faction that Derian didn’t want to get tangled up with.

The assassins moved swiftly. They crossed the village where everyone was asleep for the night and headed towards the sewer entrance near the fortress.

Using Mana-infused daggers, they carefully cut open the steel bars blocking the entrance. They infiltrated the underground sewer filled with a nauseating stench while wearing balaclavas.

Above the ground, soldiers patrolling the vicinity with the aid of lit torches and fire pits thought they sensed someone’s presence and took a look around, but…

“…?”

The patrolling soldiers confirmed that nothing seemed amiss by the sewers and relaxed their tense neck muscles.

It must’ve been nothing.

The security around the fortress found in the village of Benice was quite strict, but since it was still a small fortress built on the countryside, plenty of openings existed.

These assassins were quite highly skilled and could infiltrate the fortress rather smoothly. They emerged through the lavatory connected to the sewer, and quickly changed their attire.

They were now dressed like regular servants and maids. To finish off their disguise, they sprinkled perfume on themselves to mask the stench.

From this moment on, they had around five minutes. They needed to murder Barus within that time period and escape to successfully pull off this mission.

They silently began walking in the corridors.

The soldiers patrolling the fortress’s passageways saw the assassins dressed up as servants and waved their hands at them. “Work hard, everyone.”

“Yes, thank you. You too.”

The assassins smiled and replied nonchalantly.

The soldiers nodded and were about to walk past, but a seriously powerful stench assaulted their nostrils and they couldn’t help but tilt their heads in confusion. When they turned around…

“Halt. What is up with this smell…”

Their mouths were blocked up, and at the same time, daggers were thrust into their throats. The assassins quickly dragged the sagging soldiers into an empty room nearby before stuffing the corpses inside a closet and under a bed.

Once they were done with hiding the evidence, they resumed their search. Although they had liberally sprinkled perfume on themselves, it was still hard to completely mask the stench from the sewers.

They took out a map that displayed the layout of the fortress.

‘We’ll search through all of the state guest rooms.’

They peeked around the corner and stared at the very first guest room. They spotted a girl kitted out in pure-white armour standing guard there with her hand resting on the hilt of her sword.

The assassins tilted their heads from this unusual sight.

‘What’s this?’

This seemed far too easy. Even if the security was lax, to think that it’d be this poor…

The assassins exchanged glances, wondering if this had been a trap all along.

However, the castle itself seemed far too quiet for that.

Could it be that the people here had let their guard down due to the ceasefire agreement? If that wasn’t it, then maybe there was something else they believed in?

The assassins looked at the girl once more.

‘She’s still young.’

‘Any information on her?’

They quickly perused through the intel prepared for the mission, but couldn’t find anything on this silver-haired girl.

‘Still, do not let your guard down.’

Their opponent was only one person.

Since security was lax, they planned to finish this in an instant.

The assassins silently yanked out their daggers, and rapidly dashed out from behind the corner and thrust their sharp blades at the girl’s throat.

But right at that moment, Charlotte’s eyes shifted towards them.

She didn’t even bother to unsheathe her sword. No, she simply clenched her fists and punched at the incoming assassins.

**

(TL: In 1st person POV.)

Way too many piles of documents were stacked up inside the office that Barus had prepared for our usage.

All these bits of paper contained various information on the nobles from the rebel’s side, as well as intel gathered by the spies Barus had implanted in Lome Kingdom’s royal court.

For the past week or so, Barus and I had been studying them closely while secluding ourselves in this office.

Knowing that his fate was hanging in the balance here, Barus continued perusing the documents despite his face clearly showing how fatigued he was right now.

“Your highness, we haven’t found anyone suspicious yet. It’s been over five years since Raiden announced his retirement. Yes, several nobles did approach him, but none of them seem capable of lending aid of such a scale.”

Although all we had to do was to find people connected with Raiden Behemoth, that alone was proving to be harder than I thought.

I could only groan under the breath at Barus’s tired voice.

Man, was this all a waste of time?

Brother, I’m truly sorry but it seems that I won’t make it before your execution. But please do know that I tried my best.

I pray that you enjoy your eternal rest now.

I cracked a joke or two in my head and took a look at another document.

Actually, we still hadn’t investigated one particular person yet. Someone who also happened to enjoy a very close connection to Raiden, just like Barus.

The Second Prince of Lome Kingdom, Derian Victoria.

That’s right, that guy definitely needed to be checked out, too.

At that very moment, someone knocked on the door and Charlotte stepped into the office. While wiping away the remnants of blood on her gauntlets, she forced three men and a woman on their knees.

“Keo-uh-uhk…”

I stared at them in slight confusion before looking at Charlotte with eyes asking, ‘What’s all this?’

She replied, “They are assassins.”

It’s good that she didn’t beat around the bush.

I used [Mind’s Eye] to confirm the kneeling quartet’s attributes.

‘Assassination, concealment, tight lips, unyielding conviction…’

Also, their resolute determination was denoted with the usual ‘+’ in the resulting stat windows.

[Even under the threat of death, we shall never divulge our secrets!]

“Well, at least they are not Vampires, that’s for sure.”

They were indeed regular human assassins. Not only that, ones with pretty tight lips too.

“By the way, what’s the matter with them?”

Their faces seemed to be fine, and I couldn’t see any injuries on them, either.

Even then, blood still stained Charlotte’s gauntlets and the assassins were panting like people on the verge of croaking out.

“That’s because…” Charlotte made an awkward face. “I tried to… interrogate them myself, your highness.”

“…”

I openly stared at her.

She got flustered a little and clenched her fist before pretending to very gently punch the air. “I’ve only… merely hit them slightly.”

Forget interrogation, it was probably more like torture to these people.

I didn’t have to be there to know that she must’ve beaten them to bloody pulps with that Superwoman-like strength of hers.

However, she was not proficient in torturing and most likely couldn’t control her strength properly, which resulted in her beating them up until they were literally on the brink of death, and she had to heal them back before that happened.

I inwardly tutted and looked down at the kneeling assassins. “Still, an assassination attempt at a time like this, huh…”

A ceasefire negotiation was currently underway in Lome kingdom.

After three days of consideration, Second Prince Derian announced his intentions to agree to the ceasefire for the safety of Lome. Which meant that the only thing remaining in this negotiation was for First Prince Barus to sign the official document.

With that, the civil war in the kingdom would enter a temporary ceasefire. Without a doubt, someone who didn’t want to see that happen must’ve had a hand in this nonsense.

Several candidates stood out as the likely culprits – Raiden, Rose, or even Second Prince Derian himself.

Whoever they were, I was fairly sure that they weren’t targetting me.

For one, either Raiden or Rose wouldn’t send assassins of such low calibre in my way. Which left the likely ringleader as Derian Victoria. Not to forget, no matter how powerful Lome was as a kingdom, it still wouldn’t have the balls to assassinate an Imperial Prince on its own soil.

So… this meant that the odds of Barus being their target were way too high.

The one behind the attempt did it while probably thinking that as long as no evidence was left behind, it’d be easy to feign ignorance.

What an idiot that guy was.

“Is my guess correct?”

I spoke my thoughts out loudly to my audience.

The assassins continued panting away without saying anything while looking at the floor.

It seemed like they weren’t going to answer me no matter what.

“I’ve tried to interrogate them, but they didn’t say anything, your highness.”

Charlotte repeatedly clenched and unfurled her fist as if she wasn’t entirely happy about something. However, the assassins visibly flinched whenever her gauntlets made metallic creaks.

“If I knew something like this would happen, I should’ve brought the Crimson Cross agents here with me.”

Since the assassins were living people, I couldn’t torture them with holy water.

I took another look at them. Their mouths were currently blocked with gags by Charlotte to prevent them from killing themselves.

They wouldn’t divulge their secrets even under the threat of death.

“…In that case, will they be more forthcoming after dying?”

The assassins flinched greatly at what I said and stared at me.

I took out one of the Necromancer grimoires recovered back in the ancient Aslan tomb. It contained the ‘evil spirits manipulation technique’ which was a part of the ancient Necromancy skill set.

This technique basically allowed one to bind a soul, arrest, and torture it. In addition, one could hex a target and greatly weaken the victim, and even make the spirit take possession of someone else.

“Well then. Should I try that one out?”

I glanced at the assassins, took out my musket, and aimed the muzzle at them. Their eyes opened so much wider at that.

“Since you’re all tight-lipped individuals…”

What a relief it was that they weren’t Vampires. Because, with humans…

“…All I have to do now is pry open your mouths, am I right?”

I could use Necromancy on them.

(TL: Happy new year! Fingers crossed that 2021 will be better than 2020!)

(Also, only one chapter today.)