Chapter 157: The emperor's puzzlement

Once they entered, the assassins advanced swiftly to their destination. But they had to be careful as more guards were standing in each corner of the palace.

Using their different stealth abilities, the guards were always late to notice their presence. A second after they spotted them, a sharp edge of their blades was right on their necks.

After turning left, they climbed another stairs then the group sprinted straight. Looked like these assassins knew their way inside the palace. Eman narrowed his eyes. Perhaps someone was brewing from behind the emperor.

The floor was littered with blood as they left their victims lying on the ground.

"?!"

The two fully-armored guards standing outside the grand door were able to notice the approaching group of people in suspicious attire.

They quickly pulled out their weapons from the scabbard and pointed them to them.

"Who are--!!?"

"Call for the back--!!"

Ting, ting, ting!

The two of them failed to finish their words when the tiled floor lurched then multiple spikes were shots from it.

The two guards groaned in pain. However, because of the hardness of their armors, the earth spikes failed to penetrate.

Instinctively, after noticing that the enemy's attacks could not deal damage to him, one of the guards summoned a light shield that was made from magical energy.

Ting, ting, ting!

Just right after summoning his light shield that the daggers thrown by the assassins collided on it.

"Tsk! Be careful, these two are no ordinary guards!" Warned one of the assassins.

"I-Intruder!!"

The other guard was able to shout but before his hand could push the alarm lever that could be seen beside the door, someone appeared behind him then a pointed blade pierced through the gap on his neck. His mouth spasmed with blood and his body slowly fell down.

Thud!

The last guard also fell. After his comrade was killed, he was surrounded and easily got defeated.

Patapatapata!

They heard noises coming from the distance. The shout from the guard recently was able to get the other's attention. Based on their footsteps, most of them were heading towards their position.

The assassins looked at each other and nodded. Then with a loud bang, they kicked the door open.

"You!!!"

The sudden noise startled the sleeping emperor. He screamed out in anger upon waking up. However, what greeted him after he opened his eyes were pointed blades, pointing their tips towards him. On top of that, he was surrounded by people in a fitted black suit.

"W… who sent you here?!" No need to guess what they came here for as the emperor could probably say just by looking at their blades that were dripping with fresh blood.

Each one of them was having cold eyes as they were staring at him like staring at livestock, waiting to be butchered.

No doubt!

They came here to take his life! A chill ran down his spine as he tried to scrutinize in his mind for a possible way to avoid the grim future that awaits him in the next couple of seconds.

He surmised that they had already dispatched the people guarding outside.

"You don't need to know, Your Majesty. But your time has come to an end!" Said the person in front of him. 

His voice was cold and his eyes were colder as he stared at him without an ounce of pity.

"Ahaha…" the emperor forced a laugh. "Can't you at least tell me who it is that wanted my life to end?" He tried to initiate a conversation to prolong his time for a little. He noticed the other guards were already heading.

The person in front of him did not reply and directly swung the blade without a slight hesitation.

"The duke?"

Upon saying it, the blade stopped an inch away from his skin. 

"Shut up!"

The assassin bellowed then made a swift horizontal strike to behead the emperor. Whoever these people were, they had a strong resolution to kill him. The blade shone from the illumination coming from the moon through a thin curtained window.

Although they did not confirm the emperor's guess, the slight hesitation and the slight tremble on the person's eyes confirmed his guess.

However, everyone was stunned in the room. Because, before the swung blade could hit the emperor's neck, the emperor suddenly disappeared. The blade hit no one but empty air!

"What?!"

A surprise utterance escaped from a person's mouth. They blinked their eyes in the wonder of what had just happened.

"Where is he?" Asked one of them. But no one could give a definite reply. Their eyes hastily scanned the room. 

Rrrrrooooll!!!

They heard a rolling sound from below. They glanced at the same time and saw an object rolling. It was like a can.

But, what is this object doing here?!

"???"

Question marks were floating above their heads as they were wondering what the can object was for.

The next second, an intense light burst out from it and took everyone's vision. They had no time to react to cover their eyes. Their vision immediately turned white.

The sudden confusion hinders their concentration. The next time they noticed each of them felt a strong impact that took their consciousness.

The emperor, on the other hand, was very confused to find himself in a different room right after the assassin swung his blade. Before the blade could sever his head, he felt a tug on his shoulder. A moment later, he was already sitting on his throne?

How…? The emperor asked in mind. But before he could absorb the sudden change, another tug was felt once again on his shoulder. 

Out of reflex, he glanced behind him, but instead, he saw a familiar ceiling, a familiar bed, and familiar everything.

"....."

The emperor was astonished as he glanced around him in haste.

However, his eyes widened at what he saw. The cold assassins a while ago were lying unconscious on the cold floor.

Step, step, step,

"....." 

"Are you okay, Your Majesty?"

The emperor's eyes widened further upon seeing the face of the person in front of him.

"Is… is it you?" He asked him if the one who helped him was him.

The young man nodded his head slightly. An explicable feeling rose from within him.

"How… did you do it?"

The emperor asked out of curiosity. "Uhm, aside from that, Your Majesty, I don't think these people were sent by the assassin's guild…"

Eman said. Actually, their movements were better than those assassins from the assassin's guild. He already fought the assassins from the assassin's guild twice. So he was a little familiar with their styles. 

Those assassins from the assassin's guild didn't have the proper movements of an assassin. They were more like paid criminals than assassins. And they didn't move in accordance with their comrades.

On the contrary, these assassins move fluidly, and they were more silent and better at hiding themselves.

For Eman, the assassins from the guild were like a group of people who wanted to become assassins, while these people in here were purposely raised to become assassins.

That's why it was easy for him to guess that these people were not from the assassin's guild.

Just that, he noticed a while ago the hesitation from these people when the emperor mentioned the word 'duke'.

The emperor looked at him, who was currently gazing at the unconscious assassins. "Yes, they weren't from the assassin's guild."

Well, he already expected it. He wanted to ask more but he noticed the emperor looked confused. He decided not to delve deeper to not get suspicions from the emperor. He could even feel the emperor's curiosity towards him. 

Since the emperor mentioned the duke, he must have already doubted this so-called duke. Could it be political issues? He doubted. Regardless, he only came to help a little.

Not long, the guards arrived at the emperor's room. They took the assassins to the palace's prison. Eman didn't kill them as he thought it would help the palace to identify the mastermind.

Also, he hoped that the emperor did not notice the enemy's number. Actually, he took one of them as a prisoner. His Dark Priest was much better at getting information from the prisoner.

He too wanted to know every little bit of information he could gather. No matter how substantial it was to him. Later on, it might be a big help to him.

As expected, without him knowing, the emperor's interest towards him took another bound. The emperor had no idea how he did it. How he defeated those high-level assassins in just a matter of seconds.

Right. No matter how many times the emperor thought about it. It wasn't even a minute that had passed when he was sent to the throne room then back to his bedroom.

In that little time, that young man was able to defeat those high-level assassins? The emperor shuddered at the thought. It wasn't the work of an academy-level person. In fact, even professional soldiers could not do it in that little time. What's more, the enemies were assassins!

No matter how the emperor thought about it, he could not come up with a possible scenario of how the young man was able to defeat those assassins in a short time.

"He's no ordinary person…" whispered the emperor as he was sitting on his throne. "Nonetheless, how did I successively transfer in two different places in a short time interval?"

"....."

This was the biggest puzzle he could not answer.