Chapter 48: A Corrupted Leader

Chapter 48: A Corrupted Leader

--Mild Gore Warning Again--

Mid Afternoon - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

- Shir ~

My name is Shir, the leader of an elite assassin group within The Tower.

We had a record of never failing a single assassination over the years, but things were currently looking bleak

I was sitting in a secluded bar in the lower district at the time. "Have you heard back from them?"

Sitting across the table from me was a newer and younger member of the group. "Nothing yet sir."

"Has anyone seen them since they went in?"

"No sir."

“Tch..” -Are those incompitent bast*rds really going to mess up our record..-

The face of the man across the table paled slightly and his posture lowered. As a newbie he still had the fear of getting killed by his superiors on their whim, it was simply how the assassins branch worked.

-Its crude but it raises them well..- As I tried to get my mind off the topic of the mission failing, another man in a black robe walked in.

Seeing his signal to leave, the young man at the table traded seats with the person coming inside.

“I have a report on the assassination squad, Captain.” He was quick to get to business.

“I'm listening.”

“The ‘three’ have been spotted being moved into the imperial prison.”

“And what about the mage?”

"He is on his way to the slum market, Captain."

"Hm...” Unlike what I expected, hearing that they actually failed didn't change my demeanor and I kept my calm. “Go deal with that mage personally and order the others to meet up. We need to clean them up before one leaks anything."

The atmosphere quickly darkened as the man understood exactly what I meant. "As you order." With a light bow of his head he disappeared from his seat.

As I finally stood up from my seat, the deep uneasiness in my gut only got worse, but I didn't pay it mind.

With a bit of stretching, I tossed a silver onto the table and made my way outside. “Haah..” -Why am I always the one that has to clean up..-

- Vasilias ~

"Are you done already?"

"Y..yeah.." I started feeling awkward seeing Helen acting so happily while covered in blood. "You seem to be enjoying yourself.."

"Why of course, they dared to try and harm my Oliver." Her smile that I thought looked innocent contained a slight craze.

-Well then..- "Ahem, in any case, I got the information I needed.."

"Ah right, sorry I got a little sidetracked." Helen glanced back to the poor man she tortured as if expecting him to say something, but he wouldn't respond.. well, it was more like he couldn't.

Pulling what was left of his head off my knee, I tossed him to the side and looked up to see the other three looking at me, wide eyed.

"Wow you just let your comrade die like that? What awful people."

At my slight provocation, the two other weak ones charged at me, one with a lightning rune one with a light rune.

A blinding light filled the room immediately after. -To try and blind a dragon!-

Sensing the one with the lightning rune reach for my back, I took a step to the side and grabbed his arm, then moved it to intercept the poison coated knife flying at my face.

*Shink*

The knife cleanly passed through the man's hand and got stuck in the bone.

"Uh oh! Watch out for friendly fire!" Taking a step to the side, I let the light fade and let the assassins realize what happened, but they didn't pay it mind and lunged at me again.

Mid lunge, they both activated earth runes to strengthen their muscles for hand to hand combat.

-You can do that?!- "Why didn't I think of that before?!"

With my new realization, I immediately strengthened the muscles in my arms and back.

*CrAcK*

With a heavy punch into the poisoned man's forehead, his skull shattered and his neck snapped like a twig.

As his body went limp and fell to the floor, I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. -Hmm.. it's not as much of a strength improvement for me as it is for them..-

As I was thinking, the other weakling threw a punch that I casually caught.

“To interrupt my thoughts, how rude.” As my smile grew, a ball of liquid hydrogen formed around my hand.

*pshh-FWOOOOSH*

Connecting the back of the thruster to the walls behind me, the entire room simultaneously shattered.

A dense and hot fog filled the room before I used wind magic to make it vanish.

Standing there at the end of the hall was the nation rank aura I felt before the fight.

It was an older man with a very tempered attitude but I couldn't help but notice the beads of sweat on his forehead.

It filled my mind with confidence as I got excited to continue playing around. "How could there be such a heartless man to let his subordinates die like that."

"They were nothing but slaves." His voice wasn't totally calm, but it carried quite a bit of confidence.

"You make it sound like you're different, do you maybe know something about what the tower is planning? You seem strong enough to have some actual authority."

His eyes immediately went wide.

-So he does know something..- My playful smile quickly turned sly. "I'll give you a chance just like I did to the guy inside. If you spit everything out, I'll let you live."

"Sorry kid, but you're not the one to decide that." A sudden swirl of mana appeared around his hands, on one hand an earth rune, on the other a fire rune.

"Hooh? Two runes at once?" A grin slowly crept onto my face. -You'll be a fun mouse to play with!-