Ch.55 – Secret Assassination Instructor

<5 – Secret Assassination Instructor>

On a day like any other, while I was immersed in training.

Unlike usual, a somewhat special day began.

“I am a maid dispatched to look after the young lady.”

“Ohhh.”

*Clap clap clap.*

A woman in what could only be described as maid attire appeared, worthy of spontaneous applause.

The cute maid with short green hair and sharp eyes gave a greeting while slightly lifting the hem of her long skirt with both hands.

“I am Leaf, assigned to serve Miss Oknodie from today.”

She seems normal.

Which made her even more suspicious.

“Young lady. Is there something wrong with the maid?”

“Your name. What is your full name?”

“I apologize. Let me introduce myself again. I am Leaf Life.”

Leaf Life.

The life of a leaf.

Quite a cute name befitting a maid.

Which made me even more jealous.

Some people have names like Oknodie or Jona Wiheomhae that sound like jokes, so why does only the maid get a decent name?

I feel envious, embarrassed, and angry all at once.

“Young lady?”

“It’s nothing.”

Jealous of a maid because of her name.

This isn’t something I can tell anyone about.

* *

Reaped Life found it interesting.

A life harvested. A life reaped.

Once, a girl whose humble life was extended thanks to the boss decided to dedicate her life to him.

Abandoning her old name, she received a new one.

Leaf Life.

It was a name that carried the pride of an assassin.

Herself, reaped by the boss.

The boss’s enemies, to be reaped by her hands.

A name that simultaneously meant both.

“Did you tell her about my identity?”

“Not at all. I intend for you to serve as a secret bodyguard as well. I have no intention whatsoever of revealing your status to the young lady.”

“Then it’s pure intuition on her part.”

Leaf found this intriguing.

“The qualification the supervisor requested to verify is the aptitude of an assassin. This test won’t end with just one intuition.”

“I know. I’ll leave the evaluation to your judgment.”

“You seem quite confident.”

“You’ll see.”

Leaf monitored the young lady’s every move.

And she became convinced.

‘She was born to be an assassin!’

The assassin’s instinct to hide, always trying to conceal herself from the butler and Leaf whenever possible.

The assassin’s tracking instinct, sensing presences at night and gauging whether she could escape through the window.

Even weight training, carrying a massive weapon hidden in her bosom while continuing with daily activities without skipping meals.

“I will report to the supervisor.”

“When do you plan to start the training?”

“Starting today.”

“It must not interfere with her existing training.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll minimize drug and poison resistance training and postpone assassination techniques for later. For now, I’ll focus intensively on concealment and tracking training.”

“Not bad.”

“But I wonder why someone of your caliber is still doing this kind of work. Perhaps those rumors about the trouble you caused regarding the disposition of the previous ‘young lady’…”

“That’s enough.”

Leaf closed her mouth as the butler’s hand edge reached her chin.

“Know your place. Your target for surveillance is the young lady, not me.”

“…I apologize.”

Jona withdrew his hand and left to prepare for tomorrow’s training for the young lady.

Leaf smiled coldly.

‘No matter how talented the young lady is, it would be troublesome if you become too greedy. The organization isn’t generous enough to overlook mistakes repeatedly.’

* *

The new maid Leaf.

This woman was subtly annoying yet helpful.

“What are you doing in the laundry basket?”

“…It just looked comfortable to sit in.”

[Hiding failed.]

Sometimes she interfered with my training.

“Young lady? No… It was just the shadow of the garden tree reflected behind the curtain.”

[You hid on a branch for more than 1 minute.]

[Hiding experience +1]

[Someone saw you but didn’t notice.]

[Hiding experience +3]

[Concealment experience +1]

Other times she was actually helpful.

Unlike butler Jona, who would find me no matter where I hid, the maid had many tasks like laundry and cleaning.

If I didn’t observe her daily schedule or predict her movements through mealtime conversations, my hiding would be quickly discovered.

But if I prepared thoroughly and deceived the maid’s eyes, my hiding experience would grow rapidly.

Thanks to this, the higher function of hiding, concealment, naturally increased as well—turning misfortune into blessing, killing two birds with one stone.

“Ugh. The food tastes strange.”

“I apologize, young lady. I will be more careful next time.”

But lately, the butler has been causing trouble.

Someone who used to cook well keeps failing to season properly or serves food with strange tastes.

“Young lady?”

“Don’t take it away. You worked hard to cook it.”

[You identified spoiled food.]

[Poison identification experience +1]

[You ate spoiled food.]

[Poison resistance experience +1]

Was it bad enough to risk food poisoning?

Still, if I show that I eat everything, maybe he’ll be more careful with cooking next time.

After finishing the meal with gratitude for the butler I’ve always felt, not only the butler but also the maid looked at me with strange gazes.

Hehe. Are they touched?

The butler and maid whispered to each other from a distance, and from the next day, the maid became strangely kind.

“Would you like a strawberry-flavored candy?”

“Yes!”

“Here’s a grape-flavored candy.”

“Yes!”

“I baked cookies specially today.”

“I’d love that!”

Seeing that I respond positively to everything, she keeps bringing snacks whenever she has the chance.

Hehe. It was worth training her with enthusiastic reactions to make her feel rewarded for giving snacks.

Even when some snacks taste strange, I eat them without complaint, so she brings everything from cake slices to alphabet chocolates.

Stupid maid.

She doesn’t even realize her salary is being sacrificed to increase my food encyclopedia collection rate, diligently spending her wages on snacks!

* *

Late at night.

In the staff room of the secret training ground, the butler and maid return to their true identities as an organization executive and assassin.

“How is the poison adaptation training?”

“Her identification and adaptation are faster than expected. I’ve unintentionally made quite a bit of progress.”

“Is it the same as during mealtimes?”

“She notices about 30% of the time, which is quite high.”

“Is this normal?”

“Of course not.”

Leaf declared firmly.

“Ordinary people only feel slight discomfort when eating poisoned food, not showing strong suspicion or certainty like the young lady. If they realized, they wouldn’t eat it at all.”

“Yet the young lady ate everything.”

“There are two possible scenarios. Either she has survived multiple near-death experiences from eating poisoned food on the streets, or she had to eat contaminated food to survive.”

This was the assertion of an assassin who handled poisons.

Jona realized his understanding of street trash was insufficient.

“There are too many pieces of garbage in this city.”

“Are you planning to clean them up?”

“They laid hands on the organization’s young lady. We can’t let them live so brazenly.”

Killing intent filled Jona’s eyes.

“Wait… The street magician’s antics, the poisoned food distributed to people on the streets—perhaps these are signs of another organization’s involvement in the city.”

“You’re planning to take action.”

“It’s worth investigating. Leaf. I’m changing your duty tonight from watching the young lady to confirming whether an unidentified hostile organization is operating.”

“And if I find them. What then?”

The answer was obvious.

“Annihilation.”

At Jona’s order, Leaf’s eyes gleamed with a cold smile.

* *

Today I was lucky to have no surveillance.

After the maid arrived, butler Jona’s surveillance decreased, and maid Leaf, mistakenly thinking I would sleep quietly after being given snacks, also lowered her guard.

Hehe. Troublesome?

If you lower your guard against a veteran player like me…

I might sneak out at night and raid some criminal organizations in town.

After all, they’re just trying to challenge tests with money extorted from ordinary citizens, so isn’t it better for them to be eliminated by a righteous player and have their funds redistributed?

So I slipped out of the mansion.

Looking for marks where organizations might be, I headed to an abandoned warehouse near the sewers, and voilà, I found a hideout with dozens of corpses.

“…?”

A gang war?

Why are they all dead?

Looking at the safe, there were no signs of it being opened.

This wasn’t a robbery-murder.

Feeling uneasy, I raided another organization’s office in the slums.

“…??”

More corpses everywhere.

Even the hideout of a corrupt merchant guild that tries to capture players as slaves with a 20% probability.

Even the tent of a circus troupe that eats human flesh.

Every criminal organization I visited was filled with corpses.

What is this?

It’s scary.

Completely freaked out, I returned to the mansion and was closing the window when the light suddenly turned on.

“Eeeek!!”

“Where have you been at this late hour, young lady?”

“J-just a little walk.”

“You smell of blood.”

“N-no! I didn’t kill them. Everyone was already dead when I got there!”

Leaf, who had looked slightly surprised, smiled.

As I stared at her smile, tempting like a ripe fruit, Leaf removed my outdoor clothes and laid me on the bed.

While I blinked in confusion, Leaf covered me with a blanket up to my neck and placed her hand over my eyes.

“You had a bad dream.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll stay by your side tonight. You won’t have any more nightmares, so please sleep peacefully just for tonight.”

Her gentle voice made me drowsy.

Beyond her patting hand, I heard the sound of a candle being lit, and I felt as if I had inhaled some hypnotic gas, my mind becoming increasingly hazy.

I see…

It was a nightmare…

Feeling reassured by the cool hand covering my eyes, I fell asleep.

“I will… allow tailing… professional training…”

I thought I heard Leaf saying something in my dream, but it must have been my imagination.