Ch.71Again, you? #2

Rock Killinear, the son of Albus Killinear and the heir to the duchy.

From his perspective, the seeds of misfortune that sprouted in the royal palace were utterly absurd.

From Agnes’s foolish actions—whose body would now be nothing but bare bones—to Helena’s madness, all of it.

“Arghhhh!!”

Rock slammed his fist on the table before him with a loud bang as he shouted.

He had schemed in every possible way, unable to tolerate the sight of his once-ignored younger brother wielding power, but he had failed.

The conditions of the duel, with the king as notary, had to be solemnly enforced, and because the justification was so strong, any resistance proved futile.

Nevertheless, accepting something logically versus emotionally were different matters. Even now under house arrest, he couldn’t fully swallow the bitter taste of defeat.

“I won’t forgive him…! Just you wait…!”

Though his influence had vanished, he was still the eldest son of the Killinear ducal family, and like any nobleman, he had secret funds at his disposal.

Servants still came periodically to attend to his needs.

In other words, Rock believed he wasn’t completely broken yet.

He ground his teeth with an audible creak and shouted in a voice filled with rage.

“Is anyone there?!”

◎◎◎

The Assassins’ Guild was vast and extensive, with branches throughout the continent, including the Kingdom of Soter.

In an era where nobles seized power and ran rampant, the demand for assassinations never ceased, meaning from their perspective, money flowed in from all directions.

Even without daily work, occasional clients brought substantial jobs, allowing them to maintain their operations.

To sustain their legacy, they also devoted themselves to training assassins at a separate headquarters.

Funny as it might sound, they were, in their own way, dedicated to their professional ethics.

“Good grief…”

There were several assassins’ guilds in the Kingdom of Soter, and the man now sprawled at the table sighing was one of the branch leaders.

On the surface, it was a tavern that also served as an inn.

The man clutched his head in distress.

The request to kill someone while disguising it as an accidental death wasn’t surprising in itself, but the problem was that the target happened to be the current Duke Killinear.

Though not as formidable as a certain notorious duke, the people protecting him were quite formidable.

Breaking through all of them and making it look like an accident? Honestly, it was absurd.

“What should I do…?”

“What’s the matter?”

A familiar voice reached the branch leader’s ears as he twisted in his dilemma.

It was the man who outwardly served as the tavern’s owner and acted as a liaison with the guild.

He was also an assassin, but his role as a connector meant he rarely went into the field himself.

“The assassination of Duke Killinear.”

“Duke assassination? I heard the eldest son of that house was under house arrest. Seems he’s planning to go as far as assassination.”

The man sat across from the sighing branch leader and smirked.

It might have seemed surprising that he could see through the client’s identity based on the target, but it was a conclusion anyone in the Assassins’ Guild could reach.

“Anyway, you can just refuse, can’t you? It’s not like our motto is to accept everything unconditionally.”

Refuse if it’s disadvantageous. The man shook his head at this obvious truth.

It seemed strange that the branch leader was agonizing over something with such a clear answer.

He wasn’t blinded by money, nor did he lack decisiveness.

“True. Especially after the recent internal disturbance, they seem to be paying more attention to security, and breaking through them and disguising it as an accidental death is nearly impossible. Unless it’s a special-grade assassin staying near headquarters.”

“Special-grade, huh. Looking at the job, it might warrant moving a special-grade, but their side doesn’t have enough money for that.”

Special-grade assassins were those who could handle aura and even assassinate knights.

Moreover, there were few of them, making their price extremely high. In other words, they couldn’t be moved for just anything.

The assassination of a duke—looking at that alone, it might be worth moving a special-grade, but the payment offered for a successful assassination was woefully inadequate.

From what he’d heard, the eldest son of Killinear was using his secret funds for the request… but that didn’t make non-existent money appear.

The branch leader knew this but still couldn’t easily dismiss the request.

He thought there might be some other way to use this opportunity.

“Right. No matter how I calculate it, refusing is the right choice. But it feels wasteful to just throw this away. I can’t articulate it well because my brain’s not working right, but I feel like there’s a chance to make something out of this. But the method is just…”

“You’re quite persistent. How about a drink? Maybe something will come to mind if your head clears a bit.”

“That’s not clearing your head, that’s loosening your tongue.”

As he was tempted by the idea of having a drink to improve his mood, a flash of inspiration struck the branch leader.

“Hey. What do you think about informing the duke himself about this request?”

“What…? Are you crazy? Someone who knows that client information is strictly confidential is talking nonsense…”

The Assassins’ Guild kept the identity of their clients secret.

It was because of this trust that even a guild as notorious as theirs gained credibility and maintained its operations while making a decent living.

It was natural not to understand the branch leader’s idea of casually revealing such secrets.

However, the branch leader tapped the table with his right index finger and continued calmly.

“Yes, it’s a secret. But if the client disappears, what’s the point of client information or anything else?”

“…You’re insane. Isn’t that a complete lack of business ethics?”

“What ethics for people who cut throats for a living? Those rules were made for our survival, not for us to act truly ethically. Besides, if this works out, it could be quite profitable.”

Swallowing the request fee and gaining additional benefits—a situation with no separate profit.

The branch leader also had concerns about being too optimistic, but he saw hope in the current situation.

A hope he was reluctant to let go of.

“…Profit, huh. Profit is good, but you know safety is the priority, right?”

Seems he won’t listen no matter what I say.

The tavern owner sighed deeply and asked with a sharp gaze that one might expect when killing someone.

After all, he too was an assassin who had lived by burying people.

I know. The branch leader smiled and patted the man’s shoulder reassuringly.

◎◎◎

He truly hadn’t expected this.

Luke felt his blood pressure rising as he thought of his blood relative who had placed a request with the Assassins’ Guild, but the result that came from it was so unexpected that he blinked in surprise.

After all, the man who visited him late at night, wrapped from head to toe in a robe, was the branch leader of the Assassins’ Guild.

“Would you like a drink?”

“I’d be grateful if you offered.”

At a time when everyone was restraining their activities and preparing for sleep, Luke poured tea with considerable effort for the branch leader who had sneaked over the wall like a mouse.

He brewed the tea himself to avoid drawing attention by calling someone.

It was something he would normally have someone else do, but the form he had learned as part of his education looked quite convincing.

In any case, it was tea poured by the duke himself.

The branch leader preferred alcohol to tea, but he didn’t show it and swallowed the bitter tea as if it were delicious.

Inwardly thinking that he couldn’t understand the behavior of nobles who frequently drank such things.

“It has a taste that clears the mind.”

“I thought you’d be accustomed to stimulants from killing people, but you seem to have an unexpected appreciation for taste.”

Luke knew the branch leader’s words were flattery, but he gave him credit for being able to express himself that way.

He seemed capable enough to be in charge of a group.

“You flatter me.”

“Hmm. Then let’s set aside the unnecessary talk and get to the point. Why are you telling me about my brother’s assassination plan?”

“It’s a kind of request to stay on good terms with the Duke of Killinear, the master of the Killinear ducal family, and to be looked upon favorably.”

A request, is it? This is the first time I’ve heard such a peculiar request.

Luke smiled and silently drank his tea, and the branch leader also awkwardly drank the remaining tea in one gulp.

The bitter tea was too painful for his tongue to drink in small sips.

“But tell me, is your purpose just to inform me of this fact? That would give the impression that you’ve betrayed trust.”

“I would like you to keep that a secret. I plan to spread a false rumor that there was an internal leak and pretend to discipline someone for it.”

“So you’re planning to win with fabrication from start to finish, is that it?”

Is he asking me to go along with it?

Luke might have been displeased by the attitude that seemed to be manipulating him, but he was also a duke.

He was just trying to drag out the conversation as much as possible to savor the current situation.

Should I forgive him even though he tried to poison me, and should I forgive him even though he tried to assassinate me?

Luke was lost in thought, weighing the benefits of improving his reputation through mercy and eliminating threats.

It was from the thought that it might not be bad to go along with the blood-scented man sitting in front of him, but he was wondering if there was a way to gain even more benefit.

That nature was not much different from the branch leader sitting in front of him, and in a way, it was a concern that anyone running an organization might have.

What should I do? Time passed as he pondered and pondered.

The branch leader was inwardly sweating in that terrible silence, but outwardly he pretended to be calm and waited for an answer.

He felt he could only return with peace of mind after hearing a definite answer, even if it meant staying up all night.

“Hmm.”

Only after some more time had passed did Luke’s murmur break the terrible silence.

In his mind, which had been turning over various thoughts in the silence, a new conclusion different from the branch leader’s had emerged.

It was a thought that, from his perspective, was as good as a brilliant idea that would secure both justification and practical benefit.

“Not bad. But you’ll have to work a bit more urgently.”

“Pardon? Do you have something you want me to do?”

“Indeed I do. From now on, I want you to go assassinate Duchess Crauzer.”

What?!

The branch leader stood up abruptly, throwing off the mask he had been carefully maintaining.

Helena Crauzer—a swordmaster counted among the best on the continent, the source of Killinear’s internal strife, and a woman with an unusual obsession with her grand duke, Zion Crauzer.

And from the Assassins’ Guild’s perspective, she was a woman they should absolutely never get involved with.

Because he knew all too well that a few years ago, when she was young, she had attacked an Assassins’ Guild branch in the Crauzer duchy and turned it into a wasteland.

—Never set foot here again.

The branch leader trembled as he recalled the maxim that had been passed down like a legend since that day.

The principle of the Assassins’ Guild that they should never get involved with Helena Crauzer was a matter directly linked to survival, just as much as with Duke Killinear.

“That’s impossible. How could someone of our level assassinate Duchess Crauzer?”

“I know that well too. Do you think I’m stupid enough to actually order you to kill the duchess?”

Yes, you look stupid, you bastard.

The branch leader clenched his fist as he looked at Luke, who had arrogantly raised his chin.

Fortunately, it was hidden by his baggy robe, so the gesture wasn’t visible.

Thanks to that, he could secretly express his rough anger and cool down.

“…I apologize. It was just such a sudden suggestion.”

“I understand. Even if you are a branch leader of the guild, it’s difficult to understand everything from just one statement. Anyway, listen carefully.”

Luke laid out exactly what he had been thinking.

It was a conclusion he had reached because he thought it would be good in many ways to make useful use of the opportunity that had rolled in on its own.

For him, he was newly grateful for the many misdeeds Rock had committed.

Good heavens. After hearing Luke’s story, the branch leader asked in great surprise, trying his best to calm his trembling voice.

“So, I should move as soon as I receive the contact?”

“Yes. Outwardly, you’ll be treated as a suspect in the duke’s assassination, but don’t worry. I’ll make sure everything is handled smoothly, for my sake as well.”

“…I’ll trust you.”