36 Shadow POV

~

We are shadows, born and specialize in an assassination. I am the thirtieth generation of shadows. It took me forty years to get to where I am, the leader of shadows. Our bodies are dark and slim that adds to our ability to hide within the shadows and only strike during the night.

The only one rule that makes our squad the most discipline is that anyone that seen us would be killed without any discussion.

As what my senior always says, dead can't tell. There is a total of twenty squads altogether, and each of the squad consists of fifteen members. I am one of those twenty squad leaders that were told to gather intel and if possible escort the person out politely.

The mission made all the shadows squad leader stunned and speechless. Furthermore, the person that gave out the order was also taken aback by the content of the mission. Gathering intel is not a problem the only problem was how we are suddenly given a mission to escort someone.

The expression each of us gave out was embarrassing, how does an assassination squad escort someone out and also, to do so without angering the person on the other hand. Don't they know how infamous and deadly our reputation was? Previously I would have brag at how all the humans would immediately turn pale and run just from the sight of us, but given the current mission, I doubt we can successfully return alive.

This is the first time we were given an impossible mission, but we are forced to succeed. Purely of how fragile our lives are. Yes, we are disposable. Every time a squad fails a mission, the whole squad is eliminated. There wasn't even a chance to be given a second chance.

There was once a squad manage to successfully complete the mission, but after knowing that one of the members got spotted by a human being, they were sent to the torture chamber and were never to be seen.

The difference about this mission?

There is no other condition rather than escorting out the person.

The only problem, there is no detail not even the name of the person that we are assigned to escort. The quest giver told us that we would know who it is if we go to the location. The only info that we have is that he lives in the palace of the Gwendal Kingdom.

Well that's not so hard, isn't it?

That is until I was told that the whole location is twice as big as our demon kingdom. Is that the reason why all of us were forced to abandon other assassination jobs? Upon receiving the quest my squad and I quickly dispatched to the location.

Even though there are no time constraints, I have a feeling that the one that manages to complete the job will immediately be promoted in rank and allow to live their life's in the inner circle of the demon kingdom.

All of us dream of getting there, it is proof that you are recognize and a proof of loyalty to be serving our demon king. It was told our demon king has been reborn, it is one of the reasons why my powers are getting stronger, and at the same time, the monsters were being restless.

~

Speed and agility are one of the things that allow us to become an assassination, within half a day we traveled across a thousand kilometers. It is then that we figured out the reason why the quest giver told us that we do not need to worry about not finding the person.

I could only tremble at the touch of the aura that I am feeling. It's our demon king! The question was, why is he living with the humans that do anything to kill him? It took us a day, yes, a day to bring our will and courage to meet up with the demon king that we all sworn to serve and protect.

I initially thought that he was captured, and our task is to save him from harm, but I immediately retract my thoughts as one of the conditions of the quest is not to kill anyone. It is by far the most ridiculous condition. How could someone tell a group of murderers to go to a location consists of beings that we hate and not kill anyone?

It took us a few times to get used to the massive amount of aura that could easily kill us with just his thoughts. Altogether, we wasted a week just to meet up with our demon king even though it took us just half a day to reach here.

Looking over at the other side of the palace, the other squads seem to have arrived, but they have a look of fear, and the faces show how tired they were. There are a few of them that are long fallen to the ground as they couldn't contain the power that was given out in the surrounding.

Part of the reason why humans could survive is that they do not have the ability to feel the aura. We use this organ to know the other party power so that we would not be too arrogant of our abilities.

Human has their own. It is called intuition or the rarest magic of all, the ability to analyze someone using their eyes.

Humans could also feel the aura if there are expose to something like this, I wonder why he is still able to live in the palace without being threatened or killed by the soldiers nearby.

Taking a closer look, the demon king looks to be an ordinary human. The truth gave us a tolled as if we couldn't believe that the person that we would serve and protect would be a human being. What if he decided to join the humans and annihilate us?

It is then that I took the words to politely escort him out seriously. If there's any mistake, our race might be wiped out. The palace is securely protected, we could freely move in if not for the various magic circles that we have never seen before.

None of us knows what it does, and honestly, I would want to know the hard way thus I am forced to station my members away from the demon king vicinity.

~

It has been a few days of waiting endlessly. The demon king sure loves to stay inside his room. There were times that he went out, but we could only stand far away as he is accompanied either the nobles, soldiers and a slave that always stick to him smiling creepily.

Once, the demon king suddenly woke up early in the morning. He seems to be taking a long way trip to the restroom. One of the members quickly made a hasty decision to slowly creep behind him. Even though he says, he is creeping… He looks to be staggering as the aura from the demon king is the strongest when you are right beside him.

This made my day, looking at the proudest and arrogant assassination of all time walking by swaying from side to side as if they are drunk. I facepalmed to myself as this might never work, but we need to be the first one to meet up.

Without hesitation I quickly approached the demon king, I felt the aura first hand, and I too was beginning to get drunk. Come on, ten more steps to reach him!

Five!

Three!

"KYAA!! Ghost!!"

That is the moment I knew we f*cked up…

The demon king stopped walking and slowly turn his head around. In an instant, we quickly disperse and make ourselves disappear.

…. Why?

Why did we do that!?

Our job was to make ourselves known… But it's our instinct to tell us to hide. I wonder why. Is it because of the fear of getting killed by the demon lord?

Glancing to my members that seems to be shivering, I felt relief as nothing happen to our squad.

"So, the top squad has failed huh…"

"…"

The third squad leader came to insult us while we are down. Though it's technically my fault for not knowing that there's a maid approaching from the front. I was too engrossed over the aura and our pride. Seem childish now that I am thinking about it.

~ Present

"Leader, we have the order to rush in."

"Affirmative"

I couldn't believe that we didn't get killed for our failure. Instead, we get to see other squads that tried to approach but end up in the same situation as us. It was hilarious I tell you. On one fine day, the aura that we have slowly and finally adjusted to disappeared.

All of us was in an uproar and that that the human finally betrayed our demon king and killed him before we get to him. Even the greater demon looks anxious and looks as if she is going to cry. But after a few hours, we realized it was just our misunderstanding.

Sure, the aura is gone but our powers aren't thus demon king is alive and well. More and more magic circles had been created by the evil witch. She looks like a sweet and nice girl but once we saw squad get annihilated by some sort of an arrow.

I could still feel the tremor on my body, seeing such destruction furthermore one of us disintegrate into nothing made me think twice about attacking her. It is purely due to this magic circle that we can't get near to the royal rooms.

We finally get an order to freely approach the palace. There is no need to be polite anymore thus most of the squad quickly rush in. There was a few that unfortunately got caught in the magic circle. I did not bear to see what happen to them. There was only a sound of cries before their body melt until he becomes a liquid form.

"There goes the 10th squad leader."

"Really?"

We are taking too many causalities even though there aren't any powerful human beings that could defeat us in hand combat. At the same time, we are being forced to approach them during the daytime.

"Guys retreat! The evil witch is here!"

"Noo!!!"

A bright light surrounded us within seconds…

I am sorry demon king…

We have failed in our duties…