1 Stronger than it seems

???? POV

     Kill him... kill! That's my mission. I will assassinate him. I will follow my order. I make way to the kingdom of Kyūketsuki, with my weapons on me. I lurk in the trees waiting for him to arrive. Soon. Soon he'll be here and I can get this mission over and done with. Soon enough, I find him. He was walking down the forest path. Finally I can strike. I will kill him. The prince.

I grab my bow and put an arrow on. This will be easy. I pull back the bowstring and aim it at the prince. I release my hand allowing the arrow to fly.

"Huh?" He says and dodges. He looks up with a frightened look on his face. Crap.

"Who's there?" He shouts. I guess this will be harder than I thought. I ave never failed able to kill my target. Looks like I'll have to do it the other way. I couldn't shoot another arrow as he will be expecting it. I pull me hood over my head and jump from the tree. I draw my katana from its sheath.

"What the?! Who are you?!" The prince shouts in terror. I say nothing and run towards him. I was about to slash him open with my katana but he dodges. He grabs out a spell book. He then sends a beam of light my way. I dodge quickly. I'm impressed. Finally someone who puts up a fight.

     "Who are you?" The prince asks. He uses his magic to creat a force field around himself. I smirk. He was a lot more powerful than I was told. Not many can create a full force field, not to mention completely control light magic.

"I'm gonna ask again, who are you?" He says, trying to sound demanding. He was actually stuttering a bit. Perhaps this is why they told me he was weak. I grab out my grimoire(it's a magic spell book and a grimoire wasn't just created from Black Clover).

"Wouldn't you like to know..." I say. I use a spell to break his force field. He quickly lunges towards me. I of course dodge. I can't lose. I can't. I quickly try to attack him. He manages to barely dodge. He grabs my arm and flips me over. I get up and stab his arm. But that didn't stop him. He uses his good arm and casts a spell. I unfortunately, fail to dodge. I am knocked on the ground.

"Who are you?" The prince demands. Wait. Did I actually get beaten?

"Looks like I have lost," I say. My master was gonna be furious for sure. Well. I don't think I'll have to deal with that. I remembered what he said. He told me if I had lost, then I'd have to perish. And I must follow the orders. I stand up.

"Huh?" The prince gasps and steps back.

"Don't worry, you have won the fight," I say. I then hand him my katana.

"What?" He asks. He looked more confused than when one of the assassins found out that that "girl" was actually a boy.

"Since I have lost, it looks like I have failed," I say. Honestly, I kinda didn't want to die. But I have failed.

   "Since you have won, you have to kill me," I tell him. His eyes shoot wide open.

   "What?!" He yells, "Wha? I uh. Why?"

   "Cause that's what's supposed to happen," I tell him. He just takes a step back.

   "I'm not gonna kill you," He says and drops my katana. I look at him shocked. He had won. Why isn't he killing me?

"I'm not gonna kill you," he repeats. I didn't understand why he was sparing my life. My fellow assassins talked about how the world would kill us all off and we had to get to them first. Is this a trick?

"Why are you sparing me?" I ask him. He looks at me.

"Because killing is wrong. I can't force myself to kill you," He says. Although I could now easily kill him, it wouldn't be noble of me to do so. A girl from my league has always said that when we killed, we should still be fair and noble.

"Why not?" I ask. He shakes his head.

"I told you, killing is wrong," The prince says. He smiles softly. I didn't understand. He's sparing me?

"I do not understand," I tell him.

"I refuse to kill you," The prince says, "I refuse to."

He runs off back out of the woods, leaving me there in bewilderment. I didn't believe that he spared me. It was odd. Every other victim would've killed me by now. And I am supposed to die if I fail, regardless if I want to or not. It would be, according to that girl, dishonorable to kill myself after admitting defeat. Instead I will have to face the anger of my leader.

Time skip. Still ???? POV

"You insolent idiot," my leader shouts as he slaps me across the face. I cup my cheek. It hurt but I guess it's what I deserve. No it's way better than what I deserve for failing.

"I apologize ," I say. He glares towards me.

"I don't want to hear your petty apology, nor do I want to hear an excuse," he says, "the best in our league, and you lose to a weakling prince. Not only that. You flee."

I wanted to correct him and say that he spared me, but by the look on his face, I figured I should just stay silent.

"It won't happen again," I say. I didn't mention that the prince was strong. I felt my body shivering a bit. Stop that, me.

"Toughen up, Ouji," he snaps. I stop shivering. "I'm giving you another chance, don't be a disgrace."

I bow my head. I will not fail him again. I have dishonored my people. I leave while saying these words:

"Yes creator."