1) Chapter 1: The Disappearance of a Family

The swing of a sword resounded through the halls, followed by the splattering of blood against the room doors. Desperate screams of help sounded through one of the hallway rooms, but quickly died out with the sound of another slash. Stepping into the corridor, Castile drew another sigil to strengthen the noise cancellation magic covering the manor. His footsteps through the hall were muffled through the carpeted floors as he made his way to the man crawling away. That man was the head of the family, Hans Dietstrich.

Although he just became the head about a year ago after his feather's death, his command had quickly brought the family to ruin. Rather than focusing on buisness, he'd spent his time flirting with women wherever he went, earning himself many enemies. With the decline of money and an irresponsible head, the family could only turn to the help of other families.

However, as time passed, buisness with the family still hadn't improved and the other houses were dissatisfied with their money being drained. That's when Castille was hired to just wipe out the family. This was probably one of the biggest missions he's gotten, but he wasn't complaining. The pay was good and the cleanup was someone else's job.

Hans was in a panic, shakily holding a dagger as the mercenary drew closer. He tried to slash at the man's ankles but failed when Castille hit the weapon out of his hand. Raising his sword to Hans' throat, he sunk the tip in, watching blood draw from the wound.

"Wait.. wait! Stop!," the man choked out, "What is it you want? I'll give you anything! Riches, power, land, just spare me!"

Castille paused and cocked his head, a smirk appearing on his lips, "You think you can offer me shit? You're dirt broke." he cackled. He dug the sword deeper into the man, watching as an awful scream erupted from his throat. Hans was now paralyzed with fear and could only watch the boy gaze down at him with contempt. This guy must take him for a fool to offer something like that.

Leaning closer, Castille looked at him with a frown and said slowly. "Your family is practically worthless in the empire. What makes you think you'd have what I want? Besides, I'm getting paid double your worth for this job."

After seeing the boy up close, Hans froze. Through the black hood of the person's cloak, he caught a glimpse of blonde hair and golden eyes. He recognized them as the signature features of a certain family.

"You.. you're from the Capell family!," he spat. The Capell family was a famous family renowned for bringing up the best knights in the empire. This, of course, came with the benefits of endless wealth from their services to the royal family. However, even Hans knew that none of the family members were mercenaries. Was this person someone who couldn't make the knight position? To Han, this seemed like a 'last resort' job.

In all honestly, it's not like Castille wasn't strong enough to be of use to the royal family, he just didn't want the dedication that came with it. His parents even tried forcing him into it after finding out he was proficient in wielding mana. Anyway, that fantasy soon ended after he was kicked out of the palace for being ill-mannered. After that, his parents put their efforts in his other siblings which left him with a lot of free time to execute his missions. Now that their focus was also towards the ongoing war and revolts, he was pretty much free all the time. So, he thought, he should just make some extra cash with what he's good at!

"Ugh," Castille let out an exasperated sigh and hung his head, "This is the second time someone recognized me! I should really disguise myself for my next mission. Black hair would probably suit me." The boy blew a piece of hair out his face then glanced at the man again. It was really nothing to just mask his face with magic, it just cost a lot of energy. The golden hair and eyes of his family was both a blessing and curse in his line of work. While people thought they were beautiful, it made him easily recognizible by witnesses or victims. If anyone found out his identity it would make people doubt his family of their worthiness in producing warriors, saying that they had to stoop so low as to let their own son work as a mercenary. The main problem was his family finding out. Castille could stand the humiliation from other people, but his parents would definitely beat or maybe even disown him.

He couldn't lose his freedom! A mercenary was just for fun, but he still wanted to use his family's money for outings to the capital.

Hans was now as pale as a ghost, making Castille worry a bit. He won't die by himself, right? It would make the cleanup a lot easier, but less thrilling for him. That was the reason he even chose this as a job. In any case, Castille had to finish the job quickly. With a quick twist of the blade, he drilled the sword straight through the man's neck till and waited till the body went limp.

While sheathing his sword, he pulled out a circular object from his pocket and infused his mana into it. It lit up and he cheerfully told the person on the other line, "The job's done! Do you think you could finish the cleanup before sunrise?" The person responded with a grunt which Castille took as a sign of agreement and continued, "Oh, also, the commisioners wanted you to spread the information about the Dietstrich family before next week. Doesn't matter when this week, just get it done. Thanks!"

Once he hung up he looked around the blood-stained house before strutting out, whistling. He couldn't wait to visit the new café that had opened in the capital.