15 Assassination (13)

"You sound very sure that you'll get to sit on that throne, your highness" Zani sipping her tea again. "Have you thought about the means to get that?"

"For now, I want to draw a clear line on who are my allies and who are my foes. Creating such categories would help me on formulating my plan"

"Then, I, along with all members of the Calenon's Elven Guards, pledge our loyalty to you when the time comes, your highness" Zani said, bowing her head down.

"What made you think I'm the better choice, Master Zani? I thought Runford might have more experience on ruling a realm, he is the prince of Sildori after all"

"Oh please, Your Highness, do not doubt my loyalty. It is based on something greater than utility or experience." She said, clearly frowning at my suspicion. "It is based on familial ties".

"How so?"

"Eli…" Mother spoke suddenly, interrupting both of us. "It was Zani who helped me during my birth, she was the one who witnessed it first hand. Not your father, not the guards, not even the maids, it was Zani"

"Oh" well, that's interesting. "Then I'm sorry for doubting you, Master Zani, I'm unaware of your service"

She rolled her eyes. "Don't worry your highness, although it helps more when you're not having that stoic mask all the time"

"I-..." Suddenly, my neck hair rose up, and my head was screaming at me about danger.

SWISH…

The sound of an arrow was immediately caught by my ears. In a split second, my right hand moved at lightning speed and managed to catch it. The sharp edge of the arrow bled my right palm yet, it managed not to hit its target, the back of my head. If I were to catch it a millisecond later, it would've found its mark.

Mother saw it and realized a second later and let out a scream. Master Zani moved into action and jumped to the floor, taking mother with her. They were shielded by the walls of the gazebo and overhead by the massive table.

"GUARDS! GUARDS!" Zani screamed loudly as she could for an old woman.

I stood up and draw Strumnir, it was a right choice bringing my blade here. As soon as the blade-edge was off the scabbard, three hooded figures jumped from the surrounding garden hedges and darted their way to us.

I jumped over the gazebo's half walls and took up the stance Yohan had taught me these three years. The first person to reach me went ahead of the other two and took out a small dagger with dark green edges. It was poison!

I fully ducked, curling my legs and pointed Strumnir right forward. As the poison dagger stabbed the air where my head was formerly, the sharp edge of Strumnir was already pushed against his unarmored chest. I rose up from my crouch and with full force stabbed the man right on his chest. He spat out blood right on his mask, making it bloodied.

The dagger fell on the green grass, the poison blended well with it. But I can't lose my focus now. The other two assassins had caught up to me, I was ready with my blade guarding my body, tilting across. However-

Just as the first man was about to raise his sword, a black hue emerged from behind him and out of the darkness came the Sera.

She was holding a sturdy tree branch, which normally couldn't deal a lot of damage but somehow in her hand, she managed to knock the man out. The death blow to the head was enough to make him unconscious.

Now, there's only one left. The last person looked up to us, shuffling his view between me and the redhead vampire. He stumbled, then doubted then as if adrenaline had depleted, he realized what kind of danger he was in. His eyes were now filled with horror and he turned back, trying to retreat, but it was too late. I threw Strumnir with both my hands and the blade slashed through his body, pinning him to the ground.

Me and Sera were both panting as I made my way to collect Strumnir from the corpse.

"I was watching you, but then I heard rustling in the trees and investigated it. But I can't stop the arrow…sorry..." Sera said, she was hiding her face, she felt guilty.

"It's fine…, let's get mother and Zani out-"

"Get her! Don't let them escape!"

"Kill her! Kill her now!"

A dozen other assassins jumped through the hedges and landed on the garden. They were more armed and more heavily armored.

"Oh poop! There's more!" Sera said, she hissed a bit before shutting her mouth. "They're trying to surround us!"

They were forming a circle which centered on me and Sera. Our backs went against each other, as we were pinned, they closed on us, slowly but surely. Striking them while their guards are up and with friends covering them would be suicide.

"Shit!" I gripped Strumnir, my sweat were falling to its grip, wetting it.

As they were within 3 paces of us, a miracle happened.

One of the assassins suddenly fell, a short blade to its head was visible. Then, another one fell, this time by an arrow to the forehead. They were too confused to notice the two heavily armed female guards jumping to protect me and Sera. The entire weight of the heavy guard armor shook the ground and made the assassins stumbled.

Haril and Helga, both armed with their signature Dual-blades, took the blades of many assassins to them. The two bladed staff took two assassins down each at a time.

As the assassins were having trouble, I sprung into action, striking the first opponent I saw. Then, without wasting the momentum, the weight of my blade slashed through another one's neck, blood came out, covering my face in red. I spun my blade as it went through the unfortunate man's neck, and then accommodated the momentum already in place to strike my third victim, who was trying to flank Helga.

The massacre took no more than mere seconds as Helga and Haril both danced around the enemy with their weapon, tearing through them in an elegant and decisive manner. They both looked like a pair of dancers doing stunts and beautiful moves that would certainly attract the opposite sex's attraction if it weren't for the fact that they were slashing people with dual-blades. Quite the show.

In the end, there weren't any survivors left. I guess both Haril and Helga are just that proficient with their signature weapon, so much so that they took out 4 man each leaving the rest for me and Sera.

"Helga, check on mother and Master Zani to see if they're okay. If possible start evacuating them immediately" Helga nodded, guards are usually quiet but Helga took it a step further. "Sera, alert the maids and tell them to call more guards in. We have to secure the area around the palace as make sure there are any other threat"

"Ye-yes…, where are the maids, though?"

"They're in front of the garden, I think they might have panicked and ran somewhere safe, so you had to search for them, can you do that?"

"I-i can, I can smell their blood…"

Haril side eyed me for one second before focusing on the corpses that she had just slain.

"A-alright, I do that. On me go!"

Sera took off to find the maids, I turned around and found Haril poking the dead bodies that were staining the clean green grass with blood.

"She didn't even bother to call you using your honorary title, your highness" She said, casually.

"Oh, yeah… huh… didn't realize it"

"You're fine with it? She's just a simple palace maid right? Her punishment if found guilty would be death"

"She's not a maid, she's Yohan's daughter"

Haril took a second to recall her memory, she probably forgot who Yohan is, the old man was rarely seen outside his habitat.

"So the human hermit had a daughter all this time?"

"He went ahead and adopt one"

She shrugged. "Guess he didn't bother to teach her how to properly address you, your highness"

"Are you jealous that she could call me so casually, Haril? As if you also wan-"

"Your highness." Haril cut me off, before knocking the side of her blade at one of the bodies. Contrary to my expectation, it grunted. Clearly feeling the pain. He was alive.

"Huh" without further thought I unsheathe Strumnir again. Shiiing.... "Guess one survived"

Haril read my intention and pulled the man out of the pile of corpses where had been buried. While bloodied, his face had no cut whatsoever. Haril forcefully tore his mask off, showing the full face of a pale human. He looked like he was less than 18.

He shook his head off, trying to wash away the ache that plagued his head. He had lost his awareness of time and place. His eyes jiggled around and rolled around the socket. It was hard at first, but seeing the clean edge of Strumnir helped accelerate the process which made him awake.

"NO! PLEASE! DON'T KILL ME!!" The man said, wiggling his body around.

Haril held him steadily, her strong hands were no match for the man's malnourished figure. He struggled while she held him tightly, preventing anything but simple movements.

I stepped on his left upper foot, which made him grunt even more. Then, I hung Strumnir and put the upper edge right below his left ear, the edge had touched the soft meat.

"Tell me, what's your name?"

I didn't know how intimidating myself was, considering I was only 9 years old, but it was enough to make the man completely shaken up and hard to breathe any air. It wasn't until I looked up to Haril, and the succeeding beating before he finally mustered enough courage to speak.

"Maurycy!" It's Maurycy!" My face let out a smile.

"Huh, isn't that Servinic?"

"Y…yes…" he nodded, stiffly.

"So, is it right for me to assume that it was your top liege, His majesty King Gustav II that ordered the attack on my mother's palace?"

His eyes went up for a second, he stumbled and there was a noticeable tug in his heart. A common feature of someone who was about to lie.

"I-...no? I don't know what you're talking about…it wasn't him.. who-ARGHHH!!!!"

His ear fell off beside him, there was blood spewing all over the left side of his head. The red liquid dirtied Haril's armor; she was unfazed however. Strumnir was tainted again, the silver blade was no longer pristine, I clicked my tongue.

"Oh, please, mister Maurycy. Don't take me as a fool. I'm a child but I'm certainly dumb"

Haril locked both of his hands, preventing him from blocking the outflow of blood. He hissed, and then grunted, and finally moaned in pain.

"I…I…-"

"How about this…" next, I shifted Strumnir to his right ear. "If you were courtesy enough to speak of the truth, then I might let you be free"

He then went silent, it was predictable to save one's own life rather than his secret. His eyes stood silent, gazing at the blood stained grass between his legs.

"O-okay…"

I smiled satisfactorily. "Marvelous, now then. Let's start over again" He looked at me with a renewed vigor. He was ready to spill all his secrets so that he might live, the fool… "Was it King Gustav II who sent you here?"

"Yes, it was him! We were paid by one of his councilors to attack this place!"

"What was the full order?"

"He ordered us to kill the princess of Calenon and any other person present in this place"

"That is it?"

He hesitated for a moment. "...and also to bring the bodies to a secluded location where we would meet a mage of high caliber and then…"

"And then?"

"I…think he said something resurrecting? I can't sure! Please! Believe me! That's all I know!" He was scared, that's obvious.

"Well, if so then, thank you for your time, mister Maurycy"

"Now please! Free me!"

"Oh, I will free you" I shifted Strumnir away from his ear. There was a breath of fresh air for a moment before the metallic edge grazed his neck. "Free you from this world"

"Wha-"

It was a clean cut, that's the most mercy I could grant him. His head fell off to the side. Haril let go of the lifeless and headless body and started to take them out.

I swung Strumnir to the side and cleaned off any blood that stuck to it, before putting it back in the scabbard. As I turned around, I saw Sera looking at me terrified. I shrugged and she let out a sigh.

"Did you really have to kill that man?" Her head hung low, looking at the blood.

"Why should I spare him? He wouldn't have spared me a moment ago when his friends were still alive"

"Yes… but he deserved to be spared because he had already spilled the beans on his master. He didn't want any part of this anymore, so why did-"

"Sera" I walked closer to her. My index finger was in front of her mouth. "You might think being benevolent is a sign of virtue, but trust me, once it is known, people would take advantage of it"

She tilted her head, confused.

"Well, I guess you wouldn't understand it…"

I saw an entourage of guards coming to the garden. Helga had picked up mother, who was shaken and half unconscious. She was still standing thanks to Zani who held her tight. The old lady was screaming at her students, the royal guards, blaming them for their negligence.

"I'll escort you back to Yohan's hut. He will be back next week right?"

"Yeah! He said he's going to bring me some toys too!"

"Huh, that's…great!" I tried to cheer her up, although my attempt of showing emotions was very rudimentary.

Didn't know a cold blooded killer like him could care enough for emotions. Oh well.

With that, the day ended with a failed assassination on my head. And I had to figure out what exactly my adopted brother was plotting against me.