5.2 Back Down

Lise seemed to stop at that as she looked to me for guidance. All the while, another idea popped into my head.

"Can I borrow your sword, Lise?"

The girl merely nodded as she handed her sword over to me. With a light swing, I tried to get a handle on my sister's weapon. It was noticeably shorter than my katana, and it was a double-edged sword. The point seemed capable of stabbing through thin sheets of metal on its own, too. Yes... It could work.

"Now for the Seigels..."

I ran my hand through the flat of the blade, feeling out the Seigelcraft inscribed into its make. Right angles indicate basic hardening, with a tapered curve for rudimentary flexibility. There were also intersecting obtuse angles, signifying increased sharpness. Looking at it now, there was a whole lot more of those intersecting angles than the right ones. Did she forego durability for sharpness?

Might as well find out.

Holding the blade in a reverse-grip, I stepped away from our hiding spot and slowly crept up on the guard's back. If I could just do some sort of stealth-kill, it should possibly eliminate the threat of enemy back-up. Provided of course that nobody saw the act in the first place.

Creeping up the hallway, I stopped just behind the tin can, his back blatantly open for the taking. Preparing for the strike, I raised my arm as high as it could possibly go. The armor should be enchanted with hardening as well, so more force should be applied to the act. Thankfully, the sword had more sharpening Seigels than what was actually necessary, but I hope that it held its durability as it shred through the enchanted metal.

I took a heavy breath as I readied myself to do the act. I felt like I was some sort of spy right now, backstabbing people for an insta-kill. The grip on my blade tightened as I brought my hand down with reckless abandon.

Here goes nothing!

*SHIIIIIINNGGGG!!*

"AArgh!!"

Surprise colored my face as the blade went through the armor like a hot knife through butter. The resistance was almost non-existent as the blade seemed to keep its momentum; going further and further down the tin can's back as it exposed the now bleeding flesh beneath the metal.

"AAAARGGGGH!!"

The man shouted in agony as his spine was horrifically exposed in one fell swoop. All the while, I stared dumbfounded at the damage that I had inflicted.

*SQUEEEELCH!!*

This wasn't right. It should've been as simple one-and-done 'stab and move on' thing. Even now, I should be trying to get this dude to shut up, preferably by killing him. This was borderline torture.

*Thud*

I stared as the guard fell onto the floor, his back bleeding profusely as his life slowly seeped out of him. Red stained the floor in a forming puddle as his last throes eventually ended in a gurgled whimper. It was cathartic... in a weird, sadistic sort of way, I guess.

Shaking myself out of my stupor, I quickly signaled for Lise to come to my location and help me hide the body. Giving her back her shortsword, I then started pulling the metal-laden corpse away from the doorway. The blood might be a dead giveaway when someone caught a glimpse of it, but it was still a whole lot better than a cooling body literally lying across the floor.

"Anyone behind us?" I asked Lise as I finished propping up the body behind a corner.

"Nothing so far, Brother," she whispered back to me. "What now?"

My mind stalled as the question lingered in my head for far too long than I cared to admit. Was there any way for us to even escape a garrisoned barracks? We were only two people, and getting discovered was practically game over.

I put a hand to my chin as I tried to think up of a decent plan out of this mess. The shortsword had proven effective in quickly killing should its user know how to do it properly, which I did not. But it was a whole lot better than lugging around an unsheathed katana everywhere. And now I was thinking in circles now. Damn, this wasn't how I wanted my life to go about!

"Hey, is that blood?"

"Uhm.. Brother?"

I didn't want this. I was a fvcking murderer now. I had pretty flexible morals, and I imagined this would happen in this world sooner or later, but doing it for the first time was kind of... eye-opening...

"ASSASSINS!"

"Brother!"

I felt a hand tug me forward as Lise seemed to pull me out of the building and into the courtyard. Heavy footfalls followed us as I slowly started to regain my bearings once more.

"Stop right there!"

I found myself running now as I pulled my arm out from my sister's grip. A cold feeling washed over me as I pulled out my katana in preparation for what was about to come. In front of me, Lise seemed to have already gotten the memo as she held her sword in her right hand as we ran.

"INTRUDERS! BY DECREE OF EMPEROR FREUD, YOU ARE TO STOP THIS INSTANT OR FACE EXECUTION!"

The voice seemed to come from all around us as we turned towards a tunnel that connected this one courtyard to the next. There were already a few handfuls of tin cans rushing at us at full speed, their halberds raised as if trying to skewer us before even giving us a chance to surrender.

"WE KNOW YOU'RE BEHIND THAT PILLAR, ASSASSIN! SURRENDER NOW, AND THE EMPEROR MIGHT EVEN REWARD YOU FOR YOUR AUDACIOUS ATTEMPT!"

"Brother?!" Lise panted as we managed to duck behind a pillar. "What're we gonna do?!"

I shook my head as I got my head into the game. So they thought we were assassins somehow. Technically correct since I did kill one of their finest warriors. But based on their reaction, they probably still think that we haven't done anything yet beyond killing that one guard they spotted. How the fvck were they this incompetent?!

"We run," I scoffed. No way in hell were we gonna get something like a reward from the Emperor that normalized legal slavery. "We need to find an exit somewhere."

"ASSASSINS, THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE! SURRENDER, OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES!"

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