06 DUKE OLEN

After the white light receded, we can see Alex and no.11's damaged figures lying on the ground. We can see a slight moment of their chest as they breathe that too if we observed carefully.

After 15 minutes, they came to their senses and slowly tried to standup but it proved difficult to even stand, but they slowly stood and started walking to the place where the blast has happened.

They can barely walk, if there isn't anyone of them present here, the remaining one would have naturally die. Even the blast happened prematurely, it caused so much destruction around the place. Seeing this, they can only imagine what would have happened if Alfred had successfully detonated himself. Thinking about this shivers run down their spines.

When they reached the centre of the crater there is nothing, even the ground was burned and they can see few pieces of Alfred's armour here and there. They cant find even a small part of his body, nor atleast a few drops of his blood. This is not a surprise given the power of the detonation.

Looking this a smile slowly formed on Alex's face and he says "Good riddance, we got rid of the lowly knight permanently".

Saying this, he looks at no.11 and says, "We did a good job in killing him, now we shall go back and the duke will give you the promised rewards. But keep this in mind that no one should know about what happened here today."

"yes, no one should know about this" replying to Alex, no.11 suddenly disappears and reappears at the back of Alex, and drives his daggers into his heart with any change in his expression.

Feeling something slicing his heart, Alex looks back at no.11 with a betrayed look on his face. Many questions are running in his mind, but he only managed to ask one, "Why"?

No.11 removed his dagger from Alex's back and moves away, Alex slowly falls down on the ground, now he is looking at the moonless night sky and just repeating his previous question 'why' again and again. And he started to think that did this assassin they brought is trying to betray his lord, Duke Olen?

After hearing Alex asking him why he killed him? No.11 opens his mouth and says, " Don't think much about it, its like you said, 'no one should know what happened here today' and the duke also want me to tie all the loose ends, fortunately you all weaklings are killed by Alfred making my work less".

Hearing this Alex face contorts, he still couldn't believe that his lord wanted him to die. I the commander of duke troops and the right hand man of the my lord, why would he try to get rid of me?

Seeing that Alex is still not believing, no.11 shrugs and says " I did what was asked of me, I can care less whether you believe me or not". Saying this he conjures a fireball and burns Alex.

As Alex's dying screams are slowly fading away, no.11 is collecting what seems like a scrap metal pieces he can find in the crater. These are the bit of armour that got blasted along with Alfred and 'survived'.

He is collecting this as a proof of completion of his mission asked by the duke. Actually the duke asked to bring his head back but... there is not even a hair here, so he is collecting whatever that is present here and that is the armour pieces.

After collecting everything and storing it in his dimensional ring, no.11 takes couple of healing potions and mana recovery potions and starts to gather all the dead bodies which 'survived' the blast and burn them to ashes. And he started to leave, his destination is Duke Olen, and he is going to collect his rewards.

A small breeze is slowly flowing over the crater now. After 10 minutes of the departure of no.11 a figure clad in black whose height is 5'10'' slowly moves from the top a tree which is 550 meters from the crater, and walks towards the crater.

After reaching the crater, it observes the remains of 'Alex' and others, and then inspects the whole crater doing something here and there. If anyone looks at it, they will think that it did a crime and is now getting rid of the evidence. After doing its work, this thing stands and leaves in the same direction it came.

What that thing did there? no one knows except it.

***

Next day morning, Duke Olen's Mansion

Duke Olen, a tall man with blue hair and eyes matching with his hair, he covered his lean body with white shirt and blue pants. and is wearing a light blue robe. He is carrying a staff with ocean blue gem on top of it enhancing his water attribute. He is a rank8 magician.

Like every morning the duke got ready and is going to his study at 6 in the morning to spend an hour to study various personal reports and then will head into his office and run his duchy. But today when he entered his study, there is a figure clad in black is waiting for him.

At first, the duke got alerted by the unknown figure in his study, later he figures who it is and got relaxed, but he never let his guard down. That figure is none other than no.11, waiting for the duke in his study to report and collect his rewards for the work and then to be on his way.

He directly came to duke's mansion after killing Alex. By the time he arrived, its already 5 in the morning and he infiltrated without getting caught into the duke's study room. At 6 A.M., the duke normally came into his study.

And now after reviewing all the report, the duke says, "So, he is dead".

To which, the assassin nods his head.

The duke closes his eyes and looks like he is thinking something, but if one observes him closely, they can see that he is trying to control his smile, which did not miss the gaze of the rank9 assassin, but he chose to ignore it.

After one good minute, the duke asks, " What about Alex and others?"

"Ashes" no.11 replies with a single word. The duke did not mind this attitude, because he know that the assassin is not working under him and also powerful than him. So he ignores it and says,

"Alex is a fine piece, and he did what he was supposed to do. Well... whatever, we can always have another Alex to replace him. Here take this ring, it contains your promised pay and some extra rewards for the job well done". and throws a ring at no.11. Its a dimensional ring obviously.

Catching the ring and checking it once and saying" Everything is here", he leaves the duke's mansion.