Chapter 44: The Torrent incident.

"Are you going to come in, or am i going to have to drag you in here myself." The voice said with an unmistakable impatience which conjured even more sweat on the Baron's face.

  It was a predatorial voice which gave off the impression of abject superiority.

Trent was immediately overcome by a tremendous fear as there was no more holding back his urge to run. He turned, in an attempt to begin the sprint which would determine his life or death. But then he was interrupted by the very same voice from behind the door.

"I would advise you not to run. I don't need to tell you why, but that would just be stupid." The mysterious speaker said with a matter-of-factly tone to his words. 

At this, another level of fear gripped Trent as he found himself glued to the spot, completely unable to move.

Sensing Trent's fear and situation, the man behind the door groaned loudly before saying; "Urrgh. This is why I hate having to deal with wimpy noble bastards like you."

The man berated Trent for his pathetic reactions to harrowing situations, but the baron could not care less about the mysterious man's insults and just continued trembling in fear.

'whst does he want?'

'is it the money, or something else?'

'no, how did he even get here in the first place. Even my wife and most trusted acquaintances don't know of the existence of this place. In fact, the last time I had even come here was about an entire decade ago!'

His thought processes were interrupted by the sudden pull of forces which humans had no control over. He felt his centre of gravity dramatically shift from it's original position as  his body move uncontrollably towards the room, as well as what lay behind the room's door.

*Crash*

The sound of flesh crashing through metal was heard as Trent had been mercilessly dragged into and through the iron entrance door, injuring his right eye.

"Urgh." Trent moaned in pain as he held his right eye and covered it with his hand before using his remaining free arm to push himself up to a half kneeling state. Raising his neck, he looked up at the one who had caused all this.

The pain from the injured member shot up through Trent's body, but even that seemed wholly insignificant compared to the overbearing presence which the individual that sat on a chair in front of him exuded.

The individual sat crossed legged on a chair by the desk. 

He had a slim frame but muscular build which complemented the red sleeveless jacket he wore over his jet black top and pants, as well as his black hair which possesed some linings of red stripes that  peeked from under his similarly coloured hat.

  He wore an eerily black eye patch over the hole where his left eye was supposed to be and his only good eye looked down on the noble who was currently crouched on all fours....or more accurately, on his three free limbs

The baron  was overcome by a feeling of awe at the man's entire appearance, and added on top of that his dark and mysterious aura, Trent could not help the very cold chill that ran down his spine. He could not help that eerie foreboding of impending doom.

'what is going to happen now? Am I going to die?' Trent asked himself these questions as he utterly failed in suppressing the fear of the unknown and panic from showing on his face.

But to his surprise, the sitting man did not do anything.

  He did not even utter a word and just gazed at the unsightly figure of a man in his mid forties kneel at his feet. His eyes gave off a deep ambience as well as a slight pity for the nobleman, even though he was a despicable bastard.

'alright. Let us get the job done quickly so I can get back to my legitimate business.' the man thought as he uncrossed his legs and stood up from where he sat.

  At this, Trent's trembling did the impossible amd reached new heights and he shook as though a level seven earth quake was going on inside his body.

Noticing this very unnatural happening, the man showed a disgusted expression before saying; "Oh come on now. Twelve year olds are braver than you."

The words had no effect as Trent just continued shaking.

Sighing, the man dipped his hand into his black pocket and retrieved a masterfully crafted dagger with very intricate runic carvings etched into its  vermilion blade while the man's gloved left hand held onto its black handle.

For some reason, he did not store the dagger in his storage ring even though it would have undoubtedly made things easier.

Pointing the tip of the dagger at Trent's forehead, the man asked the most generic question for these kind of scenarios. He said, "Any last words?"

The threatening words rang in Trent's head for a while, before cutting that one last thread of sanity he had left. He went full on ballistic.

"Please, please. Don't kill me, I beg of you!" Trent pleaded with the red haired man– his assailant, for his life. But the words had absolutely no effect, not even slightly rippling the assassin's expression.

The man opened his mouth in an attempt to utter a few words, but Trent unknowingly cut in and bombarded him with pleas and promises.

"Don't kill me! Please, I can give you anything. Is it money, do you want me to absolve all of your taxes? Please I will do anything, just... spare my life!" Trent begged.

The promises which the baron made would have worked, or at least tempted anyone else, but not this  assassin. Those with wealth and power always had a tendency to believe that all problems could be solved by throwing money at it, it was a believe which was borne from the overly corrupted political system which they found themselves in.

At first, the man's expression radiated an annoyance, but then, it dramatically died down as his expression regained it's previous cold and calm indifference. If it was a younger him, he would have ruthlessly driven the dagger into Trent's head and killed him. But the current him was much too old for that.

He had lost the vigor and fire of his younger days,as well as his murderous edge. He had become too tired of this line of work.

'let's just get this over with.'

With a single gesture, he caused Trent's body to lift off of the ground and hover around in mid air, before straightening his posture such that the latter was able to look him directly in the eye.....or more appropriately, the eye.

"W-what the fuck!" Trent yelled as he helplessly flailed his arms and legs in mid air. He was utterly confused as to how the intruder was doing this, but even more afraid of what was to come next.

"H-hey! Drop me down, right this instant!" Trent yelled. He rose his tone, but the restrained fear he was feeling still seeped from his trembling voice.

The Intruder didn't respond, neither did he get angry or anything of the sort. He just looked at the baron with cold and Indifferent eyes.

"You...you are ignoring me. Damn you! Who the fuck are you even, to embarrass me so?!" Trent asked as he shouted. The intruder looked at him contemplatively, before speaking.

"Well, since you are going to die anyway..maybe I can satisfy a few of your curiousities." The man said. His voice was unwavering, steady and resolute.

"You asked for my identity right? Well it is simple. I go by many aliases, but my true name is the [The Executioner]. And well, I am an Executioner. Nothing more, nothing less." The man said simply.

The executioner's words were simple. Too simple as they even began to seem suspicious. The man who currently held the life of the baron Trent in his hands was definitely much more complex than a mere killer.

"An Executioner....a killer. You want to kill me. Why? Why do you want to kill me?!" Trent said, but his rant was not over yet.

"Why do you want to kill me?! I did not do anything wrong! I handled the mission just like they told me too. I set up the bombs in all the instructed places and even took some counter measures to ensure the count died in the underground. I did everything you asked of me so why, why do I have to die?! I don't want to die!" Trent added as tears began to stream down his one good eye, while blood flowed down the other.

The room was plunged into a silence as the only sound which could be heard in the room were the sobs of the baron. The executioner, as he called himself, did not speak. He was most likely arranging his thoughts.

"You said that you fulfilled all the terms of the agreement right?" The man asked a question of his own, to which Trent nodded furiously with tears still running down his cheeks.

"That is a lie. You actually failed the mission as not only did the count and one of his acquaintances survive, but the mage association's officers are currently evacuating the towns people and disabling those seeds which you planted."

"The agreement was for you to kill Raymond and also destroy the city, but you have failed in both." The executioner said as he drove his dagger into Trent's throat, shattering his wind pipe and reducing all of his attempts at speech to nothing but pained gasps.

Blood gushed from the wound and dyed the ground below in a crimson hue as the executioner released his control over Trent's body, allowing it to fall to the ground with a loud thud.

"And besides, even if you actually completed the mission, there is no way we would let you just go on living. It does not matter how strong you are, even the most hardened of criminals eventually break when subjected to just the right amount of torture. You are just a loose end." As the executioner finished speaking, Trent let out one final gasp before breathing his last.

A human being, a husband and a leader had just died. But to his assailant, it meant nothing more than the completion of a rather impromptu mission as he pulled out his weapon from the slumped man's throat before using his clothes to wipe of the blood.

'finally.' the executioner thought as he returned the crimson dagger to where it originally was safe in his back pocket, before replacing it with a communication disk.

Tracing the runes which were carved into the disk, the man activated it and transmitted a call over to another disk in another location.

[Bzzt....so, how did the mission go?"] The recipient picked up the call before asking the question which had been weighing in his mind before the call came through. It was the very same man who had contacted the baron a few hours ago, the man with a jester mask.

"I got the job done, and as per our agreement, I want you to call off all your spies on myself and my dearest customers. You are also to cut all ties with me and not involve me in anything related to you and the other bastards ever again." The executioner said.

["....."]

"Did you hear me?" He asked to confirm.

["Of course. I will keep my end of the bargain."]

"Good. I am way too old for this." As soon as the executioner said this, the man on the other end of the call suddenly fell silent.

"Um, hello..." The executioner said as he had expected at least some sort of reply or reaction from the man in the jester mask.

He was about to say something again when he was was abruptly interrupte by the jester.

["hahahahahahahahaha!"] The man started laughing.

"hey...what is so funny?" The executioner asked with a slight edge to his tone.

["hahahaha! Seriously, i am too old for this? Is that what you are going with? Hahaha! You? You who has been alive since god knows when! Hahahaha!"] The jester said, still laughing uncontrollably.

Embarrased, with his cheeks flushed red at the blatant exposure of one of his greatest secrets, the executionr said; "Shut up! Can you not see i am in the middle of a mission here?!"

["Alright, alright, i see that you are still as touchy as always. Well then, since we are cutting off all forms of communication. I guess we won't see each other for a while so....see you in hell you undying bastard!"] The man over the disk said and ended the call before the other could even come up with a comeback.

[Bzzt]

"Che...damn bastard." The man with the eye patch said and pulled out a paper talisman from his storage ring.

He held the talisman in his hand and brought it close to his face while muttering some indiscernible words, before throwing it to the ground. Immediately afterwards, a blue portal swirled open.

Turning to give one last glance at the man who he had killed, he felt a pang of guilt in his chest. It was so small that it was almost insignificant, but it was still there. Even though the man was a dishonourable and corrupted noble, the fact was that he had still taken a life. Yet another death added to his long list of murders.

"Damn, I really am getting too old for this." The man said and jumped into the portal, allowing it to close right behind him as the paper talisman magically burned up to Oblivion.

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A few hours after the executioner's timely escape, the situation in torrent city had already been controlled thanks to the mage associations officials. The count as well as Alvin were given immediate medical atention and right after that, Raymond and Alvin gave a detailed reort of what went down.

The carcass of the dead baron had been discovered and that of Lark's was also dug up  for autopsy, Aaron's corpse too was not exempted from being dug up for the same reason. 

The baron's family as well as his private guards were also arrested on the acusation of they being acomplices as wll as the one's respondible for the baron's death. Murder was still a crime after all.

Aside from the bodies of those who died fighting with the count, the rest were left to rot in the collapsed tunnel.

After all, what was the point of giving those other traitors a proper burial?

The newly homeless and bereaved citizens of Torrent city were all promised compensation as the royal knights from the king's council lodged them in various guesthouses outside the city while it was being rebuilt.

The count was sent home using a portal which belonged to te mage assoition. Said portal was connected to a gate in Estia as all the other minor problems were taken care off in a swift fashion by the mage association and royal knights.

Today, a day in which more than a thousand people died from the unexpected occurence would come to be known as the most significant event to ever take place in the small Torrent city. It would be known as the [Torrent incident].

A/N:

Alright everyone, rejoice for we have finally finished the Torrent city arc and i hope you guys enjoyed the arc because we will be going back to our MC in the neext chapter.

My tests at school went awesome too so im also really exicted!

Anyways, as this is the very first arc to ever be completed in this book, i would like to know your thoughts concerning it.

Was it good, or bad?

If so, what did you like about it or what did you hate?