Zodiac Syndicate's First Assassination

On Sunday night, one day after the group of people first came to the abandoned chapel, Valentine was sitting on the chapel seat with Luuk next to him. Both of them were wearing masks to cover their faces and their clothes were all dark in color to blend better with the night. There was no candle illuminating the dark chapel now, but it wasn't a problem for them who had night visions. The watch on Valentine's wrist showed seven fifty; almost time for the appointed time.

Valentine had asked Luuk to come by only giving little explanation, and they had rushed there at once. There was not really time to talk during the trip, so Luuk was pretty curious about the whole situation. He looked at his partner and spoke with a low voice.

"What are we exactly doing here?"

Valentine didn't explain right away, but rather, looked back at the young medical student.

"Why do you always just follow along?"

Luuk seemed to have been personally attacked. He didn't expect Valentine to be so straightforward.

"I-it's because I don't know anything about this supernatural world. And you seem to know a lot, so it's not a bad idea to follow you, right? Besides, I always get compensated, so..." he replied defensively.

"In that case, welcome to Zodiac Syndicate. From now on, call me Gemini, and you will be Capricorn," said Valentine while pointing at his two-faced mask.

"That's the name of the organization that you've created? What do I get as a member?" Luuk asked.

Valentine didn't respond. He didn't know either because the organization was founded by Graham. He was just following along, and for tonight, he was there to complete the assassination of one of the members' father.

"You get my free help of getting the Jeweller contract scroll," said Valentine, coming up with things on the spot.

Luuk's expression was shocked with delight under his mask. Valentine's offer was something he had been wanting to ask, although he wouldn't mind paying some price. But now, he got it free of charge.

"Deal!" he said happily.

"Tonight two of the associates will come here. You will do most of the talking, alright? You should also introduce yourself as Capricorn of the Zodiac Syndicate," explained Valentine inadequately.

Luuk was about to complain when suddenly, Valentine put his index finger in front of his mask as a gesture to be quiet. His hearing had picked up the sounds of footsteps approaching the abandoned chapel.

"Are they the associates you mentioned before?" asked Luuk almost whisperingly.

Valentine nodded.

Creak...

Shortly after, the chapel door was opened and two people were standing in front of the abandoned building, so Valentine and Luuk stood up to welcome them. Their eyes glowed yellow and red respectively in the dark and gloomy room, making them look menacing.

"Welcome!" said Luuk with his usual voice, but he had intentionally sent spirituality to his mask to deactivate its enchantment, so his voice was slightly distorted by it.

It was Diedrik and Yvette, who had come as predicted. Graham had offered them his assistance to kill Yvette's father, who happened to be the one who killed Diedrik's wife and son in an accident. He had given them the chance to think about it and asked them to come back if they agreed. Graham had also done divination, so he was sure that they would come.

Diedrik and Yvette, greeted by two people with eyes glowing in the dark, felt intimidated, but they had come the night before and were assured that the people meant no harm to them. They also recognized the man with the two-faced mask as Gemini, whom they had met previously, but not the man with the goat mask.

"I'm Capricorn of the Zodiac Syndicate. Please come in," said Luuk warmly with a distorted voice.

The two associates entered the chapel cautiously and then sat next to each other in the middle row. Yvette gathered courage and spoke.

"So you will help me kill my father, right?"

"If that's what you wish for, then yes," said Valentine coldly.

Yvette and Diedrik looked at each other and nodded.

"Have you prepared the money?" asked Valentine.

Yvette took a thick brown envelope from her backpack and stood up to come closer to them. When she was close enough, suddenly the brown envelope disappeared from her hand and appeared in Luuk's hand. He had stolen it from her to display his power.

Yvette gasped in disbelief while Diedrik couldn't see clearly what had happened, so he didn't react. Her confidence in succeeding in the assassination grew in an instant.

Luuk gave the envelope to Valentine who checked the content. There was a total of thirty guilders inside, which was a price that he deemed worth the risk. They were going to kill a normal human, after all, not a Contractbound who would turn into ashes once dead. A normal human would leave a corpse that they have to deal with, and there would be no loot as compensation.

Once he received the money, Valentine turned to Yvette who was now already sitting next to Diedrik again and spoke.

"You two need to go to a café called Ranch on Raadhuislan and make sure you sit separately. If you can, have the waiters take note of your identity cards so you can use it as an alibi later. When you hear a loud noise, you can come out and see the last face that your father will be making," explained Valentine slowly so they wouldn't miss any point.

"If you have no question, then you can go now, while we will also start our preparation here," added Luuk.

He didn't actually know the plan, so he would have Valentine brief him after the two associates left.

Yvette and Diedrik got up and left the abandoned chapel in anticipation. Although they wouldn't be the one taking away the life of a person directly, they were the ones who enabled it, so they didn't know what to feel.

Once the two of them had left, Luuk turned to Valentine and asked, "I take it we have to kill someone tonight? What's the plan?"

Valentine told Luuk the whole assassination plan to make it look like an accident. Graham had divined everything they needed to know about the target and the mission tonight, so Valentine was pretty confident in his plan.

"That's simple enough," said Luuk after Valentine had finished explaining.

The two of them took off their zodiac masks and switched to regular surgery masks and left the chapel swiftly. They were going to walk all the way to Raadhuislan to prevent leaving traces with the public motor carriage. It would normally take someone more than one hour to walk from Dorpstraat there, but with their speed, they could do it faster.

Valentine and Luuk didn't talk during the whole trip. They were only focusing on getting to their destination as soon as possible because they had to be precise with timing. The moon that shone brightly in the sky above illuminated their path and the gentle breeze cooled down their bodies.

It took them a little over fifty minutes to reach their destination by walking fast and occasionally semi running. It was almost nine-thirty when they arrived, but the street was still rather busy with people walking and flocking the establishments. There were only a few motor carriages, however, so most of them had enough room on the road to drive fast. It was the perfect condition for Valentine's plan.

Once they were on Raadhuislaan, Valentine went to a quiet spot near where he would initiate his plan and slit his palm, while Luuk was standing behind him as a cover. He let the blood pool there for a while and after it was enough, he started chanting quietly.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, offer this blood as a medium,"

The blood on his hand let out a mysterious yellowish mist that quickly spread thinly to the surrounding area before disappearing.

"For I declare this place under the Shroud of Secrecy hereafter!"

He dropped the blood on to the soil below, under a tree, and as it made contact with the ground, for a split second, the people around felt like they had forgotten something. His anti-divination was in place, so now he could get things in motion.

He looked at Luuk and gestured at him to follow. They went to a secluded alley near the street and Valentine sat down with his back leaning against the wall. Luuk, who had seen him do that several times now, was not clueless. He kept watch of the surroundings to keep it secure.

Valentine closed his eyes and focused on his breathing. Not long after, he had fallen asleep and Graham opened his eyes. He got up from his position and cleaned the dust off his coat.

"Are you ready?" he asked Luuk.

"Yes. But why do you always do that sleeping thing randomly?" replied Luuk with a curious question.

"I'll tell you the detail some other time maybe," said Graham casually.

They walked back to the street and avoided the street lights. Their target should be around soon, so they got into position. Graham stood near the crosswalk pretending to wait for the traffic to stop while Luuk was standing near the next curve in the road.

Soon after, they saw a dark brown motor carriage driving closer to them fast. It was the motor carriage that their target, Bram Wilford, or Yvette's father, was driving. Graham had found out through divination that he had a habit of speeding; that was why he chose this plan because it would be the most natural.

Graham stood very close to the road and when the brown motor carriage was within range, he quickly chanted under his breath.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order this dark brown motor carriage to accelerate rapidly!"

Just as he finished saying that, the motor carriage that Bram Wilford was driving suddenly sped up and reached a dangerous speed. People on the street were startled and moved far away from the road in fear of being hit. The driver seemed to panic because he didn't know what had happened. Bram Wilford's face looked pale as he was steering to avoid hitting other motor carriages on the road. He tried to floor the brake but the motor carriage was still getting faster.

Near the road curve, Luuk saw the brown motor carriage rapidly approaching and got into position. Even when driving that fast, if the driver could control the carriage to turn left safely, he would be able to get out unscathed, so Luuk's job was to make sure he wouldn't be able to. Graham couldn't use Order to do it because it would mean the motor carriage had to harm itself and thus making the Order ineffective.

Luuk stood near the road hiding behind a lamp post. When he was close enough to the target, he quickly chanted quietly.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Theft, declare brown motor carriage's front left tire mine!"

He swiftly made a swiping motion with his right hand, but before the object fully materialized in his hand, he quickly retracted his right hand and moved away from the spot. The thing he was trying to steal was still spinning at a high speed, so if it touched him, he would be seriously injured. Suddenly, as he had expected, the tire appeared out of thin air and quickly bounced and rolled away to a distance at a high speed.

Crash!!

There was a loud noise suddenly. It was Bram Wilford, who had failed to make the turn, crashing into the lamp post on the side of the road, knocking it down in the process. The motor carriage that he was driving was almost split in two and the area around the driver's seat was completely destroyed. He was sitting on the driver's seat with the steering wheel pressed hard against his body and blood all over his head. His body was all mangled because of the impact and the hard steel parts crushing him. After some moments of agonizing pain, he drew his last breath and died on the spot soon after.

A lot of people had gathered near the site of the accident, including Yvette and Diedrik, who saw Bram Wilford's face when he died. Yvette felt a deep sense of delight while Diedrik felt nothing at all. Their cases were different, after all. Yvette wanted her father to die so that she could escape from the torture once and for all while Diedrik was blaming himself for his family's death.

Graham and Luuk had long escaped on their own from the area without even checking the results of their plan. Graham had divined the outcome of tonight's mission and got a positive result, so he wasn't worried unless someone more powerful than him decided to interfere. He met up with Luuk far from the scene.

"How was it?" asked Graham.

Luuk, who was closer to the accident scene, could still see the crash although he couldn't check the driver's condition.

"I'm pretty sure he died. The crash was really bad," he replied with a heavy tone.

Graham, who sensed Luuk's uneasiness, told him the reason why they assassinated Bram Wilford that night.

"Still, it left a bitter taste in my mouth," replied Luuk.

It was his first time directly causing the death of someone, and that someone was not a Contractbound whose body would turn into ashes. It was a person who left a dead body. Luuk was sure he would get nightmares about the incident.

"You'll get used to it. You will have to if you want to survive in this kind of world," said Graham with a cold tone. What he said was just the harsh reality.