Chapter 48: A Corrupted Leader

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--Mild Gore Warning Again--

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Mid Afternoon - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

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- Shir ~

My name is Shir, the leader of an elite assassin group within The Tower.

We had a record of never failing a single assassination over the years, but things were currently looking bleak

I was sitting in a secluded bar in the lower district at the time. "Have you heard back from them?"

Sitting across the table from me was a newer and younger member of the group. "Nothing yet sir."

"Has anyone seen them since they went in?"

"No sir."

"Tch.." -Are those incompitent bast*rds really going to mess up our record..-

The face of the man across the table paled slightly and his posture lowered. As a newbie he still had the fear of getting killed by his superiors on their whim, it was simply how the assassins branch worked.

-Its crude but it raises them well..- As I tried to get my mind off the topic of the mission failing, another man in a black robe walked in.

Seeing his signal to leave, the young man at the table traded seats with the person coming inside.

"I have a report on the assassination squad, Captain." He was quick to get to business.

"I'm listening."

"The 'three' have been spotted being moved into the imperial prison."

"And what about the mage?"

"He is on his way to the slum market, Captain."

"Hm…" Unlike what I expected, hearing that they actually failed didn't change my demeanor and I kept my calm. "Go deal with that mage personally and order the others to meet up. We need to clean them up before one leaks anything."

The atmosphere quickly darkened as the man understood exactly what I meant. "As you order." With a light bow of his head he disappeared from his seat.

As I finally stood up from my seat, the deep uneasiness in my gut only got worse, but I didn't pay it mind.

With a bit of stretching, I tossed a silver onto the table and made my way outside. "Haah.." -Why am I always the one that has to clean up..-

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- Vasilias ~

"Are you done already?"

"Y..yeah.." I started feeling awkward seeing Helen acting so happily while covered in blood. "You seem to be enjoying yourself.."

"Why of course, they dared to try and harm my Oliver." Her smile that I thought looked innocent contained a slight craze.

-Well then..- "Ahem, in any case, I got the information I needed.."

"Ah right, sorry I got a little sidetracked." Helen glanced back to the poor man she tortured as if expecting him to say something, but he wouldn't respond.. well, it was more like he couldn't.

"I've gotten plenty of information out of their leader and I plan to leave him alive so you can question him later, so feel free to do whatever you'd like with the other two."

She quickly turned back to me with wide eyes. "You want to pardon him?"

"Yeh, he has the potential to redeem himself." I put on a light smile even though it was an open lie. I fully expected the oath to trigger and kill him the moment I looked away, but I did think it'd be interesting to see if he could do it.

Helen didn't seem to agree though. "We can't leave him alive, it's the law." Her crazed behavior finally settled a bit.

"He is under an oath and is crippled. If he makes a slight mistake in his wording he'll die, so.."

She simply stared at me for a moment as she thought to herself before finally giving in. "I'll.. see what I can do.."

"Sweet, in that case I'm going to step out for a bit, feel free to take your time." But just before I stepped out, I glanced back at her. "Ah, one last thing."

"Hm?"

"The one who threw the knife at Oliver was the guy over there. I pointed to the section the knight was in."

Seeing Helen start oozing a crazed bloodlust I quickly made my way outside and made a mental note to never hurt Oliver. -That's a type of crazy I don't want to be involved with..-

Closing the door behind me, I fell into a daydream about sitting in the warm hot spring in the shelter. -Alright, shall I head back for a..-

*BaNg*

An explosion that blew apart the door on the opposite end of the hall cut my thoughts short.

Dashing through the cloud of dust and smoke were three black robed men, they weren't what caught my eye though.

Behind them was a fourth with a comparable aura to Michael.

-Oh, to think someone so interesting would appear!- Almost immediately, I felt a deep warmth and excitement. I had to hold myself from jumping straight into it though.

Trying my best to suppress the urge to start the slaughter, I turned to Ilios. "Do you want to fight at all this time?"

Almost immediately he shook his head and sat back down.

"Alright, well if you wanna join in, feel free." I gave him a warm smile and a pat on the head before turning back to the intruders.

They had already killed most of the prisoners on the far side of the room before they noticed me.

"Hey kid, get out of the way or else." The man in the front showed a clear hostility.

"Oh? Or else what?" I couldn't help but smile from excitement.

Seeing my clear intention to fight, he quickly stopped trying to be peaceful. "Haah.. kids these days.."

Immediately springing at me, a bright fire rune appeared on his palm.

"Awe come on, don't use such boring magic!"

Before he could cast anything, I kicked him in the stomach, grabbed his head and slammed it into my knee.

*Crunch*

His skull instantly caved in as my knee was driven through it, covering my leg and hand with his smashed-apart brain. -How unsanitary..- It was a grotesque sight but I only felt a little grossed out.

Pulling what was left of his head off my knee, I tossed him to the side and looked up to see the other three looking at me, wide eyed.

"Wow you just let your comrade die like that? What awful people."

At my slight provocation, the two other weak ones charged at me, one with a lightning rune one with a light rune.

A blinding light filled the room immediately after. -To try and blind a dragon!-

Sensing the one with the lightning rune reach for my back, I took a step to the side and grabbed his arm, then moved it to intercept the poison coated knife flying at my face.

*Shink*

The knife cleanly passed through the man's hand and got stuck in the bone.

"Uh oh! Watch out for friendly fire!" Taking a step to the side, I let the light fade and let the assassins realize what happened, but they didn't pay it mind and lunged at me again.

Mid lunge, they both activated earth runes to strengthen their muscles for hand to hand combat.

-You can do that?!- "Why didn't I think of that before?!"

With my new realization, I immediately strengthened the muscles in my arms and back.

*CrAcK*

With a heavy punch into the poisoned man's forehead, his skull shattered and his neck snapped like a twig.

As his body went limp and fell to the floor, I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. -Hmm.. it's not as much of a strength improvement for me as it is for them..-

As I was thinking, the other weakling threw a punch that I casually caught.

"To interrupt my thoughts, how rude." As my smile grew, a ball of liquid hydrogen formed around my hand.

*pshh-FWOOOOSH*

Connecting the back of the thruster to the walls behind me, the entire room simultaneously shattered.

A dense and hot fog filled the room before I used wind magic to make it vanish.

Standing there at the end of the hall was the nation rank aura I felt before the fight.

It was an older man with a very tempered attitude but I couldn't help but notice the beads of sweat on his forehead.

It filled my mind with confidence as I got excited to continue playing around. "How could there be such a heartless man to let his subordinates die like that."

"They were nothing but slaves." His voice wasn't totally calm, but it carried quite a bit of confidence.

"You make it sound like you're different, do you maybe know something about what the tower is planning? You seem strong enough to have some actual authority."

His eyes immediately went wide.

-So he does know something..- My playful smile quickly turned sly. "I'll give you a chance just like I did to the guy inside. If you spit everything out, I'll let you live."

"Sorry kid, but you're not the one to decide that." A sudden swirl of mana appeared around his hands, on one hand an earth rune, on the other a fire rune.

"Hooh? Two runes at once?" A grin slowly crept onto my face. -You'll be a fun mouse to play with!-

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I will start using dashes to make things spaced like they are supposed to be to let things hopefully be easier to read.