Chapter 23: The One Who Deserves to Die (3)

Ka-ang!

Blades of glass controlled by Telekinesis Magic rained down from all sides like a storm.

Amidst the torrent of razor-sharp blades, Sien also kicked off the ground and charged forward.

There was no sign of fatigue or the wounds from the recent battle with the Orc Warrior.

On the contrary, she seemed too full of energy.

“That can’t be.”

The fight between Sien and the Orc Warrior hadn’t been a mere pretense.

Sien had risked her life and fought with all her strength.

“She couldn’t have held back.”

Lord Meyer cut off his thoughts and shook his head.

Even so, nothing would change.

He just had to use all his strength to bring her down.

Ta-ang!

He dodged the swirling glass blades like falling leaves and widened the distance.

Then, to close the gap again, he lowered his body, unleashed the strength in both legs, and exploded with aura.

“『Lightning Stance』!”

The ground beneath him cracked and split as Lord Meyer’s figure shot forward like a flash of lightning.

No, he tried to charge.

“!”

At that moment, the marble pillar supporting the mansion collapsed, miraculously shielding Sien and blocking Lord Meyer’s “lightning.”

Thud!

Without even having time to steady himself, he retreated to avoid the avalanche of falling stones.

“Damn it!”

Amid the dust clouding the air from the collapsing stone mansion (##\뽀), shards of glass gleamed coldly as they flew in.

Taking advantage of the blurred vision from the choking dust.

But no, what was flying at him now were no longer just glass blades.

“Throwing knives…”

She didn’t move an inch herself.

Within the collapsing mansion, Sien, shrouded in miracles, launched a one-sided bombardment through Telekinesis Magic.

Shards of glass, throwing knives, even fragments of broken stone.

In the endless barrage, he couldn’t keep his wits about him.

『Kraken Stance』

A menacing sword form, but one that could be countered by closing the distance.

Yet, he couldn’t close the distance at all.

“Why in the world, at a time like this!”

Why now, of all times, in a situation like this, without even wearing armor… How could one be so unlucky? He realized in that instant—

It wasn’t just misfortune or bad luck.

An irresistible current of fate was tightening around his throat.

As if this world itself wished for his death.

Today, Sien Nightwalker was not destined to die here.

The one fated to die in this place was none other than Lord Meyer himself.

It was as if the whole world was whispering it.

“Ah, ah…”

An indescribable despair clutched at his breath.

No one can defy fate.

Even if it is a fate shaped by the power of divine artifacts.

Fate is fate because it cannot be overcome.

Slaaash!

In that moment, a shadow rushed through the drifting dust.

A shadow of death.

“Guh-ugh!”

A jet-black blade flashed, blood splattering.

It was the defeat of one who accepted and surrendered to fate, and the victory of the one who struggled against fate until the end.

***

When Sien, who had defeated two mighty opponents, emerged from Jacani Chairman’s mansion, the Shadow Knights of the Nightwalker Family waiting at the entrance all dropped to one knee.

“Don Sien.”

And among the knights, an unexpected face appeared.

A man clad in a pitch-black leather coat, with the emblem of a star and dagger etched above its hem.

“Vigo hyung?”

“It’s been a while, Sien.”

Vigo Nightwalker.

A brother who had been baptized together with Sien and became family.

“Did you come to help?”

“The Family Head made a request.”

“…Was my trust so lacking?”

“That’s just how precious you are to her.”

Vigo shook his head with a wry smile, facing Sien.

“The Family Head expected the Empire’s Assassins would come, and she had no doubt you’d prevail.

I’m just the insurance, in case something unexpected happened.”

“If she believes I’ll win, is insurance really necessary?”

“In fact, I couldn’t help you at all. Not that you needed it.”

He was five years older than the fifteen-year-old Sien, a twenty-year-old adult.

There was no trace left of the boy he used to be—only the maturity of his age.

“Your wounds are deep, Sien. Let’s tend to them before we talk further.”

Vigo spoke, his voice showing the composure befitting an older brother.

“My mission isn’t over yet.”

“You mean Jacani Chairman?”

Vigo glanced aside as if he’d expected it.

“Catching a small fry like that is nothing.”

“………You’ve saved me the trouble of tracking him down myself.”

“It wasn’t me, it was the Shadow Knights who did it. Give your thanks to them.”

A four-horse carriage stood before the mansion, as if waiting for Sien, dignified and ready.

When he opened the carriage door, a man was sitting inside.

The man was pale as a ghost and trembling all over.

“You’re here, Jacani Chairman.”

“H-hiiik.”

By now, this man should have successfully escaped across the Republic’s border and found asylum in the Empire.

“Did you really think you could get away?”

Sien spoke calmly.

The man lowered his head, even paler than before.

“After betraying our family and this country, did you truly believe you could escape with your life?”

“N-no, no… I swear I didn’t!”

“Then why did you do it?”

Sien asked with a bitter smile.

“I… I… there’s no way I’ll live, is there…”

Clutching at any hope, Jacani Chairman asked, but Sien replied coldly.

“Do you want to live?”

“Ah, please, please…!”

“Then you shouldn’t have done something to get yourself killed.”

Sien’s blade sliced across Jacani Chairman’s throat.

Blood spurted like a fountain.

That was the end of his mission.

The next dawn.

On a pedestrian stone bridge across the Canal Grande, the great canal that runs through Veneto in five directions—

The man’s corpse was hung for all to see, together with a public notice stating his crimes.

***

Not long after, at the Nightwalker Family’s villa in the capital, Veneto, where Vigo and Sien were resting.

It was around that time that Laila, the official Minister of Finance for the nation, came to the villa for business.

“It’s good to see you again, dear Vigo.”

“Our Family Head, the revered Mother of Assassin, is here!”

“You’ve grown so strong, I almost didn’t recognize you.”

“It’s all thanks to Godfather Mikhail’s teachings.”

Before Laila, Vigo knelt and paid his respects.

“Don’t be so stiff.”

“Yes, Grand Duke.”

“You’re enjoying some rest with your younger sibling, aren’t you? Relax a little more.”

“I will keep it in mind, Family Head.”

Laila waved her hand lightly as if amused.

Unlike the obvious bond between mother and child that Sien and Laila shared, the other family members’ feelings toward the Mother of Assassin were hard to describe.

An existence to be revered and feared, a strict yet gentle family head who leads the Nightwalker Family.

“I too have a mountain of paperwork to deal with at the Governor’s Palace.

Until things are settled, enjoy your break and take a look around the city.”

“Yes, Mother.”

Sien replied.

At Sien’s natural address, his older brother Vigo blinked in surprise.

“Vigo, take good care of your younger brother Sien.”

“I will obey, Family Head.”

“It’s not a command, just a request.”

“S-sorry!”

“No, no. There’s no need for that.”

With those words, Laila turned her head with a wry smile.

“Looks like the bothersome adults should disappear now.”

As if realizing there was no point in saying more.

“Let’s go, Lord Hyde.”

“I obey, Grand Duke.”

Laila quietly signaled to Hyde, the Shadow Master, leader of the Shadow Knights.

As the two walked away, Sien watched them go with a faint smile.

A short while later, Sien, left behind at the villa, asked Vigo,

“Are you afraid of the Family Head?”

“…I can’t exactly say I’m not.”

“I see.”

Sien smiled as if it was nothing surprising.

“Even so, Mother is a good person.”

“She must seem that way to you.”

“She is, to all of us.”

Sien said.

Of course, Sien’s idea of “all of us” wasn’t necessarily so broad.

“The Family Head’s power and fear exist only for the enemies of our family.”

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

Vigo, too, was well aware of that fact.

“For us, family is everything.”

A twenty-year-old youth, with no trace of his childish self, Vigo spoke.

There was no more envy or frustration toward the child prodigy of those days—only a man who had matured, in some ways, even more than Sien.

***

Not long after that.

“It’s a bit sudden, but the two of you have a new mission together.”

While resting in the capital Veneto, Sien and Vigo received a new assignment in the name of the Family Head.

“There’s been word that a rat has been poking around lately.”

“Could it be another Assassin from the Grandel Family?”

“No, something much more sinister.”

Laila shook her head regretfully.

“More sinister…?”

“The Empire’s Public Security.”

At that name, Sien’s face froze coldly.

At the same time, he uttered another title referring to them.

“《High Inquisitor (Inquisitor)》…”

As their name implies, these are the merciless enforcers of the Holy Empire, defining anything that threatens public peace and order as heresy.

Every time the Nightwalkers moved in the shadows for their family and country, the Inquisitors were there.

“I wish I could let you rest a little longer, but it seems circumstances won’t allow it.”

At Laila’s worried voice, Vigo replied, as if such concerns were unfounded.

“I am always ready, Family Head.”

“I feel the same as Vigo hyung.”

“Good, you both are truly reliable.”

Vigo Nightwalker, twenty years old and now a Mademan proficient in all eight family sword styles.

Sien, fifteen, not officially recognized as a Mademan yet, but already at a master’s level.

“The Shadow Knights will show you where the rat’s den is.”

The mission they had received was no longer the sort that considered them children in need of easy work.

“Go and bring me his corpse beneath my feet.”

With the moonlight as a cold backlight, Laila spoke.

No longer with the gentle face of a mother shown only to Sien, but with the spirit and chill befitting the leader of the continent’s greatest Assassin family.

“Right now.”