The Secret Assassin Instructor

One day, while I was engrossed in my usual training routine, an ordinary morning took a rather extraordinary turn.

"I am the maid dispatched to attend to the young lady."

"Ooh."

Clap, clap, clap.

Standing before me was an older girl dressed in attire so unmistakably authentic that spontaneous applause felt entirely warranted. Sporting a short green bob and sharp, piercing eyes, the cute maid lightly lifted the hem of her long skirt with both hands and offered a polite curtsy.

"My name is Leaf. As of today, I shall be serving the Young Lady Orknodi."

She seemed completely normal.

Which, naturally, made her infinitely more suspicious.

"Young Lady? Is there a problem with this maid?"

"Your name. What is your full name?"

"Forgive my rudeness. Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Leaf Life."

Leaf Life.

The life of a leaf.

It was a remarkably cute and fitting name for a maid.

And that was precisely why I felt a pang of intense jealousy.

Why did I end up stuck with names that sounded like practical jokes, like 'Orknodi' or 'Jona Waihiemhai', while this maid got a perfectly lovely name? It was enviable, embarrassing, and honestly infuriating all at once.

"Young Lady?"

"It's nothing."

Getting jealous of my own maid over a name was something I could never confess to a living soul.

Leaf Life—or rather, 'Reaped Life'—felt a surge of genuine intrigue.

A life reaped. A harvest of breath.

Once, when her wretched existence was spared thanks to the Boss, the young girl had resolved to dedicate her entire being to him. Casting aside her former name, she had earned a new one: Leaf Life. It was an identity forged from an assassin's pride.

A life reaped by the Boss, destined to reap the lives of the Boss's enemies with her own hands. That duality was etched into every syllable of her moniker.

"Did you reveal my identity to her?"

"Not in the slightest. You are intended to serve as her secret bodyguard as well. I have no intention of disclosing your true station to the young lady."

"Then it was pure instinct on her part."

Leaf tilted her head, her curiosity deepening.

"The qualification the Supervisor demanded was an assessment of her assassin aptitude. That is not a test to be settled on mere intuition."

"I am well aware. I leave the final evaluation to your discretion."

"You sound remarkably confident."

"You will understand once you see for yourself."

Leaf observed the young lady's every move, day in and day out.

And before long, conviction took root.

'She was born to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an assassin!'

Whenever an opportunity arose, the child displayed an innate instinct for concealment, slipping away to hide from both the butler and herself. Every night, an assassin's sharp detection senses kicked in as she gauged presences in the dark, measuring whether she could slip through the window unnoticed.

And then there was the weight training—carrying immense armaments concealed beneath her delicate clothes while carrying on with her daily routine without skipping a single meal, all to ensure she could move effortlessly under heavy loads.

"I shall submit the report to the Supervisor."

"When do you intend to begin her instruction?"

"Starting today, immediately."

"It must not interfere with her existing regimen."

"Do not fret. Conditioning for drug and poison resistance will be kept minimal, and concealed weapon arts will be deferred for later. For the time being, I shall focus intensively on concealment and detection drills."

"Acceptable."

"Though, I fail to see why a man of your caliber is still handling mundane tasks like this. Could it be that the rumors regarding problems with the disposal of the previous 'young lady' are—"

"That is enough."

The rigid edge of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the butler's hand dug firmly into the crook of her throat, instantly cutting Leaf off.

"Know your place. The subject of your surveillance is the young lady, not me."

"...Forgive my insolence."

Withdrawing his lethal aura, Jona turned and stepped away to prepare tomorrow's training session for the young lady.

A cold, thin smile played upon Leaf's lips.

'No matter how immense her talent, coveting her too deeply will only bring ruin. The Syndicate is not generous enough to overlook repeated blunders.'

The rookie maid, Leaf.

She was subtly annoying, yet surprisingly useful.

"What are you doing inside the laundry basket?"

"...It just looked like a cozy place to sit for a minute."

Sure, she interfered with my grinding from time to time.

"Young Lady? Wait, no... That was merely the shadow of the garden tree cast behind the curtain."

Yet on other occasions, she was an absolute godsend.

Unlike Butler Jona, from whom I could hide in almost any careless spot and get away with it, a maid had a dizzying array of chores, from laundry to dusting. If I didn't study her daily schedule, predict her patrol routes through mealtime conversations, and prepare meticulously, my cover would be blown in seconds.

On the flip side, whenever I pulled off a flawless setup and fooled her sharp eyes, my Concealment EXP skyrocketed. Thanks to that, even Stealth—the high-tier evolution of Concealment—began leveling up naturally alongside it. Talk about a blessing in disguise. Two birds with one stone!

"Ugh. The food tastes weird."

"My deepest apologies, Young Lady. I will exercise greater caution in the future."

Lately, the butler was the one acting up. A man who had cooked with masterclass perfection up until now kept botching the seasoning or serving dishes with bizarre, foul undertones.

"Young Lady?"

"Don't take it away! You worked hard to make it, after all."

Was this bad enough to cause food poisoning? Still, if I showed him I could clean my plate without a fuss, he'd surely cook with extra care next time. Finishing the meal out of pure gratitude for his daily service, I caught both the butler and the maid staring at me with profound, peculiar expressions.

Heheh. Were they touched by my consideration?

The two of them whispered in the corner for a while, and starting the very next day, the maid became extraordinarily sweet.

"Would you care for a strawberry hard candy?"

"Yes, please!"

"Here is a grape candy."

"Yay!"

"I baked some special cookies today."

"I love it so much!"

Seeing how enthusiastic I was no matter what treat she offered, she must have found feeding me immensely rewarding, because she brought me snacks at every opportunity. Khehe. Training her through cheerful reactions to make snack-giving fulfilling had yielded wonderful returns.

Perhaps because I swallowed even the strangest-tasting treats without batting an eye, she began laying out a grand banquet of snacks, from decadent cake slices to alphabet chocolates. Silly maid. Little did she know her hard-earned salary was being sacrificed solely to boost my Food Codex completion rate!

Late into the night.

In the servants' quarters adjacent to the secret training ground, the butler and maid cast aside their domestic masks, reverting to their true identities as an executive and an assassin of the Syndicate.

"How is her poison conditioning progressing?"

"Her detection and adaptation are far faster than anticipated. I have unintentionally advanced the curriculum well ahead of schedule."

"Is it comparable to her performance during meals?"

"Her detection rate sits around thirty percent, which is extraordinarily high for a beginner."

"Is this an ordinary reaction?"

"Naturally, it is completely abnormal."

Leaf delivered her assessment without hesitation.

"When commoners consume tainted sustenance, they feel nothing more than a faint sense of discomfort. They do not demonstrate intense suspicion or outright conviction as the young lady does. And if an ordinary person realized food was poisoned, they would never eat it."

"Yet the young lady consumed every last scrap."

"There are only two plausible explanations: either she barely survived the slums, narrowly evading death multiple times from poisoned scraps, or she lived under circumstances where consuming contaminated food was the only way to avoid starvation."

It was the unequivocal verdict of an assassin who specialized in lethal concoctions. Jona had believed he was thoroughly acquainted with the filth lurking in the underworld, but he realized his assumptions had been far too lenient.

"There is an overabundance of vermin in this city."

"Do you intend to purge them?"

"They dared lay a finger on the Syndicate's young lady. I cannot shamelessly allow them to draw breath."

A chilling murderous intent pooled in Jona's eyes.

"Hold on... The insolence of that street magician, the poisoned rations scattered among the commoners... These could very well be evidence of a rival syndicate expanding its claws into the city."

"So you intend to take the field."

"It warrants investigation. Leaf, your surveillance assignment on the young lady tonight is altered. Scour the shadows and determine whether an unidentified hostile syndicate is operating here."

"And should they be discovered? What are your orders then?"

The answer required no contemplation.

"Annihilation."

At Jona's absolute command, Leaf's lips curved into a cold, predatory smile.

Tonight, lady luck was smiling upon me—no surveillance!

Ever since the maid arrived, Butler Jona's watchful gaze had grown lax, and Maid Leaf, foolishly assuming I would sleep like a baby after being stuffed full ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of sweet treats, had dropped her guard completely. Khehe. What a fatal mistake.

Letting your guard down around a hardcore veteran like me?

Why, I might just slip out into the dead of night and run an impromptu crime syndicate raid event!

Besides, even if left unchecked, those underworld scumbags would only use the money extorted from innocent commoners to buy their way into the academy entrance exam. Wouldn't it be far better for a righteous player to subjugate them and bolster my personal treasury instead?

And so, I quietly slipped out of the estate.

Following the underworld markers etched into my memory, I navigated toward an abandoned warehouse near the underground aqueduct. And—ta-da!—there was the hideout, accompanied by dozens of fresh corpses.

"...?"

A gang war? Why were they all dead?

Checking the safe, it hadn't even been cracked open. This wasn't a robbery.

Feeling thoroughly unsettled, I dashed over to raid another syndicate front nestled deep in the slums.

"...??"

More corpses, stacked like cordwood.

The secret outpost of the corrupt merchant guild that had a 20% chance of trying to capture players into slavery? Dead.

The circus tent where depraved performers indulged in cannibalism? Dead.

Every single criminal hideout I stepped into was carpeted with nothing but lifeless bodies. What in the world was going on? This was getting seriously creepy.

Thoroughly spooked, I scurried back to the mansion and shut the window behind me, when suddenly—click!—the lights flooded the room.

"Eeeeek!!"

"Where have you been wandering at such an ungodly hour, Young Lady?"

"J-Just out for a little walk..."

"You reek of blood."

"N-No, wait! I didn't kill anyone! Everyone was already dead by the time I got there!"

Leaf's eyes widened in brief surprise before softening into a gentle, reassuring smile. As I stared, utterly mesmerized by her radiant, fruit-sweet expression, Leaf carefully undressed me from my outdoor clothes and tucked me into bed.

While I blinked dumbfoundedly, Leaf pulled the soft duvet all the way up to my chin and gently rested her cool palm over my eyes.

"You must have had a terrible nightmare."

"Huh?"

"Worry not. I shall stand guard by your side tonight. No more nightmares will reach you, so please, rest in peace—at least for this evening."

At her tender, melodic whisper, a heavy wave of drowsiness washed over me. Beyond the rhythmic patting of her hand, I heard the faint scrape of a match igniting a candle, and my consciousness began to drift, growing pleasantly hazy as if soothed by hypnotic incense.

Was that it...?

Was it really just a bad dream...?

Enveloped by the comforting cool touch over my eyelids, I surrendered entirely to sleep.

"...To think that even I... failed to notice her tailing me... professional education must..."

I thought I caught the faint murmur of Leaf's voice drifting through the dark, but eh, it was probably just my imagination.