Chapter 397: The Benevolent Assassin
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 397: The Benevolent Assassin
Before night fell, Kang Hyun-woo had a problem to consider.
The 2nd Queen might send an assassin in his absence.
Although Tina was by Elisabeth’s side, there were always exceptions in this world.
What if an assassin arrived that Tina couldn't handle?
Preparing for the worst-case scenario, Kang Hyun-woo left the royal castle to meet with Count Hevaron before returning to his party’s lodgings.
Afterward, he returned to the Ruby Palace with the three of them. He asked Sylvia to guard the others and immediately headed for the Crystal Palace, where the 1st Prince resided.
Sylvia was at the entry level of an Aura Master, and Tina was a high-level Aura Expert.
Kang Hyun-woo was confident that with the two of them together, even a group of assassins would be no match for them.
But there was one thing he had overlooked.
““...””
Though five people were gathered in the not-so-spacious drawing room, a heavy, awkward silence flowed between them, unbroken by a single word.
Iris sipped her tea leisurely, Sylvia was cursing Kang Hyun-woo out internally, and Amelia quietly observed her surroundings.
In their midst, Elisabeth was trembling at the thought of Kang Hyun-woo.
‘...Hyun-woo, even so, isn’t this too many?!’
She knew he had women in his party, but she never dreamed they would all be women.
Moreover, every one of them possessed a beauty so striking it astonished even Elisabeth, who was renowned as the most beautiful woman in high society.
Iris and Sylvia had hidden their ears with magic, but they couldn't hide their dazzling looks.
Amelia, too, was exuding the same unrealistic beauty befitting a princess of a duchy.
Of the five people in the room, three held romantic feelings for Kang Hyun-woo: Iris, Amelia, and Elisabeth.
Sylvia?
The feelings Sylvia had for Kang Hyun-woo were closer to murderous intent than affection.
In any normal situation, it wouldn't have been strange for a drama of passion to have already erupted, with the women tearing each other down and hurling insults.
However, of the three, only Iris had actually been physically intimate with Kang Hyun-woo, and she didn't even consider Amelia and Elisabeth to be rivals.
In fact, Iris actively welcomed the idea of a harem.
Furthermore, Amelia had yet to properly recognize her own feelings, and Elisabeth’s ability to communicate with others had been severely stunted by the abuse she had suffered from the 2nd Queen over the past ten years.
With these three gathered, it was only natural that no such drama would unfold.
“...What is your relationship with Hyun-woo?”
After nearly twenty minutes of silence, Elisabeth was the first to speak.
Tina was deeply moved by her master’s courage, while Iris gave a gentle smile at the sight of the princess uncharacteristically gauging the room.
“I am Lord Hyun-woo’s first wife.”
“W-Wife?!”
“Of course, we haven’t had a formal wedding ceremony yet.”
Iris caressed her bracelet as if showing it off.
As if spurred on by the sight, Amelia pretended to look out the window and swept her hair back.
The diamond in her earring sparkled under the light.
“...”
Though no further explanation was given, Elisabeth instinctively knew that both the bracelet and the earring were gifts from Kang Hyun-woo.
In that moment, a corner of Elisabeth’s heart ached.
Was it the pain of a broken heart?
‘Just you wait until you get back...!!’
No. What she felt now was resentment and anger toward Kang Hyun-woo.
They might not have been in a formal relationship, but shouldn't he at least take responsibility for taking her first kiss?
*
‘...Is someone talking shit about me?’
Kang Hyun-woo casually dug at his ear, feeling an inexplicable itch.
“You filthy assassin!! How dare you!!”
Perhaps feeling that his attitude was disrespectful, the knight became enraged and swung his sword, his killing intent palpable.
“Filthy? I took a shower before I came.”
“Shut up!!”
CRACK-!!!
A formidable pressure surged forth, following the trajectory of the aura-infused blade.
Watching the blue slash fly toward him, Kang Hyun-woo twisted his body lightly.
To him, who practiced the Ghost Divine Art, the walls and ceiling were no different from the ground.
The knight’s eyes trembled slightly at the sight of Kang Hyun-woo approaching him with acrobatic movements, dodging his attack.
‘...He’s right in front of me, yet I can’t feel his presence at all. Am I fighting an undead?’
His senses, honed over decades, found his opponent unsettling.
The knight drew upon his mana and glared at Kang Hyun-woo as he rushed out of the darkness.
VWOOOOOM!!!!!
Sharp, aura-infused sword strikes flew in every direction.
As a fierce wave of aura filled the corridor, Kang Hyun-woo deployed a barrier.
CRACK!!!
“A mage?!!”
With the knight’s urgent cry, the storm of aura crashed against the barrier.
The result was devastating.
The barrier only sustained a small scratch; it didn't shatter into pieces as the knight had hoped.
The knight was greatly flustered by the fact that a mage who could cast a barrier strong enough to block his sword was moving like a seasoned assassin.
And in that instant, a fine crack appeared in his composure.
Kang Hyun-woo did not miss the opening.
Fwish!
He threw five daggers at the knight.
The knight reflexively raised his sword to parry them, but he suddenly felt an unidentifiable sense of unease and immediately threw himself to the side.
In the Central Plains, it was called ‘Rolling on the Ground’—a most unsightly method of evasion.
The knight gritted his teeth and swallowed his humiliation.
But in the end, his judgment had been correct.
Soul-Snatching Heavenly Killing Darts.
It was an unparalleled assassination technique that only the Ghost Valley Master could learn, capable of piercing even a protective aura by infusing the daggers with Aura.
If the knight had tried to parry the daggers with his sword, his stance would have crumbled, leaving him unable to prepare for the next attack.
“If you dodge by rolling like that, how will you block the next attack?”
“?! H-How did you get there so fast?!”
But even if he had cast aside his pride and thrown his body, the fact remained that he couldn't block the next attack.
Leaving a single afterimage in the corridor, Kang Hyun-woo’s fist flew toward the knight’s face.
THWACK—
That was the end of him.
*
A thought suddenly occurred to me.
The 2nd Queen certainly deserved to die, but was it really right to kill the 1st Prince as well?
The truth was, I had been so focused on the 2nd Queen that I didn't know much about the 1st Prince.
‘This is tricky.’
After a moment of thought, I decided to subdue him and take him with me for now.
I couldn't just leave him be.
This was a competition for survival, after all.
He needed to be confined, at least until Elisabeth ascended to the throne.
Of course, I had no intention of letting him go quietly after that either.
Even if Elisabeth became queen, there was a possibility that the nobles would rally around the 1st Prince and form a new faction.
‘I should probably erase his memory and dump him in some country village.’
Some might call it excessive, but Elisabeth had been abused by the 2nd Queen for the past ten years simply for being born a princess.
The 1st Prince, who knew of her situation and did nothing to stop it, could hardly be considered innocent.
Knock, knock.
“Your Highness, I’m coming in.”
I knocked as a courtesy, just in case he was naked.
I had no desire to see a man in the nude.
BANG!
“Kyaaah!!”
“W-Who are you?!”
As I kicked the door in, I saw a woman covering herself with a blanket and a man awkwardly holding a sword.
It seemed they had just been in the middle of something, as the woman was completely naked.
“Rest assured, I’m a benevolent assassin.”
“...What?”
Fwish—
I immediately flicked a thin needle toward the woman.
Of course, I had no intention of killing her.
“Ah...!”
The needle, imbued with my internal energy, struck one of her acupoints. Her sleep point suppressed, the woman lost consciousness and went limp.
Her naked body was revealed, and her breasts were remarkably small.
‘To think the prince was a lolicon...’
If a guy like that had ascended to the throne, the future of the Nivia Kingdom would have been very dark indeed.
“What have you done?! Where is Sir Gunther?! Kill this man at once!!”
“Gunther?”
At the 1st Prince’s urgent and desperate cry, I casually stepped aside.
The headless corpse of the knight, sprawled on the floor, was revealed.
“Is this man Gunther, by any chance?”
“...”
The moment he saw the knight’s corpse, the 1st Prince’s eyes began to tremble faintly.
Ignoring him, I walked into the bedroom.
“D-Don’t come any closer!!”
CRASH!! THUD!!
The 1st Prince backed away, frantically throwing whatever objects he could get his hands on, but he was soon cornered against a wall.
I reached out, intending to just knock him out.
But in that moment.
“E-Elisabeth! Did that wench send you?!”
“...?”
“That fucking bitch!! She’s pretty enough that I was thinking of taking her as a concubine after I took the throne!! Is this how she repays my grace?! A descendant of a fallen kingdom!! A whore who only survives by selling her body like her mother did!! How dare she send an assassin after me, the rightful heir to the kingdom?! I’ll never forgive you!! I’ll make you and your mother slaves and tear you limb from—”
SPLAT—
In that instant, the 1st Prince’s head exploded.
A spray of blood stained the floor, and the headless body swayed for a moment before collapsing limply.
Afterward, I wiped the blood that had splattered on my cheek with the back of my hand.
“My hand slipped.”
Probably.
I glanced down at the corpse for a moment, then quietly left the palace as if nothing had happened.
There was still a long way to go until the night was over, but I needed to move diligently, as I didn't know when or where a new variable might appear.
About ten minutes after crossing the royal castle grounds, the Sapphire Palace came into view.
I had identified a weakness in its barrier earlier in the day, so I didn't stop and entered it directly.
The security was tighter than at the Crystal Palace, but I strolled through the palace interior, avoiding the soldiers’ eyes.
Finding the 2nd Queen’s bedroom wasn't difficult.
A familiar, sharp energy was calling to me.
“...So you’ve finally come.”
In a dark corridor, Marquis Laxion was waiting for me.
Heavily armed, he exuded a perfectly composed aura, already in a combat stance.
Most importantly, he was not alone.
“Just as the Marquis said. He really showed up.”
“To think a mere mage would dare to assassinate a member of the royal family...!”
I looked at the two knights standing beside the Marquis.
Both were considerably skilled.
‘...Top-level Aura Experts?’
A dry laugh escaped me.
He had assigned only a single high-level Aura Expert to guard his one and only son, yet he had stationed himself, an Aura Master, and two top-level knights in his own palace.
He really never failed to disappoint, did he?
“I’ll deliver your head to the 1st Princess as a gift.”
“A gift, you say...”
An intense killing intent filled the corridor.
Looking at the Marquis, who was full of vigor despite his old age, I raised the corner of my mouth.
“As it happens, I also prepared a gift for you, Marquis. Would you like to see it?”
“...What?”
Sensing something unsettling in my words, the Marquis’s eyes began to tremble slightly.
I took the ‘gift’ from my coat and threw it to him.
It was the 1st Prince’s index finger.
“Your grandson has rather... unique sexual preferences, Marquis. To think he likes women with small breasts...”
“D-Don’t tell me...?”
“I sent him off without giving him a moment to feel any pain, so could you please not glare at me like that?”
I was being sincere.
The 1st Prince probably didn't even realize he was dead in his final moments.
“I’LL KILL YOU!!!!”
BOOM!!
But as if he didn't appreciate my consideration, Marquis Laxion’s eyes became bloodshot as he charged toward me.
I drew the Heaven-Shattering Demonic Sword.
Though they couldn't be born on the same day, wasn't it a human's duty to send the grandson and daughter off on the same day as well?