Gloomy Shadows, Wicked Scum
“What's going on?”
“Hmm… nothing major. I just thought there was a place that'd be pretty fun to check out with my cute junior.”
“…?”
For now, I simply followed Lin as we slipped out of the dormitory and made our way through the dark. To be precise, we had left the Academy grounds entirely and were heading toward Ardea, though I still had no idea why. Given that Lin had dragged me out in the dead of night, however, it undoubtedly involved either the assassination guild or Cecilia.
“You remember that kid preparing the terror attack last time, right?” Lin asked, glancing over her shoulder.
“Yes, I remember. Nameless… are we heading there?”
“We're investigating them, but Nameless isn't based in Ardea. So tonight, instead of the main guild, we're paying a visit to the bottom-feeders working beneath them.”
“Should I think of them as an underground labor guild?”
“Yep. I love how quick on the uptake you are.”
Hearing that we were targeting one of Ardea's illicit labor outfits made it clear why she had brought me along. Cecilia's personal guard was my responsibility, after all. Extracting intelligence from anyone even tangentially connected would make protecting her far easier, and it might allow us to anticipate another incident before it happened.
We continued sprinting across the rooftops toward the outskirts of Ardea.
“By the way, Junior, why are you wearing your maid uniform?”
“…Didn't you tell me to just grab my weapons and come out immediately, Senior?”
“Did I…?”
“……Yes, you did.”
Unlike Lin, who wore a dark hooded robe with daggers strapped inconspicuously to her waist, I was dressed in a full maid uniform. Naturally, I had daggers strapped to my thigh holsters beneath the skirt and plenty of other lethal tools tucked away, but running wetwork in maid attire felt… distinctly bizarre.
Still, she had explicitly told me to grab my weapons and step outside without wasting a second. I had simply followed orders to the letter, which was how I ended up sprinting through the night in frills and an apron.
“Well, it'll probably be fine, won't it? The Academy is packed with nobles, so people see maids running errands outside all the time. Mmm… though it does look a bit odd, I admit!”
“It's your fault, Senior. You're the one who told me to only grab my weapons…”
“You still should've used some common sense!”
“…….”
A wave of indignation washed over me, but since she was my senior, I had to swallow my retort. If it had been Cecilia, I would have complained endlessly. But the woman leaping beside me was an elite assassin far more skilled than I was, not to mention the older sister of Hannah, who had drilled assassination tradecraft into me back at guild headquarters. Setting aside her jet-black hair and feline beastfolk ears, it was still hard to believe the two were related, given their wildly different personalities.
In the end, I kept my mouth shut and matched her silent pace.
“Over there,” Lin whispered, coming to a halt.
“It looks completely deserted.”
“The lights are out, but they run their little syndicate out of the basement.”
“I see.”
We crouched near the peak of a weathered clock tower, gazing down into a dingy, pitch-black alley that was far removed from any bustling commercial district. It offered an ideal vantage point for surveying the gloomy streets below. Even with the knowledge that an underground guild operated beneath our feet, there was virtually no sign of life. Nothing moved through the damp shadows save for scurrying vermin and stray insects; not a single human silhouette passed beneath the shuttered windows.
“It's a gloomy place,” I remarked quietly.
“Isn't it?”
“Looks like the exact sort of hole where wicked scoundrels would hide.”
That was my honest assessment: a dreary, rotting alley tailored for criminals crawling beneath the notice of the law.
“Shall we head in soon? Doesn't look like anyone else is wandering around out here.”
“Yes.”
“Let's drop down onto the roof of the building right across from us. Even if their base is underground, clearing it from top to bottom is always safer.”
“Should we eliminate everyone?”
“Hmm… isn't that cleaner? When you're digging for intel down in the basement, Junior, would you rather bump into roaming hostiles, or have them all dead beforehand?”
“The latter sounds much more convenient.”
“Right? Only trash live in a place like this anyway. Feel free to put down anything that moves.”
In short: kill everything on the way down, butcher anyone waiting in the basement, and take our time stripping the room of every scrap of documentation. With our plan settled, we initiated our infiltration.
Slipping through a small rooftop hatch, we dropped lightly onto the dusty floorboards. We muffled our footfalls completely, stepping into the gloom without making a whisper of sound.
“…….”
With a quiet exchange of nods, we began our sweep of the interior. Despite the structure spanning three stories, the top floor was entirely abandoned. There was no furniture, no inhabitants, and not even the lingering scent of recent human presence.
Confirming the floor was clear, we descended toward the second level. Moving with featherlight steps that produced not even the faintest creak, we cleared the rooms one by one. The second floor was just as bare as the third. We pressed forward toward the ground floor.
“Hrrr… snrrk…”
“…….”
Only as we reached the lower staircase did the signs of human life finally emerge. Though the building remained unlit, the muffled rumbling of snores, a weary yawn, and the faint shuffle of boots echoed from below. It was just as dim and squalid as the upper floors, but someone was definitely home.
“….”
After another quick glance and a shared nod, we glided off the stairs. Only the pale moonlight filtering through grimy windowpanes illuminated the first floor, casting faint silver slivers across the room. After taking only a few paces, a figure materialized in the gloom.
“Haaah-yawn…”
A burly, thickset man stood stretching, his jaw wide in a drowsy yawn. Before I could even shift my weight, Lin surged forward in an imperceptible blur.
“Mmph—?!”
She clamped the heavy sleeve of her robe over his mouth and drew a blade across his throat in a single fluid stroke. Instant death. As his heavy frame threatened to collapse loudly against the floorboards, Lin caught him by the lapels, lowering his lifeless bulk to the floor with exquisite, soundless care.
It was far cleaner than the covert kill I had pulled off in the past. To sever a life so effortlessly and control the corpse's descent without a whisper of noise was a stark reminder of why she was a senior assassin. When I had killed back then, the body had crashed down and made noise, but Lin eliminated the possibility entirely.
“Guh… k-krrk…!”
Of course, I didn't idle while she worked. I slipped behind another thug snoring on a cot, drove my dagger cleanly into his vitals, and lowered him down just as quietly.
Silence swallowed the first floor once more. Unlike the upper levels, we paused here to search our surroundings. This floor actually contained furniture—rough desks, battered drawers, and dusty bookshelves—making it far easier to look for leads while ensuring no other sentries lurked in the shadows.
“…Nothing useful here,” Lin whispered after rifling through a desk.
I gave a slight nod of agreement. We had turned over the obvious spots, but found nothing of value. Naturally, our objective lay beneath our feet.
We located the wooden trapdoor set into the floorboards. Easing it open just enough to peer through, we were greeted by the faint flicker of lamplight bleeding up from the cellar, accompanied by low voices.
“A three-million-credit request?”
“Yeah! A job straight from up top. They said if we pull this off, the final payout is four million credits, plus an extra million up front for operational expenses… There's no way in hell we can pass this up, right?”
“Five million in total…?”
“Damn straight! Eric, don't you think this is an absolute goldmine?”
“Mateo, what kind of job pays that much? Are they asking us to take out some high-ranking noble?”
“Who cares? Since when do we give a damn about who's on the receiving end? They wouldn't spill the details right away—said they'll hand over the full dossier once we formally accept.”
“Doesn't that smell dangerous?”
“It definitely isn't an ordinary request. Feels like we're being hired to pull something nasty against nobility…”
“Isn't five million credits more than enough to justify the risk?”
“Well, five million… If we throw a few crumbs to the grunts and split the rest among ourselves…”
“It might just be worth it.”
“…….”
It seemed we had hit the jackpot.
Having eased the trapdoor fully open and slipped soundlessly down the cellar stairs, Lin and I stood cloaked in the shadows, listening to the conversation. Everything about it reeked of foul play.
Judging by the voices, there were three men inside. The premise of their discussion was eerily similar to the contract handed to that red-haired freshman back at the Academy: an anonymous client offering an exorbitant reward through indirect channels, with the crucial operational details withheld until the target was locked in.
Back then, the intermediary had been the illicit guild known as Nameless. This time, it was a rough underground labor outfit. While the target's identity hadn't been voiced yet, the absurdly high payout and the secrecy surrounding the briefing made the parallels unmistakable.
Extremely suspicious.
Well, sticking a few blades into them ought to loosen their tongues considerably.
Judging by the glint in Lin's eyes as her fingers curled around the twin hilted daggers at her waist, my senior shared the exact same thought.