Chapter 288
Chapter 288
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 288
Chapter Title: All Sorts of Variables (2)
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‘Right, that's what happened then, too. Because I was late after meeting Marsha…’
Then it occurred to him that Amy might be upset with him. Could dancing with Reina have hurt her?
Looking back now, it seemed that going to Falcoa, even knowing it was a trap, wasn't entirely unrelated to that feeling.
‘No. I'm overthinking this. Dancing with Reina was already part of the plan. Amy wouldn't be like that.’
Even as he thought this, he couldn't be sure.
The reason was simple. When he saw Amy dancing with Zion, an unpleasant ripple had spread through his own heart.
Would it really be any different for Amy?
If she felt the same way, she might have followed Zion out with only the slightest motivation.
Amy was a fragile girl, after all.
Shirone's pace quickened. He tried to reason with himself to control his emotions, but his heart was beating even faster than before.
"Hm?"
Shirone stopped abruptly and looked back.
Ever since coming down to the basement, the back of his neck had been prickling strangely. But the path he'd walked was deserted, without so much as a single rat in sight.
"Is it just my imagination?"
Shirone rubbed his neck and slowly started walking again.
‘Kekeke, not a chance.’
A man hanging upside down from the ceiling where Shirone had just been grinned widely. It was Spartur Xenoger, who had been given special orders to assassinate Shirone.
He was clinging to the ceiling using only the strength of his ten fingers.
The ability of spider mimicry granted his clan the power to defy gravity.
The fine hairs on his fingertips and a highly adhesive oil secreted from his skin created a chemical reaction that supported his body weight.
Of course, this was only possible because it was backed by the martial arts he had honed through assassin training, allowing him to support his lower body with only the strength of his upper body.
Furthermore, the oil secreted from the skin of his fingers would evaporate within 20 seconds if he stopped its release, leaving no trace of his presence.
An assassin close to perfection.
Xenoger extended his long tongue down to his chin before retracting it.
‘A very perceptive piece of prey. Like… a mosquito.’
But that was only because Xenoger was continuously projecting a minuscule amount of killing intent toward Shirone.
Observing the prey's reaction and considering countermeasures was a basic tenet for an assassin. He could kill him at any moment if he chose to. He was simply probing, aiming for a 100 percent success rate.
‘Mm, indeed.’
Assassins were those who utilized situations rather than brute force. As such, they were a profession that spent an extreme amount of time alone. The need to personally judge and evaluate everything had made muttering to himself a habit.
Xenoger liked the profession of an assassin. It was far more sophisticated than a hitman, who simply struck and retreated based on improvisation.
Although his body had become so grotesque that it could not blend into human society, that was the very pinnacle of functional beauty pursued by the Spartur assassin clan.
‘Shall I… push him a little more?’
Xenoger moved along the wall with his ten fingers, catching up to his prey. Then, he extruded a spider thread from his rear and descended behind Shirone.
The thin thread stuck to the ceiling, propelling Xenoger's body forward. The slightest breeze would have made the thread sway, but for the spider clan, perfect control was not a difficult task.
The back of Shirone's head was right before his eyes. He was so close that his breath could stir the boy's hair. The pale nape of his neck, like the flesh of a fish, stirred a desire to bite.
Xenoger grinned widely and slowly brought his finger toward Shirone's neck.
‘Let's see just how sensitive you are.’
Xenoger's finger approached until it was just short of touching the fine hairs on his neck. It was a distance so close it might as well have been touching.
Shirone whipped his head around with a startled expression.
But all he could see was the scenery of the underground passage. Even the flickering pattern of the torches seemed unchanged.
"What in the world?"
Something was definitely off. Perhaps he was just on edge today, but he felt as if something was constantly prodding at his nerves.
‘It can't hurt to be sure.’
Shirone pretended to walk slowly, then suddenly expanded his Spirit Zone.
“…”
All sorts of information flowed in through his synesthesia.
Countless small things were scurrying about. There was a food pantry nearby, so they were probably rats or cockroaches.
"Ugh..."
Shirone rubbed his arms, goosebumps rising on his skin.
In any case, all he could sense through his synesthesia were tiny creatures. After days of facing assassination threats, he wondered if something was wrong with his nervous system.
"Whew, I should hurry."
As Shirone walked away, a pleased smile spread across the lips of Xenoger, who was still clinging to the ceiling.
‘He fell for it. Congratulations on your death.’
A mage's Spirit Zone was one of the most troublesome abilities for a close-quarters assassin. It wasn't easy to approach those who expanded their minds to perceive things through synesthesia.
But assassins say.
No sense is without its blind spot.
The Spirit Zone perceives all information within its domain integratively. It wasn't a precise sense like sight, hearing, or touch, but something closer to a sixth sense.
So, what if one were to assimilate with a specific object or creature? The sixth sense, which receives information integratively, would become unable to distinguish the difference between the two entities.
The blind spot of that sixth sense.
Just as creatures in the natural world mastered concealment techniques through evolution, assassins, too, had developed unique skills over long ages of fighting against the Spirit Zone.
That was the object assimilation ability, Equalizing.
‘Mm, indeed.’
Shirone had sensed Xenoger's presence through his Spirit Zone, but with his sixth sense alone, he couldn't distinguish the difference between the stone wall and Xenoger.
Moreover, this was precisely what Xenoger had been aiming for.
A mage's reliance on their Spirit Zone was as great as an ordinary person's reliance on their eyesight. It was to the point that if they couldn't sense something with their Spirit Zone, they would assume it didn't exist.
That was why he had been prodding Shirone until now.
Having checked his surroundings with the Spirit Zone, Shirone's guard was now much lower than before.
And so, he would die.
It wasn't Xenoger who would kill him. The situation would.
A hitman, specialized in striking and retreating, might bet their life on a 50 percent chance, but an assassin wouldn't move so easily even with a 99 percent probability. They moved only when the target took the first step into the swamp of death on their own.
This was why high-ranking officials feared a single assassin more than a large army. Once an assassin appeared, it meant one's current situation was already in the heart of death.
That said, the best assassin was not the best swordsman. Equalizing was such a difficult technique that one had to dedicate their entire life to it just to reach the level of a master.
But they were strong.
If a swordsman fought with abilities evenly distributed from 1 to 100, an assassin was someone who became invincible in 1 out of 100 aspects to overwhelm their opponent.
Therefore, Shirone was not at fault. He simply believed in what he trusted. And Xenoger used that blind spot to render his target completely defenseless.
The current Xenoger was in an invincible state.
‘Keke, then shall we get started?’
Skittering across the ceiling toward Shirone, Xenoger landed on the floor without a sound. Then, he pursed his lips, inserted his fingers, and made a motion as if pulling something out.
A thread as hard as wire was drawn out.
This would be enough.
‘Indeed.’
The method Xenoger chose was the death snare.
He would tie the steel wire into the shape of a snare, throw it over Shirone, and pull. The boy's head would pop off cleanly, like picking a grape from a bunch.
‘Seven seconds left.’
Xenoger whipped the fluttering thread through the air, instantly tying a snare knot.
Then, he let it ride the air currents, and it drifted forward, hovering like a kite above the crown of Shirone's head.
A perfect murder, without sound, presence, or even scent.
‘Four seconds left. Three. Two.’
The snare passed over Shirone's face and descended to his neck.
‘Now!’
Xenoger grinned grotesquely and pulled the thread.
The sharp spider-thread snare instantly tightened its loop, contracting to a size smaller than a millet seed.
“…”
Shirone, who had fallen onto his backside, turned to look at Xenoger.
"W-what? Who are you?"
“…”
Xenoger stared blankly, as if he had lost the ability to think. No matter how he tried, he couldn't comprehend the current situation.
The moment he tightened the snare, Shirone had suddenly dropped down and rolled on the floor. Then he had turned back and met his eyes.
‘What? Where did my calculations go wrong?’
Shirone should be dead. The situation dictated it.
Therefore, he was not at fault. There must have been an unforeseen variable.
Shirone swallowed hard and glared at Xenoger.
Just as he was walking with a sense of relief after checking his surroundings with the Spirit Zone, a voice had suddenly screamed 'Danger!' inside his head.
Without a moment to think, he had rolled on the floor. And when he looked back, a man with a menacing appearance was staring at him.
Xenoger asked in a grim voice.
"How... did you dodge that?"
Shirone furrowed his brow at the incomprehensible question.
‘How did I dodge it? Well, obviously…’
Because he heard someone's voice. But judging by the other's reaction, it seemed he hadn't heard it.
Just then, a cracking sound, like glass breaking, came from his pocket.
Without taking his eyes off Xenoger, Shirone fumbled in his pocket. When he pulled it out, he saw that the gem Uorin had said was worth well over 100 million was split in two.
Xenoger's shoulders flinched. Seen up close with his insect-like eyes, Shirone's gem was unmistakably the one he knew.
"?"
There was no way Shirone could possess that. But it was definitely . Otherwise, there was no reason he would have survived his perfect design.
‘Dammit... Of all things.’
According to records, 480 years ago on the western continent, there was a family known as the Jaegers.
Then one day, an incident occurred where members of the main family were assassinated one by one, each day. No matter how much they strengthened security, a body would invariably be discovered each morning.
The head of the family tried everything to find the culprit, but there was no way to stop the number of victims from growing day by day.
When the number of family members had dropped to less than half, he made an extreme choice.
He sealed off the mansion.
But that night, another servant died.
The family head sensed the assassin was inside and interrogated the household members. But he couldn't find any suspicious points about anyone, and as time passed, the 287 members of the main house dwindled to 63.
The family was already as good as ruined.
Everyone's spirits were shattered, and they didn't even speak to one another out of mistrust.
The family head stopped trying.
He would simply wait, no matter who died. As long as he could identify the culprit, he didn't care if even his family died.
And so, on the 286th day of the assassinations.
Only two people remained in the mansion.
The family head and his most beloved youngest daughter.
"H-how could you...?"
The family head couldn't believe the reality before his eyes.
He was not the assassin. Therefore, the culprit had to be his fourteen-year-old youngest daughter.
"No! I'm not the culprit, Father! I'm really not!"
The family head drew the sword at his waist.
He had to kill her. No matter how much he loved his daughter, everyone had died because of her.
But the family head couldn't kill his daughter.
Because she was already dead.
Staring down in utter shock at the corpse of his youngest daughter, the family head finally realized the truth and his jaw trembled.
At last, the entire secret was unraveled.
The sword fell, and his knees hit the floor.
"N-no! This can't be! No!"
The family head screamed, tearing at his hair.
There was no one left to die. Except for himself.
He took a bottle of strong liquor and headed to his study. There, he sat at his desk and recorded the events of the past 286 days on a single sheet of paper.
It is said that the family head's fate was never confirmed.
Opinions are divided on whether he left the mansion or was the final person to be assassinated, but in any case, the Jaeger family vanished from the world.
Two years later, a merchant acquired the Jaeger family mansion for a pittance.
It had been the family head's private property and couldn't be touched, but after the legal period of two years had passed, the kingdom sold it off.
When the mansion's doors, sealed for two years, were thrown open, the first thing that caught the merchant's eye was 287 red beads scattered on the floor.
This is the hidden story of . It was also the example the Curia Auction House used to explain why objets were not 100 percent safe.