The Assassin's Smile
“Thank you for saving me… Thank you so much….”
Atel lay prostrate on the ground, bowing repeatedly.
The dirt and bruises covering her body made it clear how desperately she had fought to survive here.
Atel, a 2-star warrior, would have struggled just to face a single skeleton soldier.
“Get up first. We’re in the same class and share the same party. We have to help each other.”
“G-grateful… Thank you…!”
Atel rose and pointed at herself, speaking with urgency.
“If there’s anything you need, command me! I’ve been saved from death by Your Highness’s grace. I will stake my life to ensure Your Highness escapes this place. I’ll take the night watch myself. Please….”
“Calm down. Rest first. The night watch can be assigned to the soldiers, so there’s no need.”
“H-huh? If that’s the case, is there any other command you have? If becoming a servant is acceptable….”
“Sigh… This is an order. Go wash your body with Kirke. She’ll create water with magic.”
“U-understood…!”
Atel, startled by the command, rushed to Kirke. Kirke had glared at X briefly, so she avoided her eyes.
No choice but to accept the annoying burden.
Though reluctant, Kirke still took care of Atel.
After Atel and Kirke cleaned themselves with the magic water in a corner, they washed their clothes right there and dried them.
“Magic is amazing! Washing with warm water and making clothes clean like this right here in this place….”
“You know a thing or two. Magic was originally created to raise the level of life. The idea that magic is a study to explore truth came much later.”
“I thought magic was a technology for war….”
“That was a wrong education.”
Kirke and Atel conversed quite intimately.
Atel, who was usually bright and had good social skills, treated Kirke, a commoner, warmly.
Kirke also seemed not to dislike it, responding with a bright expression.
‘By the way, Atel got involved too….’
Atel hadn’t been far away when the incident happened.
She had been somewhat close, but not right next to them.
So other people nearby had a high chance of being involved.
‘Atel near Ames and Ten, Kirke near Lola. We have to consider the possibility that three of them are here.’
X decided to form a search party.
Ames and Ten weren’t that strong, so they might have been seriously injured if things went wrong. If lucky, they might have come to the scene after hearing the commotion like Atel.
“3rd squad, 4th squad. Take one elite each and search the nearby area. 5th squad, search around the place where you fought earlier. If you find something, report it to me immediately.”
Clunk-clunk—
The skeleton officers moved immediately upon receiving the orders.
Sending 30 people for mere exploration was excessive troop deployment, but it didn’t matter much.
After all, there were plenty of surplus troops.
“What’s this? Where did they go?”
By now, Kirke had washed and was drying her hair with wind magic near X.
Her signature long purple hair took time to dry.
“I instructed them to search the vicinity just in case. There might be other survivors like Atel.”
“I was about to say that too. It’s quite good.”
“What about Atel?”
“She said she’s going to make dinner?”
“Dinner?”
When X turned around, Atel was far away near the campfire, enthusiastically cooking with a pot and ingredients. Then, after meeting X’s eyes, she shyly waved her hand.
X turned back to Kirke.
“Do you cook well?”
“She said she often cooked stew for her family back home. It’s her specialty to make it delicious with limited ingredients.”
“Hmm, indeed, you didn’t cook food yesterday and just ate it. The dried meat was like a rock, and I almost lost my teeth. But is it okay? If you cook, the rations will run out quickly.”
“She’s saying she wants to repay the favor of saving her. If not, she’ll collapse from staying up all night on watch. Then, the cleanup will be our responsibility.”
Kirke’s words made sense.
It was better to give Atel a suitable task than to let her fall and cause more trouble.
Kirke lowered her voice after saying that.
“So, what do you think?”
It was quite serious.
X quickly understood Kirke’s intention.
“No need to look further.”
“Right? What are you going to do?”
“I’ll watch for now. It’s best to handle annoying things at once. If done separately, it just wastes time.”
“In this regard, you’re different from me. If it were me, I would have….”
X got tired of Kirke’s next words.
At times like this, the fact that she was the Sage Aerial who had survived in the Demon Realm’s hell for nearly 20 years hit home.
If I listened more, my mind would go weird, so X changed the subject.
“By the way, are these skeletons here weird in some way? Not just skeletons, but the guardians too.”
“What?”
“I might be imagining things, but I get the feeling that these guys think and act like humans.”
It still didn’t make sense that the guardian threw away the treasure chest and chased X to kill him.
“I thought they were simple undead or mana lifeforms, but I started wondering if that might not be the case.”
“Then?”
“Perhaps they have intelligence like humans.”
At that, Kirke frowned.
“Meaning the souls of the dead are bound to the skulls? There are liches, so it’s not impossible, but who would do such a crazy thing?”
“What do you think, Kirke?”
“Binding souls to other forms of bodies is a difficult task. Even a legendary necromancer might succeed in soul binding only once in a lifetime….”
As Kirke said, handling souls is hard.
Souls are protected by divine beings in themselves.
Thanks to that, swordsmanship, magic, and even holy arts were researched and developed over time, but the field of handling souls remains almost unknown.
Even the world’s main god Deusrute barely managed to reincarnate the five hero party members using immense power.
‘Even if only the souls were reincarnated excluding the power at the time, it was like that.’
Of course, soul reincarnation is simpler than soul binding. But it was also a difficult technique to take lightly.
Still, X didn’t drop the suspicion.
“But what if it is true?”
“If all the skeletons here have souls….”
Connecting thoughts with an unthought hypothesis led to an unexpected conclusion.
“Then, who exactly made this place?”
“I wonder.”
Who made this place.
The background of this place created by the gap in probability.
It was an unknown field even for X.
“If you don’t know, who would?”
“Rather, Kirke knows more about this. I only know future information, not past.”
“I don’t know the past either.”
“Leon raided the Hero’s Trials even 100 years ago. Was there no common point?”
“Common point….”
Kirke recalled some memories from her past life.
“Everything was artificial buildings with clear rules. Before entering the entrance, there was ancient writing.”
“Now that I think about it, there was that.”
“The only interpreted characters were ‘Hero’ and ‘Trial’, so we called it the Hero’s Trial arbitrarily….”
Thinking about it, it was strange.
Who built this facility in a remote area that no one from the vast continent could easily reach.
It was to draw out latent talents if you conquered this place.
Who made this facility for the hero.
“Now that I think about it, the ancient ruins I went to earlier were like that. Who made such mysterious facilities?”
At that moment, a thought crossed X’s mind.
“Kirke, do you remember the ancient writing at the entrance of the Hero’s Trial?”
“I don’t remember. Want me to write it down?”
Kirke drew light on the ground and carved the shape of the ancient writing.
“Looking at it now, it seems similar to the characters I saw in the ancient ruins. Can you read it?”
“Yes, I can read it.”
Seeing a sentence of about two lines, the meaning came to mind.
“‘Later generations, restrain the power of the avatar of destruction here. Become the hero who passes the trial and prevents the world’s destruction.’ It seems like a grand secret, but it’s just cliché.”
“…”
It wasn’t useful information.
X sighed inwardly.
However, unlike X who was inwardly sighing, Kirke’s expression was one of shock.
“Why? You already knew I could read ancient writing, didn’t you?”
“No, I knew that. But, think about what this phrase means.”
“…So, this place is a facility that gives power to the hero?”
“What does that mean?!”
Kirke pointed at the characters and laughed happily like a scholar who made a great discovery.
“The beings who made this facility predicted the revival of the Demon King and the descent of the Hero earlier than 100 years ago! To stop the Demon King, the hero’s power must be strong, so they made this facility. In other words, this place is living history!”
“…Since there is ancient writing, it was made by ancient people.”
Kirke showed a lukewarm reaction to X, approached quickly, grabbed X’s shoulders with both hands, and shook them while shouting.
“What don’t you understand!! Do you know why artifacts are interpreted as impossible magic tools?! Because it was made with ancient magic that can’t be designed with today’s magic! Ancient magic itself has enormous value!!”
Kirke brought her hand holding X’s shoulder in front of X’s nose and showed the Python’s Leap on her finger. This was also an artifact found in the ancient ruins.
“Ugh, don’t pinch my nose! No, isn’t this just using magic as an excuse to get revenge?!”
“Even just looking at this, it’s like that. To use spatial movement with the magic level of this generation, you need at least 7th circle and pour out absurd mana. But this artifact’s Blink only requires appropriate mana. If you reverse-engineer this, the magic level will be several generations….”
It was an enormous discovery.
To summarize:
“The makers of this place are ancient people who use unknown magic? Well, there’s no other way to explain it.”
“If that’s the hypothesis, your words are possible too. With ancient magic, soul binding would somehow be possible.”
“Wow, ancient magic is amazing….”
While X, repeating reactions without souls, and Kirke glaring with narrowed eyes, were approaching the unknown secret step by step.
“Prince! Kirke! The stew is ready! Come eat!”
Atel, who finished cooking, called out to the two.
Her expression was lively, looking confident.
“Oh, the smell is good. Did you add spices?”
“I seasoned it with salt and added remaining herbs. When I’m free, I like to drink herbal tea.”
“Ah, the one we drank every day in the classroom was herbal tea.”
“I didn’t think it would be used like this….”
The taste of the stew was quite good. It was unbelievable that they made such a dish with only a little dried meat and a few ingredients.
“…Tasty. When I think of stew, I thought it was just any old thing thrown in.”
“P-prince, it’s an honor to satisfy Your Highness’s extraordinary palate!”
“What, extraordinary palate….”
The three sat around the campfire and quietly enjoyed Atel’s stew. The inside and outside became warm, and the body quickly relaxed. It was the perfect time to end the day’s work.
“Thank you for the meal. It would be nice if we could eat it again later. By the way, since we’re in the same group, we’ll have to eat it again anyway.”
“Y-yes! I’ll prepare the most abundant meal possible for the next time!”
“Don’t overdo it.”
After finishing the meal and trying to clean up, Atel asked.
“U… Prince. Even though my lowly status, may I ask one thing? I might be rude because my knowledge is lacking….”
“Anything is fine. You made delicious stew.”
“Then….”
Atel hesitated and asked the next question.
“Do you really intend to become emperor?”
It was quite a provocative question.
“Hmm, an unexpected bold question.”
“Atel, that’s a dangerous statement.”
X looked indifferently, Kirke narrowed her eyes and glared, and Atel waved her hand and rambled.
“No, don’t misunderstand! Since you became prince, it’s natural to have ambitions to become emperor! Moreover, Prince X is also the hero! The goddess herself recognized it! What I’m curious about is….”
Atel shrank her shoulders and spoke timidly.
“It’s a hypothetical, but… after the prince becomes emperor, what the empire will look like… should I say it’s unimaginable…?”
“Examples?”
“I, I think that as a commoner like me, as long as I can earn my living day by day without worrying about my life, anyone is fine. But if… if I become a slave overnight because of the nobles’ whims and lose my freedom and have to worry about my life….”
It was like X was saying that.
“I… I think it would be sad….”
After that, Atel waited for X’s answer while watching X’s expression.
X also thought deeply and organized the answer.
Though I don’t know what she’s thinking, it was a bold question.
After organizing, X smiled faintly and answered.
“I clearly said it. ‘Those who follow the new order will follow me.’ Of course, it’s for a better world. The empire will change, and everyone will have to adapt to the change. If they can’t adapt, they will be eliminated.”
“…”
“Well, those who have a lot won’t like it. If you tell them to put down what they hold in their hands, who would listen? But those who don’t listen will have their wrists cut off. They’ll have no choice but to put them down. If they don’t like it….”
A twisted smile appeared on X’s lips.
“I will definitely kill them before I become emperor. I will do my best to assassinate them like now.”
Suddenly, the warm atmosphere cooled thanks to the stew and the campfire.
“I, is the reason we came here because of the assassin? Doing such blasphemous things…!”
“Yes, it’s blasphemous. But I….”
X stood up and said.
“I will humbly accept that blasphemy. It must be at that level to become the emperor of the Dritania Empire.”
At that answer, Atel brightened her eyes and prostrated herself flat.
“I, I spoke out of turn! To doubt the prince’s intentions, I was the one who was blasphemous! Please cut off my head and atone for my sins…!”
“I forgive you. Let’s rest for today. It’s getting late. It must be dawn by now. Most importantly, Kirke is also starting to doze off.”
“Yes, yes!”
Looking to the side, Kirke was nodding with almost closed eyes, dozing off. X’s eyes were also trembling.
It was quick for the three to go to bed.
X and Kirke fell asleep almost as soon as they lay down.
Atel also quietly closed her eyes in the new sleeping bag.
A silence that didn’t break the noisy place came.
And quite some time passed.
The skeleton soldiers patrolled in places invisible to their eyes, guarding the surroundings. With their numbers being quite large, no one could easily intrude.
Squeak. Squeak.
Amid the vigilant watch, an unidentified sound was heard.
It sounded like a baby mouse crying.
Squeak—
In the small, precarious light illuminating the campfire, someone got up. The person near the campfire could only be X, Kirke, or Atel.
Of the three, Atel was the one who got up.
“…”
Atel’s expression, unlike usual, was heavy and stiff. She got up without making a sound of fabric brushing.
She turned her head and looked at X and Kirke.
The two were in deep sleep.
It was so deep that even Kirke, who was sensitive to small sounds and changes, didn’t wake up.
Even if Atel approached and observed, it was at a level that couldn’t be noticed.
“Of course. I used sleeping pills.”
Atel moved her lips slightly.
Squeak. Squeak.
The same sound as before. The sound of a mouse crying was Atel’s. In the darkness, two unidentified people approached the campfire and revealed themselves.
Black masks and black clothing to blend into the darkness.
Anyone could see they were assassins.
“I thought things would be easier than I expected.”
Atel smiled mysteriously at them and said.
“We’ll finish the prince’s assassination here today.”