The Second Assassin
The Second Assassin
Take a 600-gold loss—not just 100? Unless I was completely insane, there was no way in hell I'd sell it at that price.
Besides, his sheer audacity had completely extinguished what little desire I had left to sell it to him.
"I'm not selling."
I waved dismissively and brushed past him.
Since he wasn't even a physical enhancement user, there was no way he could stop me.
"How dare you! Do you have any idea what will happen if you refuse my request...?"
Loud shouting echoed behind me, but I ignored him and left the mansion.
By the time I finished talking with the owner, everyone else had left, so only a few carriages remained in front of the estate.
I walked over to the carriage I'd arrived in and spoke to the driver.
"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long. You can head back on your own. I think I'll look around the area for a bit before I leave."
"As long as I get paid, it makes no difference to me. But will you be all right? Even though this is an upscale residential district, there are a lot of vacant houses, so public safety around here is a bit questionable."
"It's fine. I can protect myself."
When I said that, the driver steered his carriage away and left.
After receiving warnings and even explicit threats, I couldn't just ride back in the carriage as if nothing were wrong.
It would be troublesome if I were tailed for no good reason and exposed as an academy student.
If I hadn't snatched up the artifact ring the Second Prince wanted, none of this would have mattered. But that bastard viscount had ruined everything by proposing a deal that was practically highway robbery.
The root problem was that I'd placed such an absurdly high bid at the auction in the first place, but I'd erased that memory from my mind long ago.
Anyway, it was obvious that thugs like the ones I'd encountered before would show up, so I could just bicker with them for a moment and leave.
With that in mind, I strolled leisurely through the residential district.
Alleys flanked by long, high walls stretched endlessly ahead.
Some mansions were enclosed by iron grilles, while others were shielded by towering stone walls that completely hid their interiors.
'To think I could have bought a mansion like this just a little while ago...'
Since I still had half my money left, I might be able to buy one if I chose carefully, but I wouldn't have enough left to maintain it, let alone repair it.
'Was I being overly cautious?'
Even after walking for quite some time, no one picked a fight with me.
In fact, not only had no one picked a fight, there was hardly anyone around at all.
Just a few more blocks ahead lay the bustling central district, filled with crowds.
If this was how things were going to be, there'd been no need to trek all this way on foot.
Well, not being ambushed was certainly the better outcome anyway.
It was at that exact moment, just as I lowered my guard slightly—
Flare!
There was no trace of a presence, no time to prepare—every hair on the back of my neck stood on end in an instant.
At the same time, blaring alarm bells flooded my mind.
It felt as though a screaming siren were blaring inside my head.
Something had set off my senses. Whether it was killing intent or something else entirely, I couldn't tell.
I had no idea where it was coming from or how far away it was.
The only thing filling my head was the overwhelming thought of mortal danger.
Since I didn't know where it was coming from, I could neither dodge nor block it.
Am I going to die? Just like this, without even a hint of warning?
In that split second of existential dread, countless thoughts flashed through my mind.
Pat!
In that instant, a black arrow materialized right before my eyes.
It was an arrow whose origin and flight path were completely unknowable.
Simultaneously—
Clatter!
The sound of the world shattering rang out.
No—right before my eyes, the world itself, the street, seemed to fracture into pieces.
'Ah, the arrow was deflected...?'
I saw the black arrow bounce off and fly into the air above my head.
At the same time, the alarms that had filled my mind vanished in an instant.
It felt as though a bolt of lightning had struck inside my brain, then dissolved.
With the sense of immediate danger gone, my brain finally started functioning properly again.
The world hadn't shattered. A defensive barrier had ruptured.
The barrier surrounding me had successfully blocked the black arrow.
It seemed that, at the very last second, I had channeled mana into the ring.
Or perhaps the ring had absorbed it automatically when I surged my mana in response to the sense of crisis?
Either way, the ring's barrier had saved my life.
As a result, the ring fell dormant once more, and I leapt up to snatch the falling black arrow out of the air.
"Is this an artifact too?"
A strange aura emanated from the arrow, but now wasn't the time to examine it.
I still couldn't sense the shooter, but unlike moments ago, I now knew the direction the arrow had come from.
I charged toward it. I slipped the arrow into my pocket and drew my dagger.
Maybe I'd grown complacent after facing nothing but easy targets lately.
Or perhaps I'd underestimated my opponents entirely.
But I hadn't expected an attack like this in the slightest.
A sniper and assassin whose presence I couldn't detect until the absolute last instant.
I could finally understand why the Second Prince was so obsessed with defensive artifacts.
As I bolted forward, I drew on my mana to the absolute limit. I gathered every drop I could muster and released it into my surroundings.
The dagger began to shimmer. The mana remaining within my body started circulating in a fixed pattern.
The world began to slow down.
I poured out every ounce of my ability.
I had almost died just now. No, if not for the ring, I would have been one hundred percent dead.
Unlike other people, death wasn't the final end for me, but dying was still agonizing.
I took ten steps through the slowed world, covering roughly fifty meters.
Suddenly, something was caught in the broad net of mana I'd released.
I couldn't see it or hear it, but I trusted my mana.
The wall directly ahead.
A black figure burst out from behind it.
There had undeniably been nothing there until the very last split second.
Even now, the opponent appeared blurry to my eyes.
'Could it be a stealth-type inherited ability?'
If it was an inherited ability, it made sense that I hadn't been able to detect him normally.
But I was clearly aware of the enemy now. Once I'd detected him, there was no way I'd let him slip away.
The black figure was clad in black clothes and a black mask.
It was an outfit similar to the one worn by the assassin I'd seen in my childhood.
'Are they from the same organization?'
Since the Duke had killed the assassin back in the domain, there was no way to confirm it.
It seemed just as unlikely that I'd get any answers from this assassin, either.
Even beneath the mask, I could tell his mouth was tightly shut.
Fortunately, the masked man's own combat skills weren't particularly extraordinary.
He was more skilled than an average mercenary, but that level of skill was no match for me.
He tried to land a fatal blow and flee, but my blade moved first, severing his arm.
Even with his arm severed, he tried to retaliate, but I drove my blade straight into the left side of his chest without hesitation.
The slowed world snapped back to normal.
I reined in my mana and caught my breath.
The fight ended much more easily than my initial tension had suggested.
I retrieved a crossbow from the deceased assassin's robes.
The crossbow seemed to be an artifact as well, apparently part of a set with the arrow I'd caught.
Unfortunately, the crossbow was broken.
Whether the assassin had broken it deliberately or it was a single-use item, it seemed impossible to use again right away.
As expected, the assassin's sole inherited ability was 'stealth'.
He'd used his stealth ability to conceal himself and snipe me with this artifact crossbow.
Come to think of it, every assassin I'd encountered so far had been an inherited ability user.
The assassin I'd encountered in my childhood was a little harder to place, but thinking back, he was definitely a knight-type inherited ability user.
"Fascinating. To be able to employ inherited ability users—people who could easily become nobles—as mere assassins."
Whether it was because of ties to the nobility or some other reason, the boss of these assassins was certainly someone with immense power and stature.
Stashing the broken crossbow in my pocket, I hefted the assassin's corpse and leapt over the wall.
As expected, the house was abandoned.
I dug into the ground beneath the wall and buried the assassin's body along with his severed arm.
I couldn't afford to let a corpse be discovered and cause a commotion.
It was best for both the body and me to disappear quietly without a trace.
"I shouldn't go anywhere near the auctions for a while."
Besides, while I definitely needed to exact proper vengeance on whoever had sent the assassin, I decided to leave that for later as well.
With the Second Prince backing them, stirring the pot any further would only escalate matters unnecessarily.
Admittedly, I had a nagging feeling that I'd already stirred up the hornet's nest quite thoroughly.
"I cleaned things up properly, so hopefully nothing will come of it."
I slipped out of the high-end residential district as quickly as possible.
Before reaching the central district, I took off my mask, blended into the crowds, and took as convoluted a route as possible to throw off any trackers.
I changed my clothes, left through the city gates and came back in, and tried out various disguises... It might have seemed overly cautious, but this time I took every conceivable precaution.
After wandering around like that until evening, I finally returned to the Academy.
Thanks to all that, I'd blown through my entire day off, but looking at the artifacts laid out in front of me, I didn't regret it much.
Late that night.
I laid out my auction winnings across the desk in my room at the Academy Dormitory.
First, the ring that had saved my life.
Thinking about how much I'd spent still made my stomach turn, but the ring had more than proved its worth.
No, considering what had happened today, it was worth far more than I'd paid.
At the auction house, I'd thought only royalty or high nobility needed to prepare for assassinations, but after today's ordeal, it turned out I was the one who needed it most.
Come to think of it, assassins had been targeting me constantly since childhood, and whether because of my ability or bad luck, I'd already died multiple times.
On top of that, thanks to my senses being superior to others', this ring effectively served as an automated defense system once a day.
My senses detect the crisis, I surge my mana, and the ring deploys a defensive barrier.
Speaking strictly for myself, it seemed even more effective than the Patriot missiles I'd seen in my past life.
I slipped the ring back onto my finger.
Then I picked up the next item.
A necklace shaped like a jewelry box.
Since it lacked a chain, it could also be described as a jewelry box designed to look like a necklace pendant.
I opened the lid of the jewelry box.
Just as I'd observed at the auction house, the inside of the jewelry box looked as though it would fit my existing necklace perfectly.
I pulled out my necklace and placed it inside the jewelry box.
Click.
It fit like a glove.
The chain of the necklace could extend outside the box as well.
I closed the lid of the jewelry box.
Though the pendant had grown larger and changed shape, it was still perfectly wearable around my neck.
"With this, neither Piar nor Mirisa will be able to recognize it."
The shape of the necklace had changed completely. The chain remained the same, but since it was just an ordinary chain, there was no way the two of them would recognize it.
"Since there's no fear of getting caught, carrying it around won't be a problem. Now, all that's left is to test it?"
I hung the necklace around my neck and took a deep breath.
The Auction House Owner had already explained how to use it.
He'd told me that if I placed an artifact inside this jewelry box and poured mana around it as if enveloping the box, I could adjust various settings.
Things like severing the flow of mana between the artifact and the outside of the box, adjusting the output intensity, or even locking the directional flow of mana in a specific direction.
I carefully manipulated my mana just as instructed.
If I messed up, I'd have to endure the agonizing pain I'd felt all night long back then.
Although I believed it would work well enough, I had to prepare for the worst.
Fortunately, as soon as I channeled my mana, I intuitively understood how to operate it.
I dialed down the volume of flowing mana and calibrated it so that the energy flowed exclusively toward me, the one wearing the necklace.
That way, even if someone else touched it, it would be safe, and there'd be no risk of it going berserk.
Having finished the adjustments, I sucked in a deep breath.
"All right!"
After a soft shout, I pushed my mana straight into the necklace.
The necklace began to glow with a faint, gentle light.
It worked. The necklace responded without me having to touch it directly as I had last time.
And then, a sensation like an electric current began to hum from the necklace.
My body trembled as mana was siphoned into the necklace. Then it surged back out into my body.
The mana began to circulate.
"Please, please..."
It seemed my desperate prayer had been answered.
Even after that, the mana didn't go haywire.
Instead, the mana, amplified several times over, surged smoothly through my veins again and again.
This was more than worth taking the risk for.
In just a single day, I'd acquired two brand-new weapons.