Chapter 19: Bastards Like This Deserve Death, Contract or No
The children gaped at the mention of ten silver taels. Having lived their whole lives in the mountains, their sense of money was stuck at the level of six-year-olds.
In a self-sufficient farming household, ten silver taels would last a full year with plenty left over. Even in the capital, where farming wasn't an option, a family could scrape by for half a year if they pinched pennies.
But ten silver taels a month?
It was only natural that the kids were tempted.
"Once you become a special-grade assassin, the treatment changes dramatically. You'll get a small manor and thirty silver taels a month. Plus, your commission on missions jumps to thirty percent. Stick it out for a few years, and you'll be rolling in wealth, rich enough to buy a mountain."
"Whoa!"
The children let out gasps of awe.
"First-grade assassins are required to take four missions a year, but special-grade only need two. So if you're classified as special-grade when you leave here, your life will open up wide."
Hmph! Why doesn't he mention that once you leave, you'll be stuck as an apprentice assassin for two years, supporting all sorts of missions and mostly dying in the process?
Won Seung, who had lived in the upper quarters, knew far more than the other kids. Even after graduating, apprentices handled grunt work on missions for two years, with most not surviving. And even if you made it to first-grade, your fate was sealed.
In ten years, the poison from Blood Chain Mountain would claim you. The only way out was to swear loyalty to Jeokhyeolsan within five years and join them fully. Then you'd get the full antidote before the toxin reached your marrow.
Yet this active assassin was blatantly lying to dazzle the kids.
At that moment, someone raised a hand.
"I've heard there's something called the Ten Perfect Assassins. What kind of treatment do they get?"
"Ten Perfect Assassin? If someone becomes one, even I'd have to follow their orders. You'd gain supreme status and position at headquarters overnight. A grand manor, a hundred silver taels a month, four personal guards, ten servants and maids. And you'd only need one obligatory mission a year, taking half the commission fee."
Another lie, of course. No one had ever become a Ten Perfect Assassin, so there was no precedent. He was just making it up as he went.
But as the active assassin said it, he glanced slyly at Won Seung.
The moment their eyes met, Won Seung felt a chill of foreboding.
I'm under scrutiny from headquarters!
He figured it was payback for killing Ak Gyo-du.
Winter returned. This time, instead of harsh training, the focus was on elevating their primary martial arts to the tenth star.
With the assassin strategy classes over, the active assassins stopped coming. The kids trained their main techniques from dawn till dusk.
They'd taken countless classes, but the primary martial art carried the heaviest weight in graduation scores. It made sense.
Won Seung mastered Spectrum Sword Art, Tae-eul Sword Art, and Heavenly Middle Sword Art to the tenth star each. With over forty years of internal energy backing him, it wasn't hard. After fully opening his conception and governor vessels, his energy accumulation had doubled in speed.
Ten lines were scratched above Won Seung's bunk, and finally, the last spring arrived.
The Blood Chain Mountain poison should be kicking in about now...
Won Seung had laced the dining hall's drinking water with a mild toxin.
That night.
"Urk!"
Jang Chil clutched his stomach mid-sleep and bolted for the latrine. A long line was already there, so in his panic, he dashed into the woods and had diarrhea.
The other kids were groaning with stomachaches or diarrhea too.
Exactly one year since they'd taken the Fate Building Pill, Sa Gyo-du summoned the children.
The instructor, who'd holed up in his office drinking since arriving, looked gaunt and haggard. With hungover eyes, he addressed them.
"You've trained hard for nine years. Now it's time for field practice. You'll each get three assassination missions. Complete them within half a year—that's your task. Even if you fail, return within half a year."
The kids' faces lit up. They were already plotting to flee once outside. Sa Gyo-du saw right through them and cackled.
"I know what you're thinking. Heh heh. Haven't your stomachs been upset lately? Feeling queasy now and then?"
The children's faces hardened. Having learned every trick in the assassin training, they immediately suspected poison.
"The Fate Building Pill you took was laced with toxin. Without this antidote every year, you'll vomit blood and die within ten days."
Sa Gyo-du shook a large jar.
Poisonous glares rose among the kids. But with the stomach pains, diarrhea, and vomiting from Won Seung's toxin the past few days, they had no choice but to believe.
"Did you think headquarters was that soft? What makes you think we'd send you into the world without leverage? Don't worry, though. After graduation and ten years of service, you'll get the full antidote. Then you're free to stay or leave as you wish."
Another lie to the end. Sa Gyo-du distributed the antidotes.
Once swallowed, the instructors handed out envelopes with missions.
"Open the envelope here, memorize the mission, then burn it. The first rule of assassination: never expose your target. Your missions are top secret. Don't share them, don't ask about others'. Exposure means immediate failure."
Under Sa Gyo-du's threat, the kids sat a spear-length apart on the training ground.
"Tomorrow morning, instructors will escort you down the mountain. After that, head to your targets and return. Remember: Jeokhyeolsan's eyes are everywhere under heaven. Foolish moves mean instant death."
Finishing, Sa Gyo-du scanned them with a sneer.
"One more time: half a year deadline. If you want to live free for those extra six months and then die, don't bother coming back."
Sa Gyo-du turned and headed to the upper quarters.
Won Seung sat on the training ground and opened his envelope. Three smaller ones tumbled out, labeled upper, middle, and lower.
Field missions were tiered by difficulty, with different point values.
He started with the lower one. It listed the target's background, name, and crimes.
Is there really scum like this?
Won Seung seethed midway through. The target was a county magistrate—a total piece of trash. The part about taking bribes to jail victims' families instead of murderers made him curse aloud.
Bastards like this deserve death, contract or no.
The middle envelope named a local tyrant's son.
Magistrate's lower-tier, but a commoner's middle? That's off.
Reading on, it clicked. As the only son of a massive tycoon, he had peak experts and hordes of guards.
This one's crimes were worse: every scam, extortion, kidnapping women—pure human filth.
The upper envelope: Hwa Cheon-gang of Cheongsu Gate. Crime: murder. He'd wiped out a family while expanding Cheongsu Gate's business.
Reading his missions, Won Seung admired whoever at Jeokhyeolsan assigned them.
These targets were scum even by his standards—ripe for killing. For kids on their first real mission, no moral conflict. Killing them felt more like righteous banditry than assassination.
Get them hooked on blood first, then ease them into true killer mindset?
Doubt crept in: was the info accurate? What if the crimes were fabricated?
The kids would scout before striking, verifying crimes. But if they ignored discrepancies and killed innocents?
That one's Jeokhyeolsan material.
Won Seung pondered, then stood, envelope in hand, and walked forward. A large brazier burned; kids who'd memorized tossed theirs in.
That night, when his watch turn came, Won Seung slipped out quietly and crossed to the other dorm to find Jang Chil.
"What's up?"
Jang Chil rubbed his eyes, woken from sleep.
Won Seung pulled him to a corner and whispered.
"There's a secret to this field exercise."
Everyone knew Won Seung, with his upper-quarters background, knew the training inside out.
Jang Chil's eyes sparkled.
"What secret?"
"One of the three missions has false info. Assassination 101: verify intel. Ignore discrepancies and proceed, and you lose points."
"Why tell me?"
Jang Chil was puzzled. He excelled in lightness skill and stealth but was slow on uptake.
"They won't tell you, obviously. This tests assassin potential. Figure it out and act right. Verify before striking—if it doesn't match, bail. That's how you prove special-grade material."
"Oh! Thanks."
Jang Chil beamed, dreaming of special-grade status. Won Seung's gaze flicked to the next bunk. The kid lying there shook his head slightly.
Perfect.
Won Seung knew every kid's personality.
This one had a tight lip. He'd spill nothing, even if it killed him.
That's why he'd dragged Jang Chil to this corner to whisper.
Jeokhyeolsan, things won't go your way.
Won Seung returned to his watch.
The next day.
Before breakfast ended, every kid knew the secret. Some even came to Won Seung for confirmation.
He played dumb, claiming he'd heard it from Jang Gyo-du.
Knowing Jang Gyo-du had summoned Won Seung often, they bought it.
This way, no innocents die unjustly.
Half a month later.
Outskirts of Choyang County, Henan. A rundown inn.
A deep sigh escaped a small room.
On the table: one silver tael, a bundle of iron coins, five vouchers.
After travel expenses and room fees, this was all that remained.
How am I supposed to assassinate with this? Pathetically short.
He missed the hundreds of silver taels hidden in his room at Won Mansion. Were they still there?
The vouchers were for two taels each, redeemable only on specific monthly dates. So usable cash: one tael and about a hundred iron coins.
A fortune to other kids, but pocket change to Won Seung. A single meal at Ilseonru as a child had cost three taels.
He'd planned to start with the middle mission to gauge difficulties. But seeing the funds, he switched to the lower: assassinate the crooked magistrate.
A corrupt official's chambers would have hidden cash aplenty.