Meetings and Partings Are Always Arbitrary
Meetings and partings are always at one's whim.
Reincarnating isn't so bad either.
At the start of my second life, I thought that.
The time I spent in the family I had always wanted in my previous life was, in its own way, happy.
Even in a world where law was closer to knives and fists, it was a hundred times better than dying alone and unloved, not even becoming a cog in society's machine.
Was it okay to be this happy with just masculinity as the price?
It felt that way, to the point where I thought so.
But, by the time I reached my eighth birthday.
On my birthday, with a huge slab of meat piled high on the table, eyes sparkling as I shouted my love to my parents.
"I love you. You too, right?"
Two gold coins. One for mother, one for father. The price paid for an eight-year-old girl.
The girl, shoved into a pocket like livestock and moved around, was thrown into the hands of the assassin guild.
A jar of poison, where you have to bite each other to survive.
Instead of a name, I was marked with a number, and in that place, I had my trust stolen from me.
Unfortunately, I had an innate talent.
After removing all the hesitation left, only a monster that had grown fat on the blood of innocent children remained.
"Time to pull it out. The blood is overflowing, it's time to use it."
On the day that cut off the last girl's breath.
I could face the scorching sunlight again.
The guild's seven masters taught me their skills in the solitude, and I didn't disappoint them.
From basic unarmed combat to stealth and disguise, infiltration, poison arts, syncing mana with the surrounding environment, handling daggers and poisons, torture and interrogation, and seducing the opposite sex.
The blades honed from the hands of the world's best assassins were sharper than anyone else's.
And, more importantly than anything.
"Grudges and hatred. Repay them tenfold. No one can ignore us."
A guild-like creed made by trash who live off others' lives.
Thorough revenge was the only way. The masters had it engraved deep in my bones.
After that, literally.
I lived a mechanical life.
Kill targets, extract information, steal or protect items, follow the commands given.
Now that I look back, it feels ridiculous, but at the time, the guild's masters were the most frightening beings to me.
Even after hearing that they could kill me anytime, I couldn't even raise a hand.
"Hey. 8. Job."
"Got it."
"Duration is one week. No matter the method. Do it as you like. Understand?"
"Got it."
"Hah, this brat. When I was young, it was more fun to bully you. Go. Report on time."
Unlike usual, the sentence on the request paper given directly by one of the masters was simple.
[Process the Saintess]
A title I'd heard of.
About a year ago from then. A foolish one who set out with a human called the hero to defeat the demon king.
I hadn't met him directly, but I thought it wouldn't be too hard to track his movements.
The 「Hero Party」 was famous for getting involved in incidents wherever they went even at that time.
In fact, finding the Saintess' whereabouts didn't take long.
It was because a high-ranking officer from the demon king's army started causing trouble in the imperial capital at a good time.
The old emperor was dead, the crown prince who had gone to the battlefield and the hero party were handling the situation in a messy way.
It was the optimal situation for assassins hiding in the chaos.
I thought it might end too easily, and as I rushed towards the Saintess' heart——
"This is troublesome."
"Why, you people."
The person who blocked the precisely stabbed dagger was a familiar face.
"...All masters?"
"Well, that's how it turned out."
The dagger was blocked, limbs were bound, and the request was read.
The first complete failure I experienced.
I had to escape. First, return to headquarters——
Return?
Since the masters were hostile to me, the assassin guild was no longer a safe place.
"Sorry, 8. We have to find a way to live too, right?"
"Hah, what if that brat sweeps away the dark side. Just think you were unlucky."
The declaration of the crown prince who said he'd wipe out all dark criminals and heretics.
That was the start.
Even though he was acting like the king of the dark, the assassin guild was ultimately a criminal group.
So, they became the sacrificial lamb of the script written by those who decided to leave the dark side.
I was the one who took on that role.
"You're going to kill me?"
"Can't be helped. It's a sacrifice. You're used to it, right?"
Of course I was used to it. Up until now, my special position meant I hadn't experienced such things, but seeing assassins whose tails were cut off during missions wasn't the first time.
I was the same as those who died for the mission and the guild.
It was just my turn. Nothing special.
"...Ugh."
"...Crying?"
"You weren't a vessel that could be completed in the first place. What can you do with talent? Look at how you can't hold back emotions and blubber. Hurry up and process it. I have to report to our 「Saintess」 too."
"Understood."
At the moment when the sharp dagger was about to cut my neck.
The masters, swept by the mana I instinctively released, staggered.
In that instant, it was enough.
"Kuh, this brat…… kuaaaaaak!"
"You bastards……."
One. Two.
"Damn it. Back off!"
As learned. As engraved. Read the flow, dig into the gap of the instant, strike the vital point.
Three. Four.
Cut the neck. Tear the heart. Pull out the eyes and tongue.
Five. Six.
Hand over the flesh. Break the dagger stuck in the shoulder. Endure the flashing pain and rush in, bite the neck.
Finally. Seven.
"It was complete from the beginning, me……."
At the time staring at the masters whose breaths had stopped.
A sentence engraved in my head struck my mind like burning.
"Grudges and hatred. Repay them tenfold. No one can ignore us."
So, I stayed there for a while.
Until their bodies, chopped and broken, became unrecognizable.
"Lower your weapons, hands up! You're surrounded!"
"Damn it. Of all people, caught by this crazy bastard."
Since I didn't do even the most basic trick to erase traces, it was natural that the guards came.
I was a sinner who had committed hundreds of crimes worthy of death, but I didn't want to die.
If I was caught fairly, it was obvious I'd face execution.
Then.
"Everyone, step back. You're still just children."
The events after that, I didn't particularly want to recall.
Only the warm energy that flowed from the Saintess hugging the bloodied me, and the embarrassing memory of sobbing for a long time while out of breath remained.
"Sorry. If I had found you a little faster."
Was I that foolish that I didn't even notice that you came to kill me?
I couldn't understand.
After crying until I fell asleep, I woke up in the Saintess' bed instead of the cold underground prison, and startled, I secretly slipped out of the room and went to find the Saintess.
"You were trying to kill me, right? It's okay?"
"It's okay."
"You're stubborn. Well, do as you like. I'll move as I like too."
The other members of the hero party were worried about the Saintess, but since there was no target for the mission, the only thing I could do was one thing.
The favor of saving my life. The favor of stopping the execution. After repaying each tenfold, just run far away.
After that, nothing special.
Receiving food from the Saintess who said thank you for processing the demons that came at night to kill her after receiving the name Arte, more favors accumulated.
Was this why adults told us not to accumulate debts?
By circling around to repay the favor, I killed demons for half a year.
"Since it seems you'll keep following me, how about just taking me along?"
"Well, aside from other things, it might be useful as a pet."
"Noisy. Baldy."
"...Yeah. First, let's get some etiquette education."
"I don't listen to words from people weaker than me."
"Alright. Come on."
Although not a formal member of the hero party, I think I was doing the role of a pet or tool to clean up the surroundings.
By passing time like that, they defeated the demon king, and the victory celebration in the imperial capital.
That night should have been full of joy and laughter.
The hero party was dead.
Not poison, magic, or curse.
No, at least not something I could know of.
"Who is it?"
"Fi, first calm down. We also have souls……."
"Wrong. Next."
"Sa, save……."
"You too are wrong. Next."
The remnants of the assassin guild that hadn't been processed, the pig-like nobles who looked at them with bad eyes, the rotten clergy of the church, and the dark mages of the tower.
All of them were killed.
To find out the identity of the one who killed them.
No harvest.
So, I prayed.
For the next three days. If no satisfactory answer comes, from that day until my breath stops, I'll kill everything I see.
Whether the Saintess' words that any prayer form would reach if it's the Saintess' creation was right, the goddess responded to me in just two hours.
"To start with, let me say this. I don't know what happened either."
"If you don't know, find out."
"Hey. Listen a little more. I came to tell you even if it's from what I know."
"……."
To summarize the goddess' story that appeared with a sad smile.
The ones who were part of the hero party were originally beings not bound to this world, and their souls disappeared because the contract with this world had expired.
"Of course, I know it sounds forced, but there were limits to what I could find out with a body tied to this world."
I didn't want to accept it, but I could understand.
Their thoughts that casually spouted equality and love, if coming from modern times, could all be understood.
Probably they didn't show it because they were considerate to me.
"Ultimately, those people were just consumables?"
"...Sorry."
Since the living weapon borrowed for a while to defeat the demon king had used up its usefulness, it was discarded.
They, for just this kind of ending.
"Are you okay?"
"No."
After the headache subsided, memories of what was left in the palace came to mind.
"Split. You too go."
"Go where?"
Didn't even give a single strand of hair.
"The palace."
"Don't tell me you're going to the palace after causing this much trouble."
"Yeah."
"Instead, come with me. Maybe even more than dying……!"
"So, I'm going."
"...You're serious."
"Yeah."
"To a goddess who couldn't even fulfill her own responsibility, I have no right to stop you."
After the goddess with sad eyes left again, the palace in the imperial capital.
The glass greenhouse where the hero party's bodies were stored.
The assassin who boldly kicked the door and entered was waiting for was the binding array spun by the imperial magicians.
"Understand. Even though they are useless people who can't help at all....... It's not something that can be killed like this."
"Step aside."
"That's a bit difficult. Sorry, but I have my position too."
"You're going to kill me?"
"I'll put a leash on you."
"If you want to, go ahead."
The emperor's eyes, who declared that he would tie me with just a magic fragment wrapped in strange blessings and curses, looked somewhat sad somewhere.
"If you think of rebelling, do as you like. Right now, I'm curious about how far your limits are."
You can rampage as much as you want. No. Rampage more.
After sweeping all the old snakes filling the empire, the situation would be a little better.
He was saying that.
At the time, facing those eyes, I probably lost my composure.
"...Just one thing, listen."
"Of course."
"Don't touch those people."
"Of course. Even if I stake everything, what you're worried about won't happen."
"Even after you die."
"...Yeah. Even if I stake everything."
The contract was made.
I, locked in the binding, became the hunting dog of the imperial family, killing what they said, and the imperial family protected the hero party's bodies so no one could touch them.
I, who had become so lazy that even thinking was bothersome, entrusted my leash to the imperial family.
Occasionally hearing the emperor or goddess's complaints from inside the binding, if something happened, go out for a while to handle and return.
Very occasionally. When the short outing time came, I would meet them as if passing by, and go back to blankly spending time inside the binding.
In that way, I changed 24 times until the one who called himself the emperor.
[BOSS APPEARED!]
After a strange light covered my body, what appeared before my completely freed eyes was not this generation's emperor, but the living body of the 「Hero」 who was moving.
This is asking to be killed, right?
"I'll ask first. About talking……."
"No."
Don't worry. Innocent people won't be killed.
KANG——!!!
"Tsk……!"
I met eyes with the fake who caught my dagger that rushed in and stabbed perfectly.
His expression, even though it looked panicked, was utterly disgusting.
"Even a hundred or a thousand times, I warned you. Don't do that."
"What, what kind of……!"
"Treating me as a hunting dog or tying me up while treating me as a monster is fine."
"You, don't tell me."
A storm of black mana blew, and just from that, the ground started to twist a little.
"I told you. Don't touch those people."
I honed the dagger to kill the revived hero who gathered killing intent and condensed mana.
"...Arte?"
"I'll kill all of you. You too, the ones who revived you."
The reunion that finally in my hands after transcending time was the worst.