"Boy! Where are you!"
Left behind, Cecil shouted loudly. She was a bit panicked and destroyed the box with her club, turning it into splinters. Nothing was there. The [Teleportation Gem] that was supposed to be in a hidden compartment was also not there.
She tried to calm down and remembered what happened just earlier.
After being engulfed by a bright light, Arthur suddenly disappeared in front of her without a trace.
"Tsk!" Clicking her tongue, she knew that the trap set in the box teleported her lover away. "Fucking Marny. She didn't give us complete information!" She growled in anger that they were given the wrong information even though they had paid her 5000 Golds.
Right now, she was clueless. Arthur had told her about the fact that Assassin's Den was in the area around Tiga Port City. There was a big chance the base was located hidden underground and had their members stay in the port city.
Calming herself down, she could think more clearly. Yes, she didn't need to worry about Arthur, but the fact that Marny lied to her by selling false information. There was a chance that her 'friend' was among those employed by the Assassin's Den to trap people searching for them.
Her reputation as an information broker would be destroyed by this. And knowing Arthur… There was a huge chance he would seek retribution.
'Should I find it, or should I return to Marny and beat her up for fooling us? Arthur is probably fine, and he can return anytime with [Teleportation Gem] he has with him. Yeah, I will properly beat her with Arthur later. Earlier, he had set a teleportation point near the beach. I will just wait there for now.'
Cecil grabbed the [Teleportation Gem] she hid between her cleavage and nodded. Thankfully, Arthur was someone who was fully prepared even though he was strong. Finding him would be hard if not for this [Teleportation Gem].
She began to walk out of the ruined fortress, following the path they had taken earlier with anger on her face.
'I swear I will kill her once.' She thought as she slung her club behind her back.
***
I mowed down the assassins with my iron sword inside the large cave that looked like a mineshaft—many corpses littered around me, creating a large pool of blood.
They were confident to fight me at first, as my face wasn't clear enough yet. But after I killed the first 5 assassins in a single swoop, many began recognizing me and changing their movement. They began to work together, attacking me from all directions.
After slicing more than thirty assassins, I stopped counting and just swung my sword. And when it came to the fiftieth assassin, my sword broke down. It wasn't surprising, as I had used this sword too much and never maintained it as it was an ordinary iron sword. The durability had reached the limit.
"Kill him!"
"He has no weapon!"
The assassins worked up and threw knives and various weapons. They laced their weapons in poison, the one that could even paralyze Level 40 monsters.
Dodging them was easy. The knives missed my body by a hairbreadth. At the same time, I threw my destroyed iron sword toward the farthest assassin. It flew at a fast speed, almost as fast as a bullet.
I thought it would lodge into his neck and sever his artery, killing him. However, the assassin managed to block it with the black dagger in his hand, deflecting it to the ground.
'Oh? There is a rather skillful person here.'
As I thought so, three assassins came from different directions with their poison-laced weapons, attacking me simultaneously.
But…
"It's useless. <Sword Hand>, <Whirlwind>!"
A blue Mana sword appeared around my hand and cut the incoming assassins into tiny blobs of flesh. I left their faces intact. Their surprised expression was clear as the clothes hiding it fell down.
Only a few of them were left. My coat's brown color already turned red, and some blood covered my face.
Wiping the blood that was about to enter my eyes, I canceled <Sword Hand> and took out another iron sword.
Only a few assassins were left. They looked skilled, at least far more skilled compared to the small fries I killed earlier.
As I took a step forward, the assassin who had blocked my sword earlier did the same, raising his hands above his head.
"Stop. We surrender." He said with a muffled voice, throwing his dagger away. It stuck on the ground on the right, a spot that he couldn't reach before me. "Throw your weapons away. We won't fight him anymore."
The other assassins followed his order and threw their weapons away. Not only the one in their hands but also the one hidden beneath their coats.
No one tried to be a stupid, brave assassin who attacked me after the leader gave out an order. The leader walked toward me, still having his hands above his head.
"Just as I said earlier, we surrender. We will stop attacking you, so can you tell me something…" The leader narrowed his eyes at me, "Why were you here? We did nothing to you or the Castitas Church. At least not for the last few decades for the latter."
The leader spoke with a curious tone.
I observed him closely. What did he mean? Did he pretend to be an idiot, or did he not know about me in the Royal Castle?
There was no way. The mission H took was to poison the Queen to warn me. Even if the mission failed, as H hadn't returned for a few hours already, unless he was a fool, he would've guessed that I had already received information from Queen Eve.
If he truly was ignorant about it, then…
'H accepted the mission or was given the mission by Mr. C without this leader's knowledge.' I concluded.
But I wouldn't base this situation on that. So, I decided to test his reaction.
"One of the assassins here attacked Queen Eve."
At my words, the leader nodded slowly, not showing a sign of being surprised.
"That must be H. He didn't return for a while." He said, "I won't force you to believe me, but we received no mission to attack the Queen. H must've received the mission without our knowledge or consulting with me."
For someone who surrendered, he was calmer than I had expected. The other assassins also stood still, with their hands above their heads, not showing any sign of hostility or desire to take revenge on their fallen friends.
"So it's not Viscount Steelwill who ordered–"
"Please excuse me." The leader interrupted me with a voice mixed with a hint of anger. "That man was kind. He was greedy, yes, but he wasn't someone who engaged in politics and schemes like this. So he won't give out such an order to us. Unless…"
He hesitated to continue, but I understood what he wanted to say.
Viscount Steelwill was a kind guy to the leader and the assassins. I noticed their hostility once I said those words earlier, but they were gone as fast as they appeared.
According to Marny, though I didn't believe her information after getting trapped earlier, Viscount Steelwill was the one who controlled this Den. But after I looked at this place, I doubted that.
There was no entrance. The living quarter was a simple hole underground.
And there was Mr. C, a second-born son from the Viscount's mistress. If we went by the game's logic and the information I gathered, it was clear what happened behind the scenes.
I locked eyes with the assassin leader. Both of us reached an understanding.
"I won't apologize," I said calmly, sheathing my sword back.
"There is no need. They will get revived." He answered with a slight nod. "Now, may I offer an explanation?"
"Yes, go ahead," I replied, gesturing for him to continue.
"Let's move to my place. This is no place to have a talk." He looked around at the mountain of corpses that began to disappear into a mote of blue lights, starting from the first five I killed.
Afterward, he stopped his gaze at me again and continued, "I promise I won't do anything to you."
It was only for formality and a show of kindness. We knew he wouldn't be able to harm me, but I nodded to show that I wasn't hostile anymore. Their dots turned to neutral in my <Presence Detection>.
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