Side Story Chapter 43
The Darkness Emperor, Aisha Sestropi, was one of the brilliant Nine Stars of this generation, and she was exactly who Kireua had learned his stealth technique from. The mechanism of her technique was simple: in order to use a stealth technique, assassins had to know how to utilize the nearby terrain features like trees, rocks, and pillars. The key point of stealth was blending into the environment without being detected.
But what if the area didn’t have any of those features? The typical example would be a bedroom, where most of the assassinations in history had taken place. Except for nobles that liked to decorate their rooms, it was common for a bedroom to have only a lone bed in the center.
The more power they had, the more cautionary measures like this they took to prepare for assassination attempts. In times like this, assassins used the exterior features of the building, like roofs and windows, since the security on the outside of a building was more vulnerable than the inside of the building.
On top of that, people with power preferred higher floors as they felt satisfaction from looking down at the world from their windows, but they couldn’t put guards outside a fourth-floor wall. Of course, such difficulties affected assassins, too. After avoiding numerous guards, an assassin would have to climb up a high wall. One would have to have the body of an intermediate expert-level knight and a more advanced mastery of stealth techniques to give that a try.
That was why…
‘…I’m a born natural assassin. Teacher Aisha told me to become an assassin for a good reason,’ Kireua thought.
Aisha’s shadow mobilization technique was quite unfair because it allowed him to hide anywhere with the slightest trace of a shadow, regardless of the nearby terrain. Aisha had told Kireua to not obsess over spears anymore because she was willing to teach him every technique she knew.
However, Kireua had instantly turned down the offer at the time, and he still didn’t regret his decision. A prince of an empire becoming an assassin was outrageous, although it might be a different story if that was the prince’s secretive hobby.
‘Although I’m very certain I can make my ends meet if I become an assassin right now.’
He already surpassed the physical level of a Class A Knight, and his stealth techniques were good—certified by Aisha herself. Even in the past, she had said that Kireua would be able to reach the level where she had been when her title was “Assassin King” if he trained for about ten more years.
After over a decade, Kireua had given up on using spears completely and focused on training his swordcraft and stealth techniques. Therefore, he was sure that he could slit a king’s throat without alerting anyone, much less the head of a rebel army. It was needless to say how ordinary soldiers would respond.
‘…I knew it. I can’t see their commanders,’ Kireua observed.
The hundreds of knights in the lobby still didn’t notice anything even when Kireua snuck into the central chamber’s open doors using the ceiling. The problem was that Kireua couldn’t see the rebel commanders in the chamber either.
‘So I was right. The pledge Lacoon den Adsarak made to me was fake.’
The air around the people in the chamber alone was enough to know that they were the most elite knights in the west. Their conversation made Kireua feel yet more certain.
“Everyone, listen! We, the Red Turtle Knights, have received the opportunity to distinguish ourselves.”
“Captain! Is that true that the crazy Second Prince snuck into the castle?”
“Yes, the idiot Adsarak himself left a mark, so we will capture him by any means necessary before the Black Turtler Knights return from the bottom of the mountain.”
“Crazy bastard. Where does he think he is right now? Hehehe, Captain! From what I heard, the Second Prince is fabulous-looking, thanks to his mother. Can I get a taste of him after we capture him?”
“I don’t care as long as you don’t kill him. Bring him before Lord Turtler with his head still attached to his neck.”
“A bona-fide sex toy for all of us then! Hahahaha!”
The unbearably degenerate conversation made Kireua’s blood boil with murderlust. However, something else was bugging him—for some reason, the knights’ eyes were hazy. In fact, the whites of their eyes were slightly reddened.
‘…Why does it feel like something is off?’
Kireua had discerned several pieces of information from their conversation: the best knights in the western rebel army were the Black Turtle Knights, who were currently at the bottom of the mountain, so those knights in the chamber seemed to be some sort of an auxiliary knight order assembled for a certain purpose. The second piece of information he had found out was that the knights in the chamber moved too coarsely and disorderly to call them knights. It was as if they were high on drugs…
“…Drugs?” Kireua's eyes widened.
“Everyone, scatter and find him! There might be more than one intruder, so you’re allowed to move in a group. But you won’t be able to take the prey all to yourself. Think wisely before you move.”
“Wooooaaahhh! Captain, how can you say such a thing?! We already came to an agreement, you know.”
“Are you an idiot? The Captain is acting like that because he knows us too well. Man, he’s an expert in controlling beasts!”
One of the knights repeatedly smashed his fist into a wall in uncontained excitement, but whenever he did, a deep dent was left in the stone.
‘A human can’t do that.’ Kireua’s face darkened.
There were myriad kinds of drugs on the continent. Among them were aphrodisiacs for pleasure and drugs used during wars. In terms of effects, the drugs of the latter case were similar to Marquess Dargo’s authority of the White Tiger, which temporarily allowed a human to forget their instinctive fear by amplifying the endorphins in their body. But that was an authority—being under the influence of an authority didn’t waste the body, unlike the war drugs.
“Ah, fuck! Watch where you’re going!”
“What? You stepped on your own foot! I know there are people who get angry at their own mistakes, but why are you mad at me?”
“Did anyone point a sword at you to make you stand in my way or something, you moron?”
“Alright, I don’t care about the prince anymore. Let me kill you first.”
It was mayhem. Were those people really worthy of their title as knights? The sole drive of the men in the chamber was madness, but their so-called captain didn’t even try to stop them. In fact, he seemed used to it.
The two knights’ quarrel was coming to a head. One of them got punched in the face with a mighty thwack! like a great drumbeat, and was blown away into the corner of the chamber.
“Tsk, you’re nothing.”
The knight that threw the punch was powerful enough to create dents in the stone walls, so Kireua was a little concerned. However, it turned out he was worrying about nothing.
“You bastard…!” The attacked knight sprang up from the corner.
He was in horrible shape. The area below his right eye was noticeably dented—it almost looked as if his eye was going to pop out.
Kireua’s eyes slowly widened in astonishment.
New flesh quickly rose up in the knight’s dented right cheek, and his other wounds were recovering.
Kiruea gaped blankly. ‘Self-regeneration…?’
Their incomprehensible madness, superhuman strength, and ability to recover critical injuries in mere moments… In all the vast lands of the continent, only two kinds of creatures possessed such abilities: one was a troll, a high-ranking monster, and the other was a demon who looked exactly like a human.
‘No way. Are they using demonic power?’
Kireua was certain they were. Since the previous emperor of the Avalon Empire had signed a contract with the Demon Spirit, there were relatively many detailed records about demons and demonic power in the Imperial Palace. The conclusion was obvious.
‘Marquess Turtler…!’ Kireua gritted his teeth.
The knights forgot about their orders and were cheering rowdily over the violence unfolding nearby.
Turtler had been the first one to start a rebellion and was very sure about his victory. Kireua could now understand the reason behind his confidence.
Although Kireua had heard very often that Turtler was a very cruel man, how could he do such a thing to his knights?! Demonic power ate a human up and ultimately would make them lose their mind. No human should do this to a fellow human being.
“Fight! Hahaha! I’m on the side of whoever wins!”
“Huh? I think they’re getting tired. Why doesn’t the loser become a bottom? It’ll be a great motivator.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea.”
“Gosh, you sick bastards. Do you think everyone is gay like you? Many of us like women!”
“Then the loser brings a girl for the winner.”
“We’re at the top of a mountain. Where are we supposed to find a woman?”
“So what. If the loser can’t find anyone, he’ll hand over his wife!”
Kireua was genuinely torn. If such lunatics were released into the outside world, it wouldn’t be just the national army who got hurt. There was a high possibility that these madmen would ignore the unwritten law to not cause harm to civilians.
In fact, Kireua had thought that there was something weird about the whole situation. Why would Turtler bother to coop twenty percent of his army up in this mountain? After seeing those twenty percent, Kireua realized that Turtler didn’t want the rest of the world to find out about these madmen. Maybe Turtler had a special plan for them—to turn the tide of a battle by making them appear in the most dramatic moment. Kireua had to stop that from happening.
The problem was that Kireua’s assassination attempt would fail if he revealed himself here. The knights were obviously going to surround him, and more of them would come over time. It was a very risky move, but Kireua had to do it.
Kireua prepared to loosen his grip on the ceiling…
-Kireua! Can I eat them?!
‘….What?’ Kireua asked dumbfounded.
-Kireua is good! You’re a good boy who keeps his promise!
‘Wait a minute. What do you mean, ‘eat them’? There’s no food for you around here.’ Kireua frowned.
-Why not? Everything I can see right now is food.
Coal appeared on Kireua’s shoulder, slurping up his drool. Kireua followed Coal’s gaze and his eyes widened.
‘Wait…?’
-Ahhhhhhh! I can’t wait anymore!
Coal’s eyes turned red and the black cotton ball became five times bigger than usual. Then Coal dropped on the floor on its own, creating an audible thud.
“…Huh?”
Of course there was no way the knights could see Coal. Nevertheless, the knight who was standing the closest to Coal felt something strange and tilted his head in confusion.
-I’m. Going. To. Eat. Everything. Inside. These. Humans.
Kireua tensed. It was the first time he heard Coal speaking like that.
-Thank you for the meal!
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